Movies I've Watched Since Fall 2011

Sometime this fall, I decided to start keeping a list of all the movies I watch. I already do this with books, but it turned out to be a lot more difficult with movies, since I watch on average at least two a week.

I'm going to post it in 10 film chunks, and attempt to write a few lines about each, either of my gut reaction or any lingering impressions it left on me. There are certainly many films that will be left out, since I often forget to update the list.

Here goes List #1:

1. Moneyball - I think the first word that comes to mind about this film is likable. Brad Pitt is likable, Jonah Hill is likable, Brad's daughter is likable, the team is likable, the underdog story is likable, the sleepy success that this movie had was likable. I expected to be somewhat bored, but wasn't for a second. I especially liked the dynamics between the somewhat rag-tag teammates, and the relationship between Brad and his daughter. Her song for him at the end was maybe my favorite part! I'm this movie got some recognition!

2. Drive - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This movie deserves it's own post. My favorite movie of 2011, hands down. My love for Drive is somewhat like my love for The Departed, that is, inexplicable. It's violent, romantic, subtle, visceral, cathartic, vague, memorable, and evocative. I watched this movie 5x in one week when it came out in Redbox. I own the DVD, the soundtrack, and the poster. My favorite part of the movie is when Carey Muligan and Ryan Gosling, zoning out in their respective apartments, are edited in such a way that it implies that they're looking at, and thinking of, each other. I cannot get enough of this movie.

3. Crazy Stupid Love (x2) - This movie was actually really well done - touching, funny, well-acted, and very satisfyingly structured. Stars the perennial everyman Steve Carrell, the always attractive Ryan Gosling, the always likable Emma Stone, and the always red-haired Julianne Moore (not much to say about her, I guess). Despite this movie actually being funny, touching, and well-made, it made me sad when I first watched it, because everything that goes wrong in this movie is the result of bad choices made about love and sex - choices that are so commonplace these days that we seem more apt to shrug our shoulders in resignation of them, and make light of them in comedies, that we do to actually do something to fix them.

4. 30 Minutes or Less - Comedy with Aziz Ansari (Parks and Rec) and Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) about two friends who have to steal a bunch of money after some really dumb, pyscho crooks (led by Danny McBride of  Eastbound and Down/Pineapple Express fame) strap a bomb to one of them. Not really funny. What you would expect of such a movie. Meh. Nothing else to say.

5. Breaking Dawn (x2) - Obviously, Part One of the final Twilight franchise films! A big "WTF, mate?" regarding the whole thing. Highlights: A)seeing it at the midnight show with a bunch of other like-minded Twilight fans (of the "we know this is stupid but we can't stop reading/watching" variety.) B)Jasper's unintentionally hilarious addition to the "fetus is incompatible with Bella's body" discussion - the oddly timed and oddly delivered "Possibly." C)The wolf pack argument in Optimus Prime voices, culminating with the "I AM THE GRANDSON OF EPHRAIM BLACK!" declaration by Jacob. D)The honeymoon scene. I think it put my little sister off sex for life. E) Jacob's creepy Renesme imprinting montage. F)The only actual highlight - Bella's Tree of Life-esque flashback sequence in which her entire life (mostly comprised of Edward moments) plays backwards in her head, ending with her own birth, as she lies fighting for her life after her own pregnancy turns out to be something from Rosemary's Baby. I actually thought this sequence was moving, but maybe it was just the best part of an otherwise awkward movie, or maybe it was just the lovely "Bella's Theme" piano piece that accompanied it.

6. Our Idiot Brother - Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones, Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer. Paul Rudd is a nice hippy guy who gets shopped around by his three very different sisters when he stumbles upon hard times. Zooey Deschanel as the free-spirited, experimenting lesbian, Rashida Jones as her most-interesting-character-in-the-whole-movie girlfriend, Elizabeth Banks as the uptight career sister, and Emily Mortimer as the uptight earth mother sister, who is married to a jerk of an artist-model-canoodling photographer/documentary maker husband (Steve Coogan). If it sounds like a lot of liberal stereotypes in one movie, it is. Paul Rudd is likable enough, but the movie never quite found the notes it wanted to hit.

7. All Good Things - Ryan Gosling/Kirsten Dunst movie. Watched during Ryan Gosling kick. A "Did he murder his wife/did he not?" story. Based on a the life of Robert Durst, the son of a real-estate mogul and multiple murder suspect. Gets creepy at the end when Ryan Gosling starts crossdressing? Just "meh" of a movie...nothing outstandingly awful, but nothing outstandingly memorable.

8. The Way Back - Colin Farrel was in this movie. So was that British guy, Jim Sturgess, from the Beatles musical Across the Universe. Not memorable. Men escaping from a Russian work camp, I believe. Debatably (word?) based on real events. Gritty and fine, but utterly forgettable.

9. Melancholia - I should watch this movie again, but I'm not up for it anytime soon. Depressing in the most realistic sense of the word. Should have been nominated for Best Pic, Best Director, and Best Actress/Supporting Actress. Felt nauseous throughout, partly because of the handheld camera work and partly because it was So. Dang. Depressing. All that being said, I think it's the most realistic depiction I've  ever seen of what a family would actually act like if a cataclysmic event such as the physical annihilation of Earth was imminent.

10. Monte Carlo - Very disappointing lack of clothes-trying-on montage! Selena Gomez, if you were trying to avoid teen chick flick cliches, DON'T! That's what we came here for! Other than that, the hot, kind, orphan-helping Italian guy made a nice impression, so much so that my cousin and I Google-imaged him when we were done. And Leighton Meester was very likable as the uptight stepsister.

That concludes Round One! So many more to come!