These Are A Few Of My Favorite Scenes...

So it's the end of the year, and although I kinda want to finish up reviewing all the movies I've seen this year (and the film of the month thing) simply because I started it almost a year ago and I've put too much time into it already, I also don't really care enough. Instead, I think it's about time to start wrapping up this blog and moving on to something different. I've come to realize that, while I love to overanalyze, judge, and rank the movies I see, I don't really enjoy writing about them. Unless I'm making jokes about them, the writing feels wooden and boring. However, one thing I've always loved to do is the end of the year lists. And I'm starting mine off with a four-part "scenes of the year" list. Granted, although I have seen a ridiculous amount of movies from this year (the number's around 75 at this point), I have not seen quite a few films that I have a feeling could crack this list, such as Hugo, War Horse, The Descendants, Melancholia, The Artist, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. I'm bored, though, and don't feel like waiting around for another 2 months for them to come out on video, so I'm just gonna go ahead and do this thing. Each of the four parts will have five scenes, with links to the scene if possible.

Oh. And they're in alphabetical order.

Another Earth - The Musical Saw Scene

This scene is here for two reasons. The first is because of how beautiful that musical saw is. I don't know much about the instrument, but in a science fiction movie, I doubt if there's a more perfect musical interlude than the eerie, warped noises coming from that piece of metal. I also loved this scene for its simplicity. The scene carries some serious emotional content, but the only thing happening on screen is a guy holding a saw and a girl watching him. With their glances and expressions alone, we understand how deep the relationship between these two characters has become. 

Video? Nope, but thanks to the only comment to ever be posted on my blog, you can at least listen to a section of the musical saw from this scene.

Beginners - This is Love

I love the idea of representing life with a collection of photos. Beginners took this concept a step further, using photos to represent not only the person, but the time that they lived in. This particular one focuses on Melanie Laurent's character. As his description of her continues, the photos are replaced with reality and the factual details of her life are replaced with an emotional attachment to the person, the same progression that we follow in real relationships.

Video? Click here.

Biutiful - Father and Son

Biutiful opens and closes with a meeting of Uxbal (Bardem) and his father in a snow-covered forest. Problem is, Uxbal's father died in Mexico years ago. This is a meeting of father and son in the afterglow of life. Is this Uxbal's rendition of heaven? Is this just some final, half-memory of his father, conjured up by the story Uxbal was telling his daughter as he died? I'm not sure, but that serene look of satisfaction tells me that it doesn't really matter.

Video? Click here.

Bridesmaids - The Airplane Scene

Bridesmaids is a hilarious movie, but this is the scene that really makes it memorable. And, just like the rest of the movie, it's memorable because of two people: Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy. Wiig's SNL experience playing crazy women really gets to come out here. She mocks her friends, she hallucinates... she calls a flight attendant a stove. McCarthy, on the other hand, goes for the sexpot, simultaneously trying to seduce and blow the cover of an air marshal. It's 4 minutes of hilarious chaos.

Video? Here's a clip of part of it.

Crazy Stupid Love - The Fight

Speaking of chaos. Up to this point in the movie, there were four or five separate plotlines that were very loosely connected with each other. Then, all of a sudden, they all meet, head-on, and the result is one of the funniest scenes from any movie this year. This guy's mad at this guy for doing this... that guy's mad at this other guy for doing this other thing... this other guy's not really mad at anybody, but he's still gonna punch somebody. The actual fight only lasts 10 or 15 seconds, but just watching all these things pile up, one after another, was comedy gold.

Video? Click here.

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That's it for part 1. Stay tuned for parts 2-4!