In Theaters: Gravity ****

I suppose it's rare to sit in a movie theater and realize that you're watching a landmark film, a game-changer assured a place of honor in the cinematic pantheon.

I'm not going to lie, I've thought that about a few movies I've seen and, most of the time, I've been wrong.

For example, in 2007, I thought for sure that No Country For Old Men was destined for that kind of long-lasting, Kubrick-like acclaim.  Then, a couple years later, I watched it on Spike TV, where it was interspersed with commercials for Axe Body Spray.  So...maybe not.

My point is that, when I say that Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity is that kind of movie, you'd probably justified in taking it with a grain of salt.  Still, I don't think I'm wrong about this one.

Set 400 miles above the surface of the Earth, Gravity tells the story of two astronauts -- Ryan Stone (played by Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (played by George Clooney) -- marooned in space after their space shuttle is destroyed by debris from a Russian satellite.  We are introduced to the characters and witness the destruction of their ship all in a single opening shot that lasts for roughly 17 minutes (17 minutes!). What follows is a harrowing story of survival in literally the harshest of harsh environments.  Bullock -- in a hefty, Oscar-worthy performance -- carries most of the weight of the film.

That's all I'm going to say about the plot.  For those of you who were worried that the best moments were given away in the trailers -- don't be.  Most of what you've seen comes from the opening sequence...there's a whole lot more to see after that.

This movie is destined to win every technical award on the planet.  From special effects and cinematography to sound and editing, Gravity is an astounding technical achievement.  The expertise and filmmaking prowess on display in this film are, quite simply, astounding.  This is a movie that begs to be seen on the biggest, best screen possible -- IMAX 3-D, if you can swing it.

What makes it a masterpiece is that it seamlessly blends all that technology with a story it is, at its core, very intimate and personal.  While some have compared Gravity to 2001, the space setting is really the only thing the two movies have in common.  Gravity is very much a story of survival, a celebration of the human will to live.   While, admittedly, I'm not the first person to make the comparison, the movie that it most reminded me of thematically was 127 Hours.

Returning Sandra Bullock, she has never been better.  And, as a friend of mine remarked, she's never looked better -- the movie lists two personal trainers for her in the credits.  She won a sham Oscar a few years back for The Blind Side. So, while she may not win this time around, she'll definitely be in the conversation.

Alfonso Cuaron's last movie was Children of Men, another brilliant piece of filmmaking that, in my view, was one of the best movies of the last decade.  I made a Top 30 movies of the 00s a few years back...Children of Men was #3.  With Gravity, two of the Top 10 movies of the young millennium are his.

Yes, I'm aware of the danger of overselling this movie.  I don't care.

It's just that damn good.

Best of 2011: #7 Rango

This was a strange film. 

Let me try to describe it for those who haven't seen it.  Imagine that Coen Brothers took over Pixar, then watched a bunch of Clint Eastwood movies while eating some bad pizza and then wrote down the plot to the dreams they had that night.  The movie resulting from this hypothetical dream-script would likely resemble Rango.

Best of 2011: #10 (tie) The Descendants

Alexander Payne is as reliable as Pixar and Christopher Nolan, but he's not quite as prolific and he works on a much smaller scale.  His track record as a writer-director is virtually flawless, with a filmography that includes Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt, Sideways, and, in 2011, The Descendants.

The only unfortunate thing about Payne's work is that there's not enough of it.  Those five movies are the sum total of the features he's directed in his 15-year career.  His last movie before this one, Sideways, came out nearly eight years ago.  I have to admit, before the trailers for The Descendants started showing up online several months ago, I had kinda forgotten about him.

His movies tend to circulate around less-than-heroic figures, below-average Joes whose troubles are common and familiar and, more often than not, self-inflicted.  Most of his protagonists tend to middle-aged men -- or, in the case of About Schmidt, a older-than-middle-aged man -- who are coming to terms with the disappointing lives they've created for themselves.  While this is hardly a unique approach for modern cinematic storytelling, Payne's sincere affection for each of the schlubs he's created, even when they don't deserve it, is always refreshing.  It's easy to create a loser just to make fun of him.  But, that's not how Payne works.

The Descendants is a dramedy staring George Clooney as Matt King, a 40-something lawyer with a wife in a coma who is also a descendant of one of the first white land-owners in Hawaii.  As the story unfolds, King is forced to deal with the shortcomings of his relationships with his wife and two daughters as well as decide for his extended family whether to sell their last tract of land to a developer.  These two trials, while seemingly unrelated, become entangled in one another until, in the end, it becomes clear that they are, in fact, one in the same.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.