As much as Lonergan's most obvious model might be the great American novel, Margaret's rambling structure and infectious restlessness feel like the cinematic mirror of Web surfing. We follow one link, then another, then another, and then, almost as if in a trance, we end up at a destination we didn't expect. We keep multiple tabs open in a browser, bouncing back and forth between different concerns without letting any of them dominate focus. We listen to music as we chat, doing both constantly as we work.
If Margaret is a mess, it only makes us conscious of the messiness that we somehow manage to navigate every moment of our lives. Maybe it's imperfect; maybe it's not for everyone. Maybe nothing worth paying attention to is. I hope that you get a chance to judge for yourself.
You just might: Last week, in response to our query regarding a rumor that was floating around on Twitter, a Fox Searchlight spokesman told us, "We have no plans to rerelease the film." But on Tuesday, showtimes for Margaret quietly appeared on the website of Manhattan art house Cinema Village: the film will open there Fri., Dec. 23, for two shows a day. As of press time, no local showtimes had been announced, and Searchlight publicists had not responded to an email. We'll keep you posted.
If Margaret is unequivocally my choice for the film of the year, after that, it gets complicated. As I went through the annual end-of-year process of catch-up, re-evaluation and revision, my top five films solidified — and roughly 30 films took turns occupying the remaining five slots. In the end, all things being equal, I went with the titles that gave me the most pure pleasure as a filmgoer.
1. MARGARET, Kenneth Lonergan (U.S.)
2. MELANCHOLIA, Lars von Trier (Denmark)
The sheer beauty and personal depth of Lars von Trier's triangle of depression, anxiety and cosmic apocalypse have been well documented. What has been overlooked, I think — and what pushes Melancholia into masterpiece realm, for me — is its subversion of Hollywood's two primary currencies: the special effects epic, and, in the casting of Kirsten Dunst as von Trier's alter ego, the celebrity confessional.
3. MEEK'S CUTOFF, Kelly Reichardt (U.S.)
Has a better American film been made about survival instincts in the face of economic desperation, since the start of the downturn, than Kelly Reichardt's gorgeously unsettling Oregon Trail tale? In a great year for supporting actors, Bruce Greenwood's incredible transformation into the rugged titular character is the most unjustly overlooked.
4. THE TREE OF LIFE, Terrence Malick (U.S.)
Even if the reach of Terrence Malick's infinite loop exceeds its grasp, that reach is unprecedented. At Cannes, it was tempting to pick a side between Tree of Life and Melancholia — Team Terry's earnest theological questioning versus Team Lars' Dogme dystopia — but even in their wildly diverging stylistic and philosophical approaches to life, death and the mysteries of the universe, the two films defined the year in film with their implicit dialogue with one another.
5. THE ARBOR, Clio Barnard (U.K.)
Not just the best nonfiction film of 2011, Clio Barnard's hybrid of primary-source reporting and dramatic staging to tell the tale of alcoholic British council estate bard Andrea Dunbar and the daughters she left behind is also the most innovative — not a small feat in a year that brought the archival superedit The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu.
6. A SEPARATION, Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
A master class in storytelling and character study under any circumstances, Asghar Farhadi's Berlinale winner, about the reverberations of one middle-class housewife's decision to leave her family when her husband refuses to leave Iran, is all the more impressive as an implicit — but, in an incredible feat of footwork, never direct — critique of the standards and practices of the Iranian government that sanctioned its production.
7. DRIVE, Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark)
The best music video Michael Mann never made. Ryan Gosling's (unsuccessful) campaign ad for the crown of Sexiest Man Alive. A movie-length, escalating joke about the manipulative seduction of genre film tropes, Drive is the visual pleasure bomb that critiques itself.
8. CONTAGION, Steven Soderbergh (U.S.)
A filmmaker whose primary obsessions have been work and sex, Steven Soderbergh turned an outbreak story that demonizes both into an unflinching, dispassionate nail-biter. Uniquely Soderberghian in its appropriation of a Hollywood genre for personal ends, when the big, emotional catharsis comes, it's all the more devastating as a break from the total coldness that preceded it.
9. THE FUTURE, Miranda July (U.S.)
The best of 2011's many Sundance hits–turned–box office bombs. The reception accorded Miranda July's second feature — a deeply personal and fully unique hybrid of hipster relationship drama, lo-fi sci-fi and filmed performance art — only affirms its courage as a would-be commercial endeavor.
10. MONEYBALL, Bennett Miller (U.S.)
Am I biased as a baseball fan? Maybe, although as a faithful follower of the Dodgers — whose 2011 season offered a gripping seesaw of tragedy and triumph — I hardly needed to go looking for baseball drama elsewhere. Less an adaptation of Michael Lewis' best-seller than a cinematic rendering of the unlikely marriage between passion and fiscal necessity that motivated the sport to put its faith in sabermetrics, Moneyball moved me to tears. Twice. My vote for the most satisfying popcorn movie of the year.
Why does Longworth say that the movie is "a mess" and "distancing" if she likes it? Why do good review have to come with reservations?" Every moment of "Margaret" is absolutely wonderful -- the kind of searing/harrowing/emotionally involving movie that comes along very rarely -- and there is nothing that is messy or distancing about it. I haven't been riveted this much by a movie for years.
"The Tree of Life" was cinematic diarrhea. I'm astounded that "Captain America: The First Avenger" didn't make the list as one of the best movies of 2011. It was a hell of a better movie than "Melancholia" and Margaret."
Further proof that movie critics don't know sh*t.
Hopkins began his novitiate in the Society of Jesus at Manresa House, Roehampton, in September 1868 and moved to St. Mary's Hall, Stonyhurst, for his philosophical studies in 1870, taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience on 8 September 1870.[9] Writing would remain something of a concern for him as he felt that his interest in poetry prevented him from wholly devoting himself to his religion.
Only pretentious, pseudo intellectuals would think that The Tree of Life is good. It was a pure piece of......ummm....pretentious, pseudo intellectual crap.
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I don't understand the praise heaped by the writer on Melancholia. It's a truly awful movie. Though it does have the distinction of showing us von Trier stealing from Thomas Vinterberg not once, but twice. The first half of the movie is a rehash of "The Celebration" while the second half is obviously influenced by It's All About Love. More importantly, the reasons given for liking the movie - "its subversion of Hollywood's two primary currencies: the special effects epic, and, in the casting of Kirsten Dunst as von Trier's alter ego, the celebrity confessional" - even if true. aren't reasons to like or dislike any movie. They are purely conceptual placeholders. And if you think Melancholia is a "special effects epic" you haven't watched a Hollywood movie since 1970. The tradition von Trier is actually referencing, and the true ancestor of this film is Tarkovsky. Not Hollywood and not Kirsten Dunst. Get a grip!
Where's "Hugo" or "The Descendants"? Did you not see these films? Your top 10 list is subjective, not objective.I understand you trying to gain traction for these little-promoted, little-seen movies you include on your list but you need to be more cognizant of the wider public's tastes. This is a critics' only list appreciated only by critics. The impression is you are trying to impress rather than express. You got one of them right. I liked "Moneyball."
Don't be an indignant philistine, Muckraker. Of course her list is subjective. That's what all opinions are, by definition. (Including yours!) If you are happy sharing tastes with what you believe to be the public at large, then enjoy that, and let people who have slightly higher standards do their thing. For what it's worth, I am not a critic and I have seen five of these ten films (plus a few of her also-rans), and I mostly enjoyed them. "The Future" is probably my favorite movie of the year, followed by "Melancholia." "Moneyball" was interesting, but not remotely among my favorites. I agree that "Hugo" was excellent, and I wish she had included it, but she didn't. That's cool. "The Descendants" was the very definition of mediocrity, but if you're looking for critics to celebrate it, you should be in hog heaven. It's showing up on all kinds of lists for reasons I cannot discern. Subjectively speaking, naturally.
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