This is a short list, half mostly concert films. Sometime during the year, I said that if this list was small, I would end doing a best-of for movies each year. Since I watch films at a pace that would agitate a movie aficionado, this is my last list. If I watch enough in 2012, I will do a list but otherwise, do not expect it from here anymore. I love movies, but I'm a snail.
So without further ado, my final list:
Number 7- Cowboys and Aliens
- It is a movie with no pretenses, it knows what it is: a fun action film about cowboys battling aliens. It is not trying to be profound, but would it kill modern Westerns to have non-stereotypical portrayals of Native Americans? Daniel Craig is good, Harrison Ford is awesome as always. It is adventure and fun all in about two hours.
Number 6- Lindsey Buckingham: Songs from the Small Machine
- Before the release of Seeds We Sow, Buckingham and his band performed a show in Los Angeles to showcase the new songs and what was to come for the impending tour. This is the product of that event. A show that slows down due to the first five songs being exclusively acoustic, but kicks up when the whole band joins in, which includes a beautiful and unexpected revisit of "All My Sorrows" (originally done in Out of the Cradle). It is overall a good show (Buckingham has proved this talent many times over his career) that could've used an extra rock boost.
Number 5- Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
- Another film that knows what it is: action-packed fun with humorous dialogue. Sherlock Holmes is back, and this time, Professor Moriarty is front-and-center in this one. The two battle with wits and weapons, endangering everyone around them for the sake of one-upping each other (what? That is really what it is, if you think about it enough). In all honesty, how it ended, there shouldn't be a sequel. Let this end in peace. The films are great enough to be a duo, not a trio.
Number 4- Sigur Rós: Inni
- It is safe to say that this may be the Stop Making Sense of our generation (my sister will kill me for this, but I don't care). It is a wonderfully-shot docu-concert film about the rise of the Icelandic band, capturing them through concert footage in good-ol' B/W and color footage filmed by friends and fans. It is intimate (hardly an audience shot to be found) and beautiful. It is a testament to their music and their workmanship. They are humble, but certainly not quiet.
Number 3- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- Of course, can't talk about 2011 in films without mentioning this. Ah yes, the last one. We are now done, the end of an era. Harry and the gang finally battle Lord Voldemort and his cohorts in a final showdown that is just as epic and dramatic as everyone was hoping it. Improving so much over the book (especially in the epilogue), it is fast-paced and exciting, yet full of riveting story and character. It is sad to see this ending, but hey, we have The Hobbit to look forward to!
Number 2- POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
- Morgan Spurlock strikes documentary gold again with this fourth-wall-breaking making-of a documentary that is about corporate advertising in films, funded by corporate advertising. Sounds like something a hipster would do, but Spurlock saves it from that sphere with his trademark humor and honesty. He knows what he's getting himself into and wants everyone to see it for themselves. Funny and irreverent, this will have you howling, but wondering how films can be saved from themselves.
Number 1- Talking Heads: Chronology
- Yes, I know this is a compilation of various performances in times before I was even alive, but it counts. The whole thing came out this year. Either way, it lives up to its name, starting from their first performances to their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction concert (the poorest show they've ever done, I mean, talk about lifeless!). Sandwiched in-between are performances on Saturday Night Live (the excellent "Artists Only"), American Bandstand (a badly-mimed "Take Me to the River" with a hilariously awkward post-performance interview), performances at Montreux Jazz Festival and the US Festival (hint-hint, release these on DVD, please!). It is a wonderful, well-worth companion to Stop Making Sense.
And now for something completely different: the films I saw this year (that didn't come out this year) that were awesome:
Something Wild
The Shining (at Alamo Drafthouse for their Halloween special screening)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Reel Injun
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Countdown to Zero
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
The Sound of Music
Rashomon
Wild At Heart
The Weather Underground
Pulse (the original, not that horrid remake)
Precious
Shivers
Soylent Green
Full Metal Jacket
The Makioka Sisters
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