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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 December 2011

 

Let’s do it again!  It’s time to put my list together of the 10 best and worst films of the year.  It’ll be the 16^th time I’ve put together such a list and you can view all the past years on my website by clicking here.

 

I’ve reviewed just over 200 movies during 2011 – slightly up on last year.  I think it’s been a solid twelve months for cinema but there haven’t been many “stand out” films.  I didn’t give out any A+ gradings and the number of A grade films was also lower than I’d hoped.

 

That said, it was still tough to put together my top 10 list.  I started with a short list of about 25 films and had to whittle it down to the following.  If you haven’t had the chance to see any of these, hopefully they inspire you to rent the DVD or get to your local cinema over the break.

 

I went through them in detail on my ABC Digital show with Phil Smith last Sunday but if you missed that, you can hear a shorter version when I last spoke with Spencer Howson a few weeks ago.  Just click here.

 

 

Worst 10 Films Of 2011

 

Before I get to the best, I do need to talk about the worst.  This list was also hard to put together (so many bad films) but here they are in reverse order…

 

10. Mr Popper's Penguins will be a perfect production for plainly pleased persons. That said, I thought it was a load of garbage. A guy who inherits a group of penguins and jeopardises their well-being by keeping them in his apartment for his kids and ex-wife to play with. Too silly for me to go along with. Jim Carrey deserves better than this.

 

9. How Do You Know is an excruciatingly awful romantic comedy. James L. Brooks has made some great films (As Good As It Gets, Terms Of Endearment) but this is not one of them. The characters are overly neurotic and feel compelled to describe every emotion in ridiculous detail. Don't even start me on the farcical plot. I wish you could have seen my facial expressions while I was watching it.

 

8. Soul Surfer is the true story of a teenager who loses her arm in a shark attack but goes on to be surfing champion. It may sound inspiring but this film is awful. The editing (particularly the surfing scenes) is messy, the dialogue is excruciatingly cheesy and the story is all over the place.

 

7. Fright Night is dreadful. I don't know if I've seen worse 3D effects in a film this year. Don't even get me started on the weak story that isn't even remotely scary. I'm confused as to why the likes of Colin Farrell, Toni Collette and Anton Yelchin would get involved with this.

 

6. Yogi Bear is even worse than it looks.

 

5. The Three Musketeers is really, really, really bad. No, really. Laughable dialogue. Awful special effects. Dreadful acting. Pathetic fight sequences. Ridiculous story.

 

4. A Heartbeat Away was awful. It's like watching the pilot for a cheesy Aussie sitcom from the 90s that no TV network wanted to buy. I do feel bad when I slag Aussie films. It's like telling your best friend that they have bad BO. Hard to say but you have to do it for the greater good.

 

3. Big Mamma's Boy has left me sad, flat, depressed. The worst film of the year so far. Even worse is the fact that it's Australian. A cheesy, clichéd comedy about a 35 y/o Italian real estate agent trying to break free of his mother's shackles and win the heart of co-worker.

 

2. Zookeeper is a crime against the world of entertainment. The film's "message" is rubbish and the story moronic.

 

1. I Don't Know How She Does It is a write off. A film with seemingly no purpose that centres on a woman (Sarah Jessica Parker) who is trying to juggle her business life with her family life. It takes roughly 45 minutes before anything interesting to happen and the film then limps home with a rushed, pointless finale.

 

 

Best Films Of 2011

 

10. Drive is a crazy action-thriller (and I say that in a good way). It starts out fairly innocuously and then takes a few unexpected turns (some of them quite violent). The soundtrack is one of the year's best and Ryan Gosling is perfect in the leading role

 

9. Rabbit Hole started out as a Pulitzer Prize winning play and has been brought to the screen by director John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus). It's about a couple who are struggling to overcome the death of their young son. This is a heavy, powerful drama. Both Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman turn in great performances.

 

8. The Guard features one of the most memorable performances of 2011 - Brendan Gleeson as Sergeant Gerry Boyle. He's a policeman from a small Irish town who is helping the FBI to stop a major drug shipment. The accents are tough to follow at times but this is a fantastic black comedy.

 

7. Albert Nobbs stars Glenn Close as a woman who dressed as a man in 19th Century Ireland to conceal her sexual orientation. Directed by Rodrigo Garcia (In Treatment), this is one amazing character study. Close portrays Nobbs as a person who has completely lost her identity and social skills after having suppressed her urges for so long.

 

6. Super 8 is awesome! It reminded me of films I loved growing up such as The Goonies and ET. How refreshing it is to see a Hollywood blockbuster focusing more on its characters and plot as opposed to action sequences and visual effects. The child actors are all brilliant and director JJ Abrams again proves his talent as both a director and storyteller.

 

5. Inside Job is a well-made documentary which looks at the reasons behind the global financial crisis. It's easy to understand (the charts and diagrams are very persuasive) and features many very interesting interviews. A friend of mine calls it "the best comedy of the year". You can only laugh at how crazy some people are within the financial services industry.

 

4. The Skin I Live In was the closing night film at BIFF and for good reason – it will stick with you long after you’ve left the theatre for reasons I can’t tell you (don’t want to spoil it).  It’s about a plastic surgeon who believes he has discovered a new type of synthetic skin.  Legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has done it again.

 

3. Senna is a well-crafted documentary that has the look and feel of a drama. It goes beyond what you might expect and provides an intimate account of Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna and his motivations to succeed. The never-before-seen footage is amazing.

 

2. 127 Hours gets two thumbs up from me and one thumb up from the leading character. We all know how this story will end (a guy trapped under a boulder cuts his own arm off to survive) but there's a lot more to it than that. It does a great job capturing his deteriorating mind set throughout the ordeal. Wonderful direction from Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and James Franco is excellent.

 

1. Another Year is more brilliance from director Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky). It revolves around a happily married couple in their 60s who find that all their friends around them are falling apart. Leigh has a great knack for capturing the "human condition" and he does so again here. It's capped off by a unforgettably annoying and/or touching performance from Lesley Manville.

 

 

Well that’s it from me in 2011.  I’ll be taking a break from blogging over the holiday period and will be refreshed and ready to go again in 2012.

 

It’s been a fantastic year for me in the sense that I attended the Toronto Film Festival where I interviewed the likes of Geoffrey Rush, George Clooney, Alexander Payne, Charlotte Rampling and Seth Rogen.  Back here in Australia, I was fortunate enough to interview Kenneth Branagh, JJ Abrams and the cast of The Inbetweeners.

 

I was also able to kick start a new 30-minute film show every second Sunday on ABC Digital Radio (broadcast around Australia) and my regular weekly spot on Spencer Howson’s 612ABC breakfast show continues to get an audience thanks to his wonderful ratings (Spencer topped every radio rating survey during 2011).

 

Very lucky I am.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 December 2011

  

An Amazing Golf Story

 

I have to share a golf story to start this week’s Film Pie blog.  I’ve spent the last week in Melbourne accompanying 6 Queensland golfers who were competing in the 2011 Victorian Amateur Championships.

 

On Saturday, I was watching the second round of the men’s event and caught up with a particular group as they completed their first nine.  The group included Victorian Todd Sinnott who was 5 under after 9 holes around Commonwealth Golf Club.  He then birdied the first 4 holes of the next nine to reach 9 under par through 13 holes.  It was amazing to watch.  I turned to the Queensland coach and said something along the lines of “I’m watching on 59 watch and I’m not leaving this group until they finish”.  Unfortunately, Sinnott stumbled with a bogey and double bogey on the run home to finish with a 66 (6 under par).  It was still the best score of the day.

 

Just when you think you’ve seen it all in sport, something new pops up to amaze you.  Let’s just say that if this next story was in a movie then I wouldn’t have believed it.

 

The final round of the event was held Sunday at Kingston Heath which is ranked as the number one course in Australia (see here).

 

I was walking the course and trying to keep up with the Queensland guys who were spread across a few different groups.

 

I caught up with one of the groups as they completed the 9^th hole (their 6^th hole of the round as it was a shotgun start).  One of the players, Western Australia’s Cruze Strange, rolled in a 30 foot birdie putt to be 6 under through 6 holes.  He then stepped up on the 10^th tee (their 7^th hole of the round) and he hits it to 2 feet.  The birdie puts him 7 under after 7 holes!

 

Rick Coleman from Queensland then steps up and then makes a hole-in-one – which I captured with my digital SLR.  First one I’ve seen live in years!

 

In a similar vein to the day before, I declared that I’d be following this group for the rest of the day.  Lucky I did.  Cruze holed his 50m approach shot on the 14^th for an eagle and came to the last hole of the day at 9 under par.  It all looked to be coming unstuck though after he hooked he tee shot into the bush and was forced to take an unplayable lie.  He had one final piece of brilliance in him.  Cruze ran his next shot up onto the green and then holed a 12 foot par putt for 63 (9 under par).

 

He has just come from 10 shots behind to win the event by a single shot!

 

I can now say tell everyone that I saw someone shoot the lowest score ever on Australia’s number one golf course.  Oh, and I also saw a hole-in-one.  Does it get any better than that?

 

I took a few photos from the day and you check them out on Facebook by clicking here.

 

Awards Season Update

 

Several critics groups have announced their award winners over the past week and to bring you up to speed, here they are…

 

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Best Picture – The Descendants

Best Actor – Michael Fassbender (Shame, A Dangerous Method)

Best Actress – Yun Jung-hee (Poetry)

Best Supporting Actor – Christopher Plummer (Beginners)

Best Supporting Actress – Jessica Chastain (every single film)

 

Boston Film Critics Association

Best Picture – The Artist

Best Actor – Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

Best Actress – Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn)

Best Supporting Actor – Albert Brooks (Drive)

Best Supporting Actress – Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids)

 

San Francisco Film Critics Association

Best Picture – The Tree Of Life

Best Actor – Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

Best Actress – Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin)

Best Supporting Actor – Albert Brooks (Drive)

Best Supporting Actress – Vanessa Redgrave (Coriolanus)

 

Indiana Film Critics Association

Best Picture – The Artist

Best Actor – Paul Giamatti (Win Win)

Best Actress – Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene)

Best Supporting Actor – Christopher Plummer (Beginners)

Best Supporting Actress – Viola Davis (The Help)

 

A few other critics associations (San Diego, St Louis, Detroit) have announced nominees (5 in each categories) but won’t reveal the winners for a little while.

 

The Artist leads the way so far in the best picture race.  Centrebet has it as a $1.75 favourite already to take home the most prestigious Oscar statuette.

 

I’m not as convinced that it will win.  It’s a very good film (and I won’t be too upset if it actually wins) but I think it has its weaknesses.  It drags a little in the last hour as the story struggles to go the distance.  It leaves me asking the question – would people be as enthusiastic about the film (and in particular its screenplay) if it weren’t told using black and white?  I realise that’s part of the film’s charm but I saw a few movies this year that had a more compelling story  (e.g. The Descendants, The Skin I Live In, Shame, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

 

The acting races are still wide open.  Last year, Colin Firth cleaned up most of the critics’ awards en route to an Oscar victory.  That won’t be the case this year.  As noted above, we have 4 different actors winning best actor, actress and supporting actress.  It’s only the supporting actor category that seems to have narrowed – now a duel between Albert Brooks (Drive) and Christopher Plummer (Beginners).

 

Later this week, we’ll be able to cross a few contenders off the list.  If you don’t earn a Screen Actors Guild nomination or a Golden Globe nomination, your chances are all but gone.  We’ll see how it plays out.

 

I’ll be doing my top and bottom 10 list for the year in a future blog but do tune into ABC Digital across Australia this Sunday at 1:30pm AEST (12:30pm Brisbane time) to hear me talk about the best films of the year with host Phil Smith.  It should be a great show!

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 December 2011

  

I don’t have a lot to talk about this week.  I’m off to Melbourne from Wednesday to Sunday to help manage a few Queensland golfers who are competing in the Victorian Amateur Championship.  I’ve therefore taken a week off and haven’t had the chance to write any reviews.

 

Well, I have written one review – for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  I can’t share it with you until next week however because there’s a review embargo currently in place.  In fact, it’s not the only film I’ve seen in the past few days that I can’t yet discuss.

 

Review Embargoes

 

Review embargoes are serious business at this time of the year.  Studios want to keep a tight lid on their films until just the right moment – hoping that a combined wave of publicity can help steer the film into the Oscar spotlight.

 

The topic has become a huge talking point however in regards to David Fincher’s remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  David Denby from The New Yorker became the first to publish a review – despite having signed an embargo that nothing could be said until December 13.

 

Many other critics and bloggers have weighed in on the argument.  Jeffrey Wells provides a neat summary on his website which you can check out here.  It includes the emails between critic David Denby and Dragon Tattoo’s producer Scott Rudin which make for fascinating reading.

 

Both sides make persuasive arguments but I have to side with the distributors and filmmakers in this case.  They will almost always have the upper hand.  I can’t think of many critics who are powerful enough to break an embargo and then not get blacklisted and banned from future previews (severely limiting their profession).

 

Awards Race

 

Whilst on the subject of awards, the first batches have been turned in.  The New York Film Critics Circle gave their top prize to The Artist and the National Board of Review followed a few days later with their choice of Hugo.  The European Film Award winners were announced over the weekend with Melancholia winning best picture.

 

The race is still rather murky and I don’t expect things to become clearer until a few more critics awards are dished out.  It still has the appearance of a wide open race.

 

The two most significant lead up awards – the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globe Awards reveal their nominees on December 14 and December 15 respectively.  I can’t wait to see who makes the cut and as always, I hope for some surprises.

 

Top 10 List

 

I’ll be printing my top 10 and bottom 10 lists in a final blog in a few weeks time but in the meantime, you can get a sneak peak on the 612ABC website.

 

I had to put a preliminary list together for my final show with Spencer Howson for the year and we went through them on air (with some caller feedback too).  You can read the list and listen to the podcast by clicking here.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 November 2011

I live a pretty busy life and so I don’t spend that much time watching television.  I could probably count on one hand the number of television shows that I’d watch on a regular basis.

 

One of them, however, is The Inbetweeners.  A friend introduced me to the show and I picked up the DVDs of the first two seasons whilst in London last year.  The third and final season recently came out in Australia.

 

When I heard that stars Simon Bird and Joe Thomas would be on the Gold Coast to promote The Inbetweeners Movie, the “fan boy” in me jumped at the chance to speak with them.  The film is fantastic (you can read my review here) and here's how the interview went down...

 

Oh, and you can download a 5 minute extract of the audio from the interview by clicking here.

 

Matt:  I’m here today with Simon Bird and Joe Thomas.  Guys, welcome to the Gold Coast!

 

Simon:  Thanks for having us.

 

Matt:  Schoolies week is on at the moment and it’s very appropriate that you guys are here given the theme of the movie.  Do you guys have the equivalent of schoolies week in the UK?

 

Simon:  We do but we don’t really holiday in the UK.  We have two sets of exams – one when you’re 15-16 and one when you leave school at 17-18.  After both of those, people usually go on a holiday with their friends.

 

Because we don’t have anywhere nice and hot like the Gold Coast in our own country, we kind of go over to other people’s countries and ruin them.  In this film the boys go off to Malia which is a resort in Crete.  There are a few other places in Europe that the English school kids tend to go like Thalarki and Magaluf.

 

From what I’ve heard, it’s very similar to schoolies week.  People are letting off steam after their exams and it’s their first holiday away without their parents.  That’s the idea behind the film – these four characters have just finished school and they go off on their first holiday abroad.

 

Matt:  One of the things I love about the TV series is that there are so many laugh out loud, cringe worthy moments.  What do you guys think when you see these scripts for the first time?

 

Joe:  Sometimes I think they’re mugging me off.  They’ve just come up with a list of crazy things we can make Joe do.

 

Simon:  That is true!  The writers have told us that.  Joe has really been through the wringer.

 

Joe:  Most of my body has now been on public display.  There’s not much left to sell.  There’s what – one testicle left and part of my penis?

 

Matt:  What’s with all the public nudity in the series?  It’s again a theme in the film.

 

Joe:  Boys just do end up naked and I don’t know why it is.  There was a documentary about these types of holidays and a lot of these lads seem to be naked for no reason in the early evening in the street.  I don’t know what it is.

 

Simon:  Walking around the Gold Coast actually over the last couple of days, I’ve noticed there are a lot of Australian lads who seem to enjoy showing off their bodies.

 

Joe:  To be fair to the Aussies, they have much better bodies than the English.  In general, English men should keep their clothes on. (laughs)

 

Matt:  Well you’re doing ok with your own tans.  Most people I see come over from the UK are usually here to get some sun.

 

Joe:  Well thank you.  Simon actually has quite an oily complexion.  Simon has at various times been described as the Jewish one from the show and the Arab one from the show.

 

Simon:  Yeah, I have naturally dark skin so I pick up a tan quite easily.  Joe is more of a “burner”.

 

Joe:  I’m more of a classic English skin type.  I had to plaster my self with sun cream yesterday…

 

Matt:  So you had a chance to get around the Gold Coast yesterday?

 

Simon:  We did but not as much as we’d like actually.  This is a flying visit and we’re off to Sydney later today.  We’ve been doing interviews most of the time but we got a chance to do some jet skiing which was brilliant.

 

Matt:  I guess I should get back to the show and particularly the movie.  A lot of people in Australia won’t be familiar with The Inbetweeners.  It’s had a much smaller release here than it has in the UK.  All four characters are so distinctive.  Did you guys have much of a say in how they were created and developed?

 

Joe:  It was more left to the writers.  They looked at what they had to work with and literally wrote the show around what we like and what we were capable of.

 

The writers were friends growing up and these characters are based on themselves.  I think you do find that if you look at a group of boys, there will be these “stock types” within them.

 

Simon:  You’ve got the dumb one, you’ve gone the dirty one…  Like Joe said, the reason the show works is because it’s based on real life and real experiences.  These characters are based on real people.

 

Joe:  Yeah, we’ve increasingly met them in our travels. (laughs)  What the writers have done with the movie is instead of going with the dramatic extremes of storylines, they attempt to capture what would actually happen to four average lads who go on a holiday like this.  They’re not exceptional in any way.  This is the experience that most people would have.

 

Simon:  A lot of the comedy comes from their expectations not being met.  They view this holiday a bit like a film – like it’s going to be epic and legendary but in reality it’s more of a disappointment… just like this film. (laughs)

 

Matt:  Hahaha.  No, we can’t say that.  Your own profile in the UK as the series has built up over the last three years – have you found yourself getting recognised more and more?

 

Joe:  Yeah but it’s quite confusing because I play a character called Simon and Simon plays a character called Will.  If we’re together and someone calls out “Simon” then we genuinely have no idea who they’re talking to.

 

Simon:  It started as such a tiny show and the first series didn’t get many viewers at all.  Then something happened in between the first and second series and no one can put their finger on what it was.  The DVD sales started taking off and for the first episode of the second series, we had millions more viewers and it was the same for the third series.  We’re just very grateful.

Matt:  So where did the movie come from?  There have been so many great TV series but why make a movie of The Inbetweeners?

 

Joe:  I think Iain and Damon had an idea of making a show about a lad’s holiday.  First of all, they wanted to bring this genre of “teenage comedy” to the UK.  You see a lot more of this style of film coming from the United States.

 

Alongside that, they though the holiday would work because it’s a good “bite sized chunk” for a film.  The series itself has reached a point where they can’t take it much further because they’ve done their final exams and graduated.  It’s the last hurrah for these four boys together and they may not see each other this.

 

Simon:  It was a risky decision for Iain and Damon to make the film because there have been a lot of films made, especially in England, of sitcoms.  A lot have done very badly both at the box-office and critically.  We knew it was a risk but luckily, it seems to have paid off.

 

Matt:  The box-office in the UK has been ridiculous.  Four weeks atop of the chart and it’s now in the top 25 of all time in the UK.

 

Joe:  Yeah.  We expected the film to find an audience but everyone was surprised by how successful it has been.  We are chuffed with how well it’s done in the UK.

 

Matt:  Is this the part now where the studio will want to sign you up for fifteen sequels?

 

Simon:  Fortunately, it wasn’t made with a studio.  Iain and Damon, the producers, made it with their own production company so they’re beholden to no one which is great.  It means they won’t do anything unless they think it’s going to be as good.

 

There have been discussions about the possibility of a sequel but no decisions have been made as yet.

 

Matt:  And the TV series?  Is it done?

 

Simon:  I think the TV series is probably done to be honest.  It felt like such a step up in doing the film and it would feel like we’re going backwards to return to the TV series.

 

Joe:  Also, we don’t know where the TV series would now take place unless they all got kept back a year for an undisclosed reason. (laughs)

 

Matt:  I should finish up by asking that if the show has wrapped up, what lies in the future for you guys?

 

Simon:  Joe and I have got some other shows on England.  Joe’s in a very successful show called Fresh Meat which is about university students and is written by the guys that made Peep Show.  I’m in a show called Friday Night Dinner which is a sitcom about a family.

 

We’re actually both writing a show together with our friend Jonny Sweet that is set in World War I.  Joe and I knew each other before The Inbetweeners.

 

Joe:  If you are an aficionado of The Inbetweeners, there’s an episode in series 2 where they go to a nightclub in London.  Will’s would-be date fobs him off for another more suave gentleman who accuses Will of talking like he’s from a black and white film.  That’s our friend Jonny Sweet who is the third member of our “gang”.

 

Matt:  Thanks guys and I hope you have a great time travelling around the rest of Australia.  I look forward to talking the movie up for all it’s worth.