I know when I finally posted my review of The Guard yesterday I told you it was in my top 5 or top 2….Yeah turns out it was #1! When I reviewed the list of what I saw in 2011 and compared film to film, it just kept beating out all the other contenders!
For my top 9 favorites, some worsts, and some randomly categorized references (best house lived in by main character, film that felt most like I’d seen it 89 times before, etc), go read my full wrap up of my 2011 favorite flicks over here.
Wow, I really can’t believe I didn’t write this movie up before now. It’s definitely in my top five for the year. Maybe even top two, I have to give that a wee bit more thought. 
I first saw it back in August and I wound up seeing it two or three more times after that. SO GOOD!!
A real black comedy about a down-and-out Irish cop played by Brendan Gleeson–not a bad dude, just a bit jaded and over it–and a visiting FBI agent played by Don Cheedle on the trail of some drug runners. The chemistry between Gleeson and Cheedle is out of this world. Cheedle as the straight man plays against his casting in many roles and he’s just so perfectly straight-backed and stone-cold serious in it. This is movie is really hilarious and not at all politically correct (I thought it was pretty honest about racism, myself). Well acted, well directed, so many nifty twists and turns.
I just loved it to pieces. GO! I’m sure it’s out on DVD by now. Or streaming somewhere.
I thought the beginning was a little rough–some things take too long to get going, others seem to leap ahead and you wonder if you’ve missed something. There are a few weird continuity errors–i.e., at one point someone appears completely across town a minute later although she drove someone else’s car to their house so how did she get back there? type of things. And there’s some stuff that just feels like it wasn’t quite well though out enough plot-wise.
But once it gets going, a LOT of the dialogue is pretty fantastic. The wacky friendship / alliance between Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt’s characters was so great, there’s a lot of (not romantic) chemistry happening there. Dad kept saying he’d watch an entire show every week just about those two! The going back to a small town, trying to define yourself in a different way stuff is all right on.
And the rigid unrepentive, unchangingness of the lead character really is what makes this work. She comes out of this movie the same person she went in. There’s no self reflection happening there…and it’s pretty awesome that there isn’t frankly. If this movie had ended differently, it would’ve shot itself in the foot.
Didn’t blow our minds completely, but definitely well worth seeing.
As with Take Shelter, this is a movie of really great acting performances and really crazy paranoia stuff that leaves you with the creepiest ickiest feelings.
And as with Take Shelter, the last scene really (REALLY) messes with your head.
John Hawkes is so fantastic here. He was also fantastic in Winter’s Bone last year. I think I’d go see anything with him in it, even if I hated everything but his scenes.
I think I liked Take Shelter a LITTLE better than this…but mostly because there are things about that character’s paranoia that are a little less icky than the actual things that happen to some of the characters in this movie.
My top six very favorite books read during 2011 were (not in any order) “Wonderstruck” by Brian Selznick, Love Is the Higher Law, by David Levithan, “State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett, “36 Arguments for the Existence of God”, by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (that’s fiction, despite its non-fiction-like sounding title), “Mother’s Milk” by Edward St. Aubyn and “Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter” by Tom Franklin.
My final list of books read for 2011 is here and a little write-up on some other favorites, beyond the six mentioned in this post, is over here.
Turns out I haven’t done hardly any reviewing of books on Snip this year (I have been busy ya know!) but I still plan to whip through a few here and there until I find a job so I’ll add links to those if/when I post them! 
Thought you might enjoy!
Loved it. Tom Cruise is showing his age (which I thought maybe he’d be one of those crazy celebrities who gets 97 billion procedures and never has a single wrinkle). Renner / Pegg / Payton all played their bits well. It was 100% completely enjoyable.
EXCEPT… So here’s the thing. With any action movie, but ESPECIALLY the Mission Impossible movies they do a million crazy nutbars out-of-this-world things and as the viewer you accept them as part of this movie’s reality. Fine. BUT if I am going to accept all their crazy masks and daring feats and car acrobatics and such, I insist that this type of movie must do everything else ACCURATELY.
And let me tell you, if you remove the floor to ceiling window from a 100th-floor hotel room? THERE’S GONNA BE A CRAPTON OF WIND BLOWING THROUGH. But no, they stand calmly in front of it, clothes barely aruffle. Sorry, can’t buy into that one. When they replaced the windows in my 4th floor apartment in NYC, things magentized to the refrigerator were blowin’ around the house.
GIVE ME MY REALITY and I’LL GIVE YOU YOUR FANTASY. That is the deal this type of movie is supposed to make with us.
So other than that, it was great.
These stories are fantastic. I’ve seen Megan read / perform numerous times so there were a couple I was already familiar with but there were also new ones that I just lovelovelooooooved. She’s got a very unique voice while at the same time voicing some universal truths. Fantastic writing / fantastic reading.
Bought:
Read: