Overall I’ve never been less interested in the Hollywood and indie releases, but this year had high peaks from abroad, some would call them the best movies of the year:
1. Incendies; a French-Canadian movie set mostly in Lebanon, with Greek themes.
2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives, from Thailand.
3. Of Gods and Men.
4. Even the Rain, Spanish movie filmed in Bolivia.
5. Melancholia; I liked this one, even though I agree with all the negative things that have been said about it. See it on the big screen.
Presumably more Asian movies deserve to be on the list, but I won’t get to watch them until 2012.
Drive with Ryan Gosling had excellent moments and scenes. Moneyball was a good but not a great movie, but it was a great movie about business (which is rare), with real insight and sensitivity, here is one good treatment of some points.
The median release this year was for me ZMP at best, “not even trying to be good,” and I have no long history of being anti-Hollywood, quite the contrary.
What is it about “Moneyball,” first the book and then the movie, that makes economists just switch off their brains? Other than Steve Levitt, none of you question its orthodoxy.
Levitt’s critique is pretty terrible, imo. So I dont think you should be so smug
I don’t know where you got smug out of that. Levitt’s critique is flawed, but at least it’s there. Many other economists show tremendous bias toward this book/movie without looking too hard at the supporting evidence. I think it’s because it says what they all want to say, “Listen to us!”
Your post seemed smug because you wrote as if you have some secret knowledge that “economists with their brains switched off” lack. Just disregard that part of my comment.
What is the flaw with moneyball that economists seem to be missing?
Ted, aren’t economists, statisticians, and other math geeks allowed to have some fun too? Sure Moneyball is a story…not just some dry collection of facts. Does that make it bad? Maybe some people have an easier time learning about behavioral biases in decision making from Brad Pitt than from some prof in a lecture hall? And maybe some economists like Moneyball because they are just happy to share the stuff they already find fascinating with other people. Economists are not always dismal (or attention starved).
I actually didn’t know Levitt was a critic of Moneyball. I would have assumed it was right up his alley.
Because of Ted I checked out posts at the Freakonomics blog. You can find relevant ones here.
No Hanna or Midnight in Paris? Loved Drive. Melancholia was interesting enough. Was annoyed by the “twist” of incendies
Midnight in Paris…still hanging on in theaters here in DC; must be all those Woody fans for whom he can do no wrong. i suppose the PBS special will give it another boost at the box-office. It was pretty to look at —in the still shots, and the music was great; but really Own Wilson in the “Woody” role? and tedious name ‘cameos’. A piece of fluff.
Heh. “Greek themes” indeed. And yes, Incendies is probably the best movie I’ve seen in the past year.
Incendies, Even the Rain and Drive (loved the Kavinsky song in the first scenes of the movie: http://blog.songdetective.com/songs-from-drive-akavinsky-story/) were my favorite this year (so far). Based on the trailer, I expect Tailer, Tinker Soldier, Spy to be part of my list.
The Rum Diary has mediocre reviews, but I still plan on seeing it.
yup “even the rain” was great.
As to Drive, i liked Gosling but didn’t McQueen patent this character in Bullit, and Bronson in many of his films?
I saw “Take Shelter” this weekend and really enjoyed it. It’s Tomatometer is at 94% so it’s worth a viewing if you have some spare time. I’d describe it as a rural version of “Stir of Echoes”.
best movie I’ve seen this year
What about “Margin Call?”
I thought that was way better than I thought it was going to be.
Great cast used in a plot of about 24-36 hours duration. I wonder what people w/o background could make of it. And why did Demi Moore take this nothing role?
of gods and men +1
excellent.
I found Incendies to be horribly contrived. At least have the guts to name the country as Lebanon…
I should add that “Of Gods and Men”, on the other hand, has been the best film of the year so far.
yes, “contrived” is the right word to describe Incendies.
Really ?
I saw the movie in original language (i.e. what passes for french in Quebec), and they made no secret of it being Lebannon, on the contrary.
Why the english language censorship ? anyone know ?
What does “ZMP” mean?
Zero Marginal Product
I suppose the name of the blog should have clued me in:)
“Melancholia” was a great film.
I thought “Of Gods and Men” was from several years ago. Malick’s latest — “Tree of Life” — I saw after reading a review on Andrew Sullivan that explained the entire movie was a theodicy drawn from the book of Job, where Job is taken on a whirlwind tour of the universe. I found the theodicy unpersuasive but it was moving and visually gorgeous in parts.
Andrew Sullivan film criticism = ZMP
Melancolia–a boring movie about the apocalypse; not easily accomplished. Ms Dunst’s portrayal of the physcial impact of depression was impressive.
Tree of Life–as boring as Melancholia.
Tyler, you mentioned “Of Gods and Men” had a lot of sociology in it. Could you write more about that?
Bridemaids anybody?
+1
+ 1 … especially recommended as a girls’ night out when all “girls” have been bridesmaids at least once.
Aren’t you just even a little bit excited to see The Iron Lady, coming out in December?
I liked Moneyball, but I didn’t love it. Perhaps it was the fact that two great but different screen writers, Steve Zallian and Aaron Sorkin, took a whack at the script. Sorkin’s got a very unique (and largely but not always successful) way of writing that almost makes dialogue seem like lyrics, particularly if his characters are trying to zing one another or someone or something else. There’s a sense of urgency in what he writes that seemed to be missing from Moneyball, although it’s not at all clear what he wrote and what Zallian wrote.
Drive was a good but not great movie, but then, I am not sure it was trying to be something besides a nod to style from previous decades. It also became a little too violent towards the end for me; in fact, I think that took something away from the movie, as the less is more approach to showing brutality was more effective. If nothing else, it proved Ryan Gosling is going to be a big star if he can get a few big hits under his belt in the next year years.
Movie I liked most this year: The King’s Speech.
Movie I liked least this year: The King’s Speech.
TKS is from 2010.
Not for most of the planet.
2, 3 and 4 can be streamed on Netflix.
I thought ‘Senna’ was brilliant.
fascinating movie about fascianting individual in strange ‘sport”
Elite squad: the enemy within. I think it came out this year but regardless it’s a great piece of Brazilian art.
Have you seen “Urbanized?”
Amother Year (outstandiing cast and performances)
Barney’s Version (Giamatti)
Biutiful (soulful Barden)
Paul Win-Win (Giamatti again, not a shlub) )
Another Earth (nothing else like it)
Pianomania (terrific doc about a brilliant geek)
The Hedgehog (brilliant adapatation of novel)
The Skin I Live in (best thriller/suspense movife of the year; far better ‘twist’ than Incendies)
Martha Marcy May Marlene (best female performance to date)
Take Shelter (best male performance to date)
I watched two of those in your list Of Gods and Men and Even the rain and I got to agree with you it has to be my favorite movies I watched this year.
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