The Just-Cant-Scrape-It’s:
127 Hours- For that bitchin nerve cutting sound effect, the thirst impact it had on me, and the fact it made me jump to a image of Scooby Doo its gotta get in here somewhere.
Red White & Blue- Probably the most shocking film I’ve seen all year, certainly in terms of brutal realism. Noah Hathaway is a tour de force of not-to-be-fucked-with.
5150 Elms Way- One that 80% of people won’t have heard of, this little French language Canadian feature struck me as a stunningly original and disturbing take on the held-hostage subgenre archetyped by such movies as ‘Mum and Dad’. Forget the tunnels of Kill List or the dream world of Insidious, the basement of 5150 Elms Way is THE most unsettling setpiece of the year. It doesn’t break the top 10 due to pacing issues, but I simply had to mention it purely for the push for everyone to watch it.
My Sucky Teen Romance- I’m… going… to… Say it outloud… (movie-in-joke). I loved this. I loved it I loved it I loved it. I loved how it was made, what it stands for, the people in it, the ethos it rips on and the way it goes about it. From its self funding, close knit cast and crew, inspired and dorky script, charming characters and a self awareness rarely seen alongside warm innocence. Quite simply, I . Loved. It.
Friends with Benefits- In a year of god awful romcoms (New Years Eve i’m ‘fuck-you’ing at you in particular) this film just made me smile. Mila Kunis can play a pickled egg and I think i’d love it.
Kill List- Sure you cant understand 85% of the ‘script’ save for the words ‘fack’ or ‘cunt’, sure script has to be put in inverted commas for lack of dialogically narrative coherence, sure it rips a tad on ‘Serbian Film’s gutpunch; but… Brutal hammer to the head: check. Best of list: check.
We Need To Talk About Kevin- Which film legitimately scared the crap out of me? Rosemary’s Baby Part II, I mean, We Need to talk about Kevin. Genuinely unsettling, a constant air of tension and the biggest punch-in-the-face twist since Serbian Film… or Kill List. Quite simply, this is horrifying.
Paranormal Activity 3/ Final Destination 5 – You know that idea that sequels always suck worse than their predecessor. Yeah, well, 2011 screwed that puppy in the ass didn’t it?
Top 10
10. Insidious – Its not a remake, its not a sequel and its not stuck rooted in paying homage to every Kubrick or Craven movie under the sun. It’s just a straight up, made for 2011, supernatural horror movie that has the ability to draw tension, jumps, creep outs and even a few wry laughs. You know a scary movie is good when it can propel an ordinary song into being utterly terrifying; The Exorcist did it, The Loved Ones did it, now Tiptoe Through the Tulips is up there with goosepimple educing awe. There are too many things I like about Insidious to list here but a few worthy of special mention is the genius back-and-forth window distraction jump, the he’s-behind-you demon photo-bomb, the screeching violin scale descend in the opening score, Lin Shaye, the smiley smash cut, that crackle, the boy in the corner, Oh and of course… Lin Shaye.
9. Another Earth – What’s scarier than Rebecca Black? The idea that there’s another identical Rebecca Black on a duplicate planet a few light-years away. And she’s coming to earth. Welcome to the ingenious and unnerving premise of Another Earth. And while Abrahams’ would getting morning glory over this concept and sponge it out as a 5 series Sci-Fi opus (read: yawn). Another Earth takes it, shrugs at it, then spins a beautiful, intimate and personal character study that just so happens to be situated in the context of there being another earth. It’s the least sci-fi Sci-Fi i’ve ever seen, yet instantly manages to be one of the best.
8. I Saw The Devil- The car kill. The freakin car kill! That sequence blows all kind of brains over the bathroom floor for utter ingenuity, itll give arterial spray fans a goregasm and any film maker out that a serious moment of head scratching as to how it was filmed. EDIT: THE BALL SMASH, I just remembered the ball smash. Ohhhhh the ball smash. For the awesomeness that was the technical mastery of the car kill, is only surpassed by the vicious simplicity of the ball smash. This movie is an absolute opus, riddled with insane set pieces, a driving & occasionally shocking storyline and an ending to end all endings. The finest of it’s kind since Seven or Henry.
7. Livide- Try as I might and despite best intentions, I’ve never been able to get into poetry; however… celluloid, that I do get. Lucky for me, then, that Livide exists. And exist is the best way to describe it, for with all its cinematographical mastery and narrative beauty, the film simply breathes of its own merit. It is fluid and esoteric, fucked up and gorgeous. Despite a lack of truly linear story, much to the digression of many of the films haters, it does have – just like any good poem- a story behind it. A concept or ethos that I think is susceptible to the viewer to pick up themselves (though I’m more than willing to spill my ideas on the matter). It is an acquired taste, but a taste of beauty in destruction and creepiness to the nth degree.
Side note: And don’t let reviews fool you, though it isn’t as gory as Bustillo and Maury’s last masterpiece A L’Interieur, this movie is all horror and definitely does not skimp on the violence.
6. Lake Mungo- While ‘Kevin…’ scared me in a way that will stay with me for the years of my life untill I have a stable 18 year old child, Lake Mungo garners the award of keeping me up all night for fear of turning out the lights. It’s that good. Like if the people behind The Last Broadcast decided to make a decent movie and re-wrote the ideas behind Twin Peaks (down to keeping the Palmer name); Lake Mungo has all the twists, randomness and creep of the Lynch series and more. Its best to go into this one blind, so that’s all I’m going to say. Except that it’s credits reel is *SO* *FREAKING* *GENIUS*. Okay I’m done now, I promise.
5. The Divide – It seems anachronistic that my 5th favourite film of the year is possibly the 5th most bummer inducing films I’ve ever seen. I guess nihilism has never looked this good. Gens takes the stale post-apocalyptic genre, rewinds it a tad to the point-of-destruction and hones in the focus to the very (in)humanity within the situation. Breathtakingly bleak and personal to an uncomfortable degree, The Divide simply horrifies in its captivating portrayal of what people truly are reduced to.
4. Attack The Block / Super 8 – Two of my most beloved films of all time are Stand By Me and The Monster Squad. Despite every effort to enjoy every film I see, simply none match these two favourites in terms of heart and an earnest nostalgia for a time I didn’t even experience. Thank God then that 2011 brought along these two mini masterpieces that manage to capture the feel of these classics, embracing this retro-nostalgia vibe without ever being chokingly hipster-esque retro, and show what E.T. would have been like if ET was pissed off and/or horny and intent on taking over the earth. Everything about these movies reeks of greatness and as such I cannot separate them.
3. The Woman – Lucky McKee. Angela Bettis. Sean Spillane. MATCH.MADE.IN.HEAVEN. The Woman does to the nuclear All-American family what American Psycho did to the all-American guy-next-door: peel back the shiny exterior, reveals the beast within… and fucks your mind. To talk about The Woman would be to ruin its effectiveness; it’s an unsettling journey to a place that cannot be expected, one of shocking beauty, brutal redemption and slow-burn satisfaction. It’s a stunningly auteur masterpiece that also contains the most subversively amazing sequence I have seen all year. Just wait till Sean Spillane’s (who, by the way, scores the entire movie incredibly in the least pretentiously indie way possible) ‘Distracted’ hits the speakers. Hyperbole can’t cover this. I can fault this film in one way: it doesn’t provide adequate facial padding… Just maybe put a pillow under your jaw while watching.
2. Detention- Hands up who wants to see a slasher flick that has a sing along Hanson cameo? Yep thought so. Roaring in a number 2 is the indefatigably genius seizure that is Joseph Kahn’s Detention. Imagine if Kevin Williamson and Diablo Cody had an ADD baby with a medical intolerance for Ritalin that grew up to be a methamphetamine addicted screenwriter. Detention would be said screenwriters first work. And my god, does it work. With a pace fixed at Sonic the Hedgehog (post Star Powerup), more pop references than all of Juno’s dailies put together and a pitcher of blood thrown in, Detention is a piece of unimaginable brilliance. Every shot is meticulously planned and executed to the millisecond, Oh yeah and it was written, conceived and directed entirely by one man… oh and made independently to boot. Detention is perfection.
1. Black Swan- I don’t think I have to say anything about Black Swan to warrant it’s no.1 position. Just watch it and you’ll know. Even after upwards of 20 viewings I can find nothing to fault or even yawn at. It’s a Kubrick sandwich with Argento filling and Carpenter’esque paranoia sauce. Food allegories aside, theres nothing I can say of Black Swan that hasn’t already been said, it’s if not the most well known, the most talked about movie on this list. I wish I could put something more niche here so to inspire one to watch something different. But thanks to Aronofsky, I simply can’t.
0 (Yes I cheat, what of it). Drive- Words cannot begin to explain my love for this film without going into War & Peace territories, and as such, will be saved for another day. Quite simply though, if ever a perfect movie comes to mind, this is it. It’s not only the best film of the year by a short mile, it’s one of the best of the past 20 years. The new Pulp Fiction. The new Rear Window. The new Troll 2. Whatever your superlative, Drive deserves it.
And that’s my two cents.
MyTwoCentsFilm 