Top 10 of 2011

Well it’s the end of the year, happy new years and all that. Since most of you won’t be spending this evening reading my blog, you’ll probably stumble onto this in 2012. Apparently the world is supposed to end, but well people are often wrong about these things.

Like last year I made a couple of promises/goals. You may even use that dirty word “resolutions”. The first was that I’d see at least 50 films before the year was up, and the other was that I’d have a top ten list made to go along with it. As one would expect there are more than a fair share of films I’m still very eager to see. I’ll admit that I haven’t gotten to see A Dangerous Method; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Weekend; Le Havre; Take Shelter; Margaret; or either of Spielberg’s newest. In other words another month when these films come around, or I get time to see them and my top ten list might look very different. Often times though I find that usually these 11th hour viewings don’t do much to make me stop the presses. So if you see another top 10 list with my name on it months later, it may or may not look exactly the same.

2011 I will honestly say wasn’t that great of a year for cinema in general. I’m not going to get into “why in god’s name did they make Jack and Jill?” or discuss the many cons of the Transformers franchise. As for blockbuster big budget films they weren’t all a waste. In fact in the many releases based on Marvel comics characters, they struck a new all time high with X-Men: First Class which is one of three highly rated films featuring breakout star Michael Fassbender. Perhaps I’m sounding like a high school nerd picking this film over say Shame or A Dangerous Method (still haven’t seen remember), but well as a long time X-Men fan I couldn’t have been more pleased with the film they released in June. Along with positive reviews for films like Super 8, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Bridesmaids summer blockbusters might not be such a dirty word anymore.

It is funny though that three of my top five films of the year I saw before July 4th. There’s something to be said about having time to let good movies sink in. Studios vying for Oscar glory however rarely put out any worthwhile movies before say mid-December. I doubt either of those three films get serious Oscar buzz, but oh well doesn’t make them any less great. Anyways if you haven’t heard of some of these films, then go see them. As of last check, only two of these films are unavailable somewhere on the internet and still very much in theaters. Several of these films were technically from 2010 but weren’t distributed in the US until this year, but as always my list is of the ten best films released in the US in 2011. Anyways less talk more list.

10. Restless, directed by Gus Van Sant, US

Like Please Give last year, this is the “when the hell did this come out” movie of the year. I’ve been a big Van Sant film since well I’ve been into movies. After making a series of very grim films like Gerry, Elephant, and Last Days, Paranoid Park seemed damn near uplifting. That movie was overshadowed by the a-list subject of Milk. However his follow up was even more off the radar. So much so that I didn’t even know he was making a movie until a DVD popped up of it. Starring Henry Hopper (Dennis’ son) and Mia Wasikowska (whose in serious danger of overkill) it is simply a delightful and rather offbeat love story. It seems to be rather polarizing and within about 20 minutes you’ll know what side of the fence you stand on, but I just loved it. Sometimes Van Sant can really wow you with how good a simple film can be.

9. Aurora, directed by Cristi Puiu, Romania/France/Switzerland/Germany

The Romanian film movement is still very much healthy and alive. Along with Tuesday, After Christmas this was one of the best reviewed films of the year, and I think it’s just a bit better. Cristi Puiu who broke through with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu a few years ago is back and starring in the film as well. A great day-in-the-life film it follows a man Viorel (Puiu) as he goes around and slowly lets his violent impulses develop until well, interesting things happen. Very few of the Romanian films are really about plot so much as ambience, and like his previous breakthrough this is shot with extensively long takes. Certainly not for everyone, and the 3 hour running time can certainly make a few people steer clear but easily among my favorite foreign films of the year.

8. The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne, US.

Following a 7 year layoff Alexander Payne is back. After a trio of well received films that seemed to peak with Sideways a lot of people were curious to see what he’d come out with next. Like nearly all of his films there’s something tragic yet hilarious throughout so you never really feel depressed but never quite laughing out loud (possibly with the exception of Election). George Clooney is as busy as ever this year, and although his directorial effort Ides of March was quite good, I’d have to give this film the edge.

7. Martha Marcy May Marlene, directed by T. Sean Durkin, US.

Not the easiest title to say 10 times fast, this film has been unfairly called “This year’s Winter’s Bone”. For starters it’s better than Winter’s Bone, and I might also add it has nothing at all to do with it. Newcomer Elizabeth Olsen deserves an Oscar nomination because this was damn near the best female performance I’ve seen this year. The film isn’t terribly easy to figure out and quite awhile goes by where you don’t even know what’s happening. Ambiguity is commendable and the way this film bounces around keeps things interesting. I wouldn’t call this a film you can take a passive interest, although the pace and mood might seem to lull you into a false comfort zone, there are plenty of jarring moments and John Hawkes is certainly one of the best at being sinister.

6. The Robber, directed by Benjamin Heisenberg, Germany/Austria.

And the award for “what the hell film is this?” goes to . . . That’s right The Robber, an honest to goodness German film in my top ten, been awhile hasn’t it? I knew nothing about the film or it’s filmmaker but saw it on a list of the best undistributed films of 2010. When it was released here in April I decided to check it out and was completely blown away. The film is about a marathon runner who just happens to rob banks. He doesn’t seem to do much with the money, and has no desire to get a real job but the bank money just finances his marathon training. Not the most common premise, which helps at to it’s novel appeal but one of those films you may stumble upon and I hope give a shot at.

5. X-Men: First Class, directed by Mathew Vaughn, US.

The years best blockbuster and probably the best Marvel movie yet made (not like the bar has been set too high) was this film. Perhaps I lowered my expectations a lot after four rather bland X-Men related films as well as a enjoyable but ultimately empty Thor film, but this film amazed the hell out of me. It captures all the political subtext of the mutant situation far better than any previous adaptation. Fassbender’s Magneto is one of the screen’s most fascinating characters and rather than portraying him as a cartoonish evil mastermind it’s hard not to be completely on his side for the entire film. Vaughn does an excellent job as director making everyone sympathetic, except perhaps some humans, while keeping things fun and entertaining. The cast may have seemed like largely unknowns but it makes for a much better film since they got actual actors instead of “stars”, and with enough references and in jokes to amuse the most nerdy of comic fans.

4. A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi, Iran.

An Iranian film in 2011? Yeah I was surprised too. After last year’s Abbas Kiarostami film A Certified Copy (released in the US in 2011) got so much festival praise I was a little disappointed. The film wasn’t bad but wasn’t nearly as good as many critics were calling it, and had nothing at all to do with Iran. I wondered if that golden age of Iranian classics were over. It seemed in the early part of the 2000s every year great films were coming from Iran, but for several years I haven’t seen anything of note. Then I saw this film on a few critics lists, and although it’s not hitting Chicago until next month, I have my ways. This film is absolutely incredible. You think from the opening scene and the title that this will be another “women have no rights” story about difficult marriage laws and then the film makes its central plot about what seems like a minor incident where it seems everyone is lying yet somehow telling their version of the truth. I haven’t seen such a delicious ethical quagmire in a film since Rashomon and well it’s truly something to behold.

3. The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, France.

Technically this is a foreign film, despite being a silent movie set in Hollywood with several American actors in it. Please don’t make me type the director’s last name again, but my goodness this film is fantastic. Is it a “gimmick” film? Sure but so were some of Hitchcock’s best. Maybe I’m insanely in love with silent movies, or maybe after watching Singin’ in the Rain and Sunset Boulevard recently it’s only strengthened my love of this films premise. Or maybe just the way it was done impressed me so damn much. From the preview I saw it essentially tells the entire film, but I was on board. After watching it there were pretty much no surprises and it didn’t matter it was just that damn good. Jean Dujardin is fantastic as the title character who looks like a French Gene Kelly with a mustache. Besides how can you not like a film with John Goodman playing a studio boss? I would gladly watch this film again right now if I didn’t have champagne to drink (or if I had it on DVD already).

2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, France/Germany/Spain/UK/Thailand.

With a title like that you might be thinking pretentiousness is abounding. Apichatpong has been steadily making great films since 2000’s Mysterious Object at Noon. All of his films seem to tell one long story and there were references to Uncle Boonmee as early as Tropical Malady (possibly Blissfully Yours as well). Taken together his films are a rich and diverse mural, separately they are somnambulistically profound. I know I made up a word but his films almost seem like you’re sleepwalking through them, and when ghosts show up here you feel like your having a surreal dinner with the dead. I couldn’t wrap my head around the film entirely the first time I watched it and I might not be able to catch everything after ten viewings but my goodness when a director just gets better with each film and then delivers his best yet it is something to behold.

1. Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick, US.

None of you should be surprised at this. I’m sorry that 3 of my top 4 agreed completely with Film Comment’s poll, didn’t expect that honestly. There was no way this wasn’t going to top my list. Seeing this in the theater, despite the projection breaking down half way, and the lights never being turned back on, while I was on my one and only date with a girl I never saw again couldn’t diminish the fact that I have NEVER seen anything this good in a movie theater. I’m not saying this is the greatest movie of all time, but probably the greatest one I’ve seen in a movie theater. This film is profound like 2001 was and very few movies since. Some of it’s images are burnt in my brain, I was spellbound the entire time. The audacity to make a rather epic film with this loose of a plot structure is incredible. My thoughts are this film is a cinematic equivalent of Joyce’s Ulysses. Not in terms of theme but simply feel or structure, as well as brilliance. Terrence Malick has done some great work in the past, but no matter how high my expectations were (and they were pretty high, nothing could have prepared me for how god damn brilliant this is. Stop reading and get this on Netflix, go to your video store, or just buy the damn thing outright you will probably never see another movie this good come out again.