Albert Nobbs
Glenn Close stars as the titular character, a woman who masquerades as a man in order to keep her employ as a hotel waiter and butler in 19th-century Ireland. A hired painter named Hubert (Janet McTeer) enters into Albert's life, and in time both discover that they are women posing as men. Hotel maid Helen (Mia Wasikowska) romances another contractor, who turns out to be controlling and alcoholic. Albert is also in love with Helen and wants to run off with her, get married and open a tobacco shop. Needless to say, complication arise from all fronts.
The film has a rather glum tone overall but it tells a nice story. The story is based on an Irish novella, and Close also starred in the title role on stage prior to the film's development. Both Close and McTeer earned Oscar nominations for this movie, and there was also a nomination for makeup.
A Cat in Paris
One of two surprising nominees in last year's Best Animated Feature category, this is a beautiful film to appreciate on an aesthetic level as well as a storytelling level. Nico is a cat burglar, and as it turns out this cat burglar is always followed by a cat. The cat in question befriends a girl named Zoe, and Zoe winds up in possession of a stolen piece of jewelry. A separate group of criminals are on the hunt for this item as part of a collection. Both Nico and Zoe wind up allies along with their feline friend as they all attempt to stay safe and help catch these dangerous thieves.
This film has been called a "cartoon noir" that provides thrills and danger for all ages to enjoy. It's not too scary for kids, and it's certainly not at all dumbed-down for the older crowd. The film is of French origin but can be seen in both the original language, or the English dub that includes the voices of Matthew Modine and Marcia Gay Harden. One of the most pleasant surprises of 2011.
Cedar Rapids
Ed Helms is Tim Lippe, an insurance agent heading to Iowa for an annual insurance company conference and awards presentation. Tim is going because their two-time award winner Roger Lemke is now deceased, and Tim's boss has the pressure on him to make sure this award is won by their agency a third time. At the conference, Tim meets several other agents, including meaning-well-but-obnoxious-yet-still-fun Dean (John C. Reilly) and smoking-hot Joan (Anne Heche). Friendships bloom, romance is also in the air, but ultimately controversy rears its ugly head as it's discovered Roger's reputation may not have been what everyone thought it was.
The screenplay was hot and in demand going back to 2009, but it took some time for a studio to commit to it, which is why it wasn't released until a couple of years later. Also, despite positive reviews, it never went into wide release. It's final box office total was $6.8M. None of this seems to matter, as the title remains well-liked in and out of Hollywood, and it really is a rather fun little comedy that anyone who's ever been on a business trip can probably relate to.
The Guard
An Irish film with a lot of Irish brogue, Brendan Gleeson is Sgt. Gerry Boyle, a brutally-blunt 'Garda' who joins forces with straitlaced FBI agent Everett (Don Cheadle) to take on an international drug smuggling gang. Boyle drops acid, sleeps with prostitutes and spits out wildly-racist statements, but oddly enough he's a good man who is bound by duty and means only harm to those who deserve it.
The film is raucous at times, and while the story is simple, it grips you quickly and doesn't let go until the credits roll. Simple can work just fine, and it does here. There weren't many awards for this film but it was on many 2011 Top 10 lists of critics who've earned their stripes, including Leonard Maltin.
The Ides of March
This one garnered great early buzz and critical acclaim, but petered out as awards season went on, yielding just a single Oscar nomination for its screenplay by George Clooney and Grant Heslov. Nonetheless, a film that I have seen several times now and really enjoy. Clooney is Mike Morris, the governor of Pennsylvania who is battling for the Ohio primary and likely the entire chance of a Presidential nomination in the process. Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) and Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are his main campaign advisors trying to get him there. However, scandal threatens to blow everything to smithereens and the end result may change the careers--and lives--of everyone involved.
Solid casting and performances from the entire ensemble (which also includes Jeffrey Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei and Paul Giamatti), along with a story that takes several very unexpected turns, keeps you gripped. I have a feeling this movie may have been more successful had it been released in 2012 (a Presidential election year) instead of 2011.
Incendies
A 2010 nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Incendies is a movie that I like more and more each passing day as I reflect on it. It was released in the United States in 2011 so I'm including it here.
Fraternal twins Simon and Jeanne are present for the reading of their mother's will. In the will, they are given specific instructions to find their father and brother. This is shocking news to both as they didn't realize their father was alive, and they never even knew of the brother. Simon refuses to believe the will is legitimate, but Jeanne takes the trip and discovers the truth, which rattles both siblings to the core.
The film, told mostly in flashbacks, shows a haunting and horrifying life amongst a Middle Eastern civil war. Reviews were overwhelming positive and there were many that thought this should have been the rightful Oscar winner in its category.
Margin Call
The first 24-36 hours of the financial crisis of 2008 are the setting for this drama, where a large fictitious Wall Street investment bank has just discovered the doom that lies ahead. Cuts are made one late afternoon, including that of Eric (Stanley Tucci) in risk management. When Eric leaves the building for good, he gives Peter (Zachary Quinto) a warning to keep an eye on what he (Eric) had been working on. Peter later makes the discovery and it turns into a panic-filled all-nighter with most of the senior members scrambling to fix it.
A top-notch cast of familiar faces such as Demi Moore, Kevin Spacey and Simon Baker keep you riveted for the entire film as it all plays out in nearly real-time. If you've seen the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job and were rightfully angered by it, this movie will be right up your alley. My one whim with this is that it's a lot of fun seeing Baker play a role completely unlike his character in the TV show The Mentalist, as he's profane and sneaky and an outright prick here.
My Week With Marilyn
What could have been just another Marilyn Monroe biofilm turns out to be something completely different, a fascinating look at a week in time where Marilyn (Michelle Williams) spends time in England for a movie shoot alongside Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). A young apprentice on the film named Colin (Eddie Redmayne) winds up Marilyn's escort when things start to go awry with her professionally and personally. A small budding romance seems to bloom despite Marilyn being married at this time to Arthur Miller, and Colin dating Lucy (Emma Watson), who works in the costume department for the film.
Both Kenneth's and Michelle's performances garnered many accolades, but what makes the film most enjoyable is the story being a simple short period of time in Marilyn's life. There is no hint of the eventual demise we all know takes place. It's easy and it's fun to watch the transformations of the current actors portraying those of the past, and the film does what it's supposed to (entertain) and not what it's not supposed to (shock, inform, present conspiracy theories, etc.)
A Separation
Simply put, one of the best films I saw in 2011 was this Iranian work, a winner of many awards right up to the big one, the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. A gripping story of a crumbling marriage, issues needing to be resolved, family difficulties, and even a possible murder thrown in for good measure. It all flows beautifully into a finished product of great storytelling, staging, performances and every other ingredient for what makes a great film. If you don't like reading subtitles, you're missing out.
Take Shelter
Curtis (Michael Shannon) is having dreams of apocalypse, and of being harmed by those close to him. He doesn't tell his wife about these dreams, but desires to build a storm shelter in the backyard. After talking with a psychiatrist of his family history of psychological problems (Curtis's mother suffers from paranoid schizophrenia), he is prescribed a sedative that later almost unintentionally kills him. It is at this point he tells his wife of the dreams, and things begin to get difficult. Then comes the tornado warning...
Shannon and fellow Boardwalk Empire cast member Shea Whigham, along with Kathy Bates and Jessica Chastain, power this little-seen drama and provide a gripping story that often makes you wonder if what you're seeing is real or just the product of one man's perhaps-damaged imagination. Fascinating until the end, and worth a look.
Warrior
The one movie on this list that I haven't seen. So why am I including it? The film did not do very well at the box office, yet it garnered some of the most across-the-board positive reviews from critics and moviegoers of any movie in 2011. There was even a surprise Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Nick Nolte. One of the first films to market the world of MMA to the movie masses, it perhaps also showed that MMA is still a niche product for a niche audience.
So what did a film like Rocky have that Warrior didn't? We may never really know. Granted, boxing did have a larger audience back then than MMA does now. In fact, even boxing today doesn't have nearly the audience it once did, but we still have seen close to a dozen boxing movies in the last 10 years, with a number of them being Best Picture nominees. One film even won the award. Perhaps Warrior will be one of those movies that over time turns into another Princess Bride or Shawshank Redemption, where on the 20th Anniversary home release we see all the featurettes of people remarking on how the film just seems to get more popular each year despite not doing so well upon its initial run.
Where Do We Go Now?
One of the stranger movies I saw from 2011, but still one I thoroughly enjoyed. Nadine Labaki wrote the screenplay and stars as Amale, a cafe-owner in a remoted Lebanese village. In this village, both Muslims and Christians live together in peace despite the rest of the country involved in a holy war around them. Heck, even land mines surround the village. Ignorance is bliss in the mindset of the women of the village, and they do their best to not allow their men to get into a war mindset from radio and television news reports. However, the ideologies seem to creep their way in and the women resort to drastic measures to keep the peace.
That doesn't really sound all that strange, does it? Well, the story isn't. It's the rest of the movie that is. This is actually a musical of sorts, a comedy of sorts, a war movie of sorts. Hashish-laced pastries, a busload of sexy blonde Ukranian dancers and certainly more than one nod to the old Lysistrata story. It's odd going from comedy in one minute to religious fighting the next minute and song-and-dance the minute after that. However, it's a fun ride and a unique movie that deserves getting checked out.
Win Win
This film, set in New Providence, NJ, stars Paul Giamatti as Mike Flaherty, an attorney who is struggling to keep his practice open. He moonlights as a high school wrestling coach and gets guardianship of one of his elderly court-appointed clients, Leo (Burt Young) since that client has no locatable relatives. Well, as it turns out, a relative emerges in Leo's grandson, Kyle (Alex Shaffer). Mike learns that Kyle has wrestling talent, so he winds up getting Kyle into the school and onto the team to try and turn their luck around. Everything seems rosy until Kyle's mother shows up, not to mention Kyle discovers what ultimately happened with Mike's guardianship of Leo.
A nice little film that had moderate success at the box office, yet I rarely hear anyone ever talking about it, and that's a shame. Paul Giamatti is always great in any role, and the supporting cast holds up their end too. Good storytelling with some moral dilemmas and lessons learned for many.
So there you have a batch of 13 movies you can rent, or buy, or stream, or whatever. Stay home, burn some microwave popcorn, open up a Fresca, recline in your chair. See what you've been missing. After all, we're going to have a lot of 2012 movies to talk about realllllllllllllly soon...
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