The Best Movies of 2011, Part 2

So, part two. I don’t have a lot to say intro-wise, other than there are plenty of films that are great that didn’t make the list. If you have recommendations or want to know my opinion on other 2011 films, just ask in the comments.

5. The Beaver (Dir. Jodie Foster)

Mel Gibson was extremely brave to make this movie. Personally, I could care less about his drunken racist rants. Anybody whose been around anyone who is either angry, drunk, or both can understand that. But the fact remains that playing a married man whose family is disintegrating because of consuming depression is a bold move. Jodie Foster (who also stars) really knew how to bring out the best in him, and Gibson’s performance is one of the best of the year, hands down. It’s a bizarre movie, one not for all the crowds, but I loved it.

4. I Saw the Devil (Dir. Kim Ji-woon)

Serial killer films are often afraid to really look at what makes a man break psychologically, or adequately do a commentary on whether one form of violence is inherently better than another, or more justified. I Saw the Devil does both. After his wife is brutally murdered by a serial killer, a city cop breaks all the rules to hunt down the killer. But the difference is that this vigilante isn’t out to feel better, and he isn’t out for justice. He’s out to cause as much pain as possible to the man who stole his love, and actually releases the killer, knowing that he can’t go to the police. He re-traces him and re-tortures him countless times. It’s a brutal psychological war game worth every second, but not for the faint of heart. It’s literally in the top 2 percent most violent movies I’ve ever seen.

3. Young Adult (Dir. Jason Reitman)

Now here’s a really smart movie. This is a character study about an immature, shallow writer of teen fiction who goes back to her small hometown to steal her high-school sweetheart back. The catalyst? She finds out he’s married and has a kid. Yep, Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is nothing but a smarmy, selfish brat, but the movie goes to great lengths to give her a foil (the amazing Patton Oswalt) who is the polar opposite, as well as make sure that we understand the motives behind her. The movie makes a different, bold turn in the final act that some may find exploitive or left-field, but it makes sense. Emotionally, I felt this was the most mature film of 2011, and I’m surprised coming from the writer of Jennifer’s Body (vomit).





2. Hugo (Dir. Martin Scorsese)

A 3D family film that is actually good? Hellz yeah! Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is an orphan living in a 1930s Paris train station who gets caught by Papa George (Ben Kingsley), a toy shop owner, after trying to steal parts to fix a robot he’s been trying to fix. He develops a friendship with George’s goddaughter (Chloe Moretz), and the two embark on an adventure to discover the secret the robot holds. It’s beautiful, heartwarming, filled with colorful characters, and most importantly, says something. Childrens films are so oversaturated with bland “cuteness” and zero emotional or mental stimulation. Kids aren’t as dumb as movie producers think- Hugo proved that by winning GOBS of awards. I hope it becomes a future classic.

1. Drive (Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)

Ryan Gosling plays Driver, an unnamed semi-drifter who drives for criminals as well as stunt driving for movies. If that doesn’t get you, how about this- he gets involved with some mobsters (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman), and must protect his neighbor (Cary Mulligan) and her small son. It’s got car chases, badass fights, insane violence, style oozing out of every pore, and a score to die for. If you want to see a 70s-style revenge/action/car film that does the subgenre justice- this is the film for you. It’s also a poetic examination of what heroism really means and entails, and has a true mythical spirit about it that makes it intensely memorable. A true modern classic.

The Best Movies of 2011, Part 1

And now comes the article where I reveal my love of lists. I have lots of lists. I compile useless facts and statistics like nobody’s business, so it make perfect sense to have just dozens of lists of things I like or hate just lying around. OK, the lists change frequently when I consume more media and entertainment, which is all the damn time, but right now I’d just like to take a look back at last year, 2011. Since most movies come out about 4 months after they get released in theaters, I’ve finally seen pretty much every movie from 2011 that I have a real interest in (which is over 150 films). Now, I had to narrow it down to ten I thought were the best. Hell, I’d easily recommend the top 30 percent of movies I saw last year (I thought it a really good year for cinema), so getting just ten is almost impossible. But here it goes.

 10. Tyrannosaur (Dir. Paddy Considine)

Tyrannosaur is not a film about a dinosaur. It’s a bleak British drama about an unemployed alcoholic who finds solace in a kind Christian woman who offers to pray for him and his dying best friend. Yeah, a real picker-upper. But the film takes a unique approach- it doesn’t hide the emotions the characters are feeling. It’s violent and in-your-face, and occasionally feels like it doesn’t al fit together. But as the relationships these characters build gets deeper, it reflects life almost perfectly. It’s foremost an examination on the cruel animal nature of man and the unfairness of life, but it also shows hope, that one can change and overcome.

 9. Win Win (Dir. Thomas McCarthy)

Sports films involving children or high-schoolers are usually lowest-common-denominator fluff or over-stylized excuses to throw around clichés. Not Win Win. In the trend of movies reflecting real life, Win Win chronicles lawyer Mike (Paul Giamatti) who is soon going out of practice and the high-school wrestling team he coaches is downright awful. Yet when a young yet talented teen crosses his path through a client, he decides to take in the boy and make him a star wrestler. The movie really gets deep into the themes of selfishness, honesty, and personal responsibility. It never loses sight of the comedy found naturally in human contact, and feels fresh and alive.





8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Dir. Rupert Wyatt)

The closest movie I can compare this to is District 9- a smart sci-fi actioner that keeps the heart of what makes us human at the core. It’s fuelled by human drama and takes great pains to make Caesar (Andy Serkis) look real and feel real. The journey Caesar faces, from living with humans (James Franco, John Lithgow, Frieda Pinto) to fighting back against crooked animal controllers (Tom Felton, Bryan Cox), is completely believable, paced properly, and filled with amazing visuals and action. It was hands down the best summer movie from last year.

7. Midnight in Paris (Dir. Woody Allen)

This is a very lighthearted Woody Allen comedy, looking at a writer (Owen Wilson) who visits Paris with his bitch of a fiancé (Rachel McAdams), only to gain great inspiration by traveling back to the 1920s at Midnight. He meets Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody), F. Scott Fitzgerald (pre-Loki Tom Hiddleston), and many more. The cast isn’t the best part of the movie, though. It’s a great movie because the film taps into the creative juices of anyone artistic, and finds a niche between surreal and cute that makes for a romantic comedy that actually feels romantic.







6. 50/50 (Dir. Jonathan Levine)

How can a movie about cancer be funny? Well, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen can make it funny. Gordon-Levitt is getting a bit of Gerard Butler-it is, getting massively overexposed as a leading man after a string of hits. I hope he doesn’t fade- he’s been great in almost anything. The movie is a comedy, but don’t let that fool you into thiking it doesn’t have sad or distressing moments- any truly heartfelt film about cancer would obviously have them. The movie handles it all with grace, though, never being heavy-handed. Oh, and Anna Kendrick is insanely cute.

On Drugs and Finding Happiness

Consider this a confessional of sorts.

Initially, I didn’t intend for this blog to be a diary. I created it to give deeper insights into certain aspects of culture, entertainment, life, and the world that I couldn’t fit into a paragraph on Facebook. While not exclusively for family and friends, I feel that you readers are most likely connected to me in some way, so I think a semi-deep reflection might be a good thing up front. I promise it won’t be like this every time, but I feel it must be said. This is personal, and a reflection on myself that not everyone will agree with, but I think everyone can learn from differing perspectives.

About six months ago, I started getting into drugs. It was just the ganja- marijuana, weed, pot. Mary Jane. I loved every second of it. I wasn’t driven to it out of depression and I wasn’t rebelling against anyone- I had already been out of college for almost a year. I had no need for it other than I was stone cold bored with my life and my job. I wanted an adventure, and I wanted to belong in some way to a group that could understand me, especially after I left the church 3 years prior (which is another story altogether). Of course, this is a clean Shane speaking now, one with some experience behind him, and back then I didn’t quite know what would happen.

Now, I don’t have anything morally against marijuana. I don’t judge anybody who actively uses it. I think it’s a very misjudged plant by society. But as time went on, gradually I began to hear from various family members, even those who also smoked, about the negatives instead of the positives I had been hearing. They weren’t health problems, but rather warnings about how psychologically dependant one can get. I know not everyone becomes dependent on weed when they smoke it. For some people, they can stop smoking whenever they want to- it isn’t physically addictive. But for me, personally, it led to a downward spiral, mostly because it caused an internal conflict within me that I’m still not quite over. Though I don’t profess any particular faith anymore, I still hold my family and my morality very dear to my heart, and after a while it became clear to me that the people I held close to me would rather me not smoke it- I wasn’t the same person anymore. I virtually stopped watching movies and quit writing the screenplay I was working on. People who know me know that those are things I love, and I had left them.

I thought it wasn’t a big deal, it’s just weed after all. Everyone smokes it. It’s unbelievably easy to find. But what it does to the mind- increase dopamine levels in the brain- can cause psychological withdrawal symptoms when one stops after continuous use over a long period of time. Eventually, my financial situation worsened, and I came into conflict with my family enough that I had to quit. It should have been over then. Hey, it was fun while it lasted, but it’s just weed.

Unfortunately, I don’t have very good self-control. Without it, I couldn’t sleep. I gave myself all these reasons why I should keep smoking instead of move on with my life. I thought I could manage it. I switched to “legal” herb- K2 or incense as they call it. It’s basically non-toxic herbs like mint, lion’s tail, and chamomile sprayed with noxious psychoactive chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in weed. The problem? It’s been known to be addictive as crack, and is twice as potent as weed for beginning users, often caused psychotic hallucinations and paralyzing fear. I experienced that in a minor form. I’m lucky I caught it when I did. I ended up spending over 1,000 dollars on drugs over that time, draining my entire savings and blowing my entire tax refund on it. It was all I smoked, which is insidiously unhealthy, and eventually not even that could get me high anymore. I broke down.

It took the people I love to get me to stop. The next step would be cocaine, I knew it. I knew someone who had it, or could get it. I told myself I’d never touch that, that “gateway drug” nonsense was just that. But you see, the problem wasn’t with the drug.

It was ME.

I was the one letting it control me. I was the one allowing it to dictate my happiness. It became my existence, my whole reason to live outside of work. I was deeply unhappy and depressed without it. Eventually, it took a few choice words from family for me to think “Is this really worth it?” Is it worth not being able to find a better job? Is it worth causing your family distress? Is wallowing in substance abuse my future? No, it isn’t. I finally realized, thanks to family support, that I can rise above it (pardon the hideous wordplay).

Everyone is looking to fill that heart-shaped whole. I have great respect for those who find it in religion or faith, and pour their souls genuinely into it (and yes, I do believe in an abstract idea of a soul). I don’t have that. I was born with genes that predisposed me to have a dependent, addictive personality. I didn’t know it until I let something that wasn’t me, become me. Some will say “You just grew out of it, don’t make it more than it needs to be.” That may be oversimplifying it. Sure, that describes what happened to me, but doesn’t explain it. I’ve always been one to examine closely the reasons behind something, whether it be in film criticism or everyday life, and I know that my “heart-shaped hole” was still empty.

God didn’t give me what I wanted inside me. I didn’t feel fulfilled by drugs. In the end, I discovered that I, not the things around me, determine my happiness. I don’t need to fill my life with some kind of fix. I make my own joy in life. I control my own destiny. I look around at the sadness of life, but I also see an insane amount of beauty and optimism. In the near future, I’m sure marijuana will be legal. And then, I may come back around a wiser person, with more self control, and I might be able to handle it. But for now, the right thing for me personally to do is let it be. I need to lose weight, and get a better job, and neither of those will happen on weed. I value my family enough to listen to them as well. I felt like I was fooling myself.

There are tons of people who, culturally, don’t view this as seriously as I do. That’s perfectly fine. But I think everyone who uses any kind of mind-altering substance should at the very least look at the why and see if it’s a healthy why. Examine yourself, look at your life, and see if it’d be better or worse. A wise person told me I was selling myself short, and that I would never be truly happy dependent on drugs. He was right. Maybe you’re struggling with substance abuse, maybe you aren’t. Maybe you just ritually smoke once or twice a week. Maybe you already have a great job that never drug tests you.  Maybe you have chronic migraines or IBS, and weed relieves your symptoms. Maybe you’re just a stoner who never developed a dependency. You’re damn lucky if so.

This doesn’t mean I’m a goody two-shoes. It means I finally know what’s good for me right now in my life, and struck another x off my list of “things I tried to feel better about myself that utterly failed.” Because I don’t need something or someone else to feel better about myself. I’m my own person, with my own mind, and I don’t know ultimately where I’ll find myself in life in a few years, but I know I’ll be happier knowing where I stand.