Top 10 Films of 2011

Whelp, here it is, my top 10 films of 2011.

I really wanted to wait to do this until after I watched just a few more essential 2011 films such as A Separation, The Trip, and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, but I just can't hold it in anymore!

After the Top 10 List, I've posted a list of every single film I've seen over the past year along with the exact rating I gave the movie on a scale from 1 to 10, because I'm pretty sure I'm autistic.

10. Bridesmaids

Kristen Wiig makes a huge leap out of SNL pergatory with this hilariously heartfelt and poignant comedy that makes me can't wait for the day I'm a sad, 38 year-old woman.

9. Hugo

The great Martin Scorsese uses the shit out of 3D technology to create not only the beautiful world of an early 20th-century Paris train station, but also a loving tribute to the early days of cinema.

8. Meek's Cutoff

If you ever wondered what would happen if Terrence Malick decided to adapt the "Oregon Trail" video games into a film, well, this incredibly striking and existential movie would probably be it.

7. Take Shelter

Michael Shannon is the man, and proves it once again with his devastating performance in this film about a blue-collared worker named Curtis (played by Shannon) who starts to see disturbing visions of the Apocalypse and the psychological and emotional consequences it has on him and his family.

6. Moneyball

If there's anything I hate more than math, it's the sport of Baseball, yet somehow director Bennett Miller and screenwriters Steve Zallian and Aaron Zorkin (along with fantastic performances by Bradd Pitt and Jonah Hill) combine these two terrible things to create an exhilarating and moving story about a baseball manager who uses statistics and numbers to make his no-name, no-money team a contender in the big leagues.

5. Beginners

Mike Mills follows his terrific 2005 film debut Thumbsucker with an even more terrific movie about a young man named Oliver (played by Ewan McGregor) who finds out his aging, cancer-ridden father (played by the sure the win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor this year, Christopher Plummer) is gay. It's a super quirky, super sweet film that shows you it's never too late to find happiness.

4. Young Adult

Director Jason Reitman reunites with Juno writer Diablo Cody and solidifies his place as one the great filmmakers of his generation with this intelligent dark comedy about a washed up at the age of 37 young adult book writer Mavis (played oh so awesomely by Charlize Theron) who decides to return to her small hometown in Minnesota to win back the heart of her High School sweetheart, Buddy (played by the always solid Patrick Wilson). For those keeping score at home, Jason Reitman is now 4 for 4 when it comes to making great movies. (His previous films: Thank You for Smoking, Juno and Up in the Air; when will this man make a not good movie?)

3. 13 Assassins

Takshi Miike masterfully combines an old school samurai film structure with a bloody, balls to the wall modern action movie aesthetic to create an intensely powerful story set in ancient Japan about a group of rag-tag samurais who come together to kill a maniacal lord. Also, the entire last hour of the film is a battle scene that is so epic in its awesome epicness that it would make the great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa rise from the dead and cry!

2. The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick returns with a cinematic magnum opus that is somewhere between a dream and a stream of consciousness about life, death and the insignificance we feel against the universe surrounding us. Filled with one awe-inspiring sequence after enough, Malick creates a work of art that is able to feel hugely epic while being intensely personal at the same time. Oh yeah, and there's mother fuckin' DINOSAURS!!!

1. Drive

Drive is an icy-cold masterpiece that takes the action film genre and stomps its face in. A movie about a Hollywood stuntman who also works as a getaway driver could easily turn into a mindless romp that is just like all of the previous 17 Fast and the Furious movies, instead, director Nicolas Winding Refn deconstructs the American action film and rebuilds it with such cool finesse and beautiful craftsmanship, that it turns into something that is a brilliant homage to the driving films of the 1970s while also being its own unique thing. I think this scene perfectly demonstrates what makes Drive one of the most beautiful and bad-ass films I have ever seen:

Here is my list of all the 2011 films I've seen and their scores:

Drive	9.5
Tree Of Life	9.4
13 Assassins	9.0
Young Adult	8.9
Beginners	8.8
Moneyball	8.7
Take Shelter	8.7
Meek's Cutoff	8.6
Hugo	8.6
Bridesmaids	8.4
Midnight in Paris	8.3
Rango	8.3
Super 8	8.3
Martha Marcy May Marlene	8.3
Melancholia	8.2
Shame	8.2
Cave of Forgotten Dreams	8.1
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2	8
The Muppets	7.9
The Descendants	7.9
A Dangerous Method	7.9
The Artist	7.6
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop	7.5
Insidious	7.5
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy	7.5
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo	6.9
The Adventures of Tin Tin	6.8
War Horse	6.6

Is it weird that my 2 least favorite films of the year were Spielberg films? Get your shit together Steve.

Top 10 Albums of 2011

Here it is, my list of the top 10 albums of 2011.

I spent way too much of my free time doing this:

10. Lykke Li- Wounded Rhymes

This was the year of awesome women making some awesome music. The likes of PJ Harvey, St. Vincent, Feist, Tune-Yards and Adele all proved that the ladies know what's up in 2011, but my favorite girl-powered album comes from Lykke Li with Wounded Rhymes, a soulful and rocking record full of great songs such as this one:

9. Bon Iver- Bon Iver

Listening to Bon Iver makes me think of beautiful landscapes like peaceful waterfalls or deer frolicking through a misty meadow, then I think about what I'm gonna eat later. Anyway, the album is really good.

8. Fleet Foxes- Helplessness Blues

There aren't many bands out there making better music than Fleet Foxes, and their sophomore album, Helplessness Blues, continues their winning ways by blending beautiful harmonies and old-school folk music with a contemporary spin. My Dad would totally love this album if he ever took The Eagles' Greatest Hits out of his CD player.

7. Yuck- Yuck

The Annual "Band That Tries Really Hard To Replicate That 90s Indie Rock Sound And Not Only Pulls It Off Successfully But Makes A Really Good Album In The Process" Award goes to English band Yuck and their self-titled debut record!

6. Radiohead- The King Of Limbs

So maybe King of Limbs isn't as good as Kid A (or even Hail to the Thief if we're being completely honest) but even a lesser Radiohead release is still going to be at least one of the top 6 albums of whatever year it comes out (as this list obviously proves). The album has a jerky, sparse electronic sound that doesn't always work (I'm looking at you, "Feral") but comes together to a hauntingly beautiful effect in other places (I'm looking at you, 2nd half of King of Limbs).

5. The War On Drugs- Slave Ambient

The War On Drugs brings to the table some good ole' fashioned American rock with their album, Slave Ambient, another record that my Dad would probably love if he just stopped watching Fox News and listened to cool music instead.

4. Fucked Up- David Comes To Life

The first track on Fucked Up's wonderful album is "Let Her Rest", a beautiful orchestra of guitars that does not prepare you, in any way, for the auditory onslaught that punches you in the face when the awesomely epic "Queen of Hearts" kicks in, and continues to beat you senseless for the next hour, as song after song of the most gorgeosuly crafted heavy metal you could ever hope to bust your eardrums comes at you like a tidal wave of indestructible noise.

3. Cults- Cults

On the outside, Cults sound like the cute and cuddly indie pop that we all know and love, but just underneath their bubblegum surface lies some pretty dark undertones (for example: soundbites from Jim Jones, leader of the People's Temple and responsible for the mass suicide of over 900 of his followers at Jonestown in 1978, is heard in the background of the album's sunny breakout hit, "Go Outside"). Their mixture of bright pop melodies and dark subject matter makes for an unique and extremely catchy album.

2. Smith Westerns- Dye It Blonde

The most consistently great album of the year proves that the Smith Westerns are a band to be noticed, with song after song of solidly constructed and wonderfully executed songs that sound sorta like what The Beatles would sound like if they were still around. (Because I would obviously know what The Beatles would sound like if they were still together, duh.)

1. M83- Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming may be a few songs too long to be considered a full-fledged masterpiece, but no other album this year reaches the same glorious heights as this one does. Combining the beautiful epic-ness of Sigur Ros with booty shaking electronica, Anthony Gonzalez creates an album that often achieves moments of dream pop nirvana, and is sure to provide music for many awesome movie trailers and soundtracks for years to come.

Yay Music!

Stay tuned for my favorite Top 10 List I do every year, my Top 10 Films of the Year!

Top 10 Songs of 2011

December is the time when most people spend time celebrating the holidays with their friends and family. For me, it's the time when I think about how to arbitrarily rank my favorite music and movies from the past year into meaningless top 10 lists, shoving my tastes in peoples' faces, and causing arguments where I say pretentious things like, "What? How can you NOT like Bon Iver?".

Anyway, to get things started, I'm going to unveil the first of my "Best of the Year" lists:

The Top 10 Songs of 2011

10. Dum Dum Girls: "Coming Down"

This slow-burning rocker by Dum Dum Girls sounds like the classic Mazzy Star song, "Fade Into You", if "Fade Into You" drank more and threatened to beat me up all the time.

9. Radiohead: "Codex"

It may not be an instant classic like so many of their previous albums, but Radiohead's King of Limbs still has some great gems on it, including my favorite, "Codex", which uses Thom Yorke' soulful voice and a minimalistic soundscape to beautiful effect.

8. Alex Winston: "Locomotive"

Let's liven things up a bit with this joyful and infectious song by Alex Winston who, to be honest, I don't know much about, but she'll probably be a big deal soon if she can keep making fun songs like this.

7. Tune-Yards: "Bizness"

Merill Garbus is a one-woman musical powerhouse, playing most of the instruments on her songs (and if you see her live, which you should, she creates all of the musical layers and drum loops herself). No song demonstrates her talents better, or more joyfully, than "Bizness" a groove-centric jam that will get your booty shaking. Oh, and the music video is just adorable:

6. Cut Copy: "Need You Now"

Now that LCD Soundsystem is officially retired (for now) who will be the torch bearer for making top-quality dance songs that would fit equally well at a rave as it would the background music of your hipster friend's house party? Answer: Cut Copy!

5. Eleanor Friedberger: "My Mistakes"

The female half of The Fiery Furnaces demonstrates on "My Mistakes" what Furnaces does so well, which is make pop songs that are just as weird (saxophone at the end) as they are awesome (everything else in the song).

4. M83: "Intro"

The opener for M83's Hurry Up We're Dreaming is a soaring knockout that takes you to unbelievable heights with the help of Zola Jesus's mesmerizing vocals and Anthony Gonzalez's epic musical vision.

M83 — Intro (feat. Zola Jesus) by tiago_custodio

3. Dirty Beaches: "Lone Runner"

This sultry jam comes straight out of your deepest, darkest, sexiest nightmares. Wait for the scary guitar part to kick in at minute 1:55 to have your face melted with its scariness.

2. College: "A Real Hero" (from the Drive soundtrack)

OK, so technically this song was released in 2010, but it didn't come into the public consiousness until this year when it showed up on the awesome soundtrack to the awesome action film, Drive. It's icy cold exterior doesn't hide the warmth of its soul (much like the movie it's used in) and along the way becomes one of the unlikeliest badass hero themes in film history.

1. Fucked Up: "The Other Shoe"

I don't like heavy metal, and I especially don't like heavy metal when the singer screams into the mic incomprehensibly, but that was before I listened to "The Other Shoe". All of the usual metal things I hate are used here, such as loud guitars and super loud screaming, but goddammit, Fucked Up somehow turns these elements into one of the most heart-pumping, adrenaline-running, beautifully moving pieces of music I have ever experienced.

So that's it for my favorite songs of the year. Stay tuned for my top 10 Albums of 2011, followed by Best Films of 2011. I know you're excited!

Super Bowl Cut

Over the course of my work day, I was told by two different customers that I reminded them of someone.

The first customer told me I looked like the character Howard Wolowitz from the hit CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory.

I've never seen the show, so I didn't know who she was talking about.

She said, "You know, the really nerdy one with the bowl cut."

This guy:



I can see the resemblance.

The second customer, a middle aged Spanish lady who could barely speak English, said to me, "You look like Beatles."



As you can see, all the cool kids have bowl cuts.

Breakdown

A lady was buying a blu-ray copy of the modern day masterpiece Yogi Bear at my work tonight.

She said to me, "I just hope it's as funny as people say it is!"

I then responded with, "Who would tell you this movie is funny?", while giving her the most condescending glare I could muster.

She sheepishly replied, "Well... it was just a friend of mine who told me."

I don't know why I made this perfectly nice woman feel bad, but she deserved it.

Anyway, here's a breakdown of what I've been up to, because everyone should know these things:

TV
I'm finally catching up on my hours and hours of dvr'd shows by getting through the last month worth of The Office, Parks and Recreation and Community. The "Dungeons and Dragons" episode of Community was perfection.

Movies
I forgot what movies looked like, but the little 6th grade boy inside me really wants to see Sucker Punch this weekend, even though director Zack Snyder and I are not on such good terms since Watchmen. (Oh, for all you hipsters out there that think you're too good for Sucker Punch, apparently there's a scene in there where they perform a musical number to The Pixies' "Where is My Mind" WWWHHHAAATTT???)

Video Games
I just finished playing God of War III, a game which proves that viciously disemboweling Greek Gods is very cathartic.

Books
I'm in the middle of reading Tom Shales and James Miller's epic oral history of Saturday Night Live, titled Live From New York, From what I gather so far, all it takes to be a comedic genius is to do a lot of coke and sleep with everyone you work with.

Music
So far, the music in 2011 has been a little underwhelming, but recently I've been getting into this band called Yuck, who bring a charming, 90s indie rock sound to their self-titled debut album.



I also went old-school and listened to Simon and Garfunkel's 1969 album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.

I thought I would be too cool for them, but then I listened to "The Only Living Boy in New York", and I realized I was very wrong.

Severely Under Appreciated- My Life As Liz

Several million years from now, when the human race is long gone and aliens from another world are trying to figure out what we were up to in the year 2011, they may be confused as to why we worshiped a strange, orange creature named Snooki and pregnant 16 year-olds.

MTV has always been a revolutionary network, from the birth of music videos, which forever changed popular culture, to Total Request Live, which forever changed...Carson Daily's career?

However, MTV's biggest contribution to modern society would be a show that premiered on March 5th, 2002 called The Osbournes, which ushered in the era of "Sitcom Reality". Shows that have the feel of reality but the structure of scripted television (which brings in the question of how "real" these shows actually are).

The Osbournes was, for better or worse, groundbreaking, and set the blueprint for future shows such as Laguna Beach, The Hills, Jersey Shore, Teen Mom and the show I wanted to discuss today.

A show that does not get the viewers or publicity that other programs on the network get, but may be one of the most refreshing things MTV has produced since its 90s heyday.

A show that has taken the "Sitcom Reality" format to new, creative heights and is quietly defining a generation in the process.

The show is My Life As Liz.



While the first season, in which our independent, indie music loving, dyed-hair protagonist Liz Lee goes through the trials and triumphs of High School, fell into the same annoying trappings of similar scripted reality shows, it still showed a tremendous promise, taking The Hills-style camerawork and energizing it with a fun, quirky sensibility and characters that are actually relate-able on some level.

I don't know any Spencer Pratt's (thank fucking God) but I do know plenty of Star Wars- quoting nerds like Liz Lee and her BFF Sully, a loveable geek who is in love with Liz but can't seem to ever get out of the friend zone.

Liz and her pals are just like my pals, and I assume just like the pals of who ever reads this.

Now in the middle of its second season, in which Liz moves to New York for art school, the show has really hit its stride by perfectly tapping into that awkward post-High School phase where people in their late teens and early 20s begin the painful transition from childhood to being grown-ups.

While the first season focused on trying to maintain one's individuality in a small, conservative Texas town, the second season goes to a higher level by tackling issues of moving on from one's past and the overwhelming feeling of uncertainty we go through when we try to decide what to do with our lives.

While most shows aiming for a young demographic make college into a 4 year orgy of non-stop sex and drugs, My Life as Liz depicts it as it really is, a scary place where it's easy to feel lost and alone.

Liz has a hard time adapting to the big city, can't find any inspiration for her art projects, and can't make any friends (except for the handsome art school student that is SO into her).



One reason I could never get on board with The Hills was because I find nothing exciting or dramatic about watching rich white kids with problems, and while the gang from My Life As Liz are definitely white, and are definitely not poor, their problems seem much more grounded in reality than whatever is bothering Lauren Conrad on any given week of her show.

Much of that is thanks to Liz Lee herself, who is the rare exception of people who have their own reality show and don't go crazy.

She's a confident woman who embraces her individuality and walks to the beat of her own drum.

She's like the Clarissa Darling of our generation (and now that I mention it, the show's many cuts to Liz Lee breaking the fourth wall by addressing the audience is very similar to Clarissa Explains It All).

Finally, what the show has that it's fuax reality contemporaries severely lack is its big heart. The producers genuinely care about the people instead of mocking them (Jersey Shore) and the situations and events, no matter how scripted they probably are, seem like they're coming from a real, emotional core.

The show chooses to celebrate individuality over status, and highlights the painfully real angst of growing up rather than how hard it is to be rich, famous and beautiful.

It may be the Freaks and Geeks of reality TV, and just like that show in its too-brief existence, My Life As Liz is severely under appreciated.

Holiday Dissapointment

I went to see the Elephant 6 Collective concert tonight for the off chance that Jeff Magnum showed up to sing me the entirety of his classic album, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.

It did not happen.

But the night wasn't a total disappointment.

I overheard a hipster say one of the most hipsterish things I have ever heard.

He said, "Yeah, I only buy live jazz records now, because they're so cheap"

Wow.

He then went on to talk about his brand new iPad 2, because he loves cheap things so much.