The First Year

Depressing documentary about 1st year teachers in South Central LA. Gah.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Funny, thought-provoking, bizarre, and overall fantastic movie about... street art? commercialization of a counter-culture movement? imposters?
Aspiring film-maker Thierry Guetta begins compiling hundreds of hours of footage of street artists creating their ephemeral work. Gradually, some of the biggest artists, like Shepard Fairey, realize that his filming is capturing some rare and valuable scenes of them at work. When Guetta meets the anonymous god of street art, Banksy, Banksy convinves Guetta to try his own hand at creating art, and to turn over the footage to Banksy.
In an unbeleivable switcheroo, Banksy the artist becomes the film-maker, and Guetta the (addled? insane? genius?) film-maker reinvents himself as a top street artist- who then opens a VERY successful commercial exhibit.
This was just wonderful.

Morning Glory

TERRIBLE movie about a morning news show. Every cliche you could think of and then it just got worse. This was such shite, it was almost breathtaking. I would have turned it off but by the time I realized how appalling it was, I was almost fascinated by it.

Somewhere

Dreamy Sofia Coppola movie- ennui in luxury, as she does so well, with an ambiguous ending that was (to me) not as successful as the ambiguous ending to Lost in Translation. Still, lovely and atmospheric.

The King's Speech

Best Picture winner, but I still would have voted (were I in the Academy lol) for The Social Network. This was very good, and excellent performances, but it just didn't catch me.

Salt

Pretty good actiony spy-vs-spy thriller, featuring the always kick-ass Angelina Jolie.

Waiting for Superman

Disturbing and very interesting look at public education in the USA, and the challenges ahead. Agonizing charter school lotteries and close looks at some children whose lives depend on being able to receive a decent education. Really well done.

The Social Network

FANTASTIC movie. Best I've seen in a long time.

Black Swan

Intense and disturbing movie.

Never Let Me Go

Haunting and beautifully done adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel of the same name. A love triangle between Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy is wildly complicated by their strange circumstances, and tragedy ensues.

Letters to Juliet

Pretty bad romance movie, but it could have been worse. I guess.

Housewife, 49

This was a wonderfully done movie. Based on Great Britains' Mass Observation Project, wherein which Britons were asked to keep diaries of their experiences from 1939 onwards, this was a look at Nella Last- a brave, loyal, fantastically good woman who found strength during the war through her war work through the WVS, and whose experience in some ways informed the London staff of the project of what life was like during the war in quasi-rural, ship-building areas like Barrow-in-Furness, where Nella lived.
This was so good, it can't be explained why it isn't better known- apparently, it did win things:
"It won two British Academy Television Awards in 2007: "Best Single Drama", and Victoria Wood won "Best Actress" for her portrayal of Nella Last."
Beautifully done, and heartbreaking.

Alice in Wonderland

Visually stunning version of Wonderland, very far from the books, but a glorious and lush movie with a pretty kick-ass Alice.

Category 7: The End of the World

Fantastically absurd (and endless!) disaster movie. This was great.

Invictus

Wonderful movie, about the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Fantastic performances from Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

St. Trinian's

Very funny English boarding school movie, with some really bizarre performances.

Zombieland

So funny, if incredibly gross!
The Rules
1.Cardio
2.The Double Tap
3.Beware of Bathrooms
4.Wear Seat Belts
5.No Attachments
6.The “Skillet”
7.Travel Light
8.Get a Kick Ass Partner
9.With your Bare Hands
10.Don’t Swing Low
11.Use Your Foot
12.Bounty Paper Towels
13.Shake it Off
14.Always carry a change of underwear
15.Bowling Ball
16.Opportunity Knocks
17.Don’t be a hero (later crossed out to be a hero)
18.Limber Up
19.Break it Up
20.It’s a marathon, not a sprint, unless it’s a sprint, then sprint
21.Avoid Strip Clubs
22.When in doubt Know your way out
23.Zipplock
24.Use your thumbs
25.Shoot First
26.A little sun screen never hurt anybody
27.Incoming!
28.Double-Knot your Shoes
29.The Buddy System
30.Pack your stain stick
31.Check the back seat
32.Enjoy the little things
33.Swiss army Knife

Bride and Prejudice

Really fantastic Bollywood take on Pride and Prejudice, with the stunningly lovely Aishwarya Rai as Lalita, the Elizabeth Bennet character. Made me want to dance and wear saris.

An Education

Wonderful movie. Carey Mulligan was amazing in this, portraying 17 year old Jenny in 1960's suburban London, deciding between life as the girlfriend of glamorous but slightly dodgy David, or to further her education at Oxford. So, so good.

2012

FANTASTIC disaster movie (if you like disaster movies). EVERYTHING blows up.