The MacGuffin

I saw that everyone else was doing a top 10 for 2011 and wanted in on the fun, but then I realized I didn’t actually see all that many new movies in the theater last year. It turns out that I’ll see anything for a review, but when it comes to viewing for my own pleasure, I tend to stick to older movies or weird stuff. So, I’ve decided to create a top ten new-to-me list. These are movies that I saw during 2011 that I had never seen before that, for one reason or another, impressed the hell out of me. While I did have fun compiling this list, I need to keep better track of what I’m watching from now on. There was a lot of “What the hell did I watch last year?” going on. (I have started a spreadsheet for 2012.) What were your new-to-you favorites last year?

With 2011 officially in the books, it’s time once again to look back and reflect on some of the best films that have come out in the past year. As with all movie writers, coming up with a list like this is usually expected, but also damn near impossible. To me, reading and writing these types of articles are only beneficial in spreading word about titles that really had an effect on me, while stirring up debate between those who strongly agree with my choices, or vehemently disagree. No one list is ever truly definitive; what is considered great to one may not register the same way to another. The only real truth is that 2011 had a wide range of very interesting and fascinating films, and just like every year, there’s always a good handful worth noting.

I think Top 10 lists are fun. Many critics write beleaguered sorts of “I don’t really want to be doing this and it’s stupid and rankings are meaningless” disclaimers at the beginning of their lists. Ugh. Look, it should go without saying that any list (or review) is a reflection of the writer’s personality and their un-duplicate-able individual experience. If you’ve read the rest of my writing this year, you will not be shocked by my list. What I’d like to say before I dive in I don’t consider to be a disclaimer, but just necessary context: the films I didn’t/couldn’t see that are on my mind anyway.

In modern society, technology has made privacy something of a rarity. Even if you choose not to participate in the hubbub of social networking and other various internet activities, chances are something about you is somewhere online. Privacy is something society has cherished for a long time. The option to intermingle with others but be able to always retreat to where one is not seen by anyone is to some societies just as important as it is an enigma to other societies. In privacy is where we can be who we feel we really are, without the judgment of others; where we can indulge the desires we feel might be deemed shameful by the people around us. In artist-turned-director Steve McQueen’s latest film Shame, he turns the camera’s eye on this concept and what happens when the privacy we rely on to indulge ourselves is stripped away.

In creating the mood for the film Drive, Ryan Gosling shows his character’s driving skills early, as well as the calm of his character in intense situations, his fast thinking and movements of the vehicle, and how he handles problems that arrive—knowing that the audience will be waiting for scenes of intense driving (so much like Milk did in getting the gay sex scene out of the way.) After showcasing Gosling’s skills, the story starts in earnest. Gosling, known simply as Driver, is a stoic, silent type, works as a mechanic and stunt man, and also moonlights as a driver for criminals. No history or motivation is given into why he does this work. He is who he is, that is how he presents himself and it stays constant.

It is a rare ability for a film to both rely on a sense of nostalgia and simultaneously introduce something new that is its own. Drive, a neo-noir thriller from director Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Valhalla Rising), is a perfect example of one of those rare films. The story follows an enigmatic man who drives stunt cars for films by day, and moonlights as a getaway driver at night. The driver, who has no name, meets his neighbor and her son one day and establishes a relationship that leads him into a web of betrayal and violence.

It is always hard to tell in a given year what is going to be a good film. I have a notoriously bad track record for predicting what movies I will end up loving. The trailer and the premise of the movies are always misleading because you can never get the full picture of what you are going to get from your characters or the action on screen. The Social Network, my favorite movie of last year, had a trailer that did nothing for me; it seemed the boring story of Facebook instead of one of the most interesting character studies of the year. Or there’s Avatar, the overly special effected movie that seemed it had nothing else going for it, but it ended up being an extremely fun romp that I enjoyed immensely.

Another MacGuffin Film Podcast Top 5′s segment. This time Ed and Ben give the nerd rebuttal to the top 5 Sci-Fi films picked by Brandi and Allen.

Based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, directed by Mark Romanek, the new film Never Let Me Go is a strange and tightly drawn character study about Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, three kids who start out in the same boarding school in the English countryside. Their destinies are spelled out for them from birth.  A love triangle develops as children. Kathy fancies Tommy, so the calculating Ruth moves in on Tommy mainly because her friend wants him.  The title of the film comes from a smoky, old fashioned song from a fictional recording star that young Kathy listens to repeatedly while imagining her unfulfilled romance with Tommy.  They all come of age emotionally and physically together.  What it all means to them is integral to their story.

In 1987, Gordon Gekko famously told us that greed was good.  Flash forward to the present, and it appears that greed has turned in to the norm.  With director Oliver Stone’s film Wall Street (1987), he presented us with a cautionary tale about the risks of one’s obsession with wealth.  In his newest film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), he shows us the affects of that obsession, how it can break a person’s life, and how it can hurt the people we care for the most.  The first film revolved around the Reagonomics of the 80’s, here we deal with a present day market on the brink of collapse.  It is the link with what is happening today that made this one of the more fascinating films of the year.