There will be no sandbox Detrius 2011 thread.

I haven't seem all of those GG honorees, thank God, but I think my favorite is Viggo as Freud.

Love how not nominating something that's only got huge amounts of pre-release publicity going for it constitutes "snubbing." It's entitled, just like Obama is to liberals' votes.

The Ides of March love ends with the Globes.

Yeah, on reflection, that's probably true.

OK, let me get in on the Osc*r blogging: Eric, did you ever get to A Serbian Tale?

OK, I surrender.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/feature/the-25-best-films-of-2011/295

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2011/12/slant-magazines-top-25-films-of-2011/

Worthwhile list except for the inclusion of Beginners.

Glad to see Of Gods and Men made the cut (good blurb, Morbs).

Frankly, I could've put my top 4 in any order, but decided to go with the one that was most imposing, and had 99% of its verbiage untranslated. (I wonder if the DVD will have full subtitles?)

Most of the staff 25 that I didn't pick would've been in my #21-30 too.

I found Certified Copy deeply irritating

I think that's partly intentional, and I wouldn't argue too violently either way. And I'm glad The Tree of Life is on there even if I was one of 2 holdouts.

Brighter Summer Day is on my list too – saw it for the first time that wasn't on a grainy VHS and respect/love it so, so much more.

I saw it less than 3 weeks ago, but zipped through it on Google Video the other night as a refresher. (not recommended for a first viewing)

props, slant, for your #1 (mine also) and for listing el sicario

the post office did not deliver El Sicario to me in time.

re the GGs, kinda shocked at Foster's one-note Carnage role. Michael Sicinski described her character accurately as "a fascist Amy Goodman."

My beloved H0u$+0n Film Critics Society sent this out today (ceremony in January)

2011 Best Picture - The Descendants
2011 Best Director - Nicholas Winding Refn, Drive
2011 Best Actor - Michael Fassbender, Shame
2011 Best Actress - Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin
2011 Best Supporting Actor - Albert Brooks, Drive
2011 Best Supporting Actress - Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
2011 Best Screenplay - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, The Descendants
2011 Best Animated Film - Rango
2011 Best Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life
2011 Best Documentary - Project Nim
2011 Best Foreign Film - I Saw The Devil
2011 Best Original Score - Ludovic Bource, The Artist
2011 Best Original Song - "Life’s A Happy Song" from
The Muppets, music & lyrics by Bret McKenzie
2011 Technical Achievement – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011 Worst Film of the Year – Your Highness

2011 Best Actor - Michael Fassbender, Shame

congrats on looking passive & moody & then at one point emotional

There were flashes of his, ahem, gifts.... the restaurant date w/ the coworker and listening to sis murder 'nyny'.

but it's hard to top that pair as worst films for a best actor/actress. ever. by anyone.

so he's basically in a 110-minute Romanek video

also, I'm starting to hate The Descendants almost as much as Alfred & Armond do.

I didn't get The Descendants love at all. What did I miss?

Take Shelter was pretty A+ though.

B/B+

I recommend the Sl4nt comments for our editor's response to the gadfly who wants us to champion films that have never played in the US.

TS would've drifted into A territory if it weren't for the disastrous (har har) ending.

I wasn't really grading it an A+ but yeah, I see what you mean. The ending didn't bother me though.

Ebert's top 20:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/12/the_best_films_of_2011.html

i feel bad for criticising TS as being heavy handed, given that the signposting (why this job's timely provision of comprehensive insurance coverage is just what I need!) is part of what made it tense, but it was a lil straightforward i thought. & yeah, freewheeling at the end, it coulda/should stopped (vaguely-)ambiguously in the shelter at the end.

There were flashes of his, ahem, gifts.... the restaurant date w/ the coworker and listening to sis murder 'nyny'.

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 December 2011 01:32 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

ehh maybe. the part of the story following the restaurant scene exemplified so much of what i disliked about it in general - the utterly vapid (but not intentionally, knowingly vapid, afaict) characterisation, with them talking about the 60s/time travel; the preceding actually-a-sincere-'montage-scene' montage scene, in which he THROWS OUT ALL HIS PORN to be a BETTER MAN. i thought CM was v good throughout, too much of MF was just him seeming brooding, and it was hard to read his 'inemote grief face' as anything too complex with mcqueen's weird moralistic perspective attached.

moralistic indeed. empty, compulsive sex so much more fun, at least in my exp

the preceding actually-a-sincere-'montage-scene' montage scene, in which he THROWS OUT ALL HIS PORN to be a BETTER MAN

I was afraid of this.

xpost Then why are you so miserable?

moralistic indeed. empty, compulsive sex so much more fun, at least in my exp

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 December 2011 17:18 (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

otm/yeah i just didn't understand why we were meant to attach our concern to his promiscuity; it could have been explored wrt the sex workers involved but that distinction wasn't pursued

the preceding actually-a-sincere-'montage-scene' montage scene, in which he THROWS OUT ALL HIS PORN to be a BETTER MAN

there are two long passages in which the dramaturgy seems familiar from like '90s shitty studio john hughes movies - the above, & a long overhearing-a-couple-in-the-next-room scene followed by an aimless BUT HAUNTINGLY SCORED shot of fassbender going for a run. i just couldn't understand how SM could make a film so light, unchallenging & unchallenged

yeah now i remember it the haunting string score w/intended greek-tragic gravitas was another frustrating element ROGER EBERT DO YOU SEE

Malick wins FC poll; Joe 2nd! Am I alone in thinking Boonmee was merely good? Kiarostami all the way down at 7th.

http://www.filmlinc.com/blog/entry/film-comment-announces-2011-best-of-year-list

Unreleased films -- I've seen #1 and look fwd to #51.

http://www.filmlinc.com/blog/entry/film-comments-best-unreleased-movies-of-2011

Boonmee left me pleasantly defeated.

It let me tick 'watching a catfish fuck a person' off my bucket list.

would like to watch an Apichatpong film without having to pause and take a nap halfway through. he's 3 for 3 with me on that count. i like him a lot, but they seriously just put me away completely.

The best part of Mysterious Object for me was when I fell asleep.

anticipating you guys vs Mysteries of Lisbon

personally my next test is going to be Extraordinary Stories.

neither of those last 2 are boring, even in a good way

I like that Film Comment list, pretty close to my own. for some reason I found Boonmee kind of riveting.

I'm not going to get to see Mysteries of Lisbon, but by the end of next week I should have seen 9 out of that top 10, which is pretty good going for me.

and Indiewire also goes with The Lumber(ing) of Life; and Shannon and Paquin among the actors:

http://legacy.indiewire.com/survey/annual_critics_survey_2011/

The Lumber(ing) of Life

stretching, but we'll allow it

ages since i saw boonmee, but re: good or great; i remember talking to a friend who wasn't crazy about it & thinking that, perhaps if more films or all films were like weerasethakul's, i'd be more critical, but that a big part of what makes them special is just that they are & exist and are treading that path, which makes me less critical about the specifics. it wasn't as cohesive as a couple of others but i still think of a lot of it & think it's a p unique, interesting achievement

think of it a lot, probably what i was shooting for there

also why the fuck did everyone like melancholia so much. did anyone here like it? it was vague & unfocused, took the wrong tone or pursued the wrong threads, & compensated with a kinda generic autopilot-grandiosity.

I quite liked Boonmee but I've accepted that I risk foolishness explaining what makes this man's films worth watching.

ha, i think that's part of it, that they're somewhere slightly off radar or out of reach. (i remember coming out of syndromes, having seen it with a few others, & each having as broad & entirely disparate a set of opinions about it as you really could about a single text (i don't think i'd even grasped it was about his family))

also why the fuck did everyone like melancholia so much. did anyone here like it?

I thought it was pretty great, but I'm no LvT fan.

I thought it was pretty great, but I'm no LvT fan.

ha, that's a weird disclaimer. i like a bunch of von trier, i thought it was so confused though - maybe some of that is relative to how strongly he manages to embody a theme & stay on-point in dogville or whatever else. i was so surprised at how loose the first half was, & then how drably procedural & perfunctory the second half proceeded.

I really liked the end-of-the-world stuff, beginning and end; the wedding set-up (conceding they're bound together) seemed ordinary to me.

I much preferred Antichrist.