Ever fashionable, Quentin Tarantino has just released his list of the top eleven movies of 2011 — just about two full weeks after any respectable editor would have accepted a top anything list. Not that it matters — the 2010 version was so popular that it broke the servers on his website, and surprised everyone with his pretty reasonable, mainstream taste in movies. This year's is similar (though, of course, it actually has twelve movies). They are ordered, but published without commentary:
1. Midnight In Paris
2. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
3. Moneyball
4. The Skin I Live In
5. X-Men: First Class
6. Young Adult
7. Attack The Block
8. Red State
9. Warrior
10. The Artist / Our Idiot Brother (tie)
11. The Three Musketeers
Interesting, and not without a couple of surprises. Planet was fun and had some cool monkeys in it, but was it really that good? What on earth do the two movies tied for tenth have in common? Also, Midnight in Paris? That must be the only thing my mother and Quentin Tarantino agree on (or at least, that, and the fact that it'd have been better if someone had blown up a theater with all the head Nazis in it.)
Tarantino also published a list of "Nice Try" awards, on the top of which is Drive, which has to be read as a subtle dig, since if there is one (totally made-up) word that describes that movie, it's Tarantinonian ("bloody" and "full of handsomeness" were also top contenders). There is stylized violence, stylized gore, pretty filming, a great soundtrack, and some more stylized violence, and critics all over were quick to point out the similarities. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but Quentin, it seems, is still pretty sure where his work fits on the list of greatest movies, this year or ever.
