The Films That Defined 2011 For Me

My Favourites
When it came to picking out my 2011 films I was a bit disappointed in myself for not seeing some films that I’d heard so much about during the November/ December period because I was busy revising for exams. Nevertheless, I’m pretty happy with my list. OBVIOUS MAINSTREAM PICKS I THINK I only have a number one spot, the rest are… well, there are some I like more than others, but I couldn’t take the time out to rank them otherwise we’d be here for a while.

Be a human being
And a real hero
Back against the wall and odds
With the strength of a will and a cause
Your pursuits are called outstanding
YOU’RE EMOTIONALLY COMPLEX.

THIS FILM. ALL THE TIME.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes – which I loved so much I cited it in an essay. A real-life essay that counts towards my degree.

Bridesmaids – which did have me in stitches in the cinema.

Tangled – which made me awwwww

X-Men First Class – which I fangirled over SO HARD

The Fighter – crazy family

The King’s Speech – I study Linguistics, so whenever someone asks me what I’m going to do with my degree I reroute them to this film now.

Attack the Block – it’s Joe from Adam & Joe! He made a badass film.

Rabies (Kalevet) – a complete surprise, this was possibly my favourite from EIFF

Source Code - Duncan Jones knocked it out of the park again for me.

Tinker Tailor Solider Boy Spy – Gary Oldman was fantastic, it was pretty ace. Yep.

Honourable Mentions

I thought it’d be super cheating to Jurassic Park in my Top Films List, it’s sort of cheating to put it here I guess, but it was rereleased, I saw it in the cinema and it still rocked my world.

As well as:

The Skin I Live In – … it gives me hope that I can learn yoga?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – I really enjoyed this! But the last half hour dragged on a bit, this is always the problem when your main story finishes but there are a) threads to tie up or b) setting up for a sequel needs to happen – it just never feels very cohesive because your interest in the actual story is… well… over (what the Swedish version took five minutes to do Fincher dragged out for thirty odd minutes). Still pretty swell though.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II – I’m one of the ‘it marks the end of my childhood’ people.

The Guard – strong first half, not so strong second half. Still worth the watch though.

Julia’s Eyes – it’s different, it’s not what I wanted, but it’s different.

The Films I Obviously Missed The Boat On

WHAT WAS THIS? The film was well acted, sure, but the plot and the characters had absolutely no investment for me. It just kept going on. And on. And on. And on. WHY WOULDN’T IT END? This was originally intended to be a four hour long film… why?

We Need to Talk About Kevin – I don’t really know what my beef about this film is, but it’s not as good as everyone says. I was expecting ‘earth-shattering’, but there was nothing. Nothing. Maybe I’m broken.

Kill List – I just don’t know, I really don’t. I was so confused. I think I may still be confused.

Sleeping Beauty – I really did go to watch this out of boredom. I’ve learned my lesson. Never again.

My favourite soundtracks:

WHO DIDN’T LOVE THE SOUNDTRACK? Avoiding the tracks everyone know:  I Drive – Cliff Martinez (Bride of the Deluxe was too large a file to upload but go check it out!)

X-Men First Class – Cerebro – Henry Jackman

Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Zoo Breakout – Patrick Doyle

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Immigrant Song – Karen O with Trent Reznor

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

Attack the Block

I wish I had watched:

The Artist (I will watch this in the cinema, but it will be in 2012.)
Melancholia*
Tree of Life*
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Another Earth
Take Shelter

*probably two of the most talked about films I just never got around to. Lazy. Even my friend that hardly ever goes to the cinema dragged himself to watch Tree of Life, I’m a bit ashamed of myself. Soz.

And that’s it for me!

I think 2011 can be summed up by saying I saw more ‘fun’ films that ‘serious’ ones (maybe excluding the films I saw at EIFF), I definitely noticed that it was the year of the sequels and I took part in that. High hopes for 2012!