Lisa Marie Picks The 50 Best Films of The Past 3 Years

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As of this month, I have been reviewing films here at the Shattered Lens for 3 years. In honor of that anniversary, I thought I’d post my picks for the 50 best films that have been released in the U.S. since 2010.

Without further ado, here’s the list!

Black Swan (directed by Darren Aronofsky)
Exit Through The Gift Shop (directed by Banksy)
Hanna (directed by Joe Wright)
Fish Tank (directed by Andrea Arnold)
Higher Ground (directed by Vera Farmiga)
Shame (directed by Steve McQueen)
Anna Karenina (directed by Joe Wright)
The Cabin In The Woods (directed by Drew Goddard)
127 Hours (directed by Danny Boyle)
Somewhere (directed by Sofia Coppola)
Life of Pi (directed by Ang Lee)
Hugo (directed by Martin Scorsese)
Inception (directed by Christopher Nolan)
Animal Kingdom (directed by David Michod)
Winter’s Bone (directed by Debra Granik)
The Artist (directed by Michel Hazanavicius)
The Guard (directed by John Michael McDonagh)
Bernie (directed by Richard Linklater)
The King’s Speech (directed by Tom Hooper)
Bridesmaids (directed by Paul Feig)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (directed by Thomas Alfredson)
Django Unchained (directed by Quentin Tarantino)
Never Let Me Go (directed by Mark Romanek)
Toy Story 3 (directed by Lee Unkrich)
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (directed by Niels Arden Oplev)
Young Adult (directed by Jason Reitman)
Sucker Punch (directed by Zack Snyder)
The Master (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson)
Incendies (directed by Denis Villeneuve)
Melancholia (directed by Lars Von Trier)
Super (directed by James Gunn)
Silver Linings Playbook (directed by David O. Russell)
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (directed by Edgar Wright)
The Last Exorcism (directed by Daniel Stamm)
Skyfall (directed by Sam Mendes)
Easy A (directed by Will Gluck)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 (directed by David Yates)
The Avengers (directed by Joss Whedon)
How To Train Your Dragon (directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBois)
Win Win (directed by Thomas McCarthy)
Les Miserables (directed by Tom Hooper)
Take This Waltz (directed by Sarah Polley)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (directed by Werner Herzog)
Rust and Bone (directed by Jacques Audiard)
Cosmopolis (directed by David Cronenberg)
Ruby Sparks (directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valarie Faris)
Brave (directed by Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman)
Martha Marcy May Marlene (directed by Sean Durkin)
Jane Eyre (directed by Cary Fukunaga)
Damsels in Distress (directed by Whit Stillman)

If Lisa Marie Determined The Oscar Nominees….

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Oscar nominations are due to be announced on Tuesday morning so I figured now would be a good time to play a little game that I like to call: “What if Lisa had all the power?” Below, you will find my personal Oscar nominations. These are the films and the performers that would be nominated if I was solely responsible for selecting the nominees and the winners.

For those who are interested, you can check out my picks for last year by clicking on this sentence.

Please understand, as you look over this lengthy list of deserving films and performers, that these are not necessarily the films I expect to see nominated on Tuesday morning. In fact, I would be hard pressed to think of a year in which I have disagreed more with the critical establishment than I have this year. For whatever reason, the films that truly touched and moved me in 2011 appear to be the films that are totally and completely off the Academy’s radar. These are not my predictions. Instead, they are my personal choices and they should not be interpreted as representing the opinion on anyone else affiliated with this site. So, if you’re angry that David Fincher’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo didn’t receive a single imaginary nomination, direct your anger at me and me alone.

Best Picture

The Artist

Bridesmaids

The Guard

Hanna

Higher Ground

Hugo

Shame

Sucker Punch

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Young Adult

Best Actor

Michael Fassbender for Shame

Brendan Gleeson for The Guard

Gary Oldman for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Michael Shannon for Take Shelter

Rainn Wilson for Super

Best Actress

Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia

Vera Farmiga for Higher Ground

Elizabeth Olsen for Martha Marcy May Marlene

Saoirse Ronan for Hanna

Charlize Theron for Young Adult

Best Supporting Actor

Albert Brooks for Drive

Bobby Cannivale for Win Win

Jonah Hill for Moneyball

Patton Oswalt for Young Adult

Andy Serkis for Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Best Supporting Actress

Anna Kendrick for 50/50

Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids

Carey Mulligan for Shame

Ellen Page for Super

Amy Ryan for Win Win

Best Director

Vera Farminga for Higher Ground

Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist

Steve McQueen for Shame

Martin Scorsese for Hugo

Joe Wright for Hanna

Best Original Sreenplay

Bridesmaids

The Guard

Hanna

Shame

Young Adult

Best Adapted Screenplay

Higher Ground

Hugo

Incendies

One Day

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Animated Feature

Kung Fu Panda 2

Puss in Boots

Rango

Rio

Winnie the Pooh

Best Foreign Language Film

(Please note that I do this category a bit differently than the Academy. Whereas the Academy asks nations across the world to submit a nominee, I’m simply nominating the best foreign language films that I saw in a theater last year. Those who follow the Oscars will note that I’ve both nominated and awarded the brilliant Canadian films Incendies, which actually was nominated for a real Oscar in this same category last year.)

The Double Hour

Incendies

Of Gods and Men

The Skin I Live In

13 Assassins

Best Documentary Feature

Bill Cunningham New York

Buck

The Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Jig

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

Best Original Score

The Artist

A Better Life

The Guard

Hanna

The Tree Of Life

Best Original Song

“The Star-Spangled Man” from Captain America: The First Avenger

“Mujhe Chod Ke” from DAM999

“The Keeper” from Machine Gun Preacher

“Man or Muppet” from The Muppets

“Pop” from White Irish Drinkers

Best Sound Editing

Drive

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Hugo

Sucker Punch

The Tree of Life

Best Sound Mixing

Drive

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Hugo

Sucker Punch

The Tree of Life

Best Art Direction

Bunraku

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Hugo

Sucker Punch

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Cinematography

The Artist

Hugo

Melancholia

Shame

The Tree of Life

Best Makeup

Beastly

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Insidious

Sucker Punch

X-Men: First Class

Best Costume Design

Bunraku

The Help

Hugo

Sucker Punch

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Editing

The Artist

The Guard

Hanna

Hugo

Shame

Best Visual Effects

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Hugo

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Sucker Punch

The Tree of Life

List of Films By Number of Nominations:

10 Nominations – Hugo

7 Nominations – Shame, Sucker Punch

6 Nominations – Hanna

5 Nominations – The Artist; The Guard; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2; Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy; The Tree of Life

4 Nominations – Higher Ground, Young Adult

3 Nominations – Bridesmaids, Drive

2 Nominations – Bunraku, Incendies, Melancholia, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Super, Win Win

1 Nomination – Beastly, A Better Life, Bill Cunningham New York, Buck, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, DAM999, The Double Hour, 50/50, The Help, Insidious, Jig, Kung Fu Panda 2, Machine Gun Preacher, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Moneyball, The Muppets, Of Gods and Men, One Day, Puss in Boots, Rango, Ressurect Dead, Rio, The Skin I Live In, Take Shelter, 13 Assassins, X-Men: First Class, White Irish Drinkers, Winnie the Pooh

List of Films By Number of Oscars Won:

3 Oscars – Hanna

2 Oscars – Bunraku, Shame, Sucker Punch

1 Oscar – Beastly, Bridesmaids, The Cave of Forgotten Deams, Dam999, Higher Ground, Hugo Incendies, Melancholia, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Super, Young Adult

So, will the Academy agree with my picks? Well, probably not. Indeed, it’s probable that they won’t agree at all. And to that, I say, “Oh well.”

The Academy Award nominations will be announced Tuesday morning.

Lisa Marie’s Picks For The Best 26 Films of 2011

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here’s the final post in my “Best of 2011” series, my picks for the best 26 films of 2011. I’m just going to let this list stand for itself but I do want to make clear that these are MY picks and they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the writers and editors on this site. You can read Leon’s picks right here and I’m sure that my fellow writers will be posting their own picks over the upcoming weeks. I’d also like to point out that I have limited my picks to films that I’ve actually seen this year — as opposed to just blindly jumping on the bandwagon of assumption as so many other film bloggers have done this year.* I have yet to see War Horse, Albert Nobbs, The Iron Lady, or We Need To Talk About Kevin, for instance. However, I have seen both The Descendants and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and no, neither one of them is on my list because, regardless of what the jack-booted thugs of professional criticism may insist, I didn’t feel either one of them deserved to be listed as one of the best films of the year. Ultimately, watching a movie is an individual experience and every individual opinion is legitimate.

(By the way, I’m doing a Top 26 list because Lisa doesn’t do odd numbers.)

Without further ado, here are my top 26 films of 2011:

1) Hanna

2) Higher Ground

3) Shame

4) Hugo

5) The Artist

6) The Guard

7) Bridesmaids

8) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

9) Young Adult

10) Sucker Punch

11) Incendies

12) Melancholia

13) Super

14) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

15) Win Win

16) The Cave of Forgotten Dreams

17) Martha Marcy May Marlene

18) Jane Eyre

19) Terri

20) 50/50

21) Take Shelter

22) Drive

23) Soul Surfer

24) Bunraku

25) One Day

26) Like Crazy

Hopefully, I should be posting reviews of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Incendies sometime next week.

—-

* You’d have to be made of Stone to claim to be a film critic and yet not realize how unethical that type of behavior is.

A Quickie With Lisa Marie: Higher Ground (dir. by Vera Farmiga)

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last August, I saw a wonderful film called Higher Ground. Despite the fact that it had gotten a rapturous review in our local news paper, I was one of the only people in the theater. Higher Ground played for a week before leaving and it’s been rather ignored during Oscar season. And that’s a shame because I think that Higher Ground is one of the best films of 2011. It’s certainly one of my personal favorites.

Taking place over the course of several decade, Higher Ground follows Corinne (Vera Farmiga) as she goes from being married and pregnant at 18 to eventually following her husband into joining a commune of self-described “Jesus Freaks.” The commune, while being undeniably well-meaning, is also male-dominated and follows an extremely fundamentalist interpretation of the bible. The previously fiercely independent Corinne quickly settles in to being a compliant housewife with her social life being pretty much limited to hanging out with the other housewives in the commune. As the years progress, Corinne struggles to balance her own independence with her own religious beliefs until finally, she starts to both question her faith and the life she’s lived for the past 20 years.

For the most part, American cinema doesn’t have a very good track record when it comes to religious themes. Regardless of whether a film is pro-religion or anti-religion, the final result often times seems to be heavy-handed, simple-minded, and finally rather condescending. (I always roll my eyes whenever a white, Southern-accented preacher shows up in a movie because I know that he’s going to turn out to be a villain within the next 30 minutes). It’s very rare to find a film that treats religion and the issues of faith (and the lack of it) with anything resembling intelligence. Higher Ground is one of those rare films and, for the reason alone, it deserves to be seen. A typical and lesser film would have taken sides and would have given us a bunch of easy judgments and hissable villains. Higher Ground, however, is far too subtle and intelligent to give us any easy answers. In the end, its portrait of religion and faith is intriguingly ambiguous and one that forces the viewer to reconsider their own feelings as well.

Ultimately, Higher Ground is triumph for Vera Farmiga, who both stars and makes her directorial debut with this film. As both a director and a star, she contributes some very subtle work here and, as a result, the film almost takes you be surprise as you suddenly realize just how wrapped of you gotten in its story. Farmiga’s direction is so assured that she even gets away with a few showy fantasy sequences where Corinne reveals what’s going on behind her devout facade. It’s a triumphant directorial debut and I’m looking forward to seeing what Farmiga does in the future.

Belatedly, here are the Satellite Nominations

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

One thing about Oscar Season is that you have so many different groups of people tossing around so many different awards that occasionally, you’ll miss a few. The nominations for the Satellite Awards were announced last Friday but I missed them, largely because nobody really seems to care about the Satellite Awards. Well, almost nobody. I care about them because — even when they were known as the Golden Satellites — the Satellite Awards are consistently more interesting than the more mainstream awards. (For instance, last year, the Satellite Awards had the guts to honor the one and only true girl with the dragon tattoo, Noomi Rapace.)

Best Picture

The Artist

The Descendants

Drive

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

Shame

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

War Horse

What? No love for David Fincher’s rip-off of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? The AwardsDaily folks must be throwing a fit. (They’ve been promoting Fincher’s rehash with the same enthusiasm that they attempted to promote Nine two years ago.)

Best Actor

George Clooney in The Descendants

Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar

Michael Fassbender in Shame

Brendan Gleeson in The Guard

Ryan Gosling in Drive

Tom Hardy in The Warrior

Woody Harrelson in Rampart

Gary Oldman in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Michael Shannon in Take Shelter

It’s nice to see Brendan Gleeson get some love. It’s also interesting to note that Michael Shannon’s performance in Take Shelter has been getting a lot of recognition. Count me among those who hopes that Shannon gets, at the very least, a nomination for giving a great performance in a horror film.

Best Actress

Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs

Olivia Colman in Tryannasour

Viola Davis for The Help

Vera Farmiga in Higher Ground

Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene

Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady

Charlize Theron in Young Adult

Emily Watson in Oarnges and Sunshine

Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn

Michelle Yeoh in The Lady

Much as the Satellites recognized the work of Noomi Rapace last year, this year they continue to at least nominate some great performances that are being ignored by the mainstream. In a perfect world, both Verma Farmiga and Higher Ground would be major contenders.

Best Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn

Albert Brooks in Drive

Colin Farrell in Horrible Bosses

Jonah Hill in Moneyball

Viggo Mortensen in A Dangerous Method

Nick Nolte in Warrior

Christopher Plummer in Beginners

Andy Serkis for Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Christoph Waltz in Carnage

Hugo Weaving in Oranges and Sunshine

Wouldn’t it be cool if Andy Serkis actually got an Oscar nomination? It’s also nice to see Jonah Hill finally getting some recognition for Moneyball. Brad Pitt has been honored largely for playing Brad Pitt in that film. Hill actually gave a performance.

Best Supporting Actress

Jessica Chastain in The Tree of Life

Elle Fanning in Super 8

Lisa Feret in Mozart’s Sister

Judy Greer in The Descendants

Rachel McAdams in Midnight in Paris

Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs

Carey Mulligan in Shame

Vanessa Redgrave in Coriolanus

Octavia Spencer in The Help

Kate Winslet in Carnage

I haven’t seen Shame yet but Carey Mulligan is one of my favorite actresses and she deserved an Oscar for her performance in An Education. It’s also nice to see Judy Greer getting some recognition for giving one of the few performances in The Descendants that’s actually going to pass the test of time.

The full list of nominees can be found here.

2011 Gotham Awards Recap

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In my previous post, I announced the start of “Oscar season” by offering up a recap of the films and performers honored by the New York Film Critics Circle earlier today. However, the Oscar season was actually kicked off on Monday night with the Gotham Awards. Much like the Independent Spirit awards, the Gothams are meant to honor the best in the year’s independent films. Below is a recap of which films were honored at this year’s ceremony.

Best Feature

Beginners(tie)
The Tree of Life(tie)

The big news here has been that Beginners and Tree of Life tied for best picture. (Actually, I’m not surprised as both films pretty much explored the same themes of memory, aging, and love.) It’ll be interesting to see if either one of these films manage to maintain the momentum of their victory through the rest of the Oscar season.

As for me, I have a new mission and that is to see Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same.

10 Random Things I Am Thankful For in 2011

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi out there! Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? I know I did. Now, I know that some people will say that this has been a disappointing year in entertainment. Steve Carrell left the Office, Whitney Cummings got a sitcom, and — while I’ve truly loved a handful of films this year, it’s hard to ignore the fact that 2011 has yet to produce anything close to a Black Swan, A King’s Speech, or even a Social Network. Instead, the best films of the year have been ignored by both audiences and critics while good but definitely flawed films like J. Edgar are being touted as being the best was can hope for. Even Pixar failed to tug at our heart-strings this year.

However, I think we’re running the danger of giving too quickly into negativity when it comes to considering 2011. No, 2011 is no 2010. But there’s still a lot to be thankful for and below are just 10 examples of some things that, as 2011 reaches its conclusion, I’m thankful for.

10) This.

9) The time I have left with Community.

With The Office current flailing about in its attempts to establish a consistent post-Carrell identity, I have a new favorite sitcom and its name is Community. Now in its third season, Community has truly hit its stride and Joel McHale is, of course, to die for. So, naturally, Community has been yanked from the mid-season schedule while NBC continues to heavily promote shows like Whitney. This is indeed the darkest timeline but I know that I will continue to tweet things like #savecommunity, #6seasonsandamovie, and #NBCSucks for as long as it takes.

8 ) A second season of Game of Thrones

With the current season of Dexter getting bogged down in its attempt to make a villain out of Colin Hanks and the Walking Dead remaining a flawed masterpiece, the 1st season of Game of Thrones is now the unquestionable highlight of an otherwise uninspired season in television drama. I can’t wait to see what happens in season 2.

7) Higher Ground

Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut is probably one of the best films that you’ve never seen.

6) Black Swan is available on DVD and Blu-ray.

5) For that matter, so is the original, non-American, non-Hollywood, non-David Fincher, non-Daniel Craig, non-Rooney Mara Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy.

4) Shame is rated NC-17.

What does this mean? It mean the Full Fassbender.

3) Hanna

This intriguing and criminally underappreciated postmodern fairy tale remains my favorite film of 2011.

2) Oscar Isaac

Seriously. Love him. I still love to imagine him shouting, “And I declare him to be an OUTLAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!” whenever I’m annoyed at being stuck in traffic. You know what else I love? Listening to him as he sang over the end credits of Sucker Punch.

1) And finally…

I am thankful that I have the greatest sister ever! You may know her as Dazzling Erin and, if you’re on twitter, you can find her under the name TakeSumE. However, for me, she will always simply be my best friend and my older (but only by 11 months) sister. Yesterday was not only Thanksgiving but it was also her birthday! Now, for those of you who don’t know, Erin is not only my sister but she’s also a talented photographer, a great cook, a wonderful roommate, and the greatest guardian angel that anyone could possibly ever hope to ask for! And on top of all that, she’s hot too. Happy birthday, Erin Nicole!