The Year of Nostalgia (Best Films of 2011)

Nostalgia hurts, so it came as a surprise that so many films this year were aimed at people opening old wounds and experiencing the joys of childhood again. Hugo mystified many this year and The Artist recreated a whimsical feeling in moviegoers that had gone unfelt since the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close made us wish for the innocence of a child before the fateful morning of September 11th. Midnight in Paris reminded us that nostalgia of an era we never lived in is just sentimentality.

But it wasn't just nostalgia for another time, it was for any semblance of normality. A return to a time when raising a family wasn't so damn hard. When your rivals couldn't simply outspend you. When your friend getting married didn't mean that she had to move away. When cinema could help audiences forget the troubles of the world. Few films have touched upon wish fulfillment in bulk the way that this year has. Even few have done so as well as Take Shelter, if there is a film that can better embody the feeling of the average family trying to pull through a recession, I never found it.

A lot has been said about 2011: that it doesn't compare with 2010's class of films; that is was weak; that it didn't have any heart. At the end of the day I would put this year up against any. It reminded us of a time we all longed for.

Colin's Top Ten
10. Bridesmaids
9. The Guard
8. 50/50
7. The Descendants
6. Hugo
5. Moneyball
4. Drive
3. Win Win

2. Jane Eyre

1. Take Shelter

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Viewer: Han, bubbe, you don't have to explain every small detail of your backstory that was mentioned in the original trilogy.
Han: I was named Solo by an Imperial recruiter.
V: Wait, didn't you detail your father's entire career building Millenium Falcons? How do you not know your last name?
H: ...
V: ...
H: There's a prequel cameo in the third act.
V: Yeah, I'm just going to go ahead and leave, alright?
H: I have a good feeling about this.

Herman Melville and Office Space

Just from gleaning the surface of Office Space one would assume that there isn't anything simmering below the surface except for a raunchy work-comedy, but they would be wrong.
After the harsh critical reception of his greatest work Moby Dick Melville wrote a collection of short stories called Bartleby and Benito Cereno perhaps the greatest slam at the time against industrial America. Bartleby is the story of a Wall Street copyist who has his three employees proof-read and copy law forms. Shortly into the story Bartleby starts responding to work commands with, "I would prefer not to." Frustrated by his employee's subordination the Narrator tries to have him fired but Bartleby refuses to leave the office. The Narrator comes back the following morning to find Bartleby living inside his office. Bartleby becomes increasingly less apt to perform basic functions as eating after he is jailed for trespassing and dies in a jail cell. What at once starts out as a comedy has …

Paprika vs. Inception

Months before Inception hit the theaters forums were alive with rumors that Christopher Nolan either accidentally or intentionally stole some details from another film, the Japanese anime Paprika. The biggest point of comparison for some bloggers and forum runners was the fact that both of the films featured a device that allowed a person, or people, to travel into another’s dreams and delve into their subconscious.
Minor points of comparison include scenes in Paprika where the character Paprika breaks through a mirrored wall by holding her hand to it, as well as a scene where a police detective falls his way down a hallway. Claims have been made that Inception abounds with imagery similar to or exactly like the anime movie, but with the recent release of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray, and with Paprika available for several years now, an examination of the two plots can be made more fully.
Let us begin with the primary claim—Inception stole the idea of a dream machine from Paprika. It …

Never Mind Pop Film

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