Best Pictures of 2011 (No Relation or Association to the Oscars)

Nominations for the Oscars have finally be announced today. With that, I have thirty-three days to see nine of the ten films that are up for Best Picture this year. As I tried to predict which films would make the cut into the category, I saw many movies this year, hoping that it would decrease the stress of the next month of constant film screening. Needless to say, I guessed the films incorrectly, and I sit with the challenge of nine films in thirty-three days.

Several of the films that I consider to be the best of 2011 unfortunately won’t be recognized as such. Because of that, I have created the the Best Picture award as voted by a committee consisting of myself. The nominees do not receive anything for being mentioned in this blog, sadly. With that, here are the nominees for the Robert Reynolds “Best Picture” Award:

The Descendants / Alexander Payne

This is the one film on my list that also exists on the official Oscars list. Staring George Clooney as a man whose wife slips into a coma after a boating accident, he must deal with the troubled times of his family, while also amidst the selling of a huge amount of property he owns. This only gets troubled further when his older daughter tells him that his wife had been cheating on him prior to falling into the coma. With the scenery on the beautiful islands of Hawaii, we realize that family issues exist even in the most paradise-like places. An amazing cast with a beautiful, simple, and true story lays the groundwork for one of the best films of the year. (It also doesn’t hurt that 50-year-old Clooney is looking better than ever.)

Like Crazy / Drake Doremus

Like Crazy, like The Descendants, is beautiful, simple, and comes across as pure and true. While on a semester abroad, British beauty, Anna, falls for an American boy, Jacob. Her visa expires, but infatuated with her relationship, she stays in California. They have a quirky, cute relationship that makes you smile while sitting in the dark by yourself. She returns home to the United Kingdom to see her family, and once trying to reenter the US to see Jacob, she is informed that she isn’t allowed back into the country because of her offense of overstaying her visa. The movie shows their struggles of wanting to be together, actually being together, wanting to be apart, and being forced to be apart. The film is beautifully shot and has an amazing soundtrack to accompany the scenes.

Bridesmaids / Paul Feig

Simply stated: one of the funniest films I have ever seen. I’ve seen this one in the range of twenty to thirty times since it came out. With a basic story of a group of bridesmaids’ adventures between engagement announcement to wedding day, the major success is in the writing and the cast. This movie is proof that girls can tell a fart joke, and even tell it more successfully than their male comedian counterparts. Every member of the cast delivers a different element to the group, and together create a riot to watch. This movie is one of those that you will end up quoting into your life more than you’d expect, as I find myself making a Bridesmaids reference almost daily now. While Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph are the leads and are both tremendously funny, Melissa McCarthy gives the most hilarious performance from a supporting actress in recent history.

Beginners / Mike Mills

Beginners gives proof that no matter how old we get, we can still be considered beginners in relationships. Ewan McGregor stars along side of the beautiful Mélanie Laurent in an unexpected relationship that is equally involving of his dog, Cosmo. Christopher Plummet, nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, plays McGregor’s father who comes out as gay in his seventies and spends his final years of life proudly and openly being gay while fighting cancer. Each time I’ve watched Beginners, it has managed to make me cry during both happy scenes and quite opposite scenes. Beginners is another film where the soundtrack in bang-up and completely sets the tone for the film.

Weekend / Andrew Haigh

I had previously reviewed Weekend for this blog a few months back, so if you’d like a complete review of it, go back a few pages to check that out. Weekend is an honest depiction of a gay relationship that lasts for, as the title suggests, a weekend. While the relationship is brief, it is sweet and true. They reveal things about themselves that often don’t come out until much later in relationships, and also manage to be extremely believable characters with many dimensions, which differs from the often one-sided gay characters that are displayed in films. Weekend is a much different variation on the traditional love story, but still comes off very charming and sweet.