You know how when you look at someone else's list of their favorite things of the year and it's all stuff you've never seen or heard of, things you missed out on, and when you compare it to your own list, you feel really dumb? Well, I'm feeling really dumb about my own short list of movies that I most enjoyed this year. Here they are, for better or worse.
Drug War – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie quite as lean and efficient at this one. Tightly edited, not a second wasted, this movie just goes and doesn’t stop until everybody is dead. Exposition is kept at a bare minimum, if not tossed out completely, but everything is handled so well that you’re never quite left behind. Not to mention that it’s just a great, vicious crime story as well. Just incredible all around. Best movie of the year, I think. I mean, it was originally released in China last year, so maybe it SHOULDN'T count, but it wasn't brought overseas til this year. So there.
Pacific Rim – Drug War’s the best, but Pacific Rim is my favorite, for reasons I’ve already gone into before. To reiterate: Giant robots fighting giant monsters (some of which were designed by Guy Davis!), Idris Elba, Ron Perlman, Rinko Kikuchi, a soundtrack that really gets you pumped up, and so on and so forth. This movie feels like it was made just for me, and I have no problem with having watched it four times in theaters.
Upstream Color – Already written about this briefly before, too, but I’m still struggling to articulate my feelings about it. The whole movie is like a dream in an aquarium, functioning less as a movie and more like a good music album that you put on and just get lost in. The imagery, music, and sound design are one, it’s hard to pull it apart and talk about one aspect without talking about the rest of it. Just…just exceptional. I can't wait for whatever Shane Carruth comes up with next.
Thor: The Dark World – I didn’t expect to like this movie as much as I did. It’s not without its flaws, but I had a lot of fun watching it with my girlfriend. The Dark Elves aren’t GREAT villains, but they look really cool, Idris Elba kills a spaceship single-handedly, and Stellan Skarsgard prepares for his role in Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac by refusing to wear pants. I'm coming to terms, at last, with the Marvel movies and actually beginning to admire them for just straight up cranking these things out at the rate of two a year. I got on my high horse when I hated the Avengers, but I think I've since learned to back off a bit and just enjoy them for being colorful popcorn movies that come around every summer.
There's one more post to go, it's going to be a big mixed bag of things, so look forward to that!