1st Annual Groovers Movie Awards

Three years to the day after my first ever post (incidentally about the upcoming Oscars) I am here to announce the 1st Annual Groovers Movie Awards. No nominations, just winners. Ten categories, most of which are the same or similar to those in other awards. The award itself named the “Dom” is modelled after a Dom Pérignon bottle (you need to watch Fandango to understand the relevance) and will remain virtual unless Moët want to step in as a sponsor me.

Best Movie:

The Artist: A virtually silent black and white movie with a 1.37:1 aspect ratio about the end of the silent movie era doesn’t sound very exciting. The result is totally stunning, charming and funny. The overwhelming favourite for the pest picture Oscar. 

Best Director:

Martin Scorsese for Hugo: Martin Scorsese’s love letter to cinema is a stunning film beautifully made and even achieving the seemingly impossible task of making 3D work. 

Best Actress:

Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin: Missing out to Meryl Streep at the BAFTAs and completely overlooked by the Oscars, Tilda Swinton was my only contender for best actress.

Best Actor:

Brendan Gleeson for The Guard: Missing out to Jean Dujardin for The Artist in Golden Globes and pretty much overlooked by other awards, Brendan Gleeson reminded us what a great actor he is.

Best Screenplay:

Lynne Ramsay & Rory Kinnear for We Need to Talk About Kevin: Notable not only for how well written it is, but for what a tough job it must have been given the unusual structure of the source novel.

Best Foreign Language Film:

The Skin I live in: Winner of the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language but not submitted for the equivalent Oscar (Spain chose to submit the as yet not released in the UK, Black Bread) sees Auteur Pedro Almodóvar at his bizarre best.

Best Documentary:

Senna: Not only the best documentary of the year, but the best documentary I have seen in many years.

Best Looking Movie:

Melancholia: An amalgam of many awards including Cinematography, Production Design and Art Direction. Melancholia wins the award for being the most beautiful looking movie of the year.

Movie Stars of the year:

Best actor and actress awards age given for the for individual outstanding performances but the movie star of the year award is given for an outstanding performances in multiple films in a year:

Jessica Chastain (The Help, The Tree of Life, The Debt, Take Shelter)

Michael Fassbender (Shame, X-Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre)

Fandango Award:

Fandango was writer/director Kevin Reynolds debut (and best) feature, and the first notable movie for star Kevin Costner. It gives its name to this award for the best breakout filmmakers of the year. The award is shared between two movies that interestingly were both co-written by their director and star:

Nick Damici and Jim Mickle for Stake Land

Mike Cahill and Brit Marling for Another Earth

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2011 Films

All the films I saw at the cinema in 2011 ranked in order of preference:

1. Hugo
2. Drive
3. The Guard
4. Black Swan
5. Senna
6. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
7. True Grit
8. We Need to Talk About Kevin
9. Midnight In Paris
10. The Skin I live in
11. The King’s Speech
12. Moneyball
13. Stake Land
14. Kill List
15. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
16. Another Earth
17. Melancholia
18. Warrior
19. 127 Hours
20. The Way
21. Julia’s Eyes
22. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
23. Troll Hunter
24. 50/50
25. Source Code
26. Submarine
27. Super 8
28. 13 Assassins
29. A Lonely Place To Die
30. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec
31. The Adjustment Bureau
32. X-Men: First Class
33. Thor
34. Captain America: The First Avenger
35. Limitless
36. My Week With Marilyn
37. The Inbetweeners Movie
38. Take Shelter
39. The Rum Diary
40. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
41. The Ides Of March
42. Real Steel
43. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
44. Fair Game
45. Never Let Me Go
46. Blue Valentine
47. Tree Of Life
48. The Lincoln Lawyer
49. The Help
50. In Time
51. The Awakening
52. Sucker Punch
53. Fast Five
54. Hanna
55. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
56. Wuthering Heights
57. Contagion
58. The Fighter
59. Paul
60. Animal Kingdom
61. NEDS
62. Rabbit Hole
63. One Day
64. John Carpenter’s The Ward
65. Drive Angry
66. The Beaver
67. Beginners
68. Bridesmaids
69. Red State
70. Cowboys and Aliens
71. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
72. The Conspirator
73. The Art of Getting By
74. I am Number Four
75. Fright Night
76. Henry’s Crime
77. Blitz
78. Priest
79. Red Riding Hood
80. Oranges and Sunshine
81. Faster
82. 1920 The Battle of Warsaw
83. Win Win
84. Colombiana
85. Water for Elephants
86. Immortals
87. Battle: Los Angeles
88. 30 Minutes or Less
89. Hereafter
90. Biutiful
91. The Mechanic
92. The Thing
93. The Three Musketeers
94. Anonymous
95. Tomorrow, When The War Began
96. The Debt
97. Green Lantern
98. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
99. Footlose
100. Justice
101. Attack the Block
102. Apollo 18
103. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
104. Unkown
105. Scream 4
106. The Silent House
107. The Eagle
108. The Resident
109. Season of the Witch
110. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
111. The Hangover: Part II
112. Sanctum

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Another Earth

Driving home from a party promising young student Rhoda (Brit Marling) hears a radio DJ describe a new earth like planet that has been discovered. She is distracted by the sight of the planet and causes an accident killing the family of music professor John Burroughs (William Mapother – cousin of Tom Cruise). After being released from prison four years later, Rhoda is looking for direction and redemption in her meagre existence and in her menial job. She is also in pursuit of a place on the first flight to “Earth 2” for reasons that are not clear to her.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a sci-fi movie, the new planet is always there in the background and in the thoughts of the characters but just as in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia this is a movie about people. Taking successful and ambitious characters and breaking them creates an interesting dynamic that defines the tone of the film. Its hard to make a compelling movie if the audience dislikes or has no connection the main protagonist, but how do you make a connection with a character whose selfish and careless actions have had such an effect? Rhoda is isolated from society and her family, but the isolation is self imposed, as if she feels the enforced exile of her prison sentence was inadequate. We follow Rhoda throughout the movie, she is in just about every scene, with this exposure we are forced to explore the psychology of the character and her actions. With this, we see her crime and her search for redemption, the camera, and with it us the audience are both accuser and conscience for her actions and her character, this is how we feel for her.

All of this would have fallen flat with anything less than a strong central performance, however this movie is elevated by a stunning performance by Brit Marling, who wrote the movie along with (first time) director Mike Cahill. I don’t know if the film has the profile to be an Oscar contender, but it really should. Debuting at the Sundance Film Festival and being picked up by Fox Searchlight, it is an independent movie with a growing profile.

It is easy to draw comparisons with other movies like Melancholia, Rabbit Hole and even Journey to the Far Side of the Sun but this is very much its own movie whose meaning and message are open to interpretation, it is all the better for it. Whatever your thoughts I hope you agree that it is an engaging movie made by people who love what they are doing, most notably Brit Marling who is surly destined for stardom. 

Four Stars out of Five

★★★★★

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