Top 10 Games of 2011

10. Bastion
After playing the demo, falling off the edge of the map, and having my misstep cleverly detailed by the omnipresent nattaror, I expected him to slickly respond to all of the actions I performed, thus delivering a inspired new take on game presentation. Turns out I was kinda wrong, as the game stretches into a fairly lengthy and directed journey in which the script improvises more in beats than measures. Nevertheless, I had a good time trouncing through an inspired (if not entirely interesting to me) adventure, killing… er, I don’t even remember anymore. It’s been three weeks. Whatever. I hit guys with hammers and had fun.

9. Sonic Generations
I already wrote about how Sonic Generations is “better” than Uncharted 3. It probably wasn’t very well written as I went in with the expectation that nobody would read the whole thing even if it were posted at The New York Times blog because nobody goddamn reads anymore unless they’re on the squat and even then they’re playing that saccharine piece of gizzard’s gooze Angry Birds…, but it’s written nonetheless. The same goes for the sentence I just wrote, which I hold as my firm opinion as strongly as I hold any opinion, which is to say fairly strongly, in that uncertain kind of way that’s perpetually unsure of its intent, ya know?

8. Child of Eden
Just look at it.


7. You Don’t Know Jack
As an aspiring comedy writer (you wouldn’t know it from here*), this game impresses me all the time. Lines are amazingly delivered by the host Cookie Masterson, and are more clever and punny than the popular gross, with one series of questions for instance asking whether “Something Something Ranch” is the name of either a salad dressing or a Nevada brothel. When my mom got every one correct, my Catholic-rooted family had the biggest, most innocent laugh about prostitution we’d ever had. And that’s saying something.
*"You wouldn’t know it from here” line taken from Beginner’s Guide to Yuks.

6. Portal 2

Portal 2 is the expansive sequel to the breakout hit of a few years ago. Adding more levels, more gameplay elements, and way more background story for those crazy folks at Aperture Labs, Portal 2 is an awesome follow-up to the first game. My personal favorite new element is the addition of the moon-paint dispensers which let you coat the walls in new Portal-ready material.

In case you aren't familiar, here's a brief overview of the game: You're a subject in a crazy lab where the loony AI computer system is trying to destroy you and you want to escape and the only weapon you have is a gun that makes portals so you can sneak past enemy turrets and move boxes to solve puzzles to advance until you find a way to escape. There are also a lot of jokes about potatoes in science fair projects and this real cheeky little AI guy that helps you along the way.

The gameplay is some of the most addictive I've encountered in an FPS. Because the levels are strung together like individual puzzles, it's so easy to tell yourself you'll solve just one more puzzle. Next thing you know it's five hours later and you don't mind at all. You were having too much fun. Awesome. [Sean]

5. Dead Space 2
The original Dead Space may be my favorite game of this generation. I felt like I was walking through a finely-crafted haunted house while being fed an expertly-contained sci-fi story. Since then, I feel the series has veered a bit, with unnecessary universe expansion detracting from the simplicity of the original adventure. Add in a now-voiced protagonist who shouts the same f-word as every other hero, an emphasis on a multiplayer mode that already lies barren, and the most immature ad campaign in modern gaming, and you’d think I wouldn’t be talking about this game at all. Nah. I can’t stop shooting the limbs off dead stuff. I can’t wait to move out of my parents’, then out of my crowded co-op, and then out of my paper-thin townhouse so I can finally blast the volume on this audio-video spectacle. Only fifteen more years!


4. Batman: Arkham City
As a fan of old beat ‘em ups (especially racist ones like Sunset Riders) I can’t help but love the single best hand-to-hand combat system ever created in games. Whereas Uncharted 3 lists as one of my greatest disappointments of the year thanks to the fact that I dreaded every single enemy encounter, I love taking down henchman after henchman in what-appear-to-be-choreographed fight scenes directed through my fingers. The story gets a bit too comic-y for me at times, but the uniquely dark aura of Gotham drips into Arkham City to create the perfect open-world environment for either a bat to cat around in, or vice versa.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
My wallet is a map of the original Legend of Zelda, and I wear a Zelda wristband out in public. This game had to really screw up not to make my list. It did try at times, with slow-scrolling text and constant descriptions of items you’ve already picked up 100 times testing my patience, and both I and my bitey cat were resistant to getting back into the (improved but still imperfect) Wii-flailing groove. But just like in Space Channel 5, the groove got me. A simple walk through the bazaar is all it takes to recognize the richness of personality that still sets this iconic video game adventure apart from the rest.


2. Fortune Street
Out of nowhere, this somewhat Mario Party-ish looking game sprung up at me from the review pages of Game Informer. It’s rare that any property (especially one starring both Nintendo and Dragon Quest characters) can sneak by my internet eyes, so I read on, intrigued. Weeks later, cut to the living room of my friend Andy, where a newly-purchased copy of the game entertained a bunch of sober twenty-somethings for four hours plus. That night alone shot Fortune Street to the top of the list. It’s Monopoly with a stock market, and it’s the most pure, refreshing experience I’ve had discovering a game with friends since the arcade was still a thing.


1. Skyrim
I fell asleep during every Lord of the Rings movie, but ya know what? NO ONE CARES! A game is different from a movie, otherwise I would’ve just copied and pasted our top movie list and put “Colon The Game” after every title (The Tree of Life: The Game is particularly good). Skyrim triumphs in the major aspect that does attract me to high fantasy by creating a vast medieval “Europe” where I can hang my post-industrial stress at the door, take in a dragon story if I wish, or just wander an often beautiful, rewarding landscape. There is a bevy of lore to discover that I appreciate for creating an aura of verisimilitude, yet personally don’t care about for beans. The stories I need are found in my Xbox inbox, where real-life friend Pat insults me as “Argonian street trash.” I don’t know what it means, but I love being involved in a world where vitriolic jibberish about an imaginary place still stings. Curse you, Pat, and may the Gods punish you in years hence.

Top 10 Top 40 Songs of 2011

10. Adele - "Someone Like You" 
Hey, remember when Adele was just that British lady who sang that “Chasing Pavement” song that they used in all those Lifetime Original Movies? The unanimously-adored 21 changed all that. I was recently in a hunting bar in rural Wisconsin that had been somewhat overrun by city-folk visiting for the holidays, and when “Someone Like You” came on, all the women threw their arms around each other and started belting along. Everyone knows and loves this song. “Someone Like You” is the ultimate torch song because it so effectively masks its vulnerability as bravery. She’s totally keeping it together enough to have faith that she’ll find love despite being devastatingly hurt, but still gives into her overwhelming pain to deliver this soul-crushing gem: “’Don’t forget me,’ I beg/ ‘I’ll remember,’ you say / sometimes it lasts in love / sometimes it hurts instead.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? SO TRAGIC. SO BRAVE. [Sam]
 
9. Lupe Fiasco - "The Show Goes On"
It always warms my heart a little when a socially conscientious musician can also make it rain on the mainstream charts (no, I'm not talking about Bono.) Lupe Fiasco's stellar "The Show Goes On" is at once hipster-baiting (y'know, cuz of the Modest Mouse sample), a solid "message" song, and catchy-as-all-get-out. The catchy-as-all-get-out part is probably what wins everybody over the most, and it is definitely catchy the way Mouse's "Float On" was an earworm for the masses. It's good trickery, because the track works both as an offshoot of post-pop with its mash-up roots, and a subtle positive message for the masses, while still allowing the masses to raise their hands in the air. [Qualler]

 
8. DEV - "In the Dark" 
"In the Dark" does reek of sex in a number of overt and obvious ways, but somehow manages to still be sexy. I don't even find Dev particularly attractive, and in fact I prefer just listening to this song in my car to watching the video on a computer (the venues of consumption may have something to do with it), but damn if I don't get kind of bothered whenever I hear that saxophone riff. By now I think we can all agree that Kenny G's instrument of choice became overused in 2011, to the point where the man himself even guested on a Katy Perry bridge to complete the ouroboros, but it's pretty tough to argue that it doesn't hit hard when it's used correctly. And here it's all smoke and shadows, complementing the vocals as much as it enhances them, but in such a way that it never feels like the usual Top 40 calculated balance of computerized effects and sugary melodies. It may not be gritty like a lo-fi dubstep dance floor banger, but it still bangs; it's just that it slithers on the off-beats. [Chris]

 
7. Beyoncé - "Love on Top" 
After separating professionally from her manager/father at the beginning of this year, Beyoncé released 4, which, although not a fan favorite, is where we see Beyoncé shucking the pop princess persona and really being Beyoncé. While none of the songs on the album are ever going to be top-charting radio singles (besides “Run the World (Girls)”, which I like to pretend just never happened), Beyoncé exhibits maturity, variety of sound, and one of the greatest singing voices around. And nowhere is this more evident that in “Love on Top”. This song is not about sellability or pop music or about making vocals subservient to a dance-able beat; everything about this song, including the four key-changes and the amazing music video, is about Beyoncé singing, loudly and strongly, and not because a man broke her heart, but because she’s so impossibly happy. In a year dominated by the powerful tragedy of Adele, the weird angst of Rihanna, and the synth-dance of everyone else, this song stands out like as a reminder that things really do get better. Plus, listening to it when you get ready in the morning is pretty life-affirming. [Sam]
 
6. Lady Gaga - "The Edge of Glory"
The Gagster has had an up-and-down relationship with The Blogulator (cuz, obviously she is a big time reader) and, while I have been on the mostly-positive liking-most-everything-she-does side of things (except for that horrible album cover for Born This Way and the fact that every one of her videos is like a million effin' minutes long, and, as I told somebody in a convoluted way recently, "if they're all long, then none of them are long"), she really hit her stride with "The Edge of Glory". In my eternal search for The Perfect Song To Cross A Marathon Finish Line To (hey, new Blog feature in 2012? Mayhaps!), The Good Lady of Gaga  crafted a perfect upbeat, positive, emotional song about, well, big themes like being on "the edge of glory" and "hanging on a moment with you" (the best use of that phrase since Lifehouse used it?). And while I agree with Chris that the saxophone was an overused element of pop music in 2011, none of the other pop songs featuring sax had Clarence Effin' Clemons (rest in peace) playing their songs home. So when that final blast of the final run through the chorus, plus the soulful sounds of Clemons' sax bursts through your speakers/headphones, it's truly glorious. [Qualler]

 
5. Wiz Khalifa - "Roll Up" 
"Roll Up" does so much to convince the "Black & Yellow" naysayers (and I like to think there are many of us) with seemingly so little. Khalifa worked so hard to annoy millions with that oppressive synthetic xylophone (or whatever it was) and yet it sounds like he's barely putting in any effort to write about an otherwise self-aggrandizing subject here: the significance of self-arrival. It should be skeezy, it should be smarmy, and it should definitely be arrogant, but he manages to eschew all of these negative stereotypes of the rapper that just wants his girl to know how great it will be once he shows up in his expensive car. Speaking of his rapping, the man's downright charming in his laid back and yet playful delivery, suggesting that not only is he just doing this for kicks, but it's also some kind of grand stress reliever rather than heavy emotion conduit. Whodathunk - effortless pop music that doesn't smack of slackerism. [Chris]

 
4. Britney Spears - "Til the World Ends"
Alright, Britney, here I thought that you were being metaphorical when you sung about dancing until the world ends, but your video proves me wrong. You LITERALLY want us to continue to dance UNTIL the WORLD actually ENDS. Which, according to your video, will happen on December 21, 2012. (Very specific.) Well, the good news is, after a few years of blah music from the Britster, her 2011 record Femme Fatale was a step in the right direction in forward-thinking pop music, while bringing back a little "classic Britney" sound from the late 90s / early 00s. Something about the way the main drum beat keeps the sixteenth-notes humming and building while the synth wobbles around and Britney sings with so many vocal tracks until it builds to that great conclusion where everything's just going nuts makes this song special. It's another entry in my "Perfect Song To Cross A Marathon Finish Line To" feature that I'm now developing even more in my head. ("Maybe work on the title a little, ya jerk?" say the masses. The masses are really mean in my head.) And don't you feel like, after all Britney's been through in the past decade, and all the growing up she (and in turn, we) have done, she deserves to have a little bit of happiness? Anyway, Britney Spears, so glad you're back making interesting-but-not-too-adventurous-but-just-adventurous-enough pop music. [Qualler]

 
3. LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock - "Party Rock Anthem"
I honestly don’t think I’ve gone to a party or bar this year without hearing “Party Rock Anthem”; I even have a coworker who greets the office every morning by walking in and saying, “Everyday we shuffling.” (He’s referring to paper. That’s why it’s funny, I guess.) When VH1 produces I Love the Teens, they will talk about this song as being quintessentially 2011. You see, LMFAO is embodying this weird sort of totally 2011 meta-irony, where their hipstery self-mockery is actually just a ruse for post-hipster self-mockery mockery. At least that’s how a Cultural Studies minor looks at it. In any case, Party Rock Anthem is exactly what it says it is: an anthem for party rocking, whether at a club, at a party, at home, or in your car. Like the zombified dancers in their music video, just hearing “Party Rock Anthem” makes us all want to dance in an unflattering hipster ironic way with lots of little jumps and fist pumping. That weird synthesized chorus line triggers some weird fluke in our physiology, and we just can’t help but party rock. [Sam]

 
2. Nicki Minaj - "Super Bass"
I admit that I'm somewhat of a Nicki Minaj hater, so it pains me somewhat to say that "Super Bass" is just an unbelievably catchy, clever song. Her fast-pace rapping, which, I also admit, sounds very good, works really well with the slow-ish backing synths and driving beats. COMPLAINT TIME! (And if you don't come to The Blogulator at least partially for allowing us to validate our opinions, then you're not here for the right reason.) Why does Nicki, whose "real life" persona exhibits a predilection toward at least bisexuality, have to be rapping about how much this one dude is really handsome and how she wants to do it with the dude? Okay, that's not really a fair complaint to lob her direction, because, the fact is that a song this catchy wouldn't be as popular if it had a less hetero-normative core to it, and pop stars gotta get paid. Regardless of all that, there's no doubt "I mean, you're so shy and I'm loving your tie / you're like, slicker than the guy with the thing on his eye" is one of my favorite lyric lines of 2011. So, Nicki, don't be afraid to bust out of the misogynistic Young Money label you're tied to and say something that's true to you, please, and maybe then I won't be a Nicki Minaj hater anymore. [Qualler]

 
1. T-Pain feat. Chris Brown - "Best Love Song"
"Best Love Song" is so anthemic it hurts. T-Pain takes adoration to a level potentially not yet seen in pop music until now, imbuing his usual wacky mentality into a topic that nevertheless feels 100% serious and universal, thus making it wholly original all over again. It's a magnanimous feat, yet because he goes all out without reserve or embarrassment, he nails it. Chris Brown's presence may mar this effect on the surface, but ultimately he's just a pawn in T-Pain's game, playing the side character for a maximum arena-level battle scene in which the winner is not a persona nor a celebrity but rather the listener's hands, which invariably raise involuntarily into the air, conveying their agreement in the notion that yes, they could hypothetically hold a pen that could write the best love song she has ever heard in her life. [Chris]

Top 10 Albums of 2011

10. Cults, Cults, [In the Name Of]

I think I heard somewhere that the random voice samples on this album are from real life cult leaders. Isn't that crazy? So what if you can't understand them; it's neat. This band is some art school duo. I think it's a dude and a lady so I'm going to pretend there's love. For romance, duh. Oh! The album! It's rad. Plenty of catchy oldies-style tracks about love and relationships and stuff (romance, the good sides and bad). "Go Outside" is a rocking time. Ditto for "Bad Things." "Bumper" has some male/female call and response going on and you know that's good. The band has simple percussion, spacey bells, and the catchiest melodies. You'll be tapping your toes. [Sean]

9. Gillian Welch, The Harrow and the Harvest [Acony]

I'm getting older. And with getting older comes the more and more willing admission that I like music that I used to ignore for being "too boring." Folk/bluegrass singer Gillian Welch released her first new album in seven years with The Harrow & The Harvest and it reminds me of the grassy Appalachian mountains featured in FX's Justified. Welch and songwriting/performing/life partner David Rawlings craft gorgeous, sad melodies about sad, dark stuff. Sadsies abound! Songs like "Scarlett Town", "Tennessee" and "The Way It Will Be" sound like they have existed for eternity, and will continue to exist for eternity. [Qualler]

8. Real Estate, Days [Domino]

 I am a simple person with simple needs. Give me sparkly guitars and hummable vocals and call it a day. I didn't even like Real Estate's first album, but the tunes on Days are just so far and above the humdrum acoustic lo-fi wanker that was wildly popular for some reason two days ago. I'm glad they've changed with the times, because half a decade ago there was this band called Human Television that I thought for sure was the second coming of jangle pop, but then they faded away and I got sad. Luckily this hipster band is filling the void and making the sound come alive again. But what makes me most happy about this record is that not every song is just the obligatory mid-tempo slacker anthem with pretty guitar lines. There's the hyper side ("It's Real"), there's the languorous side ("Green Aisles"), and the off-kilter quirky side ("Out of Tune") too. But okay, mostly it's just a lot of insanely pretty guitars. [Chris]

7. The Roots, Undun [Def Jam]

I'm a sucker for concept albums, so when The Roots released one late in 2011, I was all over it. Their record Undun does not disappoint in that regard. The album follows a man named Redford Stephens (named after Sufjan Stevens' Michigan record song "Redford" and, assumingly, Stevens himself), a man who has to choose between a life of crime and a life of legitimacy. Of course, it wouldn't be compelling if the music wasn't great, and it is. Both slinky and cool, upbeat and dark, Jimmy Fallon's house band crafts great beats throughout. Ever since The Roots got their gig on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, they seem even more willing to explore new facets of their abilities. [Qualler]

6. Julianna Barwick, The Magic Place [Asthmatic Kitty]

Blogulator co-writer DoktorPeace vehemently disagrees with the praise given to this album by Qualler and yours truly. He says it gives him a "headache." And yet to me it's a collection of some of the most peaceful sounds ever created by a human being. Another Blogulator co-writer, Sean, went so far as to make fun of Barwick by recording his voice emulating her airy ambient coos and layering it a bunch of times while trying to stifle his own laughter. Well poo on them I say. While I can sympathize with the argument that if a bunch of effects and reverb need to be slathered on top of a voice or instrument then there's a minimal amount of musical proficiency at the artist's outset, I don't think that's what's necessary to make profound sounds or more frankly, good art. Barwick takes a very simple yet wholly original approach to making angelic choral solo music and it soars. You can't argue that it doesn't soar. If it soars so much it induces pain in your brain, then I guess you were meant for her grandeur. But I was, dammit, and it's effing gorgeous. [Chris]

5. Katy B, On a Mission [Columbia]

The British dubstep-y (or, at least, her producers dabble in dubstep, I think?) pop chanteuse Katy B released an album full of songs that, in my dreams, are popular enough to get the whole floor of a future wedding party going like crazy on the dance floor. Of course, the secret to a great dance pop record, as is the secret with all albums, is good songwriting, and On a Mission delivers in that regard. From the slinky-sexy beats of "Witches Brew" and "Movement" to the Toni Braxton-esque sad-breakup song "Go Away" (listen to the chorus where the multi-tracked vox in the chorus!), the record is full of straight up great songs with melodies that creep into your head. And it's a great alternative to the Ke$has and Katy Perrys for quality pop music good for running. The best part? She thanks all of us for listening with a long thank-you section at the end of final song "Hard to Get". You're welcome, Katy B. [Qualler]

4. R.E.M., Collapse Into Now [Warner Bros.]

R.E.M.'s swan song probably wouldn't be on my list of favorite albums of 2011 if it weren't their swan song, but my Favorite Band of All Time dropped the swan song bomb on us in September, months after the release of their fifteenth studio album with their breakup announcement. In typical understated R.E.M. fashion, the signs of imminent breakup are all over the album, from the epic opening track "Discoverer" to the even-more-obvious-"we're-gonna-break-up-now" track "All the Best" (lyrics like "I'll give it one more time / I'll show the kids how to do it fine") to the maybe-the-moment-they-decided-it-was-over "It Happened Today" (probably in my top 20 R.E.M. tracks of all time), to the Patti Smith-guesting funeral dirge "Blue" that gives way to one more blast of "Discoverer". Context is everything, so putting this record in the context of their swan song makes the musical content all the more immediate and bittersweet. [Qualler]

3. M83, Hurry Up We're Dreaming [Mute]

First things first: I hate the talking kid on "Raconte-Moi Une Histoire." It's the worst part of an otherwise solid album. No I don't think it's cute. No it's not charming or inspirational. It's dumb and ruins the mood right after my second favorite track ("Wait"). With all that out of the way, I can say that Hurry Up We're Dreaming is a super awesome M83 album. It follows the sonic themes of Saturdays = Youth and at 22 songs in length it provides plenty on sweet Jams to groove to. "Midnight City" is my personal favorite track even if I can't understand half the lyrics. "Waiting For a call"? "Waiting for a cab"?* It's like how I thought "Kim and Jessie" was about somebody muslim shouting and drowning your towel with voices. Hey! You like Zola Jesus? She's in the intro song. Bonus! [Sean]

* "Waiting in a car" makes way more sense (holy cow! Saxophone solo!)

2. Fucked Up, David Comes to Life [Matador]

Qualler talked above about his love for concept albums. I personally can't stand them. I like that Roots album a lot, but not because of the story it tells, though I can appreciate its sentiments. I also like that Janelle Monae record about the spider robot queen or whatever, but again, I honestly just can't listen straight through imagining this strange abstract movie in my head, though that seems like something on paper that I'd love to do. It feels too bloated or self-important when I concentrate that much, which is why David Comes to Life is a concept record I can get behind. Sure, if you want to, you can go deep with it and follow the tale of revolution it tells, but really, I'm just listening to the songs. Even at an epic eighteen tracks long, I am amazed at how easy it is to listen to each individual track as its own barn-burning melodic hardcore (or whatever) pop song. Every single riff melts my face off in a way that I feel okay using that phrase four or so years after its expiration date. I could care less about the politics of it as long as I can feel its fury and potency. [Chris]

1. Geotic, Mend [Self-Released]

I'm glad that DoktorPeace can agree with me on this one, if not Julianna Barwick (see above). He said he would often listen to it when he was writing his next magnum opus screenplay and I find that offhand fact very telling. Will Wiesenfeld also records as Baths, a project that got big last year with the record Cerulean, which is also definitely worth checking out, but it's so much more spastic and involved than Geotic that it makes a lot of sense that he has a completely different moniker for his more reserved and introspective side. It's so inward, in fact, that he only self-releases material under the Geotic name for free on his Angelfire (I know, right?) page. (You can download Mend and other beautiful recordings gratis here.) And sure, his loopy guitar meditations with static edges are nothing revolutionary or even necessarily ear-catching, but the more time you spend with them, like DoktorPeace did, the more they unfold into something singularly cathartic and addictive. It's music that exhilarates as much as it soothes, and through the instrumental and therefore multi-interpretational theme of amelioration, it becomes therapeutic as well. Sometimes that kind of small genius is what deserves the most attention, but it rarely gets its proper due. [Chris]

Top 10 Movies of 2011

10. Contagion [wr. Scott Z. Burns, dir. Steven Soderberg]

Contagion might not stand the test of time, but it’s the best high-quality, high-budget thriller of the year.  The film is great because it answers the simple question What would happen if a deadly pandemic actually struck the world? without devolving into the disgusting or the ridiculous.  The disease, Meningoencephalitis Virus One, takes its victims quietly without zombie-like symptoms or disgusting face lesions, and its silence is what makes it so effectively terrifying.  Contagion examines every facet of the outbreak—from the CDC and US government response with Kate Winslet to the third-world repercussions with Marion Cotillard, from the conspiracy bloggers with Jude Law to the implications for a middle class family with Matt Damon—with precision and intelligence.  The cast is star-studded (my comment every 30 seconds: “Oh wow, s/he’s in this too?!”) but full of excellent actors that add gravitas without sensationalizing.  In terms of Hollywood blockbusters, Contagion is definitely a winner.  [Sam]

9.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 [wr. Steve Kloves, J.K. Rowling (Book), dir. David Yates]
Whereas I heralded The Muppets for its lack of CGI, the  Harry Potter series pretty much justifies its existence.  As somebody with very little investment in a story to which he already knows the ending - and one who prefers Harry Potter when he’s in school, winning and losing points for his house and attending dances, as opposed to embarking on yet another epic fantasy quest - the visuals inherit a lot of responsibility.  And I gotta say, Emma Watson delivers, albeit less so than in the topless kissing scene of Part 1...  I semi-jest, but seriously:  These are kids’ movies?  Well I guess, because as my 8-year old friend Billy told me:  “At the very least, this film was a fitting, populist swansong for some of Britain’s greatest thespians.  Kudos, Maggie Smith.”  Billy’s a square. [DoktorPeace]




8. Martha Marcy May Marlene [wr. & dir. Sean Durkin]
Martha Marcy May Marlene is, for one, a genre flick, a creepy psychological thriller about a woman who is struggling with her sanity after a traumatic stint in a cult. But, it's also a lot more than that. It's also about how women can be victimized by the patriarchy, regardless of whether it's in a culty cult cult or in "mainstream" society. And it's also about the dangers of our society wholly rejecting any standard way of living outside of the accepted form of living. It's about all of these things, and it's hauntingly shot in bright, 35mm-style colors. While the overall "maybe our normal society can be bad like cults are bad" message is occasionally a bit too on-the-nose for my taste, the overall method of delivery is a truly creepy, frightening, get-under-your-skin powerhouse. And who knew Elizabeth Olson, younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley, could act? She is a powerhouse, as is John Hawkes (as usual), the magnetic and truly bad cult leader. [Qualler]




7. Midnight in Paris [wr. & dir. Woody Allen]
Midnight in Paris is enchanting in every way you'd never expect a Woody Allen film to be enchanting. For months and months I'd heard and read about people being left dizzy with the magical comedic aspect of this movie and while I didn't dismiss the notion, I thought it would be mildly pleasant at best and nauseatingly precious at worst. But I was wowed with the rest of 'em, convinced that Owen Wilson is a better Woody Allen than Woody Allen is (his anxious charm is more effervescent and effortless than his author's to the nth degree), convinced that Paris was photographed more vividly and joyously here than in nearly any other movie save for maybe Before Sunset, and convinced that the nostalgic ride through literary and cultural figures of the early 1900s was not only sweet nerdy fun but also downright brilliant. This wasn't the forced esoteric Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure that I was half-expecting at all. And despite all this general warm fuzziness that I felt throughout the film, it was the meaty center of it all that most and best surprised me. The commentary about the nature of the creative mind and nostalgia is one most near and dear to my heart, especially in this period of growing older and further away from "the good ol' days" (which I guess is something that could be applied to everyone), and certainly made me wonder and question my own pop desires as much as it allowed me to revel in them. [Chris]




6. Melancholia [wr. & dir. Lars von Trier]
"Life is only on Earth...and not for long." Melancholia is the latest disaster/melodrama/character piece/sci-fi film from writer/director Lars von Trier, and it is also the first movie I've been to see three times in the theater since Titanic.  Like Titanic, we all know the ending before the story begins: the world will end when hit by a rogue planet, and life on Earth is going to end.  Don't worry about the physics of how that would work, that's beside the point.  There's no trying to stop the planet from hitting ours, just like there's no hope of steering that ship around the ice burg.  When a disaster movie doesn't center on heroes figuring out how to save the day we're left with our heroes (or anti heroes? it's always hard to tell with Von Trier) will cope with the knowledge that their lives are about to end, and there's nothing they can do to stop that.  The story is told in three parts, a prologue, which is a beautifully filmed sequence of slow moving images set to glorious music, reminiscent of the prologue to von Trier's last film, Antichrist.  The second part (Part One: Justine) tells the story of a melancholic bride (Kirsten Dunst) on her wedding night.  She has to deal with a sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law (Keifer Sutherland) who just want her to "be happy."  She also deals with pressures from her boss (Stellan Skarsgard) who I think represents American greed--cause you know how von Trier feels about American--and maybe even petty preoccupation with concerns that quickly become insignificant when the end of the world is neigh.  Even groom (Alexander Skarsgard) seems at first to really love her, but is really only concerned with his own needs.  The wedding falls apart bit by bit, ending in the groom and his parents leaving while he tells Justine that "thinks could have been different."  Lines like this one underline the theme of free will versus destiny and even while absorbed in the story of the doomed wedding we remember that planet...the last part is titled Part Two: Claire and it takes place some span of time after the wedding and involves only Justine, Claire, and John (Dunst, Gainsbourg, and Sutherland) and young Leo in their secluded estate while we all wait for that planet to hit.  Von Trier shows us how difference character types deal with the end of the world, and as much as I enjoyed part one, I think it was in part two that I really fell in love with this film.  The slow realization that there's nothing to be done leads Sutherland (whom I think von Trier also uses as metaphor for patriarchal blind faith in "science" and "reason", maybe another dig on American ideals?) to suicide, Gainsbourg to panic and attempted flight, and on Dunst, who couldn't handle "regular" things like a marriage, to become the strong, calm leader and to look out for Leo.  The entire thing is beautifully shot and set to a grand, moving score.  I could talk about it for hours, but I also recall people leaving the theater half way through, so again if nothing else Von Trier is giving us something that creates controversy and it's worth experiencing it and forming your own opinion.  And of course ask yourself: how would you cope with the end of the world?  Or maybe Von Trier would have us ask: how ARE you coping with the end of the world? [Brigitte]




5. The Muppets [wr. Jason Segal, Nicholas Stoller, dir. James Bobin] 
The only Judd Apatow movie I’ve enjoyed is Forgetting Sarah Marshall, so I had no qualms about Jason Segel helming this Muppets revival.  What did worry me was that this franchise I enjoyed so much as a child would be smothered by modern metasociety.  True, playing off popular culture has always been a Muppet touchstone, with classic skits like "Pigs in Space" reliant on the then sci-fi fad, but it’s the pork puns that truly make it timeless.  Aside from a blah rap sequence and a somewhat-misplaced chicken cover of Cee Lo’s “F*** You,” The Muppets pretty expertly cherishes the innocence of its own nostalgia, with purposely vanilla human characters and simple story (aptly focused on nostalgia preservation) emphasizing the uniqueness of Kermit and the gang.   Celebrities like Jack Black are featured to be sure, but the story is never about the celebrity.  It’s about life being a happier song with talking frogs and pigs that are by no means computer-generated in it. [DoktorPeace]




4. Drive [wr. Hossein Amini, James Sallis (Book), dir. Nicolas Winding Refn]
Drive begins as the most wonderful Sofia-Coppola-esque portrait of the nameless Driver (Ryan Gosling), the calmest, dopiest, and hottest getaway driver, and Irene (Carey Mulligan), a hardworking mother whose husband is in prison.  It’s beautiful, plodding, suspenseful, and ambiguously romantic, portraying its characters and setting (Los Angeles) with gritty, tragic emotionalism.  That is until the film rips that all out from under us in the second half, dissolving into stylized and graphic violence that disrupts the complacency of the film as much as it upsets the characters’ lives as the world of Los Angeles organized crime begins to destroy its victims.  The violence is shocking but not illogical, and the film’s escalation from one type of stylization into the next is not a mark of inconsistency, but the intentional breaking-down of the character’s overly-romanticized world.  I’ll admit that the violence is sometimes off-putting and possibly too sensational, but the soundtrack, the acting, and the stylization makes this the one of the best films of 2011. [Sam]




3. Meek's Cutoff [wr. Jonathan Raymond, dir. Kelly Reichardt]
Do you like slow-moving old clothes movies that seemingly don't have much of a plot and that ultimately leave you hanging?  I do.  And if you do, too, then you'll love Meek's Cutoff, starring my personal favorite, Michelle Williams, and directed by Kelly Reichardt (director of 2008's Wendy and Lucy, also starring Williams).  In similar narrative style to Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff features little dialogue but plenty of intriguing (in)action and character development as we follow three families traveling west on the Oregon trail in 1845.  The film takes its name from character Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) whom the families hire to lead them through the Cascade Mountains.  Of course, he knows a special route, and of course, they become lost and end up wandering through seemingly endless desert, getting into minor adventures along the way.  Sort of a spin on the exodus narrative, the families run into one trouble after another and seem to become more and more lost and become more and more hopeless as their journey to nowhere progresses.  The film ends abruptly and we are left to wonder whether they ever reach their destination, and are also reminded that the story was never about reaching the destination.  It's more about how individuals develop trust or overcome mistrust and how they manage to maintain relationships when survival is at stake. [Brigitte]




2. Moneyball [wr. Steven Zallian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin, Michael Lewis (Book), dir. Bennett Miller]
Moneyball holds the esteemed distinction of being a sports movie that doesn't just eschew sports movie cliches but also manages to be very much about the sport in question, and not just a sports movie only in name. And all of this is coming from someone that has never been able to become a sports fan. The beauty of the film, apart from the obvious things like Bennett Miller's austere yet always glistening direction or Aaron Sorkin's quippy bon mots (which don't come a mile a minute like your usual Sorkin fare, thus giving each more space to breathe, which is a welcome change of pace ), is that it's a character piece in which baseball is the end-all be-all of that character. Brad Pitt plays Billy Bean with an odd kind of steely diffidence, which makes his obsession with the game that much more magnetic, like we're constantly trying to both figure him out and figure his team out along with him for the whole ride. It's a quiet yet involving journey and potentially the most curious film of 2011. [Chris]




1. The Tree of Life [wr. & dir. Terrence Malick]
For as much of a big deal that was made about Malick's masterpiece to end all masterpieces being narratively impenetrable, The Tree of Life is actually a remarkably simple film with a simple thesis, beautifully depicted in the poetic, meditative opening sequence. As delivered by Jessica Chastain's character: "The nuns taught us there are two ways through life. The way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you will follow... They taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end." Actually, the entire film is extremely meditative, which makes sense given Malick's overall approach to filmmaking. He wrote the script in a nontraditional way, reportedly with words, sketches, and pictures included. And, he told his cast that they were his "co-directors" (ha!) so as to make the completed film a truly cohesive, collaborative piece of work. Okay, so the film is a brilliantly dense, (sometimes somewhat) impenetrable quasi-narrative that reveals itself best over multiple re-viewings and over coffee with a group of friends. But, that is what I believe Malick is getting at - our Earthly problems, miracles, joys, and sorrows are just a microcosm of the vastness of the entire universe. What happens to us when we are born, when we die, and how we exist within that framework is an enormous, mind-bending question that cannot be answered, but if we live a life following grace, we cannot come to a bad end. That this overall thesis is presented over some of the most gorgeous cinematography, music scoring, directing, and acting of the year is a fantastic bonus. [Qualler]

Blogulator Radio Episode 37 - 20+ Shows That Didn't Suck in 2011

Click here to stream/download the latest episode of Blogulator
Radio courtesy of the Fancy Pants Gangsters netcast network!

For the first time ever, the two complete sets of Blogulator Radio co-hosts (both Chris & Jerksica AND Qualler & Brigitte) join each other in the same room to talk television. And for this episode after the long winter break (thanks for hanging in there, listeners!) they’re going through 20+ shows from 2011 that didn’t suck. Some might call it a Best of 2011 list, but with a smattering of honorable mentions plus some ripe controversy amongst the top twenty, the best they can agree on is that some of them really like some of the shows talked about herein and some respect others’ opinions about those shows while not sharing those feelings completely. Lady Amy, formerly just the netcast’s international television correspondent, tags along as well after spending fourteen months out of the country to find out what she’s been missing. Hint: it’s a lot.

Listen to the ep for commentary, but for your listgasmic convenience, here is The Blogulator's Top 20 TV Shows of 2011:

1. Parks & Recreation  (NBC)

2. Friday Night Lights (DirecTV/NBC)

3. Breaking Bad (AMC)

4. Louie (FX)

5. Game of Thrones (HBO)

6. Community (NBC)

7. Work of Art: The Next Great Artist (Bravo)

8. Cougar Town (ABC)

9. Justified (FX)

10. 30 Rock (NBC)

11. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)

12. Revenge (ABC)

13. Parenthood (NBC)

14. American Horror Story (FX)

15. Awkward. (MTV)

16. Happy Endings (ABC)

17. The Vampire Diaries (The CW)

18. Archer (FX)

19. Raising Hope (FOX)

20. Portlandia (IFC)

Blogulator Radio is brought to you in part by Netflix, where you can stream your favorite TV shows and movies from your TV, computer, or many other devices as often as you want for just 7.99 a month. Start your free two week trial today and help support independent netcasting.

For up to the minute updates all up in your upness, be sure to subscribe to Blogulator Radio via iTunes or RSS.

Being a modern show for modern people, we’ve got all sorts of ways to find us online. We’ve got your Facebook and your Twitter and your Google+, and you can follow Qualler and Chris on Twitter as well. Of course we always welcome comments or questions either in the comments below or through email at bradio@fancypantsgangsters.com. We also invite you to check out our non-audio version at TheBlogulator.com for more than just TV talk.

Coming Soon: The Blogulator's Best of 2011 Listgasm!

Heads up! Starting this Monday you will finally be subjected to The Blogulator's Best of 2011 Listgasm. You may be overdosing on this kind of stuff by now, but us normal people who like to relax around the holidays and new year's are back and now want to reflect on the pop culture of the previous calendar year. Here's the schedule you can look forward to:

Monday - Blogulator Radio presents...The Top 20 TV Shows of 2011

Tuesday - The Top 10 Movies of 2011

Wednesday - The Top 10 Albums of 2011

Thursday - The Top 10 Top 40 Jams of 2011

Friday - DoktorPeace presents...The Top 10 Video Games of 2011

Saturday - OHD presents...The Top 10 Books of 2011

Check the hints in the Blogulator TV set above if you want to predict some of the entries on the lists! Can you name all 10?

Top 10 Books of 2010

One of the hardest things about putting together this list is that, like a lot of readers, my reading habits tend to incorporate both new releases, old classics, and everything in between, so unfortunately, unlike all the rest of the lists we've posted up till now, this one won't be comprised entirely of books published in 2010--just books I read in 2010. That said, I'll mark each 2010 release with an asterisk, but something tells me y'all might not really care when these books were released. Let's get started!

1. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins*: This was probably my favorite YA novel both released in 2010 and that I read in 2010. Anna and the French Kiss chronicles the Parisian adventures of a girl named Anna (obvs) whose father sends her to an American school in France for her senior year. Anna is reticent to leave behind her friends and family and especially Toph, a boy friend who might be becoming a boyfriend, if you know what I mean. More complications arise upon her arrival in Paris, when she meets the boy masterpiece Etienne St. Clair, a gorgeous American-English-French guy who just so happens to have a girlfriend. Still, as Etienne and Anna grow closer, and as Anna learns that the people we leave behind continue to live their lives without reference to us, their relationship becomes more and more complicated. What I loved about this book is that it's quite obviously a romance, but the twists and turns and mistakes and misunderstandings feel completely natural to the characters and to what we know about how human teens behave when they're head over heels in love. Perkins side-steps cliches and tropes easily; Etienne is no cad, he's just honestly confused and afraid. Anna is no doormat; she loves Etienne, but is willing to walk away with her dignity when she feels like what she's being taken advantage of. Plus, Paris! If you have ovaries, you should have read this back in December, because it is the best YA romance I've ever read, and I think Perkins has a long and exciting career in front of her.

2. How the Universe Got Its Spots by Janna Levin: I reviewed this book back in August, and I've read quite a few popular physics books in the past few months and this one has remained my favorite. I put this down to the intensely personal way it is written--part memoir, part epistolary narrative, part Physics 101. This also makes it sad in places, poignant in others, and is a huge testament to how big a part of oneself one's own work can be.

3. Faithful Place by Tana French*: I thought I had reviewed this on The Blogulator, but perhaps not. While not as deep or beautiful as French's previous two novels, In the Woods and The Likeness, Faithful Place still exhibits some of the best mystery writing being published today. French's prose is just so lovely to read, full but not dense, poetic but not overwrought. In this book, loosely tied to The Likeness through its main character, Frank, who played a medium-sized role in The Likeness, Faithful Place begins when Frank, a long-time cop who manages undercover detectives, gets news that a suitcase belonging to his childhood sweetheart, Rosie, is found in an abandoned home on their old street in Dublin. Rosie and Frank were supposed to run away together back when they were younger, to escape the poverty and alcoholism of their neighborhood and find a way to be with each other despite the feuding between their families, but Rosie never showed up the night they were set to leave. Now, twenty years later, Frank believes the suitcase, rotting with age, shows that Rosie didn't leave him and that something might have happened to her. Determined to discover what had become of his long lost love, Frank mounts an investigation in his own former backyard, digging deeply into the closely kept secrets of his old neighbors and even his family to get to the truth about what he believes was Rosie's murder. The solution leaves something to be desired, but perhaps this is because Frank was too small of a player in The Likeness--I'm not the only French fan who would've preferred she return to Rob Ryan, the damaged anti-hero of her first novel, In the Woods. But Faithful Place still delivers in many ways, and was one of my most anticipated--and most enjoyed--reads of 2010.

4. Heaven by Lisa Miller*: One of the only straight up pieces of nonfiction I read this year, Heaven is a woman's quasi-personal investigation of the history of the concept of heaven in the minds and hearts of human beings. It's a short book, by no means an exhaustive text, but more like a survey course that collects many complex historio-religious ideologies into sound bites, perfect for the casual reader and certainly worth reading for anybody interested in learning more about how other cultures view and have viewed the afterlife. Also, she can hold her own against Stephen Colbert, which is pretty impressive.

5. How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley*: Like all of Crosley's writing so far, this book is only enjoyable if you like Crosley as a person, or at least as the person she presents herself as. I happen to like that person quite a lot, and find everything she writes funny in a personally pleasing way--it's not laugh-out-loud comedy, not joke after joke after joke, but more of a meandering journey through one life's more comedic flourishes, which gives Crosley room to be poignant and sometimes shocking as well. While not quite as enjoyable as Crosley's first full-length collection of essays (I Was Told There'd Be Cake), probably because most of Number's stories take place out of New York City, which is one of the most fun parts about Crosley's stories, Number is still hilarious and compelling reading. If you don't emerge from it wishing you could get a beer with her, I'll be shocked.

6. The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff*: Trends being what they are, it's hard to find the truly original paranormal YA novels in a sea of Twilight knock offs these days, but The Replacement was one of 2010's best. The story follows seventeen-year-old Mackie and his life in Gentry, a small steel town that has recently gone to seed. Almost from the beginning, it is clear to the reader that Mackie is suffering from an increasingly debilitating illness that sets him apart from his fellow classmates, and it soon comes to light that he is not, in fact, Mackie Doyle at all, but a "replacement" sent up from the underground world of Mayhem that exists below Gentry. The Replacement draws heavily off the folklore of the changeling, a fairy child sent to replace a human child stolen by the fey, and it is the steel (myth tells that fey are hurt by iron) that is causing him to grow ill and possibly die. Mackie descends into Mayhem to find a cure for his illness, and eventually is pulled into a battle with the dreaded ruler of Mayhem in order to rescue a child that was recently stolen from her home. The book is dark and gothic and truly original, even though it draws off of tropes that have been used in many ways by many different writers. For fans of YA that have no interest in the vampires v. werewolves debate, I highly recommend this book.

7. Mockingjay by Susanne Collins*: Mockingjay is the much-anticipated third installment in The Hunger Games trilogy, which, if you haven't read The Hunger Games, get thee to a bookstore, stat! First of all, it's relevant because they're making it into the movie. Also, it's about A TELEVISED FIGHT TO THE DEATH with TEENAGERS. You're going to want to know what people mean in two years when they're all wearing t-shirts that say TEAM PEETA on them (or TEAM GALE, but those people are losers, don't talk to them). Anyway, yes, a televised fight to the death that turns into an insane take-down of a government run by heartless bloodsuckers in Mockingjay (there is an intervening installment, Catching Fire, as well). I will say that Mockingjay was the least fun book of the series to read, mostly because it's so bleak and the experiences of the main characters are so incredibly awful, but hey, that's war. It's still compulsively readable and intense, and one of the best YA series since Harry Potter.

8. Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas*: Hm. I seem to be saying, "It was good, but not as good as the first book/the author's previous novels" a lot in this best of. Oh well. 2010 wasn't an awesome year, I guess, in most respects. Because Our Tragic Universe, while one of my favorite books of 2010, did not compare to Thomas' previous novels, PopCo and The End of Mr. Y. Which is okay, I guess. It's still really well written--her prose is just a pleasure to read--and interesting, but by necessity (since the book is constructed to discuss the possibility of a "plotless novel") it is a plotless novel, which I find irritating, as a plotless novel can obvious exist, but isn't at all interesting to most people. There's nothing wrong with a plot. Our Tragic Universe is a great book to read if you've already read and enjoyed Thomas' backlist, but if you're just trying her out for the first time, go for PopCo. You'll like it better, I promise.

9. The Thieves of Manhattan by Adam Langer: The Thieves of Manhattan was a book that got a lot of media attention and nice bookstore placement, but which I never felt compelled to read until I ended up with a free copy from the publisher, saw that it was a not-too-long paperback, and decided to give it a try. And I'm really glad I did! The Thieves of Manhattan is a piece of meta-fiction, which I usually do not like at all, but Langer is no Jonathan Safran Foer (i.e. he's not an obnoxious self-obsessed git). The Thieves of Manhattan, I have to admit, is a book best appreciated by people who have been published, want to be published, work in/have worked in publishing, or follow the publishing industry closely. It is about a young man who works in a coffee shop and dreams of being a celebrated short story writer, but for some reason cannot get anyone to appreciate his stuff. This is probably because he's an obnoxious self-obsessed git who cares more about the trappings of authordom than the craft of writing. One day, he meets another man who makes him an offer he can't refuse. The mysterious man has a Da Vinci Code-style novel that he can't get published because the publishers think it's too unbelievable of a story to sell as fiction, so he enlists our friend to pretend that it all happened to him and publish it as nonfiction, his reward being any money and celebrity that comes as a result of publishing the book. As the narrator gets pulled deeper and deeper into the conspiracy the mysterious man has built around this manuscript, one thing becomes frighteningly clear--the events of the story are real, and he has just become the target of the villains of the novel. It's a short book and hopelessly meta, but also compulsively readable and really well done.

10. Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales*: My last top ten book of the year (that I have read) is another YA novel, although this time it's not dystopian, not paranormal, and not even a romance. Mostly Good Girls is just a story about two friends who are in prep school outside of Boston and the evolution of their friendship over one year. Told in little vignettes by a hilarious and lovable narrator, Mostly Good Girls is just an exceptional piece of literature about teens. It doesn't take itself too seriously and it manages to make its characters sympathetic without attempting to cover up or distract from their flaws, and it's one of the best books I've ever read in the YA genre; though funny, it's unexpectedly poignant and true in many places, witty and clever and such a great read. I highly recommend it.

Now that I read it over, this list is a little bit more jumbled than usual. I had an odd reading experience this year; my end of the year "bookshelf" was very heavy on YA, light on adult and nonfiction in general. There were so many more books I could've put on, and I'm wondering now how I came to highlight the ones I chose, but what are you going to do? On to 2011!

Top 10 Movies of 2010

Something that must be known about our final collaborative (stay tuned for OHD's personal rundown of the top books of 2010) list here at The Blogulator: we don't seem to make it to the cinema as much as we used to. Every year we all tend to kick ourselves just a little bit for missing this or that, but largely we (like the average American movie-lover) simply have to accept that unless you're a major loner and/or professional critic, you just can't make it out to every movie that might be the second coming. Add to this the fact that so many of the best movies of the current year aren't actually released in most markets until the following year and you can understand the absence of many films ogled on other even nerdier sites. Regardless, there were still 10 films that two or more of us all saw and agreed were awesome, so here ye be, the grand final ten...our favorite movies of 2010 (that we saw)...

10. Toy Story 3 [wr. Michael Arndt, dir. Lee Unkrich] - Another Blogulator Top 10 Movies list, another Pixar flick. The funny thing is that this should feel monopolistic and wrong, but it doesn't. By hiring screenwriter Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) to close the final chapter in the Woody, Buzz, and Co. trilogy was quite possibly the smartest franchise-related move they've made thus far. And while Cars 2 might bring the otherwise still-on-a-streak company to a halt, I can't articulate just how nice of a surprise it was that TS3 held its own, not trying too much new visually or acting-wise, but simply gambling on the talents of a scriptwriter with only one critical hit on his hands. If you go back and watch Little Miss Sunshine, however, or even just reflect now, you'll notice that it basically is a Pixar movie with some swears and Nietzsche/Proust references thrown in. He knows how to be warm yet brutally heartbreaking, and if that doesn't get your goat, Mr. Tortilla Head certainly should have.

9. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work [dir. Ricki Stern & Anne Sundberg] - (Qualler) How much do you know about Joan Rivers? Well, okay, how much do "millennials" know about Joan Rivers? I for one had only a vague idea of her purpose in her career. I remember seeing her on some award show pre-shows, dissin' other celebs. As it turns out, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work not only educated me about Rivers career that started in the 50s and continued for decades, but it was also the most sublime film I saw this year about aging. While a documentary "starring" the subject can always be looked at as a little biased in favor of the subject, Rivers is unquestionably someone to cheer for and, perhaps, someone to keep in mind while we plucky, annoying millenials try to force our elders out of their roles.

8. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1 [wr. Steve Kloves, dir. David Yates] - (OHD) As Boys II Men once said, "Although we've come to the end of the road, I still can't let you go." And thanks to the fact that the seventh Harry Potter book is 8 glockjillion pages long (okay, so it's actually not the longest book in the series, but whatever) and the Hollywood corporate machine is always looking for a way to squeeze $14 extra out of our pockets, we don't have to let go just yet--this is just one installment of two, with Part II gracing theaters in July 2011. Sometime around the movie for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4, and by far the WORST movie of the franchise), they stopped pandering to people who haven't read the books, so if you've seen all the movies but haven't read Book 7, you might get lost pretty fast. I saw the movie with people who have all read the books and love Harry Potter and there were still things (like the fact that Harry was carrying around a shard of glass with him the entire time without explanation) that they didn't remember or understand. That said, and despite the fact that the first part of the movie (and the book) consists mostly of Harry, Hermione, and Ron wandering the English countryside looking for (and failing to find) the Horcruxes that contain bits of Voldemort's soul (and which maintain his immortality) and fighting with each other, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I is such a fun movie to watch, so visually lush and yet at the same time as bleak as the characters' moods, so gut-wrenchingly poignant, that I would see it over and over and over again without pause. It's especially lovely when you think about how much the characters/actors have grown, what mature and interesting adults they have become, and how their relationships have grown and evolved over time. The depth of emotion and detail the movies and the actors have brought to these one-of-a-kind literary characters is almost unprecedented, as far as adaptation from YA/children's novels goes, and even if you haven't read the books and do get a little lost in the apocryphal minutia of Deathly Hallows, it's worth watching just to appreciate how much great work has been done on one of the biggest commercial franchises of all time. Accio July already!

7. My Son My Son What Have Ye Done [wr./dir. Werner Herzog] - I think everyone else in the blogosphere forgot about this movie because they're pretending it was a 2009 movie and thus doesn't count. Well, you know what? I'll give many of the Oscar baiters a break because they at least finally arrive in Minneapolis in January, but though MSMSWHYD technically came out in NYC in December of 2009, it didn't arrive anywhere else until spring of 2010, and dammit, it's just too good to leave lost in the fog of limited art house release dates. I mean, c'mon, it's Herzog & Lynch (billed only as producer, but allegedly very involved with the filmmaking)...together! At last! Plus Michael Shannon is seventy shades of creepy and affecting as a troubled soul dealing with thoughts of matricide and more. It's sparse, yes, but also haunting and darkly comic at the most opportune times. These are the only two guys that can pull this kind of abstract nightmare off and together, they amp it up without ever going overboard. It's a glorious thing.
6. True Grit [wr./dir. Joel & Ethan Coen] - (Brigitte) I can never get enough of of the modern day western, and I think that Jeff Bridges is every bit as gritty as John Wayne was in the original cinematic adaptation. The Coen brothers know how to deliver a good film. This grungy western manages to balance some gruesome scenes with a quiet sort of beauty that drew me in as soon as the movie started and lasted through the final scene. The plot is fairly simple--a young girl seeks revenge for her father's murder--but it managed to keep my attention. The real heart of the story, I thought, was how that young girl managed to win over the gritty old bounty hunter and the hardened Texas ranger in a sort of Heidi-esque fashion. Except Heidi is a lot less sunshine and flowers and a lot more fast-talk and pistols. But like the little mountain girl who brought laughter back into her grandfather's life, this little girl won over the hearts of the old cowboys and our hearts, as well. The end of the movie made me feel sad without really understanding why I felt sad, and I liked that. I did have to cover my eyes during a few of the ickier scenes, but the acting and directing made up for that. And I really would like to see one fantastic western each year. This one will definitely have you reaching for your pistols and talkin' all old-timey for awhile.

5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [wr./dir. Edgar Wright] - (DoktorPeace) This movie was made for me. I love video games, love Edgar Wright, and don't hate (or even understand the hate for) Michael Cera (most successful actors excel in one archetype, and Arrested Development is fine as it is). Nevertheless, I felt a bit hesitant putting this at the top of my (admittedly anemic) list (parentheticals are fun (Editor's Note: I agree!)). The delusional, video game aesthetic through which Scott views his world peaks around minute 10, after which key elements are very slowly forgotten and dissolved into what is by the end relatively standard action fare. Blame seems to lie with crunching 6 graphic novels into a single film, forcing emphasis on the clever yet simple plot as opposed to the meta-world and its characters. Yes, of course the books and their extended narrative are better (I read them after), but Scott Pilgrim still stands on its own as the film that made me smile more than anything since Hot Fuzz. It is, despite being based on literature, the best “video game" movie ever made. And thanks to an unfortunate box office turnout, it’s likely to remain that way until becoming as retro as the beat-‘em-ups it celebrates.

4. The Social Network [wr. Aaron Sorkin, dir. David Fincher] - Believe it or not, I used to think it mattered how closely a based-on-true-events movie followed the real life facts from which it stemmed. And I especially thought this when it was about figures particularly prominent and current in society. This previously thought notion was as recent as seeing United 93, a film whose authenticity I praised and called for more of in an industry obsessed with entertainment more than truth. But I don't think anyone can ever quite think that way again after seeing the Facebook movie. Everything is so tightly interlaced, intensely acted, and swiftly directed that you really aren't given a chance to think about the "real" Zuckerberg or anyone else for that matter. What matters is that even with Sorkin's semi-absurdist quickfire writing style, you are sucked into the souls of these characters through and through, the moral grayness even more palpable and believable than any fly-on-the-wall documentary style, no matter how gritty or shaky. This is filmmaking at its most classic and, in my opinion, finest. No questions asked, smug face tilted, and status update published.

3. Winter's Bone [wr./dir. Debra Granik] - (Brigitte) You know those movies where very little happens, but you don't really care? This is that kind of movie. This movie creates a real feeling that is consistent and heart-breaking, and after it ended I left the theater feeling...something. And I mean that in the best way possible. Jennifer Lawrence manages to reveal so much about her character, about life in the Ozark Mountains surviving on very little, and really about life and family in general without a whole lot of dialogue. The scenery is brilliant, and the violence is sometimes shocking as this story unfolds. I'm still not totally sure what this movie was "about," but it's worth several viewings to figure that out. Or maybe it's just about life, with all its cruelness and injustice, and managing to survive and find some joy in the cruelty. The music and cinematography stood out as well as the acting, and the simple plot was actually pretty profound. I love me a movie with little plot and lots of character, and plenty of bittersweet semi-uplifting at the same time as totally depressing scenes.

2. Inception [wr./dir. Christopher Nolan] - (Sean) There's some old saying about all great art being controversial. The modern equivalent is art that you can blog about a shit-load. Inception is exactly that kind of great art. Search Google for Inception "what does it all mean?" theories and you'll find half a dozen. And each one will actually seem plausible. Did you see that blog post about how the Hans Zimmer score featured an orchestrated version of the featured Edith Piaf song slowed way, way down? Slowed down the way time is slowed down in each successive level of the dreams within the film. It's stuff like that. Yes, of course the film itself is entertaining and beautifully shot and well-paced (and has Ellen Page who is a cutie; Marion Cotillard is okay, too). But the real impressive, lasting impact of this film is in the way it was all anyone could blog about online for a few weeks in the summer of 2010. And that is pretty awesome. You might even say for Christopher Nolan, the film's director, it was a dream come true. I N C E P T I O N.

1. Black Swan [wr. Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, & John McLaughlin, dir. Darren Aronofsky] - (Qualler) Is Black Swan the biggest feminist statement on film of the year, or is the most wildly exploitative film of the year? Both are valid questions, and both questions could be answered "yes." Director Darren Aronofsky has never been afraid to provoke the audience with the wickedly disturbing (Requiem for a Dream), the wildly pretentious (The Fountain), or the deeply gritty and real (The Wrestler). For Black Swan, Aronofsky directs the film like a greatest hits record -- hitting similar disturbing notes to Requiem (without going too far into the plain old hard to watch category) and the "real" feeling of The Wrestler, with a touch of the wildly pretentious mixed in for good measure. Most amazingly, Natalie Portman delivered her best performance of her career, a career-redefining role akin to Anne Hathaway's role in Rachel Getting Married, depicting the inner turmoil of her character with incredible range. And it is doubtless the only movie of the year to make over $50 million in box office receipts which depicts the imagined (or is it?) growing of feathers through one's skin.