[Timothy Goose]

So

As always I'd like to know what people's films of the year were - and like last year I killed some time and made some pictures to illustrate mine.

I'm putting in a disclaimer. I really want to see The Artist. I've heard it is FECKING INCREDIBLE and it does just look glorious - but it came out on December 30th and only in the West End. So I'm counting it as a 2012 film. Sue Me


Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Rupert Wyatt
Aug 11th

I was really expecting this film to be shit. But then the trailer looked really interesting and the film turned out to be excellent. John Lithgow is always watch-able and Andy Serkis' performance of Caesar shows that Mo Cap can really work. He looked a bit CGI a lot of the time, but you really bought into him. You really believed his performance. Which is the main bit

Add to that some nice links to the old films which don't feel TOO silly and some amazing visuals and it was pretty damned boss.

Trailer innit


Never Let Me Go
Mark Romanek
Feb 11th

I am a big soppy soppy person. I love bleak sci fi stories. I like Carey Mulligan. I don't know what else to say. A subtle, slow and beautiful film. With some great acting (even Keira Knightly isn't entirely bad).

Trailer for you


Tyrannosaur
Paddy Considine
Oct 7th

The film in which my friend and I walked home from in a silence punctuated by only the occasional "#!$&". Savage. Cruel. Utterly brilliant. Olivia Coleman's performance is so good too. Much better than I was expecting and shows how her range is much more than numberwanging.

Just... yeah....

It is not for the faint hearted. It tackles some horrible themes. There aren't any dinosaurs

But by jove it is good.


Tabloid
Errol Morris
Nov 11th

Chris Knight and I saw this film about a million years ago at LFF'10 - because we're hip cats like that. The film is a great bit of proof that the truth is stranger than fiction. I didn't know anything at all about the subject matter and settled in for one of the most bonkers docs I've ever seen. It also brings up a lot of interesting stuff about press manipulation. But mostly it is just zippy and entertaining and wonderfully amusingly informative.

Stick your brain round this


Hanna
Joe Wright
May 6th

Its only bloody Jo Wright! LoL

Weird etherial modern fairy tale with odd accents and a so many odd subplots (the camp neo-nazis, the experiments, the Grimm brothers) and the funniest performance of the year from Jessica Barden.

The score is banging. The action is tight. The story is different from other action films. It just feels like you're watching something a bit special.

Here is the trailer - bang in your eyes.


Submarine
Richard Ayoade
March 18th

Now I totes heart Wes Anderson. And it feels lazy to say that Richard Ayoade's directorial debut feels Wes Andersonny.... but it does. You can see the seeds of it in his music videos. This film is both very clever and very silly. It has the base humour and the intellectual snobbery of the best of precocious teens. It is REALLY REALLY funny and has some cracking visuals and dialogue.

The cast is also brillo

And (in quite a rare move for films nowadays) the trailer was really good - and featured Brel. AND WE ALL LOVE BREL!


The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec
Luc Besson
April 22nd

Hey! You know how Luc Besson is a bit unpredictable and hasn't really directed anything good since Leon? And that all the films he writes and produces are essentially the same film?
WELL... now he has made a batshit crazy period film which makes barely any sense and just throws more and more nonsense at the screen until your head pops. It is described in a lazy spine-quote as 'Amelie meets Indiana Jones' which is sort of accurate - but really, it is a beast of its own. It is nonsense.

IT IS BLOODY BRILLIANT.

I don't want to spoil it for you. It is too mental. It is so good though. This should whet your appetite.


Drive
Nicolas Winding Refn
Sept 23rd

Ooooh sexy sexy Ryan Gosling. This film manages to hark back to the 80's and yet be so cool it made my eyes bleed. Cool hero. Cool Ron Perlman Baddy. Coolest song of the year.



Cool jacket. Cool visuals. Cool driving. Cool Carey Mulligan.

Just.... so damned Cool

I can't believe someone wanted to sue the film makers because they saw THIS trailer and then expected it to be like The Fast and the Furious. Don't be a plum. Watch this film.

It is totes cool.


Hugo
Martin Scorsese
Nov 28th

Scorsese's first family film is a beautiful love letter to the olden days of cinema. The core story is good. The visuals are lush - with a fetish for mechanisms and cogs and Paris which I instantly warmed to - those mechanisms also look all the richer in 3D. But really, for me - as a film nerd - this film suceeds in the beautiful beautiful story of Ben Kingsley's character.

A wonderful look back at the past which caused proper goosebumps and throat lumps when I watched it.

I then went to watch Voyage a la Lune on youtube. Just like Melies had always planned.

A really lush film. In the real meaning of the word, and the geordie meaning of the word.

Here is a trailer which doesn't show in any way just how good the film is.... (bloody trailers)


Life In A Day
Kevin Macdonald
June 17th

This may not be the best documentary I've seen this year, it may be the best documentry I've ever seen. It is quite probably one of the greatest things I have ever treated my eyes to. It was in like 2 cinemas for about 20 minutes, so I don't think anyone got to go to the cinema to see this crowd sourced, Youtube filmed story of what people were doing on one particular day of 2010. However, I caught it on the BBC and it made me cry. 3 times.

It is remarkable. It is one of the most poignant, uplifting and just plain gorgeous things I have ever seen in my life.

It gives me faith in the world. It is that good.

Best of all - as it was made with Youtube, it is available to watch. For free. From Youtube. I still bought the DVD though.

GO and watch it.
It is so lush.

This post has been edited by Timothy Goose: 04 January 2012 - 11:16 AM

[Silver Joinee Johnd]

Can't really remember seeing much that was out this year. The Debt was good (I forgot what it was called so I Googled 'Helen Mirren and Nazis').

Oh yes Super 8 was good.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes of the Of The was excruciatingly awful I thought, sorry. I just thought everyone in the film was annoyingly bland, especially monkeyboy. Plus nothing interesting actually happened. Though if John Lithgow had starred as all of the characters it would have improved no end. And think of all the money they'd have saved on CGI.

Your number 4 sounds good, will have a look see at that I reckons

This post has been edited by Silver Joinee Johnd: 22 January 2012 - 01:04 AM

[Lethal Biddle]

Due, mostly, to the consistent distractions of womankind & the compromises they have forced upon me I have only seen one of these films this year; Submarine. Which is spiffing. I aim to watch all of the rest within the next however long it takes me to watch all the rest of them.

Silver Joinee Johnd, on 03 January 2012 - 10:55 PM, said:

Though if John Lithgow had starred as all of the characters it would have improved no end. And think of all the money they'd have saved on CGI.

How do you figure that? There'd still have to be an awful lot of CG... You do know there's really only one John Lithgow right?

This post has been edited by Lethal Biddle: 04 January 2012 - 10:00 AM

[Timothy Goose]

Lethal Biddle, on 04 January 2012 - 09:59 AM, said:

Due, mostly, to the consistent distractions of womankind & the compromises they have forced upon me I have only seen one of these films this year; Submarine. Which is spiffing. I aim to watch all of the rest within the next however long it takes me to watch all the rest of them.

Eleri and I are going to go see The Artist this weekend. Do you and Jo want to meet up for some insanely happy Silent Movie shenanigans?

Also - If I had to pick two films for you to watch, they would be Tyrannosaur (because you love Bleak-As-#!$& Cinema) and Drive (Because it is oh-so-very-good). Hugo may be too twee for you (but, you're a film geek so you should enjoy it) and Life in a Day is something that EVERYONE needs to see so is excluded from being singled out for you

This post has been edited by Timothy Goose: 04 January 2012 - 10:26 AM

[GJ Drought]

ive actually only seen one of those films! and ive no idea how! something i plan to rectify this year

[Lethal Biddle]

Timothy Goose, on 04 January 2012 - 10:23 AM, said:

Eleri and I are going to go see The Artist this weekend. Do you and Jo want to meet up for some insanely happy Silent Movie shenanigans

Possibly. In theory yes, but we might be too poor. January is seriously empoverished thanks to Christmas.

Timothy Goose, on 04 January 2012 - 10:23 AM, said:

Also - If I had to pick two films for you to watch, they would be Tyrannosaur (because you love Bleak-As-#!$& Cinema) and Drive (Because it is oh-so-very-good). Hugo may be too twee for you (but, you're a film geek so you should enjoy it) and Life in a Day is something that EVERYONE needs to see so is excluded from being singled out for you

Those were the two that looked most appealing! I had a chance to see Drive for free a while back, but I'd been up for about 40hrs & was just too tired. I'd have ended up only seeing the first 5mins.
What with bleakness, Paddy Considine & Olivia Coleman, Tyrannosaur actually sounds perfect for me. I might need to watch that tonight if I can.

This post has been edited by Lethal Biddle: 04 January 2012 - 11:04 AM

[Timothy Goose]

GJ Drought, on 04 January 2012 - 10:43 AM, said:

ive actually only seen one of those films! and ive no idea how! something i plan to rectify this year

Which one did you see?

I feel bad for leaving out Captain America, which I reckon would've been #11 because even though the final act is a bit meh, the beginning has probably the best superhero origin story yet put to film and an Alan Menken musical number. Also Tommy Lee Jones being surly and Stanley Tucci being awesome (because Stanley Tucci is awesome in EVERYTHING)
It also helped me to realise that I have bloody adore '40's fashion as I spent the whole time going "oooh that looks nice"

You should also watch Kaboom. It is rubbish - but gloriously so. Like late night Hollyoaks, mixed with Buffy and where they forget about plot until the final 20min.

Also - I didn't see the following films which were supposed to be amazles

Animal Kingdom
Blue Valentine
Melancholia
Weekend
We Need To Talk About Kevin

[Lethal Biddle]

Timothy Goose, on 04 January 2012 - 12:08 PM, said:

You should also watch Kaboom. It is rubbish - but gloriously so. Like late night Hollyoaks, mixed with Buffy and where they forget about plot until the final 20min.

No, don't watch Kaboom. I watched it on Tim's recommendation & it's rubbish. It's one of the few films (maybe the only) Tim's ever recommended that bored me. Some pretty girls get naked in it, but that's pretty much the only good thing about it. Oh & the protagonist looks amusingly like a young Jeff from Community, but that's all.

[Angel Moon]

I've only seen one of these. Hanna It was good and different (in a nice way). It was on the flight over to the UK. I've never even heard of the others.

[Mr Phil]

Seen 1 and 5. 1 was interesting, but I wouldn't say it was amazing. 5 was brilliant. I want to see 4, but Laura's very skeptical, after the whole Whip It debacle. I don't think she'll take your advice on films ever again.

[Gaz]

The only film from 2011 that springs to mind that I saw and really liked is Super 8.

[GJ Drought]

Timothy Goose, on 04 January 2012 - 12:08 PM, said:

Which one did you see?

Drive, and I actually think its possibly one of the best films thats been made in a very long time. Mainly because i adore the way many films used to be filmed where the director would take his time with you, not explain everything, and be comfortable filming scenes where very little happens. it adds to the suspense and draws you in so much better so that you hang off every word and facial expression. it forces you to pay attention rather than a jerry bruckfest of splosions every 30 seconds to keep the pace up!

Just to add to this, though it wasnt a film made in 2011, i did go and see Paul Mertons silent clowns show in Leeds and got to see the full feature of "safety first" which is well worth seeing if you havent seen it before

[Rachel Rose]

I don't have ten. I do have six.

In descending order.



Bridesmaids.

The King's Speech.

Moneyball.

The Debt.

Super 8.

The Help.

[HRH Gold Joinee Sheli]

Drive was #!$&ing totes amaze.

I went in expecting to HATE it, because I thought it was going to be a rubbish f&f type thing.

I spent pretty much the whole film staring open mouthed at the cinema screen in wonder. TOTES amaze.



Timmy, we are watching Hanna tonight, on your recommendation. It better be good xx

[GJ Drought]

result..... awsome!



review reviewed!

[Hebba Homemaker]

HRH Gold Joinee Sheli, on 09 January 2012 - 06:46 PM, said:

Timmy, we are watching Hanna tonight, on your recommendation. It better be good xx

Ooh I watched that tonight, it was awesomes!

[HRH Gold Joinee Sheli]

Yep! Very very good

[PJ Hannah B-R]

Hanna was amazing.

The Help was SUCH a let down after the book, they tried to fit too much in, so although what was in was very very good, it became too episodic and without enough of a meaningful arc. It annoyed me.

[KatieBooSmith]

Wasn't a big fan of Submarine.

Agree with Wes Anderson angle; I'd watch Rushmore over Submarine any day though.

[Silver Joinee Johnd]

Lethal Biddle, on 04 January 2012 - 09:59 AM, said:

How do you figure that? There'd still have to be an awful lot of CG... You do know there's really only one John Lithgow right?

Indeed. Just film him acting in all the different roles and then stick it all together. Result: Oscars all round