My Top Ten of 2011...

...as of December 31st, roughly in this order:

• Alps
• Melancholia
• A Separation
• Bridesmaids
• We Need to Talk About Kevin
• Drive
• Sleeping Beauty
• The Artist
• Martha Marcy May Marlene
• Contagion

Honorable mention: Beginners, which would be in my top five but had a festival release last year, so I'm counting it as a 2010 film.


The five I'm most looking forward to seeing:

• Margaret
• Shame
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Weekend
• Young Adult

Honorable mention: The Muppets.


The five I'm not looking forward to seeing at all, but will see nonetheless because I try to be a completist:

• J. Edgar
• War Horse
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• My Week with Marilyn
• The Iron Lady

Dishonorable mention: The Descendants. I've liked/really liked every Alexander Payne film so far, but his latest seems like a misfire.
Another dishonorable mention: Moneyball. Maybe I should trust Bennett Miller more after Capote, but I just can't imagine giving a f*ck about this movie.

Doesn't Get More Christmas-y Than This

Discovery of the Year - Greek Weird Wave

Even though I began keeping a "movie diary" only nine months ago (on March 28^th, to be exact), I'm almost certain that I’ve seen more films (both old and new ones) this year than ever before. I feel even more confident in saying that before 2011, I had never seen a Greek film in my life. Now, Dogtooth, Attenberg and Alps are among my favorite films from 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively. Dogtooth, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar last year, is probably the most (in)famous of the three, but I'm not sure which one of them is my favorite... I guess I'll choose Dogtooth when I'm feeling especially misanthropic, Attenberg when I'm in the mood for a more soulful film, and Alps when I want something in-between.

One thing's for sure: every new Yorgos Lanthimos & Co. project will be at the top of my must-see list.

A Proposal to the Acronym That Hands Out the Golden Globes

Dear HFPA,

Nominate both Enlightened and Laura Dern tomorrow and I won't criticize any of the terrible decisions you will almost certainly make in other categories. Thanks in advance.

Hyacinth Tells It Like It Is

"If there's one thing I can't stand, it's snobbery and one-uppishness.
People who try to pretend they're superior."

"Makes it so much harder for those of us who really are."

Poster Hall of Shame: Changeling

So, Changeling wasn't actually as terrible as I had expected. It's far from being good, but at least it didn't feel torturous to sit through, which is more than I can say about Invictus. One has to look for small victories with Clint Eastwood films, at least lately. But who really cares about the movie itself anyway when there's a poster like this to behold:

Amazing. Nom nom, Angelina.

I've been too swamped with work and other stuff lately to write something here, but not posting anything for more than a week also wouldn't feel right. And since I realized I somehow still haven't mentioned Lost in Translation in this blog...

"Is that for me?"

"Yeah, it can be for you."