Corey A. Caplan's Top 10 Films of 2011

 10. The Descendants

I think it’s great the way that director Alexander Payne’s films always seem to sneak up on us with an unexpected wealth of comedy, then drama, then pathos, and ultimately beauty. In his latest take on his favorite subject, the modern middle-aged male, Payne paints with ugly humanistic tendencies set against a lush Hawaiian backdrop. His leading man, the always delightful Mr. George Clooney, is a perfect guide as the conflicted heir to an untouched swath of land who is dealing with a dying wife and her infidelities.

9. Project Nim

You cannot deny this: films about Monkeys have consistently entertained audiences since the dawn of the 20th century. What you might want to deny, are the tears that you will shed by the end of this emotional roller coaster ride of a documentary by James Marsh (“Man on Wire”). A thorough examination of the life of Nim Chimpsky, a Chimpanzee with remarkable communicative abilities, Marsh pulls heart strings from the human stories of those he imprinted on, while stoking anger against opportunists and corrupt scientists. Thought provoking and memorable.

8. Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest is my favorite hip-hop group of all time. Their best tunes are intense, funky and full of life. Thankfully director Michael Rapaport, best known for his work as a Hollywood actor, has made a film that is entirely reflective of ATCQ’s music. A colourful, smoothly edited, infectious documentary, Rapaport manages to wring raw feeling and a welcomed exhilaration out of the story of true musicians. They are creative, intelligent men once broken up by massive egos, but irrevocably united by the funkiness of their music.

7. 50/50

Sentimental without being sappy, Jonathan Levine’s follow up to the highly enjoyable “The Wackness” is a finely acted, funny and sincere piece of understated filmmaking. Starring the consistently wonderful Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam, a 28-year-old radio producer dealing with an extremely rare case of spinal cancer, “50/50” surprised everyone with its emotionally affecting approach to coming to terms with youthful mortality. Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick shine in supporting roles.

6. The Interrupters

Arguably the most “important” documentary of the year, director Steve James comes full circle with similar themes revolving around the black experience in America with his latest about a team of ex-gang members in Chicago; “violence interrupters” who specifically target at-risk youth, eliminating violent behavior at the street level. James, known for injecting his personal history and experience into his films, takes a step back here and lets his compelling subjects tell their stories. A scene involving an ex-thief confronting his victims months after a stick-up at a barber shop packs an emotional wallop because James, who filmed and directed, is unflinching in letting ugly, cathartic moments play out. Exceptional and raw documentary filmmaking.

5. Attack the Block

Joe Cornish’s first feature is a British Hoodlum-Action-Comedy-Horror film with a science fiction twist. And although on paper it seems like another overstuffed debut, it is impressive just how much of it works, with emotional power to spare. Following the tale of a gang of project-dwelling troublemakers as they inadvertently spark an interplanetary struggle against, in the memorable but perfect words of one character “gorilla-wolf looking motherf**ers”, Cornish executes one white-knuckled action sequence after another and finds time to flesh out his characters and the harsh socioeconomic realities that define them. Throw in some very memorable monster SFX and naturalistic performances by many first-time actors and you have one of the most surprisingly original films in recent memory.

4. Drive

A taut, intense and at times gorgeous piece of action-arthouse cinema, Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest isn’t merely a vehicle for Ryan Gosling’s simultaneously brooding and vulnerable lead character, but an exquisitely directed and realized meditation on identity and survival in a dog-eat-dog world. Meticulously photographed and edited, Drive is at times ultra-violent, hyper-stylized and thought-provoking. Gosling plays the “driver”, a mysterious, stoic figure with almost superhuman-like abilities behind the wheel of a car, mixed up in a violent mob-war involving an innocent mother played by an angelic Carey Mulligan, her son and (in an Oscar worthy role) Albert Brooks as a murderous kingpin. As with previous Refn outings, lots of blood is spilled and the atmospheric tension is amped up to 11, but what propels this film into the upper echelons of violent car-chase cinema, is its ability to thematically resonate while providing the requisite thrills. A film I was not able to shake from my conscience for a long time.

3. Beauty Day

A kitchen sink of a documentary, first-timer Jay Cheel’s “Beauty Day” is an uproarious, tender and poignant look at a dude who lives life to the limit. It is the story of the unbelievable life of St. Catherines, Ontario native Ralph Zavadil a.k.a Cap’n Video, whose popular cable access show in the early 90’s featured the Cap’n doing Jackass-like stunts ages before Jackass was even a nugget of an idea. What elevates Cheel’s film from what could have been a silly glorification of Zavadil’s admittedly hilariously dangerous television show is a willingness to get to the human core of the story; we see Zavadil literally break his neck trying to jump off a ladder propped up against a tree into his pool (an infamous stunt that landed him his 15 minutes of global notoriety) contrasted with harsh, emotionally sincere reactions from his mother and close friends. It’s also a beautifully shot and edited documentary with an evocative soundtrack and style to spare. This is the kind of seemingly effortless production that has made Canada one of the world leaders in energetic modern documentary filmmaking.

2. Cafe De Flore

The best Canadian film of the year, “Cafe De Flore”, Jean-Marc Vallee’s return back to his Quebecois roots after the big budget “The Young Victoria”, is a treat for the eyes, ears, mind and most importantly, the heart. A time-shifting, kinetic kaleidoscope of a film, “Cafe De Flore” asks more scathingly open questions about empathy, destiny and humanistic connection than any indie drama in recent memory. The film follows the parallel stories of Antoine (Kevin Parent), a DJ in modern day Montreal with a seemingly perfect life and a voluptuous new fiancee (Evelyne Brochu) experiencing a crisis of sudden guilt and remorse; and Jacqueline (the fantastic Vanessa Paradis) a single mother in 1960s Paris struggling for the love of her son, a child with Down syndrome, after a new girl enters his life. Vallee keeps both stories moving at a brisk pace, and like his previous Quebecois feature “C.R.A.Z.Y”, punctuates every scene with a heavy dose of Pink Floyd and other popular tunes from years past. But the use of music here is innovative in the way it questions the idea of the “shared experience” of a vinyl record: As the stories begin to interweave (revealing just how that happens would be a crime) and musical themes blend together, a philosophical magic trick is played on the audience, and if you’ve managed to fully engage with the story, what you’re left with is an extravagant, almost mystical realization about the timelessness of tragic romanticism and the power of love that binds us all. Yeah, it’s that deep.

1. The Tree of Life

“Feeling” and “emotion” are adjectives really thrown around a lot in the discussion and writing of film. The truth is that there is a dearth of films that really can be evocative enough to deserve such descriptors. Director Terrence Malick has spent his entire 40+ year career searching for these words and injecting them into every possible orifice of each of his five films. With “The Tree of LIfe”, he has achieved the fullest expression of his craft. Every single colour, expression and cut in this film pulses with a life and a fervor that is just so rare in modern filmmaking.

Keeping in form with most of Malick’s works, Tree of Life is an abstract poem, relying mostly on the lush power of his images in tandem with a delicate but grandiose soundtrack to tell his story, which centers on Jack (Sean Penn), an architect experiencing a melancholic relapse of the trauma brought on by the death of his younger brother in decades past. As Jack looks back in time to revisit his childhood, growing up in 60’s suburban Texas under the strict, demeaning rule of his father (Brad Pitt) and his delicate but idealistic mother (Jessica Chastain), Malick literally takes to the beginning of his world - the actual beginning of the world. What follows is a hypnotic and operatic “creation” sequence that transitions into the beautiful innocence of Jack's childhood, to the frustrating, dark revelations that accompany his adolescence, and eventually towards a sort of "afterlife" sequence.

It’s hard not to talk about Tree of Life without being unreasonably abstract and long-winded, but that’s because the film operates in the same way. For those that have completely connected with the film, they know that this is not a criticism. Malick paints his canvas with the precision of Monet and the wild volatility of Jackson Pollock, conveying both the messiness and confusion of human existence and the unifying, inspirational rhythms inherent in the universe. But that is life at its core though, isn’t it? A constant push and pull between the darkness of chaos and the affirmation of singularity. This is the kind of film is not afraid to leap with its eyes closed into the deepest, most human philosophical dillemas. For any serious movie fan, it’s worth taking the plunge.

TIFF 2011 Review - The Raid (Evans, 2011) *****

Just over half way through Welch director Gareth Evans' Indonesian action opus The Raid, a small, wiry tough guy proclaims: "I don't like pulling a trigger on a gun, it's like ordering takeout." This, probably one of the most bad ass lines ever uttered in any movie, is indicative of the inventive brutality of one of the strongest straight-up genre action films made in the last decade. Premiering at Colin Geddes' Midnight Madness programme at TIFF 2011, The Raid is an unbelievable achievement of bone-crunching choreography, editing, camera work, bloodily satisfying special effects and a proper introduction to action star Iko Uwais.

Every good action flick has a simple, but effective plot structure to fix around set-pieces, and The Raid is no different: Uwais stars as Rama, a rookie member of an Elite SWAT team tasked with bringing down Tama, the most powerful drug lord in Jakarta who resides in an apartment block-slash-fortress containing what seems to be all the most dangerous junkies, killers and straight up criminal lowlifes in the city. Eventually their cover is blown, Tama puts a price on the heads of the team, and learn that the most senior member of the squad has sabotaged any hope of reinforcements. This is in the first 10 minutes of the film. The next 80 minutes is pretty much a non-stop bloodbath of over-the-top action set pieces as Rama tries to fight his way out of the building.

The Raid reminded me a lot of action/siege films like Die Hard and The Rock, but done with action choreography that maintains an efficiency and brutality that I haven't seen attempted in years. Here, Evans shows off an amazing ability to maintain a level of gut-wrenching suspense, while consistently thrilling and shocking the audience. We always feel that Uwais, while showcasing his unbelievable martial-arts intensity and agility, is fighting for his life in every one-versus-twenty man brawl (there's several). This is due to an unflinching bloodiness (with excellent make-up effects depicting some of the most brutal gunshots to the skull, throat stabbings, spine-crackings and neck breaks I've seen in a film in quite sometime, and there is a hell of a lot of them) working in tandem with camerawork that stays fluid and avoids the close-up shakiness seen in many a crappy action flick, and precise, visceral editing that stays noninvasive.

An instant cult classic, "The Raid" will eventually make it over to North American audiences (where it will be re-scored *gulp* by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park) that will absolutely devour it. This is an example of world class action cinema; a lethal concoction of exciting, bloody, shocking violence, efficient technical filmmaking, and a showcase for a new martial arts superstar in the form of Iko Uwais. Subtitles might be a drawback for some, but that never stopped the films of Jackie Chan, Jet Li or Tony Jaa from being successful. This is the kind of film that sets your adrenaline racing so fast that it takes a couple days just to get it out of your system.

INTERNATIONAL TRAILER

Review - Midnight In Paris (Allen, 2011) ***

Sometimes I wish I lived through the 1970s, in New York or Chicago, or even Detroit. I wish I could be there in the golden age of Funk and Soul music. A time when it took real musicianship and a real sense of substance to really make it big. But this kind of naivete really never takes me anywhere but back to my own sense of romanticism for that period in music. Such is the paradox in the great Woody Allen's latest film "Midnight In Paris", a charming and satisfying comedy with beautiful photography, a crisply written, tightly plotted script, boasting the finest Owen Wilson performance in a really long time and a thematic eloquence to boot.

Wilson plays Gil Pender, a successful Hollywood screenwriter of many funny, but forgettable films, vacationing in Paris with his fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams, who is absolutely stunning here, but in one-note role) and her vapid right-wing parents. Gil is absolutely smitten with Paris, and is immediately taken with the idea of throwing his cushy Beverly Hills life away in exchange for spending the rest of his days walking in the rain through Paris and writing novels. After a wine-drenched evening with Inez's pretentious, overly flirty friend Paul (Michael Sheen, donning a shockingly good American accent) and his wife, Gil finds himself inexplicably transported back in time to 1920s Paris, where he meets F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, among others that I won't reveal as to spoil the fun.

Devotees of Woody like to separate his films into a number of classes, including minor Woody, funny Woody and classic Woody. What's interesting about this film is that it is a mix of all three. He keeps a nice, steady pace to the proceedings here, lingering enough on character, theme and dashes of his trademark humor to keep things light and fairly engaging. I liked that the plot device of time travel exists not as a gimmicky bludgeon, but more as an extension of Gil's internal struggles as a hopeless romantic torn between the prospects of the seduction and nostalgia of the past and the constant uncertainty of the present. Each character is allowed a moment of memorable poignancy too, as seen in a surprisingly intense monologue about life, death and sex by Woody's version of Ernest Hemingway (played by Television vet Corey Stoll, who absolutely sinks his teeth in here.

Woody's better films of the past two decades (Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona) are at their best when his leads are accompanied by strongly written, directed and acted supporting characters (see Penelope Cruz's Oscar for VCB as proof in the pudding). Here, we have the always ravishing Marion Cotillard as Adriana, Wilson's love interest who, like his character, longs for the beauty of an earlier era. Cotillard, always sumptuous, is radiant here. And like many of Woody's great female roles, Adriana's beauty and scars of the past are the direct cause of her tragic endgame (don't worry, it's not so bad).

In the end though, the film draws to a relatively light, but satisfying conclusion; it's a lesson of embracing the uncertainties rather than living inside a disguise of predictability. The subject matter here is certainly not as dark or cynical or relentlessly depressing as heavy Woody, but leaves a rather positive, uplifting aftertaste. It's nice to know that a filmmaker who has been around as long as Woody (he's 75) can still make films this poignant. "Midnight In Paris" is a short, memorable, romantic lark that has given me the opportunity to coin a new term: Just-plain Woody.

Review - Bridesmaids (Feig, 2011) ***

In an age of dime-a-dozen chick flicks that are completely superficial in their creative and commercial aspirations, director Paul Feig's "Bridesmaids" is refreshingly honest and hilarious, reminding us again of the power of the funny female and the enormous cinematic potential of star Kristen Wiig.

Sporting a terrific script from Wiig and Annie Mumomo, "Bridesmaids" takes us into the life of Annie (Wiig), a broke thirty-something who gets booty called on the regular by a rich asshole (another great Jon Hamm cameo), is about to get thrown out of her apartment by her half-witted British roommates and works a miserable job at a retail jewelery store.

When best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged, Annie decides to take up the reins of Maid of Honor and meets Lillian's bridesmaids: Becca, the too innocent for her own good newlywed (Ellie Kemper); perpetually boozy and jaded housewife Rita (Wendi-McLendon Covey); plus-sized party animal Megan (Melissa McCarthy, in the definition of a scene-stealing role); and of course Helen (Rose Byrne) the control-freak trophy wife of Lillian's fiancee's boss and ultimately the film's semi-antagonist, thwarting Annie's every endeavor with a transparent tinge of condescension.

Strung together by a loose, episodic structure similar to "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (another Apatow production), the film maintains dramatic escalation by means of letting all of Annie's failures, missteps and awkwardness inform her inability to perform as Lillian's Maid of Honor; Wiig gives Annie a spectacular display of drunkenness on a flight to Vegas that is absolutely uproarious. We root for Annie because she's a smart, attractive woman and we know that her incompetence at this stage of her life is due to previous heartbreak.

Director Feig gets most of the credit for the film's substantive feel. He allows his female stars the ability to stay improvisational inside the bodies of these fleshed out, honest characters, and we love them all the more because of their natural reactions and attitudes. But this is also the film's weakest trait; some scenes are very fatty with dialogue and gags such as an engagement party one-up-a-thon between Wiig and Byrne get dragged out to an unnecessary length.

"Bridesmaids" is a blast and a great reminder that the female condition is a lot funnier and more nuanced than most (both gals and dudes) would like to believe. This is truly a breakout vehicle for Kristen Wiig and a solid entry in the realm of Apatow-style character driven comedies.

HOT DOCS 2011 - REVIEWS FROM TWITTER

Will I one day hopefully write long-form reviews of some of these? Probably. I'll have to see BEAUTY DAY one more time to confirm its greatness.

And now without further ado, by rating:

Beauty Day (Cheel, 2011) ***** A big, real story about a dude who lives life to the limit. Uproarious, tender and perfectly shot.

Black Power Mixtape (Olsson, 2011) **** Forgotten Swedish footage of black militant leaders is powerful, rousing & inspirational.

Project Nim (Marsh, 2011) **** Well paced, epic tale about an intelligent Chimp & tragic human flaws. An emotional rollercoaster.

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (Rapaport, 2011) **** Plays out like a great Tribe track: intense, funky and full of life.

Hell and Back Again (Dennis, 2011) **** Engrossing, brutal doc captures claustrophobic effects of war at home and on frontlines.

Kumare (Ghandi, 2011) *** - Inspiring Borat-like doc with solid yogic philosophy linked into plot and character. Funny & gorgeous.

Magic Trip (Gibney & Elwood, 2011) *** Impressively edited look at Merry Prankster's trip across US with a memorable LSD sequence.

A Simple Rhythm (Girard, 2011) ** Intelligent thesis hampered by wavy pacing. Neglects opportunity for more kinetic storytelling.

The Castle (D'Anolfi & Parenti, 2011) * Mind-numbingly slow & indulgent behind the scenes look at Milan airport misses the mark.

Review - Rango (Verbinski, 2011) ****

Not only is director Gore Verbinski's (Pirates of the Carribean trilogy, The Ring) first animated feature "Rango" a sensual pleasure of the highest order, it's a truly original surrealist-western adventure with pitch-perfect voice acting and brilliant thematic invention.

Johnny Depp voices the titular character; at first a nameless, identity deprived Chameleon with a penchant for dramatics, who through a set of extremely odd circumstances and well crafted tales of grandeur, ends up as the Sheriff in the town of "Dirt", a water-deprived, grungy, bizarre place inhabited by equally bizarre anthropomorphized Western film archetypes.

Depp, leading an (unexpectedly) brilliant voice cast including Isla Fisher, Harry Dean Stanton and Ray Winstone, is virtually unrecognizable here. Totally throwing himself into this role despite this being an animated film, Depp creates an entirely original voice; Rango is a three-dimensional (even though the film is not *GASP* presented in 3D), memorable and oddly sympathetic character, among the many others in this film.

Perhaps the film's biggest strength is the detailed and gorgeous rendering and animation, done by George Lucas' ILM in their first animated feature. The creatures populated throughout the film's desert environment, all strange desert morphs of western archetypes, including Bill Nighy's menacing chaingun-tail-equipped Rattle Snake Jake and a huge squadron of thieving redneck-like moles, all move with a believable grace. The cinematography and lighting, advised by Coen Bros favorite Roger Deakins, creates a lush, almost photo-real look to the environments and characters, and adds to the metaphysics of the film's original-but-classic western feel.

But while on the surface, this Nickelodeon-produced film may seem geared toward imagination-inclined kids, and it is, Verbinski has actually created a subtly self-reflexive story that is best swallowed by mature filmgoers who will swoon over the myriad Western/Sergio Leone allusions. And while the intense gunplay and surrealistic fever dream sequences may frighten younger viewers, "Rango" is a fun, gorgeous, metaphysical journey through Western film history, with a thematic resonance that is at once comforting and familiar, but ultimately deeply human.

Review - Four Lions (Morris, 2010) * * *

The word Jihad gets tossed around so much these days, who is to say what it actually means? Do we think of horrific violence perpetrated by bloodthirsty terrorists? Or perhaps some may think of their own personal quest for justice. Well the truth is that one's actions will always speak louder than the words that society has chosen to define them; the central premise behind UK comedy vet Chris Morris' hilarious and fascinating black-comic satire "Four Lions".

Following five bumbling Muslim men as they go through all the necessary steps to reach their goal of putting together the ultimate plan to blow themselves up and ignite the "final holy war", the film shares a kinship with such classic topical satires as "Dr. Strangelove" and even the Marx Brothers' screwball war comedy "Duck Soup". Each man is more bumbling than the last: There's protagonist Omar (Riz Ahmed), a loving family man with Jihadi aspirations, Barry, the token white extremist, Waj, the handsome idiot, Faisal, an impressionable fool, and Hassan, the new guy who is in way over his head.

Morris' film takes us through all the standard familiar staples of Jihad that we've all read about or seen in movies or documentaries, but somehow humanizes them by adding a thick layer of incompetence to the proceedings; the film opens with a hilariously inept attempt at an amateur Jihad-threat video. As the film progresses and the guys find themselves plotting a final grand plan to explode themselves amidst a populated London marathon, things take an inevitable turn for the darkly violent.

There are a number of moments in "Four Lions" that are poignant in their depiction of the human and political costs of terrorism; a scene involving snipers mistaking the bombers for civilians is terrifying but uproarious at the same time. Scenes like these give the film a unique power, but are rare and are mostly piled up near the end of the film. At 97 minutes, "Four Lions" is quite breezy and fast considering the subject matter. As a hilarious exploration of the inherent dumbness of extremism in modern society and a rare human take on the war on terror, Morris' film is a success. With the silliness toned down a bit and perhaps a sharper edge, it could have been a classic.