I haven’t seen a great new movie this year (yet)

By this time last year, I’d seen at least five of the movies that ultimately made my Top 10 list for 2011.

The 10 best movies of 2011

1. Melancholia (Lars von Trier)

I was certain after I saw The Tree of Life over the summer nothing was going to top that cinematically in 2011. Who’s going to beat Terrence Malick? Cronenberg? Jason Reitman? Please. Respect.

And then Lars von Trier stood up and, without even knowing it, took a huge Scandinavian dump on it in the form of Melancholia.

Could there be a better film about depression? About its weaknesses and – admittedly somewhat depressing – advantages? I can’t think of one. First, it takes Kirsten Dunst’s character, and in an almost abstractly compressed wedding reception, shows how a depressed person can, within hours, find themselves completely disconnected from the happiest moments of their lives – even while they’re living them. In the film’s second section – there are no acts here, really – the movie simply observes how Dunst’s character and her family react as the Earth’s inevitable end approaches. Is she more at peace than the typically happier people around her because tragedy and its emotional shock are no stranger to her? Or is she emotionally dead? I suspect it’s the former.

Siskel, Ebert bickering, making fun of Protestants, cursing

I was a massive fan of “At the Movies” when Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert (and, later, Richard Roeper) hosted it. Just two guys who knew film talking intelligently about them. In fact, it’s the show that’s probably most benefitted from the creation of YouTube because now you can find nearly any “At the Movies” review on the site.

Cribbster is at the beach for a day or two

I don't know why I chose a photo with a military plane in it. Maybe because it reminds me of "Forever Young," which is mad good.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m back! Fourteen hours of driving in three days!)

I’m going somewhere in North Carolina. (I eventually was told I was headed for Sunset Beach, N.C., about two miles north of the South Carolina border. Nice place. An island.)

The longest sit-down with Kevin Smith — ever

“Selling Out & Salty Language”