Best of 2011

It's the end of February, but with the Oscars coming up on Sunday, it's a perfect time to post my Best Of list for the previous year.
Uff! What a bad year for movies. I complain about this a lot, but truly, this year was not good. I can't even decide which to put at the top, so I'm just going to make a list in no particular order.

• Beginners


• Win Win


• Crazy Stupid Love (minus all the parts with the stupid babysitter and ridiculous teen-age son)


• The Artist


• Moneyball


• Tree of Life


• The Help


• Bridesmaids


• Martha Marcy May Marlene

Biggest disappointment: The Descendants (I know I'm alone in this, and I'm okay with it.)Another disappointment, but not a big one: The Muppets (I so wanted to love this movie, but it was just okay.)

Biggest surprise: The Artist (see previous post)

Best Actor: the guy from A Better Life.

Best Actress: Meryl Streep (Iron Lady)

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginnings) / Ryan Gosling (Stupid Crazy Love)

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain (nominated for The Help but I liked her better in Tree of Life)

Best Director: Terrence Malick (Tree of Life)

Best Original Screenplay: Bridesmaids
Best Adapted Screenplay: Moneyball

Worst accents ever in a movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Best scenery in a movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Hey, I'm Swedish, what can I say?)

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The good news is that Television had a great year

Best drama: Parenthood

Best comedy: 30 Rock

Best new discovery: Louie (also fits in best drama and best comedy categories )

Best return of a character: Mr. Cyr to Parenthood

Worst return of a character: Seth, off the wagon, to Parenthood

Best character on an increasingly disappointing show: Blaine on Glee

Bummer: No Mad Men in 2011

Best mini-series: Downton Abbey (love it, love it, love it!)

Most improved: Parks and Recreation

New shows to love: Suburgatory, Happy Endings, New Girl

Still the best 22 minutes of each day, Monday-Thursday: The Daily Show

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As usual, I'm pretty much in the dark about new and/or popular music. But...

Adele, 21 -- totally jumped on the bandwagon with this one.
The only other CDs I got this year were Foo Fighters (thumbs up) and Beastie Boys (thumbs down -- no offense Estee)
Best concert -- Foo Fighters at Meadowlands & Prudential Center (Newark NJ)
Concerts to recapture my youth -- RUSH at MSG, Duran Duran at MSG
the only other concerts I saw -- Maroon 5 at Jones Beach and Bon Jovi at MSG

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Theater
The Book of Mormon -- yes, I saw it. yes, I loved it. I wish I could link a video to this song, but there is only the song.



Best Books I read this year
(two memoirs, but very different): Say Her Name-- Francisco Goldman
Bossypants -- Tina Fey
Fiction: The Ghost Writer ( I know I'm not supposed to like Philip Roth, but I so do)

Best Personal

• My tour of Scandinavia. So many wonderful memories of Norway and I am now able to forget all the bad stuff. I loved seeing Sweden, the land of my peeps, and Copenhagen, Denmark, one of the coolest cities. I hope to return soon (the plan is 2013).


• Also, I hate to say it, but I'm a convert. My iPhone has changed my life. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I love it.


• Discovering podcasts.


• Having two wonderful sisters help me through the hardest thing I've done in my life.


• Reunions with mission friends. 1) my two favorite comps, Anne Lise & Sara in San Diego and 2) Jeremy, Pete, et al. in Utah. 3) Bowcutt in Bergen.

last post on fall movies

I'm so disappointed in movies this year that the Oscar nominations have been out for a few days and I didn't even bother to find out who got nominated.

But I'm still going to post about the last few movies I've seen...

The Iron Lady -- Meryl Streep, are you kidding me? I wish Viola Davis had a chance to win against her, but I'm afraid she doesn't. Meryl -- amazing. Movie -- pretty good.

Young Adult -- All the best parts were in the commercial. Highly disappointing movie.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -- This is one of my all time favorite books. I love it. There is no way that the movie could live up to the book, and it didn't. Still, it was an okay movie. I felt that Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks were miscast. I don't know who I would have cast if it were up to me, but I didn't think either one of them felt right. The old guy was perfect. The kid was pretty good, for a child actor carrying a whole movie, that is. New York was awesome.

Top ten coming soon... (although there won't be ten.)

Best of 2010

Tomorrow is Hollywood's big night, which means I can get my "best of" list in just under the wire.


Once again, I don't have a top ten, and to be honest, don't really have super strong feelings about any movies this year. Probably the best reviewed movie of the year was The Social Network, which was just okay for me, despite my usual love of Aaron Sorkin scripts. The Kids are All Right was so overrated (although I did think Annette Benning was good, and Mark Ruffalo was adorable). Winter's Bone is the type of movie I normally adore, but I couldn't get into it. Maybe it was because I was on pain killers when I watched it. I could never sit through 127 Hours because the whole time I would be thinking "What an idiot!!" not to mention it would gross me out too much. I didn't have any interest in Black Swan either. Bad year for movies!


Anyway, so here's my list of the best movies of 2010
1. Blue Valentine (don't see it, mom!!)
2. The Town
3. The King's Speech
4. The Fighter
5. The Social Network
6. Inception

Best performances
Best Actor -- Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Best Supporting Actor -- Jeremy Renner, The Town
I don't even have a pick for Best Actress or Supporting Actress.


Best of TV
best comedy -- 30 Rock (still love it)
best drama -- Mad Men and Parenthood
best new show -- Parenthood
best episode -- Mad Men "The Suitcase" (Peggy's birthday episode)
amazing TV moment -- "Whip my hair" by Jimmy Fallon as Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen as himself in the 70's
favorite character -- Blaine, "Glee"
best performance on two different shows -- Michael B Jordan on Parenthood & FNL
best TV on DVD -- thirtysomething
kind of disappointing -- Friday Night Lights season 5

Best concerts
1. John Mayer in Seattle
2. John Mayer in NJ
3. John Mayer in MSG
Favorite song -- "Teenage Dreams" by Katy Perry (but really, by Blaine on "Glee")
Best album -- Bruce Springsteen "The Promise" (and I'm not saying that because I'm old. It's an awesome album!)

Best books I read
Non-fiction -- Half the Sky
Fiction -- One Day by David Nicholls

Best of 2009

Top ten movies:
1. 500 Days of Summer
2. An Education
3. Precious
4. I Love you, Man
5. Adventureland
6. Crazy Heart
7. The Hurt Locker
8. Two Lovers
9. It's Complicated
10. Paper Heart


Best adapted screenplay: Precious.

Best original screenplay: 500 Days of Summer

Best Song: "The Weary Kind" in Crazy Heart

Best old song in a movie: "Limelight" by Rush in I Love You, Man

Most overrated:
Up in the Air and George Clooney in it. Basically, wasn't he just being Doug Ross, but as a corporate guy instead of a doctor?
The Hangover. This won the Golden Globe. Don't get it.
Penelope Cruz. Is it just me, or is she becoming the new Judi Dench and gets nominated in every movie?


Best performances:
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Best Acress: Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Best Supporting Actor: no strong feelings in this category, actually.
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique in Precious

This was the most joyous scene of any movie I saw this year. I literally couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

TV

best comedy: 30 Rock.

best drama: FNL

best episode: Mad Men season finale.

best new show: Glee

best TV on DVD: thirtysomething (thanks Esther!)

best fake news: The Daily Show. Still awesome, even after Bush left office!

guilty pleasure: The Bachelor, or as my brother in law calls it, The Crap-elor. It's so wrong, but it feels so right.

Best books I read this year:

Fiction: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. (I'm only 10 years late to this book. So good!!)

Non-fiction: It's kind of a silly book, and most of the time I was thinking, "I can't believe this person got a book deal." But then again, I thought it was funny and sad and I couldn't put it down. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker.

Best concert: Bruce Springsteen at the Meadowlands.

Reading

As you probably know if you have been reading my blog for eleven months or more, I usually do a Best-of pop culture list for the year, which will be coming in the next few weeks after I've seen the 800 movies that were released in December. But in the meantime, I've been thinking about what I have read this year that I have loved enough to make it in my list. That's when I realized that I had read several books by one author, some of which I read for a second time. That's pretty unusual for me to do.

So, who is this author that I couldn't get enough of? Chuck Klosterman.



Fargo Rock City -- basically this is a whole book about the history of hair metal bands, with a little of his own history mixed in. Although I didn't even know many of the bands he talked about, I thought this book was immensely entertaining. It also made me realize for the 650th time that people will always like the same music that they liked in high school. Even if it was really the worst music on the planet, you'll always like it.






As soon as I finished reading Fargo Rock City, I really wanted to start right at the beginning again. But at the same time, Jill came to visit and returned Chuck Klosterman IV, which I had read a while ago, so I just decided to reread it, and enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time. Stories about Britney Spears pre-breakdown, Billy Joel post-breakdown, Morrissey fans... all good.






Next was Downtown Owl, which is CK's first novel. This one was only okay.










Then over Thanksgiving, I was visiting Val & Greg and noticed Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs on their book shelf. I took it off the shelf because I wanted to reread one of his stories about "Saved by the Bell." Yes, that's right. I was compelled to reread an essay about "Saved by the Bell", a TV show that I never felt compelled to actually watch. I took the book home with me to read on the plane.

This was the first book of his that I read because Greg shared with me the first story about how all women who were born in the 70's will always compare men they date to Lloyd Dobler. And I thought, "What a brilliant observation!"







Next up, Eating the Dinosaur, which I just got for Christmas.

Best of 2008

You can tell how I feel about the movies in any given year by how long it takes me to put my 'Best of' list together. This year, I'm doing it 4 hours before the Oscars start. Some of my friends do a Top Ten list, and I've adopted the tradition, but I rarely can come up with 10 movies that I love. Last year I had 7, but this year, it's much shorter.

First of all, the best entertainment in the world of pop culture 2008 was definitely on TV this year. So, I'm going to say Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL tops my entertainment list, followed closely by "The Daily Show. "

Other TV bests:
Drama -- "Mad Men" and "Friday Night Lights" (I would say that FNL was overall more satisfying on a weekly basis, but "Mad Men" is so crazy-good and so beautiful to watch.)
Comedy -- "30 Rock" (obviously). The best episode EVER was the one with the "Subway Hero." I re-watched it about 100 times.
Guiltiest pleasure -- "The Hills"
Best new show -- "Privileged" (okay it's the only new show I'm watching, but it's cute.)
Show I'm most looking forward to watching on DVD -- "In Treatment"

Best movies:
1. Doubt
2. Elegy
3. Sex and the City (I'm a fan!)
4. Slumdog Millionaire (Loved it but it was so violent, I can't put it any higher. I do hope it wins tonight, though.)

Performances:
Actress: Meryl Streep. I so hope she wins for her performance in Doubt because she portrayed this role beautifully. Although I love Kate Winslet, I definitely did not think her performance in The Reader was her best and I'm disappointed that this is probably (finally) because I really did not care for this movie at all. But let's face it, she'll probably win because we know that the Academy will reward any film about the Holocaust no matter what it is. The only one that would be more disappointing to me is if Anne Hathaway wins. She's super annoying, the movie was boring and I don't think her performance was anything spectacular.

Actor: I'll go with Mickey Rourke, although I had a hard time loving this movie. Plus, his face is so weird, it's distracting. But his performance was great.








Supporting Actress: This is the only race that I feel is wide open. I am going to go with Amy Adams. Viola Davis was very good in Doubt as well, but I have a hard time saying that she was the best of the year when she only had 13 minutes of screen time, or whatever it was.



Supporting Actor: I'm pretty sure Heath has it in the bag, and I agree that he was fantastic in that role. I hated the movie, however, and really am baffled by all the praise The Dark Knight is getting. I thought that Josh Brolin was really good as the sad sack politician in Milk, and I also thought Philip Seymour Hoffman gave another great performance in Doubt. It's kind of a given, but I'll go with him.

Books -- Three Cups of Tea. I wouldn't normally choose non-fiction as my favorite book of the year, but this book was definitely the best book I read this year.
I couldn't even think of any fiction that I loved, but the closest I came was American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. (which I do not recommend for my mom!) I have been in two book clubs this year, so most of the books I read were for them. I don't know if that is a bad sign that I can't say I read anything that I loved this year. But Three Cups of Tea was for the group that I am in with church friends, so that's pretty good.

Theater:
I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think I have to go with Hair in Central Park. I found the ending so powerful, it almost brings me to tears even now.


Concerts:
1. Bruce Springsteen (nights 1 & 3) at Giants Stadium
2. John Mayer in CT
3. John Mayer in NJ
4. Bon Jovi in the new Prudential Center
5. Foo Fighters


Sadly, I can't say that I even bought any CDs in 2008. Oh wait, I did buy the new Death Cab CD, but I didn't like it as much as past CDs. If I got Coldplay's new one, it probably would have been that one. I know, I'm sort of lame when it comes to new music.

Best of 2007

I usually do an annual list of my favorite things in pop culture. I have been waiting to do it this year because I still haven't seen a few of the movies that have been getting the most Oscar buzz. Well, the Oscars are next week, and I still haven't seen them. The one I want to see the most is There Will Be Blood because I am assuming that Daniel Day-Lewis is going to win the Best Actor award and I figure I should be able to weigh in on that race. The other movie that is getting all the buzz and will probably win for Best Picture is No Country for Old Men, which I also haven't seen, nor will I see it (the only thing I've heard about it is that it's really violent). I don't know about you all, but I feel this has been a weak year in movies. Remember when American Gangster was supposed to be so good and it really wasn't? Here goes anyway...

Best Movie -- Waitress (not even nominated, but my favorite of the year).
Best Actor -- Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah. Again, haven't seen a lot of the other
nominees, so I may amend this when I see Blood, but I loved this movie and thought his performance was amazing.
Best Actress -- no one stands out for me, but again, didn't see some of the big movies of the year but I'll go with Laura Linney in The Savages
Best Supporting Actor -- Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James (the one category I actually feel pretty strongly about. I thought he was great in this role).
Best Supporting Actress -- Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone
Best Original Screenplay -- I really liked both Juno and Lars and the Real Girl. I would be happy if either one won the award, but I think Juno will take it.
Best Adapted Screenplay -- Atonement
Best Director -- Jason Reitman for Juno (hey, why not?)
Best Documentary -- Sicko (I think there were probably others that were better, like No End in Sight, but I never got to them)

Some of my friends do a Top Ten movies of the year. I never get 10 on the list, but I'll do a Top Seven

1. Waitress
2. Once
3. Juno
4. In the Valley of Elah
5. Gone Baby Gone
6. Michael Clayton
7. Lars and the Real Girl


As for TV...

Drama -- "Friday Night Lights"
Comedy -- "30 Rock"
Best new show -- none! I had such high hopes for "Gossip Girl" but found it unwatchable. The other shows I thought I'd love were "Private Practice," and "Chuck" but also just never got into them. I really want to catch up on "Pushing Daisies" which I found cute but had too much on my plate (er, DVR list) to really devote myself to it.
Favorites from last year that I gave up -- "Heroes" (but will tune in in the fall for season 3) and "Grey's Anatomy"
Guilty pleasures -- "Scott Baio is 45 and Single" (I posted raves about the follow up "Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant" a few weeks ago, but must admit I'm already sick of it.)

Music...
Favorite CD -- James Morrison "Undiscovered"
Best concert -- John Mayer at Madison Sq. Garden, but a close second was John Mayer at Garden State Arts Center (for those of you not from NJ, it is now called the PNC Bank Arts enter) because the audience was so good even though the traffic was so bad (thus making me miss opening act, James Morrison). The reason I picked MSG show is because it was it was a tad onger, but really both shows were amazing. As always. Especially in front of a hometown audience.

Books...
Fiction --Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I love this book passionately. Last year, I said the author's wife's book The History of Love was my favorite of 2006. Luckily, I read that one in December 2006 and this one in January 2007, so they both win spots in my lists because it would be hard to choose between them. (but, I think she would win.)
Memoir -- The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Talk about a messed up family!!