The Best (and Worst) Posters of 2011 - Part I

I like knowing that I've forged this little niche in blogging about movie posters. I like to think that I'm doing my part for the discussion and appreciation of the artform that I enjoy so much, and that I do so in the face of such flagrant disregard for the process of designing key art for films. I mean, a quick google search will show you that most people who do a similar list to this (usually much shorter) only seem to regurgitate the same few names without even trying to broaden their view. I try to cast as wide a net as possible when i comes to compiling this list, I really do. I search through all the major film festivals to see if any of those difficult titles had some eye-popping designs arrive while I wasn't looking and I try as best as I can to seek out international versions of posters. It's a shame that many truly memorable designs don't get seen until long after a cut off date (a mix of release date shenanigans and general lack of exposure), but I certainly try. The 50 titles below includes several local Australian designs, some films I'd never heard of and that i doubt will ever get any kind of release, teasers and final concepts, and films from America, UK, Thailand, Australia, Japan, France and South Korea. I hope it begins to cover the territory.

Please note that, as always, I have kept the list to films that surfaced this year. None of this 2012 bullshit, yeah? I mean, The Dark Knight Rises' teaser wouldn't have made it on here anyway, but I think it's a bit unfair to titles like Toomelah, If a Tree Falls or L'amour fou to take up space with something that hasn't even been seen by anybody yet. It's bad enough these lovely works of poster design get fobbed off for the likes of Rise of the Planet of the Apes without having to compete with designs for movies nobody has even laid eyes on. Leave that for 2012's list, yeah?


50. Toomelah
49. Archipelago
48. Birthday


47. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
46. Snowtown
45. Daydream Nation


44. Tyrannosaur
43. We Need to Talk About Kevin
42. A Dangerous Method


41. Immortals
40. Martha Marcy May Marlene
39. The Skin I Live In


38. Aita
37. L'amour fou
36. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy


35. Father's Day
34. Dream Home
33. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives


32. Hesher
31. Super 8
30. Scream 4


29. Incendies
28. Urbanized
27. Bridesmaids


26. Blame
25. happythankyoumoreplease
24. We Need to Talk About Kevin


23. The Ides of March
22. Septien
21. The Tree of Life


20. Shame
For being smutty without being cheap and crass.


19. Needle
For being playful with the film's plot as well as the poster's own concept. Love the detailing.


18. Weekend
17. Pariah
For embracing the Instagram effect, but doing so with vivid colours and nicely done credit blocks.


16. Albert Nobbs
For actually having some personality, as opposed to the end product.


15. Sleeping Beauty
For being as ornately crafted as the film it's selling. For having the actress actually pose for a poster.


14. A Horrible Way to Die
For teasing the "horrible way to die" through creative typeface.


13. 13 Assassins
For being visually spectacular and a left of centre choice to sell a traditional samurai movie.


12. Meek's Cutoff
For representing the film's more homespun nature. For inventive use of colour and illustration techniques.


11. Martha Marcy May Marlene
For being dark and brooding, alluding to the disintegration of its lead character through text. For evocative colour.


10. Melancholia
For somehow becoming an iconic, striking piece of cinematic imagery. For playing games with film content.


9. Burning Man
For such eye-popping use of colour, framing and imagery.


8. Don't be Afraid of the Dark
For retro chills and tricks of the eye. Size reminds me Aussie daybills and VHS video covers.


7. Cold Weather
For having the balls to do this whole "minimalism" thing for an actual poster. For being better than most of the others. For having a gallery look.


6. One Day
For evoking romance and dancing perilously close to the edge of a perfume commercial.


5. We Need to Talk About Kevin
For its mad gothic vibe, illusions to past classics (hello Rosemary's Baby and I Walk with a Zombie) and impeccable plays of light.


4. Kaboom
For its ribald technicolour. For being as rough-around-the-edges and colourfully wacky as the film it's selling.


3. I Saw the Devil
For giving us but a glimpse of "the devil". For reinventing the text-over-image design concept in a fresh way. For actually scaring me.


2. Jane Eyre
For rich and textured imagery. For those unique colours and a truly painterly central pose.


1. Here I Am
For having the most startling and dreamy use of colour of the year. For the juxtaposition. For the mother of pearl. For the defiance. For the intricate simplicity. For the beauty.

And that's that. We'll hopefully be getting to the worst posters of the year very soon as well as some fun "awards" type of stuff just for kicks. Do you agree/disagree with much of the list? Is any of this surprising? What was your favourite of the year? Do speak up in the comments or on Twitter.

Musically Inclined

I've been actively following the American awards season, as I am want to do, but haven't been discussing it here at all (Twitter is another thing altogether!) I figure there are so many other websites, written by people far more plugged in to the whole affair (they live in America, generally) writing about it at a far quicker pace than I could ever muster. Take not of how quiet it has been around here the last two week!

I plan on doing some end of year pieces in the vein of the "design of a decade" countdown I did last year to celebrate the '00s and everything I loved about them. They should start up after Christmas, but until then I wanted to direct your attention to this fabulous piece at Indiewire that gives a very comprehensive rundown of the year's best musical scores. Just today the Academy announced the 97 films eligible for Best Original Score so there was synchronicity there. Sadly missing from the list of scores to compete is Cliff Martinez for Drive, but I can understand the omission since so much of the film's revolve around the musical themes. To be honest, I think Drive is the best film of the year and even I don't think Martinez would make my personal ballot, but it's a shame one of the most acclaimed scores of the year cannot compete. Martinez still has his fantastic work on Contagion to battle for so there's still hope for the former Red Hot Chili Pepper!

The Indiewire piece though is a definite must read. Or, should that be must listen. Both, really. Highlighting over 20 of the year's best musical achievements, including personal favourites Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), The Skin I Live In (Alberto Iglesias), Rango (Hans Zimmer), Hugo (Howard Shore), Attack the Block (Basement Jaxx) and Rubber (Mr Oizo). I had an Academy member's ballot I would be feverishly scribbling down Contagion, Hanna (The Chemical Brothers), Insidious (Joseph Bishara), The Skin I Live In and either Hugo, Jane Eyre or Attack the Block. My vote would go to Insidious because, I guess, that's how I roll. I look forward to Jed Kurzel being on the list of eligible contenders next year for his claustrophobic sonic landmine score of Snowtown when it finally/hopefully snags an American release in the new year. I know I keep harping on about that Aussie's film's score, but it bears repeating time and time again just how incredible it is. I didn't even like the movie and the score gives me the shivers. Every time I mention it I search on YouTube for a video of it, but to no avail. Now, however, there is at least this video of the music being performed at the APRA Screen Music Awards at which Kurzel won. Listen to it below alongside some of my other favourite compositions of the year.

Review: War Horse

War Horse

Dir. Steven Spielberg

Year: 2011

Aus Rating: M15+

Running Time: 146mins

Steven Spielberg’s latest film, War Horse, opens with picturesque shots of rolling British countryside set to a boisterous John Williams‘ score. You’d be forgiven for thinking Spielberg and his screenwriters, Lee Hall and Richard Curtis working from Michael Morpurgo’s novel and the Tony-winning Broadway play, were desperate to choke sobs out of their audience from the opening moments. Even if you’re not crying yet, they will keep trying and trying until only the blackest of hearts are left un-moved. I guess I should hand in my organ donation card because I clearly don’t have a heart judging from the dismissive reaction I had to this patently artificial film.

Read the rest at Trespass Magazine

Review: Albert Nobbs

Albert Nobbs

Dir. Rodrigo Garcia

Year: 2011

Aus Rating: M15+

Running Time: 109mins

“Sing to me softly / your tales of woe,” wails Sinead O’Connor in the theme song to Albert Nobbs. It’s a particularly significant lyric from the song that plays over the credits of this drab affair that gently whispers its tale of never-ending woe amid a sea of grey and tweed. Director Rodrigo Garcia has made an unadventurous film that has only the smallest of fires in its belly. Albert Nobbs barely registers on any level whatsoever, with its potentially fascinating subject matter blunted by an adaptation that has taken its protagonist’s buttoned-up personality to heart and been sapped of life and character.

Read the rest at Trespass Magazine
I mean, really. Good grief, could this movie be any more bland?

Review: Happy Feet Two

Happy Feet Two

Dir. George Miller

Year: 2011

Aus Rating: PG

Running Time: 100mins

Five years after those toe-tapping penguins sashayed into cinemas, George Miller returns to Antarctica with Happy Feet Two. A truly strange animated film that I can’t fathom many people clamoured for, but still manages to succeed at being an inventive experience. While the plot – Mumbles must save his penguin clan after they become trapped by a moving glacier – seems curiously secondary, where Miller succeeds is in the oft breathtaking animation, choice music selections and a truly radical subplot involving a pair of krill that must be seen to be believed.

Read the rest at Trespass Magazine
You may remember that I spoke of this film last week and I still find that aspect of the film to be particularly memorable. Good to know.

Trash for Treasure

I have been slowly making my way through the Paul Morrissey boxset, "The Andy Warhol Collection". It's been wonderful and weird in equal measure; I liked that Heat was like some warped version of Melrose Place and that Flesh for Frankenstein was their version of a lush, lavish period piece. And in 3D no less! That dinner table sequence with the panning camera was simply divine, and that finale is some sort of cracked out insanity right there! I can't say that any have had the potency and the sticky imprint of Flesh though, which was a rather incredible piece of cinema that is edited through a woodchipper in the same way Lars von Trier does and photographed like the lens has been smeared with grime and sweat. Nick Davis' typically intuitive write-up of that film for his Top 100 Films list has a particularly delicious comparison to Douglas Sirk and melodrama that I can't say I'd particularly thought about before, but now can't do anything else.

Still, it was while researching Trash that I came across perhaps one of the greatest bits of movie trivia ever. Oh sure, some people think it's absolutely wild that Tom Sellick was meant to be Indiana Jones, but I found this bonmot regarding transgendered actress Holly Woodlawn to be the very definition of amazing.

In October she was assigned a bit role in Trash, but so impressed director Paul Morrissey that she was given a larger role. In 1970 she received word from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that George Cukor, supported by others, was petitioning the Academy to nominate her for Trash however, nothing came of this campaign.

Apparently George Cukor, Oscar winning director of My Fair Lady, The Philadelphia Story, and many others, initiated the campaign and got signatures from Ben Gazzara and Joanne Woodward. Doesn't this just blow your mind? Actors and filmmakers of their calibre are not the kind you would expect to go to stumps for a transgendered actress in a no budget independent movie that features intravenous drug use, full frontal male nudity and lots of sex. Woodlawn's performance is electrifying and magnetic, I literally couldn't take my eyes off of her even when she's sharing a scene with a naked Joe Dallesandro (and given he's one of the sexiest actors to grace the screen, that's a tall order). Cukor's initiative was obviously doomed, but it certainly makes me curious as to what other fringe dwellers caught the eye of the Hollywood establishment.