Category Archives: Year of Release

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

we need to talk about kevin movie posterWow. We Need to Talk About Kevin is not a movie for everyone. It’s a movie that most people I know could not get through. This movie aimed to educate and encourage discussion about a topic that feels like it is becoming all too familiar. It’s hard to target an audience for this movie. It has two things going against it that might turn viewers within the first 15 minutes or at any point after that. The first and more important one is the topic. This movie tells the story of a mother whose 16-year-old son is in prison after having murdered many of his classmates in a mass killing that resembles the Columbine High School massacre. There will be a large number of people who will not even consider watching a movie based on a topic like this. The second, and far less important, reason, why people might struggle to make it to the end is because of its, at times, randomness. It goes back and forth between the present and past and between real and imagined life. The transitions are inconsistent. If you’ve seen either Melancholia or The Tree of Life, it sometimes has that sort of feel. I liked Melancholia and hated every second of The Tree of Life. However, I gave. We Need to Talk About Kevin a chance. It held my attention for the entire movie.
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Young Adult (2011)

young adultYoung Adult is one of those movies that some people will love and some will hate, while others will only be able to decide if they love it or hate it once it concludes. It is more of a polarizing movie than most. People will remember this movie more than they would an average $10 million budget dramedy. This is particularly true for many Generation Xers who can identify with its lead character Mavis (Charlize Theron – Monster, North Country), a woman approaching 40 who is going through a major midlife identity crisis.
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My Week With Marilyn (2011)

my week with marilynMichelle Williams (Blue ValentineBrokeback Mountain) once again proves she is one of the finest actresses in her generation in Simon Curtis’s endearing drama My Week With Marilyn. Williams shines as Marilyn Monroe. Williams is so good at portraying the perplexing and often misunderstood sex symbol of the 1950s. With her blond hair, red lipstick, recognizable little giggle, and famous wiggle, it is easy to see how boys and men of all ages could fall in love with this woman they knew they would never meet. I can’t think of a better actress who could have played Monroe and the talented Williams.
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Shame (2011)

shameShame was that 2011 movie that most people heard about but few people saw. It happens to at least one film each year. In 2009, the movie identified with this label (The Hurt Locker) won a Best Picture Academy Award, putting the talented Jeremy Renner on the map for the first time. In the case of Shame, there was more of a reason for its obscurity than in some of the movies in other years. Shame is rated NC-17, and rightfully so. It chronicles the day-to-day lifestyle of Brandon (Michael Fassbender – A Dangerous Method, Haywire), a 30-something-year-old man addicted to sex. After earning similar recognition at other awards ceremonies, including The Golden Globes, Fassbender was considered a lock for an Academy Award Best Actor nomination. Fassbender, however, was not one of the five finalists for acting’s most prestigious award.
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Brothers (2009)

brothers movie posterBrothers, the Tobey Maguire/Jake Gyllenhaal/Natalie Portman collaboration, had the opportunity to be the very best movie of 2009. The trailer, showing a mentally unstable Maguire as a decorated soldier returning home from Afghanistan after being purported dead, shows us one thing is for sure…this isn’t the Tobey Maguire we are used to seeing in Spider-Man, Seabiscuit, or The Cider House Rules. From the three-minute movie trailer alone, I knew I would see this movie the day it came out because I was gripped by Maguire’s turn from a loving husband and nurturing father to a menacing psychopath.
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