The Best and Worst Movie Posters of 2011

For The House Next Door, the official blog of Slant Magazine, I compiled lists of The Best and Worst Movie Posters of 2011, the year-end culmination of my weekly Poster Lab column.

Click on and check out where your favorite and most reviled poster designs landed.

For The Worst Posters of the Year, CLICK HERE.
For The Best Posters of the Year, CLICK HERE.

'The Ides of March' Review

George Clooney's latest directorial effort, "The Ides of March," is a crackling political work, almost impenetrable in its early stages because of all the dense and shrewd rarefied jabber. The script has a sort of obvious subtlety, strictly adhering to the show-don't-tell rule, yet still managing to show too much. That said, it's really good.

So, I thought I'd have some fun on Facebook, and re-create the IDES poster with the help of Michele Bachmann, but no one seemed to get (or like) the joke. Boo! I'm reusing it here, goshdarnit, with a side-by-side comparison to help the training-wheel crowd.

My review of "The Ides of March" is now online at SouthPhillyReview.com. CLICK HERE.

Comedy

My Office

Confession: I've been dying to do this post for a really long time. I know full well that it's extremely self-indulgent, but honestly, if I were to come across such a post on someone else's blog, I'd be hugely fascinated. Let's go ahead and say that's half the reason I'm publishing it. My office is the one room in our apartment that's wholly devoted to movies. It's the upscale version of the bedroom of my youth, which was papered, floor to ceiling, with filmic paraphernalia. It's a pretty spot-on reflection of me. Here I'll give a tour of its sections, all of which, you'll see, follow a color scheme ("Oh god, here we go," I heard you say...)

These posters alternate frequently, with one cardinal rule: I must adore the film and the poster. I won't put up that which advertises garbage simply because it's pretty, nor will I put up a poster for a great movie if it's ugly (i.e. no "Winter's Bone").

Moving to the left, this is the wall adjacent to the last one. Hanging above my worktable is an amalgamation of stuff culled from my old bedroom, from ticket stubs to magazine clippings to film school equipment. Clockwise from top left: quite possibly my favorite shot of Meryl Streep, a ticket assemblage with stills of Bette Davis and Cary Grant, a photo I took of my favorite local theater, a reel from my grandfather's projector, a decoupage of various stubs, an original photo of the "Gone with the Wind" premiere (a gift from a friend), pics of Maria Falconetti and Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart and, finally, my student film -- all on one little reel.

I've long been enamored of Vanity Fair covers, and found they were among the very few magazine-sized, tack-on-the-wall sort of things that warrant a large frame by themselves (it doesn't hurt that these particular fold-outs fit that color scheme perfectly). Along with them we have actual Vanity Fair issues, a picture of my honey, a few awards (oh, stop), a poster for "The September Issue" and, tucked away with the other mags, the very September Vogue in question -- that Sienna Miller-fronted beast from 2007. (Beneath the mags is a desktop computer, but that, like the worktable, isn't all that fetching.)

My "Hours" gals. This is one of my favorite posters ever. It's SO beautiful, and worthy of permanent placement. To account for the size of the space it had to fill, I had to cut it and squeeze it into a smaller frame. Here's the secret: I trimmed around the the right side of Meryl and moved her closer to Julianne and Nicole. No one ever notices.

I know, I know -- it's SUCH a bloody cliche. But come on -- it's in Italian.

When Brandon and I combined our stuff, his "Titanic" joined my "Brokeback Mountain" and "Atonement," and thus was born our Love Conquers All wall. The knickknacks include my grandfather's projector, its corresponding match that I found at a thrift shop, old cameras, an old hat (we like to pretend it belongs to Angelina "I want my son back" Jolie), a slate, the clamshell for "King Kong," 3D glasses and framed pics of Katherine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett, Orson Welles and Greta Garbo.

A lot of people accuse me of being anal for alphabetizing my DVDs. The response is simple: a) I am rather anal, and b) How the hell would I ever find anything if they weren't aplhabetized!?! This is where the geek in me comes out full-blast -- this here is my baby. My film collection is my favorite material thing on the planet. It's been growing for over a decade and, as you can imagine, I am in firm, life-sustaining denial of DVD being replaced as the premiere home video format. Not under my roof, darling.

If you've taken the time to read this, I hope you enjoyed my little office tour, and I hope I made it entertaining enough to distract from the self-indulgence. Now, back to work...

Early Contenders for Posters of the Year

UPDATE: The posters for "Kaboom" and "The Skin That I Inhabit" were added to the original five-poster post. Thanks to Michael C. from Serious Film for reminding me of the latter.



Your Ads Have Been Adjusted: NYC Subway Movie Posters

Last week I spent three days in New York (yay!), and thankfully left town just as Maksim Gelman was in the midst of his very scary killing spree. Me, I wasn't stabbing people in the subway, but checking out the many landscape-format superposters that line the underground walls. These are the filmic images that thousands of folks gaze at every day, and they undoubtedly influence a whole lot of movie-ticket purchases. But how many people look closer? How many are content with the movie ads they're fed? I wasn't, and here's what I gathered (anger alert!). 

First we have the new one-sheets for "The Adjustment Bureau," which are waiting for you around just about every other corner in Midtown. This film has seemed pretty banal to me from the get-go, so I'm not about to be swayed by any new approach to its marketing; however, I will say I like the sleeked-out look, a sort of silver-nitrate-dipped update of a certain 2007 poster. These babies feature glossy, doctored shots of stars Emily Blunt, John Slattery and Matt Damon, the latter of whom looks the most striking -- not, mind you, because he's giving that inquisitive, action-hero stare, but because Matt Damon hasn't looked that good IN YEARS. Perhaps these pics were snapped at the start of this film's ages-ago shoot, but the more likely scenario is that somebody's taking some serious Photoshop liberties. The last time I saw Matt Damon in a magazine, he looked like my uncle (and he's OLD).

False. Advertising.

And speaking of obnoxiously. clipping. words. with. periods., the poster for "Take Me Home Tonight," with its "Best. Night. Ever." tagline, has made it unequivocally official: "Best/Worst. ___________. Ever." is no longer cool or acceptable by any means. In a very short amount of time, I've heard it in at least two Super Bowl ads, another commercial, seen it in magazines, and seen it on this poster. We've jumped the shark with this one, kids. It was hip for a hot minute when it was blowing up people's Facebook walls, but the marketing powers that be have now harnessed it and butchered it as per usual. I hereby declare that those who pull the "Best/Worst. ___________. Ever." card in my presence will get a wicked stink eye and a high sh*t-list placement. It's just. not. cool. anymore.

Oh My Gooood, and then there's "Just Go With It," a Hollywood project that's just so pathetically tragic. The title is fist-to-the-gut indicative of our pushover moviegoing public, who will totally heed the call and send this sure-to-be-nightmare to top of the charts.



Don't tempt me with those fists, Sandler



And what the hell is going on with Jennifer Aniston's career? The hubby and I have been watching "Friends" reruns lately, and all I keep thinking about is how low Rachel Green has plummeted. Does her agent actually hate her guts, or does she just have the worst taste of any major actress? The probable answer, at least to why she boarded this particular ship, is Adam Sandler offered her an enormous check, just as he did his fellow laugh- and life-syphoners in "Grown Ups." Which is pretty much where the conversation ends with me in terms of any future Sandler project. I will never forgive him for "Grown Ups." Ever. Not even if "Big Daddy 2" came out and starred puppies instead of blonde 8-year-olds. "What do you define as the lowest depth of misery?" Vanity Fair's Proust Questionaire asks each month. "Just Go With It" would probably be a good place to start.

Then, of course, we have...

...well, we'll just leave that one be.

Posters of the Year 2010

It's that time of year again! To count down the best movie posters of the past 12 months. I opted to compile this year's countdown over at my work blog, BucksLocalNews.com's Popcorn for Dinner. It's a fun read, I promise you. Are your favorites on the list?

CLICK HERE for the countdown. To check out my poster picks for the last three years, CLICK HERE and HERE and HERE.

Black Swan

So, while I'm sure you've heard of Darren Aronofsky's upcoming dark dancer drama "Black Swan," perhaps you weren't aware that the trailer (and poster) have landed. I love, love, love when an enticing film aimed right at my pleasure zone is perfectly, artfully packaged to increase my excitement.


The poster will likely be among my favorites of '09 (what with its beautiful white space and the enhancement of Nat Portman's perfecto facial symmetry), but the trailer, embedded below, is easily one of the year's best. Offering gorgeous teases of the lensing by Aronofsky's favorite DP, Matthew Libatique, and a whopper of a final revelation that never gives away too much, it practically wills you to dish out the ticket price. See for yourself:

My Current Obsession

Credit for my knowledge of the gorgeous conceptual posters below (those being the final four) goes to the fabulous folks at InContention, whose very similar post includes info on the designers and musings on leading lady Tilda Swinton.

Feel drunk on beauty? Try watching "I Am Love."