11. Julie & Julia (Yep)
As far as I'm concerned, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams could be in a movie about mayonnaise and wide egg noodles and it'd still be great. Well, this movie is kind of about that. But you know what I mean. This is one of the few movies I've seen forged with the involvement of Nora Ephron that I actually like. Yes, I've seen Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, and You've Got Mail. Michael has some good parts. It's not because of the whole "chick flick" thingit's because I find much of her work to be more artificial than movies usually are. But that's an article for another day. Julie and Julia are separated by different times and different attitudes about life while facing echoing situations. Their experiences merge and diverge at several points in the film, and it brings out some very interesting parallels, while the outstanding craft of both Streep and Adams, who elevate their characters to entirely other levels, makes everything even more engaging. But the most interesting thing about the movie winds up being how it prompts curiosity in researching the real events. As the movie nears its conclusion, you hear Julia's reaction to Julie, and it's very surprising to say the leastI'll just say that the characters only intersect to a point, physically and emotionally. They're not hugging and kissing by the end. What? Two protagonists we care about who disagree in the end? That's a very cool decision on the part of Ephron, and she handles it well by not closing the case for you. It makes you wonder about the characters you've been following all this time. Were they really like this in real life? What happened? You have to look it up. Whoah. Just like Julie. Now THAT'S meta! Whatever that means.