Favorite Movies of 2011

[Tyler Smith]

It's the end of the year, so there are all kinds of lists being generated about the best movies of 2011.
Some of our bloggers will be putting together similar lists in the next couple of weeks.
What are some of your favorite movies of this year? Any major disappointments?

[johnnyunusual]

I didn't watch a lot of the new movies this year, but I loved the Muppets. Despite what Frank Oz says it captures the spirit of what made the muppets great (and Frank has no right to an opinion regarding the spirit of things if you play Yoda in all 3 Star Wars prequels).

[vulpix]

When David went down a list of movies he thought made it a good year, I couldn't help but notice they were all movies I didn't have the opportunity to see--other than The Tree of Life, which I had to make a special trip to a local arthouse theater to check out. Bearing in mind I've primarily only watched wide releases this year, here are my top three as of today:

3) Super 8: There were some important elements of Super 8 that didn't quite work for me, not the least of which was the film's underwhelming climax and its heavyhanded subtext. Still, the moments that get us there are undeniably entertaining, funny, even occasionally frightening. It's just good old summer movie fun reminiscent of blockbusters like Jurassic Park.

2) The Tree of Life: Derided by some reviewers as "indulgent" and "pretentious," I was surprised to find that The Tree of Life is more of an earnest (there's that word, Tyler) and an affectional experience than an intellectual one. Despite innumerable analyses that have surfaced since the film's release, The Tree of Life is best viewed as the visceral, emotional experience that it is.

1) Hugo: As a person who didn't particularly care for The Departed or Goodfellas, I was completely surprised by Martin Scorsese's Hugo. The only film have I seen that uses 3-D in a manner inherent to its theme--isolaton and separation, in the case of Hugo--I see this film as nothing short of revolutionary. Several silent era motifs are incorporated into it, from the Lumière Brothers' larger-than-life La Ciotat locomotive, to the slapstick comedy of the Keystone Kops, to the death-defying stunts of Harold Lloyd. I've heard it claimed that this is pandering to silent film fans like me, but I don't think so, as the focus is always on the film's central characters. I believe anybody with a little patience and a sense of imagination will find something to love in it.

I still have many 2011 films to look forward to watching. At the top of that list is The Artist, which I have heard only great things about.

[deadpool]

I thought that 2011 was a pretty good year for movies. To me there wasn't any movie that I would call a masterpeice but still some good ones. Keep in mind that when I make this list I am more of a fanboy film fan.

5. X-men first class.
An overall good super hero movie that was character driven although some of the characters didn't have much development. Solid action and I am really looking forward to the next one.

4. Summer Wars.
This was an anime film that was released here this year so I would say that counts. A great action/comedy that has a lot of heart and lessons about family and the family we choose. Also some of the best martial arts fighting I've seen in some anime.

3. The Muppets.
Simply a fun film to watch with great humor that is good for the whole family (and im not just throwing that out there it's true) and great music.

2. Evangelion 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance.
Same boat as summer wars as an anime that was released this year in north america. The film has a very complex and multilayered story. The character development is quite impressive, the action good and the ending spectacular. Can't wait for Q.

1. Captain America.
Even though I'm Canadian I can't help but love Captain America. The character stands for so many good things and is one of the most heroic characters in comics being that he was willing to fight even though he knew he was smaller and weaker. A great preformance by Chris Evans who I was hesitant on playing Steve Rogers but overall blown away by how he played the character and bulked up for the role. The only bad thing I can say is I was suprised that Hugo Weavings Red Skull was not as good as expected.

[Scott M]

I'm making a real effort to catch up with everything I missed throughout the year, which has resulted in me probably having seen about 30-40 2011 releases since Christmas. I've started forming a top ten list, assuming nothing else I see cracks it, this is what it will look like:

1. Moneyball - Combines my passion for baseball with some really good thematic material. Has some very interesting things to say about how we as a society consider money to be the prime tool for determining worth, and the film works hard to explore whether or not that is a good or a bad idea. The script from Zaillian and Sorkin is top notch, and I'd say these are career-best performances from Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two - Part One was my favorite movie of last year, and while I think this is a (very minor) step down, this was maybe the most emotional film experience for me in 2011. I've never read a Potter book, but David Yates and Steve Kloves seem to really understand the tone of the books and I appreciate the maturity with which this (at one time) children's series has been handled. Daniel Radcliffe's performance really wowed me, and the cinematography has been unfortunately under-recognized. Sometimes there's no substitution for quality big-budget entertainment.
3. The Tree of Life - I'm a huge Terrence Malick fan, and even though this movie decides to take on the entire scope of human (and non-human) existence in a single film (something not even Malick should try to do), for the most part I'm surprised by how well it works. I was particularly wowed by the long sequences of the kids playing outside and experiencing their childhood through Malick's eyes really brought me back to my own. Most people don't really seem to remember exactly what it's like to be a child, but I can tell that Malick remembers, and somehow was able to put that on screen to help the rest of us remember too.
4. Cold Weather - I first saw this a year and a half ago at the Milwaukee Film Festival and loved it, then just re-watched it this weekend on Netflix Watch Instantly and loved it even more. I haven't seen many "mumblecore" movies, but I've seen enough to hate that word. Just like one of my favorite films, Brick, Cold Weather superimposes a mystery on top of an unexpected setting, this time it's the world of aimless twenty-somethings living in Portland. Despite its very small budget, I never once felt like I was watching a filmmaker compromise, and wouldn't have been surprised to hear its budget was 10 or 20 times what it was. The economical style of the mystery mixed with a compelling brother-sister drama left me floored, and I'm really hoping more people check this one out now that it's on Netflix Watch Instantly.
5. Meek's Cutoff - I love westerns, and I grew up playing the Oregon Trail video game series obsessively, so I was excited to hear about this movie when it came out early last year. To compare it to the video game, while funny, would be a complete waste of time, since Reichardt does such a great job of conveying the absolute boredom of traveling during this period that I know a lot of people who found the movie boring in itself. I would have to strongly disagree, since what struck me was not only the methodical (a.k.a. slow) pacing but the terror and paranoia the characters slowly begin to feel as they get more and more lost and the water starts to run out. Excellent performances from Michelle Williams and Bruce Greenwood and some of the best cinematography of the year make this one well worth seeing.
6. Contagion - I've seen a lot of disaster thrillers, but none hit me with the same sheer terror I experienced while watching Contagion. Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns strip away all the cliche and common convention of the genre and what we're left with is like a realist zombie movie. As the pandemic spreads, I got the feeling that the film represents as faithfully as possible how this would really happen in real life, and the excellent cast did an excellent job of conveying the intelligence and responsibility of those in charge of preventing further damage.
7. Drive - Although after I walked away thinking I had just seen a pretty typical story for this type of movie, it's amazing how greatly executed this simple story was. Nicolas Winding Refn is a filmmaker I greatly admire (Bronson and Valhalla Rising are two of my favorites from recent years), and his assured direction and style make this a really fun time at the movies. He and Gosling, like Soderbergh with the disaster genre, find ways to subvert some pretty common character tropes like the "hero with no name" and the "changed man just released from prison who hasn't really changed at all" (lots of credit to Refn and Oscar Isaac on that one). This movie has style to spare, and the best opening sequence of any film in recent memory.
8. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Gary Oldman gives perhaps the performance of the year, and certainly one of the best of his career. I love that he doesn't have a line of dialogue for the first 15-20 minutes of the film, and even as we move through the movie, it is refreshing to see a spy movie that embraces the actual boredom of being a spy. Notice how Smiley does not speak, but instead waits for the other person to speak first, and by doing this he is better able to extract from them what they did not want to tell him. This also had some excellent art direction and my favorite use of music of the year ("La Mer" at the end was perfect).
9. War Horse - People may call it overly manipulative, but to quote Dave Chen of the /Filmcast, it just worked on me. Spielberg has always been a master at toying with emotions, and usually it isn't my favorite aspect of his movies, but maybe because I'm such an animal nut, it really worked for me in this particular story. I probably cried during this movie more than any other in 2011 (although I do find myself getting to tears a lot easier now than I used to). And those no man's land sequences are as well made as anything in Saving Private Ryan for me.
10. Melancholia - Most people, like me, probably at least know someone (if not themselves) who has suffered from depression at some point. Von Trier clearly has, and has expertly conveyed it on screen here. Dunst proves she has real acting chops if only she's given the opportunity, and the rest of the supporting cast are all excellent as well. To frame depression so literally seems to be a detractor for some people, but von Trier's work is always interesting to me for its almost operatic melodrama, and subtlety isn't everything. It seems particularly poignant to me to show depression for what it must feel like to those who suffer from it: like the world is literally about to come down on top of them.

Well, I ended up writing a whole lot more here than I was planning on, but this is my current top ten of 2011. In my opinion, this is definitely the best year since 2007.

Some runners up for this list for me would be: Take Shelter, The Guard, Midnight in Paris, Shame, Paul, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Future, Red State, Margin Call, and Attack the Block.

The big ones left to see for me from 2011 are: Coriolanus, A Separation, Margaret, Into the Abyss, Jane Eyre, Submarine, Warrior, Le Havre, and The Interrupters.

[winslowleach]

I put together a goofy awards-style round-up of my thoughts on 2011 with normal set of categories as well as some fun ones!

Director:
Tomas Alfredson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Sean Durkin, Martha Marcy May Marlene
David Fincher, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Actor:
Antonio Banderas, The Skin I Live In
John Boyega, Attack the Block
George Clooney, The Descendants
Gary Oldman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball & The Tree of Life

Actress:
Elena Anaya, The Skin I Live In
Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Elizabeth Olson, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Charlize Theron, Young Adult

Supporting Actor:
Albert Brooks, Drive
John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Patton Oswalt, Young Adult
Mark Strong, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Christoph Waltz, Carnage

Supporting Actress:
Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life
Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melancholia
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Ellen Page, Super

Ensemble:
Attack the Block
The Descendants
Midnight in Paris
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Tree of Life

Worst Performance:
Steve Coogan, Our Idiot Brother
Ron Eldard, Super 8
Ralph Fiennes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2
Marisa Tomei, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Paul Walker, Fast Five

Best Performance in a Mediocre Film:
Steve Carell, Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Colin Farrell, Fright Night & Horrible Bosses
Michael Fassbender, X-Men: First Class
James McAvoy, X-Men: First Class
Ellen Page, Super

Screenplay:
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Diablo Cody, Young Adult
Alexander Payne, Nat Paxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants
Aaron Sorkin & Steven Zaillian, Moneyball
Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumulo, Bridesmaids

Cinematography:
Jeff Cronenweth, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hoyte van Hoytema, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Jody Lee Lipes, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life
Robert Richardson, Hugo

Editing:
Jonathan Amos, Attack the Block
Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber & Mark Yoshikawa, The Tree of Life
Michael Kahn, The Adventures of Tintin
Mat Newman, Drive

Soundtrack:
[Original score + any music choices throughout]
Basement Jaxx & Steven Price, Attack the Block
Alberto Iglesias, The Skin I Live In
Cliff Martinez & Various Artists, Drive
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
John Williams, The Adventures of Tintin

Song:
[Doesn't have to be written for the film, but something that's directly tied to the themes of the film or used as a recurring motif]
"Immigrant Song," The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
"Life's a Happy Song," The Muppets
"Marlene (Marcy's Song)," Martha Marcy May Marlene
"Nightcall," Drive
"Teenage Fanclub," Young Adult

Best Scene/Sequence:
The Driver catches up to Nino, Drive
The big reveal, The Skin I Live In
The birth of the family, The Tree of Life
Ethan hanging around the building in Dubai, Mission: Impossible IV - Ghost Protocol[/b]
The end of the world... the first one, Melancholia
Hugo explores cinema, Hugo
The kitchen conversation, Young Adult
Marcy's song, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Moses vs. the Monsters, Attack the Block
The motorbike chase through Bagghar, The Adventures of Tintin

Best Credit Sequence:
The Adventures of Tintin
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Super

Biggest Surprise:
[The film that either defied my expectations the most or wasn't on my radar at all coming into this year]
Attack the Block
The Future
Rango
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Skin I Live In

Biggest Disappointment:
[One that didn't live up to my expectations, though I still may have thought it was good. 30 Minutes or Less was garbage though]
30 Minutes or Less
Carnage
Cowboys & Aliens
Super 8
X-Men: First Class

Biggest WTF Moment:
[The most surprising or startling moment in the movie]
Bye bye, Christina Hendricks, Drive
The car explosion, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Daniel Craig finds his cat, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Rango meets his hero, Rango
The second half of The Skin I Live In

Best Trailer:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOdKmpjqks8
Melancholia - www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzD0U841LRM
Road to Nowhere - www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9jHiGBoP0
Super 8 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRQQCKS7go
The Tree of Life - www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRYA1dxP_0

Best Poster:
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 - www.spectacularoptical.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/blackpower-poster.jpg
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - collider.com/wp-content/uploads/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-poster.jpg
Le Havre - s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/7410/LeHavre_MPOTW.jpg?1317943279
I Saw the Devil - collider.com/wp-content/uploads/i-saw-the-devil-movie-poster-01.jpg
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - thefoxisblack.com/blogimages/uncle-boonmee-poster-chris-ware.jpg

Best Spielberg Homage in Super 8:
['Cuz we know it's full of them]
Coach Taylor turns into Indiana Jones for 2 minutes as he escapes the military compound

Worst Spielberg Homage in Super 8:
The Ending (in its unabashed attempt to evoke the pathos of the end of E.T. and failing miserably)

Favorite Crowd Moment in a Theater:
That old woman calling Spike Jonze a bitch during Moneyball

11 That I Missed from 2011:
Certified Copy
A Dangerous Method
The Interrupters
Le Havre
Meek's Cutoff
Mysteries of Lisbon
Shame
Take Shelter
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
War Horse
We Need to Talk About Kevin

[cinemalacrum]

I wanted so desperately to find a film this year that I enjoyed more than Tree of Life, because it became apparent rather quickly that it would be the go to film for art house top ten lists. However, it as mesmerizing and managed to captivate me in a way that no film has done for quite some time. With that being said, Moneyball and Midnight In Paris were close seconds. Sadly, I have been unable to catch Drive yet, which will certainly change the entire ordering of any definitive list I create.

[danwroy]

I thought The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was my favorite movie of last year, but Tyler made a good case for it not being very good and I'll probably have to see it again to make up my mind. Besides that I really liked War Horse. It's much better than it's reputation, and recommended for anyone who really connects with Spielberg as a filmmaker; for me it's in the same general realm as A.I., maybe not as good but similar in having a strange tone that looks schmaltzy but doesn't feel schmaltzy.