Los Angeles Film Festival 2011 Wrap-Up

I have been wanting to do this wrap-up for quite a while now and am sorry it took me so long because there are lots of great films I want to mention. This year’s Los Angeles Film Festival not only had some amazing films (I didn’t see one movie I disliked), but it was my favorite year to attend, so if you get the chance to, make sure to attend next year.

And so to give the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival a good wrap-up, I put all the movies/documentaries I saw while at the festival in order of favorites. Make sure you go see some of these movies.

1) Another Earth – My absolutely favorite film of the festival and of movies I’ve seen this year so far. I just blew my mind by how beautiful it was and the performances are incredible. You must see it.

2) Mr. Nobody – Another absolute must-see movie. Unfortunately, it was never released in the US, but if I would urge you to try and get your hands on it. It’s such an original and beautiful movie that will blow your mind. I still think about it even now.

3) Attack the Block – An alien invasion in the London ghetto. This one was getting a lot of buzz and it’s worth every high praise it’s been getting. If you like alien invasion movies, you’ll love this one.

4) Natural Selection – I already said it in my review, I loved this film and I loved the performances by Rachael Harris and Matt O’Leary. A beautiful character study film.

5) Mamitas – A great coming of age story. I really, really loved this one.

6) Devil’s Double – This was a pretty haunting movie in a lot of different ways. The story was very powerful and moving, but that’s nothing compared Dominic Cooper’s unforgettable and powerful performance.

7) L!fe Happens – A really cute female driven romantic comedy.

8 ) The Guard – Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle are both fantastic in this comedy thriller. It’s such a simple story, yet so effective, absolutely worth seeing.

9) Please Do Not Disturb – Such an original movie. It’s really “a day in the life of” type of film focusing on three separate stories and I enjoyed every second of it.

10) Christopher and His Kind – If you like movies based on true stories and are interested to find out more about Christopher Isherwood, then get your hands on this movie, which while contains some slow moments, has some great performances.

11) Tomboy – A very interesting character study about a little girl who passes herself as a boy when her family moves to a new place.

12) Elevate – A good documentary about the journey of Senegalese basketball players recruited by American prep schools. You’re definitely rooting for all these kids to make it, it was quite moving.

13) Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame – The movie was described as Scooby-Doo meets kung-fu and I think that’s pretty accurate. It’s definitely a fun kung-fu/mystery/thriller movie.

14) Haunters – Overall I pretty fun concept and some great moments, but there were some bits that were a bit long and it could be cheesy in places.

15) The Future – If you enjoyed Miranda July’s Me and Everyone We Know, you’ll definitely love this one. July brings back her quirkiness into this new feature which involves a couple and a cat named Paw-Paw.

16) The Innkeepers – I made two mistakes when I decided to go see this film. I assumed it wouldn’t be that scary and once I realized that it was freaking me out, I decided to stay anyway and just close my eyes. Unfortunately, turns out sound can also be freaky. So yeah, not a great experience for someone who’s not a horror fan at all. That’s the only reason why this movie is so far down on my list.

17) Page One: Inside the New York Times – This documentary was my least favorite of the bunch. I’m not a big fans of documentary in general anyway, but this one didn’t do anything for me.