I had to be convinced in just the last few weeks 2011 was a decent year for movies.
Catching up on some high profile winter titles made list making extra difficult this year.
Perhaps because of style over substance in some cases, no one movie jumped out as the year defining movie that no other could touch.
And although critics uniformly rallied behind “The Tree of Life” as the consensus favorite of the year, this year found critics getting behind just about anything as their number one choice, and they could often find at least someone to back them up.
It’s even made for an interesting Oscar race with no clear frontrunners.
But 2011 was a year for looking back. Veteran directors trumped newbies with nostalgia projects (“Hugo,” “Midnight in Paris,” “War Horse”) and grandiose epics (“Melancholia,” “The Tree of Life”). A few indies and up-and-comers stepped forward, but they made timeless statements (“Weekend,” “Beginners,” “Super 8,” “The Descendants”) rather than 21st Century relics, with a few exceptions (“Margin Call,” “Moneyball,” “50/50”).
Last year I assigned titles to each movie for what they stood for in the year, and there was one clear winner. This year no such labels exist, and just about any could be my favorite.
I’ve done my best to mention films that need mentioning and forgotten the rest. (Most titles are linked to subsequent reviews on my website.)
1. Drive
The Driver is in a plain silver sedan parked underneath a bridge as a helicopter passes overhead. He sits silently and does not make a bold getaway, and yet this is one of the more exciting scenes in the most invigorating and intense motion picture of the year.
“Drive” is a finely tuned expression of minimalistic filmmaking, but it’s also an elegant example of bloody pulp stylization. Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn may value style over substance, but his precise pacing makes for his rapid shift to hyper violence all the more engaging.
Ryan Gosling in the nameless anti-hero role is sapped of his charisma and charm, but he delivers a strictly focused and immersed performance to embody his brooding and complex character. He meets his match in the menacingly nebbish Albert Brooks as a gangster out to kill him, and the resulting noir is a darkly perfect thriller. (Ran in the IDS WEEKEND on Dec. 7)
2. Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen’s fantastical journey to Paris in the 1920s is a joyous and infectious delight. Allen has made his best film in two decades, and it’s a hilarious and clever romp that indulges in literary, art and film history and yet is nothing but whimsical. Owen Wilson is a great Allen surrogate, and Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway is a riot.
3. Hugo
Martin Scorsese has surprised us all with this mystical children’s fantasy that doubles as a stunningly beautiful love letter to the birth of cinema. The art direction in “Hugo” is bathed in color and light, and the 3-D special effects are a wonder that begin to define what the technology is and can do. (Ran in the IDS WEEKEND on Dec. 7)
4. Certified Copy
We often admire the copy of a work of art because all art is a representation of something. “Certified Copy” is filled with such academic and poignant conversation. But the miracle of Abbas Kiarostarmi’s film is in the seamless transition between realities that test this theory of art and life. Juliette Binoche and William Shimell give powerhouse performances in this deep romance.
5. Melancholia
Few films have captured the gravity and majesty of the end of the world better than Lars von Trier does here. “Melancholia” is rife with stunning visuals; von Trier’s vision of the apocalypse is as bleak and perverse as they come, and yet no less elegant. This film is literally earth shattering.
6. The Skin I Live In
Leave it to Pedro Almodovar to make a genre bending revenge sci-fi that is at once sexy and queasy. “The Skin I Live In” is alive with alluring, lush color and painterly beautiful cinematography. But this surrealist story is so deep and shocking that is radically unlike any still life artwork.
7. Incendies
The two stories of this French Canadian epic drawing from Greek tragedy include a mother searching for her long lost son and her two twins continuing her quest after she’s passed. Although “Incendies” is at times horrifically artful and devastating, its monumental twist provides such an engaging and memorably entertaining experience.
8. Weekend
A simple story about two gay men who do nothing but meet, have sex, talk and fall in love is this year’s most honest, intelligent, and heartwarming romance. Tom Cullen and Chris New have wonderful chemistry as Russell and Glen. Their universal goal for openness and honesty provides some lovingly affectionate and authentic pillow talk.
9. Super 8
If there were many great “films” in 2011, “Super 8” was the best “movie.” J.J. Abrams has not only made a love letter to Steven Spielberg but has made a technically perfect action, sci-fi and suspense thrill ride full of wit, scares and tears. Not to mention, the exploding train sequence is the most awesome movie moment of the year.
10. Beginners
The best American indie of the year discovers a way to communicate free of the symbols and histories assigned by older generations and society. Ewan McGregor gives a wonderfully understated performance as a loner struggling to adapt to his father (Christopher Plummer) finally coming out as gay. A film with many subtleties, “Beginners” is eloquent and beautiful in its quiet.
Honorable Mention – The Tree of Life
I desperately wanted to find a place for “The Tree of Life” on my list, and yet without revisiting it before deadline, it has carried the burden of being the most fervently loved and loathed film of the year, along with all the thought provoking discussion that has come with that honor.
Yet “The Tree of Life” is a purely cinematic experience. Watching it has been deemed a polarizing challenge for most audiences, but the fundamental human emotions Terrence Malick conveys through visuals and style above all else are ambitious themes befitting of a masterpiece. In doing so, his film worships the gift of life itself.
Granting it an honorable mention is my way of saying that in finding a place for this important film on my list, it could be first and it could be last.
(Portions ran in the IDS WEEKEND on Dec. 7)
11-20 Place (alphabetical)
50/50
This dark comedy is surprisingly modern and genuine in the youthful, cynical sensibilities it uses to address cancer. It’s also hilarious.
The Arbor
This experimental British doc tells a harrowing story of a Yorkshire playwright by lip-synching testimonial to actors placed in mesmerizing social tableaux.
The Descendants
Like “Beginners,” Alexander Payne’s family drama tearjerker finds a wonderfully offbeat George Clooney rediscovering himself through his family heritage.
Into the Abyss
Werner Herzog’s touching documentary examination of death through the eyes of a man on death row is also the most morose.
Margin Call
“Margin Call” is the much-needed humanizing dramatization of a few Wall Street investors on the day the market died. It’s the best fictional film on the modern economic crisis to date.
Martha Marcy May Marlene
This debut feature by Sean Durkin is a twisted and immersive psychological drama set in a bleak Americana landscape. Elizabeth Olsen (the Olsen twins’ sister) gives a bold dual personality performance.
Moneyball
Despite being a cold, calculated and cynical sports movie, Bennett Miller’s drama still proved to be a terrific crowd pleaser. Brad Pitt too is excellent.
Poetry
A woman suffering from Alzheimer’s struggles to find the right words both in her poetry class and in dealing with her grandson accused of rape. This Korean drama is heartbreaking.
Tabloid
Errol Morris’s devilish and insanely fun documentary is quite literally too good to be true and yet too absurd to be fake.
War Horse
No film was as magnificently old fashioned as Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse.” Try not to get big soppy horse eyes just watching and looking at it.
10 other great movies in 2011
“13 Assassins,” “The Artist,” “Attack the Block,” “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” “Contagion,” “Jane Eyre,” “Rango,” “Senna,” “Win Win,” “Young Adult”
The 15 Best Movies of 2011 I Haven’t Seen Yet
“The Adventures of Tin Tin,” “Carnage,” “A Dangerous Method,” “The Interrupters,” “Margaret,” “The Muppets” (I’m gonna call right now I’ll probably never get around to seeing it), “Pina,” “Project Nim,” “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (please don’t make me see this. I seriously don’t believe anyone in regards to it, but it’s on so many Best of the Year lists), “A Separation,” “Shame,” “Take Shelter,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Warrior,” “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Completely agree with Drive and Midnight in Paris as your #1 and #2 spot. Also really, REALLY loved Melancholia; it’s so disappointing that the film was overshadowed by von trier’s foot-in-mouth comments at Cannes : Oh, and Beginners was completely beautiful…another great!
Thanks for digging way back in my archives to find this. I enjoyed looking back at it and realizing how drastically different this list might look if I wrote it now. Most of all, I regret ever calling Tree of Life an honorable mention. I now think it’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen. Drive would probably still be a close 2nd, but I was absolutely floored by Margaret, A Separation, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Shame and Take Shelter, so I’m at a loss to say what my revised order would be. Could it be that Midnight in Paris wouldn’t even crack my Top 10? Gasp!