10 Films Not On My Top 10

In any given year there are bound to be a few critical darlings that you don’t quite agree with, but seemingly never more than this year. So before posting My Favorite Films of 2011, I thought I should acknowledge some movies that won’t be making an appearance on my list. These films have been so critically adored - making appearances on virtually every Top 10 except, well, my own - that I feel like I have to address their absence. Yes, I’ve seen them and though they all had admirable qualities, in one way or another, all fell short for me. That’s not to say that these are the worst films by any means, (those are coming soon), I actually liked most of these but didn’t feel any quite deserved the praise heaped upon it. The following films have been ranked according to the disparity between the critical consensus and my own, or to put it simply, most to least overrated.

1. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
The most ambitious studio release of the year is regrettably also the most overrated. For the most part, “The Tree of Life” is a brilliant act of misdirection: admire the stunning photography and sweeping ambition but try to ignore the overbearing New Age narration and overreaching finale. No film this year has received more praise while being so seemingly unloved by anyone. (Have you heard anyone ramble on about this film the same way they did about “Drive”? Or “The Muppets” even?) It’s like every critic and film snob collectively agreed to give it a pass simply because they felt obligated to. I know I’ve said it before but this is one case where the Emperor is no longer wearing any clothes.

2. Hugo (Martin Scorsese)
Look, I admired the 3D too and absolutely loved the George Melies section that has so many reviewers breathlessly declaring the film “a love letter to cinema.” But dear God, how could no one else acknowledge how lifeless and awkward the first hour of the film was? Or how dull Hugo himself was? As far as I can tell, the central character in this film has not been singled out by a single review as being anything resembling “interesting.” And those aren’t the kinds of things you can just overlook, no matter how much I love Scorsese or his storybook concoction of Paris.

3. The Descendants (Alexander Payne)
As a big fan of Payne’s work (“About Schmidt” is a personal favorite), it pains me to admit that this is his weakest film to date, which makes it absolutely mystifying that it’s receiving so much praise. Adapted from a novel by other screenwriters (then rewritten by Payne), the film is missing the bite of his earlier work, neither as funny or heartfelt as many would have you believe. Even Clooney has been better in Payne disciple Jason Reitman’s “Up In The Air.” The relaxed Hawaiian setting has had an effect on the film and not in a good way. This is what it looks like when a director shifts into neutral.

4. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin)
Having seen this at Sundance earlier this year, at the very birth of the buzz, I’ve spent nearly a year in the vocal minority for this film. This film suffers from Sundance Syndrome, it’s all atmopshere and no development. Flashback-present day-repeat without the central character (Elizabeth Olsen, deserving of the praise) ever doing anything proactive. Isn’t that what a protagonist is for? I began intrigued but left frustrated. Olsen and Durkin may be talents to watch but ‘Martha’ will likely be remembered more as a launching pad than a singular achievement.

5. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
Every film geek has a blind spot and I’m not sure anyone would be surprised to find out that World Cinema is definitely mine. That said, regardless of the country of origin there are certain things I look for in a film - to move me in some way, make me feel something for the characters, or at a base level, just entertain me - and “A Separation,” the leisurely paced Iranian melodrama, did not do those things. There are people out there who love this film and I absolutely cannot relate to those people.

6. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
I get it, film critics. The film deserved better than its unceremonious dumping by Fox Searchlight a half decade after it was filmed. But let’s not get carried away here, folks. There are as many good scenes here as bad ones and adding another 30 minutes isn’t going to fix the film’s issues any more than pretending that this was one of the 10 best films to be released this year. (It isn’t.) While “Margaret” undoubtedly has its charms, its champions have gone more than a little overboard in extolling its virtues partially to prove their own influence.

7. Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (Tomas Alfredson)
As I said in my review, “never has a film I was so looking forward to made so little of an impression on me.” From the opening frames through the end credits, Alfredson’s admittedly gorgeous looking but hermetically sealed spy un-thriller never gave me a reason to care about what was going on. The cast is fantastic and cinematography is some of the finest I’ve seen all year but an emotional connection? Nothing. Confused I can deal with but excluded is a deal breaker.

8. Melancholia (Lars Von Trier)
I’ve never been a fan of Von Trier’s films, (to me he’s always seemed like a juvenile Michael Haneke), but I have to admit I did enjoy “Melancholia.” The audacious opening alone ranks as one of the cinematic highlights of the year which is, I suspect, in part why people have fallen for the film. While it was probably my favorite of the provocateur’s work to date, it’s lopsided and occasionally silly. The first half is exponentially more interesting than the second, though that too, contains its fair share of ridiculous moments. “Justine, I need that tagline!”

9. Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
Like Sundance brethren ‘Martha Marcy,’ “Take Shelter” is another case of a great premise with nowhere to go. Certain critics have complained about the ending which took away the film’s ambiguity but my problem was that it took so long to get there. With a two hour running time, the film is deadly repetitive, drawing out familiar scenes without illuminating or expanding what you already know. Essentially a mood piece (and that mood is very effective) it would have been much more successful had they trimmed 20 minutes and not given the audience (me) a chance to realize the filmmakers were treading water.

10. We Need To Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)
Impeccably shot and acted, this is the third film on this list (along with ‘Martha Marcy’ and “Take Shelter”) that is tediously repetitive. Though I liked ‘Kevin’ quite a bit, it’s one of those films you could check out after the first 15 minutes and tune back in during the last 5 without missing a single beat of essential character or story. Which, quite frankly, when it’s all over feels like a waste of my time. Unlike the frustrating ‘MMMM,’ the central character here at least tries to do something about her situation. I admire Ramsay’s style but wish she had pushed it further.

Stay tuned for my actual Top 10.

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We Need To Talk About Kevin review

Based on the novel by Lionel Shriver, “We Need To Talk About Kevin” is a chilling but frustratingly black and white portrait of motherhood and raising the ultimate bad seed. The Lynne Ramsay directed film has been on my radar since it made a splash at Cannes over the summer and I had braced myself to be more disturbed than I ultimately was. Tilda Swinton stars as Eva, a travel writer living in NYC with her husband Franklin (John C. Reilly). Like “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” (which I wasn’t in love with as most critics were), ‘Kevin’ exists on two timelines: one in present day which features Eva grappling with some kind of catastrophe that’s left her alone, hated and nearly catatonic and the second flashes back to Eva and Franklin’s discovery that she’s pregnant and the ensuing years of raising their two children: Kevin and Celia. Eva feels trapped in the suburbs, disconnected from her past life of adventures and travelogues and to make matters worse, her son Kevin is a complete sociopath from the time he learns to talk.

As in ‘Martha Marcy,’ the two timelines weave in and out of each other seamlessly—with your cue between the two time periods being the length of Eva’s hair—but like that picture, the structure becomes repetitive and feels drawn out. We’re given pretty much all the information we need to know about the central “mystery” within the first 10 minutes and the remainder seems to draw out each situation for suspense even though we already know how it’s going to end. Each sequence is essentially a riff on the ‘Kevin doing something bad’ gag that doesn’t particularly illuminate his condition. ‘Kevin,’ does however do a better job at the very least at having the protagonist actually do something proactive, which for me, ends the film in a much stronger way. Though the events in the film are horrible, it’s by no means a horror film (like “Rosemary’s Baby” or “The Omen”), instead an affective grief drama spotted with foreboding suspense but will likely make you think twice before planning a family.

One thing I have to give the filmmakers credit for is absolutely nailing the casting: all three young actors that play Kevin are each perfectly cast, each appearing like a credible doppelganger for Kevin at different ages. Ezra Miller, who impressed in the Sundance entry “Another Happy Day” earlier this year plays the eldest Kevin with a convincing icy glare. When he talks back to his mother, you can feel his hatred. The sound—featuring an extremely minimalist score (more like soundscape) by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood (whose only previous feature was the movie of the decade “There Will Be Blood”) and punctuated by the occasional ironically upbeat pop number—goes a long way towards establishing the mood of the film.

There are many allusions in the film to the massacre, with Eva’s house being vandalized with red paint, which she spends the film continually chipping away at, being the most obvious. Despite the filmmaking confidence on display here, I was a bit disappointed to see the morality is mostly presented as black and white. Kevin, as shown here, is pure evil. And I just don’t think that’s realistic, even the ones who end up committing horrible crimes, have some moments of joy and love in their childhood. There are no moments of levity here, save one crucial manipulation, Kevin is the embodiment of the sort of evil that doesn’t leave room for shades of gray. Unfortunately it’s that contrast that would have made the film a little more interesting. And for all the opportunities that Eva had to get Kevin looked at by doctors and psychiatrists and have serious talks with her husband, we’re not shown any of these things. There are certainly things to admire here but as my girlfriend noted afterwards, the film could have used a little more of someone talking about Kevin.

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5 Films I’m Looking Forward To From Cannes 2011

Someday I’ll actually go to Cannes but until then I’ll continue to watch from the sidelines and pick the handful of movies I’ll see when they’re eventually released. And honestly,most of the lineup usually ends up playing at the New York Film Festival in the fall.

1. Drive Ryan Gosling stars as a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver during a heist gone wrong in this arthouse action film from “Bronson” madman Nicolas Winding Refn. The film boasts an impressive cast including Carey Mulligan, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman and word out of Cannes was very, very good.

2. The Skin I Live In The latest film from Spanish auteur and @whatsfordina favorite, Pedro Almodóvar (“Talk To Her,” “Volver”). This twisted tale about a plastic surgeon on the hunt for the man who raped his daughter reunites the director with Antonio Banderas for their first collaboration in more than 20 years. Word from the Croisette has been mixed but I’ll likely get to see for myself when it premieres at the NYFF this fall.

3. The Artist This one really came out of nowhere. A silent, black and white film about a silent film star on the cusp of the sound age. This one got snapped up for distribution by The Weinstein Co. just before the fest began and it’s a good thing too because reviews were very strong. The Playlist called it “a joyous, big hearted tribute to old school moviemaking” and gave it an “A.” I’m definitely curious.

4. We Need To Talk About Kevin It’s definitely not going to make anyone feel good but in the hands of the right filmmaker, grief can be worthwhile. Tilda Swinton stars as the mother of a teenage boy who went on a shooting spree dealing with her grief and heavy emotions ensue. Reviews are again, very strong though so I might just have to dive in.

5. This Must Be The Place Sean Penn stars as a Robert Smith-like aging rock star who sets out on a road trip to find the Nazi war criminal who executed his father. I had been looking forward to this one a lot more before it screened and word was decidedly mixed. In hindsight I should have seen it coming, the premise is too insane to be anything other than terrible.

(Though both “Midnight In Paris” and “Tree Of Life” premiered there, I’m leaving them off this list because I’ve already seen them/will be seeing tonight.)

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