Hey gang, This is a list of every film I saw for the first time in 2011. As I have said before: If I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me. I still have quite a few 2011 releases to catch up on in the coming weeks so I will refrain from a top ten list for now. I will say this: As of now this is the first year in my memory where there were not ten new films that I loved. Sad.
Of the 172 films that I saw, I LOVED the following:
DRIVE(2011), MONEYBALL(2011), ANOTHER YEAR(2010), BLUE VALENTINE(2010), THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO(2011), RYAN’S DAUGHTER(1970), NOTORIOUS(1946), INTO THE ABYSS(2011) and COMPLIANCE(2012)*
These are films that I really liked a lot: TRON:LEGACY(2010), THE INNKEEPERS(2011)*, 127 HOURS(2010), THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA(2009), LET ME IN(2010), MACGRUBER(2010), BRIDESMAIDS(2011), MEEK’S CUTOFF(2011), X-MEN: FIRST CLASS(2011), THE TREE OF LIFE(2011), SUPER 8(2011), BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD(2011), BIUTIFUL(2010), ENTRANCE(2011), THE AMERICAN(2010), HOT COFFEE(2011), THE FUNHOUSE(1981), CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE(2011), FINAL DESTINATION 5(2011) - My favorite ‘summer movie.’ Saw it twice!, WIN WIN(2011), WITHOUT(2011), THE WISE KIDS(2011), THE STATION AGENT(2003), THE OREGONIAN(2011), CONTAGION(2011), PUSHER(1996), GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD(2011), THE WRONG MAN(1956), THE IDES OF MARCH(2011), THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN and WAR HORSE(Both 2011), THE ARTIST(2011), LIKE CRAZY(2011), THE DESCENDANTS(2011), MELANCHOLIA(2011), BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST(2011), TAKE SHELTER(2011), MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL(2011), SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS(2011)
*Full disclosure: THE INNKEEPERS is a film in which I appear. Currently available on VOD and in theatres 2/3/12!
The other films I either liked, thought were ok, didn’t like or hated. But if you don’t have anything nice to say…
1. Tron: Legacy - 2010 - Joseph Kozinski
2. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice - 2010 - Jon Turtletaub
3. National Treasure - 2004 - Jon Turtletaub
4. National Treasure: Book of Secrets - 2007 - Jon Turteltab
5. The Other Guys - 2010 - Adam McKay
6. Salt - 2010 - Phillip Noyce
7. The Innkeepers - 2011 - Ti West
8. Silver Bullets - 2011 - Joe Swanberg
9. Catfish - 2010 - Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost
10. Unstoppable - 2010 - Tony Scott
11. Movers and Shakers - 1985 - William Asher
12. Please Give - 2010 - Nicole Holofcener
13. Animal Kingdom - 2010 - David Michod
14. Welcome to the Rileys - 2010 - Jake Scott
15. 127 Hours - 2010 - Danny Boyle
16. The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia - 2009 - Julien Nitzberg
17. The Next Three Days - 2010 - Paul Haggis
18. Source Code - 2011 - Duncan Jones
19. The Burning Moon - 1997 - Olaf Ittenbach
20. Birdemic: Shock and Terror - 2008 - James Nguyen
BIRDEMIC: SHOCK AND TERROR(2008) OMG YOU GUYS THIS MOVIE! My friend Brendon Small and I watched it like five times this years. And I’ve never seen one Ingmar Bergman movie :(
21. F For Fake - 1972 - Orson Welles
22. Get Low - 2010 - Aaron Schneider
23. Grown Ups - 2010 - Dennis Dugan
24. The King’s Speech - 2010 - Tom Hooper
25. How Do You Know - 2010 - James L. Brooks
26. The Lie - 2011 - Joshua Leonard
27. Hobo With a Shotgun - 2011 - Jason Eisener
28. Let Me In - 2010 - Matt Reeves
29. Thor - 2011 - Kenneth Branagh
30. Joan Rivers: A PIece of Work - 2010 - Ricki Stern
31. MacGruber - 2010 - Jorma Taccone
32. Bridesmaids - 2011 - Paul Feig
33. Blue Valentine - 2010 - Derek Cianfrance
BLUE VALENTINE(2010) Derek Cianfrance’s brilliant film about the dissolution of a relationship was heartbreaking and featured the best performance of 2010 by Ryan Gosling. This guy is the greatest actor of his generation. I might be gay.
34. Frankenhooker - 1990 - Frank Henenlotter
35. Stone - 2010 - John Curran
36. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - 2010 - Oliver Stone
37. All Good Things - 2010 - Andrew Jarecki
38. Meek’s Cutoff - 2011 - Kelly Reichert
39. Somewhere - 2010 - Sofia Coppola
40. Cinema Verite - 2011 - Sheri Springer-Berman and Robert Pulcini
41. Too Big To Fail - 2011 - Curtis Hanson
42. White Line Fever - 1975 - Jonathan Kaplan
43. Solitary Man - 2009 - Brian Koppelman and David Levien
44. The Way Back - 2010 - Peter Weir
45. Pumping Iron II: The Women - 1985 - George Butler
46. Teeth - 2007 - Mitchell Lichtenstein
47. X-Men: FIrst Class - 2011 - Matthew Vaughn
48. The Tree of Life - 2011 - Terrence Malick
49. Super 8 - 2011 - J.J. Abrams
50. Midnight in Paris - 2011 - Woody Allen
51. Sex and the City 2 - 2010 - Michael Patrick King
52. Bobby Fischer Against The World - 2011 - Liz Garbus
53. A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt - 2010 - Sally Rowe
54. Get Bruce - 1999 - Matthew J. Kuehn
Brendon made me watch this one night. Ugh. He does things like that.
55. Biutiful - 2010 - Alejandro Gonzales Inaritu
56. Resident Evil: Afterlife - 2010 - Paul W.S. Anderson
57. How To Train Your Dragon - 2010 - Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
58. Entrance - 2011 - Dallas Hallam and Patrick Horvath
59. The Green Hornet - 2011 - Michel Gondry
60. Another Year - 2010 - Mike Leigh
61. Drive Angry - 2011 - Patrick Lussier
62. The Hangover Part II - 2011 - Todd Phillips
63. Transformers: Dark of the Moon - 2011 - Michael Bay
64. The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid - 1972 - Phillip Kaufman
65. The American - 2010 - Anton Corbjin
THE AMERICAN(2010) Anton Corbijn’s mediative assassin film got unfairly dissed in 2010. I thought it was great but I love this kind of shit. I could watch Clooney assemble a gun all day.
66. 30 Minutes or Less - 2011 - Ruben Fleischer
67. Bad Teacher - 2011 - Jake Kasdan
68. Horrible Bosses - 2011 - Seth Gordon
69. Due Date - 2010 - Todd Phillips
70. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - 2011 - David Yates
71. Hot Coffee - 2011 - Susan Saladoff
72. Insidious - 2011 - James Wan
73. Beginners - 2011 - Mike Mills
74. The Funhouse - 1981 - Tobe Hooper
75. Rango - 2011 - Gore Verbinski
76. Captain America - 2011 - Joe Johnston
77. Cowboys and Aliens - 2011 - Jon Favreau
78. The Tourist - 2010 - Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck
79. Crazy, Stupid, Love - 2011 - Glen Ficara and John Requa
80. Damnation Alley - 1977 - Jack Smight
81. The Devil’s Double - 2011 - Lee Tamahori
82. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - 2011 - Rupert Wyatt
83. Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate - 1986 - Kirby Dick
84. Attack the Block - 2011 - Joe Cornish
85. Troll 2 - 1990 - Claudio Fragasso
86. Best Worst Movie - 2009 - Michael Stephenson
87. Unknown - 2011 - Jaume Collett-Sera
88. Pork Chop Hill - 1959 - Lewis Milestone
89. On The Beach - 1959 - Stanley Kramer
90. The White Buffalo - 1977 - J. Lee Thompson
91. Final Destination 5 - 2011 - Steven Quale
92. Win Win - 2011 - Tom McCarthy
93. Without - 2011 - Mark Jackson
94. Vacation! - 2010 - Zach Clark
95. The Wise Kids - 2011 - Stephen Cone
96. Green - 2011 - Sophia Takal
97. The Station Agent - 2003 - Tom McCarthy
98. Roman Holiday - 1953 - William Wyler
99. King of the Underworld - 1939 - Lewis Seiler
100. From Noon Till Three - 1976 - Frank D. Gilroy
101. No Strings Attached - 2011- Ivan Reitman
102. The World of Henry Orient - 1964 - George Roy Hill
103. Farewell to the King - 1989 - John Milius
104. Notorious - 1946 - Alfred Hitchcock
I somehow made it all these years without seeing NOTORIOUS(1946), one of Hitchcock’s masterpieces.
105. Shoot Out - 1971 - Henry Hathaway
106. Twelve O’Clock High - 1949 - Henry King
107. The Great Train Robbery - 1979 - Michael Crichton
108. The Beaver - 2011 - Jodie Foster
109. Contagion - 2011 - Steven Soderbergh
110. Drive - 2011 - Nicolas Winding Refn
111. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - 2010 - Woody Allen
112. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream - 2008 - Peter Bogdanovich
113. The Oregonian - 2011 - Calvin Lee Reeder
114. Hall Pass - 2011 - Peter and Bobby Farrelly
115. Pusher - 1996 - Nicolas Winding Refn
116. George Harrison: Living in the Material World - 2011 - Martin Scorsese
117. Moneyball - 2011 - Bennett Miller
My undying love for DRIVE is well-documented but my second favorite of the year was MONEYBALL(2011). Ostensibly about baseball and math, it is about neither but rather about being a human in this day and age. Funny, profound, and Brad Pitt eats a handful of popcorn out of a coffee filter. His finest ‘movie eating’ moment in a career of highlights.
118. The Wrong Man - 1956 - Alfred Hitchcock
119. Green Lantern - 2011 - Martin Campbell
120. A Horrible Way to Die - 2010 - Adam Wingard
121. Visiting Hours - 1982 - Jean-Claude Lord
122. Nightmare Alley - 1947 - Edmund Goulding
123. The Ides of March - 2011 - George Clooney
124. The Hills Have Eyes - 1977 - Wes Craven
125. The Hindenburg - 1975 - Robert Wise
126. Designing Woman - 1957 - Vincente Minnelli
127. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - 1939 - William Dieterle
128. Into The Abyss - 2011 - Werner Herzog
129. Wuss - 2011 - Clay Liford
130. Rampart - 2011 - Oren Moverman
131. Trespass - 2011 - Joel Schumacher
If I had told you five years ago that a Joel Schumacher film starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman would go straight to DVD, you’d have laughed in my face. Then you’d say ‘Must be horrible.’ And you’d be right! I saw four Cage films in ‘11 and all of them were awful. Three were 2011 releases. Get it together Nic!
132. The Robber - 2010 - Benjamin Heisenberg
133. Marlowe - 1969 - Paul Bogart
134. Ryan’s Daughter - 1970 - David Lean
135. Woody Allen: A Documentary - 2011 - Robert B. Weide
136. The Adventures of Tintin - 2011 - Steven Spielberg
137. J. Edgar - 2011 - Clint Eastwood
138. The Help - 2011 - Tate Taylor
139. War Horse - 2011 - Steven Spielberg
140. Terri - 2011 - Azazel Jacobs
141. Limitless - 2011 - Neil Burger
142. Morning Glory - 2010 - Roger Michell
143. Season of the Witch - 2011 - Dominic Sena
144. The Artist - 2011 - Michael Hazanavicius
145. Like Crazy - 2011 - Drake Doremus
146. Compliance - 2012 - Craig Zobel
147. Hugo - 2011 - Martin Scorsese
148. The Descendants - 2011 - Alexander Payne
149. Young Adult - 2011 - Jason Reitman
150. Melancholia - 2011 - Lars Von Trier
151. Modern Times - 1936 - Charles Chaplin
152. Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest - 2011 - Michael Rapaport
153. Another Earth - 2011 - Mike Cahill
154. Conan the Barbarian - 2011 - Marcus Nispel
155. Bellflower - 2011 - Evan Glodell
156. George Washington Slept Here - 1942 - William Keighley
157. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - 2011 - David Fincher
158. Taxi! - 1931 - Roy Del Ruth
159. Take Shelter - 2011 - Jeff Nichols
TAKE SHELTER(2010). Not many people saw Jeff Nichols’ terrific film featuring a brilliant performance by Michael Shannon. Make sure you catch up with it on DVD, Blu-Ray and VHS!
160. Chilly Scenes of WInter - 1979 - Joan Micklin Silver
161. Dinner For Schmucks - 2010 - Jay Roach
162. We Bought a Zoo - 2011 - Cameron Crowe
163. 50/50 - 2011 - Adam Levine
164. Christmas Evil - 1980 - Lewis Jackson
165. War of the Satellites - 1958 - Roger Corman
166. Next - 2007 - Lee Tamahori
167. The Invisible Man - 1933 - James Whale
168. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - 2011 - Brad Bird
169. Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows - 2011 - Guy Ritchie
170. The Last Run - 1971 - Richard Fleischer
171. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - 2011 - Stephen Daldry
172. Shame - 2011 - Steve McQueen
*Full disclosure - COMPLIANCE features a performance by me and will premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in late January. But it is brilliant.
Dreama Walker in COMPLIANCE(2012), being terrorized by yours truly on the phone. See you at Sundance!
HAPPY NEW YEAR - PH
