Most thought-provoking films of last year?

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Permalink Reply by David Abrams on January 10, 2011 at 5:50pm

Jason,

 

I would have to say Tron 3D, because all through the movie I was THINKING: "Why did I waste my money on this garbage?  I didn't even really like the first Tron movie."

 

Other than that, the best mind-poking movie I saw would have to be The Social Network.  It's quite possibly the best one I saw all year.  It opens with a scene that is just a blizzard of words and repartee Zuckerberg has with his girlfriend, and it never lets up from there.  The verbal energy and editing pace go at rocket speed.  I was soaking wet when I got out of the theater.

 

Two other movies (2009 releases, I think) which I wanted to see but didn't were The Last Station and The Ghost Writer.  I've heard good things about both.  And Winter's Bone--no, I haven't seen it; but yes, I really want to.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Simon on January 11, 2011 at 9:40am

 

When did 44-Inch Chest come out?  Well, I watched it in 2010....and, if you can get passed the profanity (which is stunning), it's one of the most interesting takes on gender issues I've seen for some time. 

 

Basically it takes the most macho men you can think of--big ol' gangsters--and gives one of them a broken heart, a big old-fashioned girl-y broken heart.  You meet him lying on the floor with tears pouring out of his eyes as "I can't live, if living is without you" streams out the speakers next to his ears.  The rest of the movie, which is more like a theatre piece--largely 5 guys in a room w/ a few flashbacks--depicts these men mining every convention of stereo-typical masculinity to get this guy to take control of his "life" (read manhood) again.   It suggests the only real resources they have are violence and profanity...which emerge as pretty pathetic tools for a complex world.  So profane yes, but not gratuitously.  Ian McShane is fabulous in it. 

 

I watched it twice back-to-back because there were so many stunning one-liners I could hardly get my mouth closed before it was dropping again.  One critic said "It makes the men in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross look like Wallace and Grommit." 

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Permalink Reply by Kim Anderson on January 11, 2011 at 8:44pm

Keep posting people, I need to beef up my netflix queue as well. Unfortunately the only movie I can remember seeing in an actual theater last year was the new Harry Potter. And, Jason, I bet it beats Predator in terms of entertainment value. My son is a huge Banksy fan and we kept meaning to see Exit Through the Gift Shop but never got there (girls interfered on his end/leaving the house for a 9:00 pm showing on mine). Anyone want to tell me what I missed?

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Permalink Reply by Lance McKnight on January 19, 2011 at 11:41am

Get Low with Robert Duvall.

 

WAY durn good.

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Permalink Reply by Sheryl Ann Noethe on April 15, 2011 at 5:52pm

Jason, I don't know when it was made, and it's directed by Mel Gibson, but I just

saw a movie that sucked the air right out of my chest. It's called, "Apocalypto"

and there's a lot of grisly action (Mayan warriors capturing other tribes to sacrifice them) but the ending

is entirely worth watching.!

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Permalink Reply by Jason Neal on April 15, 2011 at 6:26pm

I've heard nothing but good things about "Apocalypto" since it came out (in 2006)...but now I find myself faced with the moral dilemma of thinking I should perhaps boycott all things Mel Gibson.  I mean, I don't know the man, but it appears he might be an anti-Semitic abusive jackass.  (Still, I wouldn't mind watching "Gallipoli" again....  What to do?)

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Permalink Reply by Kim Anderson on May 7, 2011 at 8:14pm

Okay, trying to catch up on my movie viewing. Has anyone else seen In Bruge? Just watched it and loved it, and I don't even really know why. Normally I'm not a fan of these kind of "arty" loser criminal films (except of course for the great Kill Bill vol 1 and 2) but this one really swept me up. The juxtaposition of small time Irish criminals with the storybook quality of Bruge, great acting, surreal ending..... Someone tell me what I saw.

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