In 2011,
Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation sparked the Arab Spring;
Prince William married Catherine Middleton;
The eruption of Grímsvötn disrupted air travel in Northwestern Europe;
NASA announced it had photographic evidence of water on Mars;
Occupy Wall Street protests began in the United States;
The global population surpassed seven billion;
Minecraft was released;
Watson defeated Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in Jeopardy!;
Charlie Sheen was fired from Two and a Half Men;
The Voice, Downton Abbey, Portlandia, Shameless, Episodes, Bob’s Burgers, Jake and the Never Land Pirates, American Horror Story, Homeland, Suits, Teen Wolf, and Game of Thrones premiered;
While Pete Posthlewaite, Anne Francis, Sargent Shriver, Maria Schneider, Kenneth Mars, Jane Russell, Michael Gough, Warren Christopher, Elizabeth Taylor, Geraldine Ferraro, Farley Granger, Sidney Lumet, Osama bin Laden, Jackie Cooper, Sada Thompson, Seve Ballesteros, Harmon Killebrew, Randy Savage, Jeff Conaway, Jack Kevorkian, Peter Falk, Betty Ford, Lucian Freud, Amy Winehouse, Cliff Robertson, Steve Jobs, Muammar Gaddafi, Joe Frazier, Ken Russell, Patrice O’Neal, Harry Morgan, Christopher Hitchens, and Nicol Williamson died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 2011:
10) We Need to Talk About Kevin
Through flashbacks, we slowly learn Kevin Khatchadourian (Ezra Miller) is incarcerated after murdering his dad (John C. Reilly) and infant sister, then going to his school and killing several more people.
His mother Eva (Tilda Swinton) is an outcast in her community. As she reflects on Kevin’s childhood, we realize she was never particularly close to him and recognized some of his more dangerous traits, but was unable to convince her husband of the seriousness of the matter.
Despite their strained relationship, Eva still visits Kevin in prison and the film ends implying she will continue to be the best mother she can despite the monstrous crimes he has committed.
There’s a plethora of school shooting movies focused on the terror of the victims or the depraved mindset of the killers, but few movies demonstrate the effect on the parents of the perpetrators. How does someone return to normal life after their child has done something so horrific? It reminds me of Phillip Roth’s American Pastoral, but at least Merry had a hint of motivation (radical left politics). Kevin can’t even articulate why he did what he did.
Director Lynn Ramsay artfully heightens the suspense throughout, playing the movie more like a thriller than a psychological profile. We know something horrible is coming, but the full extent of what Kevin has done is obscured, slightly off camera, in the corner of Eva’s eye, mirroring her efforts to forget the actual events to continue to love her son.
For parents, this is a gut-wrenching movie. As our children age, we realize there’s an element of their behavior beyond our control. We can’t mold them into the people we want them to be, we can only guide and offer assistance. To some extent who they are is already baked in.
I think about this film a lot and ten years on, it hasn’t lost any of its potency.
9) Detachment
Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody) is a substitute teacher struggling to connect with his students.
The incredible cast features Marica Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, William Petersen, Bryan Cranston, Tim Blake Nelson, Blythe Danner, James Caan, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Director Tony Kaye took Carl Lund’s expansive script and narrowed the focus to Barthes. This did not sit well with Cranston who felt like the movie he signed up for was not the movie he wound up being a part of.
I understand his frustration, but it doesn’t change the power of the film. This feels like a companion piece to the fourth season of The Wire which similarly focused on the educational system and remains one of the most heartbreaking seasons of television I’ve seen.
This effective movie is the antithesis to films like Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, and Lean on Me which lead audiences to falsely believe a great motivational speech is enough to inspire kids to grow into better versions of themselves.
8) Coriolanus
Roman general Coriolanus parlays his successful military career into a political one, but his dismissive attitude of his citizens leads to his downfall. He sees himself as a patrician above the fray and can’t be bothered worrying about the plebeians. His ego cannot abide his subsequent exile so he joins with a previous enemy, Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler), to attack Rome. His mother, Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave), convinces him to abandon his revenge and return home, but Aufidius kills him in response to his betrayal.
Shakespeare’s tragedy exposes the fickle nature of politics, and argues political warfare is more dangerous than actual battlefields
I’m a sucker for Shakespearean stories in modern settings. This reminds me of the wonderful 1995 version of Richard III starring Ian McKellen.
Vanessa Redgrave matured into a wonderful grand ole dame. Jessica Chastain is good as Virgilia, Coriolanus’s wife. Brian Cox was criminally underrated until his recent success as Logan Roy gave him the attention he deserved. The movie is a triumph for Gerard Butler, a perfect opportunity to use his action star chops in a more dramatic setting. Pulling double duty as star and director, Ralph Fiennes is a tour de force. Rarely mentioned in the first range of great British actors, he’s nonetheless embodied several iconic roles (chief among them Voldemort). This is a feather in his already well-plumed hat.
7) Pina
Wim Wenders’s documentary about Philippine “Pina” Bausch is a noble attempt to preserve the famed choreographer on celluloid. Filmed in 3D, it transforms the audience relationship with her work, adding another plane makes us more aware of the detail of the movements, and the artistry involved.
Bausch was heavily involved in the planning of the film, but died in 2009 shortly before filming began. The four dances featured here (including Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring) are a wonderful testament to her legacy.
6) Footnote
Eliezer Shkolnik and his son Uriel are professors in the Talmudic Research department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Eliezer is dismissive of Uriel’s work and constantly complains about the lack of rigor in his research, but Uriel’s work is more popular and acclaimed by his peers in the field.
Eliezer has been hoping to win the prestigious Israel Prize, so when the prize committee calls to let Uriel known he’s won, Eliezer hears Shlolnik and mistakenly believes they’re giving the prize to him. Uriel realizes the confusion and works to convince the committee’s chairman, Grossman (a long time rival of Eliezer’s) to go along with the mistake.
Focused on an obscure area of academic research, this film shows how universal generational conflict, jealousy, and pride are. It’s Shakespearean in its emotional landscape, even though it’s exceedingly tiny in its actual scope. Very few people care about esoteric musings on the finer points of the Talmud, but Eliezer, Uriel, and Grossman care a great deal. That’s how it is things people are passionate about; the passion may not be shared by many, but the intensity is no less bright.
5) 50/50
When 27-year old Adam Lerner (Joseph Gordon-Leavitt) is diagnosed with neurofibrosarcoma, his life is turned upside down and he learns who his true friends are.
Gordon-Leavitt has become one of the most successful former child actors. He’s come a long way from Tommy Solomon and his work in Brick (2005), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Looper (2012) compares favorably with any other leading man in the last decade. He keeps us invested in Adam, but, by keeping his performance refreshingly understated, never allows us to pity him.
Seth Rogen was a friend of screenwriter Will Reiser during his experience with cancer, so there’s a chance Rogen is essentially playing himself as Kylie Hirons, which only makes him more endearing.
I’m a huge fan of Anna Kendrick. She takes what could have been a one-dimensional character in bumbling grief counselor Katherine McCay and imbues her with charm and warmth.
The wonderful Phillip Baker Hall gives the film some needed depth and gravitas as fellow cancer patient Alan Lombardo.
Matt Frewer, who plays a cancer patient Mitch Barnett, has one of the coolest and most eclectic resumés. He originated the role of Max Headroom, which any child of the 1980s can tell you is a really big deal. He was in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) and had a major role in the sci-fi series Orphan Black.
Criminally underrated, Anjelica Huston won an Oscar for Prizzi’s Honor (1985), was excellent in her father’s last film, The Dead (1987), and starred in one of my favorite Woody Allen films, Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). In her later career, she’s become a Wes Anderson regular. Here, she makes the most of a small role as Diane Lerner, the overprotective mom watching her son suffer while simultaneously dealing with her husband’s Alzheimer’s.
Bryce Dallas Howard has a thankless job as Adam’s selfish girlfriend, Rachael. If she’s good, she’ll be hated. If she’s not, the emotional punch of the film is lost. Fortunately, it’s the former. When my dad had cancer, my parents saw countless couples like Alan and Rachael; too many people are unwilling, or unable to be caretakers.
In addition to directing this wonderful film, Jonathan Levine also managed to breathe new life into the zombie genre by marrying it with Shakespeare in Warm Bodies (2013). Cancer-comedy and zombie-Shakespeare; Levine has interesting tastes, and I’m excited for what me might do next.
I loved this movie. It’s sweet, but not maudlin. It’s funny, but never diminishes the fear of a cancer diagnosis.
4) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
Snape’s death.
Harry’s self-sacrifice.
Neville’s moment in the sun.
The badass Battle of Hogwarts.
Lupin, Tonks, and Fred Weasley.
Molly Weasley’s fight with Bellatrix Lestrange.
For anyone who read Rowling’s books and watched the previous films, this is a sublime accomplishment, made even more astounding by how well adjusted most of the stars seem to be. Only a few of them have turned into the tabloid fodder we’ve come to expect from kids thrust into the gauntlet of fame at a young age.
It’s an emotionally satisfying conclusion to an epic series, and the impact of this franchise on popular culture is still reverberating.
3) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
After Oskar Schell’s father is killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, his relationship with his mother (Sandra Bullock) deteriorates as he struggles to make sense of the loss. Oskar had a special bond with his father, Thomas (Tom Hanks), who would regale him with stories about New York’s lost “sixth borough” and go with him on elaborate treasure hunts for clues about this mythical place. Thomas devised these quests to push Oskar out of his comfort zone.
When Oskar finds a key hidden in a vase, he believes this is another mission from his father and resolves to find the owner. His journey through the city takes him on a path of self-discovery and transforms his relationship with family.
This is an authentic representation of the desperation for purpose and meaning which accompanies the loss of a parent at a young age. I was six years old when my dad died and for a long time I saw everything in my life through that lens.
John Goodman, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright, and Max von Sydow (in one of the last great roles for the legendary actor) round out the impeccable cast.
The movie was unfairly reviewed because of animosity towards the author of the book it was based upon, Jonathan Safran Foer and a misunderstanding of the subject matter. While the events of the movie are informed by 9/11, this movie is not about the despicable atrocities committed that day. It’s a much broader and accessible film about how loss transforms us and how we rebuild fractured relationships.
2) The Story of Film: An Odyssey
Film historian Mark Cousins traces the history of film in this fifteen hour documentary.
It’s easy to conceptualize film history as a long conversation, but as Strong shows this conversation taking place, I learned a great deal about the interconnections between my favorite films.
It was a joy to revisit old friends and discover new ones. The list of films featured can be found here, and I’ll be visiting this page many times in the coming months.
Recovering addict Anders receives a pass out of rehab for a job interview. Before the interview, he visits old friends and honestly discusses the hopeless pain of his life. He’s forthright with his potential employer about his struggles and when they don’t blanch and continue to show interest, a self-destructive Anders storms out and desperately tries to reconnect with an old girlfriend who refuses to see him.
After spending the night wandering aimlessly, he buys a large quantity of heroin and retires to a room and shoots up.
Inspired by the 1931 novel Will O’ the Wisp by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, this is a painfully honest, poignant film about the struggle of addiction and reminds me of Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.
Why do some people relish failure, wallowing in self-pity and self-destruction? Why can’t they see the good relationships they have and the good in their own lives? Why is it not enough? Anders is aware of his problems and how relatively minor they are, but is incapable of altering his behavior.
Movies like this help us understand addiction is as much a spiritual problem as a psychological or physiological one. Without addressing the spiritual void, we’ll never be able to offer assistance.