My last post featured some random thoughts on the movies I've seen this year, as well as the 5 worst movies I've seen this year. For this post, I'll be listing my top ten movies that I saw this year. Some of them will be films from this year, some will be older, but they're all films I saw for the first time this year. So, without further ado, my top ten list.
Narrowly Missed: Brick, Starship Troopers, Heat, Phone Booth, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
10: When Harry Met Sally - From 1987 to 1995, Rob Reiner made 6 movies, and 5 of them were great, with a few legitimate classics. Has he made anything worthwhile since then? Man, what happened to that guy? Anyway, when Harry Met Sally is everything that a romantic comedy should be. Billy Crystal absolutely owns the movie, and you can count on one hand the number of on-screen couples in the past 20 years who rival the chemistry of Crystal and Meg Ryan. It's a movie about the difficulty of being friends with the opposite sex, and how friendship and attraction can get mixed up. It works because Crystal and Ryan are so believable as friends and as a couple. The movie is funny and sweet and doesn't rely on the kind of ridiculous, contrived situations that
romantic comedies so often fall back on.-Available on Netflix Instant Watch
9: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - The first thing you'll notice is how gorgeous this movie is. Even if there were no plot behind it, the film is as beautifully cinematic as anything you'll ever see. Every shot seems worthy of being printed off and framed. The second thing you'll notice is the acting. This movie is like a masters class in acting, with some of Hollywood's best (Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner) giving great performances. It won't appeal to everyone. It's slow-paced, taking time to let the story breath and develop, and it demands that you pay attention and engage with it. It's worth it though, because the story told is powerful and character-driven, and the film is a joy to look at.
8: 12 Monkeys - A post-apocalyptic time travel movie by Terry Gilliam starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt? Sign me up. A really fun sci-fi movie with great performances by the two leads. This is the first movie where I really realized just how good an actor Brad Pitt is, as he does fantastic work as a completely unhinged crazy person. Gilliam always brings the fantastic and the imaginative, and his take on sci-fi is as entertaining as it is unique. The script is fantastic, twisting and turning and never quite showing its hand. Is Bruce Willis actually a time traveling convict, or is he just crazy? What is the army of the 12 Monkeys? Can history be changed anyway? It's a heck of a ride, with a brilliantly constructed story and some marvelous performances.
7: Inside Man - A good heist movie isn't about the what or the why. It rarely matters what the thieves are stealing, and why they're stealing it is often pretty straightforward. No, as Clive Owen's character states at the beginning of Inside Man, what matters is the how, "and therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub." Inside Man is all about the how, and not just how the heist is done, but how the story is told. The movie has an energy to it, always interesting, always building tension, always adding new angles and new motivations. You shouldn't be rooting for the crooks, what with Denzel Washington being the good guy and all, but Clive Owen manages to be so charming that you just can't help it. One of my favorites to recommend, because it's just so entertaining. Honestly, I just can't see anyone not liking this movie, it's just great entertainment
6: The Brothers Bloom - I wrote a review of this movie here, so I won't spend too much time rehashing it. Writer/Director Rian Johnson (whose debut feature Brick just barely missed this list) weaves a fantastical fairy tale about two con men and their quest for the perfect con. While Brick is probably Johnson's more audacious, technically impressive film, Brothers Bloom is just so much fun. It's overflowing with joy and adventure, and seems to get better with each viewing.
5: Alien - I do not like horror movies. I don't get the point. Jump scares and gore just hold no appeal. That said, I love Alien. It's a sci-fi movie, sure, but it's undoubtedly a horror movie as well, and it's great. Even though it was made 30 years ago, it looks just as good as most modern sci-fi movies. The reason is that Ridley Scott had a consistent vision of a dark, grimy, industrial future that remains distinctive among all the shiny, clean sci-fi films we see every year, and because the creature design is so brilliant. Sure, today the alien could be made with CGI, and chase crew members through the halls, but Scott's alien is all the more effective because we hardly see it. More than anything, the word I would use to describe the film is "atmospheric". You literally feel like you're on this cramped ship with the walls pressing in on you. Also, a facehugging alien with acid for blood is downright terrifying already, but then...*shudder*.
4: Groundhog Day - A classic. Hilarious throughout, but surprisingly dark and philosophical at times. The screenplay is great and there are some great supporting characters, but the genius of the movie is Bill Murray's performance as Phil Connors. As one of my favorite online film reviewers puts it, Murray manages to be "sleazy but lovable at the exact same time." The thing is, we know Phil is a jerk and a sleazebag, but he's so darn charming that we're rooting for him to get the girl anyway. It's also layered with so many jokes and gags and little details that you'll probably pick up something new on each viewing. Is it ironic that a movie about a guy repeating the same day is also infinitely rewatchable?
- Available on Netflix Instant Watch
3: Inception - The top 3 films on this list changed places several times, and they're basically interchangeable. Inception is the kind of smart, thoughtful, idea-filled movie that we rarely get as a summer blockbuster. Despite its high concept, it isn't a hard movie to follow for the most part, and the credit for that goes to Christopher Nolan's direction. The editing is masterful, weaving together together the four different levels of dreaming in such a way that you never lose track of what's going on. There's no way a van falling in slow motion should be as suspenseful as it is, but the constant flashes to it work much like a clock counting down. It's both action-packed (the gravity-shifting hallway fight is as good as anything from the Matrix) and cerebral. The performances are uniformly excellent, with Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, and the criminally underrated Joseph Gordon-Levitt as standouts. It's an epic, powerful and entertaining look at hopes, dreams, and the lies we tell ourselves. One of my favorite moments in a movie this year is the scene where Cobb tells the dream version of his wife "I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all you perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You're the best I can do; but I'm sorry, you are just not good enough. "
2: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - If this list were simply which movie I will rewatch the most, this one would be number one with a bullet. Laugh out loud hilarious from beginning to end, and likely the closest thing you'll ever see to a comic book on screen. Director Edgar Wright (he of the hilarious Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead) edits the movie with a frenetic energy, and it just moves like no other film I've ever seen. I left my first viewing of it thinking that this was a very singular experience. There is nothing quite like it out there. It isn't a movie for everyone, but it's like Wright has a direct pipeline to my brain, everything just works for me. Practically everyone in this gives a great performance, but I have to highlight Kieran Culkin's turn as Scott's gay roommate Wallace as the funniest character I've seen this year. In a movie filled with hilarity, his moments are always highlights.
1: The Social Network - If you dismiss this as simply "that movie about Facebook", then you're missing out on a one of the most terrific, and timely, dramas in recent years. The combination of Aaron Sorkin's writing and David Fincher's direction is really kind of brilliant. Sorkin, who wrote A Few Good Men, The American President, and created The West Wing, is a master wordsmith. There's a beauty to well-written dialogue, and Sorkin's script just hums. The thing is though, it's easy for a movie like that to be just talking heads and people walking down hallways. The genius of pairing him with Fincher, one of the most exciting visual filmmakers working today, results in the most exciting movie you've ever seen about people talking. The film is non-linear, flashing back and forth between the story of Facebook's founding and the two depositions about whether or not Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea. It's a great framing device that makes the story really dynamic. The film is certainly never boring. Like most of these films, it's filled with great performances. I mentioned Jesse Eisenberg in the last post, and he's definitely the standout, but Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Armie Hammer (playing both the Winklevoss twins) are both great. From the fantastic opening scene to the close, with Zuckerberg refreshing the screen again and again, The Social Network is brilliant at every turn.
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