Admittedly, I've hardly seen more than ten movies. However, I don't think that disqualifies me from recommending the roughly ten movies that I happened to catch this year. This is a lie. I watched at least 13 movies over break, which brought me up to 14 for the year. As usual, in particular order:
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
I wrote a rather lengthy take down of Moonrise Kingdom a few years back, citing Anderson's obsession with naivete and nostalgia as problematic for adult film watchers. The movie was not as innocent as it wanted to be or too innocent by half. A friend of mine said that watching Anderson's films is like watching a version of history that has been scrubbed of problems like race and gender. The reason that Grand Budapest Hotel is great is that it retains Anderon's aesthetic while still having the texture and complexity of the real world.
2-10 tied.
2. The Trip to Italy
This movie doesn't really have a traditional structure. Its venue, driving around Italy and sampling meals is a thin veneer for Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan to have comic offs. It's brilliant and roughly 90 percent funny and ten percent sad and introspective. Those are roughly the percentages that I'd like life to be. It isn't. But it's kind of that way for the 1:45 minutes or so that you're watching this movie. Oh, also it has beautiful shots from all over Italy including some incredible shots of the A-Malfi Coast. I want to go to there.
Brydon: (paraphrase) Do you ever use your fame to sleep with women?
Coogan: Yeah. You use everything at your disposal. People say, she only slept with you because you're famous, well, she only slept with you because you're young and handsome.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
Everyone in the galaxy has already seen this movie. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out just how fun this movie is. I'm not quite sure how it was done, but this movie managed to handle the saving the universe trope without making it seem too serious while simultaneously not resorting to camp.
4. Snowpiercer
Remember a month ago when Netflix got Snowpiercer and everyone watched it? Me neither. Snowpiercer is the taut action thriller that makes you think for a minute. Basically, a more fun version of Argo. How good is Tilda Swinton channeling her inner Kim-Jong Il? I haven't seen The Interview, but her Kim Jong was off the charts good. We don't need to talk about the rather opaque ending because the ride to get there is so interesting.
5. The Edge of Tomorrow
Wait a second, Internet. I know that Tom Cruise is in this movie, and the Internet doesn't like Tom Cruise because he married that girl from Dawson's Creek and tried to turn her into an alien God that rules of the universe. We've all had that significant other though. It's forgivable sin in someone as sure of himself as Tom Cruise. Anyhow, this movie is actually pretty damn good, exciting, fun, a little mind bending.
6. Take This Waltz
This movie is really quite beautiful. Right from the opening scene where the wonderful Michele Williams is cooking and the light is shining through the window on her face. It's a complicated movie that seems to have something to with art, some with life, and a lot with the confusion of love. This was one of the secretly very good movies that I watched this year.
7. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
This movie is great because it has Kerri Russell in it. Remember, from Felicity? Kerri Russell! Yeah. I also appreciate this movie's attempt to create an authentic relationship within what we all know is just going to end up being one long battle scene. We eventually get to the fight scene with a boss battle and a sub boss battle. However, the movie makes a very strong effort to focus on the relationships and pretend like it isn't going to end up in a huge fight. Don't worry. It does.
8. The Fault in Our Stars
I already wrote a lengthy review of The Fault in Our Stars. I cried a shi- ton watching this movie. Mainly because the relationship between the two main actors was so believable and intense. Their relationship transcended the characters that were slightly less full. Anyhow, it's okay to cry, and it came rather naturally when I watched this movie.
9. The One I Love
I have a penchant and attraction for movies that have a twist or some small element of imagination. This is primarily because reality can be kind of soul crushing or monotonous, and it's hard to imagine anything beyond the fairly routine human experiences, birth, death, severance etc. changing the structure of our lives. Movies like The One I Love that introduce an element outside our normal human experience are then pleasurable and unique to watch. Of course, they also have to be good. And The One I Love is good. Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men is fantastic and the movie somehow winds up being a comedy more than a drama despite the hefty subject matter: a failing marriage. Kramer vs. Kramer this is not.
10. About Time
I just said I like movies with a bit of a twist. Well, this movie has time travel. It's also incredibly sweet. There are things in our life that we know to be truths but that allude us anyway. This movie is one of those continual lessons that's worth learning--we only get this one life, so we might as well live it with some grace. Yesterday I got into a dispute with a bus driver on Metro over whether he had stopped for me or not. The two of us exchanged heated words for almost a minute and then I suddenly stopped and asked myself whether I wanted to be a part of a world in which the two of us carried around a grudge against one another all day. The whole argument seemed silly, and I suddenly felt an overwhelming feeling of connectedness and love. I almost started laughing. When I got off the bus I walked past him, and he apologized, and I said I understood, and we shook hands. No one is perfect but if given the chance why not try and make life more beautiful?
Honorable Mention:
X-Men Days of Future Past-I wish Bryan Singer took these movies a little less seriously. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Or I wish he took them seriously like Christopher Nolan. Either way, I'm probably whining about a movie that was ostensibly pretty good. It's just that he had a lot of material to work with, having the casts from both movies together with genuine death scenes for superheroes, which pretty much never happen. Of course they don't actually happen in this movie either because it's a movie.
The Lego Movie-This movie was manically funny and maniacally paced. The latter of which slightly detracted from it on a second viewing. It's extraordinarily fun and the twist at the end is a nice deus ex machina.
Chef-This movie is pleasurable on two levels. First: the scenes of beautiful and brilliant food that take up the screen. It's like a Pinterest board come to life. The latter is that the movie lasts for an hour or so without any real conflicts. You keep waiting for something to go wrong, for the boy to cut his hand or the mother to complain but nothing bad happens. This isn't sustainable for most movies, but it has its own road trip rickety charm.
Roman Holiday-I just saw this movie for the first time. But I think it came out a few decades ago. It's good. Also, not a lot of people know this but Audrey Hepburn is kind of cute.
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