It's about mid-season in my movie watching and although I haven't seen all the movies I've wanted to ("Tree of Life", "Certified Copy" are top on that list), but I've been getting out to the movie theatre as much as I can watching whatever new film is out there, so I'm happy to say there are a few worth watching. So without further adieu, here are my top five.
1. Midnight in Paris: I thank Woody Allen for the most delightful, charming movie to come out all year. I caught this on a warm summer evening after a night out with friends with dinner and wine. It's probably was the nicest night I had all summer and the best movie experience I've had all year. "Midnight in Paris" isn't as deep as Allen's other great movie about a great city "Manhattan", but it has just the right amount of magic to remind us why we go to the movies in the first place.
2. Bridesmaids: A very funny movie, if a little overlong, Kristen Wig is the heir to Lucille Ball, she gives the funniest performance of the year so far. It's raunchy but heartwarming, like the best films from producer Judd Apatow.
3. Rango: Hands down the best animated film so far, and it wasn't in 3-D. It's about a reptile who becomes a hero in a western town full of different animals. The film is a psychedelic visual delight and very, very funny.
4. Horrible Bosses: Okay, so this is probably not the smartest film of the year, in fact I would almost put it under as a guilty pleasure, but for "Horrible Bosses" is a film I like to think of as a really intelligent "Idiot" comedy. As idiot comedy is the kind of comedy where everyone in the film is below average intelligence, but the movie never forgets that. This is for people who still chuckle at The Three Stooges movies. The three leads work well together, and I still laugh when I think of some of the scenes. That's all I'm going to say about that.
5. Green Lantern: A film which was butchered by most critics, but I'm willing to defend. Yes it's a flawed movie, but it was the one super hero movie I saw this year with the most ambition. I don't know what happened, either they ran out of money, or the script was redone too much, but I feel like there was a bigger story that was meant to be told, and I was intrigued at the possibility of that. Unlike "Thor" or "X-Men" which existed mostly to fulfill fanboy's needs, "Green Lantern" stood apart from them and tried to be majestic and epic, if missing the mark.
One film on this list which I am reserving my opinion for is Jean-Luc Godard's "Film Socialisme", a film I have reservations about but I'm also convinced it is the most daring film made this year. I urge you to see it so you can make up your own mind about it, only keep an open mind about it.
As for the worst film so far, there is only one, Michael Bay's "Transformer's Dark of the Moon" which is a film I decided to go see because I believe Bay is a filmmaker with his own unique style and maybe he deserves a shot. I found a few sequences fascinating, but all in all, it was a film of excess, it wallowed in its own stupidity, and it ended on a joyless note. I was agonized throughout most of this movie's existence.
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