Favorite Movies of 2010

Goodness gracious, I'd feel bad about getting out a 2010 wrap-up in the middle of March, but I choose to blame all these film companies that didn't release their prime Oscar-bait until December. I simply haven't had the time to get around to everything! And TBH, I'm not nearly dedicated as some I know to see every movie that comes out, so yes, I rely on the end of the year top-10 lists from all the publications to help me decide what to watch.

So the best movies I've seen of 2010 don't add up to ten overall, but I don't think that reflects less the quality of this year's movie than just my own limited intake.

1. Animal Kingdom

Most people just know it as a vehicle for Jacki Weaver's Oscar-nominated performance, but I didn't expect the rest of the movie or the other performances to be so damn good. You know one of these movies that never makes a single false move, where each moment is perfectly calibrated, and the movie takes you in during the first scene and the slow-burning momentum doesn't cease until the final second, when everything falls into place? Animal Kingdom is one of those. it's almost perfect.

Characters flit in and out of scenes, sometimes lasting for scarcely ten minutes of screentime, others are ruthlessly killed off (it is a crime drama, after all) but the human impact is never lost. You barely know who to turn your sympathies towards but you still feel towards everyone all the same. The violence is key to the story, but never feels desensitized or gratuitous. Oh, it's SO good. I love it.

2. The Social Network

I still have major problems with this movie, most of which have to do with Aaron Sorkin's glib and in many ways cheap stylization of a truly fascinating story, with what the laughable ending and somewhat ignorant/shallow/egotist perspective of the whole thing ("he wants to distinguish himself in a school full of people who got 1600s on their SATs!" "this movie is absolutely true!" "it's about how the internet is alienating a generation!"), but I really don't want to say much else about it because I feel like I've spent the last four or five months expressing the lady-boner I have for the directing/styling work from Fincher and the thrilling performances of the cast, in particular Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield (my massive crushes on those two actors doesn't hurt, either). Despite its major writing flaws, it's still hella memorable, exhilarating, and phenomenally executed.

3. How to Train Your Dragon

It's "one of these movies" where you don't realize how good it is until you've watched it for the fifth or sixth time and realized that it's still so much fun to watch. There are a lot of movies nowadays with a couple magnificent/slick visual scenes and little attention paid to whether the rest of the story sticks, but this isn't one of them. It works on every level, and I love all the details - Hiccup's brainy tech skills, every movement or expression Toothless makes, the perfected Gen-Y dialogue of the side characters ("Oh, I'm hurt! I'm very much hurt!" or "Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon, like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing its heart or something?"

4. Winter's Bone

On some level, I guess that it could be this year's American equivalent of Animal Kingdom. They're both modern stories that evoke primal, very essential struggles - human survival at its most basic and bleakest. There's something greater at stake here. But there's a really stark beauty and compulsion to the story that makes the movie so pleasurable, and a richness in thematic content that makes it truly epic. And like AK, it's just some very fine storytelling.

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I

Loved the slow-burning pace. Loved the overall cohesion, the imposition of thoughtful details, daring sequences (Tale of the Three Brothers, anyone?) and one or two scenes that admittedly should have been cut but added an interesting layer nonetheless. Loved the action scenes and occasionally thrilling/frightening showpieces and the moodiness that in itself was faithful to the spirit of the first half of the 7th book. It means SO much to me that a Harry Potter movie can stand on its own. This is the second HP movie in the series that I've actually loved and respected - the first was the previous Half-Blood Prince.

Apart from those, I really liked True Grit, Fish Tank, Tangled, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, and Black Swan.

Favorite Scenes of 2010:

True Grit: Beginning sequence and midnight ride

Black Swan: Last fifteen minutes

The Social Network: hacking sequence, "Do i have your attention?","Lawyer up", meeting Sean Parker, the regatta sequence

How to Train Your Dragon: first flight, toothless and hiccup connect, opening scene,

The Kids Are All Right: Every scene that involves a family meal

The Fighter: Porch scene with Charlene and Dicky

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Beginning sequence, Ministry of Magic infiltration, graveyard, The Tale of the Three Brothers

Underwhelmed of 2010: Eat Pray Love, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Toy Story 3 (SUE ME), Inception (ditto), Easy A

Jane Austen's Fight Club

Fight Club + Jane Austen = Genius. Just wondering what a Fincher-directed period film would be like. It would either be the best or the worst thing in the world. We all know he's a maestro at painting social rebels. That's just his thing. Austen doesn't really rebel against society as much as just majorly make fun of it, but still.......oh god, now I can't get this thought out of my my head. I'd genuinely explode if the news came that David Fincher would be doing English period. It would be the world turned upside down. Then it would be followed by the announcement that Tom Hooper is directing a serial killer movie and it would be......so epic.

Oscar Done Right

It was fucking abysmal, the entire affair. At least I wasn't so offended as last year's, just mostly bored to tears. But there were three parts that I can't stop watching over again and again:

Oscar opening montage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra3Z_iyBFcQ

Oscar closing BP montage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONCVJvbp27M

I know that this has gotten a lot of flak for making it so obvious that The King's Speech was going to win, but at the same time, this montage is just really well-made and I liked the fact that they tried to parallel parts of the speech to themes of the other nominees, at least.

Oscars Autotune

Ok, I'm not ok with this being at the Oscars - I just cringe at the thought of the audience seeing this - it's just embarrassing. But it really does make me laugh. Andrew Garfield's head bopping back and forth, oh my god.

I Can Feel It Coming

Like a storm.....on the....horizon. Like a curious sensation - oh whatever. I suck shit at metaphors.

Another "Actor Obsession" is heading this way. I may or may not find Michael Fassbender extremely intriguing right now. After watching him woo Mia Wasikowska passionately and walk around tight pants (bless the costume designer) for two hours, I suddenly find him to be a really really really interesting person. Isn't that strange? How original of me.

But thank god. It's been too long.

UPDATE: Oh shit! I guess it's not meant to be. The problem with these crushes of mine, is that the actor and the person are always inextricable for me. I love the actor because of the person and I love the person because of the actor and oh, it's just always a stupid mess. I always have to google them and I can only really fall in love with them if they prove to be an equally gorgeous human being, and most of the time they ARE (or so they seem so). Ralph Fiennes, Paul Rudd, whatever - just come off as classy and intelligent people. It just enhances the illusion of the actor when I feel like I can love the person behind it. In my process of falling-into-obssession, two things happened: 1) I thought he wasn't very good in a certain movie (granted, the movie of question itself sucked and he was slightly miscast) and 2) He dissed a movie that I esteem very highly. This is where my inner snob emerges - I think you just have to have good taste to like this movie. Cue hurt feelings and shattered fangirl illusions and what I recognize as collectively silly behavior, but the budding Actor Obsession melted right there and then. Oh Michael, it's too bad. But you're going to have a billion other fangirls, so I'm sure you'll be fine. We'll always have JE.

Jane Eyre (2011): Thoughts and Audience Madness

You know, I always pick out the conditions of the movie I'm seeing. Popcorn films demand a large audience to see it with. For scary movies and blockbuster pics, I just have to bring a friend because the shared experience just enhances the viewing. We scream together, laugh, joke around and the audience whoops and cheers. My all-time favorite movie watching experience was the premiere of The Dark Knight three years back, when the audience collectively gasped, cheered, and groaned. Oh, it was excellent.

But for smaller intimate movies, I always prefer to go alone. I don't need my friend's pithy comments or shared ennui or whatever. I'm utterly absorbed alone, and it's a blissful state. So when I settled down to an advance screening of "Jane Eyre" this evening with a friend (she was the one who got me the ticket so I owe it to her), I blanched when I saw thirty middle-school girls followed by a gi-fucking-gantic group of rowdy, baseball-cap wearing, hoodie-donning teenagers behind them. "Oh noooooooo," I moaned, sinking lower into my seat. "I can't handle this. I really fucking can't. Why are they here? Why the fuck do they even want to see Jane Eyre? Don't they want to see like, "Drive Angry" or something?"

To make a long story short, it was simultaneously the best and worst movie-watching experience of my life. Half the time I was pulled into the shared collective experience of popcorn movies; during funny moments the entire theater cracked up; at Jane and Rochester's first kiss, someone blubbered "YOU GO, GIRL" and my friend and I both cried with laughter as the rest of the theater burst into much hearty whooping and applause. Those spontaneous moments, the shared bursts of emotions, were the best.

The downside, and boy was it bad; the smartasses who kept trying to drop lame quips during the movie, the girls next to us who kept howling at the people behind us to shut the fuck up, the catcalls and occasional idiotic reactions, and worst of all, A FUCKING CRYING BABY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE MOVIE. I whispered to my friend, "who the FUCK brings a baby to the MOVIE THEATER?" And its caretaker didn't even make an effort to carry it out. So it wailed and wailed incessantly throughout the movie causing someone more than once to mutter, "I'm going to kill that baby". I wanted to correct them: Babies cry. Their caretakers, on the other hand, should know better than to take it to a movie instead of TAKING CARE OF IT.

So I was emotionally distraught the entire movie. During poignant or dramatic scenes, I'd be trying to cry in peace and then someone would make a wiseass catcall, or I'd be engrossed in a good moment and then the baby would start crying again, and I just wanted to rip my hair out. Then I would start laughing again and then crying and then getting pissed again. I was practically babbling by the time we left.

THAT ASIDE. THE MOVIE. Did I mention that these annoying teenagers were for the most part, fixated? I was dreading walkouts and groans, but they never happened. Shrieking baby aside, everyone seemed to really enjoy it. More on that later.

Overall, I thought the director, Cary Fukunaga did a great job of "updating" the movie (there's more suspense, visual flair, modern, tight pacing) and capturing the spirit of the book at the same time, and that's all you can ask of an adaptation, really. The style is quite impeccable, and the content, well, there's only so much of JE's nuances and themes you can cram into two hours. If only it could have been a miniseries. I noticed that some of the scenes from the trailer were cut; waiting for a "extended feature" DVD, perhaps?

Anyways, anyways, the ACTORS. Well, Mia Wasikowska was good, not great. In some scenes Mia would do too much and in others she'd do too little. She has a preternatural calm and maturity that suits her for Jane, but some of the traits other characters claimed to see in her ("ambition" "vivacity") were a bit lacking. She was clearly an intelligent, thoughtful, feeling person, but I'm not so sure she had the same spark and spirit of fire that I imagined in Jane, or even seen in a sketch of Charlotte Bronte. She has the requisite chemistry with Fassbender's Rochester, which is the most important thing, but I'm not sure the movie managed to capture Jane's allure - her full-bodied uniqueness and unearthly spirit; it tells that more than it shows.

Portrait of Charlotte Bronte, circa 1850

Still, the movie sincerely attempted to capture the book's spirit, which is all I can ask for - I understand that a perfect adaptation is impossible. It simply can't be done because how you imagine the characters and scenes is drawn so vividly in your mind, and it's just unfair to expect that your personal version would be translated exactly to screen. All you can ask for is that they tried their hardest to re-create the spirit, the tone, and the themes. The 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley is a wonderful movie, but it really is an adaptation and not a re-creation, because it deliberately made a different story. It was sad and romantic, not satirical or bitingly self-aware and because of that, I can't love it. It just isn't the book.

But Jane Eyre really does capture that odd spell of the book. The beauty of the cinematography reminded me of 2005's Pride and Prejudice, but this world is so far removed from Austen's - all its otherworldliness. The score was very "Memoirs of a Geisha" - melancholy and eerily beautiful.

Okay, I just *really* enjoyed Fassbender's Rochester. Truth to be told, I've never been able to handle any of the past incarnations of Rochester. They always feel so cartoonish. They're glaring and brooding! They're dark, harsh and statuesque! I just can't buy it. Usually the actors are so involved in scrunching their eyebrows and strutting around in their broody sarcastic Byronic walk doing broody Byronic things that they completely forget to include some of his more human qualities - like tenderness and mischief, which is what Jane notices in spite of himself, just as he notices her inner warmth and vivacity in spite of her own hardy facade.

Fassbender's Rochester isn't as harsh or arrogant as previously portrayed, and I preferred this credible human version a lot more. He's not so tall or statuesque either, but makes up for it with his physical charisma - I thought he nailed the restless, furtive energy of the character. I wish some of the climatic scenes with him and Jane had a more explosive quality to them, but overall, the drama is much easier on the eyes. I didn't cringe, which is a first. I'm a very cringe-y person. Did I mention that he is unbelievably fucking HOT in this? Just really, really, so. Maybe that's why I like him in this so much. Hmm...........

Jamie Bell was great, too. It's just completely different from anything else he's done, and he just carries St. John's kind but mannerly and ill-guided priggishness with ease. There really isn't enough of him in the movie to have a full characterization, to be honest - again, they left quite an awful lot out, but the pacing is so tightly controlled and Bronte's characterization is still vivid enough that the aforementioned teens that sat behind me were hilariously responsive to Jane and Rochester's actions, at times calling out instructions or critiques ("say yes!" "You fool!" etc.).

Companies and the Academy and whoever else panicking over the state of the "hip teen" nowadays, take note. I just sat with a bunch of freaking high schoolers/middle schoolers who, yes, may have catcalled and occasionally snickered at a couple admittedly cheesy scenes and were even a bit bored at times, but for the most part to my great surprise, were seriously invested in the movie and its characters. And that's because it was a damn well-made movie. The characters, though hailing from the 19th century, were strong and engrossing because human drama never changes in its ability to pull us in, and there was enough hooky suspense to lure us in as well. Afterwards, I heard kids say, "that was GREAT" in complete surprise, as if they didn't expect it to be interesting at all, probably because they've become acclimated to bad movies with shallow characterization and shoddy execution that attempt to pull in young audiences by mishmashes of hyper shiny loud things in their faces, because they're not supposed to have enough attention span to engage otherwise.

Well newsflash; a bunch of supposedly ADHD teens sat through JANE FREAKING EYRE and most of them, as far as I can tell, truly, truly enjoyed it. Take that, slimeball corporate movie studios and older generation naysayers.

And props to Cary Fukunaga and everyone else involved. If I ever meet Michael Fassbender one day I'm going to have to thank him for doing such wonderful justice to Mr. Rochester. The perfect Jane, however (by far the more difficult and impossible character to get right of the two, IMO), is still out there though, I think.

That aside, this is the first adaptation of Jane Eyre I've been able to tolerate, and certainly the first one where I've really appreciated. I don't know if I love it yet - I'll have to wait over time and multiple re-watchings - but I'm just pretty gratified all the same.

P.S. Oh, and I finally get it. I finally get the Fassbender thing. Before, I wasn't even remotely attracted to him, not even in the most dashing pictures or drool-worthy clips. I just shrugged. But um, I get it now. He really is sex personified.

All Right

Which jackasses actually voted for Tom Hooper over David Fincher? Stand up and admit your complete lack of taste, please.

Fuck you, AMPAS. Your attempts to get more "hip" this year fell flat as usual and the Golden Globes actually made better picks than you did.

Oscar Oscar Oscar!

Last year I was really excited for the Oscars because I didn't have a life at the time. It was right before spring break, everything felt drab and gray, and the days were just an endless cycle of ennui, work, and an occasional senior-fueled spat with the administration.

So the fact that I am anticipating the Oscars this year with only mild eagerness is a sign of progress, I think. I'm looking forward more to visiting a dear friend at her college and getting trashed with her for the first time (she was more uptight about drinking in high school).

And if anything, this has been one of the least exciting Oscar seasons I can recall. I blame the blogosphere for dissecting the race down to every last calibration to the point that any "surprises" that occur have already been predicted in advance. Even with the mild spouts of drama (The Melissa Leo thing, in which Leo will henceforth be referred to as a noun other than the person, as in "pulling a Melissa Leo"), the sudden "The King's Speech" switchabout, the snubs (my poor Andrew - stop saying that, why do I always feel so possessively protective of him? It's the vulnerable Bambi thing he has going on, probs) and happy nomination surprises (Hawkes and Weaver), the Fincher-Hooper showdown, the marvelous HBC speech - everything's been handled with grace, I feel. But I thought this would be a nice last time to give tribute to the 10 BP nominations. Randomly unfiltered, vaguely nonsensical.

BEST PICTURE COMPETITION

The American Rebel

The Royalty Porn/Feel-Good

The Underdog

Ordinary Man in Extraordinary Circumstances/Directorial Vehicle

The Indie Hit

The Family Drama

Pixar - Toy Story 3

The Blockbuster

The Spectacle/Thriller

The Western

LAST YEAR, my Oscar crushes were Kathryn Bigelow, Colin Firth, Anna Kendrick, Jeremy Renner, and Christoph Waltz. By crushes I mean I googled constantly without shame, youtubed them and gossiped about them and wondered about their respective futures.

THIS YEAR, my Oscar crushes were Annette Bening, Colin Firth (rewatched Valmont again the othe rnight), Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, David Fincher, and HBC doesnt count becuase everyone is always obsessed with her anyways or at least they should be. I also became a fan of Amy Adams and Nicole Kidman via Oscar roundtables for the first time. They're both a lot more self-deprecating, charming, funny, and surprisingly non-fussy than I would have expected. Before, I thought Amy Adams was kind of bland and Nicole Kidman a self-absorbed diva, but they've only spoken intelligently and thoughtfully, and been sweetly low-profile throughout this period of incessant self-promotion.

MY FINAL PREDICTIONS:

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Best Original Song: "We Belong Together" Randy Newman

Best Original Screenplay: The King's Speech

Best Animated Short: TBH, I don't have a damn clue. Fail, I know.

Best Documentary Short: Ditto

Best Live-Action Short: I don't even know the nominees.

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo

Best Makeup: Barney's Version?

Best Costume: Alice in Wonderland

Best Sound Mixing: Inception

Best Sound Editing: Inception

Best Cinematography: True Grit

Best Original Score: The Social Network

Best Visual Effects: Inception

Best Documentary Feature: Restrepo

Best Editing: The Social Network

Best Foreign Language Film: Incendies

Best Actress: Natalie Portman

Best Actor: Colin Firth

Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Oscar viewing party food suggestions: Sushi, appletinis (The Social Network), frosted cake (Black Swan, The Fighter),beef kabobs (Winter's Bone - not same as squirrel, but oh well), anything organic-y - hummus, fruit smoothies, heirloom tomato hor d'oeuvres (TKAAR), trail mix (127 hours), tea sandwiches (The King's Speech).

Singing Baby Jesse Eisenberg

Oh god. I died laughing, in a sweet way.

Everyone just died knowing that Colin Firth is just as romantic as Mr. Darcy is.

Six Degrees of Award Circuits

It's just an aspect of my voyeuristic actorphilic self that I always enjoy making little connections betwen actors and stringing pieces of random/useless trivia together. Whenever I watch a big actors' event, my brain inevitably starts to buzzing "I wonder what said actor thinks of other actor?" "Have they met each other?" "They worked together on ___ and they're reunited! Holy shit!"

This year's "people of the hour" group has a lot of old-timers, so I had such glorious fun spotting the connections and remembering how they all know each other in one giant actor-cest circle.

Christian Bale actually has the most ties at these award shows, despite being seen as more of an outsider. He's worked with Nicole Kidman in 1995's "Portrait of a Lady". And of course, he and Christopher Nolan are one of the best Hollywood duets, even if it's quite ironic that their best-reviewed work was not with each other. He also used to be a good friend of Winona Ryder, who's been everywhere (fun fact: his wife was Winona's assistant before they got married! They met at a BBQ Winona was throwing) and I wonder if she was at the Golden Globes because Depp was there, and do they ever have awkward run-ins? Or maybe they're just all chill about it, like "let's pretend we weren't actually madly in love for years and you didn't used to have a tattoo of my name and you were not, in fact, my 'first everything'. Cool." Bale must also be seeing a lot of his "I'm Not There" costar Julianne Moore and fellow "Little Women" Claire Danes (who won awards endlessly for Temple Grandin) at these events, and be happy for Lisa Cholodenko who directed him in "Laurel Canyon". Oh, and lastly it's a shame Bale wasn't at the BAFTAS because Miranda Richardson was a nominee and of course, they worked together in his legendary debut film, Empire of the Sun. He really has worked with a lot of people, having been around for 20 years. I wonder what Richardson thinks of her growed up young costar.

A bit bizarrely, Natalie Portman and Annette Bening were both in "Mars Attack!" (I don't remember who they played at all) and she was also in "Cold Mountain" with Kidman.

Tom Hooper, despite being kind of a Hollywood newbie, still probably sees tons of friendly faces at these award circuits from his great TV work, like Paul Giamatti from "John Adams" and Barbara Hershey and Hugh Dancy from "Daniel Deronda" (I'm a fan of both, especially 'Daniel Deronda" - it's sensual, grandly moving and perfect for a rainy Saturday).

Maestro David Fincher knows a lot of people, obvs., like fellow Oscar nominee and "Fight Club" alum Helena Bonham-Carter (I love both of them so much), and has directed Mark Ruffalo, and "somewhat" directed Nicole Kidman (she was originally cast in "Panic Room" but backed out from a busted knee and made a voice cameo instead).

Just at the Golden Globes alone, it was cool that Johnny Depp was nominated (even if the nom was a completely facetious one) because he was nominated along with his "Pirates" co-star Geoffrey Rush and obvs. HBC since they and Tim Burton complete a robust triangle of weirdo-love. Speaking of Colin Firth, "The King's Speech" will be the second Best Picture-winning movie he's been in that also has Geoffrey Rush - they were both in "Shakespeare in Love" and most impressively, this is actually Firth's third BP winner - he was also in "The English Patient". So both he and Ralph Fiennes have three BP Oscar winners under their belt. Can we call up the stats for that? Who else has done that?. Um, according to Wikipedia, a lot. But still impressive! Best of all, I discovered a few months ago that Firth starred opposite Annette Bening in 1986's "Valmont", an adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses, which so surprised me that I watched the whole thing on instant Netflix. God, they were so YOUNG! And oh so beautiful. I highly recommend that one as well. If only Bening could win....it'd be so cool for the both of them.

Firth and Bening being period-wear sexy in "Valmont"

Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams were both in Shutter Island. You would have thought that their Oscar-nominated performances would have come from that movie.

Javier Bardem is nominated with The Coen Brothers who directed his Oscar-winning performance in No Country, of course.

Oddly enough, Jeff Bridges, despite having the longest career in the group, has no connections to any of the nominees, except the the Coen Bros.

JANE EYRE FIRST CLIPS ARE HERE

My ovaries did backflips while watching these clips. The clips are fucking. hot. This is my idea of porn, basically.

The first is after Jane saves Rochester from the fire. One of my favorite scenes from the book and it's a bit altered but OH SO SHMEXY (though my friend disagrees, calling it sinister, but what the hell does she know?) When she leaves him, I was like "FOOL" but of course, hers is the smarter move. Not that she planned it - she's just naturally good and morally upright - but it's still a smart tactic that can be employed in any modern romantic situation. It makes her so that much more tantalizing to Rochester (and respected by him too, of course). Men enjoy chases and stubborn girls.

"I am cold"[/But my insides are melting with steamy, scintillating desire]

Mr. Rochester proposes to Jane. Wow, this is a huge clip to show beforehand, obviously, but I guess they want to stir up as much interest as possible.

Mia's delivery is a bit stiff here. At times she *kinda* feels like she's reading off a page, which is disappointing, but overall it's effective. The Rochester voice is JUST PERFECT! Sigh. I like their chemistry. Gawsh I wanna see them make out.

Cousin Diana shows one of Jane's drawings to St. John.

Jamie BELL! Man it looks like he totally nails the whole repressed proper English thing. His voice is also schmexy (TOO MUCH SEXY IN THIS MOVIE!) and he kind of reminds of Christian Bale when he was thirteen, if that makes sense at all. Either way, he is really attractive in this video and I've never found Jamie Bell attractive. Which is important because he needs to be a strong foil to Rochester and though it never occurred to me while reading the book, the audience should feel some tension around the pair and suspect the potential of their relationship just alighting from the fact that they're both young, good-looking, and in close proximity, which is what Rochester does after he learns of St. John.

A month to go....can't wait.

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.