Top Ten Films of 2011: Melancholy with a slice of hope

If anyone tells you 2011 was a bad year for cinema, stop in your tracks, turn around and walk away without ever looking back. They have no idea what they’re talking about. With a wealth of quality films from bonafide auteurs devoid of source material, the sheer amount of original work is astonishing. The trend for remakes will most likely never end, but it’s good to know artists in and out of the Hollywood system are fearlessly treading their own path to make movies exciting again. And by exciting I…

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DESIGN: 2011 In Music

Tracklisting:Disc 11. “Hanna’s Theme” — The Chemical Brothers 2:09 | from Hanna: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack; Back Lot2. “Polish Girl” — Neon Indian 4:24 | from Era Extraña; Static Tongues/Mom + Pop3. “Desire” — Anna Calvi 3:52 | from Anna Calvi; Domino Records4. “Someday” — Middle Brother 3:40 | from Middle Brother; Partisan Records5. “Solitude and Vine” — John Ralston 3:47 | from Shadows of the Summertime; Self Released6. “All the Sand in All the Sea” — DeVotchKa 4:50 | from 100 Lovers; ANTI- Records7. “Coeur d’Alene” — The Head…

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REVIEW: Hanna [2011]

“I found her, she can’t speak English. She’s Sri Lankan.” Written on spec by Seth Lochhead in 2006, the Black List alum Hanna finally reaches screens with help from co-screenwriter David Farr and director Joe Wright. If you thought Wright’s last film, The Soloist, seemed a bit out of his comfort zone, having previously completed two period pieces, I can relate to the confusion and excitement you’d have hearing his next would be an action thriller starring a young, brutally violent female killer. But just as he stunned me by…

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