2011: A Whiff of Hope

Well, Oscar season is far from over and I still have multitudinous tumultuous Oscar rants to rage about, but for now I'm looking ahead to 2011 in film.

Even if I've come to the realization that mediocre superhero flicks and trashy princess fairy tale live-action "interpretations" (aka Twilightfied) will saturate the movie market for the next, oh, twenty five years, there are always still glimmers of hope to be found.

Feb. 11: The Eagle - Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell

What? Don't judge me. Most likely it will end up being this year's "Clash of the Titans" (at least, just as funny and not as boring), but maybe it will be the best guilty pleasure of 2011. And that to me is just as wonderful as any movie plied with Oscars.

March 11: Jane Eyre - Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender

OH MY GOD. I JUST CAN'T WAIT. Have already done my fair share of obsessive pre-conjuncturing.

May 27: The Tree of Life - Sean Penn, Brad Pitt (or the other way around?)

Well obviously even if we get redundant rhapsodizing of sheer nonsense from Malick, I'm just happy just to be bombarded by his sublime montages.

June 10: Super 8 - JJ Abrams (is always the real star of his movies)

It just looks real cool, is all. A bit of nostalgic Spielberg-feeling. I like the fact that Kyle Chandler is in it, though ENOUGH WITH THE ELLE FANNING. Child stars get overexposure like no other, and right now there are like, twelve. I haven't even seen "Somewhere" and even I'm sick of seeing her everywhere. She's supposedly modeling for Rodarte or something equally preposterous precocious.

July 15: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part II

I hope that this will be as haunted and self-assured as its companion piece, and I know that I will have a major breakdown after the movie fades to credits and the full realization that my childhood Harry Potter is over, really over, hits me at last. Just me and every late teen/young adult, just blubbering incessantly and weeping inconsolably. All beautiful things have to come to an end. For the time in my life, I'll feel the full impact of the words, "they'll never understand what it was like". OK shut up now. Pull it together til July, dammit!

Nov: Twilight - JUST KIDDING. FUCK THAT SHIT. Wow 2011 is going to be an emotionally unstable one for me when it comes to the movies...

Dec 21: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Rooney Mara

(Trailer TBD????)

Fincher Fincher Fincher Fincher Fincher

Possibles: War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, Hugo Cabret, Arthur, X-Men: First Class, Your Highness

Looking back at my 2010 list of anticipated movies, I realize that a third of the movies I never saw on that list and a third of them didn't even come out. And that was in April. Making a list at this time of the year is starting to feel futile.

Deathly Hallows Part I Thoughts, aka "Petition to Remake The Entire Harry Potter Series, Stat"

It was magical. It was epic, and at times reminded me of Lord of the Rings, but that's a good thing. It's by the most entertaining, alluring, strangely eerie and original of the bunch. They could have done it the easy way out and cut out 3/4 of the time spent in the woods in a desperate attempt to retain our attention, the movie kept my friends and I aware and tuned into the frustration and ennui felt by Harry, Ron, and Hermione during their time in foresty exile. (Btw, did shout-outs to the splendiferous scenery all around. The scene with the stunning cracked-rock cliffs? The camera-work and cinematography? Amazing.) The action scenes were taut, intense, and scared the crap out of the audiences. I definitely jumped a few times. The final scene left us emotional and anticipatory. You could practically hear one long, collective exhale in the theater when it ended.

And yet the one of this movie was SO different. It was just made in an entirely different vein than the other movies. Every Harry Potter movie has its unique stamp from the series' 30943285 different directors, but this version is in a different league, entirely. After watching the last movie, I predicted that the mischievous tone of The Half-Blood Prince's rabble-rousing antics was only to set up for the long, dark journey ahead for the seventh book, and I was right, but this just....rocked me. It was just so personal and strange and quietly sad, in some ways.

In this age where all movies either move at an ADHD "Transformers"-style speed or at an arthouse-style, glacial pace, enchanted with its own languidness, I simply cannot recall the last time the audience sat so absorbed for every little frame, every breath, movement, and tilt of expression. The filmmakers let the movie progress at a pace that felt organic, occasionally slow or jolting, depending on what was happening, but never boring. It took time in carving out its identity, and I seriously applaud David Yates for that kind of ballsiness. My friends and I were pleasantly surprised by the occasional injections of originality and artistic innovation (SPOILERS: the animation sequence used for the Tale of the Three Brothers, the art design for the Ministry, etc.)

There were indeed a couple of weird moments (what's a fantasy movie without one?), but at least they were a bit daring and imaginative, unlike the past weird moments when it was just plain embarrassing. I remember watching the first movie as an excited kid and cringing at the campy cliches, even as a 9-year-old. The first few were just awkward and factory assembled, like these shitty McDonald's Happy Meal plastic trinkets that you liked to toss around for five minutes but acknowledged was complete crap and in time became utterly indifferent to. It took them five movies to get the pacing right, to grow a soul (and a pair of nads) and get the tone of the books correct, but god was it worth it.

They outdid themselves. They made a crowd-pleasing movie that managed to retain its own soul and unique signature at the same time. All of the other movies should have been made this way. In my alternate universe all seven of the movies insofar are as funny, touching, and exciting in its faithfulness to the books, and lovely, strange, and artistically breathtaking in a cinematic form as this adaptation has been. Thank you David Yates and Co. Thankkkkk you for making this Potterphile very happy on Thanksgiving Day.

For instance, I thought I *was* Hermione Granger.....

It's impossible for me to think of much else while Potter-craze is dominating our lives. I keep thinking over its influence on my generation with such pride - I started reading the books when I was about 7 or 8, and the last book came out when I was 15 - so there you go, a series of books that literally spanned my childhood as I knew it, and I couldn't be grateful for better role models. Who didn't want to be brainy like Hermione, witty and irreverent like Ron, everlastingly kind and sensitive like Harry, with the occasional rivalry or loss of temper (especially when it was in the name of defending your loved ones)? I mean, I see a gang of girls at a movie theater (for 127 hours, unfortunately, not for Harry Potter), and before I can dismiss them as shallow as evidenced by their overly processed appearances, I see a dorky Gryffindor scarf or a drawn-on scar or their shining, eager eyes and I can't help but beam after them like proud parents.

Um, really what I meant to say is, I really love this elegant New York Times review of the seventh movie written by A.O Scott, the first review I've read that's incorporated what Harry Potter has meant to us into the movies' longstanding value, unlike other reviews that's just blathered on about its cinematic merits and production values.