It's been a rough 6 months with uninteresting superhero crap served to us at the theater weekly. Is there really anywhere to go after the Scott Pilgrim deconstruction? I imagine Christopher Nolan has one more miracle up his sleeve before the genre is put on ice. The Oscars were a beating for me, but lots of people seem to love The King's Speech. 2 sporting events ended spectacularly and as usual, music seems to get stronger when there's a recession on and people get some perspective and understanding. TV continues to outpace film on average. So, let's give out some mid-year awards.
Best Song: Rolling in the Deep, Adele - an instant classic. An astonishing voice for such a young Brit.
Best New Band: Mumford and Sons
Best TV moment: A corn-rowed Ron Swanson in a kimono.
Best Sports Moment: The Dallas Mavericks beating the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
2nd Best Sports Moment: The Green Bay Packers beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.
Best TV movie: Too Big to Fail (HBO)
A behind the scenes look at the financial meltdown in the fall of 2008, directed by Curtis Hanson and featuring great performances by William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup, and Topher Grace. People talk and talk in scene after scene, but it remains a fascinating, stimulating exercise throughout. Somehow, Hanson makes sense of it all. B+
Best Movie Movie: I will defer to Lawyer, who's more up to date. He's got Hall Pass at the top with a B+ and Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris, and Buck receiving B's. Tree of Life is presumably in the mix.
Worst Oscar Nominated Film: Rabbit Hole - an unwatchable couple (Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart) deal with the tragic loss of their 4 year old son differently. The lack of new insights or observations make this melodrama tedious very early on. C-
Worst DVD/Blu-ray Release: I Love You Philip Morris - Jim Carrey has lots of gay sex, calls all Texans stupid, and overacts worse than both Ace Venturas combined. The film itself is repetitive and unnecessarily confrontational with its audience. An unmitigated disaster. D
Best DVD/Blu-ray Release (new film): The Social Network - all the special features you could hope for, including a director's commentary filled with humility and knowledge.
Best Blu-ray Release (classic film): Taxi Driver - like taking a time machine to mid 70s New York. The film looks perfect and the extras (some old, some new) are plenty for even the most rabid fan (like myself). Never knew Albert Brooks's birth name was Albert Einstein!
Best Movie Poster: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (see below)
Best Movie Trailer: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (see here) - Fincher + Zeppelin = Intellectual and spiritual ecstasy for Doctor.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Best and worst of 2011 (Halfway Point)
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3 comments:
I was kind of in a black hole for much of the first 6 months, but I am starting to catch up.
I'll submit Someone Like You from Adele as the Best Song of the year (see the link below about a week ago), with Mumford's Cave a close second.
TV - Parks and Rec is just as funny as 30 Rock, without the liberal sanctimony.
Mavs and Dirk were a great combo - humility and hard work beat flash.
As for movies - Tree of Life is the best so far without question; Hall Pass ain't that great. I'm working on reviews of Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Adjustment Bureau, and Cars 2 - none of them will get any type of A though. I can't decide whether Beginners is a lefty beating or an actual good film (I'll probably go see it this weekend).
Best trailer: I'll submit the Bateman/Reynolds film The Change-Up. the last 20 seconds has me rolling every time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UB4LRz5kLY
Biggest disappointment: Eddie Vedder's Ukelele songs. Try as he might, this is an utterly unlistenable album from top to bottom. The old drum, guitar, bass program works pretty good, EV.
Side note to my collaborators and our readers...sorry about the absence over the last 4 months. My tribulations have passed and the reinvigoration of the blog over the past 2-3 weeks has reminded me how enjoyable it is to interact about our cultural landscape. Thanks to Doc for keeping our pulse going and here's to Priest for getting back into the mix - can't wait to read Priest's take on Tree of Life (any film that opens with a bible verse onscreen requires a Priest write up).
I might restart the DVD release and Box Office posts again in the fall. All the soulless films in the Spring took the love out of it and I chose to spend every available second watching episodes of The Wire on HBO Go.
I should have included Best TV guest star for Aaron Sorkin on 30 Rock.
Beginners will no doubt be a lefty beating and you're a homophobe if it gets less than an A+.
As for the rom-com Face/Off, the "Thai food" joke is too much for me. If I had to choose a comedy trailer, it'd be Friends with Benefits for obvious reasons. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJS-wWqVAyk
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