The Hanna Hammer

Well, it’s nice to be back. The holidays are nice and all, but during all that rest and relaxation it appears that I forgot about this little soapbox of mine. Considering that I am now up to 7 subscribers, one billionth of the human population mind you, I feel as if I should keep the content flowing. 

With the end of the year comes a literal flood of top ten lists. From the top ten music albums of the year to the top ten funny things done by a chimpanzee, people will make a list about fucking anything. Being that I want to be a part of the party I will do a top ten list as well. Expect a top five videogames list later this week (videogames are much more expensive than movies so I have experienced less of them). But that is later this week, right here, right now is the time for my top ten movies of 2011. 

10. Crazy, Stupid, Love
                                           

Call me a girly man (actually don’t, my feelings are very tender) but I just loved this movie. I’m a guy who usually hates romantic comedies and when I was taken to this on a date towards the end of the summer I can’t say I was looking forward to it. Luckily I was surprised by the smart jokes and very good writing that I found within it. Even though it is kind of cliche towards the end, Crazy, Stupid, Love has just enough charm, jokes, and intelligence to separate itself from the army of romcoms out there and take its spot as my number ten movie of the year. That legitimately great plot twist didn’t hurt either.  

9. Source Code

Duncan Jones’s first movie Moon was an amazing sci-fi, one good enough to put the young director onto my ‘will watch any movie he makes’ list. When I first heard of Source Code, the premise certainly sounded fascinating, and once I heard Jones was directing it it became a must see for me. While it does not live up to Moon, Source Code is still an amazing sci-fi thriller. This type of movie, which blends science fiction and romance so well, is hardly made anymore. Despite the silly final few minutes, Source Code is the finest crafted sci-fi drama since Inception, and has kept Duncan Jones on my list of directors to keep an eye on. 

8. Super 8

Super 8 is a movie that I love simply because movies like it just are not made anymore. The atmosphere, childish wonder, and the heart in the movie is something right out of a mid-eighties Spielberg flick. It is perhaps even more amazing that Spielberg didn’t even direct it, instead JJ Abrams injects his own style to the Spielberg framework, making for a fantastic movie. Super 8 takes me back to the days of sitting in my big brother’s room after my bed time and watching ET with him, or Jurassic Park, or First Encounters… you get the idea. These moments of my childhood shaped how I view movies today and the fact that Super 8 can transport me back to those early formative years so effectivley makes it an easy pick for the number eight position. And it’s named Super 8… get it? 

7. Bridesmaids 

Bridesmaids, like Crazy, Stupid, Love was a movie I thought I would hate given its trailer which tries to play it off as the raunchy comedy women ‘wanted’ for years. As it turns out, it is exactly that. Yes, Bridesmaids is raunchy and stupid in parts. I mean, there is a poop gag with food poisoning for god sake! But that stupidity and the raunchiness is done so… intelligently that it works. Kristen Wiig gives a terrific performance, but she is also helped by a superb supporting cast. The smart writing and great comedic performances help Bridesmaids be more than the Hangover for girls and gives it the number seven spot on my list. 

6. The Descendants 

The Descendants is an Oscar bair movie, clear and simple. However it would also be unfair to describe this film in such simplistic terms. Yes, it is complete Oscar bait, but it is also made with a heart to it that these kinds of films typically miss. George Clooney and Shailene Woodley are great, but the true greatness of the movie comes from the clear devotion of the entire cast and crew to it. Without that heart at the core of the movie it wouldn’t have been half as good as it is. As it stands now however, the Descendants is an expertly and lovingly crafted family drama and fully deserves its spots as the number six movie of 2011. 

5. 13 Assassins 

13 Assassins calls back to an era of film-making gone by, however the movie also works two-fold; it acts not only as an homage to classic samurai films but it also moves the genre forward. 13 Assassins is an extremely entertaining movie with its interesting characters and powerful themes. It also helps that it features the best action scene of the year, a 45 minute romp where the titular 13 assassins take on literally hundreds of guards in bloody mortal combat. 13 Assassins is bloody, engaging, and the fifth best movie of the year. 

4. I Saw the Devil

Over the past few years South Korea has experienced something of a renaissance with its film making. From the bombastic and silly the Good, the Bad, and the Weird to the violent and powerful Oldboy, Korea has really come into the global market as a world leader in film. I Saw the Devil stands alongside these and other great films the country has put out the last half-decade. It is as violent as Oldboy, but also has a more restrained side to it. The game of cat and mouse between killer and victim in the movie is one of the best ever put to film, supported by stellar acting from both its leads. I Saw the Devil may not be a movie for those of us with weak stomachs, but it is still one of the best movies Korea has put over its recent renaissance and will rightfully take its place among the country’s greats. 

3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a movie that just oozes style. From the opening title sequence to the end credit crawl, Fincher’s stylistic touch permeates each shot. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is not without substance as well. The themes of the novel are ever present in this adaptation and are executed very well and the central mystery of the film is genuinely compelling and has a pretty great payoff. Rooney Mara carries the film on her shoulders in her spectacular performance as Lisbeth Salander and it will be a crime if she doesn’t get a best supporting actress nod. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score is also deserving of an Oscar as it is one of the finest original scores of the past decade. It is a shame the film looses a bit of itself at the very end, however, the performances, Fincher’s style, and Reznor and Ross’s score add up to outweigh the very few bad parts of the film, making it one of the best of the year. 

2. Midnight in Paris 

Midnight in Paris is a comedy that appeals to the intellectuals out there while also maintaining enough of a genuinely funny core that almost anyone can laugh at it, even if you don’t know who Gertrude Stein is. Its poignant themes about nostalgia and how everyone views the past is one of the more powerful this year, and the emotional side of the plot is carried effortlessly by Owen Wilson in his all time best performance. Quite simply, Midnight in Paris is a beautifully shot. expertly made comedy and is one of the best movies of this year.  

1.Drive 

Drive is just… so goddamn good. From the soundtrack, to the acting, to the story, to the themes, and especially the style. Right from the outset this film sucked me right into its world with a fantastic chase scene and fascinating premise. Drive kept me in its grasp for the next two hours, mostly due to the fantastic style of the film and the ways it referenced genres of films gone by, everything from LA car movies of the eighties to samurai flicks out of 60’s Japan. No other movie this year was like Drive, in fact, no other movie is like Drive. Despite the influences it took from films past, Drive is a movie the likes of which I have never seen before; it’s ultraviolent, stylish, has an amazing soundtrack, and is the best movie of the year. 

Note: I have not seen Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Attack the Block, My Week with Marilyn, the Artist, Shame, or Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol yet. If and when I get around to seeing these movies I may make some special adjustments or notes to this list. 

So to start off this review I must get something off my chest: I have not read the books. Well, to be absolutely truthful I have read the first twenty pages of the first book in a well meaning but ultimately futile attempt to read the book before the movie came out. For fans of the book, or at least the first twenty pages of the first book, don’t worry because the first ten minutes of the movie are a very good adaptation of those first twenty pages. For everyone else out there, here is my review.

Released posthumously in 2005, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels have become a surprise worldwide sensation leading to a miniseries, a popular and well received Swedish movie (along with its sequels of questionable quality), and finally this inevitable American adaptation. Fans of the books and original movies all over the world must have absolutely pillaged the internet like a horde of angry vikings when the american adaptation was announced, but the tremendously talented David Fincher being attached to it calmed them down a bit. David Fincher is known as a master of the mystery movie, the man directed both Zodiac and Se7en, and when you get down to it the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a ostensibly a murder-mystery. I’m glad to say for fans and newcomers alike that Fincher lives up to his reputation and has delivered a great adaptation of this immensely popular book that is both gripping and stylish.

And stylish it is. Fincher is firing on all guns here when it comes to the style of the movie. When one needs watch no further than the title sequence, a borderline music video for Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, to understand just what kind of tone and style Fincher is going for. Fincher’s style in the movie emphasizes start contrasts and duality. There is black and white, loud and quiet, warm and cold. These are the types of things his shots focus on, and every shot uses a different contrast to build the tone and mood of the movie, and it works very well. Fincher is at the top of his game here in his directing, but the style of the movie cannot be attributed to him alone.

Daniel Craig turns in one of his better performances as Mikael Blomkvist, an extremely talented reporter who is down and out on his luck. While he may be playing another shade of the Craig we have all come to know and love, he is also a very vulnerable character, a side to Craig we have seen little of during his career. Blomkvist is a character who is at the bottom of a deep rabbit hole: his life savings are drained, his reputation ruined, and his marriage a distant memory. He desperately latches onto the investigation of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger so that he can have some kind of redemption after his horrible humiliation. Despite this Blomkvist is still very confident and talented and Craig flows between confidence and vulnerability seamlessly. Despite this performance however, real praise should be given to Rooney Mara as nearly iconic Lisbeth Salander.

Rooney Mara is a newcomer to the world of acting and her existence has really has only come into the public consciousness after she was briefly in the Social Network. Mara takes a much larger role here, and one that is far more difficult to play. Lisbeth is a deranged and damaged character who suffers a terrible happening early in the movie. Scenes that Rooney needed to act in would have forced more seasoned actresses out of the role (the actor who played in the scene with her broke down after it and locked himself in his room for a day) but Mara commits completely. Being a gothy/punked up chick super-hacker with a mohawk and a leather jacket is a description of a character whom I would love to hate. As a character Lisbeth flirts with the line between ridiculous and serious. With a lesser actress at the helm Lisbeth would have been absolutely unlikeable and completely ridiculous. Luckily the character, and with her the movie, is saved by Rooney’s acting. She is completely unrecognizable as the girl leering angrily at Jesse Eisenberg from across a table at the beginning of the Social Network, she completely owns the role and becomes Lisbeth Salander, and for that I believe she at least deserves a nomination for best supporting actress. The other actors in the movie turn in good performances too, but Craig and Mara really carry the movie on their shoulders.

The final key to the style of the movie is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score, a 173 minute opus (the movie is only 158 minutes long mind you). Reznor and Ross put their all into the score, one that I feel surpasses even their efforts on the score for the Social Network. The music fits Fincher’s style perfectly, a primary reason Reznor, Ross, and Fincher have continued to collaborate. From the cover of Immigrant Song that plays during the opening title sequence, to the quiet strings playing in the background during the brief moments of peace, to the loud and NIN reminiscent garage rock which plays during the action scenes, the score just sets up every shot Fincher makes perfectly. Reznor and Ross have earned their Oscar again, if not at least a nomination and I look forward to seeing what their future collaborations will produce.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is by no means a perfect movie. Despite the incredible talent and commitment from the production team, the script could have used perhaps one more rewrite. Everything is there loud and clear, from the themes of violence and the relations between men and women to the complex and thickly woven mystery. It isn’t a bad screenplay, but it could have been shortened some. Certain parts of the movie drag on for a little too long, and overall the movie could have been ten or maybe fifteen minutes shorter. The third act comes off as particularly in need of some revision since a large number of significant events happen in a relatively short amount of time, making the various resolutions to the running storylines feel cheap. The ending is very close to the book I’m sure, but this is a case where it may have been better to make some deviations, if only to make the flow of the third act work a little better.

Despite the problems with the script the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is still a great movie. It features the best original soundtrack of the year, magnificent lead performances, and a style that only Fincher could produce.

Score: 4.5/5