The Salt of Life may take some effort to get into but by the time the climax rolls around it becomes impossible to dislike, and I imagine on subsequent viewings this is the type of innately human journey that could grow on me to the point it becomes an essential one to take on a semi-regular basis.

I was blown away by The Hunger Games.

The last moments speak to the concepts of family, brotherhood and marriage in a way that touched my heart and also tickled my funny bone, and while Jeff, Who Lives at Home isn’t perfect these precious final minutes were, and for my money that’s all that matters.

The Kid with a Bike won’t be for everyone, and it certainly left me with lingering questions I’m mildly irritated weren’t even partially answered. But overall this drama is an emotionally exhilarating ride I’m still mulling over, and even more importantly it’s a film I’m certain to not soon forget.

Sound of Noise is nothing short of a cacophony of sound, fury, silence, ingenuity and inspiration, the entire plot revolving around a scenario that’s as silly as it is absurd.

Criterion’s Blu-ray presentation of Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men is sensational. Do yourself a favor and add it to your personal collection immediately.

Contagion coughs up several scares and makes the fantastical feel unbearably believable.

Mike Leigh’s dark, twisted and very, very funny 1993 effort Naked is as raw and as emotionally nude as anything the acclaimed filmmaker has ever made.

Terrence Malick’s fifth motion picture The Tree of Life is a breathless cinematic miracle that’s unlike anything else I’ll see in all of 2011.