J Hurtado's Top Ten Movie Memories Of 2011

It's taken me a while to get a grip on the second half of my 2011 best of list.  This is a different side of 2011 for me. It is a bit strange, because I feel as though I'm short changing the feel bad films, but trust me, if I had to condense my list to ten altogether, it would likely be a mix of these two lists.  Luckily, I'm given the latitude to post whatever I want in terms of a year end round up, and so here were are.

These are my top ten movie memories from 2011.  The list varies wildly in terms of film quality and venue. Some of these films I watched at home, some of them I watched in a cinema. Some of them are examples of films that will last through the ages, and one of them is among the worst films I've ever seen in my life. They all share a common thread, though, and that is that they entertained or impressed me greatly in some way or another.

Several of these films appeared on ScreenAnarchy Best Of 2010 lists, but I didn't see them until 2011 or they got official distribution this year, so fuck it, I'm going with my list! Here we go!

1. The Last Circus
Anyone who follows me on Twitter (@zombeaner) knows the mad hard on I have for The Last Circus. This was my absolute favorite film of 2011. I saw it four times theatrically and once on Blu-ray for a review. It was so affecting that I felt I had to see it that many times before I even attempted to put my thoughts into words, and here's how I summed it up:

It is easy to appreciate The Last Circus as "brilliant, bizarre, dazzling, and utterly demented", as the New York Times Jeanette Catsoulis did, however, in doing so, you shortchange the film for its true brilliance. It is all of those things, but it is so in service to a greater story. ... In The Last Circus, Alex de la Iglesia has managed to coalesce his entire filmic philosophy into 100 minutes of sheer genius, demented or not, and it is a thing of insane beauty.
 

2. The Muppets
Yes, I've drunk the Muppets Kool-Aid. If you read my other top ten list or my review of Tree of Life, you'll know that I suffer from depression. It's not a huge deal to others, but it affects my daily life. Watching The Muppets was better than any medication I've ever taken. There is no way that a person can walk into this film and not come out with at least a tiny smile on their face.

I can't say I was pessimistic going in, I was kind of in the bag for the film, but it was a cautious optimism. Jason Segel managed to win me over, and seeing those characters brought a rush of long dormant positive feelings about my own childhood. So yes, I admit to being guilty of succumbing to nostalgia, but so what, it gave me a grin, and that's not easy to do these days.

3. Gandhi to Hitler
This was the most technically and thematically incompetent film I saw in 2011, and probably several years before that. So why has it made my list? Because I still think about it and talk about it all the damned time! Gandhi to Hitler is an irredeemable clusterfuck of a film, I'm not denying that.  There is a lot of fun to be had with it, though, and my 3,600+ word review with nearly 50 comments tacked on the end are testament to that. The most ill-conceived film of the year was one of my most memorable, go figure. As I said in my review:

I'm not encouraging you to seek this film out.  I think I've given as rational and even-handed a review of Gandhi to Hitler as is humanly possible, and I'll let you make your own decision. As for me, this is a film that I will show my friends, and my friends' friends, as a barometer of their compatibility with me and my outlook.  It is a preposterous outing, and an impressively singular debut from the fledgling Amrapali Media Pvt Ltd production company.  As a film, Gandhi to Hitler is a complete and utter failure in every way. However, as entertainment it is nowhere near as bad as it should be. I'm as flummoxed by my reaction to this film as the filmmakers were by the process of making their film. Gandhi to Hitler sucks, so why can't I stop writing about it?

4. Underwater Love
Underwater Love was my selection for "Top Surprises of 2011" in the ScreenAnarchy poll.  This is a film that I went into expecting a bit of heavy petting and some tits, but I came out with so much more. Shinji Imaoka's pink musical is touching and heartfelt, and unlike most films, I think it's reach is going to exceed it's grasp. Here's my summary from the DVD review last month:

For all of Underwater Love's quirks and intentional goofiness, the film never steps over the line into farce for me. I'm sure that when REM commissioned a pink musical from Shinji Imaoka and hired Christopher Doyle to shoot the thing, I'm sure they had certain expectations. On paper, this movie looks like a goofy romp, on the screen, however, it is so much more.  Imaoka and Doyle manage to transcend the material they are given and deliver a real movie, not a joke. I remain stunned, even after having seen the film twice, that it works on such a primal level when all indicators point to a comical failure. Underwater Love is magic.

5. Milocrorze
I first heard about this film on The Night Crew podcast from James Marsh and Todd Brown recapping their experiences at HKIFF. They both seemed alternatively impressed and flummoxed by this bizarre episodic weirdness, and that certainly piqued my interest.

Fortunately, I was able to grab a seat at one of the screenings of the film at Fantastic Fest this year, and holy shit is this movie fun. There are a couple of vaguely interconnecting stories, as well as some candy colored bookends, there's a samurai, there's a bowl cut, and then there's the guy in the photo. I don't even know how to explain it. He's a raconteur, a ladies' man, a dancer, and he has some incredible theme music. This man, who gives out relationship advice that people actually need rather than want to hear, is AMAZING and worth the price of admission alone. Thankfully, he's surrounded by several beautifully shot and well staged pieces that flesh out the piece. While Milocrorze may go on a little long, I never found it boring and I can't wait to see it again.

6. 13 Assassins
This one was a surprise to me. All I'd been hearing about 13 Assassins before I finally got to see it at this year's Dallas IFF was how normal it was. For a director whose reputation is so attached to weirdness, this was a bit concerning. Takashi Miike's status among cult film fans is hard to match, so when he dials it back, we were all kinda wondering how it would turn out.

Thankfully, 13 Assassins is a masterpiece. This is certainly Miike's most complete film, and perhaps his best, though that is I choice I do not wish to make. The film runs a little over two hours, and the final third is one extended siege sequence, reminiscent of the final battle in Seven Samurai. It is brutal and drawn out, but never is it boring for even a moment. This film also marked the first time that Miike and Koji Yakusho worked together, and the combination was brilliant. Yakusho turns in a world-beating performance as a ronin with a heart that is both poignant and exciting. By all means, give this one a shot if you haven't seen it yet.

7. Tree of Life
This was one of the most divisive movies of the year, with people either calling it a work of genius, or overblown pretentious dreck. I fall firmly in the former camp. I spilled my guts for a review of this film last month, and honestly, I don't think I have it in me to do it again, so I'll quote:

Tree of Life understands my pain, my struggle, and my indecision about what kind of father I want to be. I know that preparing my son for a world that can be cruel and unforgiving is my job. It is as much my job to help my son be strong at those times because he has a father that loves him. It is my job to make him feel safe, and to make him feel secure, while at the same time teaching him to protect himself. Terrence Malick's film takes my fears and expands upon them in a way that is both reassuring and humbling. I am not alone in this world. My fears are not only my own. Thank you and fuck you.

8. The Skin I Live In
Expectations can be a dangerous thing. I'd been hearing about Almodovar's rumored adaptation of Tarantula since the late '90s and had nearly given up on it's ever being made. After his turn toward some kind of mainstream normalcy in the early part of the new century, I thought that perhaps the Almodovar who could make Tarantula was gone.  You have no idea how happy I am to be wrong. This film exceeded my expectations by a large margin and ended up being among my top three Almodovar films.

The Skin I Live In is the best horror film of the year. It isn't a horror film by conventional standards, I suppose, but there is no doubt that it is horrific, and that the themes are shared with classic horror stories. The classic allusions to be drawn from this film are Frankenstein and Eyes Without a Face, but it goes deeper into my psyche than those two films. The most beautiful thing about the film is that even though I knew the story going in, I was still shocked and amazed at Almodovar's execution of such a complicated twist as this film includes. Bravo, Pedro.

9. The Oregonian
Calvin Lee Reeder's debut feature is set to release on iTunes next week, and I suggest that you watch it. This film is amazingly unsettling. It attacks the viewer on so many primal levels that even without a narrative through line, it gets under your skin in a way that very few films can manage. Reeder is the spiritual descendent of early David Lynch, there's no denying that. If ever there was a nightmare captured on film, this is it. Here's more from my review at Dallas IFF:

The Oregonian is like spending 80 minutes in Twin Peaks' Red Room.  Nightmare logic is a frightening thing, especially when there is no waking up.  Calvin Lee Reeder takes his own sensibilities and creates something that is a mash up of the most disturbing images from Lynch, Cronenberg, Jodorowsky, and Kenneth Anger, with none of the humor, black or otherwise.  I never found the film boring, and I never felt as though it was weird for weirdness sake.  Every frame of the film had a purpose, and that purpose was to unsettle.  Mission accomplished. 

10. Clown
Dicks are funny. In the case of Danish feature Clown (Klovn), that is doubly true.  The two main characters, Casper and Frank, are dicks, jerks, assholes, and yet strangely sympathetic. The humor in Clown is brutally funny and wildly inappropriate in any circumstance, which is why it works so well. Which bring me to the second meaning of "dicks are funny", never before has the penis been used in such an inexcusable way for comedy and still managed to work. Major "kudos" to Drafthouse Films for acquiring such a potentially controversial film. The humor goes up to and over the line of decency on many occasions, but I have rarely heard an audience roar with laughter like I did in this film. Here's my summary from Fantastic Fest:

Clown is in unrepentantly poor taste and hysterical. Casper (Casper Christensen) and Frank (Frank Hvam) have honed these characters to a fine comic point. Every action in Clown has a stupidly funny and rational reaction. The team involved leaves no sacred cows untipped in the pursuit of laughs, and no penis unbared.  Consider yourself admonished.  Don't miss Clown.

That's it for my top tens this year. I still intend to write my year in home video wrap up, but I'm having trouble finding time. You can feel free to harass me on twitter (@zombeaner) and that may speed up the process. I hope you are able to enjoy these films as much as I did, and I look forward to another great year as a member of the ScreenAnarchy team. Cheers!