I feel OK about this top ten. Honestly, if you’d asked me in November, the films I had on my top 10 didn’t all feel worthy of a top 10 to me, but luckily awards season was pretty strong and I got to see a couple of major movies I was unable to see in theaters (even if I still missed several — more on those at the bottom).
Starting at 10 and counting down to 1:
It sounds like 2011 was a pretty good year for documentaries. I missed at least two I had wanted to catch, but I did see Hot Coffee thanks to DVDTalk, and it’s a really fascinating peek into four cases (the primary case being the famous McDonald’s “coffee is too hot” case) and the myths corporations have helped to spread in order to trick the public into giving up their rights under the guise of “tort reform.” The documentary is so well-put together (by a former lawyer, who assembles the film like they would a case) that it’s still completely effective despite the fact that one of the subjects subsequently turned out to be someone after the kind of “jackpot justice” the film is against, simply because it proves the system actually works…if people get the opportunity to use it.
I saw Kung Fu Panda in theaters and was less than impressed by its collection of jokes about Jack Black falling down, and I went into Kung Fu Panda 2 with extremely low expectations. I have no idea what changed between the first and second movie, but the sequel earns a level of emotional investment that brings the film up to the same playing field as Pixar. Special attention must be paid to James Hong, who gives one of the best and most easily overlooked performances of the year as Po’s Chinese goose father. It’s also gorgeous, perfectly paced, and funnier than the first — an all-around great sequel.
Tomas Alfredson’s follow-up to Let the Right One In is an exceptionally dry, deeply complicated thriller that will probably take at least two viewings to sort out, but the performances are pretty much perfect across the board, and the tension is as thick as the ’70s period atmosphere.
This is the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull should’ve been — thrilling, funny, and inventive. Although the motion-capture process leads to some excess material that might’ve been cut from a traditional feature, Spielberg makes up for it with several incredible action sequences that simply wouldn’t be possible in a live-action environment. Andy Serkis steals the show as Captain Haddock — I enjoyed Rise of the Planet of the Apes as much as anyone, but I think this is the more memorable performance.
A thriller that’s more about mood than action, Drive might not offer any Bourne-style car chases, but it still contains some of the most tense and exhilarating sequences of the year. Moving from slick to sweet to terrifying to bloody, Nicolas Winding Refn’s film is the definition of “stylish.”
Despite a terrible ending that comes close to turning an ethereal experience into a sappy Hallmark card, The Tree of Life is a film worth experiencing. I am absolutely not a spiritual person, and as such some of the film didn’t work for me, but it’s an incredible achievement nonetheless, and some of the visuals and imagery have remained with me since I saw the film in theaters. Even if I’d hated the film (and I definitely did not), it’s hard not to respect the amount of craft and vision that went into making it.
Many people I know (some of whom have also had the benefit of seeing co-writer/star Brit Marling’s other feature, The Sound of My Voice) had no love for Another Earth, and there’s no denying it tells an extremely conventional story, refusing to dive into the sci-fi elements suggested by the premise in favor of a more emotional tale with a couple of threads worth excising. For me, though, Marling makes the movie, giving a heartbreaking lead performance that carries the film past its flaws to a place of resonance.
I can relate to too much of Young Adult, but that’s the strength of Diablo Cody’s second film with Jason Reitman. The film presents us with Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron, in one of the year’s best performances), who is basically a terrible person, and, without sugar-coating or softening, asks the audience to try and see themselves in her. It’s a leap of faith that movies targeted to demographics, tested, recut, and finally honed into perfectly PC portraits of characters who are “deep down, really nice people” would never ask their viewers to take, and that’s refreshingly exciting and funny and real. And no film will ever be hurt by the presence of Patton Oswalt, who matches Theron every step of the way.
The Guard isn’t a companion piece to Young Adult, but it features a lead character who may be just as unlikable…if one takes him seriously. Brendan Gleeson’s Sgt. Gerry Boyle is used to being ignored, and when he finds that Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) is more than willing to bite back after one of his button-pushing barbs, the result is a hilariously profane partnership that rises far above the “buddy-cop” formula suggested by the premise.
Director Lynne Ramsey combines memory and metaphor into a single, haunting experience, seen through the eyes of Tilda Swinton in one of her most fraying, harried performances. The Beach Boys and other bright pop songs form an eerie, idealized backdrop to Ezra Miller’s increasingly disturbing actions, and the viewer is pulled along by the sinking sensation of inevitability that define the worst kinds of nightmares.
Honorable Mentions
Some of Super is all over the map, and it’s totally nuts, but it brings everything together with a perfect ending that resonates on a level that one might not expect out of a superhero comedy with that guy from “The Office.” Bonus points for Ellen Page’s truly deranged performance.
If you’ve seen Park Chan-Wook’s Vengeance Trilogy, you’ve seen much of what I Saw the Devil has to offer, done better, but this is still an insane thriller, with a great performance by Choi Min-Sik as the titular “devil.”
A terrifyingly plausible premise is presented with terrible swiftness in Steven Soderbergh’s skin-crawlingly tense thriller. As with many ensemble films, there are stronger and weaker links (Cotillard’s underserved thread being the latter), but it’s brilliantly edited and features more than a handful of sharp performances (Fishburne, Winslet, Damon, Law).
George Clooney is excellent, and Shailene Woodley is even better as his oldest daughter in a funny and sweet bonding tale. The Descendants is the kind of film that always threatens to become syrupy, but Alexander Payne manages to capture some crucially imperfect element of real life that lifts the film above other, similar movies.
Joe Wright’s Hanna pulses like a feature-length music video, set to a fantastic score by The Chemical Brothers. Some really fantastic action and fairy tale-inspired visuals, plus great performances by Saoirse Ronan (intensely focused) as Hanna and Tom Hollander (creepy) as a whistling assassin.
Films I Didn’t Get to See That I Think Might’ve Made the List (in order of interest from high to low): MARGARET, HUGO, POINT BLANK, CERTIFIED COPY, A SEPARATION, TAKE SHELTER, CARNAGE, TABLOID, INTO THE ABYSS, THE SKIN I LIVE IN, THE INTERRUPTERS, PROJECT NIM.
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OK, OK, it's my Top 10 of 2011.
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