I used to make a list of the best and worst movies of the year every December for my old employer, and as the season gets chilly and Phil Spector plays on my stereo, and as I contemplate a year spent not being a full-time journalist/critic, I feel that old urge again. Let us then, discuss, my favourite things and experiences of 2011, and let’s not limit them to movies. This is, after all, markslutsky.com. This is my year in review.
If there is one thing that happily links my 2011 favourite, it’s the number of them that were made by, in whole or in part, by friends, acquaintances or countrymen. What does this cultural locavore-ism mean, if anything? Am I becoming limited, provincial? I’d prefer to say I just feel lucky to know so many talented and inspiring people.
Let’s start with food—which, if you know me, is where I always start.
Best meals
A lavish, very drunken dinner at Nora Gray, my favourite new Montreal restaurant, some time, I think, in August, which began with sweetbread raviolis, meatballs and calamari, and which ended with a boozy dance party and knee-slides across the dining room floor.
My second trip to Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon, which, if anything, surpassed the unbelievable first visit, which I chronicled here last year.
Country ham and apple kimchi at Momofuku Ssäm Bar with the estimable Liz Clayton.
A Viennese feast at SAT FoodLab, my other favourite new opening of 2011, brainchild of my good friend Michelle of An Endless Banquet.
Best adventures
Hiking the Kalalau trail on the Na’Pali coast of Kauai, Hawaii. One of my favourite days ever, one of the greatest places on earth.
A trip to a land called Harmonie in the Laurentians, with Maya, Sarah, Heather, Dan B., ABS, Nadege, Dan C., Nathan, Winder and Aaron.
Best scary experiences
Public speaking figures into both of these: giving a lecture at Trampoline Hall in Toronto in February, through the good offices of Sheila Heti (See “Best books,” below) and pitching my feature comedy Breaking the Band at TIFF’s Pitch This! competition. Both experiences induced about a month of panic attacks, each. (But worth it.)
Best overall thing I did this year, also scary edition
Directed a short movie I wrote, running my own “real” movie set for the first time, and presenting it at TIFF, a dream a long time in the making. Working with my amazing producers John and Aisling all year on that, and many other projects, none of which would have been a twinkle in my eye without their intervention. Meeting a lot of wonderful and talented people at TIFF, Talent Lab and Pitch This!. Special notice also to the brilliant Matt Forsythe, who wins “Best movie poster” of the year.
Best present
A leatherbound book of set photos, from Maya.
Best parties
A Friday or Saturday night sometime in May at Dave, Nathan, Amy and Evan’s place.
Emy and Sarah’s Christmas party.
Weirdest thing I did this year
Tour the pools and spas of Las Vegas.
Best talks
Anthony Kinik on the Evil Eye, at Montreal Trampoline Hall in August.
Miranda July at the Ukrainian Federation in November.
Best books
My favourite two books of the year happen to be written by friends; like I said above, I am lucky to know so many talented people. The Chairs Are Where the People Go, by Misha Glouberman and Sheila Heti, is book of… let’s call them essays. On the subject of… let’s call it life. I will one day write a longer piece explaining in fuller detail my thoughts on this wonderful book, its relationship, at least in my head, to the newspaper columns of early-20th-Century-Vienna as I imagine them, the way it feels almost like a a highly advanced artificial intelligence built to chart and contain Misha’s thoughts and ideas. Read it. The other is The Art of Living According to Joe Beef, by my dear friend Meredith Erickson, David McMillan and Fred Morin. Joe Beef is probably my all-around, all-time favourite restaurant; it has a special place in my heart, and its personality, ethos and of course food are perfectly expressed in this charming book, which I imagine people in 100 years will read to understand what it was like to live in Montréal in the early years of the 21st Century.
Best movies
I’m not going to comment on all of these, except to make special note of Panos Cosmatos’ Beyond the Black Rainbow. Panos is an old, infrequent friend of mine—we live on different coasts and have spent more time on the phone with each other, talking trash about movies, than in person. Black Rainbow is his first feature and I was really, really happy to discover that it is fucking amazing. I wrote about it here.
Attack the Block - Joe Cornish
Book chon bang hyang (The Day He Arrives) - Hong Sang-soo
Drive - Nicolas Winding Refn
Fright Night - Craig Gillespie
Hanna - Joe Wright
Hugo - Martin Scorsese
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2 - David Yates
Melancholia - Lars von Trier
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
Oslo, August 31 - Joachim Trier (please let this come out here, it is probably in my top two or three of the year)
Tree of Life - Terrence Malick (at least one solid hour of it)
Thor - Kenneth Branagh
TrollHunter - André Øverdal
Your Sister’s Sister - Lynne Shelton
Best concert
Sitting feet away from the grand piano when Hans-Joachim Roedelius played here in October.
Best albums
A lot of Canadians on this list. This wasn’t like, a “thing,” it just happened, and I guess that’s cool? But my favourite album, singular, this year, at least right now, is a fairly recent discovery for me, PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake. This album… weaves a spell over me. It is perfect. Listen to it. Love it.
Austra, Feel it Break
Benoit & Sergio, assorted EPs
Destroyer, Kaputt
The Field, Looping State of Mind
Fucked Up, David Comes to Life
Handsome Furs, Sound Kapital
Little Scream, The Golden Record
Shin Joong Hyun, Beautiful Rivers and Mountains
Tycho, Dive
Various artists, Tropical 2
Zomby, Dedication
Best TV
Seeing Jess emerge from the background and knock it out of the park on Mad Men.
Breaking Bad coming together in a masterpiece of plotting and tension.
Best rediscovery, god help me, Star Trek: The Next Generation. This show is a masterpiece. I swear.
Best person
Jack Layton.
Best thing or category I forgot
You tell me.
