Top Ten Films of 2011

This year, I didn’t get to see as many indies and non-mainstream films as I wanted, but, in general, this was a decent, if less than momentous year for film. If anything, the best films of the year were those that simply made me smile. My top ten for the year are, uniformly, crowd-pleasers with one or two notable exceptions. While none of the selections in this list are in any danger of changing the way audiences think, feel, or live, each selection managed to entertain and keep the doldrums of the day jobs and drudgery of daily duties at bay.

10. Hanna








Grade: A
Thanks to a confident, atmospheric visual palette from director Joe Wright and disgustingly lethal beatings courtesy of waifish Saoirse Ronan, Hanna delivered an indie take on the Bourne series that easily overtook the farce that was Sucker Punch in the Girl Power division.

9. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol









Grade: B
Tom Cruise continued to tempt death in this exciting entry that expanded the scope and ambition of the series far beyond the previous installments. Kudos to Brad Bird, in particular, for translating some of the old animation magic into his first live-action feature.

8. Real Steel









Grade: B
Easily dismissed as the Rock’em, Sock’em Robots: The Movie--which it is—this Rocky for the Transformers-set is far more entertaining and affecting than it had any right to be. Despite having a grumpy lead and a precocious kid, Real Steel proved its mettle (sorry) with solid robot-on-robot violence and an underdog narrative that rarely fails.

7. Warrior









Grade: A
In training to break the Dark Knight, the man who would be Bane (Tom Hardy), shows raw physical and emotional range in this Rocky for the MMA-set. Hardy’s performance is thankfully only one of the many highlights, as Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte both shine as Hardy’s brother and father, respectively.

6. Fast Five









Grade: B+
Fast Five is a trade off: it relinquishes the negligible street cred—as if it ever had any—of focusing on underground street racing to become Toretto’s Seven, using any trick in the heist flick glossary to put on a show like no other Fast &Furious movie has before. It takes a moment to accept that a Fast & Furious movie can be guilt-free fun, let alone, good, but this one is both.

5. Hugo
G







Grade: A
Touching to a fault and submerged in a wonderfully luminous visual style, Hugo takes two well-worn narratives--the young orphan in search of a home and the idealistic youngster who
warms the heart of an old curmudgeon—and weaves them into a moving story that honors the early days of film while making at least 90% of the audience cry--almost.

4. Attack the Block









Grade: A
In the vein of Scott Pilgrim (which was directed by Block’s producer Edgar Wright), British import Attack the Block is a unique, underrated vision that never got the attention it deserved. More people probably saw this movie for free than any other flick this year. For those who did, they were treated to a topical twist on the alien invasion narrative that speaks to anybody who lives in a ‘ignored’ part of town.

3. Rango








Grade: A
Somehow, Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski managed to roll up Spaghetti Westerns and Gonzo journalist adventures into a visually stunning and idiosyncratic take on Chinatown that was aimed at kids, but easily entertained all ages. Easily Johnny Depp’s best animated performance this year, with Captain Jack’s return in On Stranger Tides a slightly distant second.

2. Captain America









Grade: A
Easily the best superhero movie this year. Possibly the best Marvel movie since Blade II. Joe Johnston’s Captain America was a throwback to an era where heroes were uncomplicated and unashamedly earnest. Evoking memories of Johnston’s 90’s cult classic, The Rocketeer, Captain America, played ably by Chris Evans, showed audiences that heroes can be heroes without angst, armored suits, or ambiguity.

1. The Artist








Grade: A+
An all-around crowd pleaser fronted by two of the most winning leads of the year (Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo). Following the tale of a falling silent movie star and the rise of the spunky young starlet he’s fell in love with, The Artist is light-hearted but affecting and a wonderful experiment in the power of performances and visual over dialogue. Filmed in the manner of silent films that predated Hollywood’s golden era, The Artist may seem like it’s based around a gimmick, but rarely is a gimmick attached to such an entertaining and touching narrative.

Review - Rio

Grade: B-

The Good: Colorful and lively, with some catchy musical numbers and a few honest chuckles. Shows some degree of social awareness amidst the candy coated fun.

The Bad: Not a particularly revelatory addition to the modern animated canon. Voice performances aren’t terrible, but lack an identity outside of the actors’ pre-established quirks.

It’s a given that studio films, especially animated features of the 3D variety, are generally unoriginal, yet I still find the concept of dueling movies—or at least the kind that have extremely similar elements—fascinating. Now, Fox and Blue Sky Studios Rio has very little in common with the upcoming fourth Fast and the Furious sequel, save for the setting of Rio de Janiero, Brazil. But, with these two movies being released mere weeks apart, it’s likely that most perceptive moviegoers will surmise that—hyperbolic and obvious as it may seem—Brazil is hot.

It’s too early to tell if Fast Five’s exotic setting is just a backdrop or a vital character in its own right, but Rio makes the home of Carnaval equally as important as any of its main characters with a colorful palette and a lively samba beat at the heart of a not-so original tale about learning to fly outside of one’s comfort zone.

Rio follows aptly named Blue Macaw Blu (Jesse Eisenberg), a rare avian species born in the rainforests of South America, as he and his lifelong, yet overprotective, human owner, Linda (Leslie Mann), venture to Rio at the behest of geeky ornithologist Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro). Tulio hopes Blu, the last male of his kind, will be able to mate with female Blue Macaw Jewel, the always-energetic Anne Hathaway, and repopulate the species. Unfortunately, Blu has spent his life in domesticity with Linda, and, unfortunately, doesn’t know the first thing about interacting with his own kind nor the defining quality of birds: flying. Once in Rio, Blu and Jewel are swiped by exotic pet smugglers after a botched escape attempt from Tulio’s sanctuary. As the two try to escape their captors and return to their respective homes, they learn about each other and the courage it’ll take to do the impossible.

The best word to describe Rio is colorful. From the stunning multicolor visuals to the wacky cast of characters to the lively Samba-tinged soundtrack, Rio is not lacking for liveliness. The artists at Blue Sky studio have composed a dynamic visual feat for its target audience to ogle while they bounce up and down in their seats. Rio’s crowded beaches, clamoring street life, dazzling Carnaval floats and performers, even the cluttered slums are rendered beautifully in some of the most vibrant CG animation this side of a Pixar project. Thankfully, the pricy 3D only enhances the experience so parents needn’t worry—too much—about dishing out the extra bucks for a muddy 3D conversion. While the kaleidoscopic animation might not track with most members of the audience, the movie’s main musical numbers are sure to catch their attention. Rio delivers at least three samba-infused pop performances that are sure to pull some butts—young and not-so-young alike—out of their seats. At least two of the numbers are clearly influenced by the Black Eyed Peas will.i.am, who contributes his voice to one of the film’s many feathered characters. Aside from the performances, there are a few chuckle-worthy scenes, particularly a mildly epic clash between bird and monkeys that evokes notions of the Pirates vs. Ninja meme, but nothing as riotous as last month’s Rango.

The all-star voice cast deliver performances that mimic their live-action performances so closely that it lead to one of the simplest games of ‘guess that voice’ I’ve ever played. Jesse Eisenberg voices Blu with that same amount of stammering braininess with a slight edge that makes him a much more digestible version of Michael Cera. Anne Hathaway delivers her own patented edgy, manic energy as Jewel, who could just as easily have been the pet of Hathaway’s character in Love and Other Drugs. A bit trickier to identify is Flight of the Conchords Jermaine Clement as the erudite and villainous Nigel. Clement hams it up, somehow managing to chew through animated scenery as a vain, yet past his prime, cockatoo who relentlessly pursues Blu and Jewel for the eeevil smugglers. George Lopez lends his voice to Rafael, a family man toucan playing a variation on the mystical minority guide, and Jamie Foxx and the aforementioned will.i.am play a musical Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who provide snarky and occasionally slapstick comic relief when they aren’t kicking off the musical numbers.

All in all, Rio isn’t terrible, and it’s not particularly revelatory. It’s middle of the road fun for families with a tepid lesson tacked on at the end. The humor is hardly the funniest, with mostly retreads of fish-out-of-water jokes that are stale by the second act. Commendably, Rio only slightly shies away from the realities of Rio beyond Carnaval with one human character, Fernando (Wizards of Waverly Place’s Jake T. Austin), representing orphaned, homeless Brazilian children who engage in a life of petty crime. Still, this awareness isn’t significant enough to elevate Rio into the ranks of recent animated gems like Up, Rango and How to Train Your Dragon. If you keep your expectations relatively low, you’ll enjoy yourself, even if you forget most of what happened once you drop your popcorn in overflowing trashcan. If set your expectations to high you’re cruising for disappointment. But, don’t worry parents, the kids will enjoy themselves either way.

Review: Rango

Grade: A

Upsides: Original, clever and visually dazzling with a shockingly deep plot that tips its hat to revisionist Westerns and Gonzo Journalism

Downsides: Realistically detailed creatures, some rough language and a heavy plot might scare, confuse and bore the youngest viewers

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Why did the chameleon cross the road?

No ideas?

How about to find himself?

Gore Verbinski’s Rango offers one of the deepest punch lines to a chicken-cross-the-road joke all wrapped in the most original and subversive animated feature to emerge from a studio not named Pixar. Raoul Duke would be proud. Coincidentally, Hunter S. Thompson’s alter ego and his compadre, Dr. Gonzo, make a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in early goings, a clear tip of the hat to star Johnny Depp’s legendary turn as Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In many ways, Rango is a spiritual and visual cousin to the Fear and Loathing, right down to spastic chameleon Rango’s red Hawaiian print shirt.

Rango is a fever dream twist on classic westerns, spiked with existential dilemmas and the orneriest collection of humanized critters this side of a Disney flick. The animated epic follows the titular chameleon as he is thrown from his life as a caged pet with dreams of starring in his own story and is forced to live the role he was born to play. That role just happens to be sheriff of the dying western hamlet of Dirt, where the denizens---including all manner of lizard, rodent, feline and rabbit—are struggling to survive amidst a mysterious drought, outlaws, cannibals and the shrinking border of the ‘west’. Despite some mildly predictable plot elements, Rango tackles everything from the death of the old west to the actor’s search for identity and the importance of the audience to the storyteller—including a Greek chorus of Mariachi Owls—with cleverness and personality, proving itself so much more than a fish out of water story with talking animals it seems to be.

Star Johnny Depp knocks it out the park, as usual, voicing the conflicted Rango with his trademark buzzed mania, self-awareness and pitch perfect comic timing. He hits many of the same beats from Fear and Loathing, but his voice work succeeds largely due to the fresh context. The rest of the cast is no slouch either. Isla Fisher voices Annie Oakley-ish lizard Beans with pure spunk, while Abigail Breslin turns in a creepy, smart-alecky turn as field mouse Priscilla. Ned Beatty lends a gruff world-weariness to the treacherous Mayor, and Johnny Depp encounters Davy Jones again as Bill Nighy voices the machine-gun-tailed rattler from hell, Rattlesnake Jake. There’s even another surprise character cameo that’s sure to please Spaghetti Western fans.

Visually, Rango is amazing. The creatures of Dirt are not only painstakingly and realistically detailed, each has a unique physical deformity or signature that shows how much living these characters have done. The shots of the desert and Rango’s hallucinations are an awesome balance of majesty and mystery. Verbinski and the animators at Industrial Light & Magic proceed to outdo their work on the characters and scenery by staging some ridiculously elaborate action sequences—complete with dive bombing bats and machine-gunning rabbit cannibals—that exceed the limits of spectacle and imagination in most computer animated features.

Despite all of its distilled greatness, Rango may not play well to kids under ten, as many of creatures are appropriately frightening and the language can be coarse (hey, it’s a western. Tough talk is unavoidable). Not to mention, most of the existentialist and post-modern western themes are bound to fly right over their heads. While the kids may not get everything that’s going on, they’ll still be mesmerized by the dazzling visuals and slapstick shenanigans that punctuate the deeper storyline. Even if the kids don’t have fun with this trippy revisionist Western, fans of post-modern Westerns and complex, humorous epics in the vein of Verbinski’s and Depp’s last collaboration—something about pirates—are sure to have one heck of a good time.