Three Percent #25: Movies. They're Like Books for Smart People!

In this week’s podcast, we finish indulging our year-end listing proclivities by running down the best movies of 2011. Chad is absent (poor guy’s never seen a movie), but, not to worry, your comfortingly consistent host Tom Roberge is joined by Nathan Furl (of Open Letter) to set the record straight about whether you should make a silent film these days, if Nicolas Cage movies are totes the best, why no one bothered to mention Tree of Life over the course of the hour, and more.

Tom and I (Nate) each picked our top five, and, as you can see, it turned out to be quite the diverse list of movies. The rundown, with handy previous, is below.

Tom’s Picks

-Best Popcorn Movie: Drive Angry, directed by Patrick Lussier

-Best Adaptation: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, directed by Tomas Alfredson

-Best Movie That I Feel Foolish for Not Having Seen Earlier: Night Watch, directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Russia, 2004)

-Best Foreign Film: Animal Kingdom, directed by David Michôd (Australia)

-Best Foreign/Action Film: 13 Assassins, directed by Takashi Miike (Japan)

Nate’s Picks

-Best Popcorn Flick That’s Surprisingly Impressive and Recommendable: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, directed by Rupert Wyatt

-Best Movie That I’m Cocksure Is One of the Best of the Year (but we’re doing this podcast before the movie has played anywhere near me, so, honestly, I haven’t seen it): The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius (France)

-Best Documentary Film, a.k.a., the Best Movie Made by Errol Morris This Year: Tabloid, Directed by Errol Morris

-Second Best Movie of 2011 (or, maybe, the first): Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

-First Best Movie of 2011 (or, maybe, the second): Melancholia, directed by Lars von Trier

Oh, and this week’s intro/outro song is “A Real Hero (feat. Electric Youth)” by College, off the Drive soundtrack.

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