There will be no sandbox Detrius 2011 thread.

feeling guilty for skipping out of Incendies & essential killing, now, the latter bc i couldn't quite motivate myself to see something i thought was just gonna be a great performance - hadn't really heard anyone speak of it so highly.

portuguese nun is a v ""bressonian"", ie static, solemn film by french-new-yorker eugene green, who made a few other pics i haven't seen & a third of a film that i maybe even recall you mentioning on ilx morbs?, w/farocki & costa, 'correspondences', which section i liked a lot too (it was about email).

i should maybe try to catch our beloved month of august before the end of the year, also

speaking of clergy, Of Gods and Men would make my list.

yes, likely to at least make my Hon Ments. Too "middlebrow" for some people (ie it's about monks).

ah, I'm not real wild about Eugene Green.

I saw To Die Like a Man at NYFF 2010 but really wasn't impressed tho I like the director.

oh damn yeah that also, i did like it a lot (xp re OG&M) - i guess the argument against it/the competition would be that it feels like there have been v 'wide ranging' films of a similar feel this year, but yeah. there's actually a lil reverent spiritual run of pre-holiday screenings at the cinema, here, feat of gods & men (re: which, btw, has anyone seen the guy's other film?), as well as into great silence, which sounds interesting. still to catch mysteries of lisbon & a couple of other things this year, so maybe this will all get more complicated soon. (i wish this our still life was playing locally).

my top five, vaguely, fwiw, in no order is: the portuguese nun, the future, la quattro volte, archipelago & a separation. of gods & men bubbling under, & i also hope to see something like tron 3d to take the feeling of insularity from my top five. into the abyss, the tree of life, some others bubbling under.

No idea where this will show up (low low budget/promotion), but it's the best gay-themed American film I've seen in a long while:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-11-02/film/in-the-family/

this still leads all documentaries for me:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/petition/5236

you guys liked Weekend?

a lot of the press for it here seems to have been jubilant & appreciative at it not being too distinctly, in content or pitch, a ""gay movie"", but tbh i think it could have gone even further in that direction, that its state-of-the-union wasted discussion of marriage &c was kinda a distraction from what it was achieving just as a portrait. but yeah it was good. maybe a lil tidy.

Artforum lists from John Waters and Ed Halter:

http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=29547

haha, Woody Allen has his biggest hit in years so of course JW snubs him this time.

I did sign the Margaret petition. Eric, did it show up in Mpls?

also I'm sicking of ppl bitching about actors' accents. As long as it's better than Mandy Patinkin's in The Princess Bride, stfu and tell me what you thought about the shit that matters.

9 We Were Here (David Weissman) Half my friends died of AIDS, so this simple and painfully told doc on the disastrous epidemic’s effect on San Francisco is personal. If you don’t sob watching, maybe you should be dead too.

<3 JW

NBR names Hugo best film

Best Actor: George Clooney, The Descendants
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50

*rubs hands together*

Oh, this is gonna be a fun Oscar year.

ugh, you knew some group would take fucking Hugo up as a "cause."
I'm to see We Need to Talk About Kevin next week.

I think Waters is unique even among Almodovar fans in ranking this one.

I'm really hoping Plummer doesn't die before voters send ballots.

pajama-wearing NBR.

Their dismissal of Moneyball is enough to offset their ongoing Eastwood/Clooney lovefest.

Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class)

IOW "Best Actor if we didn't have such a hard on for Clooney"

That's a more estimable body of work than Clooney's the last three years (barring Fantastic Mr. Fox).

btw Jane Eyre is quite good.

WIll probably watch Shame first. I think it might appeal to me since everyone who hates it actually enjoys sex.

like a nylon lemon peel

Don't worry. You can always put that detrius where Michael Fassbender's dick ought to be.

NBR actually awarded Finding Neverland in '04, that was a kneeslapper.

(shining from their list is Empire of the Sun in '87)

Also, I'm sure, a better movie in your estimation than Hugo.

Neversawland

other NBR awards:

Best Foreign Language Film: "A Separation"

Best Documentary: "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory"

Special Achievement in Filmmaking: The Harry Potter Franchise -- A Distinguished Translation from Book to Film

you can almost see the souvenir plastic cup in honoring a "franchise"

Huh, I didn't realize until today that Steve McQueen isn't white.

not this one, no

lol

my annual single post to these threads: the john waters list is kind of whatever this year (surprised 'kevin's not on it), and i really wish it were easier to see all the stuff on halter's list (i got to see some of luther price's earlier super 8 films a few weeks ago, they're fantastic).

anyway, carry on

McQueen is getting 20x the attention for his crap second film than his brilliant debut.

Eric, Ke1th and D4n seem to somewhat not hate Shame, so I'm not sure that pattern holds up...

i have to know who you are bc your dn choice brings so much joy, silvana

donna rouge, la donna più bella d'italia

ah, awes, hello &c
yeah year end lists are always fascinating & frustrating in equal measure, triply so if you live outsida new york

this thread always makes me feel better abt my own top ten list

McQueen is getting 20x the attention for his crap second film than his brilliant debut.

Do you find this surprising in some way?

I was thinking 10x

Just watched Tinker Tailor. Quite enjoyable, I thought. (Having not yet seen the '79 version.)

Just watched Beginners and then read Lord Soto's review which I thought was absolutely spot on. I laughed a lot at the bit about Goran Visnjic's character

Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Breakthrough Performance: Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Debut Director: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Best Ensemble: The Help

UGH, I wouldn't rank a single one of these. (Well, maybe Chandor did an okay job directing, but the script was a big 'feh')

Have you seen Dragon Tattoo remy?

Yah, unfortu. P.S. I haven't seen We Need to Talk About Kevin, I just can't stand Tilda Swinton in anything people have ever, ever given as an example of a good performance.

Not good then? Didn't have high hopes tbh

I don't like the conceit, the book, or the Swedish movie, so I don't really know why I'd like the remake. But I'm perpetually unimpressed with David Fincher's technical gimcrackery; I kind of feel he missed his calling as film school survey f/x course professor.

I've never had any interest in the DragTat thing, so if they don't make it easy for me to see it I won't be troubled.

Woody Harrelson is fine as usual in Rampart, but there's not much to the film besides the not-so-tragic James Ellroy tale of the fall of a dirty LA cop in the late '90s.

also saw a beautifully lensed doc-neorealist mix of Thai sharecroppers, Agrarian Utopia.

I just can't stand Tilda Swinton in anything people have ever, ever given as an example of a good performance.

I'm pretty unreasonable on Tilda too. I can't remember seeing anything she's been in and not thinking she's given the best performance ever.