3. Hugo
This is why I do this every week. My opinions fluctuate, and over the last two weeks my adoration of Martin Scorsese's Hugo has only increased. The film is essentially one man's warm embrace of cinematic history, from the pioneering early days to now, hidden in the middle of a rich fairy tale about a boy's quest to receive one final message from his late father.
2. Shame
The NC-17 rating is going to instantly turn some people away from Steve McQueen's dark examination of sexual addiction, but those people are doing themselves a disservice and missing out on one of the best movies of the year. Michael Fassbender gives a tour de force performance as Brandon, a New Yorker who has completely given in to his desires in a quest to fill the emptiness in his life. Carey Mulligan is as good as she's ever been as his equally troubled sister, who turns his life upside down by her arrival in town. Shame is a tough film to watch, unflinching and at times a little claustrophobic, but the experience is well worth it.
1. The Descendants
Hey, it's been #1 for three weeks now. If you haven't run out to see what I think is the best movie of the year, with the singularly finest performance of the year by George Clooney, then what the heck are you doing?
DVD Pick of the Week: Friends with Benefits
Two movies with exactly the same premise were duking it out for the last year, racing to see which one would hit theaters first. No Strings Attached won out, with it's gorgeous pairing of Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. A few months later, the less flashy but no less attractive Friends with Benefits arrived, sporting the sexy duo of Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. Both flicks earned about the same amount of money worldwide ($148M), but one film was clearly better than the other. Friends with Benefits features a snappy, hip script, and the pairing of Timberlake and Kunis steams up the screen, whereas Portman and Kutcher have all the heat of an old married couple.
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