The Best Movies of 2011 (Part I)

Jeremy BeckTop 10 Lists

What a year.

Formerly an annual vehicle devoted exclusively to analyzing the Oscars, the Manifesto has now been running in blog format since 2008, meaning this marks the fourth time I’ve dedicated a specific post to the best films of a particular year. On each prior occasion, my tone in those would-be celebratory posts was vaguely alarmist; even as I trumpeted a handful of great movies and exhorted readers to see them, I lamented that the vast majority of that year’s films failed to excite me. Such involuntary pessimism annoyed me, because the last thing I want is to come off as one of those stodgy, the-cinematic-sky-is-falling critics who constantly grouses that movies aren’t what they used to be. Still, I couldn’t escape the gnawing sensation that, as much as I enjoyed going to the movies and always would, cinema as a whole was settling into a state of pleasant, disposable entertainment rather than reinforcing its stature as a vital medium for energizing the public.

Not in 2011. As of today’s date, I’ve seen 166 movies released during 2011 (77 in theatres, plus another 88 on Netflix and one original HBO production). If you include the honorable-mention selections, the forthcoming three posts will highlight a whopping 34 of these films, good for over 20%. Admittedly, not all of these movies are masterpieces – rather, they’ve ranged from “flawed but intriguing” to “pretty damn good” to “fucking great” – but they are all worth watching. And that’s worth celebrating.

On to the list. Here are the Manifesto’s Top 25 Movies of 2011: Read More

Read more

The Best Scenes of 2011

Jeremy BeckFeatures

There’s a famous aphorism attributed to the great director Howard Hawks: “A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes.” Hawks knew quite a bit more about movies than I do, but I respectfully disagree with him on this particular point. One of the pleasures of visiting the theatre is that a brief passage of any given movie can be extraordinary, even if the film itself amounts to utter dreck (see: this scene). Not all great movies have great scenes, and not all great scenes appear in great movies. Yet when a director and his cast and crew collaborate on a truly memorable sequence, that’s something worth celebrating, regardless of the quality of the surrounding product.

And so, the Manifesto is unveiling its first ever “Best Scenes of the Year” list. There is, however, one slight caveat: I’m restricting myself to clips that are currently available on YouTube. I’m imposing this rather cumbersome limitation for two reasons. First, I want my readers to be able to actually watch the scene in question. Second, it’s difficult for me to evaluate a scene in detail from pure memory. The latter may be a valid excuse, or it may indicate one of my many failings as a critic. Now, in the Manifesto’s Utopia, every scene from every movie is instantly accessible via YouTube, but although we’re trending in that direction, we aren’t quite there yet. Read More

Read more

On Linsanity, stupidity, and the limits of one fan’s endurance

Jeremy BeckUncategorized

There’s a compelling scene in The Dark Knight in which Bruce Wayne decides to give up. The Joker has terrorized Gotham City so brutally and efficiently that its citizens have turned on Batman, their once-unassailable protector, demanding that he turn himself in. And Wayne – exhausted, bloodied, beaten – concludes that yielding and revealing himself as the Caped Crusader is the only possible solution against a foe as demented and inexorable as The Joker. But Alfred, his unwavering, loyal butler, disagrees. “People are dying, Alfred,” Wayne laments. “What would you have me do?” Alfred’s response:

“Endure.”

Endurance has been the defining characteristic of New York Knicks fans for more than a decade. Ever since Jeff Van Gundy abruptly resigned in 2001, rooting for the Knicks has been a singularly grueling experience, a twisted Orwellian experiment in which the sports overlords sadistically push a fan base to its limits just to discover how much pain it can tolerate in the name of devotion to a fucking sports team. We’ve endured Isiah Thomas running the franchise like a nine-year-old hell-bent on acquiring the overpriced green properties in Monopoly (Steve Francis! Jalen Rose! Quentin Richardson!). We’ve endured Larry Brown browbeating rookies and shelving young talent in favor of “veteran leaders” like Qyntel Woods and Malik Rose. We’ve endured Jerome James’ contract ($29 million, or $130,000 for every point he scored as a Knick). We’ve endured Renaldo Balkman’s draft selection, Stephon Marbury’s meltdown, Eddy Curry’s Shawn Kemp-esque weight gain, Walt Frazier’s insipid commentary, and countless other indignities. Read More

Read more

The Manifesto’s Guide to March Madness 2012

Jeremy BeckUncategorized

This year, the NCAA Tournament committee is finally disclosing its “Seed List”, in which it ranks every team that made the tourney from 1 through 68. In terms of generating Internet traffic, this won’t exactly be the Starr Report or casting news from The Hunger Games, but it’s still guaranteed to get thousands of basketball nerds salivating. Yet the mere acknowledgement that such a list even exists reveals a grave problem with postseason collegiate basketball: March Madness is deeply unfair.

Look, I love March Madness – it’s unequivocally my favorite sporting event of the year. And in terms of amateur athletics, I probably shouldn’t be griping about basketball’s system given that college football could have a Planet-of-the-Apes-level uprising on its hands at any moment. But that doesn’t change the fact that the current bracketing system, while numerically satisfying and visually sexy, is prone to wildly illogical results. Read More

Read more

Oscars Analysis 2011: Show recap

Jeremy BeckOscars
I’m posting this before I’ve had a chance to filter through the media consensus on tonight’s Oscars, which is probably for the best. Despite investing a disturbing amount of energy to analyzing and predicting the Academy Awards, I’ve never been particularly passionate about the show itself, and I’m hardly qualified to critique a ceremony that functions primarily as a self-affirming exercise in importance. That isn’t to say that I dislike the show – I typically like it fine – but for me, the hoopla, fashion, and resulting snark are tangential to the raw data of the awards themselves.My guess, though, is that most people were thoroughly ambivalent about tonight’s telecast. Self-congratulatory chuckles aside, the return of Billy Crystal paid its expected dividends – in addition to a solid introductory montage, he crushed his opening monologue and song – but it added little actual spark. Following Brett Ratner’s firing and Eddie Murphy’s subsequent departure, the Academy sprinted toward Crystal, ever the safe choice, and he gave them exactly what they wanted. The show also clocked in at a lean 188 minutes, which is still far too long but an improvement over years’ past. (Trimming the song performances helped. Next up: Axe the utterly useless talking heads of actors yammering about why they like movies. I like movies. I do not care why Reese Witherspoon or Adam Sandler likes movies.)If Crystal was predictably serviceable (and a happy improvement over James Franco), the speeches were typically boring, and most of the presentations seemed strained. Those with promise (specifically the Downey, Jr./Paltrow pairing, as well as Ben Stiller playing straight against Emma Stone) meandered without ever hitting the bull’s-eye, and even the Farrell/Galifianakis combo failed to deliver a true belly laugh. In general, the show was a vaguely pleasant snooze.
Read More
Read more