Standing out among soooo much win are the three artists responsible for my three favorite albums of 2011: Destroyer, Bon Iver and Radiohead — the latter who just happens to my favorite band in the history of music and bands, whom I will finally be able to see at my favorite festival/venue.  April couldn’t come soon enough. 

I had a lot of fun on this project.  I really hope that everyone who followed the list enjoyed playing along, checking for the updates and wondering what I was on when making my choices.  

My plan in 2012 is to distance myself from writing about film and staying up to date on new releases, so I can focus on my own projects.  I’ve also severely neglected my reading, so I’ll be trying to plow through as many books as possible this year, aided by my new Kindle.

I will likely update throughout the year on various projects I’m working on.  I plan to produce two shorts that I co-wrote, during the first quarter of 2012.  I have Coachella in April.  I also hope to have a feature screenplay I’m co-writing finished by then.  I may shoot a mockumentary in the summer (on an iPhone!), and have that lead up to a short film I want to personally direct in the second half of the year.

When Apple releases their new line of computers and laptops, my plan is to get a MacBook.  I can’t wait to be able to use my Canon T2i’s HD Video capabilities to experiment with on the Mac.  I’m also planning to get the iPad 3 when it is announced, just so I can complete the circle of being a good little Apple Whore.

I’m also very happy I invested in a PS3.  I’m beginning to realize with DirecTV On-Demand, Netflix Streaming and Blu-ray rentals, and rentals through my PS3 that I may never need to buy a Blu-ray again.  I haven’t bought a Blu-ray in two months and I may try to keep it that way in 2012.  Now that I’ve updated to the Kindle, my days of buying hard copy media may be over.

I still plan to keep it analogue in some places, though.  I want to continue to invest in vinyl, now that I have a sweet record player.  I want to take a vacation in the summer to San Francisco, and when I go, I will invest in a 35mm camera so that I can take pictures and blow them up for my wall.  I’ve been using my iPhone for my Picture A Day, which ends in June.  From there I may do a Picture A Week and use the 35mm camera. 

I’m extremely excited for some of the new films slated for release in 2012.  Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life is one of the greatest films I’ve seen released in the last ten years, and the fact that he may have a new film, The Burial, scheduled for release in the later part of the year is very exciting.  All of his films are masterpieces, and with Tree of Life, he may have topped himself.

Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds perfectly culminated the director’s art back in 2009.  It was a turning point for Tarantino, and for me, granted him a place among the greats.  I read the script last year for Django Unchained, and while it isn’t quite up to par with his Basterds script, I think it could potentially be his most viscerally exciting film since Kill Bill Vol. 1.  

I have not yet read Paul Thomas Anderson’s tentatively titled The Master.  At this point, I probably won’t, even if I find the script.  PT’s last film was There Will Be Blood, so needless to say, I’m very excited for this followup.  Blood landed at number 9 on my Top 101, so while I doubt he’ll top that, I’m still expecting something pretty fantastic.

Of course, Wes Anderson has a new film in 2012.  As does Christopher Nolan.  Those are the films I’m the most excited for, and I doubt I’ll see even half the films in 2012 that I saw in 2011.

Anyway, that’s all for now.  2011 was a fantastic year.  Here’s to making 2012 even more fantastic. 

emg-215:

At first he’ll be like;

we’re gonna surprise him;

then he’ll be like;

then he will give free hugs to everyone;

then eat;

and drink;

Voldy would be the DJ;

taking turns with Snape;

and we’re gonna dance endlessly like;

But you forgot this one:

I’d be dancin like that.

(Source: midnight-oneironaut)

2011 Film.

01. THE TREE OF LIFE: Hats off to director Terrence Malick for finally releasing his long-awaited masterpiece; I had a feeling I would love this film after seeing its incredible trailer at the end of 2010.  There were some wonderful films in 2011 – indeed, more so than any year since 2007, in my opinion – but none of them quite reached the heights of this.

02. CERTIFIED COPY: The most romantic film of the year, as well as its most sublime mystery, the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami follows two people over the course of a day in Italy, a French woman (Juliet Binoche) and a British writer (William Shimell) who may or may not be a married couple.

03. UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES: Celebrated Thai filmmaker Apichatpon Weerasethakul’s quiet, magical film is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. 

04. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY: A masterfully-plotted, superbly-crafted thriller, adapted from John Le Carre’s celebrated spy novel of the same name.  This film came completely out of nowhere for me - it was a thoroughly absorbing experience that stayed in my mind for days.

05. A DANGEROUS METHOD: Not many directors currently working are as reliable as David Cronenberg.  His masterful A Dangerous Method continues his streak of intellectually stimulating, engrossing films.

06. HUGO: The heart shaped key to unlocking Scorsese’s cinema of wonder, this is a love letter to film and its history by one of the greatest filmmakers we’ve ever had.

07. DRIVE: A visceral, pulpy L.A. noir by Nicolas Winding Refn, with spectacular cinematography, exciting set pieces and wonderful performances by one of the best casts of the year.

08. MELANCHOLIA: The end of the world may be the only cure for depression, so supposes Lars Von Trier.  Intriguing, tragic at times and, well, pretty funny.

09. A SEPARATION: Devastating portrait of two families torn apart by unfortunate circumstances: some self-inflicted, some cultural, others by the cruel hand of fate.

10. THE SKIN I LIVE IN: Hitchcockian body horror by Pedro Almodovar was one of the most shocking and entertaining films I saw in 2011.

Honorable Mentions: 13 Assassins, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Nostalgia for the Light, The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, Beginners, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Poetry, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse

2011 Albums.

01. THE KING OF LIMBS, Radiohead: Welcomed last February with mostly indifference from fans, The King of Limbs is Radiohead’s most divisive album yet. Which is pretty incredible for a band that, two decades into their lifespan, continues to reinvent itself at every turn.

02. BON IVER, Bon Iver: I was introduced to Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon just in the last year through his collaborations with Kanye West, but nothing prepared me for the gorgeous, ethereal beauty of this album. 

03. KAPUTT, Destroyer: I’m still not sure if this album is an elaborate put-on, as a cross between Plastic Soul-era Bowie and 80s easy listening.  I’ve not yet explored Dan Bejar’s past catalogue, but if it’s anything like this, I’m sure I’ll fall in love.

04. BAD AS ME, Tom Waits: Far leaner than his career-spanning Orphans; a release from Tom Waits is always welcome, even if it isn’t quite up to snuff with his greatest work.  Still, some of the cuts here are among his best.

05. LET ENGLAND SHAKE, P.J. Harvey: One of the first albums I heard in 2011, PJ Harvey’s celebrated release early this year is also among the most accessible things she’s ever done, and probably the most densely literate of any album I heard this year.

06. ZONOSCOPE, Cut Copy: Zonoscope came to me at a time when I was mourning the loss of LCD Soundsystem; Cut Copy has become a sufficient substitute while undergoing that grieving process.  I saw them at Coachella and their live set was so incredible that this become one of my most-played albums in 2011.

07. WATCH THE THRONE, Jay-Z & Kanye West: Not quite the masterpiece I was hoping for, but still showcases the nearly-unmatched gravitas of its dynamic duo.  It comes nowhere near the heights reached by Kanye’s 2010 triumph, but as far as victory laps are concerned, the two could have done worse.  Way worse.

08. NINE TYPES OF LIGHT, TV on the Radio: A disappointment at first, throughout the year I found myself continuing to revisit TV on the Radio’s fourth album.  It’s no Dear Science or Return to Cookie Mountain, but perhaps it isn’t even trying to be.  Instead, it’s ten tracks showcasing the band’s continuing vitality.

09. EL CAMINO, The Black Keys: Each time the Keys release a new album, I’m always impressed by their consistency.  After hearing El Camino when I was in the process of finalizing my top ten of the year, I realized that these two guys, among the most reliable contemporary rock acts around, deserve all the credit they’re finally receiving.

10. THE HUNTER, Mastodon: Ditto too, to Mastodon, probably the only heavy metal act I can tolerate.  I had heard their previous stuff in bits and pieces when 2009’s Crack the Skye was released, but I was still on the fence about the band.  After this though, it’s become clear that they’re just getting better and better.

Honorable Mentions: The Hot Sauce Committee Part II (The Beastie Boys), Strange Mercy (St. Vincent), Black Up (Shabazz Palaces), Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Girls), Tomboy (Panda Bear), Biophelia (Bjork), Born this Way (Lady Gaga), The Whole Love (Wilco), Ceremonials (Florence and the Machine), Relax (Das Racist).

This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me.  2001 has admittedly been my favorite film for nearly ten years.  Occasionally I might experience some … how do I put it? - Space Odyssey fatigue?  This fatigue will occasionally lead me to resort to an alternative film in its place.  But then I watch 2001 again and remember, oh yes, of course! - there are so many great movies out there, but this, this is the greatest of them all.  I saw 2001 when I was a sophomore in high school.  I can say with the utmost humility that I did not understand it in the slightest, which was more than likely because I was tone deaf and took everything literally at that age.  Therefore, 2001 initially amounted to a jumble of disjointed episodes and a fucking-bonkers coda, and that isn’t to suggest that I wasn’t blown away.  I was.  I spent the next several years watching it as often as I could.  I’ve rented it many times, owned it in no fewer than five editions (three DVDs, two Blu-rays) and I’ve currently seen it twice on the big screen: once at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, and again at the Egyptian in Hollywood.  I watched 2001 three times in a row when I first saw it, and spent each time absorbing it like a sponge, trying to figure out just what effect it was having on me.  Today, watching 2001 is a cross between nostalgia trip and religious experience.  After years of viewing it on a standard definition television, it began to lose its luster.  After I saw it projected in 70mm, I felt like I was watching it for the first time.  I had the same reaction recently when I watched the Blu-ray on my high definition TV: 2001 is cinema at its finest glory.  From its pristine design, its spacious, precise cinematography; from the drab colors of space to the saturated bursts of the Infinite, the film just looks like nothing else.  As far as its deeper meaning … I don’t think that 2001 does anything more than provoke its viewer to expand their understanding of the vastness of the cosmos.  Detractors might call the film simpleminded, obvious, or worse, pretentious - but I think all of those theories miss the point.  2001 attempts to transcend beyond myth and religious belief to give us a glimpse of what may have lead to our creation (remember, 2001 is a creationist film), and what could be in store for our next evolutionary step.  I’m proud to call 2001 my favorite film, and the reason can be summed up in its final image: as the star child gazes upon the audience, making its descent from the heavens back to earth, Kubrick has given us the most optimistic and humane work of film art I’ve ever had the privilege to experience.

swerving, complex, mysterious, intoxicating tour of Los Angeles, the city of dreams, the manifestation of nightmares.  The film begins on that winding road in the Santa Monica Mountains, as a woman is being driven to an unknown destination.  Her life is inexplicably threatened on the road overlooking the wide cityscape of Los Angeles.  She escapes with her life intact, but also stricken with amnesia and looking for shelter.  Enter Betty, chipper young blonde fresh off the plane from Canada to Southern California, armed with a pretty face and dreams of stardom.  Her path is crossed with the mysterious woman from the beginning, who obtains the moniker “Diane,” and the two investigate her past to try to piece together her identity.  Mulholland Drivefamously began its life as a television pilot written and directed by David Lynch, which was shot and promptly rejected by ABC in the early part of the 2000s.  Studio Canal stepped in with the necessary finances so that Lynch could finish the pilot as an extended feature.  What begins as a pretty straight forward blend of tropes and alternating tones, soon becomes obsessive, violent and dangerous, especially once the narrative folds onto itself and falls through a rabbit hole of complete and utter chaos.  Lynch has experimented successfully with narrative, alternating tonality and character changes in Lost Highway and Inland Empire, both L.A. films noirs with Hitchcockian undertones, and also masterpieces in their own right.  But there’s just something about Mulholland Drivethat strikes me as the most complete, most successful example of Lynch’s art.  There’s an incompleteness to it that becomes one of its virtues; narrative threads are begun, hardly developed and then ultimately abandoned, as if much of the construct is meant to toy with the audience by use of shifting misdirection.  Mulholland Driveis a puzzle - and a dazzling one at that - in which none of the pieces resemble any sort of cohesive “thing,” per se.  Many may find it an elaborate put on, to which I can only suggest a subsequent viewing.  In fact, each time anyone has expressed disappointment or frustration with the film I tend to respond with a simple: “watch it again.”  It’s a mystery without resolve, a problem without solution, a surreal labyrinth lacking a key to unlocking its meaning, a mobius strip that at some point deep into its hazy trajectory abruptly ends, doubles back, and begins once again on its

No film that I’ve seen has had a larger influence on me than Taxi Driver - not even the two remaining films on this list.  It was my first Martin Scorsese film, I saw it at 16, and afterwards it began to burrow its way into my subconscious.  Firstly, I had no idea that I’d seen a great film when I first saw Taxi Driver.  I reserved that label for Goodfellas, Casino, Raging Bull, even Gangs of New York when I first saw it in theaters.  But Taxi Driver was different: it was difficult, sinister, unsettling, messy.  In hindsight, even with my unbridled affection for all things Scorsese, I still can’t completely credit the great director as sole provider of Taxi Driver’s consummate success.  Credit is certainly due to Paul Schrader for the film’s astonishing, vivid screenplay; of course, Taxi Driver isn’t much without Robert De Niro’s explosive performance.  De Niro is Travis Bickle, the cinema’s most famous misfit, a loner desperate to make a connection to anyone inside the vast cityscape of New York.  A marine, a Vietnam veteran and an alcoholic, Bickle becomes a cab driver to occupy his time because of his bouts with insomnia.  Becoming a cab driver only increases his loneliness, until his desperation clashes with his psychosis and leads to an sickening display of violence.  Taxi Driver imposes the theory that the more saturated one environment is with people, the more chances for one to feel isolated.  Bickle is surrounded by people but lacks the social graces to be accepted.  He’s destined to remain an outsider, and by the end of the film, we get the feeling that, taken at face value, Travis has come to a term of acceptance with his fate.  Scorsese directs the film with a level of intensity that makes Taxi Driver utterly absorbing.  Until its release in 1976, the director was most notable for the gritty realness he brought to the small-time gangster film Mean Streets, but after Taxi Driver launched the director to the front ranks of his peers; to this day, his status remains untarnished (see: Hugo, the completely underrated and misunderstood Shutter Island, so on and so forth).  Scorsese famously has a special relationship with his city of origin, New York.  The city is a character in and of itself in many of his best work, starting as early as Who’s That Knocking at My Door?  In Taxi Driver, New York plays the part of the cold metropolis of an indifferent city, posing as the backdrop for God’s lonely man.