MOVIES NOW AND THEN

Now that the summer movie season is in its last week, I'm going to reflect a bit on the highs and lows of this year's crop. Since I was not writing for a newspaper this summer, I did not see as many summer movies as I have previously. This list marks selected movies I did see (in current order of preference) with annotations of their particular achievements. The only movie I excluded, Crazy, Stupid, Love., was not bad, but it did not have anything too distinctive.

Note: This does not include movies released in the spring that I saw in the summer, like Bill Cunningham New York.

The Tree of Life
Best Film of the Summer
Best Drama
Best Direction
Best Ensemble Cast
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Music and Sound

Midnight in Paris
Best Screenplay
Best Leading Actor - Owen Wilson
Funniest Male Performance - Corey Stoll

Kung Fu Panda 2
Best Animated Film
Best Action Film
Best Popcorn Movie
Best Sequel

Winnie the Pooh
Best Family Film

Bridesmaids
Best Leading Actress - Kristin Wiig
Funniest Female Performance - Melissa McCarthy

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Best Franchise Revival
Most Underused Actor - Ian McShane

Cars 2
Most Underrated Film
A Sequel That Tops the Original

Super 8
Best Young Performer - Elle Fanning

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Most Overrated Film

Captain America: The First Avenger
Best Superhero Movie

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Best Visual Effects

X-Men: First Class
Best Performance By a Rising Star - Michael Fassbender

Horrible Bosses
Best Performance From an Actor I Don't Like - Jennifer Aniston

Thor
Most Worthless Use of 3-D

The Beaver
Most Disappointing Movie

Green Lantern
Worst Movie I Saw This Summer

Limited Release Movies I Hope to Watch on DVD
Beginners
Life in a Day
Page One: Inside the New York Times
Passione
Terri

Limited Release Movies I Hope to See in New York
Another Earth
The Guard
The Interrupters

Movies I Am Glad I Missed
The Change-Up
The Hangover Part II
Monte Carlo
The Smurfs
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Best Old Movies I Saw For the First Time This Summer
Crumb
F For Fake
Grave of the Fireflies
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Smiles of a Summer Night
Yellow Submarine