Top 11 Films of 2011

As promised.  I cheated a little this year and thought I should do a Top 11 since it was for 2011, mainly because a much larger gap in quality came between #11 and #12 than #10 and #11, if that makes sense.  In this post, I will reveal numbers 11 through 2, and because I ended up writing a lot more for my number 1 film, that film getting its own post, coming tomorrow.  Hope you enjoy, and I hope you will try and see some of these films if you haven’t already.  Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and top films of the year.  

#11: Jane Eyre (Cary Fukanaga)

I don’t usually go all in for the British period pieces the way that others might, and in many cases I will admit that they tend to bore me and run together.  Maybe that’s why Jane Eyre surprised me so much this year.  The classic Bronte novel has been put to screen many times, but this was the first rendition that I had ever seen.  The sweeping cinematography, beautiful musical score consisting of harrowing strings, and production design all added up to create a perfect atmosphere for the story.  But the anchor is Mia Wasikowska’s incredibly underrated performance at the title character, and I'm very excited to see her career progress from this point forward.   

#10: A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)

This was one of the last films on my “to see” list, and I couldn’t be happier that I waited to see it before making my Top 10 list.  It tells the story of an Iranian couple going through a divorce.  Their daughter, and eleven year old, must make the decision of who she wants to live with.  After her father is accused of murder, the story turns into an ingenious whodunit, where small bits of the mystery unfold and lies are exposed.  This is all weaved flawlessly into the divorce narrative, and the result is an amazingly acted and directed window into Iranian culture, showing how their lives are not so much different than ours.

     #9: Beginners (Mike Mills)

Written about already on this blog, Beginners, to me, is like the perfect specimen of the “indie” film.  It features every indie trait: it’s about people all seeking to find out who they are, with really quirky things like subtitles for a dog’s thoughts, and the main characters are all involved with art in their profession.  Obviously these are all aspects that will attract me to any movie, but Beginners does it with such poise and vulnerability that it really invites you into the characters' situations and makes you feel for them.  

#8: Contagion (Steven Soderbergh)

Steven Soderbergh is one of my favorite current directors, and part of the reason for this is that he just does stuff.  He doesn’t seem to care about accolades, awards, etc., as much as just making movies that he wants to make.  Contagion is definitely a product of this mindset.  No, it wasn’t the most original story ever put on screen.  But the execution of it is why it is on this list.  From beginning to end, it has a captivating pace, is marvelously directed and edited, and features what I think is the best musical score of the year.  It really makes you feel like if something as terrible as an outbreak like this were to happen in real life, this is how it would happen. 

#7: Moneyball (Bennett Miller)

I tweeted after I watched it a second time that this is going to be the type of film that comes on TNT on Sunday afternoons all the time a la The Shawshank Redemption, and I’m going to have to sit down and watch it every time it’s on.  I don’t hesitate to call this Brad Pitt’s finest performance.  He has his “movie-star” moments, but overall I would call it a very controlled performance from the veteran actor.  Bennett Miller’s directing is also great (this is only his second film, and both were nominated for Best Picture).  He does so many little things that bring you into Billy Beane's world and let you experience the situations exactly like he does.  If only all sports movies could be so great and as cheese-free as this film. 

#6: 50/50 (Will Reiser)

This portrayal of a twenty-something’s struggle with cancer was all aces.  The thing that I enjoyed so much about 50/50 is how enthralled I was with the film all the way from beginning to end.  There were plenty of laughs all the way through, mixed in with well-executed dramatic moments.  In my book, Joseph Gordon-Levitt should have been Oscar-nominated for his work here, and the supporting cast members, from Seth Rogen to Angelica Huston, were all great as well.  This is one that I plan on watching many times in the future. 

#5: The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)

Don’t miss this year’s eventual Best Picture winner.  Just don’t.  Yes, it’s a silent black and white film.  But it could not be further from boring.  In fact, my wife used the adjective “magical,” and I tend to agree.  Never mind the fact that it’s well acted all around, and features maybe the best performance ever from a dog, the best thing about this film is that is tells a universal story about what it’s like to become marginalized, and how sometimes we need others to pick us up when we fall.  I hate to become redundant, but this bears repeating: Don’t. Miss. This. Film. 

#4: Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)

When I wrote about it back in October, I was fairly certain that Jeff Nichols’ amazing thriller Take Shelter would remain near the top of my list this year.  Michael Shannon’s brilliant performance as Curtis, a man experiencing haunting visions about the future is really the heartbeat of the film, but no less crucial is Jessica Chastain’s supporting turn as Curtis’s wife.  I film’s major theme of the human need to take care of and protect one’s family is a universal one, and it resonated deeply within me. 

#3: Young Adult (Jason Reitman)

This is Jason Reitman’s most cynical film so far, and it’s also my favorite of his.  While I’m speaking in superlatives, I’ll also mention that Charlize Theron gave my favorite female performance of the year as Mavis Gary, an alcoholic teen fiction author who goes to her hometown to break up the marriage of her high school sweetheart.   The film is a little depraved, and those looking for a traditional character arc will have to find it elsewhere.  But it is very funny, and Patton Oswalt (who also gives a great performance here) provides the necessary voice of reason and touch of humanity that the film needed to make it a great one.

#2: The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)

This film is well-covered territory from me.  Since my initial review of it back in June, I have had two chances to rewatch it on the small screen, and the visual poetry that Malick created in this film has no less an impact in that format.  Malick uses the medium of film differently than just about any of his contemporaries.  He not only tells his story, but also elicits a feeling that is unique to each individual who watches it.  I certainly would not want every film I watched to be like this, but it is a welcome change of pace when it comes along. 

Check back tomorrow for my #1 film of 2011, plus a few that just missed the cut.

New Name, New Look, Same Blog

So long, Adam's Rear Window.

You might notice some changes going on around here.  I finally caved in and changed the name of my blog, in part to remove possible references to my anus.  So if you keep up with the blog regularly, be sure to come to this new URL from now on.  Additionally, I made some much-needed cosmetic changes, including the new banner which took me far longer to put together than I care to admit, so I hope you enjoy it.  I also think that I've fixed the problem some people were having with posting comments, so please let me know if you are still unable to do that.  Any feedback you have on the new look or the blog in general, I'm all ears so let me hear it.

On a personal note, I was dangerously close to scrapping the blog altogether a couple of months ago.  I was feeling very stale in my writing and didn't know if I wanted to keep doing the work it takes to keep up a blog.  Since then, I've had a couple of unfortunate things happen in my life, and I realized that writing is my number one refuge in these situations, and that this blog has been the place for my catharsis to occur.  Thus, I felt that instead of neglecting my blog, giving it an update and writing more was the road to take.  I've been sticking to a more regimented writing schedule lately, and I'm very happy to be posting more often than I have in a long time.  A sincere thanks to everyone for reading.  

Oh, and 100 cool points to anyone who can name all of the movies featured in the new banner.

Look for my Top 10 of 2011 list coming next week!  

Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Originally, I didn’t plan on writing a review of this film.  For one thing, if you’ve even heard of it then you’re a step ahead of most people (and I’m not saying that in a pretentious way, it’s just the truth), so the likelihood of drumming up any interest in the film is relatively small.  For another thing, I saw it over ten days ago and I was beginning to feel that the moment had passed.   And then a snow day happened, and I’m stuck inside a warm condo listening to some music, and the moment just seemed right.  I also realized just how much I was thinking about this movie.

So, because I have written a few funnier (well, at least attempting to be funny) mass-appeal posts recently, allow me to get some thoughts out about this film. 

We Need to Talk About Kevin is the most depressing film of the year.  A short synopsis indicates as much: “The mother of a teenage boy who went on a high-school killing spree tries to deal with her grief—and feelings of responsibility for her child's actions.”  Half of the story plays out in the present, after the school shooting occurs; we see Eva (played wonderfully as always by Tilda Swinton) go through the struggles of her daily life, as a social pariah of the highest magnitude, her guilt guiding every step she takes.  The other half is the relationship of Eva and Kevin, told through flashbacks, with scenes of Kevin’s birth through his childhood and adolescence all painting a picture of how such a tragedy could have occurred. 

There’s a lot to talk about regarding Kevin.  At the beginning of the film, we see Eva as a young woman at a festival taking place in Bunol, Spain, called the “La Tomatina” festival, where tomatoes are thrown in what is apparently one of the biggest food fights in the world (all of this info courtesy of Google and not the film itself).  Eva is covered in tomato remnants and crowd surfing, and although she seems to be in a euphoric state, the ominous music suggests that the red substance all over her is a sign of the blood that Eva will have on her hands for the rest of the film.

Director Lynne Ramsay, in what I do not hesitate to call one of the three greatest directorial efforts of the year, is at her best in these dreamlike moments.  Seeing the relationship play out between Eva and Kevin does not tell the story as well these scenes of pseudo-psychological horror.  There is one scene, also near the beginning, in which some trick-or-treaters come to Eva’s house.  Eva doesn’t have any candy to give them, and in her fragile state she cowers in the corner of her living room, while the children’s shadows come through the moonlight in the window, and appear to be arms strangling Eva. 

One of the central ideas of the film is that Kevin and Eva have a terrible relationship even though they are very similar people.  Eva tries to be a good mother to Kevin, but deep down they both know that there is a hate inside of her that runs as deep as his does.  Thus, they share contempt for one another because they both see themselves reflected in the other person.  The only difference is that Kevin doesn’t try to hide or deny it, while Eva does, even to herself.  However, there is still an odd bond between the two, and as the story plays out we see this strange connection take various shapes and forms.    

It’s not a perfect film by any stretch.  The casting of John C. Reilly as Eva’s husband, Franklin, was an odd choice, and he came off as an oblivious doofus while the story mandates that the character is intentionally turning a blind eye to the dark side of Kevin.  Additionally, the teenage Kevin is played by Ezra Miller, who at points shows flashes of brilliance and other times was a little too brooding for the character’s own good. 

I’m not a parent, but I can only imagine that this film accentuates perfectly what it is like for a parent to have a child that they understand so deeply, yet still massively fail to reach them or form any sort of attachment.  That, to me, is the most depressing aspect of the film, and Lynne Ramsay’s use of visuals to remind us of the guilt that Eva carries around because of this is nothing short of masterful, and the chief reason that this film has lingered for so long in my mind.  8/10.

2011 Movie Awards

I still have a few lingering 2011 movies that I plan to see in the next couple of weeks, including Oscar-nominated fare such as Hugo, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, My Week With Marilyn, as well as foreign sensations A Separation and Pina, and if I ever somehow get my hands on a copy of the elusive Margaret, I might just cry.  After that I think I will be ready to declare a Top 10 of 2011 list, and as usual I will write a column that is far longer than anyone is actually interested in reading. 

However, I am ready to write one of my favorite columns that I write every year: my 2011 Movie Awards.  2011 was an odd year for film if you ask me.  My top-3 most anticipated (Carnage, The Descendants, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) were all varying degrees of disappointment to me.  However, some films that I hadn’t been anticipating as much came out and totally surprised me (more on that in my Top-10 list).  Additionally, and unsurprisingly, 9 of the top 10 grossing films of the year were all sequels (and the other was the Smurfs, not exactly original material), so this trend will be aptly reflected in these awards.

As usual, I have my “serious” awards mixed in with my not so serious awards.  As a twist on the way I’ve done it in the past, for my acting awards, I’ve not only recognized my personal win, but I’ve listed what my nominees would have been as well. 

Hope you enjoy. 

Berenice Bejo in The Artist

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Berenice Bejo, The Artist

Other Nominees: 

Jessica Chastain, The Help

Melanie Laurent, Beginners

Anne Heche, Cedar Rapids

Jennifer Ehle, Contagion

Biggest Letdown: The Descendants

Biggest Surprise: Contagion

The “Only Adam Sandler Would Think This Was A Good Idea” Award:  Adam Sandler, Jack & Jill

The “Oh, Actually Kevin James Would Also Think That Was A Good Idea” Award: Kevin James, Zookeeper

Best Original Screenplay: 50/50

Best Adapted Screenplay: Moneyball

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Patton Oswalt, Young Adult

Other Nominees:

John C. Reilly, Cedar Rapids

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life (dude was on top of his game this year)

Kermit the Frog, The Muppets (okay, you know what, screw you! It’s my blog and I’ll nominate whomever I want to, man or Muppet!)

The Cinematography in The Tree of Life is some
of the best I've seen in years.  

Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life (easiest award to decide on this year)

Movie My Mom Would Be Most Ashamed Of Me Seeing: Shame

Best Original Musical Score: Contagion

Most Overrated: Source Code

Most Underrated: Jane Eyre

The “100%, Unadulterated Cool” Award:  Everything about Drive

The “Are We Done With This Franchise, Yet?” Award:  Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

The “No, Seriously, Are We Done With This Franchise Yet?” Award:  Scream 4

The “Okay, We’re Finally Done With This Franchise” Award: Harry Potter #19

The “Fine, Just Keep Pumping These Out” Award: Fast Five

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Charlize Theron, Young Adult

Other Nominees:

Viola Davis, The Help

Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Mia Wasikowski, Jane Eyre

Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Best Movie About Sleeping With A Friend: Friends With Benefits (narrowly edging No Strings Attached).

Movie That Made Me Feel Like Crap The Most: We Need to Talk About Kevin

The “Phoning it In” Award: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, & Ed Helms, The Hangover: Part II

The “Surprisingly Not Phoning it In This Time” Award: Matthew McConaughey, The Lincoln Lawyer

The Funniest Movie That You Haven’t Heard Of: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

The “Okay, It wasn’t That Good” Award: Bridesmaids

The “Yeah, it was That Good” Award: The Artist

The Biggest Waste of $250,000,000: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The Biggest Waste of $1,000,000,000:  Everyone who went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The “Dripping With Oscar Bait” Award: War Horse

And finally, my last award for 2011:

What does this guy have to do to get some recognition
 for this unbelievably good performance?

Best Actor in a Leading Role:  Michael Shannon, Take Shelter


Other Nominees:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March

Facts, Predictions, and Reckless Predictions for Oscar Nomination Morning

Fact: The Best Picture lineup doesn’t hold a candle to last year’s incredible selections.  In fact, the Oscar race in general this year strikes me as very bland compared to last year’s. 

Prediction: Last year, a whopping five of the BP nominees ended up on my Top-10 of the year list.  This year, at most, there will be two that Oscar and I agree on. 

Reckless Prediction: I still haven’t seen my #1 movie of the year yet.

Fact: No one really knows how many Best Picture nominees there will be this year.  Most are predicting 7-8 nominees, but is that based off of data, or is it just an average?  I’m personally sticking with 7 nominees for now, but no number of nominees would truly shock me.  No one knows.

Prediction: My predictions in the Big-8 categories this year won’t be as accurate as they were last year (in which I correctly predicted 39/45 possible nominations).  It’s a weird year.

Reckless Prediction: Since it’s a weird year, I think it’s highly possible that a film that hardly anyone is predicting will be nominated for Best Picture, and that it will be one of these: The Tree of Life, Drive, Bridesmaids, The Ides of March.

Fact: The Help’s only saving grace as a probable Best Picture nominee: at least it wasn’t as bad as The Blind Side.

Prediction: War Horse misses out on a Best Picture nomination.  The Spielberg name can only take it so far.

Reckless Prediction: Spielberg makes an epic comeback next year with Lincoln (at least, let’s hope). 

Fact: Back in September when I made my early Best Picture predictions, one of my “reckless predictions” was The Artist winning Best Picture, and now it looks like that has a very good chance of happening.  I should really quit my day job and do this for a living. 

Prediction: My student loan debt will keep me from quitting my day job.

Not-So-Reckless Prediction: Student loans suck.

Fact: The Lead actor and actress categories are the easiest to predict this year.  For the actors, Clooney, Pitt, Fassbender, and Dujardin are all locks.  I predict that the fifth spot will go to yet-to-be-Oscar-nominated veteran Gary Oldman, although DiCaprio and Michael Shannon are also possibilities.  In the actress category, Davis, Streep, Williams, and Swinton are locks.   Glenn Close has suffered a couple of setbacks by failing to be nominated by BAFTA and a couple of others, but I feel that she’s pretty safe here.  Other contenders for the fifth slot here are Charlize Theron and Rooney Mara.  (Side Fact: I’m very disappointed in the lack of attention Charlize Theron is getting for career-best work in Young Adult.  Sad.)

Fact: The supporting categories are far more difficult to predict.  If I end up getting 4/5 correct in either category, I will be happy.

Prediction: Melissa McCarthy’s probable nomination for her sink-diarrhea-laden turn in Bridesmaids will go down as one of the worst, ever.

"It's coming out of me like lava!"

Reckless Prediction: The aforementioned sink-diarrhea scene will be McCarthy’s clip when they announce the nominees at the show, and I will laugh.

Fact: Last year I made a nice little chunk of change on a Tom Hooper bet for Best Director. 

Prediction: There is money to be made on bets this year for The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius, George Clooney, Christopher Plummer, and Octavia Spencer, and I plan on taking full advantage of this.

Reckless Prediction: My wife will (a) divorce me, or (b) get a temporary injunction with respect to our marital property upon reading the previous two sentences.

All that said, here are my Final Oscar Nomination Predictions for 2012, which will be announced Tuesday January 24^th in the AM.  Feel free to check back and see how poorly I did after the announcement. 

Expect The Artist to score big with the Academy
this year.

Best Picture:

The Artist

The Descendants

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Help

Moneyball

Best Director:

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Martin Scorcese, Hugo

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

David Fincher, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Best Actor:

George Clooney, The Descendants

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Michael Fassbender, Shame

Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Actress:

Viola Davis, The Help

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

I'm okay with the love for The Help in
for a couple of reasons.

Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs

Best Supporting Actor:

Jonah Hill, Moneyball

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Albert Brooks, Drive

Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn

Nick Nolte, Warrior

Best Supporting Actress:

Berenice Bejo, The Artist

Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

Octavia Spencer, The Help

Jessica Chastain, The Help

Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Descendants

Moneyball

The Help

Hugo

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Original Screenplay:

Midnight in Paris

50/50

The Artist

Bridesmaids

Win-Win

On Families & Film: Thoughts on 'The Descendants' and 'Beginners'

I’ve always been a sucker for films about families.  I think it’s because there’s always at least some little detail that I’m able to relate to.  Even films that I objectively realize aren’t great films on their own merits can be enjoyable and rewatchable for their portrayals of family life.  Dan in Real Life and The Family Stone are two more recent examples of this. 

Mary Poppins takes top honors
in my latest list.

There are two reasons I’ve been thinking about this.  The first reason is that we’re in the midst of the holiday season, a time that many of us spend with our families.  When I was hanging out with my family over Thanksgiving recently, it got my wheels turning about what my favorite films about families are.  As I am incapable of resisting the urge to make a list for everything, I thought I’d just throw out a quick list for you guys of my five favorite films where one of the central themes is the concept of “family.”  I’m being very strict about this, i.e. To Kill a Mockingbird has a lot of good stuff in there about family but I wouldn’t really say that’s what the movie is “about” (same goes for The Godfather, Star Wars, etc.).  Ya feel me?  Without further adieu:

1.  Mary Poppins

2.  Ordinary People

3.  The Incredibles

4.  It’s a Wonderful Life

5.  Kramer vs. Kramer

List making aside, the other reason I’ve been thinking about “family” films is because I’ve seen two movies recently that primarily dealt with the concept of family as a central theme: Beginners and The Descendants.   The latter is the latest film from one of my favorite directors, Alexander Payne, and stars George Clooney as a man whose wife goes into a coma and leaves their two daughters in his stead.  The situation forces the family to face their issues as they try to deal with her inevitable and oncoming death. 

The Descendants is going to do well and win all kinds of awards this winter, but to me it was the least refined and controlled film from Payne, a director who I credit on my shortlist of filmmakers responsible for making me fall in love with movies.  It suffers heavily from an identity crisis and odd tonal shifts between melodrama and black comedy (Sideways has elements of both but transitions smoothly between them).  Although I think Clooney gave a very good performance, it was not near his best, in my humble opinion.  I did enjoy the film, but suffice it to say it did not reach near the heights of his earlier films. 

Beginners, however, I adored greatly.  It’s a relatively autobiographical film by writer/director Mike Mills, about a 30-something whose father comes out at the age of seventy-eight after the death of his wife of forty-six years.  To boot, the father has terminal cancer.  Beginners is a precisely executed, funny and stylish film anchored by three solid performances by Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, and the gorgeous Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds).

But unlike The Descendants, the real star of Beginners is the power of the message of familial relationships and their effect on each individual involved.  It hit me during the film how easy it can be to put up our walls with family, even though they are the people we should be putting up walls around the least, ideally.  There’s this natural tension between opening up about they way we really feel about things while doing it in a loving way.  But what Beginners, and what some other films on my list above show, is that forgiving ourselves and our families is the first step in the process of mending a relationship.

It shows us how being open and vulnerable with one another as family members produces understanding, and understanding reveals love.  It shows us how this progression enables us to in turn learn something about ourselves.  Namely, in this case, McGregor’s character learns from his father’s coming out that it’s never too late to be the person you want to be, and that there are few excuses for not trying.  This message is handled with such care and grace that it could have only come from someone who personally experienced it. 

Like some of my other “family” films listed above, Beginners is one I will be watching again and again.  

Review: 'Take Shelter' & 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'

I’ll be honest, I’ve had trouble being inspired lately.  Becoming a real adult will have that affect on you, I suppose.  Hopefully I won’t go this long without writing a post too often in my blogging career.   

There are two movies that I’ve seen recently, however, that did give me a little inspiration, and these two films will probably not play for long and they’ll likely only be at art-house theaters, so I wanted to write this review for them to give you a little shove out the door to catch these before it’s too late. 

These films are actually related thematically in that one focuses on the impending doom and paranoia about the future, while the other deals with the demons of our past coming back to haunt us.   

Take Shelter (2011)

The film that takes a look at the paranoia about the future is Jeff Nichols’ brilliant Take Shelter, which is my current #3 film of the year.  Michael Shannon gives a wonderfully balanced performance as Curtis, a blue-collar everyman with a beautiful family in middle-America who begins to have visions about a coming storm.  These visions, which come to Curtis in his dreams, contain dark clouds that rain an oily substance, birds that fall dead from the sky, and mysterious masked men who try and abduct his daughter, a deaf 5-year old.  The visions are wonderfully directed by Nichols, and had my heart racing at several different moments.  A certain revealing moment in the film’s climax was one of the more intense scenes that I can personally remember seeing in a theater, ever.

Curtis begins to wonder whether these visions are some sort of sign coming to him about the future, or if he has a mental illness.  To hedge his bets either way, he begins to obsessively build out the storm cellar in his back yard, preparing it with all the necessary provisions to last several weeks in case the storm does indeed come; additionally, he begins to study up on mental illness and starts to see a psychologist.

On the surface (without giving too much away here), a major focus of the film is to keep the audience wondering whether the visions are going to come true, or if it is simply a mental illness.  I had an intense sympathy towards Curtis’s plight to keep his family safe from the coming storm, but I was also sympathetic toward his wife (played wonderfully by Jessica Chastain, aka “actress in every movie of 2011”), who wanted to help her husband through his possible illness.  

But I’d like to believe that the river runs deeper than that with this film.  As I tweeted after seeing the movie, I feel that a big part of this movie is about our society right now.  Many Americans right now are scared about the future due to the economy, the loss of jobs, a more divided government than ever, etc., not to mention the downright creepy weather patterns happening across the nation and the world.  A lot of people are wondering whether they will be able to provide for their family if and when the “storm” comes.  The decision by Nichols to make Curtis’s character an average Joe that we can all relate to makes me think that there is a strong current of this sentiment flowing through the veins of this film.  

8.5/10. 

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

It’s been a few days since I saw this one, and I like it a little bit more every time I think about it.  In this film, Martha is a 20-something who escapes from a Manson-esque commune and goes to stay with her sister and brother-in-law (Lucy and Ted) who are vacationing in upstate New York.

It tells both the story of her stay at the commune, as well as her stay with her sister, in a very interesting way.  Martha has post-traumatic stress from her time in the commune, so she often is confused about where she is and what she’s doing.  Director Sean Durkin puts you in Martha’s shoes—there are several scenes that begin without the audience knowing where she is.  Like her, you often don’t know which world she is waking up in.  The directing is easily the best aspect of the film.

Like its main character, MMMM keeps the audience at an emotional distance.  You feel bad for what Martha has been through, but her refusal to talk about it or warm up to Lucy and Ted makes it difficult to really care. Lucy tries to mend their relationship, but comes off very cold and judgmental at times. 

What is also very interesting about this film is that even though the experience at the commune is a very horrific one for Martha, and justifiably so for reasons I won’t spoil, it also doesn’t treat the upper-class lifestyle of Lucy and Ted as though it’s any better.  The creepiness of communal living is matched by the creepiness of the traps of being rich and successful: vanity, isolation, and pettiness. 

But the core of the film is about the psychological effects that living in the commune has had on Martha.  Her inability to open up about or deal with her past causes her to become increasingly paranoid about what has happened, and manifests itself through bizarre behavior.  Elizabeth Olsen, as Martha, is a revelation in this film and is as good as advertised.  She perfectly executes the coldness of the character without totally pushing the audience away. 

The high level of acting all-around (not to be forgotten in any review of this film is the excellent supporting turn of John Hawkes as the leader of the commune), as well as the great directing I’ve already discussed are enough to make this film a must-see.  I imagine with a more engaging script it would have been one of the best-reviewed films of the year. 

7.5/10.