A Bared Soul

Movies: Shame

Steve McQueen's latest film, Shame, has elicited some interesting responses. The NC-17 film about a man, Brandon (Michael Fassbender in a virtuoso performance), struggling with sex addiction, has been the target of a number of jokes and referred to cheekily as "the Michael Fassbender penis movie!" (I'm guilty of saying this myself). It's also been met with some skepticism. A number of reviews and articles have questioned the existence of sex addiction, even going so far as to claim sex addiction is basically a way to demonize male sexuality. Never mind that there are female sex addicts as well.

I think that sex addiction is just as real and damaging as alcoholism, drug addiction, Internet addiction, or anything else that consumes the life of the addict. It's clear that Brandon no longer takes any pleasure in the copious amounts of sex he has. He wakes up in the morning and masturbates in the shower. No big issue there. But then he arrives at his corporate office and downloads hardcore pornography onto his work computer. So much pornography that the tech department thinks his computer must have a virus. He masturbates at work. He goes out after work and has sex with a woman he just met under a highway overpass. He goes home and logs on to his computer and spends the evening looking at more porn. But that's not what happens on one particularly horny day for Brandon--it happens every day. Countless partners--willing women if possible, prostitutes and gay men if necessary. Garbage bags and closets filled with DVDs, magazines, sex toys. A lack of ability to connect with a woman in a non-sexual way. Sex is not fun for Brandon: it's oxygen. It's life itself. And it's a living hell.

When Brandon's unstable and desperately vulnerable sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan, also giving an excellent performance), shows up unexpectedly at his bachelor pad, she throws his routine (sex, sleep, sex, work, sex, food, sex, sex...) out of whack. The two have cryptic conversations about their past: "We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place." Sissy says to Brandon. But director McQueen gives no direct clues about what Brandon and Sissy's past was like and why they are who they are as adults. The viewer assumes the worst: abuse, definitely. Sexual abuse, very likely. Repressed sexual feelings for each other, possibly.

Sadly, Shame offers little insight into sex addiction--it merely shows what addiction looks like on the surface, and not how Brandon's thought process works underneath. We know he is self-loathing. We infer that he is probably too scared, ashamed, or proud to take the necessary steps to heal himself. He is a man's man surrounded all day by alpha male types who view hooking up (and money) as the ultimate display of masculine power. How can Brandon possibly break free when his own social circle, as well as the society he lives in, keep telling him to fuck more and prettier women? Even his rock bottom--a grim threesome during which Brandon grimaces and looks deeply pained--would get him a high-five at work.

Shame is a slick film with beautiful cinematography and wonderful performances by Fassbender and Mulligan, but it never quite reaches the audience's heart. We sympathize with Brandon, but since the director keeps him at arm's length, we never get to truly empathize with his emotional and sexual prison. Shame is powerful, but it could have been more so if McQueen had let us in a little more (no pun intended). Like Brandon, Shame is beautiful, but closed off.

4 out of 5 stars

A Religious Fanaticism Twofer

Movies: Camp Hell, Red State

Movies that mock religion are always shaky ground. They run the risk of being obvious and ham-fisted--of using a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel to dissect people's very personal beliefs. Bill Maher's documentary Religulous is a perfect example of a filmmaker shooting fish in a barrel and preaching to the choir. Maher picks easy targets: people too dumb to defend their own beliefs with any sort of critical thinking or self-reflection. Instead of making a genuine attempt to explore the intricacies and hypocrisy of religion, Maher simply laughs his ass off at the idiots. But the conclusion he reaches is less "religious people are stupid" and more "stupid people are stupid". It's the film equivalent of People of Walmart: such an easy target, the shooter (in this case, Maher) should be embarrassed.

It takes sensitivity, finesse, and (I would argue) a personal knowledge of religion in order to properly question/satirize religion. Outsiders rarely get it--they just see a bunch of delusional morons praying to what they believe to be an invisible and non-existent bearded dude in the sky. But someone who understands the minds, language, and emotions of those believers can simultaneously skewer and pay homage to religion. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are a good example of people who do religious satire correctly. Another example is Kevin Smith, whose film Dogma mocked the Catholic Church in a loving and absurd manner. His casting of Alanis Morrisette as God (I know, right?) did not intend to belittle Catholicism, as some believed, but to make a point about how we don't know shit about the nature of God and who he/she/it is. At least that was how I interpreted it.

In Red State, Smith's horror film that blatantly mocks (while also giving three dimensions to) Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, is another insightful take down of religious belief gone mad. In Red State, three high school boys living in a conservative town spend an evening seeking out what they believe will be easy sex with a middle-aged woman. They end up drugged and chained in the basement of the "Five Points Church", run by the charismatic and insane Abin Cooper (Michael Parks in an excellent and terrifying performance). Cooper is an obvious nod toward Fred Phelps of "God Hates Fags" fame. He is the leader of a so-called "church", which is more of a cult made up of his own family and their spouses. Cooper directs his greatest ire towards the "homosexuals", who he believes are destroying America.

The major difference between the fictional Cooper and the real Phelps is that Cooper and his family take their beliefs to the bloody extreme: they lure sinners into their homes, drug them, and then murder them as part of their worship services (after taking the children out of the room, of course). The three boys who go out seeking sex find themselves in a Waco-like struggle for survival when the local authorities--and then the Feds--get involved.

Red State was nothing like I expected it to be. I thought it would be straight-forward horror with a blundering take on religious fundamentalists. I was wrong. Red State doesn't mock Christians so much as it mocks cults. Abin Cooper's "church" is so obviously unlike any normal--even ultraconservative--church, that it bears no resemblance to Christianity.

In addition, although Red State begins like your typical torture-porn films, with sexually active teens ending up drugged, bound, and gagged; the film took increasingly radical (yet plausible) turns that I did not see coming. My mind was blown from start to finish.

Red State, as fans of Smith will make clear, is not a typical Kevin Smith film. It definitely has moments of crude humor, a la Clerks, but that humor is all but shut down when the bullets start flying. I want to warn folks that this is a very, very violent movie. It's not as grotesque as, say, Saw, but there is a scene in the first half of the movie where the men of Five Points Church kidnap a gay man, saran wrap him to a cross on their church's altar, and shoot him in the head point-blank as he begs for his life through a ball gag. It is one of the most psychologically distressing scenes of cruelty I've watched--and I watch a lot of movies. In my opinion, Smith is able to toe the line between exploitation and violence that is relevant to the plot of the film. Those who are sensitive to violence won't enjoy this movie, but horror and independent film aficionados will probably be able to stomach it. Oh and PS: even though women do get killed in Red State, the film is very much NOT exploitative towards women in general. Which is a nice departure from a lot of horror films.

Red State didn't get the greatest reviews when it first came out, so my expectations were low. The film was a pleasant surprise and kept me on the edge of my seat and  guessing about what turns it would take until the final scene. I really enjoyed it.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Camp Hell, on the other hand, was not remotely as good as Red State. Camp Hell is a little-seen indie horror movie from 2010. The description on Netflix claims the movie "stars" Jesse Eisenberg. Wrong. Eisenberg is in two scenes. He probably has a grand total of 5 minutes of screen time.

Instead, Camp Hell stars a number of unknowns as the religious campers at Camp Hope, a Christian retreat for extremely fundamentalist teenagers. I couldn't figure out what religious denomination these people were supposed to be part of. Bruce Davison plays a priest who runs the camp, but the teens clearly aren't Catholic. Or maybe they're an obscure, ultraconservative Catholic sect. I honestly couldn't tell. Either the filmmakers know very little about religious denominations, or they didn't want to insult a particular denomination so they just made up some generic, conservative sect.

In any case, the basic plot of Camp Hell is this: Tommy Leary (Will Denton) is a teen at Camp Hope who is experiencing increasingly frightening visions and dreams. After he takes his crush, Melissa, out to the woods and dry humps her, all hell literally breaks loose, bringing tangible evil into the camp. It's up to Father McCallister to fight back against the evil at hand. Tommy Leary does his part by deciding not to believe in this shit any more and therefore lessening the power this evil has over him.

So...the moral of the story appears to be: 1) dry humping causes the devil to emerge from hell and terrorize teens at camp (a pretty hilarious, yet apt take on the "sexually active teens in horror films" trope), 2) If you believe in conservative, highly-supernatural religion, you will go insane and kill everyone you love, 3) If you make a conscious decision not to believe in any of that crap, you'll be fine and live a normal life. Sounds about right to me.

In addition to the shaky theology and horror-film cliches, the actual horror element of Camp Hell is pretty weak tea. I'm generally not scared by demon/devil possession movies to begin with, but even the climax of this film was not impressive in the least. Camp Hell reminded me of Lucky McKee's film The Woods: about a coven of witches that run a girls boarding school in the 1960's. Camp Hell, like The Woods, had an interesting premise and indie cred, but in the end was all bark and no bite. Ultimately, Camp Hell is simply an unsatisfying, cliched horror film.

2.5 out of 5 stars

A Muppet Twofer

Movies: The Muppets, Being Elmo

The Muppets

The things from our childhood and adolescence stay with us. Just this past Christmas, I was at home (or, I should say, my parents' home--but that sounds kinda weird) and I was going through some old books and stuffed animals I loved as a kid. I picked up a stuffed lion--Mickey--and when I felt the security blanket material he was made from, that feeling of total safety and warmth and love washed over me. Pop culture from childhood and our formative years can be the same as picking up an old blankey or teddy bear--they seem to be physically coated with emotions and good vibes.

This, I think, is why The Muppets has been such a raving success. Many of the people most eager to see The Muppets on screen again grew up watching *something* created by Jim Henson: The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, The Dark Crystal...hell, even Muppet Babies counts. And here the Muppets were coming back to the big screen--and collaborating with Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Jack Black, and Jim frickin' Parsons! Talk about filling a theatre with good vibes.

I start this review on a positive, pro-Muppet note because although I enjoyed The Muppets, I feel incredibly guilty that I didn't love the movie. I laughed a lot during the film, but I also had some big issues with it, and I can't say that film lit up my heart the way other movies have. And I think it may be partially due to the fact that, despite watching Sesame Street as a kid, I never saw The Muppet Show until I was a senior in college.


Anyhoo, so I just want to say that I completely respect those who loved The Muppets with the fire of 1,000 suns. I enjoyed the movie as well, and I totally get people's love for it.

But I'm going to be a boner-killer now and say that I was put off by 1) Kermit and Piggy's codependent and possibly abusive relationship and 2) Amy Adams and Jason Segel's weirdly chaste, bizarre, and completely pointless relationship.

On that first point: Ok, I get it. The relationship between Miss Piggy and Kermit has always hinged on the fact that she's more into him then he is into her. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if Kermit identified as asexual. If you think it's weird to ponder a Muppet's sexual identity, consider that Piggy herself is quite obviously a sexual being: she's loves express her flamboyant femininity, as well as kissing, hugging, and chasing down Kermie. She's the Pepe LePew of the Muppets.

However, I was genuinely offended that the filmmakers give Piggy and awesome career working for French Vogue in Paris and then take it all away from her! Kermit tracks Piggy down to ask her to join the rest of the original cast of The Muppet Show in order to raise enough money to save the Muppet Theatre. Piggy turns Kermit down, saying that she has made her own life without him and the other Muppets. Kermit persists and finally Piggy relents.

Ok...I could see Piggy maybe coming back to the show for one final production. Or maybe even staying a while while the rest of the Muppets get back on their feet. But by the end of the movie, Kermit has convinced Miss Piggy to stay on indefinitely!! He even says (and this is line that really got me): "Maybe you don't need the whole world to love you...maybe you just need one person." Oh, that's rich. Screw you, Kermit! I've seen enough of Miss Piggy to know that she DOES need the whole world to love her--that's the point of Miss Piggy! Maybe Piggy loves to be loved and worshipped and desired. Some women need that, Frog. And besides, Kermit has made it abundantly clear that he doesn't feel for her what she feels for him. Dangling the carrot of "love" in front of her to get her to give up her awesome, fascinating career and life in Paris and stay with the Muppets is cruel, to say the least.

I know that Piggy has not always treated Kermit well, even resorting to physical abuse in the past ("hiii-yah!"), so it's not like she's totally innocent here. But the bottom line is that this relationship is never going to work out and the two should just move on and get out of each other's hair. The end.

This brings me to my second beef with the film: Gary (Segel) and Mary (Adams). Gary plays a Muppet-aficionado whose brother, Walter, is actually a Muppet. Gary has a girlfriend, Mary, and the two have been dating for 10 years. Mary wants to get married, but she keeps waiting for the insensitive and clueless Gary to propose. She also lets him make the plans for their big anniversary dinner, which he screws up as well. Ok girl, you've been with this guy for 10 years. Clearly, he's an idiot when it comes to remembering stuff and making plans. I think you may need to relinquish the archaic gender roles for two seconds (you can do it--I saw you repairing a car in that one super-cute scene!) and actually propose to Gary if you want him. Speaking of which, why would you want him? You're one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood--you don't need to be with this galoot. Plus, you'd always be playing second-fiddle to a Muppet (his brother Walter). Face facts Mary: Gary is a manchild with an unhealthy attachment to his Muppet brother. And by the looks of it, you don't seem to be too into Muppets yourself. I think this may be a deal breaker.

Now that I've destroyed your childhoods, I want to say again that I really enjoyed The Muppets and I'm probably taking the things that didn't sit well with me too seriously. However, that was my genuine impression of the movie--a fun, joyful experience on the surface, with some subtext that made me uncomfortable underneath.

3.5 out of 5 stars

***

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey

Being Elmo, on the other hand, was a joy both on the surface and underneath. The documentary tells the story of Kevin Clash, a 51-year-old man who is the puppeteer for Elmo, the beloved perpetually three-year-old monster on Sesame Street. To see Elmo's squeaky voice emerge from a large man is hoot to say the least, but watching Clash/Elmo interact with young children is amazing. And, at times, heartbreaking--such as when a dying toddler gets her wish of meeting Elmo.


Like the documentary Buck, which I saw a few months ago, Being Elmo is inspiring because it is about a person doing the very thing they love the most. Being Elmo traces Clash's career all the way back to his obsession with Muppets (watching them and making them) as a child. Clash eventually got a chance to work with puppets on public access television and, finally, at the Jim Henson studios. Being Elmo is as much about the hard work and years it takes to master a trade or talent as it is about following your dreams. Clash lucked out in many ways, but he also worked hard and asked for what he wanted. This film is shows the true meaning of the American Dream: discovering what makes you tick and making the most of your passions.

Being Elmo strikes all the right chord as a documentary. It's fascinating (getting to see how Muppets are created), emotionally moving (Clash's interactions with kids), and very entertaining (seeing Clash teach other puppeteers and listening to him talk like Elmo). It's a wonderful, fun film that will greatly increase your respect for puppeteers and the work they do.

4 out of 5 stars

Jolly Good Show

TV: Downton Abbey, season 1

You may be familiar with the Saturday Night Live recurring skit "Merv the Perv", in which Chris Parnell plays a horndog named Merv who speaks in double, triple, and quadruple-entendres to every woman he sees. One of my favorite versions of this skit is when Merv's cousin from England, "Steve the Skeeve" comes to visit. Steve says the exact same disgusting, pervy things as Merv, but because he has an elegant mustache and says them in a debonair English accent, the women go wild for Steve. They tell Merv, "Why can't you be more like your cousin Steve? Steve is a gentleman."

And so it is with cult BBC/PBS hit Downton Abbey. The show is chock full of soap opera plot lines, melodrama, catfighting, and illicit sex (gay and straight), and yet it comes across as a classy, elegant window into a time gone by. Albeit a time when "the help" spent their lives catering to the whims of the rich and women couldn't vote or inherit property. You know, the Good Old Days.

The first season of Downton opens on the morning of April 16th, 1912--the day after the RMS Titanic sank. The Earl and Countess of Grantham--aka Robert and Cora Crawley--awake to find out that their two closest male heirs to the family estate were on the fated ship and are dead. This leads to the central conflict of the series: since the Earl and Countess only have daughters who, by law, cannot inherit the estate, who will Downton Abbey fall to after Robert Crawley dies?

This questions branches out into a number of other plot points that concern the seven episodes of the first season, including the intricate laws of English inheritance, the potential suitors of eldest daughter Mary and how they may or may not be advantageous to the family, the schemings of the maids, butlers, and other servants, and the question of women's rights in late Edwardian England.

And also--World War I and how it will change everything. But that issue is left to season 2.

Although Downton Abbey may be dismissed as "costume porn" in the vein of made-for-TV Jane Austen adaptations, the series is complicated, intriguing, well-written, and often very funny (Maggie Smith, playing the Dowager Countess, gets many of the best and snarkiest lines). Plot lines often take a turn for the unexpected--even shocking--such as when (SPOILER) a foreign visitor to the estate engages in some illicit nooky with daughter Mary and promptly...dies of a heart attack in her bed. Yikes!

Fans of British humor, history buffs, and those who simply like well-made television will all find something to delight in with Downton Abbey. I personally can't wait to get started on season 2.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Some Stuff I've Read/Watched Lately

Movies and Books: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Le Havre, Lady Terminator, The Leftovers

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy


I read a review of this film that said "I had no idea what was going on, but I still loved it". That pretty much sums up my viewing experience as well. Luckily, I had Wikipedia to prepare me for this dense and detailed film. Armed with the synopsis, I was able to follow the plot well enough: Gary Oldman plays George Smiley, a man employed in the top echelon of British Intelligence (an elite group of men known as "the Circus") in the early 1970's. Smiley's mentor and boss, Control (John Hurt), who is the head of British Intelligence, has been collecting evidence of a mole within the Circus who is feeding information to the Soviets. After a mishap involving an intelligence exchange in Hungary, Control and Smiley are forced out of Intelligence and Control has a heart attack. Smiley is left to continue Control's work of rooting out the mole.


The title refers to the nicknames Control gives the top men in the Circus: there's Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), aka "Tinker"; Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), "Tailor"; Roy Bland (Ciaran Hands), "Soldier"; and Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), "Poor Man". It's up to Smiley, with the help of another agent, Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), and a young intelligence officer, Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), to discover who the "Spy" of the group is.

There is a lot going on in the movie, and the filmmakers don't dumb anything down for the audience's sake. I followed the film about 70 percent of the time, but even when I lost track of all the details, I still pretty much managed to keep from getting completely lost. And the film is more than the details of the story--it's about the mood of Cold War Europe as well. 70's England, at the height of the Cold War, appears grey and dirty. The characters' homes and offices are poorly lit and sparsely furnished. There's a scene that takes place during an office Christmas party reminded me of Mad Men--albeit a dingier, far less glamorous version of Mad Men. The men of the Circus have very paltry lives outside of their jobs (however, a major plot point concerns Smiley's cheating wife), and Ricki Tarr says at one point that he wants to get out of Intelligence: "I'm not like you [men]. I want to have a family." These supposedly privileged men are bound to their careers and their country, and because of this they often come across as boring and grey as the scenery. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is hardly a "sexy" or conventionally exciting spy movie, but it is taut, thrilling, and very cerebral--a treat for those who enjoy "brain candy" type films.

4 out of 5 stars

***

Le Havre


On the opposite side of the spectrum from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is  Le Havre. Where Tinker Tailor is intellectual and challenging, Le Havre is simple and light. Le Havre is about an elderly shoeshiner, Marcel Marx, living in Le Havre (a port city in France) who takes in an African boy who is heading to London illegally. Marcel takes the boy in and hides him from the authorities until the young man can safely make his way to his family in England. That's it. Le Havre is what I might call aggressively pleasant--even the mean, wily police officer who is on the African boy's tail turns out to be a big softie in the end. There is no actual discussion of the ethical dilemmas that illegal immigration produces. Basically, the movie is: old man lives a pleasant life that is pleasantly disrupted by a pleasant (and almost entirely silent) immigrant until the situation is pleasantly resolved and everything goes back to normal. It was cute; there were some laughs; but overall the film was as light and unsubstantial as air.


2.5 out of 5 stars

***

Lady Terminator


Whoa. This movie. Lady Terminator is a bizarrely awful (and I mean in that in the best possible way) film that came to my local artsy theatre as a midnight movie. My friend had been talking about it for months, saying that is was the greatest bad movie since The Room, so of course I had to check it out. Well, she wasn't just blowing smoke. Lady Terminator is insane and so unintentionally funny, you actually may die laughing.

The film opens up with a sea queen who takes on a series of lovers. When they fail to satisfy her in bed, an eel comes out of her vagina and bites their manhood off. None of that previous sentence was a typo: Eel vagina. Bitten off manhood. When the queen finally meets a man who is able to tame the vagina eel (he removes it and it becomes a dagger), she is furious and vows revenge on the man's great-granddaughter. Cut to three generations later: a young, sexy anthropologist goes in search of information about the legendary sea queen, but ends up falling into the sea and becoming possessed with the sea queen's...essence? ghost? In any case, an eel goes into her vagina and she becomes immortal and goes around killing everyone in sight: either with the vagina eel, a machine gun, or frickin' lasers that shoot out of her frickin' eyeballs.

You know what, let's just stop right there. Lady Terminator is beyond explanation. It just exists of a plane of its own. If you get a chance to see it, please do. You won't regret it. Eel vagina!

1 star for quality, dubbing, acting, music, costumes, and script
5 stars for entertainment value

"First she mates...then she terminates!"



***

The Leftovers 
by Tom Perrotta

I had been meaning to get around to Tom Perrotta's latest novel for months. When I finally picked it up, I read half of it in one sitting. Perrotta is a master of satirizing suburbia and all the little tempests in teapots that go on in suburban life. His last novel, The Abstinence Teacher focused on the culture war between evangelical Christians and neo-liberal parents over the topic of sex education. His novel before that, Little Children, was about what happens when a registered sex offender moves into a family-friendly neighborhood. In The Leftovers, Perrotta aims for a more existential subject: the Rapture. Or, rather, a "Rapture-like" event where thousands of people around the world disappear into thin air simultaneously: atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, gay people, sinners and saints, and people of every nation, color, and creed alike. Perrotta doesn't bother to explain what this Rapture-like event is or what it means--instead he focuses on how those left behind react.

Don't worry. The premise sounds familiar, but this novel is no Tim LaHaye Christian propaganda. In Perrotta's vision of post-Sudden Departure (the name the characters give the unexplained event) small town America, there's plenty of room for bizarre religion fanaticism and existential angst, but there are no "right" or "wrong" answers. Some of the characters find themselves drawn to cults and weird holy men, while others just want to get on with some semblance of a "normal" life after the Sudden Departure. As time goes by, both science and religion fail to offer up any explanations about what happened during the Departure, and the characters are forced to confront the moral and relational choices they've made since the event.

Perrotta, who is one of my favorite authors, walks a fine line between acidic satire and gentle understanding. He has a real respect for his characters--none of them are monsters or caricatures. Even though some of them do boneheaded and mean things, Perrotta makes sure the reader understands and empathizes with their motives. If you haven't read any of Perrotta's work, I highly recommend him. His view of the human condition is realistic and not always complimentary, but always hopeful.

4.5 out of 5 stars

2011: The Best and the Rest

Movies: Best of 2011

2011 was a weird year for movies. There were a lot of thoughtful, artistic endeavors that left me cold (I'm thinking of The Tree of Life and Melancholia), whereas some of my favorite movies were more mainstream than I typically go for (I loved X-Men and Bridesmaids). And then, of course, there were dozens of very good films that just didn't stay with me for long (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meek's Cutoff, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2 were among them). I think in the long run it was a good year for film--a lot of filmmakers and film viewers took risks in what they made and what they watched this year. Even if I didn't find a new film to add to my "all-time favorites" list, I still had a lot of fun and some amazing experiences at the movies this year.

My Favorite Films of 2011:

6. Hugo
Hugo was one of only two movies I saw more than once in the theatre this year. The first time I watched it I was with a big group of friends and we saw it in 3D. I felt a tremor of joy go through me during the opening sequence, as the camera pans down to 1930's Paris and into the train station where Hugo Cabret lives and works, hidden away like a mouse. The scenes depicting George Melies making his films at the turn of the 20th century, as well as Hugo and Isabella's journey to the film archives, caused me to feel nostalgia for a time I never lived in, and have only experienced vicariously through film. The second time around, I saw Hugo with my parents--both of whom admitted to tearing up during the movie. It's rare that I find a movie that brings out the same emotions and pleasure in my parents and also my cinephile comrades. Hugo did just that.

5. Circumstance 
A little seen, but powerful film about two Iranian teenagers experiencing the first stirrings of adulthood, sexuality, and independence in a culture that is intent on keeping them quiet and obedient. The most heartbreaking message of the film is that the two young women love each other so much, but in the end their love isn't enough to change their circumstances.

4. The Skin I Live In 
Certainly one of the most bizarre films of the year, Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In is, well, difficult. It's the story of a woman who is a captive, yet never lets go of the freedom inside herself. It's a violent--even perverted--film yet has a dark sense of humor; a combination that is Almodovar's specialty. Gallows humor, you could call it. And as in Almodovar's other movies, the heroine at the center of The Skin I Live In thrives in awful circumstances and proves herself stronger than her oppressor.

3. X-Men: First Class
I went into this movie with pretty low expectations. I had never seen any of the previous X-Men films or read any of the X-Men comics. I knew next to nothing about the X-Men. But for my money, this was one of the most entertaining movies I saw this year. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender give excellent performances as Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr--young men who start as friends with radically different life experiences and thus radically different philosophies that will one day force them to part ways as enemies. Superhero movies often have very simple worldviews: good vs. evil, strong vs. weak, etc. X-Men: First Class takes this black and white way of looking at the world and adds shades of gray.

2. Another Year
Technically, this film was released in 2010. However, it didn't reach my town until January of 2011, so I'm counting it as part of this year. Another Year is quiet character study that is so realistic that at times it's painful to watch. Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen play Tom and Gerri (yes...), a happily married couple entering their golden years with so much love, happiness, health, and modest wealth that their single, lonely friend Mary (Lesley Manville, in what I think is the best performance of the year) looks downright pathetic in comparison. And Mary is pathetic: drinking too much wine and passing out in Tom and Gerri's guest bedroom; flirting with their 30-something son; looking around the dinner table with sadness and desperation in her eyes. Mary is a character you want to slap and hug at the same time, mostly because it's easy to see a little of yourself in her. We all feel a little loserish once in a while, and despite its gentleness, Another Year makes us wince with recognition.


1. Bridesmaids
Bridesmaids is the other film I saw more than once in the theatre. In fact, I saw it three times: with coworkers, on a date, and with my *gulp* mom and dad. And all three times, I sat through the credits thinking "I could watch this again right now". Granted, I was predisposed to like Bridesmaids, being a fourth-ish wave feminist raised on Jezebel.com, Bust magazine, and Tina Fey. Bridesmaids was billed as the movie that would change "chick flicks" and comedies starring women forever. Finally, we would prove Christopher Hitchens wrong: women ARE funny, dammit! Now laugh!

Well, I can't say that Bridesmaids started a revolution, exactly--although it did make more money than Superbad and became one of the biggest R-rated hits of, well, ever. But I will say this: my 57 year old father, an avowed hater of romantic comedies and chick flicks, sat through this movie and said he really liked it and that it almost made him cry. That's something, folks.

Bridesmaids meant something to me--it was like an acknowledgement of my worldview. I saw in Bridesmaids my sense of humor, my relationships with my female friends, my simultaneous resentment of and desire for romance reflected on screen--perhaps a little too cartoonishly in Wiig and company's hands, but reflected all the same. It's not all Two and a Half Men and Bridget Jones's Diary out there. There is a place where comedy and the female experience intersect--and I want to go to there.

***

Honorable Mentions:

Beginners
This sweet movie about a octogenarian (Christopher Plummer) who comes out of the closet and wants to make up for lost time after the death of his wife, only to be diagnosed with cancer, is heartwarming in the best possible way. It's affectionate without being cloying; it's optimistic without being unrealistic and pollyannaish; it's twee without bashing you over the head with cuteness (for people with a high tolerance for cute). Beginners could have gone horribly awry, but I felt that it hit the mark, thanks mostly to the performances of Plummer and Ewan McGregor as his thoughtful, introverted son. In an entertainment market that favors a violent, action-oriented version of masculinity, these two gentle men stood out as the real deal.

Drive
Speaking of violent, action-oriented masculinity, Drive takes male heroism is a grim--even sickening--extreme. Starring the Man/Meme of the Year--Ryan Gosling--as a loner who is a stunt car driver by day and a getaway driver by night, Drive got some major backlash when it turned out not to be the sexy car movie audiences were expecting it to be. In an earlier review, I bitched about Drive not having any three-dimensional female characters, and that the women in Drive were essentially "tokens" without much to do except serve as props and motivations for the male characters. But then I realized that Bridesmaids does pretty much the exact same thing with its male characters. So...fair's fair I guess. Anyway, despite Drive's flaws, it's a movie that haunts you long after the credits roll.


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 
Last year, the original Swedish adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made my top five. Sadly, as good as David Fincher's remake was, it didn't equal the thrill of seeing the film for the first time, when the mystery is still fresh. Also, seeing actors I knew speaking in English was a distraction. When I saw the Swedish version, I wasn't familiar with any of the actors, and the subtitles made the whole thing seem more authentic. That said, everyone who worked on this movie did a fine job. The chilly cinematography and unsettling music are especially affecting, and Rooney Mara's portrayal of Lisbeth Salander is excellent. Like Drive, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo doesn't have *too* much going on beneath is slick, ultraviolent surface--but it is an exciting, entertaining film nonetheless.

***

Other good movies of note:


Buck, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2, The Lincoln Lawyer, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meek's Cutoff, Midnight in Paris, Super


***


My Least Favorite Films of 2011

3. Breaking Dawn pt. 1
It's an easy choice, and I have to give it credit for being unintentionally funny, but when it comes right down to it, Breaking Dawn pt. 1 is not a good movie. Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson may be good actors in other films, but they just looked pained and sad to be part of this franchise. The film's vampire mythology is inconsistent, the dialogue is laughable and overwrought, and the film's messages about love, family, and motherhood are...let's just be honest...fucked up. The Twilight movies serve as silly popcorn entertainment for those who can stand it and torture for those who can't.

2. Limitless
What sounds like a great idea on paper (a loser gets access to brain drug that makes him awesome at everything) was surprisingly uninspired and stupid on screen. From the unnecessary voiceover narration to Bradley Cooper's not ideal performance, to the Robert De Niro bait-and-switch (the previews make him look like the main bad guy, but he's not really in the movie that much and he's not really that villainous!), the whole thing is just underwhelming.

1. No Strings Attached
Where Limitless was underwhelming, No Strings Attached was downright boring, which, to me, is the greatest sin a movie can commit. There are plenty of "bad" movies that can be extremely entertaining, but this Ashton Kutcher/Natalie Portman rom-com was such a snoozer, it was kind of depressing. I don't like Kutcher, but the man can be funny. He just looks sedated here. And Natalie Portman as a sex-hungry, over-worked, cherub-cheeked doctor? No. I think terrible casting was the film's main problem. The thing is, I wanted to like No Strings Attached. I wanted it to be funny, and kind of dirty, and sweet. But it was jusrtt,,,


...zzzzzzzz

***

Overrated films of 2011:
Attack the Block, The Help, Melancholia, The Tree of Life, The Trip, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

***


Well, that's all folks! Here's to another great year in film!