Policeman

Nadav Lapid 2011

I didn’t see many Israeli movies this year but this was definitely the best I saw.  It was also one of my all-around favorites of the year (list forthcoming).  It’s follows two stories, and part of the fun of the movie is watching them develop and come together, so I won’t say anything about it.  But it captures something very deep and sad at the heart of contemporary life – more true of Israel and Tel Aviv, but probably also true of many other places.

Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows

Guy Ritchie 2011

Uncle’s observations were more salient than mine: 1. there are indeed many moments in the film when it seems certain the two leads will make out. 2. the smartest joke is Watson as the first person in the history of automobiles to drunkenly exclaim “I’ll drive!”

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Brad Bird 2011

The film doesn’t make sense (at all) but it’s still pretty fun. If you are considering bringing a flask of bourbon to the theater, I would advise you to do so.  But caveat emptor: I like bourbon.

Anton Checkhov’s The Duel

Dover Koshashvili 2010

An adaptation of a novella, very much like a novella, it more or less washes over you and then it ends, and then you think about it for a few days hence.

Carnage

Roman Polanski 2011

Not particularly cinematic, but not exactly theater on film either.  You get to see four great film actors (John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster) working with excellent material (an adaptation of Yazmina Reza’s play, The God of Carnage, about a meeting between two sets of parents following a scuffle among their respective sons), directed by one of the greatest living directors in the world.  I’d rather have seen it as a play in the theater, but given that I didn’t, and that I might not, I’m glad I got to see it like this.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tomas Alfredson 2011

A good looking Cold War British spy thriller (so it has a lot going for it) but the critics who loved it for being so sharp either are  much smarter than me or have read the book.  I wasn’t sure WTF was going on.

127 Hours

Danny Boyle 2010

The music, the editing, the scenery, and the Franco all come together in this popcorn flick. It’s also the first Danny Boyle film I’ve liked since TRAINSPOTTING.

Infiltration (Hitganvut Yehidim)

Dover Koshashvili

Lots of mustaches in this Altman-esque study of an Israeli rear-echelon military base, circa 1950s.  Standout performance by Michael Aloni.

Another Year

Mike Leigh 2010

The title says it all.

Drive

Nicolas Winding Refn

Ignore the haters – this is awesome. The colors, the music, the violence, LA.  Low-fat.