Annoyingly, Netflix dropped its social-networking features last year, meaning I can no longer my share thoughts on recently watched movies through the site. So I've decided to do that here instead in one regularly updated post. This post. Every movie I watch for the first time in 2011 will be cataloged right here. I'll give a rating and write a few comments about each film. Most of movies on the list will end up being slightly older films I watch via Netflix, but I'll see a handful at the theater this year and I'll include them as well.
By December 31st, I should have a nice little movie journal completed. It'll largely be for myself. But for anyone who stumbles across this site, either by checking in on me or finding it through my other writing, I hope it's worth a minute or two of your time. And comments are welcome. All right, enough preamble. Let's get to the movies. All ratings are based on a one-through-five-star scale with three stars being average and no half stars.
12/30 Super 8 (2011) ★★★★: J.J. Abrams' homage to early Spielberg is a film of halves. The first half is stronger than the second half. The coming-of-age half is better than the scary-alien-movie half. As a result, the movie as a whole is a little disjointed. But it's so brilliantly shot and edited -- and the performances of the film's child stars are so endearing -- that I was quite happy to be taken on this ride despite the bumps. Bonus fact: Super 8 was shot in West Virginia about 15 minutes from where I grew up. The steel mill used in some exterior shots is the actual mill where my father still works to this day.
12/28 Hard Candy (2005) ★★★: Honestly, the story didn't do a lot for me. Motivations are muddled and/or purposefully left vague, and the castration sequence goes on for far too long considering the whole thing is a bit of sleight of hand. But Hard Candy is still worth a watch thanks to a fierce performance by Ellen Page, who must have been a revelation had this been the first movie you'd seen her in.
12/13 Catfish (2010) ★★★: A tough one to write about, especially in the confines of this little journal. It really needs a longer post. If you're not familiar with it, Catfish is a documentary about the online relationships that Niv -- a 20-something New York photographer -- builds with an eight-year-old Michigan artist, her mother and her attractive 19-year-old sister. Niv falls for the older sister and begins making plans to meet with the family in real life ... and then things start to unravel. Believe it or not, it turns out not everything you read on Facebook is necessarily true. Now here's where things get tricky. I said Catfish was a documentary, and its directors, Niv's brother and a friend, continue to claim that it is. But others aren't so sure, and suspicions continue to mount that at least part of the film was staged. Setting aside the doc's authenticity for a moment, the movie is an interesting look at the nature of our online selves and how easy it can be to warp the truth in today's digital world. Not exactly unexplored topics, but Catfish comes at it from some unique angles, including one of deep sadness. For that, it's worth seeing. Yet I felt there were problems with the film's narrative that kept it from really being great. For example, once Niv starts to suspect that this family is deceiving him in some way, why does he never wonder for what reason? Wouldn't he be worried that some kind of con was about to be pulled on him, and wouldn't that concern be represented in the film in some way? Instead, Niv and the filmmakers almost joyfully go about disentangling the lies, before hopping in the car and heading west to fully unravel the mystery, apparently for the good of the film. Now, if parts of Catfish are fake or were restaged to alter the story, that could explain this narrative hole -- it's just bad writing! -- and I'd be keen to dock the movie for it. Whereas, if the film is 100 percent real, it's harder to gripe about how Niv reacts to things, even though it would amplify the strangeness of some of those reactions. And then that leads to the discussion about whether it should even matter if the movie is a true documentary or not. Should not a film stand on its own merits and the effect it has on the viewer, regardless of whether it's a work of fiction, of fact, or something in between? See what I mean? A lot to ponder. Setting aside all of that for now, Catfish is a twisty tale that proves to be more emotional and multidimensional than you'd think a movie about people lying about themselves on the Internet could be. Real or not, and despite some of its structural oddness, you've got to give it props for that.
12/10 The American (2010) ★★★: A sturdy production of an oft-told tale -- the assassin doing one last job and discovering that retiring might not be so easy. George Clooney is rock solid, as always, and the Italian hill town that provides the film's setting is gorgeous. Still, I like my hit-man travelogues to be a little more lively. Speaking of which, it might be time to go ahead and buy In Bruges on Blu.
12/3 The Muppets (2011) ★★★★: The sad fact is it's never going to be 100 percent the same without Jim Henson. Even still, I'd rather live in a world where the Muppets are active and relevant than one where they're not. So good on Jason Segel and company for making such a funny and respectful film. Also, Jack Black is so entertaining here that I'm going to officially forgive him for the last half decade.
12/2 127 Hours (2010) ★★★: Danny Boyle again, so of course it's showy and kinetic despite being entirely about a guy helplessly stuck in a crack in the Earth. Still, this one often feels more like the result of a cinematic dare than a story that just had to be told.
11/30 Black Swan (2010) ★★★★: The line between undisputed genius and pretentious bullshit shouldn't necessarily be a fine one, but when director Darren Aronofsky walks it, it's as thin as a razor's edge. Up to this point, however, it's been the whole of his career threatening to tip a specific direction, with individual films lodged firmly on one side or the other. (The Wrestler -- a masterpiece. The Fountain -- overwrought nonsense.) Black Swan is the first of his projects that could honestly support both sides of the argument. It is certainly pretentious. After all, this is a movie about mental illness and sexual awakening and the ungodly pressures we face from both internal and external forces, all set in the world of professional ballet. At least, I think it's about all of those things, but it's hard to tell since those subjects are dealt with in oblique and often disturbing ways. Hell, "pretentious" might not even be strong enough a word. But, at the same time, you can't just dismiss the film because of it. A lot of that has to do with how great Natalie Portman is here, playing a character you'd think would be out of her wheelhouse but clearly isn't. Black Swan is also stunningly shot and gets a lot of mileage out of its horror-movie veneer. Parts of this movie are deeply unsettling, and Aronofsky has way too much fun making every mirror that comes into frame an item of potential dread. So perhaps then this film is the perfect representation of Aronofsky the filmmaker -- a beautiful, grandiose mind-fuck that probably tries too hard to be cerebral but ultimately makes for a riveting experience.
11/25 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) ★★: What was twice enthralling (Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man's Chest) before turning creaky and bloated (At World's End) has now become boringly paint-by-numbers. Not a single new character proves effective, and a few are outright detestable. (I'm looking at you, preacher boy and mermaid girl.) Ian McShane's Blackbeard gets a nice introduction but is given nothing to do after. That's not the script's only sin. Why is it that so much of the plot hinges on a prophecy we never see given? Truth be told, I couldn't even figure out where it came from. It might have made sense to make the prophecy the opening scene, rather than the stuff with the Spaniards. Depressing thought: One more sequel like this and there will be more bad movies in this franchise than good ones.
11/18 X-Men: First Class (2011) ★★★★:With Bryan Singer back in the fold in a producing capacity and Matthew Vaughn behind the camera, the X-Men franchise regains a lot of its luster. While not at the level of X2, First Class is a huge upgrade over The Last Stand and Wolverine. Then again, I could film myself running around my back yard with kitchen knives clenched between my fingers and that would be an improvement over Wolverine. So maybe that's not exactly high praise. But Michael Fassbender makes a badass Magneto, the story moves at a good clip and by the film's end I was ready for more X films rather than wishing the franchise would die already. Just don't try to mentally resolve all the wacky continuity holes that are piling up in this series. You will go mad.
11/5 Thor (2011) ★★★★: Way more entertaining than I guessed it would be and a significant step up from Marvel's other big summer movie this year. (Yeah, I know Thor preceded Captain America is theaters, but I actually saw the latter first.) All the credit in the world to director Kenneth Branagh, who seamlessly blends this film's two disparate halves -- the epic fantasy stuff and the lighter fish-out-of-water tale -- into a cohesive and enjoyable experience.
11/2 Pearl Jam Twenty (2011) ★★★★: I bought a copy of Ten, Pearl Jam's first album, not long after it came out during my senior year of high school. I got it in Morgantown, WV (where I would go to college a year later) at a little bong-and-record store called The Discount Den. That's the same place I later stood in line at at midnight to pick up Vs. and Vitalogy on day one. I eventually graduated from college but I never quit buying Pearl Jam albums. Still haven't. That band and their music has been a constant part of my adult life, and each album, each song, each show I attended has the ability to instantly pull me back to a specific moment in time. I imagine there's quite a bit of people my age that feel similarly. If you're one of them, do yourself a favor and watch Cameron Crowe's expansive, loving documentary of the band's first twenty years.
10/16 The Big Lebowski (1998) ★★★★: Yeah, I know. What do you want from me? I've got no excuse. (By the way, despite hearing so much about Lebowski over the years, I never realized how much of the film was carried by John Goodman. The guy is hilarious here.)
10/1 The Expendables (2010) ★★: There's just enough inspired mayhem early on to get you interested, but then the film goes limp about halfway through. The plot holes grow bigger. (How in the world did they get the plane anywhere near that island the second time?) Instead of creating in-film rivalries between characters, Sylvester Stallone, as co-writer and director, matches up combatants seemingly on a whim. (Time for Hero C to fight Villain B!) It's strange -- the louder the movie gets, the blander it is. Plus, that last little Dolph Lundgren bit is colossally stupid.
9/15 Superheroes (2011) ★★★★: A fantastic documentary on real-life superheroes -- those guys and gals who dress up in costume (sometimes elaborate, often ridiculous) to patrol their city streets determined to fight crime. It's a phenomenon that can come across as hilarious, pathetic or inspiring -- sometimes all at once -- and director Mike Barnett manages to capture all sides in his film.
9/14 Splice (2009) ★★: For whatever reason, I went into this movie expecting a straight-forward horror film. (I'm sure it was probably sold that way when it hit theaters.) But it's not that at all. It's certainly not the least bit scary. It's more of a sci-fi morality tale -- one that I didn't find particular gripping. I never really had a firm grasp on the motivations behind either of the lead characters (two scientists played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley). An impressive level of sympathy is built up for the partially human creature they create -- some excellent makeup and effects-work help in that regard -- but then the creature's arc is almost totally undermined by an endgame twist that seems to exist just to set up the final scene. An odd little movie that just doesn't hold together very well.
9/6 Predators (2010) ★★: It feels like an honest-to-god Predator sequel, which I appreciate ... but just not a very good one. The film's biggest mistake: Killing off Laurence Fishburne so soon (especially after his fantastically badass introduction), while conversely devoting way too much screen time to Topher Grace's ineffective character. The big twist with the latter is a snooze, especially since you spend the whole movie waiting for the ridiculously telegraphed return of the poison-laced blade. A Predator movie that wastes precious endgame minutes with humans fighting each other is a sign of the filmmakers missing the point.
9/2 True Grit (2010) ★★★★: If the Coens directed Jeff Bridges to scratch his balls for two hours and Roger Deakins shot it, it would likely turn out to be at least a three-star film. Mattie's river crossing is one of the most jubilant and thrilling sequences I've seen in a good while.
8/26 The Captains (2011) ★★★: William Shatner goes around interviewing all the other actors who have sat in the Star Trek captain's chair in this documentary, and the results are worth watching, even if you're only a casual Trekkie. It's interesting how different they all are: Kate Mulgrew is so self-serious. Scott Bakula is casually affable. Meanwhile, Avery Brooks seems to operate on an entirely separate plane of reality from the rest of us. The best stuff, though, comes from Shatner's conversations with Patrick Stewart. I'd be more than happy to spend a couple of hours watching just those two shoot the shit.
7/22 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) ★★★: There's nothing egregiously wrong with this take on the Marvel Comics titan, but the movie is ultimately forgettable. I had fun with the first half, but the plot never picks up any steam as it goes along, leading to a limp, underwhelming climax. The truth is Captain America might just be a little too straight-laced to carry his own movie. I figure he'll work better as a character when he can be bounced off Tony Stark and company.
7/16 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) ★★★★★: As a fan of the books, I could nitpick it. Too many important characters die off camera. And Molly Weasley's big moment in the final battle comes off a little flat. But those missteps are far outnumbered by the things David Yates and crew get right. Harry's return to Hogwarts, Neville's heroics, Snape's memories, Harry's forest reunion -- all perfect or nearly so. What an astonishing film experience this entire series turned out to be. No, the movies won't replace the books. But I think they'll live along right beside them for a long, long time.
7/15 Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) ★★★: These recent Warner Bros. Animation adaptions of popular DC comics stories have all been pretty solid, and this one is no exception. In fact, it's an improvement over the comic arc it's based on. One caveat: I'm not a fan of the Joker's design here, nor of John Di Maggio's vocal performance. Wade Williams does a great Black Mask, though.
7/13 Smokin' Aces (2006) ★: You'd think a movie about a bunch of people trying to kill Jeremy Piven would be a more enjoyable experience.
7/5 Cars 2 (2011) ★★★: It's nowhere near top-shelf Pixar, but I'm not sure it deserves the piling on it's gotten, either. Seeing classic spy-film tropes retrofitted for this universe is fun, and the movie is unsurprisingly gorgeous to look at. The first Cars is no masterpiece, but I really don't see how this one can be declared significantly worse than the original. It's a solid sequel in Pixar's most kid-oriented series.
6/30 Tron: Legacy (2010) ★★: The night before viewing this, I watched the original Tron for the first time in more than two decades. Enjoyed it as a kid but wasn't sure what to expect from it so many years later. I discovered that while the first half-hour is kind of a disaster, the movie plays pretty well after that. The story is slow and occasionally awkward, but it's also appealingly weird. I found myself absorbed into the universe, ancient special effects be damned. It's depressing then that Legacy does little to update that universe for modern-day viewers. Sure, the effects have come a long way in almost thirty years. (Although, truth be told, I'm not in love with some of the production design here. No digital world should have this much glass.) But the often vague story meanders along as if action/adventure movies haven't advanced at all since 1982. Disney had the opportunity here to take a property that was once revolutionary and make it so again. They blew it.
6/4 Slumdog Millionaire (2008) ★★★★: In the hands of most directors, I think this could have easily come across as too hokey or too clever for its own good. Danny Boyle is not most directors. Gorgeously shot; breathtakingly edited.
6/2 Winter's Bone (2010) ★★★: It seems to me that critics will sometimes fall head over heels for a movie, regardless of dramatic achievement, just because it strips away the makeup, the lighting, the fancy sets, and turns an honest eye toward some under-explored portion of the real world. Winter's Bone is one of those movies. And while the grimy mountain universe this film inhabits is interesting enough to make it worth an hour and forty minutes of your time, the story being told is much too inert and meandering to deserve the praise that was heaped on it upon release. With all that said, John Hawkes is indeed great here. No big surprise, as he usually is.
4/16 Scream 4 (2011) ★★★: My expectations weren't exactly high, but they were indeed met. It helps that I've always had a soft spot for this series. (Well, the first two installments, anyway.) I think it's the guess-the-killer nature of the plotting that always wins me over. I love a good whodunit, and Scream 4 delivers well enough in that department. (The big reveal came as a surprise to me and yet made sense in the context of the movie.) Some other positives: I'm always entertained by Courteney Cox in "exasperated bitch" mode, which she's locked into here. And the series' patented meta-ness is clever more often than not without being overused. There's one exception to that: The whole subplot about the new killer/killers filming the murders to make his/her/their own movie could have been drastically improved upon. That aspect of the killings shouldn't have been revealed or even hinted at until Cox discovered the webcam. The drama of that moment was completely deflated by having the film-club geeks theorize exactly what was happening earlier in the film. Also, considering the recent trend of "found footage" horror films, I'm surprised that the movie didn't explicitly state that that was what Ghostface was hoping to achieve: The first real found footage movie. As for the blood on display, I'm not really a "kill junkie," but the deaths in Scream 4 do grow a bit monotonous. It's all pretty much knife-work; nothing as creative as Rose McGowan getting crushed in the garage door the original. Long story short: It's much better than Scream 3, and more entertaining than any fourth film of a slasher franchise has a right to be. For horror fans, that might be enough.
4/2 The Fighter (2010) ★★★★: I almost want to slam it for its happy Hollywood ending, but I guess the facts are the facts, and this one apparently sticks fairly close to the true story. Mark Wahlberg's range as an actor has never been terribly wide, and he's usually awful when he tries to go outside of it. But his role here as Micky Ward, a soft-spoken boxer held back by his family, is thankfully right in his wheelhouse. Christian Bale's Oscar for playing Dicky Eklund, Ward's crack-addicted half-brother, was well deserved. Amy Adams is also quite good, though I think the screenplay lets her down some. She plays Ward's girlfriend, and the status of their relationship (at different points of the movie they're either together or apart) always seems dependent on where the script needs them to be rather than springing naturally from a believable romantic narrative. I like some of this film's little details: Dicky's son punching a locker in imitation of one of his father's emotional outbursts. And the look on a ring girl, just after she trips climbing into the ring, that says she'd rather be anywhere else in the world right now.
3/26 Up In the Air (2009) ★★★★: A bit too predictable and not as deep as I imagine its biggest supporters proclaim it to be. Still, I laughed pretty much every time I was supposed to, and the cast is aces from George Clooney all the way down to J.K. Simmons, who absolutely kills in his one scene.
3/12 The Social Network (2010) ★★★★: A revolution of cinema? Nah. Continued proof that Aaron Sorkin should be celebrated as a national fucking treasure? Yep.
2/16 Beowulf (2007) ★★: While I can appreciate the unrelenting brutality of the film, there's little else going on here, and even all the hacking and slashing grows stale after a while. (Plus the pacing is a mess. Plus the final battle against the dragon is underwhelming.) I continue to wonder what the point is to director Robert Zemeckis's motion-capture obsession. The CGI world of Beowulf rarely enthralls, and the rubbery sheen coating monster, man and everything else in the movie often proves distracting. I just really wish Zemeckis would return to live-action filmmaking.
2/2 Zodiac (2007) ★★★★★: The film is drawn out and methodical ... the perfect way to tell a story about a series of murders and subsequent investigation that were the same. The word "epic" is usually used when talking about space opera or high fantasy, but it also fits here, no minor feat for what is essentially a crime drama. Director David Fincher expertly handles three lead characters, a slew of supporting roles, a handful of murder suspects, several scenes of incredible dread, a long passage of time and an ending that may be too fuzzy for some yet too direct for others. For a while, you wonder if Jake Gyllenhaal's newspaper cartoonist is worth so much screen time, but once obsession grips him -- and likely you, too -- you understand it was necessary. Robert Downey Jr. is kind of just doing his rakish, too-cool-for-school schtick here. (Although, as usual, he's really, really good at it.) But Gyllenhall gives one of his better performances, and Mark Ruffalo is nothing short of awesome. So awesome, in fact, I think I'm finally starting to understand why hardcore film buffs like the guy so damn much.
1/31 This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) ★★★: I assume this doc would be a revelation for anyone who was totally unaware of how biased and unjust the MPAA (the mostly secret organization that rates movies) can be. In my case, it was mostly preaching to the choir. Large sections are bogged down by a focus on private investigators trying to dig up the names of the ratings board members, who aren't as much as a problem as the system in general. And most of the real condemning information -- the church is involved! studio and theater execs determine whether or not a film wins an appeal! -- is saved for the very end. The best parts of the film are those that point out, frame by frame, the MPAA's relentless hypocrisy. Excessive violence is fine; pubic hair not so much. Straight sex is much more acceptable than gay sex. And so on, and so on. I certainly wouldn't have minded if director Kirby Dick had rubbed just how arbitrary the system is in the organization's face a little more.
1/29 The Town (2010) ★★★★: It took all of two movies for Ben Affleck to become one of my favorite directors working today. For the record, Gone Baby Gone is the better, more challenging film. But The Town is a sturdy genre piece that's a hell of a lot of fun for grown-ups. Loved the old-school car chase in the middle. Affleck sure knows how to put those Beantown alleys to good use.
1/22 The A-Team (2010) ★★★: The giddy mayhem on display is infectious ... for the first hour, anyway. Then you start to realize that there's not much else here. It also doesn't help that the movie's final action sequence is its most convoluted and least exciting. The cast is lively -- especially Bradley Cooper and Patrick Wilson -- but some of those tacked-on character arcs are laughably bad. (I'm looking at you, B.A.'s self-help book.)
1/15 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) ★★★★: Clever and fun, though not the modern-day classic some make it out to be. That's partially because Mary Elizabeth Winstead is too wooden as Ramona. It's a problem when the romantic center of your movie is the least captivating girl in a movie full of captivating girls. (Seriously, how much does Kim rock with the little that actress is given to do?!) Luckily, the rest of the cast is so good, and the visuals so enthralling, that it ends up being a minor weakness rather than a major one.
1/7 For Your Consideration (2006) ★★★: Not nearly as winning as A Mighty Wind or Best in Show but still amusing. Ricky Gervais is much welcome once he shows up.
1/6 Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) ★★★: The actors are game, and there are definitely enough laughs to mildly recommend this. But the script badly needed another pass taken on it. At first, you're under the impression that John Cusack's high school girlfriend was "the good one that got away." But then that's quickly tossed aside in favor of cute-as-hell, mid-to-late-twentyish music reporter Lizzy Caplan, who for some bizarre reason repeatedly flirts with a teen-aged Cusack. Also, how in the hell was Clark Duke ever born if Rob Corddry didn't get with Duke's mother until the group's second go-round through the space-time continuum? I know it's a comedy first and foremost, but it helps when your plotting is just a little coherent. There's a reason why movies such as Back to the Future and Groundhog Day are classics. They're hilarious, but the intricate storytelling also holds up under scrutiny.
1/4 Let the Right One In (2008) ★★★★★: Probably my favorite horror film since Dawn of the Dead '04. It's in turn thrilling, harrowing and exhilarating. I haven't decided if I even want to watch Let Me In, the American remake. Not sure what the point would be.
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