We'll see.
For the first time since I started doing this in 2004, I did not see all of the best picture nominees. I saw 8 of the 9, but missed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I wasn't particularly enthused about it, for one, but I just kind of ran out of time.
There are three movies that did not get included in the countdown--two of which I saw after my self-imposed deadline, and one that I had forgotten I saw. They are: Hanna, J. Edgar, and What's Your Number?
*J. Edgar was slow, dark, kind of strange and all over the place. Leo was good. It would probably chart in the low to mid 40s.
*Hanna was Bourne Identity with a young girl who could shoot a bow and arrow. It was pretty cool, from what I remember. Mid to high 30s.
*I thought What's Your Number? was better and funnier than expected. It's not overly gross but there is some hilarious foul language and hijinks. Low 30s.
Those three bring my 2011 total up to 58. Yikes.
Here are the movies I wanted to see and missed:
Tabloid
The Interrupters
The Trip
13 Assassins
The Future
Project Nim
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Carnage
Contagion
A Harold & Kumar Christmas
A Separation (Ebert's #1)
Melancholia
Shame
My Week with Marilyn
Finally, enjoy this as well. Offers some nice counter-insight!
http://movieswithmulhern.blogspot.com/
My #1 this year is kind of polarizing film. It's pretty bloody, which is what kept it from much award-season love, but I (and plenty of other people) think it got snubbed. Interested to hear back from you all on it, if you've seen it.
Without further ado...
#1 Drive
After a meeting that had completely bombed between Ryan Gosling, studio execs, and director Nicholas Winding Refn concerning the direction and attitude of Drive, Gosling was giving Winding Refn a ride home (who ironically does not possess a license). A song came on the radio and Gosling turned it up. They both sang along to themselves. Winding Refn, frustrated and emotional, said to him "That's what I was trying to convey before-it should be about someone who can't connect with anything or anyone except being behind the wheel." Gosling nodded, their relationship improved, and the best film of 2011 was born.
Drive, originally slated to star Hugh Jackman (no offense to Wolverine, but it's for the best here) and be a straight action film, got a dramatic re-tooling following the botched meeting. Gosling plays the nameless lead--"Driver" in the end credits, called "kid" by his mechanic boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston)--a stunt driver for films and part time car shop worker who moonlights as a getaway driver for small-time thugs. The opening sequence finds him outrunning and outsmarting the police, carrying two armed robbers as cargo. It's one of the best car chases I have ever seen. Then comes the movie's best mood-setter, its soundtrack. The awesomely pulsing techno, combined with the pink scripted font, makes the viewer feel like they are smack in the middle of 1986; the movie, in tone and style, is oft-compared to the great William Friedkin crime thriller To Live and Die in L.A.
Two events set up the action of the movie: 1) Driver meets his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son Benicio, and 2)Shannon, limping from a previous "accident" and looking to make some dishonest money, sells the driving services of his young protege (Gosling) to mobbed-up stock car sponsor Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and his partner Nino (Ron Perlman). Driver steps in for Irene's absent husband Standard (Oscar Isaac), currently serving a bid in jail. Thanks to a montage set to College's thumping theme song "A Real Hero", we see Driver getting closer to Irene and Benicio. It doesn't last though-Standard gets released, for better or worse, back into their lives. After Standard gets the crap kicked out of him in the apartment garage by a couple of toughs who he owes money to, Driver offers to help him on a job that will pay back the interested parties and keep Ireneand Benicio safe. This is a mistake in every possible way, and soon Driver is on a "crash-course" (sorry, had to) with some very dangerous people. It starts to become clear that he will do practically anything for Irene, and some of those things aren't exactly flowers and cupcakes.
Drive owes a lot of its brilliance to it's subtext. When Gosling and Mulligan got the script, they started slashing expositional dialogue in favor of quiet looks that say it all. As the viewer, you get absolutely none of his backstory, so it's unclear if this is the first time he's involved himself in a situation like this or the 12th. He talks very little, but his eyes and his tone speak enough. As a villain, the always outstanding Brooks matches Gosling in eerie calmness. After the wild thrills, top-notch car chases and spiraling violence come to a close and we're hearing "A Real Hero" play us out, we are left to wonder-how heroic were his actions, really?
That wraps it up. Hope you enjoyed this year's edition of Mulhern at the Movies. Thanks for reading!
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