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Hugo

SoundWorks Collection: The Sound of Hugo from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

2011 Runners-up

As I slowly start to realize that the calendar year has changed (Hollywood makes that so hard when it's January\February offerings are so unappetizing), it's time to recount my favorites of the last year.  Before I get to the creme de la creme of 2011, first I'd light to indulge and highlight a few favorites that didn't make my final list.  Admittedly, 2011 was a bit shy in brilliant cinema, but here's a few runners-up that caught my attention and stayed with me enough:

BRIDESMAIDS
Certainly the best full-on comedy of 2011, and at times a deeply felt portrait of depression and self hatred.  Kristen Wiig co-wrote and starred in a tour de force performance that's ugly in that's utterly truthful and hysterical in its full on mania.  While the film sometimes feels shapeless and edited by shards (perhaps that's understandable to a degree, what with the wide range of improv pros in its ensemble...this must have been a monster edit to condense ever line reading into something that was coherent) and wears out it's welcome by a considerable run time, Bridesmaids need not be remembered as the female Hangover, but as an entity all of its own (and a surprise 2-time Oscar nominee) showcasing a wealth of talent, at least three whoppers of comedic sequencing (the endless toast, the airplane scene and the messy bridal shopping scene) and finally an ultimate coming out party for a star that's been at the sides for to long...that would be Wiig!

HUGO
My second (or third) favorite Best Picture nominee depending on the moment of the day is Martin Scorsese's loving and beautifully rendered ode to le cinema.  Who else could turn something so dependent on major movie studio cash (in 3-D no less) and come up with something so utterly non-commercial and lush and an ultimate statement on film preservation.  Part of the joy of Hugo is, I believe, just that-- how else could a film be so critically beloved and Oscar-approved if it wasn't directed by the medium's most loyal admirer.  The slow and dithering first act finally seep into the realm of the magical when the auteur let's loose on the films (and his) most personal passion.  It also helps that Ben Kingsley gives such a moving (and sadly un-nominated) performance as Scorsese's stand-in-- a passionate filmmaker obsessed with the wonders of the past and the hopes of entwining it with the future.

LEAP YEAR
Few people saw Michael Rowe's provocative film from Mexico, a Cannes winner at the 2010 festival.  Hardly matters, I suppose, for I'd hope the few brave moviegoers that did felt the same as me watching this difficult, raw and exposed portrait of a young woman, struck by guilt and shame, and only roused by the dangerous sexual ploys of her latest suitor.  Monica del Carmen and Gustavo Sanchez Parra may never become household names, but their intimate and soulfully rendered performances charge this voyeuristic and unsettling film.  Leap Year was notable, albeit only the small art house foreign language world, as a film full of sex, and that's more than true, but there's a genuine chill, not just from the content, but of the raw exposure that the actors dare to show and stillness that Rowe films it.  From a synopsis that might read as the NC-17-rated dramatic version of Bridget Jones's Diary comes an almost heartbreaking story of romantic longing and baggage that separates two people.  NETFLIX it!

MARGARET
I just saw, and just wrote about, but I can't quite shake Kenneth Lonergan's messy tapestry of a small personal tragedy woven into a greater post 9\11 mindset, thought-provoking drama.  Mostly I can't shake Anna Paquin's difficult, demanding and altogether stellar performance as a self-deprecating, self absorbent, hysterical teenager rapt by hormones and guilt-- it's such an exquisitely calibrated piece of acting that one certainly hopes that it's internal PR problems don't overshadow it's legacy.  That of which is a supremely flawed, but ambitious piece of filmmaking that feels all too literary and universally cinematic at once.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Every once in a while Woody Allen surprises us with something that reminds us why he is America's favorite screenwriter (or at least the Oscars) with something so undeniably charming and nimble and a perfect anecdote, not just for franchise filmmaking doldrums, but those who enjoy (and likely miss) the pitter-patter of delightfully witty banter.  While I feel that Midnight in Paris was ultimately too lightweight and slightly overrated (it's Allen highest grossing film in history, unadjusted for inflation) to get a shout out on my true top ten, I still feel more than smitten with his ode to Paris and his endless ruminations of the past.  For Woody Allen has never been hip, but a nerdy paean to his own neurosis-- that after a million pictures, maybe he's soften (and realized that not every one of films needs an Allen surrogate; though Owen Wilson is quite close to the model) and become playful and maybe even inventive like he was in the 80s with such confections as The Purple Rose of Cairo and Zelig again.  Whatever the case, Midnight in Paris, while not transcendent is still pretty lovely.

THE MUPPETS
Again with lightweight, but whatever, The Muppets was pure joy through and through, even when it stretched out farther than it needed to, and even though not quite every joke landed.  The film started with the wondrous refrain, "Life's a Happy Song," and for the most part lived up to it.  For me it was almost an awakening of characters I hadn't realized that I missed-- a silly and madcap caper with the best showbiz "let's go on with the show" attitude I've seen in years.

PROJECT NIM
James Marsh won an Oscar for directing Man on a Wire, and his follow-up was shortlisted this year for the Academy.  Unfortunately, it didn't make the final cut, but kvetching aside, Project Nim was one of the best documentaries of the last year for sure.  In recounting, using clever archival footage, reenactments and actor accompaniment, Marsh made a sad, unforgiving and poignant feature about a chimp that was raised like a human in the late 1970s.  While the animal abuse angle of the subject is the most emotional, the human aspect to Nim and the humanity in which his story is told is bold and unforgettable.

SUPER 8
What with Hugo and The Artist, 2011 was quite a year for the grand homage to filmmaking.  While The Artist payed tribute to the silent era, and Hugo delved even earlier, Super 8 was all about the age of Spielberg, and it was a nice and humble tribute that while may have delivered less than its blockbuster intent was a gleefully (perhaps too sincere) ode to the naivete of youthful creativity.  Whatever criticisms exist, and many are quite valid, even a fan must admit, there's a dash of magic and spark of awe that lights up in remembering J.J. Abrams homemade-felt dash of 70s-seaped, Close Encounters-inspired pastiche.

TABLOID
How does one tell a crazy story of an ex-beauty queen who kidnapped her lover and seduced him to turn his Mormon beliefs away so they can be together.  Well, one hires Errol Morris, the classiest and shrewdest American documentarian of modern times and the rest sells itself.  Tabloid was a genuine contender on my top ten, and stands as one of the best documentaries of recent year.  Of course the Academy wasn't going to bit...it's so weird, and playful with the subject too wild and Morris is clearly having too much fun baiting Joyce McKinney, a woman of a questionable past and perhaps even more questionable memory.  The film makes perhaps an obvious, not dishonest, note about the nature of infamy in our pop culture, and McKinney, through strangeness (and perhaps high IQ) is either a knowing or naive product of such...she's now best known as a crazy broad who cloned her dog.

YOUNG ADULT
Most of praise of the underrated dark comedy was given to Charlize Theron's beautifully ugly comedic performance as a writer of teen lit trying to woo back her old boyfriend, as well as writer Diablo Cody's anti-Juno antihero creation.  While I toast both (Theron is terrific in the role, even more specific and texture than her Oscar-winning Monster), I think the true champion of Jason Reitman's fourth feature as a director is film editor Dana E. Glauberman, whose lean finessing leaves a trim finished product without a wasted shot and with precise attention to Theron's terse and ingenious line readings.  Young Adult was a strong contender for my last slot, and I almost feel remiss to include it in the also ran pile, however despite it's paltry box office and zero Oscar interest, I'm hopeful not just for the films legacy, but for the opportunity to see more of Cody's dark side and Theron's funny side...she's got a gift!

Art Directors Guild Awards

BEST ART DIRECTION (Period Film)
Hugo

BEST ART DIRECTION (Fantasy Film)
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2

BEST ART DIRECTION (Contemporary Film)
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo will be and certainly is the frontrunner of the Art Direction Academy Award, but one wonders if the sentiment factor of Harry Potter might be able to sneak in here.  Certainly since the Art Direction of the 7-film saga is the most Oscar-nominated piece that Harry has been recognized.

Nevada Film Critics Society

PICTURE: Hugo
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese, Hugo
ACTOR: Tom Hardy, Warrior
ACTRESS: Jessica Chastain, EVERYTHING
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Albert Brooks, Drive
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
ANIMATED FEATURE: Puss in Boots
ENSEMBLE: The Help
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: (tie) Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene; Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
CHILD ACTOR: Asa Butterfield, Hugo

One of the only genuine surprises of the 2011 awards season is the striking success of Hugo, what with it's 3-D, based on a popular children's book pre-package looked not exactly like pure Oscar-bait-- the Scorsese factor notwithstanding.  And as a fan of the film, I'm still surprised by it's enormous critical acceptance.  Yes, the film is a lovingly and superbly crafted ode to cinema, which certainly would make any cinephile or movie-buff, or perhaps even passer-by fan swoon to some extent.  And yes, Hugo has moments of inspired filmmaking magic.  However, it is still a slow burn of a film, with long patches of inconsistency of tone, dull characterizations and mediocre performances (especially the young ones), coupled with the top-dollar price tag that Paramount Pictures (despite the high number of Oscar nominations the film will likely earn) will likely never recoup.  Scorsese is the medium's biggest champion, which I suppose is reward enough.

Austin Film Critics Awards

PICTURE: Hugo


Top Ten of 2011:

• Drive
• Take Shelter
• Midnight in Paris
• Attack the Block
• The Artist
• Martha Marcy May Marlene
• I Saw the Devil
• 13 Assassins
• Melancholia

DIRECTOR: Nicholas Winding Refn, Drive
ACTOR: Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Albert Brooks, Drive
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Midnight in Paris- Woody Allen
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Drive- Hossein Amini
ANIMATED FEATURE: Rango
FOREIGN FILM: I Saw the Devil
DOCUMENTARY: Senna
CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Tree of Life- Emmanuel Lubezki
ORIGINAL SCORE: Attack the Block- Steven Price

I really love this line-up.  Not that I so much agree with everything, that's absolutely besides the point-- but for the most part, this is a totally unabashed best-of list with little intention of having any influence over Oscar or media baiting, but rather a personalized collection of a group of people's best of movies of the year.  Texas did something right.

Hugo

There's odd mixture of elements in Hugo, Martin Scorsese's latest, part Dickensian fable, part cinemaphile fan piece.  The question turns to who is this oddity truly intended for, a beautiful and meticulously crafted piece of work made with the sturdiest of precision-- is it a family tale (perhaps, but the wee ones might grow tired of references and literate dialogue and pacing that may extend their respective heads) or movie buffs and historians (who will certainly rejoice the tone and style, but will likely not add too much to the ticket sales of this costly affair.)  That divide, I suppose, is merely for the distributors to sort out, for the pleasures of Scorsese's latest, an unabashed and lovingly crafted ode to cinema, far outweigh the deficiencies, so much so that will dark themes run unbridled throughout, the most meaningful and resonant purpose of Hugo is it's heart on it's sleeve for that of film preservation.  And conjured by the medium's strongest supporter, here's a film that preserves that the art of filmmaking touches upon everything.  And that's the take away from Hugo, that movies are the grandest of all, projected moving pictures that connect the world viscerally, emotionally and historically.  That the filmmaker, at the point where he could surely call it a day, has amassed his greatest respect with such an ambitious scope (and in beautiful 3-D, now less), shows that his sense of play is as alive and well as ever.

Hugo begins with a sweeping prologue of a young boy and his daily adventures at a Paris train station in the 1930s.  He fixes and sets the clock (later exposition will explain how he got there), but there's a sweeping and majestic magic as our young hero darts through the walls of that station he calls home.  The clanks and cranks and gadgets all larger than life, darting through and through, with the train engine steam seems to come close enough to smell.  He's a fixer of things, the son of an inventor, with an appropriately dramatic name, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield.)  There's little dialogue in the bristling first sequence, but swift and wondrous tracking shots, of a bustling train station and picturesque, only in the movies, views of Paris.  And while at first, and through large chunks of Hugo, it may appear to be mere window dressing, the immaculate production design (courtesy of Dante Ferretti) provides itself not just another character in the piece, but another loving nod to the possibilities of movie making.

We learn that Hugo has had a rough go at things.  His father, an inventor and clock builder (played by Jude Law is flashbacks) passed some time ago.  His uncle, a drunken oaf and clocks-man at the train station (played by Ray Winstone) became his unrequested guardian.  And he wiles away, tinkering with the clocks, while trying to discover a path to connect his father's past (an unfinished robotic automotion) to a happier future.  All along the way, trying to keep out of sight from the station engineer (a slapsticky menace played by Sasha Baron Cohen) and his pit bull and stealthily pilfering supplies from an old toy maker (played by Ben Kingsley.)  The first half of Hugo is somewhat a labor, due to exacting and elongated backstories and multiple characters coming and going and a momentum that pendulums back and forth between manic and hay wired and cold and chilly.  What offsets every over the kilt climax is a burst of pure cinematic ambition, either visually or emotionally-- no spoilers, but Kingsley's the heartbreaker of the story, perhaps slightly by default as the orphaned Hugo as played by Butterfield is a bit bland and inexpressive, when he should be spirited and brimming from his impassioned quests.  It takes an unlikely friendship between a local young girl Isabelle (played by Chloe Moretz, of Kick-Ass and Let Me In fame) to slightly crack him; she's an adventure seeking bookworm, longing for a sense of play and abandon she's only read about.  The preternaturally precocious Moretz is engaging, but seems a bit more proficient in fine tuning her British accent moreso than playing a character.  One of the many cinematic asides that must quickly be gotten over is that this a film set around French characters with British accents...or perhaps that just another comment on the filmmaking process.

The connection, it turns out for not just Hugo and Isabelle, but from Scorsese to us is that power of film.  Hugo regales with proud stories of going to cinema with his father; while the more closed in Isabelle has never been.  There's a reason for that, and I dare not give it away, since that's the key to Hugo, and the source of it's power.  The connective tissue between the glossy bits of celluloid and the personal attachments and resonances illuminates the features (from a busy screenplay by John Logan, based on the children's story by Brian Selznick) and frees Scorsese to tell his family friendly (all bet it, made for adults) tale with the passion and yearning one would expect from one of the art forms finest.  It's in that technological precision, that one might grow tired of, perhaps just slightly as Hugo reaches it's ultimate, and most potent climax-- for the exhaustive shifts in tone and manic pacing certainly start to take its toll.  The final trick of the master's sleeve, however, turns out to be potent and utterly charming, Kingsley's game and noble performance ultimately shepherds us through Scorsese's movie land dream, it's a connection of glee and devastating heartbreak of the power of movies themselves; that Hugo ultimately becomes his story makes it all the better.

And what it speaks of Scorsese is fairly nifty as well.  The auteur and long championing historian, whose resume reads like a ridiculous best of list, has built a different sort of passion project, and an altogether unexpected one.  The same giant behind Taxi Driver and Raging Bull crafting a children's movie in it of itself would mark a knee-jerk reaction; that he made one that's really a mediation on his own personal love affair with the cinema is the audiences ultimate gift.  B+

National Board of Review

PICTURE: Hugo
Top Ten of 2011 (in alphabetical order):

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Drive
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• The Ides of March
• J. Edgar
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

DIRECTOR: Martin Scorcese, Hugo
ACTOR: George Clooney, The Descendants
ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: 50/50- Will Reiser
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Descendants- Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
ANIMATED FEATURE: Rango

FOREIGN FILM: A Separation

Top Five Foreign Films of 2011:
13 Assassins
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Footnote
Le Havre
Point Blank

DOCUMENTARY: Paradise Lost 3, Purgatory

Top Five Documentaries of 2011:
Born to be Wild
Buck
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna

TOP TEN INDEPENDENT FILMS OF 2011:
50/50
Another Earth
Beginners
A Better Life
Cedar Rapids
Margin Call
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Win Win

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy and Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
BREAKTHROUGH FILMMAKER: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
ENSEMBLE: The Help
SPOTLIGHT AWARD: Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class, Shame, A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre)
NBR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Crime After Crime and Pariah
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FILMMAKING: The Harry Potter franchise

There's always a few given with the National Board of Review, for the first year settling for the second organization out of the gate in annual awards giving (shaking fist at the New York Film Critics...aarrgh!), one thing is that whenever Clint Eastwood has a new picture, it will show up somewhere no matter how middling the reviews or popular consensus might be (and J. Edgar is one of least doted on in quite some time), the other is George Clooney will come into play as well...this is his third Best Actor mention (previously cited for Michael Clayton and Up in the Air)...his directorial effort The Ides of March even made the top ten.  Still it's a pleasant enough surprise that Hugo, Scorcese's most daring undertaking in a while (a 3-D family film\ode to le cinema) took top honors, as well as the directors prize.  And on a happy note, whatever you may think individually or collectively, it's also pleasant enough that none of the top awards were the same given out by the New York Film Critics...let's keep this up!

Biggest winners:  Aside from Hugo, which now some legitimacy to play with...The Descendants came out strong (as expected eventually), the surprise screenplay mention for 50/50 may make an impression (however last year the NBR gave it's Original Screenplay nod to Buried, which proved not very much), Margin Call continues to be showing strong stealing away small prizes that should be bestowed to Martha Marcy May Marlene.  Acting wise the biggest winner is Tilda Swinton, whose We Need to Talk About Kevin, a dark and disturbing drama will need all the help it can get, as it will only net a tiny limited engagement run starting next week.  Clooney and Woodley need no such help, but Christopher Plummer's Supporting Actor mention for Beginners is a nice ease for what should hopefully prove a fruitful awards season for the seasoned vet.

Biggest losers: Martha Marcy May Marlene can't get arrested...the Indie Spirits were kind, but this kind of film will need help to weather the next couple of months, and is deserving of such...not be cruel but Elizabeth Olsen's performance is so vastly superior to other salivated-over breakthrough Felicity Jones in Like Crazy, I can't quite fathom the snub. Shame was relegated to indie top ten only, plus a shared honor to Michael Fassbender's tremendous year-- may spell trouble down the road, hopefully the films release this weekend will reverse this.  Glenn Close may be in trouble as the early organizations have all ignored her labor of love project Albert Nobbs.