Sabin wrote:Unless I'm mistaken, is this your first top five without a single Best Picture nominee? A Separation, Of Gods and Men, In a Better World, Poetry, and Drive. And Hugo and The Artist round out the very bottom of your top ten after Shame and Win Win. I say this with the confidence of someone who considers A Separation one of the best films in a few years, were you intensely disappointed in 2011 or were you just intensely disappointed with the films that were receiving attention?
The foreign films made the strongest first impression but over time the films I remember best are the big Hollywood ones, some of which were unfairly dismissed by the critics, most notably my top two. I think I was more impressed by the fact that A Separation was able to be made in Iran than the film itself, which is fine, but not want I want to watch too many times. War Horse and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close may not be perfect films, but there are scenes and images from both of them that I recall more vividly than any other from that year.
Here is my revised list:
Ten Best Films of 2011
War Horse (Steven Spielberg)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Stephen Daldry)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson)
Hugo (Martin Scorsese)
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois)
In a Better World (Susanne Bier)
The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar)
Poetry (Chang-Dong Lee)
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
I'm going off of 2011 US (i.e., NY/LA) commercial releases.
There are many of films I stiiiiiill haven't seen - either well-received films from directors I like or love (such as Go Go Tales, Meek's Cutoff, Mysteries of Lisbon, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and House of Pleasures) or simply really critically acclaimed things I just haven't gotten around to yet (such as Take Shelter, Midnight in Paris, Attack the Block, A Separation, and Margaret). But I've seen enough to make a list of ten solid films, plus a few honorable mentions.
In descending order (individual ranking is not super-important here) ...
- The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick) - total masterpiece.
- Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard) - ditto.
- Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
- Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Antonioni)
- Road to Nowhere (Monte Hellman)
- Melancholia (Lars Von Trier) - I don't typically like LVT anymore but was surprised at how rich & even moving this was.
- Myth of the American Sleepover (David Robert Mitchell) - I prefer this sweet, shaggy pastiche to JJ Abrams' Super 8, which is impressive in how it realizes early '80s Spielbergiana, and features good child performances, but doesn't have much going for it aside from those things.
- The Arbor (Clio Barnard)
- The Princess of Montpensier (Bertrand Tavernier)
- Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird) - the M:I series is somewhat unprecedented in that you've had four different directors putting their own "stamp" on the franchise, largely linked in tone & approach only by Tom Cruise and a certain strain of nostalgia for the original & its premises .. and each M:I installment has been, at least, interesting. This one counts as one of the best action movies of recent years ... a really exhilirating work, shallow, but the director knows how to tug at heartstrings appropriately too and I think this helps undergird the whole process.
I also really liked 13 Assassins (Miike), A Dangerous Method (Cronenberg), the truly wonderful pulpy horror movie Insidious (Wan), and to a lesser extent, Fast Five.
There is a thin, porous line between certain movies I liked or admired but didn't love (such as Sleeping Beauty, Drive, or Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and a few of the other movies I'd start to put in the "overrated" category, starting with Of Gods and Men, which I wanted to like but didn't - its form & politics simply strike me as safe though I wouldn't call it a bad film. Sort of liked Bridesmaids on a comedic level but think it largely fell short as the sort of "great" comedy some felt it was. Hugo underwhelmed; The Descendants was better than I expected but I went in with very low expectations. There were a number of bad movies but I think Thor left the worst taste in my mouth for its predictability, and for the awful way (common in movies of its kind) where teenagey "ironic" slang gets juxtaposed clumsily with high-falutin' quasi-Queen's English speech patterns. Ugh. The movie was awful - with the sole exception of the scene where Thor slammed his coffee cup onto the ground and bellowed for more. That was funny.
... Worth mentioning: Ken Jeong's hilarious performance in Hangover 2, Anna Faris (great as always) in What's Your Number?, and the opening sequence of Tarsem Singh's idiotic Immortals.
So far 2011 is looking like one of the best years in world cinema for AGES.
My Top 10 so far, having seen 28 films. These could all hold their own in top 10s from years in which I've seen 40,50,60 films:
1. House of Tolerance (Bonello)
2. Margaret (Lonergan)
3. A Separation (Farhadi)
4. Oslo, August 31st (Trier)
5. Miss Bala (Naranjo)
6. Melancholia (von Trier)
7. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Durkin)
8. We Need to Talk About Kevin (Ramsay)
9. Breathing (Markovics)
10. Weekend (Haigh)
Unless I'm mistaken, is this your first top five without a single Best Picture nominee? A Separation, Of Gods and Men, In a Better World, Poetry, and Drive. And Hugo and The Artist round out the very bottom of your top ten after Shame and Win Win. I say this with the confidence of someone who considers A Separation one of the best films in a few years, were you intensely disappointed in 2011 or were you just intensely disappointed with the films that were receiving attention?
Top Ten :
1. The Tree of Life - 85 points
2. A Separation - 65 points
3. Drive - 61 points
4. Hugo - 60 points
5. The Artist - 52 points
5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 52 points
7. Shame - 43 points
8. Beginners - 37 points
9. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 29 points
9. Melancholia - 29 points
Runners-up:
11. Certified Copy - 26 points
11. The Descendants - 26 points
11. Martha Marcy May Marlene - 26 points
11. Midnight in Paris - 26 points
15. Moneyball - 22 points
16. Take Shelter - 18 points
17. Young Adult - 16 points
18. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - 15 points
19. The Skin I Live In - 13 points
20. Win Win - 12 points
21. The Help - 10 points
21. Rango - 10 points
1- Martha Marcy May Marlene
2- Shame
3- Young Adult
4- Snow Flower & The Secret Fan
5- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
6- Attack the Block
7- A Better Life
8- The Tree of Life
9- Chico & Rita
10- Melanchoila
Revised list of Our Overall Top Ten and Runners-Up with 10 Points or More
1. The Tree of Life - 82
2. A Separation - 63
3. Drive - 63
4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 58
4. Hugo - 58
6. The Artist - 57
7. Beginners - 37
8. Shame - 32
9. Melancholia - 28
9. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 28
10. The Descendants - 26
10. Midnight in Paris - 26
12. Certified Copy 25
13. Moneyball 22
14. Take Shelter 18
15. Martha Marcy May Marlene 16
15. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 16
17. The Skin I Live In 13
18. Win Win 11
19. 13 Assassins 10
19. Rango 10
19. The Help 10
1. Melancholia
2. Drive
3. Young Adult
4. The Tree of Life
5. Midnight in Paris
6. My Week With Marilyn
7. Bridesmaids
8. Higher Ground
9. Martha Marcy May Marlene
10. Shame