5 Flicks from 2011 You Must Watch or Die

Now that the Oscars are over and you’ve Netflixed THEARTIST, there are a few other movies you might not have seen which you really need to check out (and yes, these were all nominated for something but still nobody paid them any attention):

50/50

Somehow these guys have made cancer funny. And somehow they’ve made funny heartfelt. And somehow they’ve made heartfelt real. And somehow they’ve made reality funny. And so on. Other than the off-putting fact that JosephGordon Levitt lives in cities with weak public transportation systems and doesn’t drive, this movie is phenomenal and needs to get some play in your home screening room.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN
Pedro Almoldovar has “twisted mindfuck” down pat. All his movies revolve around psychosexual disorders, tragic or at least graphic death, questioning of identity and Antonio Banderas. This movie is so brilliant, beautiful, and thought-provoking, an essay about our identity and sexuality in this increasingly godless and rule-less world and I guarantee it’ll give you weird ass dreams for at least a few nights.

RISE OF THE PLANET OFTHE APES

I’m kinda of a movie snob. Not that I can’t enjoy a good action flick but you will never catch me at some effects-laden TRANSFORMERS/2012/BIGBUDGETBULLSHIT movie. That being said, the effects in this flick were solid but not overdone; anything starring Serkis is fucking great; and the storyline not only makes talking monkeys somehow believable, it does a brilliant job of setting up the seminal Charlton Heston movie.

 CEDAR RAPIDS

This movie is fucking hilarious. Seriously, from John C.Reilly’s over the top party boy to Ed Helms and the “Oscars for the average man” setting of a regional Insurance sales award – just all-around nails it. The fact that Helms transforms from a small town guy having a pathetic affair with his middle-age divorcee "just looking for a good time" grade school teacher (played by pitch-perfect Sigourney Weaver) to a crack-smoking wild man over a weekend of corruption and cheap hotel rooms – just too good to pass up. Oh yeah, and Isiah Witlock's dry humor, including his ironic-because-he-was-a-character-in-it love of THE WIRE is just icing on the cake.

ATTACK THE BLOCK – A London street gang protects their block from Aliens. Cockney-cool violence that would make Guy Ritchie jealous ensues. Nuff said.

 So while you hurry to watch Jean Dujardin pantomime his emotions and George Clooney brilliantly telecast his own, and maybe even see what it would be like traveling back to the Lost Generation, either as a greatwriter or a mechanically-inclined orphan, you should add the 5 above flicks to your list of things to see. Because often the Oscars miss some damn good movies. Don’t make the same mistake as Oscar or you could end up a decrepit green tuft of mold living in a garbage can because you lost your legs to gangrene from shooting heroin into them when you should have been watching good movies instead of the gold statue you were meant to be. And that would be a damn shame.

- Ryan