Hard Bodies in Motion: A Review of Haywire

by Matt Smith

Had I known going into Haywire that not only was I getting a Steven Soderbergh action movie, but it was also going to be a 70s “B” action movie, I’d have been even more psyched up than I was already. Starring Gina Carano, whose real-world mixed martial arts credentials have been much written about, the film is a thriller which, despite being detached, cold, and ultimately difficult to worm your way into, turns out to be, especially as far as recent Soderbergh films are concerned, extremely accessible.

I’ll discuss the action set pieces later, but of primary importance is the aesthetic design that permeates the film and creates an odd hybrid of Ocean’s-style visuals and Traffic-like color coding of time with the low-key color palettes and audio design of Che and The Girlfriend Experience. If this is the year that Soderbergh calls it quits, it appears he’s going all-in, utilizing as many tricks and tropes he’s developed over the past two decades and nudging them ever so slightly into new directions.

The Best Films I Saw in 2011

by Matt Smith

Every year I go through the same process. I watch a ton of movies and I love about half of them. Others are stronger than other, some are terrible, and some I like simply because they made me laugh or they interested me in some other small way. A shot or an idea, or just a mood. I can never whittle it down to just ten films. The concept of a “Top Ten” is as alien to me as the star ratings I give to films on this site: abstract at best, totally subjective and wholly inadequate. But here I am anyway, disclosing a “Top Ten,” or in this case Fifteen, because we all know that those “almosts” really are just things I couldn’t spare to not shove in someone’s face and scream, “HERE, WATCH THESE!!!”

Before getting into the list proper, I do want to give a shoutout to an “almost almost,” which I caught recently on Netflix but haven’t had the proper time to absorb and transmute and completely dwell on. The Imperialists Are Still Alive! is the first feature from Zeina Durra, a graduate of NYU’s MFA Film program. This small wonder of a film was a great discovery for me, and the fact that it’s streaming on Netflix, with little or no fanfare is bizarre to me. Elodie Bouchez, who is mostly known for her work in The Dreamlife of Angels, plays a French Muslim artist meandering through some situations in New York with her new Hispanic-American boyfriend and, at least what we would call a “plot” never really happens. Instead, the film is imbued with the deadpan delivery and style of a Whit Stillman film about disaffected New Yorkers, but with a multicultural spin. This film is currently streaming, and I highly recommend it.

I would also like to add that, as of the time of this list’s creation, I had not seen several films which I have since seen or am still awaiting the chance to see. This list includes: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, A Dangerous Method, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Shame, Take Shelter, Le Quattro Volte, My Week With Marilyn, Moneyball, The Descendents, and Warhorse.

Now, without further delay, my real-deal, 100% authentic “Top Ten Films of 2011 (Plus 5 More!)” list.

The Best Films I Saw in 2011

By Eric Plaag

As you might guess, Matt Smith’s tastes and mine differ a bit, so we don’t always agree about what makes a good movie or which ones are the best ones. I guess that’s a good reason for us to do a film review blog together — it wouldn’t be very interesting if we agreed with each other all the time.

As it turns out, we don’t necessarily agree on how a Top Ten Films list should be presented, either. Yes, we were able to work out some general ground rules — pick the ten best films we saw in 2011, plus another five that weren’t quite the best but were still very good, and then make sure to list the noteworthy films we haven’t had time or opportunity to see yet but think might have had a chance to make it onto our lists if we had seen them. But when it comes to listing those top ten, well, Matt and I fundamentally disagree as to how they should be ranked/presented. Matt has threatened to pull an Ebert and list his top ten alphabetically, but I think he may have said that just to get under my skin. We shall see.

In any case, here are the Top Ten Films I Saw in 2011, ranked in countdown fashion, preceded by five films that were very, very good but not quite worthy of a slot in the top ten. Each entry contains a condensed version of my review of the film. Where applicable, a link to the longer original review is also provided.