Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes, 2011)

7/10
Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut if I'm not mistaken, an adaptation of a lesser-known Shakespeare play. It isn't hard to see why this is one of his lesser-known works indeed - it's pretty simple fare. And it's not hard to see why Fiennes' cast himself in the lead, as he gets to sink his teeth into an insanely over-the-top performance, which he does rather masterfully. If it's a good-but-not-great adaptation of a good-but-not-great play, it still does plenty of justice to its source and makes no real missteps along the way.

Into the Abyss (Werner Herzog, 2011)

8/10
A very respectable, easily watchable Werner Herzog documentary as straightforward as anything he's ever done. At times it feels like a kind of by-the-numbers A&E special, but that's the cynic in me. There are enough Herzogian touches to make it feel original enough, particularly the very last line of the movie. It's a very interesting, heartfelt study into humanity above all else, and it ends up being quite moving, if not devastatingly original.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird, 2011)

7.5/10
As far as action movies go, this one was pretty much everything you could ask for. Tom Cruise did all kinds of crazy stuff, and put in a very good performance too (better than the movie demands, at least). I thought the second half was a bit more boring than the first, and one action sequence was badly botched (Cruise and his nemesis chasing each other in a sandstorm, the constant brownish blur of CGI surrounding them serving only to mask the fact that they weren't really in Dubai and little else). But I was entertained, so I was happy.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

9/10
The most feminist movie I've ever seen is also notoriously one of the most difficult to endure. A 3 1/2 hour movie in which very little happens except the day-to-day monotonies of its title character. This was a movie I was born to like, and after reading about it for so long, it was nice to sit down and watch it and have it be exactly what I knew it would be. I don't feel like I watched a movie so much as I lived with Jeanne for 3 1/2 hours.

Le Revelateur (Philippe Garrel, 1968)

9/10
A 1968 film coming in at just over an hour featuring three actors (a mother, a father, a son), no dialogue or any soundtrack whatsoever, high-contrast black-and-white photography, and was apparently filmed with a majority of the cast and crew under the influence of LSD. Luckily I have a high tolerance for drug-induced 60's pretentiousness, so I found it quite fascinating in its own way. Can't way to see some of director Philippe Garrel's other wackiness from the same era, particularly La Cicatrice Intérieure starring Garrel's muse and partner, Nico.

Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011)

9/10
Adapted (and probably virtually unchanged) from a play, Carnage features two sets of parents in one room of one house for its entire running time, discussing the fall-out from one parents' son hitting the others' in the face with a stick. In very Bunuelian fashion, things eventually descend into chaos and hysteria. If the trajectory is predictable, it's a heck of a lot of fun getting there. John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet are all fantastic, perfectly cast, and clearly revelling in what is patently an actor's movie. I'm giving it extra marks for being that most rare thing - an English-language comedy that appeals to adults without being juvenile (mostly). I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard in the theatre.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011)

8.5/10
David Fincher's adaptation trounces the earlier Swedish adaptation, which now seems completely elementary in comparison, but still can't best its source material. As in the Swedish film, a lot of the cuts are smart and logical. Craig and Mara are great; Mara steals the show as Fincher had pretty much set her up to do. The script is smart and never drags, despite the 2h45m runtime. In the end, though (and maybe this is also due to the source material), it feels like it's missing a big catharsis, like it should culminate to something massive and never does. This movie cements my belief even more now that the ending of Larsson's novel is helplessly clunky (though Fincher's version mercifully does away with all that Australia stuff) and unfortunately it drags down what is otherwise an excellent, exciting and sexy thriller.