Best Feature Films of 2011

OK, buckle your seatbelts. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

I have to start with my probably obvious disclaimer that I’m not a professional film critic, and since I hold a full-time job doing something other than watching and writing about movies all day, I unfortunately don’t get to see everything. I guess there is a silver lining to that fact: at least I was spared the pain of The Smurfs, Chipwrecked, Zookeeper, the most recent Twilight, The Beaver (what was Jodie Foster thinking?), Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill, and that lame gnome version of Romeo and Juliet—most of which my six-year-old either saw with his mom or wants to see. Thank you for indulging him, Tracy. It makes me shudder just thinking about them, and I sort of feel sorry for professional film critics who have to see stuff like that. Unfortunately, I was not spared the pain of a few truly horrible blockbusters. I’m thinking specifically of Cars 2, Battle: Los Angeles, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I’ll never get back those six hours!!

A few notable films I didn’t see yet include Shame, Drive, The Skin I Live In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Take Shelter, United Red Army, Margaret, and A Separation. If they are good enough, I might write about them later.

Also, this year I decided to split my “best of” list into two and remove the documentaries from this one. There are several docs I really liked, so I’ll work on that one soon.

Here’s my list:

1. Hugo. Directed by the brilliant Martin Scorsese, Hugo tells the story of a young orphan boy living in a Paris train station in 1930s. His goal is to repair a mechanical man his late father worked on. Based on an award-winning book by Brian Selznick, the film is also a fictionalized account of Hugo’s relationship with the great Frenchman Georges Méliès, whose Trip to the Moon and other magical and surreal films of the early 1900s established him as one of the earliest and most revolutionary filmmakers in the history of cinema. Méliès was almost completely forgotten by the time the film takes place with nearly all of his films seemingly lost and film historians thinking him dead. The film added to the excellent novel by including a couple of minor romantic pairings and fleshing out the book’s cruel station master, making him a comedic but more fully human character played by the surprisingly restrained Sacha Baron Cohen. What is truly memorable about the film is that in addition to its compelling story, Scorsese demonstrates with images, music, and editing his great passion for the silent films of the early 1900s (The Artist also does this, and while I liked it overall, I didn’t feel its middle quite matched the amazing beginning and ending). I have to say that it’s a contagious passion because immediately after seeing the film with my six-year-old, Wyatt said, “Dad, we should watch some Georges Méliès.” And we did! He loved most of the films and even watched nearly a whole 2-hour disc without me. Visually rich, touching, and quite funny, Hugo isn’t to be missed. I can’t recommend it highly enough. And this is one of those films that you want to see in 3D; Scorsese utilizes the technology to enhance the story and not for showing off the effects.  

2. 13 Assassins. Since I wrote about this elsewhere on this blog, I won’t say much here. This is quite simply an excellent samurai film directed with (mostly) untypical restraint by Takashi Miike.

3. Poetry. This Korean film tells the fascinating story of an aging grandmother who enrolls in a poetry class as she finds herself in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Living with the grandmother is her apathetic and self-centered grandson, and she struggles to maintain a relationship with him beyond merely cooking him dinner or whisking him off to school. It’s a moving story about aging, generational conflicts, deep moral questions, and the creative process. Poetry becomes a metaphor in the film for coming to terms with life and all of its unsavory and seemingly meaningless aspects. If my description makes it sound boring, trust me, it isn’t. There’s a whole complicated plot about the rape (not shown) and suicide of a young girl, so it’s not just a film about old people sitting around writing poetry—which, I should add, I would probably enjoy. It’s a film about life, love, family, art, and death. It’s about what it means to be human.

4. Tree of Life. I’ve written twice about this film elsewhere, so I will just say that even though parts are slow and certain elements are confusing, this is on the whole one of the most beautiful and thought-provoking films I have ever seen. I need to see it again.

5. Certified Copy. Directed by the renowned Iranian Abbas Kiarostami, Certified Copy unfolds the mysterious story of two people, one is a British writer and the other a French art dealer (played by the always exquisite Juliette Binoche). The writer has just published a book titled Certified Copy—it’s about the idea that a copy is just as beautiful and important as the original and the silliness of our society’s frowning upon copied art. I won’t give anything away, but I will say that about half way through something very interesting is said that calls into question our very understanding of this couple and their relationship. A film about art, love, relationships, and the past, Certified Copy is an engaging and enlightening film that takes us in unexpected directions.

6. City of Life and Death. A powerful black-and-white film about the Japanese conquest and occupation of Nanking in China in 1937. It’s an unconventional film in that it doesn’t follow a single story line—though there are several characters—and doesn’t really have much of a plot. I suppose the best way to describe it would be to call it a poem, a poem about the horrors of war. Controversial in China when it was first released, City of Life and Death does not demonize all of the Japanese nor does it romanticize the Chinese.

7. Crazy, Stupid Love. I’m surprised this groundbreaking comedy isn’t showing up on more (or any?) top-ten lists. Ryan Gosling, who is possibly the greatest living American actor, is paired with Steve Carell, who normally underwhelms me but in this case he was just right. It’s a hilarious movie (also starring Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, and Marisa Tomei) that walks a fine line between being conventional and breaking lots of rules. I put it on this list because it thoroughly entertained me but also because it said some insightful things about relationships and what it means to be happy as a human being. Steve Carell’s character is a bit like Siddhartha in his search for happiness and enlightenment. Think about it.

8. The Descendents. This is George Clooney’s best role. It’s interesting how “normal” he can look and act. Normal hair, normal clothes. In this film he is a normal guy, a guy with two kids who finds out after his wife has been in a terrible accident that she was cheating on him. On the surface the film is about his discovery of this information and what he decides to do with it. But it’s also about his coming to terms with his less-than-mediocre parenting skills and taking small steps to becoming a better father—and a better person. Directed by Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election, About Schmidt), The Descendents is what Payne himself has called a “minor” film, but that’s what I liked about it. It’s a small film about a small family crisis. There’s nothing outwardly deep or philosophical or showy about it. But there is something moving and profound in its small way about Clooney’s character’s realizations and actions. He’s a normal guy who has to choose whether he’s going to do the right things. Also, Shailene Woodley, the 20-year-old actress who plays Clooney’s daughter, is a revelation.

9. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was a little surprised how much I liked David Fincher’s new film. I had read the books and enjoyed them—though not as much as some people. That is, I thought they were fairly entertaining and Lisbeth Salander was truly an original, but to me they were merely genre fiction and didn’t really transcend any literary boundaries. (I realize how snobby that sounds). I started watching the Swedish film version of Dragon Tattoo but stopped after about ten minutes. I was bored. So, I went into the new American version with very low expectations. Fincher’s version, perhaps not surprisingly if you’ve seen anything else by him, is much darker than the earlier film or even the novel. The lighting, the overall mood, the near total lack of humor. Even the sex has a dark edge to it. And I should add that this is a very adult film with a couple of very brutal rape scenes and several serial-killer aftermath photos. Watching it just confirms what I have felt for years: that David Fincher is one of the greatest living American directors. The film is very well constructed, beautifully (and darkly) shot, and well paced. This is what all Hollywood films should be like.

10. Melancholia. Lars von Trier is a pretty arrogant and annoying person, but with Melancholia he’s made a philosophical and provocative film. A film about melancholy, dysfunctional families, quite possibly the worst imaginable wedding-reception ever, and an impending collision with a huge planet, Melancholia is ultimately about the need to find human connections in a world that pushes us toward isolation. I’m pretty sure it’s also a metaphor for embracing melancholy and not treating it like an illness.  

Other independent or art-house films I enjoyed: Le Quattro Volte (a completely wordless and poetic film about the transmigration of the soul); The Artist; Incendies (a French film about two grown twins discovering their family history in the war torn Middle East); Jane Eyre; Ides of March; Midnight in Paris; A Dangerous Method (Keira Knightley was a bit too much for me, but who can pass up the story of Freud and Jung?); Win, Win (one of the greatest sports movies ever!); Red State (Kevin Smith makes a horror film that also makes a total mockery of red staters), and The Trip (has three or four of the funniest scenes in any movies I saw this year).

Other blockbuster/popular films I enjoyed: Moneyball (Brad Pitt is great and it’s simply an inspiring story about how hard it is to break free of conventional thinking), Kung Fu Panda 2, Bridesmaids (hilarious at times; pretty crude in others), X-Men: First Class (I thought this was the best of the X-Men films and the best superhero film this year), Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (not a great film but it has some seriously amazing action sequences), Super 8, Point Blank (a French action thriller about a male nurse on the run for a crime he didn’t commit), and Limitless (a smart and gripping mainstream film).

The Best Films of 2010

For my maiden voyage on this blog, I wanted to do a best-of list. I did it last year and found it sort of fun. I should first say, though, that there are many 2010 films I have not yet seen, but only a handful of these have been regularly appearing on other top ten lists, so my list is not radically out of step with other critics' lists. I include links to a few other best-of lists below.

My List

1. The Social Network. David Fincher’s film is topping most of the “best of” lists for a reason: it’s really good. Written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), it’s funny, witty, and full of pathos. It’s also a brilliant commentary on the new socially-networked world in which we are living. The Social Network has it all: intelligent writing, great acting, and fine direction by Fincher (Fight Club and Zodiac). Some might find the greed, cynicism, obliviousness, and unadulterated arrogance of the Zuckerberg character off-putting, but I found him quintessentially human. He’s pretty despicable, at times, but I sympathized with his utterly sad and ultimately lonely character. The founder of Facebook has no friends…or shouldn’t if you believe this version of his story.

2. Red Riding Trilogy: In the Year of Our Lord 1974, 1980, 1983. Originally made in 2009 for British television and adapted from David Peace’s quartet of novels, this gripping and stylized neo-noir crime drama, inspired by the Yorkshire Ripper case, tells the complex story of police corruption and cover-up for one of Britain’s most heinous crimes. I thought the second film (Red Riding: In the Year of our Lord 1980), starring Paddy Considine, was a masterpiece. There’s nothing quite like the experience of a long series like this; it hooks you from the very beginning.

3. The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg was a U.S. military consultant who, while working for the RAND Corporation, secretly photocopied what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers and distributed them to The New York Times and other national newspapers. The papers recorded the history of our involvement in the war in Vietnam, detailing lies told by the Johnson and Nixon administration to justify and extend our involvement in the war. These papers represented a major shift in American attitudes toward the government, and while Nixon vilified Ellsberg—Kissinger calling him “the most dangerous man in America”—the risks he took to expose the government for what it really was has earned him hero status among many on the left. Channeling Henry David Thoreau, Ellsberg committed his own act of civil disobedience, an act that technically may have been illegal but clearly served the greater good for our country. Along with his lovely wife, Ellsberg (now 80) has devoted himself to fighting for a more perfect union ever since.

4. Toy Story 3. The third Woody/Buzz venture has it all: humor, excitement, drama, a prison escape, a runaway train, a Ken and Barbie love story, Spanish with English subtitles, and a really evil pink teddy bear. My wife teases me for being so stoic (my word). It’s true; I don’t cry easily. And while I didn’t quite get to tears in the scene where Andy’s mom comes into her son’s empty room after he has left for college, I did get quite choked up. I couldn’t help it. Someday that will be my little Wyatt.

5. The Ghost Writer.  Roman Polanski’s political thriller easily ranks among his masterpieces, films like Repulsion, Chinatown, and The Pianist. It’s the story of a ghost writer played by Ewan McGregor, hired to revise the autobiography of a controversial former British Prime Minister, clearly inspired by Tony Blair and played by Pierce Brosnan. McGregor stumbles upon some information that fuels the plot of the film and creates some Hitchcockian suspense without the irony (unlike Mother, which is full of irony and humor). It’s a smart, steady, and spare film that builds the suspense and slowly sets the mood rather than the often abrupt or manipulative surprises of typical thrillers.

6. Mother. South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho’s 2007 film Host was one of my favorites that year. It blended comedy and family drama with a kind of Godzilla-monster genre.  In Mother, Bong does an homage to Hitchcock in telling the story of virginal and mildly mentally-challenged Do-Joon, a man who is suspected of murdering a teenage girl. Determined to free him, Do-Joon’s mother does everything she can to prove her son’s innocence, despite her newly acquired pariah status in her community. The film has some really powerful performances and a script with lots of surprising twists and turns.

7. A Prophet. A French film directed by Jacques Audiard (Read My Lips and The Beat That My Heart Skipped), Un Prophet follows Malik, a nineteen-year-old of North African descent who is imprisoned for fighting with police officers. Malik enters a racially divided prison where he begins to work for the Corsicans, a powerful gang with connections outside the prison walls. And it is there in this oppressive prison, where the Corsicans and not the guards rule, that Malik slowly rises to power. 

8. Vincere. Septuagenarian Italian director Marco Bellocchio’s film tells the story of Benito Mussolini’s lover and wife, and Il Duce’s rise to power. Ida Dasler sells all that she has to support the young and ambitious Mussolini and his socialist newspaper, but after marrying her and fathering a child, Il Duce abandons Ida without a second thought. Undeterred, Ida remains absolutely faithful to her husband, and her blind devotion lands her in a mental institution, where she falsely believes that if only she can speak to the right person, she will once again be placed beside her rightful husband. Vincere (which ironically means “to win”) is at once a biographical exploration of Mussolini’s early days and a kind of grand classical opera, stylized by the exhilarating aesthetics of Bellocchio. Two excellent performances by Giovanna Mezzogiorno (as Dasler) and Filippo Timi (who plays both the young Mussolini and Dasler’s son Albino) seal the deal.

9. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. Directed by Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), this new documentary traces the rise and fall of the former governor of New York and presidential hopeful. Gibney, as he clearly indicates by the title, frames the story as a Greek tragedy, with Spitzer fighting against the cruel gods (aka Wallstreet, who cheered and opened champagne bottles when news was announced of Spitzer’s involvement in the sex scandal). While his behavior is, of course, inexcusable, the film forces us to consider whether his crime even comes close to measuring up to the crimes perpetuated by the gods of Wallstreet. The one slightly odd choice in the film was Gibney’s decision to hire an actor to play the role of “Angela,” one of Spitzer’s favorites. The acting is pretty forced and anything but natural, but what she says is fascinating. “Angela” quit her job after the scandal and now works as a securities broker on Wallstreet.

10. Exit through the Gift Shop. A documentary about Thierry Guetta, a d.i.y. “filmmaker” turned self-made street artist. By happenstance, Guetta meets major street artists like Shepard Fairey, who designed the Obama “Hope” image, and Banksy, the British artist probably most famous for painting tranquil images on the West Bank wall. Deciding on something of a whim to become a street artist himself, Guetta, who now goes by MBW or Mr. Brainwash, quickly puts together what surprisingly becomes a well-attended art show. But the documentary just might be (and probably is) a well-orchestrated Banksy hoax. That is, MBW—even though he continues to produce art and has now designed a Madonna album cover and has had shows in L.A., New York, and Miami—is probably Banksy’s satirical creation, a figure pretending to be an artist in order for Banksy to make a mockery of the commercialization of art and the gullible public. What’s amazing is that the film works on so many levels. As a straight documentary, it’s a fascinating and entertaining portrait of the world’s greatest street artists. As an allegory for our day, it’s a deep and meaningful exploration of lie and truth, fiction and reality. As a work of art created by Banksy himself, it serves as a profound commentary on the art world and asks big philosophical questions about economics, aesthetics, ethics, and metaphysics. What is art? Or what is the value of art? Or more broadly, what is reality and how do we know what is real? It’s like the Matrix without knowing for certain whether the Matrix actually exists.

11. Repo Men. I like movies with rich themes, and Repo Men is a film of ideas. It takes place in a futuristic world where a company has developed excellent artificial organ replacements. The organs save lives and make it possible for dying brothers, fathers, mothers, and grandparents to live long, healthy lives. But the organs come at an exorbitant cost. People purchase them on credit, but when they can’t pay that’s when the repo men come in. Jude Law and Forest Whitaker play men who collect the organs. They knock people out, perform surgeries on the living room floor, in the bathroom, in the back seat of a taxi cab, or wherever, and leave the recipients to die. The corporation gets its money; the repo men get paid. It’s a perfect allegory for our debt-ridden consumerist society and the greed of big business. Warning: The film is fairly bloody, so stay away if that bothers you.

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

Defamation. Originally released in 2009, this documentary from a secular Israeli Jew explores the controversial issue of anti-Semitism and its role in U.S. foreign policy. The film’s underlying argument is that anti-Semitism may not be as widespread as the Anti Defamation League, the Israeli press, or the Israeli government make it out to be.  The ADL and the Israelis take the stance that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, and there are American scholars on the left who question this new definition of anti-Semitism, arguing that it serves only to provide justification for foreign aid to Israel. While the ADL visits powerful leaders across the world warning them of the growing threat of anti-Semitism, the film questions the legitimacy of these incidents. Racist attitudes are clearly still present—as demonstrated by interviews with black men on the streets in New York, but the film questions the value of what seems to be hyperbolic and trumped up incidents reported to the ADL. It also questions what seems to be indoctrination and propaganda instigated by the Israeli government in which Israeli high school kids are taught to believe that the world outside of Israel is full of anti-Semites that hate them.   

The Kids Are All Right.  It’s a mistake to pigeon-hole this film as merely a gay comedy because it’s much more than that. But it is pretty funny. It’s so refreshing to watch comedies that aren’t dependent on corny one-liners or bathroom humor. And performances by Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, and Mark Ruffalo are all spot-on.

Kick-Ass. I haven’t seen this film on any top-ten list. Bummer. It’s a funny and entertaining riff on the superhero genre that manages to do something very rare. It tells an effective superhero story while simultaneously making fun of superhero stories. I guess that’s a contradiction, but who cares? By the way, the trailer doesn't do it justice.

The Killer Inside Me. Warning: this is an incredibly violent and misogynistic story, and I’m not really sure if the director Michael Winterbottom is criticizing or commenting on the violence and misogyny. But despite the brutal violence (there is one scene in which a man beats a woman to death with his fists), I still found it to be a fascinating exploration into the mind of a psychopath. Not a place I want to stay long, mind you.

The King’s Speech. Collin Firth will probably win an Oscar for his performance in this film as stuttering King George VI. And he should; it’s an excellent and moving performance. The fact that he so nicely humanizes a king, something we Americans seem to disdain, is a feat in itself. It’s a feel-good movie that basically says, “If he can do this, you can do something important, too.”

The Secret in Their Eyes. Winner of the 2009 Best-Foreign-Film Academy Award, this Argentinean film tells the story of a lawyer haunted by the memory of a brutal rape and murder case. I found the first few minutes overly arty and self conscious, and it took probably twenty minutes to get into the story, but I became completely engaged after that. A gripping murder mystery and a beautiful love story, it’s also a film that asks some pretty profound questions about crime, betrayal, punishment, redemption, and what it means to be happy.

The Town. Some of the critics I read thought that this wasn’t as good as the almost universally praised Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck’s first film, but I thought The Town was better. It’s a strong genre film about a gang of expert bank robbers working in Boston. It’s a gripping, gritty, and well-paced heist film. And who doesn’t love one of those? Strong acting with Affleck and Jeremy Renner (from The Hurt Locker) and a smart script take it to the next level.

Wild Grass. A thoughtful, aesthetically gorgeous, and ambiguously philosophical rumination on aging, love, and truth. It’s a French film directed by Alain Resnais, who has been directing since the ‘50s.

Film Comment's List

The New York Times' List (go all the way below to see the list)

Sight & Sound's List

Brian Miller's List (from Seattle Weekly)

Roger Ebert's List

David Edelstein’s List (NPR’s Fresh Air and New York Magazine)