From sperm donors to aliens - Fave Movies of 2011 #2

This time, movies I hadn't previously seen. To skim quickly, just read the words in bold.

MOVIES RELEASED IN 2011    I actually watch very few new movies, which is why I'm able to get most of my entertainment through movies that pass on TV... cause I never saw them when released. But of the few I did see...

A Quebec film, easily available in English. About a slacker type who learns that the 100s of children sired by his sperm 20 years before, when he was a regular sperm bank donor, are legally trying to get his identity released. Without their knowing he gets to know some of them, and naturally it changes his life. If you cry while watching the show Parenthood (like friend Maewitch and I do) then you should weep at this one too. Same comedy-drama blend.

Really funny and I love ensemble casts.

  A comedy starring all women that didn't revolve around romance or shopping. Everyone was funny, including the baddie, but Melissa McCarthy stole the show.

(2010, but came on video in 2011.) This is a great movie about the 1968 general strike by women at the UK Ford plants, demanding equal pay with the men. SO good. It's really funny and inspiring, but still this side of a sappy Hollywood treatment. Highly recommend.

A quietly charming underdog story about a sales conference.

TRUE MOVIES - Movies that spoke to me.

(Eng: The Necessities of Life) About an Inuit man in the 1950s who's forced to go south for Tuberculosis treatment, which means a stay of 1-2 years away from his family. He's dying of loneliness when two friendships turn things around. Beautifully acted and I watched it twice, which is rare for me. Won lots of awards.

An Egyptian marching band ends up stranded in a small Israeli town for one night, and we follow 3-4 members as they connect with the locals in different ways. This is the kind of movie that reminds you what good filmmaking looks like. Nothing melodramatic, just a simple story, complex characters, and the small moving gestures they make towards each other. Won a ton of awards.

  Explicitly argues why entertainment movies can be just as important as heavy-deep ones.

 Okay this was just a recording of a play. Made me understand what the "fuss" is about Chekov, though. It slayed me.

In the 1980s the Canadian government tried to revise the constitution, and were willing to give Quebec special distinguished status to get them on board--without making similar concessions to First Peoples. Among dire warnings that he would split Canada (ie. that Quebec would separate) Cree politician Elijah Harper blocked the reform. Not only is this an interesting story, but it's a fabulous movie, imaginatively constructed and really funny. I'm a huge fan of the lead now too, Billy Merasty.

 London's National Gallery's paintings are removed to an abandoned mine in a small Welsh town. A nice romance, but the best bits show specific locals transformed by encounters with the works of art. Shows how art changes the world, by changing individuals.

Considered one of the best rock documentaries, it's about a metal band that, in its day, was considered among the best, yet never hit it big. Like most of us! Which is why it's worth watching.

 A tough one, but quel acting!

  Even tougher. A black teen in a small (white) Quebec town defaces a racist statue in a nice old lady's yard, and is held by a pack of local racists for the night. Though his ultimate fate isn't shown, my jaw still dropped in horror. It's creative, artistically rendered, and moving... but holy sh**.

CHARMING OR ROMANTIC

Though I didn't enjoy the well-known characters as much as I did in the 1980s movie The Moderns, this is a lovely ode to Paris and an exploration of the way we tend to romanticize the past.

  This movie actually lived up to its popularity. Funny and imaginatively told. I loved the dance number.

Just a nice, funny romance.

  A Muslim woman who falls in love with a white guy. It doesn't end tragically like so many star-crossed-lover movies--enjoyable romantic comedy.

  I didn't expect it to be so funny--Fernando and I really liked it. A lot of wit, and James McAvoy is the funny brother who's always betting against his brother winning.

  Hands down the best rom com I saw this year, called Heat Wave in English. It's about a young guy who's had a crush on an older social worker since she was his case worker when he was a teen. He sees a chance to come courting her and grabs it. Un-Hollywood in that the older woman really does look older, and the sex scenes (even sans nudity) are HOT. And then of course... there's François Arnaud.

  During the royal wedding, Turner Classics showed royal romances. I got sucked into this silent film about a sheltered Prince who goes away to school and for the first time in his life finds friendship and romance. Sweet, funny and romantic.

  I'd venture to say this is as good as Mary Poppins and will stand the test of time. Enjoyable in the way that "cunning nanny subdues naughty children" movies are, with a nice romance to boot.

  Yes, I've never seen Arthur, and I LOVED it. Oh my days there were a lot of funny jokes in here. And I loved the interplay of the two characters. So often comedies with all-out-foolish male leads have a normal character as the leading lady, so I loved this "madcap" pairing. Also, the woman Arthur's family wants him to marry is one of the best Wrong Fiancées in the history of romances. She's as awful as Madeline Bassett in the Jeeves & Wooster stories, and that's saying something.

COMEDIES

Benigni hasn't made that many feature lengths, and this one has a similar structure as Beautiful Life, in that its slow beginning lulls you into a false sense of "it's just a mildly amusing film"ness. Cause the second half had me in tears. It's about a regular guy mistaken for a gangster, and he's unaware of the misunderstanding. I won't say more, except that the banana on the film cover is key.

   I don't have much to say. Buddy road movie with an alien. It was satisfying.

  Romantic comedy about a ladies' man. A bit weird, but funny and I liked the characters.

I don't need to explain, right? Just that I finally saw it.

More of a dramedy about a bunch of teens on a reserve. The best part comes in the middle when the boys take a white guy out into the woods to "initiate" him into their tribe. They come back actually liking him, and singing Cher's "Half-Breed" together. (By the same director as Hard Core Logo and Highway 61.)

Another classic I finally saw, and its reputation is well deserved. Lloyd's climb up the building at the end is hilarious.

There are authors and directors, like that of The Help, who stumble their way through racial themes without having invested the right amount of humility and research up front. Then there are people like Joe Cornish, who put even more thought into their treatment of race than you could guess at while watching the movie. There's nothing didactic about this movie--it's just a funny and intelligent alien invasion story, in a poor black neighborhood. But it's no accident that the heroes are made scary and unlikable in the very first scene, and that the aliens are very very black.

MYSTERY - THRILLER - HORROR

  Great political thriller. Oh that Bill Nighy... he's good in anything he does.

Watched lots of Marples. Though Joan Hickson was the best, I enjoy all her incarnations.

I saw a lot of classic noir this year, for some reason (Double Indemnity, Postman Always Rings...) Sunset was my favorite. Swanson was so creepy. Lives up to the hype.

I only got into zombie movies in the past two years, though I have to watch them when Fernando isn't around. Except for the melting-balls which was just way way too gross for me, Planet Terror was funnier than any other zombie flick (including Zombieland, which had too much too-stupid-to-live). And Freddy Rodríguez always was my fave Ugly Betty boyfriend.

THEY ALMOST SUCKED, BUT DIDN'T - There was at least one really good thing in each of these.

Great Thing: The satire of cop films. The film doesn't reach great heights of satire throughout, but there are a couple jokes right at the beginning that I loved.

 During gay pride week I caught a couple lesbian romances--this one about a woman who's hiding her lover cause she hasn't come out to her mom yet. Great Thing: Movie stolen by the transitioning man-to-woman who befriends the visiting mom, and is yearning for our heroine's boss. Really charming.

Sarah Jessica Parker is the slightly awful fiancée brought to meet the family, who can't stand her. Except for the brother, who falls for her. Great Thing: Their romance was just too cute.

  Couple fakes an engagement in order to get all the good crap. Great Thing: The two leads had great chemistry! So much so, they got a TV series out of it (which I haven't seen.)

  A silly Disney film about a boy who secretly joins a jump rope team. Great Thing: The gender stereotype bending.

  Not a great movie, but - Great Thing - the historical and Biblical jokes were pretty clever.

A bad TV romance. Great Thing - I love those weird-small-town-inhabitant settings.

You guys see/like any of these? Any movies I ought to see? :-)