Most Anticipated of 2011

There’s a strong chance I haven’t even heard of most of the movies that will end up being my year-end favorites, but as of now, here’s what I can’t wait to see:

 

20) Source Code

Duncan Jones’ follow-up to Moon, one of my recent favorites.  Honestly, I didn’t care for the trailer much, but I’m excited for this based on Jones’ name alone and the fact that it’s another original sci-fi.

19) The Grandmasters

Wong Kar-Wai’s new film about Bruce Lee’s trainer.

18) J. Edgar

A Clint Eastwood directed biopic about J. Edgar Hoover starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  Not usually a biopic fan, but I can’t wait for anything Leo does at this point.

17) Tintin

-Peter Jackson produces, Spielberg directs.  I’m honestly not very familiar with the source material, but I like the idea of Spielberg making an animated film, plus he and Peter Jackson should make a great combo.

16) The Hunter

An Indie thriller starring Willem Dafoe.  I can’t say exactly why I’m anticipating this one so much, just have a good feeling about it.

15) The Skin That I Inhabit

Pedro Almodovar’s latest.  That’s all I know about this one.

14) Hobo With a Shotgun

Like Machete, this was originally a fake trailer.  Should be another good 90 minutes of Grindhouse fun. 

13) The Rum Diary

The first film from Withnail and I director Bruce Robinson in 19 years.  Johnny Depp stars in his 2nd Hunter S. Thompson adaptation.

12) Meek’s Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams are collaborating again after 2008′s Wendy and Lucy, which was great.  This is about settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in the 19th century.  Could be amazing.

11) Hanna

The trailer makes this look like a blast.  Good director, good cast, should be fun.  Check out the trailer here.

10) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Social Network was so good that I can’t wait to see this.  David Fincher’s next has some of the same cast and crew as Network, with Trent Reznor writing the score and Rooney Mara taking the lead role.  Even though I don’t like the idea of Hollywood remaking every recent successful foreign film, I’m on board with this one.

9) The Borrowers

The new Studio Ghibli film, written by Hayao Miyazaki.  Can’t wait.

8.) Wuthering Heights

Andrea Arnold’s follow-up to Fish Tank, one of my favorites from last year.  Classic source material, can’t wait to see what she’s able to do with it.

7) Shame

Director Steve McQueen and his leading man Michael Fassbender’s follow-up to their amazing 2009 film Hunger.  I can’t see this duo not going 2 for 2.

6) Drive

Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Valhalla Rising) is one of the most interesting up-and-coming directors around, and this is first big “Hollywood” film, starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, and Ron Perlman.  The film is about a stunt driver who discovers that he has a price on his head.  Can’t wait to see what Refn does with a more straightforward story like this.  My hopes are sky high.

5) A Dangerous Method

The third film from David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen, this time also starring Michael Fassbender (!) and Keira Knightley.  The film’s about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, and it should be amazing.

4) Hugo Cabret

Martin Scorsese directing a kid’s film?  In 3D?  I’m happy to see Scorsese trying something so new, and the source material is great.  It’s also got a good looking ensemble with Chloe Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Emily Mortimer, Michael Pitt, Christopher Lee, Ray Winstone, and Sacha Baron Cohen.

3) Melancholia

Lars Von Trier’s follow-up to Antichrist.  I love anything Von Trier, and I love sci-fi, so my expectations are pretty much through the roof on this one.  Von Trier jokingly said that he’d have “no more happy endings!” before filming this one, and sure enough the plot deals with Earth’s imminent destruction.

2) The Tree of Life

I said the same thing last year, but I can’t remember a time when this wasn’t on my most anticipated list.  It looks like all the delays are finally over, especially since a beautiful trailer was released recently.  Terrence Malick movies are always an event, and this sounds like it could be one of his best.

1) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

It’s been an incredible series, and the end is looking to be 2 hours of epic non-stop climax.  I thought part 1 was amazing, so this should basically be the best thing ever for big Potter fans.  I’ll be sad when it’s over.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

*Spoilers*

The film follows Thierry, a quirky amateur-filmmaker who decides to make a documentary about his passion, street art.  After years of filming street artists and amassing boxes upon boxes of footage, Thierry is finally able to track down Banksy, arguably the biggest and most popular on the scene, and can now finish his “epic” street art documentary.  The problem is that Thierry is a truly awful artist and filmmaker, and when Banksy sees the finished product, he suggests that Thierry leave him the footage (after all, it is great, one-of-a-kind footage) for him to edit and in the meantime become a street artist himself.  Banksy then completely shifts the focus of the film to Thierry, raising the question of who the film’s true director is, as Thierry’s film about Banksy and street art transforms into Banksy’s film about Thierry.  Thierry becomes “Mr. Brainwash” (a fitting name) and goes on to create a huge collection of ripped-off, shallow work, but hypes his debut show so successfully (with help from Banksy and a few other street artists) that the art crowd becomes fascinated with it, turning Thierry into an overnight sensation as they rave about his work and spend thousands of dollars on every piece.

The result is that what started out as a documentary about street art turns into a giant “F-U” to the art world.  Thierry is a terrible artist, yet people love him and spend crazy amounts of money on his work thanks to the hype and the media.  The film works on multiple levels, not only as a critique of the art world but simply as a documentary on street art and its appeal in general.

Many are asking if this is real or a hoax (much like I’m Still Here and Catfish from earlier this year), but it’s brilliant however you choose to look at it.  Whether it’s a true documentary or an elaborate prank, it works.  It raises many questions about the art world, and documentaries, and is well worth seeing if you’re at all interested in either.

9/10

Happy Holidays!

“The Tree of Life” trailer

The very long-delayed Terrence Malick film, which has been near the top of my last THREE “Most Anticipated of the Year” lists, now has a trailer and a May 27, 2011 release date.  Freaking finally.  Can this live up to the hype?  Based on this beautiful trailer, I think so.

Life During Wartime

Life During Wartime is a sequel of sorts to writer/director Todd Solondz’s amazing 1998 film Happiness, and is basically a contrived and hollow replicant of that film.  The characters, dialogue, and style are all pretty much the same, but this time it all feels distant and unnecessary.  In Happiness, Solondz treated all his wonderfully twisted, but natural, characters with empathy and compassion, but that’s not the case in this film.  Not only does everything seem emotionally restrained, but Solondz actually seems to show disdain for his characters, who all have little depth this time around (another major difference from Happiness).  It’s as if Solondz is just going through the motions, with no inspiration whatsoever.  Even the “shock value” is forced. 

The upside is the cast.  It’s another ensemble, and every member is near-perfect: Shirley Henderson, Michael Williams, Allison Janney, Ciaran Hinds, Paul Reubens, and Dylan Riley Snyder.  It’s a great actors’ showcase but not much else.  This film has nothing to say or offer that Happiness didn’t.

5.5/10

House (1977)

This is a zany Japanese horror-comedy in the spirit of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy.  It’s creative low-budget horror that doesn’t take itself too seriously and has all the right ingredients to be cult-classic, which it is.  The peculiar mix of schoolgirl comedy, sappy theme music and graphic supernatural horror make it entertaining and unpredictable in the best ways.  The director also doesn’t shy away from stylish psychedelic effects, all of which are incredibly outdated, corny, and awesome.  Certainly not for everyone but House fits the bill for the perfect midnight/cult horror movie.

9/10

Also check out the trailer:

Catfish

The last thing I want to do is spoil a brilliant film, so I’m going to refrain from writing any kind of real review here.  However, I will say that you must check this one out.  It’s a great, entertaining documentary that will certainly spark some conversation.  It makes for a great companion piece with The Social Network too (it’s no coincidence they were released so closely together). 

If you need some extra incentive to see this, then watch the trailer below.  It’s a great trailer that doesn’t give anything away, and honestly just watching it kind of gives me chills:

9/10

The Town

I’m going to get my bias out of the way now and say that I’m no Ben Affleck fan.  He is, after all, the man who starred in two movies from our own beloved Michael Bay, both of which I consider to be the worst of all-time (they’re tied).  They’re Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, and why you can find the latter in the Criterion Collection I don’t know.  But despite Affleck’s past blunders, I’m willing to give him another shot, and he’s off to a solid start with his new movie The Town, which he directs, stars in, and helped write.

Other than an ending that takes itself a little too seriously, this is a really entertaining and well-made heist film with better-than-usual performances.  The whole cast is good, even Affleck, but Pete Postlethwaite steals every scene he’s in.  If only his character had a bit more screentime I’d peg him as an awards contender.  Someone out there needs to hurry up and cast him in a big leading role.  The other standout is the action.  All the heist scenes are fun, clever, and thrilling.  I never would have guessed that Affleck could be such a talented director.

I recommend this only if you’re a fan of the genre.  It’s a poor man’s Departed, and that’s a compliment.  If you’re like me and aren’t a fan of Ben Affleck, don’t let that stop you from seeing this.

7/10

Trash Humpers

 

Harmony Korine, writer/director of Gummo, is back with Trash Humpers, which I can really only describe as being 70 or so minutes of very odd, disturbing, and homemade-looking footage.  Yes, there’s definitely a TON of scenes where people just straight-up hump trashcans, and they like to wear masks while they do it.  What’s the point of all this?  I’m not exactly sure, but I don’t think there’s anything really meaningful going on here (if you feel otherwise I’d love to hear some interpretations in the comments section).  Korine’s just described it as his “ode to vandalism,” and it is a sort of a celebration as the characters jump around and sing and dance while they smash and hump things.  No plot to speak of, the camera simply follows around this group as they destroy things around town.  There’s a couple scenes where a character will talk about something weird that happened to him that day, and there’s a scene where they cook a meal and eat, but otherwise it really is just an hour of smashing and humping trash.  Some of it may be darkly humorous to some, but as a huge fan of dark humor it never struck a chord with me.  In my eyes this is a failed experiment, but at least Korine’s trying new things, I guess.

4/10

The Social Network

Do not dismiss David Fincher’s The Social Network as simply ”that Facebook movie,”  as its themes are universal and definitely pretty relevant.  Think of it more as a tragic character study about an incredibly young, smart, and troubled billionaire. 

Regardless of any mixed feelings you or I may have towards any of Fincher’s past movies (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, etc.), all of the “below the line” technical work, such as the cinematography, lighting, sound and visual effects, editing, blah blah blah, are always perfect.  This is espcially true for the The Social Network.  Everything just looks and sounds flawless the whole way through (the crew race comes to mind as one of the best examples).  I wasn’t even aware until after I saw the film of all the incredible special effects work that went into it because of how seamlessly integrated everything is.  As it turns out, the Winklevoss twins (the characters suing Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg) were both played by Armie Hammer, at least sort of.  Hammer would apparently always play the main twin in every scene while another actor would play the other twin, however Fincher would then digitally replace the other actor’s face with Hammer’s in post-production, similar to the effects work in Benjamin Button, where Fincher CGI’d Brad Pitt’s face onto a baby or an old man or something.  Pretty amazing stuff.

The score, done by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails, is another stand-out for me.  I’m not much of a fan of Nine Inch Nails thanks to Reznor’s vocals and, in my opinion, awful teenage emo lyrics, but the man can write haunting instrumental works.  It’s a brilliant score and really propels the film to another level.

But besides all of that, the film works because it’s such an interesting and current story and is so wonderfully told and acted.  It’s an important movie that everyone in this Facebook generation should see.  Also yes, Justin Timberlake can act, in fact he’s pretty good.

9/10