Palooza Presents "The 99 Films of 2011"

[Houston]

Have to wait another 2 years for the next X-men movie

[Palooza]

Have to wait another 2 years for the next X-men movie

Yeah, I'm not pleased the studio pushed shooting back to let Jennifer Lawrence shoot The Hunger Games sequel. As you can see, I loved First Class and cannot wait for the next one

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

13. The Tree of Life
Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan, Joanna Going

Director -
Terrence Malick
Writer(s) -
Terrence Malick
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 85%
Metacritic Score - 85/100
Viewed - HQ torrent
Out of every single movie I have seen from 2011, this one can be debated endlessly as to its quality. Some people are going to hate it, some people are going to love it, but most people aren't going to get it. I'm not saying I entirely understand it because that's not true, but what I did understand and what I did take from the movie was extremely thought provoking. This is philosophically-friendly Terrence Malick's 5th movie in 40 years and his first since 2005's The New World, his take on the John Smith/Pocahontas legend. This long gap in between movies has earned Malick a mixture of respect and hatred from his peers. Some consider it a ploy to stay out of the spotlight, but I consider it as a way to put every ounce of your being into that one project and if it takes you 10 years, that's how long it's going to take. Malick is a brilliant creative mind and his long absences make you appreciate it that much more once he's back in our mind. You forget about him and then once you see his newest movie, you can comprehend its quality.

In The Tree of Life, Malick examines life through the eyes of a southern family in the 50's. The patriarch of the O'Brein family is played by Brad Pitt, who does a complete 180 from the charismatic character we saw him as in Moneyball. Here he is still charismatic, but only because that's just who Brad Pitt is. This bit of charisma and his good intentions is what keeps Mr. O'Brien from being a villain. He's not a villain or a bad father or anything of that sort. He's strict and demanding, but that does not make him evil. Mr. O'Brien wants his sons to have every opportunity to make something of themselves, but he knows it take a lot of discipline and hard work to become what you want. We see Sean Penn as a grown up version of their oldest son, Jack and on the surface he is successful - he wakes up in a nice house with a woman on his side, he travels around a fancy office, looking at architectural blueprints and plans. Mr. O'Brien's drive for his children is justified when we catch glimpses of his true love - music. He masterfully plays the piano, the organ in church and makes sure the family listens to some classical music during dinner. It's obvious he doesn't want his sons giving up what they love in an effort to pay the bills, much like he. Unfortunately, Mr. O'Brien's motivations aren't as black and white as I make them seem - even though he wants to teach his sons to appreciate everything they have, no matter how little it is, he still projects his failures on to his family, which can be seen most obviously in a confrontational dinner sequence. Here and throughout the film, Jessica Chastain portrays an angelic mother who protects her children from the horrors of the world, including their father. At one point, Mr. O'Brien goes away on business and the feel of the movie completely changes. Things are not tense, they seem fun. The boys and the mother let loose, like kids in a classroom who go wild when the teacher steps out, even for one second, jumping back to their disciplined ways once the authority returns. One of the most powerful scenes of the film is when Mr. O'Brien forces his boys to punch him, a test of both their will and their strength (physically, mentally and emotionally). Jack proves to be the most willing, which makes sense considering the relationship between he and his father is more dysfunctional than anything else.

It's not exactly a story or a movie as it is a poetic examination of childhood and growing up. The children are the ones who the focus of the movie is on, which makes the parents feeling so out of reach depressingly understanding. It's one of the most realistic portrayals of youth I can recall seeing. The child actors are top notch as well, especially Hunter McCracken who plays young Jack. You are sucked into his world, as simple as it may be and you relate and understand all of his actions, even if sometimes they don't make much sense.

The best part of the film is definitely in the directing. Malick uses film as an art form and the world is his canvas. The most ambitious filmmaking comes during the grown up scenes with Sean Penn. When we meet him, he is in bed with a woman and the two wake up. There the camera floats around the house, watching the two as a hidden observer, sneaking around. The voices are distant, muffled whispers. For these scenes I can't help but think that the camera is the vision of Jack's younger brother's soul as he watches over Jack. This world seems familiar aesthetically, but the feel seems completely foreign. Like Lars von Trier's Melancholia, Malick uses his skills as a director to show the audience the power and importance of life, creating a montage of the childhood and growing up of the universe, something that parallels the film's "plot". Literally in certain scenes where the universe is captured with amazing aesthetics. Malick's use of this seems much less pretentious than von Trier, but that's Lars von Trier for you. Malick's movie is visually phenomenal as a whole, but most certainly during this sequence. As much as this is a movie about faith, it in no way shoves any sort of religious message. It's not necessarily about the faith of a god, but the faith of us as human beings looking for something to make us understand why we are here on Earth and why life is so fragile and important.
Grade - A-

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

12. Tyrannosaur
Peter Mullan, Olivia Coleman, Eddie Marsan, Paul Poppelwell, Ned Dennehy, Samuel Bottomley

Director -
Paddy Considine
Writer(s) -
Paddy Considine
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 82%
Metacritic Score - 65/100
Viewed - HQ torrent
Paddy Considine is a very unlikely person to make such a dark and unsettling film like this, but he does a wonderful job nonetheless. The major theme I noticed of this film, beyond obvious ethical and morality themes, is the idea that nobody is what they seem and that most things are much, much different than they are portrayed. The clever and horribly titled Tyrannosaur follows alcoholic, angry widower Joseph as he wanders through life where he encounters the overly happy-go-lucky Hannah, a Christian shop worker. As the two grow closer, we realize that the two are not so different from one another, both occupying prisons in their lives. Beyond the disturbing and dark tone of the film, there are some wonderful performances, mostly by the two leads - Peter Mullan and Olivia Coleman. Each of these two actors showcase the damaged characters, with two of the best performances of the year. I wish there was more to say about this movie besides the amazing performances and the disturbing tones of the film, but there really isn't. The film knows what it is and it takes off running with them and it does so wonderfully. There are three disturbing parts of the film - one opens the film where Joseph kills his dog in a fit of rage. The others are two encounters of Hannah and her husband, James(the always brilliant, Eddie Marsan). Hannah sleeps on the couch and James asks her to bed, but she continues sleeping. Shortly after we hear and unzip and the man pisses on her, another moment involves a "sexual encounter" between the two. This is where the facade these characters have created for the rest of the world begin to unravel. In Hannah's case, it is the prison she has allowed herself to occupy with her loveless, sex-deprived marriage. James is literally a crazy person, who is disturbed more than Joseph, but we can't tell that on the outside. Back to each of the character's facades - Joseph is a seemingly disturbed and angry person, but on the inside he is simply a damaged person who acts that way as a defense mechanism; the man has a heart, which we see when he gets closer to Hannah and also when he confronts the neighbor and his dog after the dog attacks the neighbor's girlfriend's son. On the outside, Hannah is a normal happy-go-lucky religious woman, but when we see her with her husband, we understand this is just something she shows for the world so they don't ask questions. James facade is much like Hannah's, but his is much more disturbed on the inside. Every action he makes just proves how fake he is on the outside and how fucked up he is on the inside.

Now we get to the meaning of the title. It has both a literal meaning and a metaphorical meaning. There is a reason why Joseph wears his facade so well - he's become so accustom to that person he has actually become it. It takes his interactions with Hannah for him to break away from being completely consumed by it. Joseph tells the story of his overweight wife, telling Hannah and the audience that his deceased wife was overweight and when she would walk around the house it would shake, causing water in a glass to ripple, just the same as in Jurassic Park, so he began calling her "Tyrannosaur". Metaphorically, the title represents the characters being animals or beasts on the inside with human features on the outside. Their inner-beast is buried deep like the remains of dinosaurs, waiting to be dug up and brought out.

I leave you with another quote from Joseph that sums up the film - "An animal can only take so much punishment and humiliation before it snaps, fights back ... It’s its nature, you know."
Grade - A-

[Buzzman]

I need to watch Tyrannosaur and rewatch Tree of Life.

[Houston]

The guy who plays Hannah's husband is in a movie titled 'Happy-Go-Lucky".......coincidence?

[Palooza]

I started typing up the review for #11, but it made me want to watch it so badly that I am currently doing that. I'll post my review after and will probably re-watch as much of the top 10 as I can so I can give better reviews. I was watch X-Men First Class as I typed the review and that had the most in-depth review so far. I'd prefer the rest to be like that, too.

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011
Award Nominations
Best of the Best

Best Picture
50/50
Another Earth
Attack the Block
Beginners
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Muppets
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Director
David Fincher - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Michel Hazanvicius - The Artist **
Steve McQueen - Shame
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Nicolas Winding Refn - Drive

Best Actor
Jean Dujardin - The Artist**
Michael Fassbender - Shame
Joseph Gordon Levitt - 50/50
Ryan Gosling - Drive
Peter Mullan - Tyrannosaur
Michael Shannon - Take Shelter

Best Actress
Viola Davis - The Help**
Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Brit Marling - Another Earth
Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn

Best Supporting Actor
Albert Brooks - Drive
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Philip Seymour Hoffman- The Ides of March
Patton Oswalt - Young Adult
Christopher Plummer - Beginners**

Best Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Melanie Laurent - Beginners
Chloe Grace Moretz - Hugo
Carey Mulligan - Shame
Octavia Spencer - The Help**

Best Dog
Arthur - Beginners
Jack - The Artist

Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris**
J.C. Chandor - Margin Call
Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life
Thomas McCarthy - Win-Win
Will Resier - 50/50

Best Adapted Screenplay
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willmon - The Ides of March [based on the play by Beau Willmon]
Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan - Tinker Tailor Solder Spy [based on the novel by John le Carre]
Thomas Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash - The Descendants** [based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hennings]
Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillian - Moneyball [based on the book by Michael Lewis]
Steve Zaillian - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [based on the novel by Stieg Larrson]

Best Cinematography
Jeff Cronenweth - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Emmanuel Lubezki - The Tree of Life
Robert Richardson - Hugo**
Newton Thomas Sigel - Drive
Hoyte van Houten - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Music
Cliff Martinez (+others) - Drive
Bret McKenzie - The Muppets**
Trent Reznor (+others) - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

** = won Oscar

[Palooza]

Bein busy sucks. I'll finish when I can. Nobody is really following along besides me, so I'm not too upset with
how long it is taking to finish this

[Houston]

\I'm not too upset with how long it is taking to finish this

I am! Been waiting for your Another Earth "review" for awhile. Glad it's high on the list though.

[Buzzman]

I've been waiting for dat Drive review, but I knew it wouldn't come soon. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[dell71]

I'm still paying attention!

[Palooza]

Aw you guys are sweet. Houston and Buzzman might be waiting awhile

[Youk]

Bein busy sucks. I'll finish when I can. Nobody is really following along besides me, so I'm not too upset with
how long it is taking to finish this

I follow in the shadows, no one has any idea.

[Diivox]

Finally saw Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. really good movie, definitely overhyped, but dying for the sequel. Rape scenes were very disturbing, but the soundtrack was excellent and once you got past the exposition it was a fantastic detective movie. Rooney Mara is so ridiculously fucking sexy, she pulls off "you know she's crazy, and you also know she's great in the sack" better than anyone since pre-kids Angelina Jolie.

Carnage was unbelievably funny. my girl and i sat here for the first half of the film not sure if we should turn it off, and were very confused by what kind of movie we were in for, but were dying with laughter by the end.

Drive is the Pabst Blue Ribbon of movies. The hipsters love it to death but it's really just shitty canned beer that gets even shittier upon reflection. Neither beverage nor film gives a man much of a buzz but you'll take it if it's around. How can you call Gosling a best actor in that movie? The guy has the same expression the entire flick.

Red State was seriously one of the most fucked up movies I have ever seen. was majorly disturbed. I knew nothing about it other than it was directed by Kevin Smith, and was posted about in this thread. I bought a 40 and was like COOL, RED STATE TIME. Buzzkill start to finish but extraordinarily well written (never saw anything coming, scene to scene). It's kind of like The Wrestler ; two amazing movies I simply don't have the stomach to watch again.