After a couple of weeks trying in vain to get caught up with all the ‘important’ films I didn’t see in theaters last year, I finally just gave up [a kind of ‘the faster I run, the behinder I get’ situation] and decided to get on with it. So, follow the jump to my picks for the best movies of 2011.
15. Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol – the action movie of the year, Brad bird’s take on the franchise wasn’t above referencing earlier chapters or paying homage to other spy franchises from Agent 007 to Agent 86. Seen in IMAX, its action set pieces – especially the big one on the world’s tallest building – were spectacular, and there was a welcome emotional undercurrent that gave the film more weight than the average action movie.
14. Source Code – an incredibly clever science fiction movie that melded time travel, string theory and the possibility of alternate universes into a harrowing thrill ride. Add a unique love story and the need for honor – and give them to a superb cast and a talented young director – and the result is memorable.
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – the action movie second half of the franchise’s two-part conclusion had as much heart as anyone could ask for, fans of the books or not. For all the amazing effects and action, it all came down to love – in the most interesting and unexpected ways.
12. 50/50 – the cancer comedy that Adam Sandler wanted to make with Funny People and missed. Written by a cancer survivor, this film got everything right – the fear, the gallows humor, the unexpected support/lack of same. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gave one of the best performances of the year and Seth Rogen showed unexpected colors. Together with a lovely performance from Anna Kendrick as an inexperienced counselor of cancer patients, they built a cancer comedy that really worked.
11. Captain America: The First Avenger – the Raiders of the Lost Ark of superhero movies. Fast-paced, filled with both heart and unique action set pieces, this was a film that showed how it could’ve been camped up and then went real. Chris Evans gives his best performance, yet.
10. Super 8 – J.J. Abrams channels Steven Spielberg almost as well as Spielberg does. Buoyed by fine work from its tween cast – and especially Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney – this movie just feels right in every respect.
9. Rango – an animated feature that is literate, witty, peculiar and very cinematic. The superb animation [the year’s best] wouldn’t work if the story didn’t, and the story and characters are delightful. Gore Verbinski took the opposite path to Brad Bird [to animation from live action] and showed that a good director is able to work wonders with whichever tools he chooses.
8. The Skin I Live In – Pedro Almodovar’s best film in ages – and one of Antonio Banderas’ best performances. Almodovar has daddy issues, mommy issues, sexual issues and even societal issues and chooses to express them through his films. This unlikely hybrid of Vertigo and Frankenstein is funny, sad, glorious and terrifying in turn.
7. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – this unflinching adaptation of the worldwide bestseller is as good as the original Swedish film adaptation. It approaches the story differently – it excises at least as much of the plot – and may well make Rooney Mara a star. Still, all the original themes are there – couched in the tropes of a locked door mystery. Wonderfully dark, strange stuff.
6. The Descendants – it’s not often that the subject of a coming-of-age story is a fifty-year old man, but The Descendants is just that. As with Alexander Payne’s other movies, it is a deeply human tale about deeply human – and frequently confused – characters. Plus, Hawaii.
5. Moneyball – a movie about leveling the playing field when you have much fewer resources to draw upon; a movie about looking at the status quo from a new direction and finding a way to upset it. Moneyball takes the most boring subject in the world [statistics] and one of the most boring games in the world [baseball] and makes them both palatable – even enjoyable. Brad Pitt gives his best performance ever and Jonah Hill shatters any preconceptions we might have had about his abilities. Wonderful.
4. The Artist – a simple ‘a star is born’ story with a twist – the new star returns the favor to the faded star who helped make her career. Shot in beautiful black and white and mostly silent, The Artist isn’t a profound movie, or a technological breakthrough [though the advent of the talkies certainly fits that theme] – it’s simply a beguiling entertainment done supremely well. Sometimes, that’s all that matters.
3. Midnight in Paris – a successful screenwriter, on the verge of marriage, longs to experience the nighttime Paris of the twenties and learns that nostalgia ain’t necessarily what it’s cracked up to be. Owen Wilson and Woody Allen make a terrific team and Paris at midnight is strictly magical.
2. The Muppets – smartly witty and equally smartly stupid, The Muppets is funny and wise and, more occasionally, supremely silly. It’s the most pure fun I had at the movies in 2011.
1. Hugo – in the hands of a master, 3D becomes a compelling moviemaking tool in utterly unexpected ways. The story of an orphan seeking a family without realizing it, Hugo is also about the joys of both making and going to the movies. Where The Muppets was the most pure fun I had at the movies in 2011, Hugo was the most wondrous experience I had.
Whoever said that 2011 was a poor year for movies definitely needs to rethink that assessment. Here are just a few of the other films that I loved that could easily have made this list: Attack the Block, Beginners, A Dangerous Method, Drive, Hanna, The Hedgehog, The Ides of March, Jane Eyre, Melancholia, Thor, The Tree of Life, We Need To Talk About Kevin, X-Men: First Class and Young Adult – and that’s just of the top of my head.