Phoenix critics name The Artist best film

Oh dear, another list.

These things are getting out of hand. We as a people have too many lists. I came to this realization after trudging through Time's list of everything last night; I think I officially gave up on the one called "Best Murders" or something like that. There's just something about organizing things into neat tidy little lists that makes us all go bonkers. But as another writer once wrote before me: people read lists not to see what's on it, but to see what's not on it. It's a lose-lose situation for movie critics: readers go, "Oh he forgot Transformers 3 ... he's an idiot and this list is stupid." The people who we want to read our lists — the folks who will clip it and Netflix all the items on the list — are in the dwindling minority of list readers. 

But hold on, here's another list. And this one is great because I contributed to it (in the words of Chris Cooper: "maniacal laugh"). The Phoenix Film Critics Society, of which I'm a member, announced their annual list of movie awards this week. It's a nice selection of movies. I campaigned heavily for several winners, including Elizabeth Olsen from Martha Marcy May Marlene and Thomas Horn from Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I also campaigned for The Artist for best picture, though I was kinda hoping it would share some of the winnings — it won nine awards, the hoarder.

Below is the full list of winners with clickable photos for each one. And full warning: I will be posting my own 2011 top ten list by week's end, so save room.

Phoenix Film Critics Society 2011 Awards

BEST PICTURE

The Artist

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TOP TEN FILMS OF 2011

(in alphabetical order)

The Artist

The Descendants

Drive

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

My Week With Marilyn

Super 8

The Tree of Life

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BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

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BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

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BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

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BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Albert Brooks, Drive

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BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Berenice Bejo, The Artist

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BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING

Super 8

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BEST SCREENPLAY - ORIGINAL

The Artist

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BEST SCREENPLAY - ADAPTATION

The Help

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BEST LIVE ACTION FAMILY FILM

The Muppets

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THE OVERLOOKED FILM OF THE YEAR

A Better Life

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BEST ANIMATED FILM

Rango

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BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Skin I Live In

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BEST DOCUMENTARY

Page One: Inside the New York Times

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BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Life's a Happy Song,” The Muppets

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BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

The Artist

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Tree of Life

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BEST FILM EDITING

The Artist

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BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Hugo

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BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Artist

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BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Hugo

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BEST STUNTS

Drive

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BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE ON CAMERA

Thomas Horn, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE BEHIND THE CAMERA

Michael Hazanavicius, The Artist

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BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUTH IN A LEAD OR SUPPORTING ROLE – MALE

Thomas Horn, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUTH IN A LEAD OR SUPPORTING ROLE – FEMALE

Saoirse Ronan, Hanna

Mini train scenes full of life, humanity

This week my wife and I had an assignment at the PebbleCreek Model Railroad Club. She was doing a real basic feature on the group and their model trains. I was doing the pictures. Their little headquarters had several big train tables that were interlocked together, on which they had something like 400 train cars crisscrossing around their various scenes, from coal mines and steam plants to small-town Americana and Main Street, USA. I had seen similar model railroads like this before, but I really started looking at the small details. What you see here are unedited and unposed pictures of some of their scenes. What's remarkable is how much life are in these shots of plastic figures. They really went the extra mile in making their scenes feel human and real. In many cases, if it weren't for the little plastic bases on their feet, these might look like actual shots of people ...if you squint a little, that is.

That ring around the lens ... yeah, it's the focus

Some brief randomness:

First, check out this horrible-terrible-awful publicity still for The Muppets. You might have to click on it to enlarge the beast but you'll notice right quick that it's entirely out of focus. Not just soft, but blurry. This is the oddest of several odd photo choices on Disney's press site for the rather terrific Muppet movie. And another strange thing is that there's no consistency on the file sizes. There are 20 MB files and then there are 4 MB files. Then the Disney hacks upload print versions and online versions as well, which makes browsing the site feel rather redundant. It's one of the more confusing publicity sites.

Secondly, please check out my favorite new photo site, The Kingston Lounge. This guy wander around Brooklyn and thereabouts to document decaying buildings and forgotten structures. I can't help but think of movies like The Road when looking through the eerie photos of crumbling spiral staircases, molding hospital rooms and theaters with sagging plaster molding and broken wood framing. Oh, and the photography is amazing.

And lastly, check out my second favorite new site, If We Don't, Remember Me, or just IWDRM. This site features a variety of movie GIFs and they're perfect little windows into the souls of the movies from which they came. Animated stills from Fargo, M, American Pyscho, The Royal Tenenbaums, Full Metal Jacket and Once Upon A Time in the West (pictured, click to animate) are just a small collection of the many wonderful GIFs. I think I watched the Tron one for like 20 cycles — mesmerizing.