Part of my Staycation this year has been dedicated to getting caught up on all the movies I’ve been too dang busy to see in 2011. While I take my culture in many different forms, I am most snobbish about movies, ahem film. (Yes, I know movies are rarely done on film anymore, but the word is so much more romantic.) I can thank the Modern Dad for getting me into good movies, especially those that came before my time, and my high school film class for making me a snot about it.
The beauty of not having the time to watch a lot of films until you take a week of staycation at Christmas is that you can wait on all the critics to sort out what to see and not to see (hard to go wrong with A.O. Scott) and by now the list of possible Oscar best picture nominees is starting to shape up. I don’t have to watch any movies that aren’t worth my time or limited disposable income. I’ve been scouring Metacritic and everyone’s year end movie lists and watching At the Movies every week to come up with the perfect lineup.
So far I’ve managed to see four 2011 releases this year: Bridesmaids, The Help, Crazy Stupid Love and Midnight in Paris. I’m contemplating The Tree of Life this afternoon. The Modern Love Machine and I have a date to see The Muppets either tonight or tomorrow afternoon and I’ve got the Descendants on my list for Friday. I’m hoping to talk the MLM and his sisters into Hugo while we’re in Nashville for Christmas. After that, Young Adult and possibly Martha Marcy May Marlene at our indie theater. I’m waiting for the DVD releases of Drive and Moneyball. And good God, someone find me a theater showing the Artist, because that’s the one I want to see more than anything in the world right now.
Wow. That’s kind of exhausting.
So far Midnight in Paris has been my favorite, but I always enjoy Woody Allen, so that was unsurprising. I will share my final judgments once I’ve made it through my list.
One of these years I will have seen all the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars get here. I was pretty proud last year for accomplishing half of the ten — TEN! — pictures before the Academy Awards, but this year I’m shooting for the moon. I realize not all those movies will be up for the award, but several will so I’m feeling good about my chances. I’ve also decided that ‘watch every Best Picture winner‘ is going to be on my Life List, which I’m in the process of compiling and will share on or around my 30th birthday.
Since I spent the first half of the year catching up on 2010 releases, here’s my list of those. The only one of these movies I really did not like was The Town.
1. The King’s Speech
2. Inception
3. The Social Network
4. Toy Story 3
5. Winter’s Bone
6. Easy A
7. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
8. Biutiful
9. Eat, Pray, Love
10. Despicable Me
11. The Kids are All Right
12. Iron Man 2
13. The Town
Still want to watch: Black Swan and True Grit
I’ve seen all that you listed except for Biutiful and Scott Pilgrim, and the only ones I didn’t really care for were also The Town, but Winter’s Bone as well (too depressing and slow for me).
Definitely watch Scott Pilgrim. It’s a lot of fun. Winter’s Bone was definitely tough to watch, so I get why a lot of people didn’t like it. I thought Jennifer Lawrence did an amazing job with her character though, so I’m really excited to see her in Hunger Games.
now this is a post i can get behind – omg do i love movies!!!
i have a list of approximately 9 movies i want to check out over the next week plus while i’m off work – all i can say is it’s going to be awesome.
midnight is paris has been one of my favorites this year too – love.
Downtown West is be playing The Artist!!! And J. Edger, and My Week with Marilyn-all of which I would like to see at some point. My favorite date night movie this year was probably Crazy Stupid Love and I was also impressed by The Adjustment Bureau. Happy movie watching!
I know! I blissfully discovered that last night while plotting a time to go see the Descendants. I’m totally seeing it today! Woo hoo!
Black Swan is awesome, so I hope you get to see that one soon. I need to catch up on some movies too — why do all the good ones come out at the end of the year? (I know, I know, Oscar bait.) For the record, I think being a movie snob is a good quality.