Monday, December 19, 2011

One of the best films of 2011 that you'll never watch




So its awards season again. And frankly speaking, I get more disappointed every year. The most deserving film rarely takes home the Oscar, and most of the time, the best films don't even get nominated. I could keep ranting about how the Deathy Hallows Part 2 deserves at least a best pic nomination, Alan Rickman deserves his nomination, but this post is about another movie. A movie you've probably never even heard about.


50/50 was one of the best films of the year. It was a comedy-drama about Cancer, and starred the likes of Joseph Gordon- Levitt (you know him as the guy from Inception), Seth Rogen (you know him as the guy in such comedies as Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin) and Anna Kendrick (you know her as...I think she was in the first Twilight film). The screenwriter based the movie on his experience with Cancer, and this movies biggest achievement is how it manages to get the comedy to go hand in hand with a subject matter like Cancer. At the same time, there's a whiff of a traditional rom-com, which doesn't seem unnecessary at all. Basically Joseph Gordon gets Cancer in the film, Seth Rogen is his best friend who wants to get laid for the most part, and Kendrick is his therapist. Add in an over-bearing mom, and you have one of the sweetest, most dramatic and the funniest (not Bridesmaids funny) movie of the year.


From the performances, to the story, right down to the music (any movie which features High and Dry and Yellow Ledbetter qualifies as good music), all of it was pitch perfect. And here's the strange part. Few people have seen it, and no one wants to award it. But when endless sequels and comic book movies and the so called 'award-baiting' films have the limelight, there really isn't hope for a film titled 50/50 is there? Do watch it if you can. It doesn't have a glittering vampire, robots, or some directors attempt at trying to figure out the meaning and the origin of the universe. But it does have a heart.





PS: I don't have an issue with well made event films (Deathly Hallows part 2, X-Men: First Class, MI4 etc) or well made award-baits (Midnight in Paris, The Help). I do have a problem with films like The Green Lantern, The Smurfs, Melancholia, and films where the constantly whining chick gets married to a glittering vampire at the age of 17, while her former werewolf lover tries to mate with her new-born monster kid (did i get that right?)

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