2011 Top Ten List and Other Year End Miscellany

I loved 2011 at the movies, in part because it brought a change in philosophy, namely: an unwillingness to waste time on films that were certain to waste my time. It’s a rewarding approach; I recommend it. The other day I read my friend Eric Snider’s typically terrific year-end piece and, upon realizing that I had only seen one of his bottom ten (Sucker Punch, which frankly wasn’t that bad), wiped away happy tears at the thought that I didn’t waste 1/365^th of the year watching Bucky Larson, New Year’s Eve, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and Jack and Jill. Two or three years ago, I think I would have done, but it’s stupid — life’s too short, and no one’s paying me.

And there was plenty of good to occupy my time. The year’s genre slate was particularly strong, kicked off by a remarkable SXSW slate and capped by a surprisingly fruitful holiday season. At long last, there’s a horror movie on my top 10 list – a truly great, once-in-a-decade one – obviating the need for a “special mention.” The lack of a foreign film in the bunch does pain me (though there would have been one at number five had its release not gotten kicked to 2012), but otherwise it’s an eclectic list, representative of the diversity of the year’s best offerings – indie, Hollywood, franchise, genre, et cetera – and I’m quite taken with it. Happy New Year, and thanks for reading.

The Worst Movie I Saw

Due to my delightful new reluctance to sit through obvious garbage, I don’t really feel qualified to make a “worst of the year” list, but the most painful thing I sat through was Gary McKendry’s Killer Elite, a chintzy and wholly phoned-in piece of spy/secret agent/assassin idiocy starring Jason Statham and extremely bored-looking Clive Owen and Robert DeNiro. Not aggressively awful so much as ceaselessly dull and lacking any reason to exist, which is far worse.

A Small Sampling of Overlooked Films You Should Maybe Check Out Sometime Despite Bad Reviews or General Indifference

I was apparently the only one who really enjoyed The Art of Getting By, which seemed to me to be a lovely coming-of-ager with a terrific performance by Freddie Highmore.

People really had it in for Sanctum, a silly but nicely claustrophobic and detail-obsessed adventure flick about Aussie cave-divers.

The Farrely Bros.’ Hall Pass isn’t good enough to call “overlooked,” really, but it’s not nearly as bad as everyone says. Ditto Your Highness.

I don’t care what you think, The Hangover Part II was better than Bridesmaids. Yes, it’s a total retread, but Todd Phillips is at least an actual director who wants to make actual movies with, like, pacing and tone and stuff.

Winter in Wartime is a cool kid-centric war movie that should have gotten more attention than it did.

I liked Robert Redford’s The Conspirator, but see everyone’s point about Redford’s tendency to wield his politics like a sledgehammer; at least it’s better than Lions for Lambs in that respect.

If you dig almost purely conceptual art films, seek out Le Quattro Volte.

Our Idiot Brother is very funny and surprisingly smart.

A few of the entries on my Honorable Mentions list, below, could have appeared here as well.

My Favorite Performance of the Year

Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation is getting lots of attention on top 10 lists in screenplay and foreign film categories, and deservedly so, but I wanted to call attention to supporting player Shahab Hosseini, so powerful as the humiliated husband who goes on the warpath to defend his family honor.

Ineligible Films I Should Say Something About

I arbitrarily decided to limit my top 10 list to 2011 commercial theatrical releases, which leaves off some great stuff.

The Kid with a Bike, from the Dardenne brothers, is – even more than their other films – wise and heartbreaking and great, and I can’t wait to see it again; it comes out spring 2012.

How to Die in Oregon is an astonishing documentary about the hugely important and difficult subject of assisted suicide; unflinching, compassionate, and sometimes nearly unwatchable. After playing Sundance and SXSW, it premiered on HBO and can now be seen through various HBO-related avenues.

On the other hand, Fightville, Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein’s thoughtful and beautifully-made look at the world of workaday Mixed Martial Arts hasn’t been released at all, and I’m not sure if or when it will be.

There were two films co-written by and starring Brit Marling on the festival circuit this year, and the wrong one made it into theaters. Another Earth mostly just flushed a nifty premise down the toilet, but Sound of My Voice was a pretty terrifying exploration of the cult mentality, and a great high-concept companion piece to Martha Marcy May Marlene. Fox Searchlight bought it, but appears to have shelved it.

Ben Wheatley’s Kill List will be available on demand in the next few weeks. Get everyone out of the house, turn off your phone, hit the lights, make some tea, and watch it.

Honorable Mentions, in Alphabetical Order

Absentia, Attack the Block, Crazy, Stupid Love., Drive, Heartbeats, Insidious, Horrible Bosses, Margaret, Meek’s Cutoff, Melancholia, Moneyball, NEDS, One Day, Rango, A Separation, Source Code, The Tree of Life, Vanishing on 7^th Street.

The Top Ten

10. Black Death (Christopher Smith) – I wrote a little bit about Black Death at the end of last year; I saw it again in 2011 and it’s almost perfect, a precise, airtight meditation on the relationship between fear, loss and religious fervor. And while bleak stinger-type endings are de rigueur in horror these days, Black Death offers the only recent one that’s truly, down-to-the-bones disquieting.

9. Weekend (Andrew Haigh) – Before Sunrise has been the popular comparison, and it seems right; Lost in Translation may be another good one – all are stories about transformative but tragically fleeting connections between two people.  Weekend is less constrained than Sunrise (its lovers have longer than just a night, and get to spend some time apart) but also more complete:  we get a sense of their past and future, and some context for their heartbreak and joy.

8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt) – The difference between Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the difference between a good action film and a great one. Ghost Protocol is “awesome” in the most basic sense – it’s viscerally overwhelming and incredibly cool to edge out the window of the Burj Khalifa with Tom Cruise, in 70mm IMAX. Rise is awesome in a bigger, more profound way: for two hours, it convinces us – with matchless storytelling chops as well as cutting-edge effects – that the future of humanity is at stake.

7. The Ides of March (George Clooney) – This year’s Social Network:  riveting, intelligent adult entertainment. The kind of straightforward, expertly constructed, edge-of-your-seat drama we don’t see nearly enough.

6. War Horse (Steven Spielberg) – This is not a movie about a horse, and it’s a shame that so many are perpetuating that illusion. The horse is a plot device, and War Horse is one of Spielberg’s trickiest films since A.I., exploring the same themes he tackled in Schindler’s List – viz., humanity enduring in the most inhuman circumstances – through sentimental, typically Spielbergian means. Maybe the biggest compliment I can pay the film is that I didn’t realize I loved it until two-thirds of the way through, when it suddenly became apparent what Spielberg was doing.

5. Win Win (Thomas McCarthy) – It’s becoming apparent that McCarthy is a national treasure, a mainstream storyteller with an ear for authenticity and an eye for great drama. Win Win weaved universal, instantly sympathetic characters into an effortless narrative about how hard it can be – and how important – to do the right thing. Like McCarthy’s The Visitor, one of my favorites of 2007, it’s hugely entertaining, profoundly moral, and deeply compassionate.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (David Yates) – Simply the best major franchise blockbuster since The Return of the King – the most artful, assured, exciting, and beautiful.

3. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin) – A lot of the movies on this list are frightening in one way or another, but Martha Marcy May Marlene may be the most insidiously scary. It’s a cold film, not particularly personal – it doesn’t give a shit if you identify with or like anyone in it, for one thing – but it may be the year’s most formally impressive, a merciless dissection of the mechanics and effects of indoctrination.

2.  Stake Land (Jim Mickle) – Here’s a near-masterpiece that flew almost completely under the radar, perhaps because this brand of horror isn’t currently in style. Stake Land is far from soft – it’s perfectly capable of being brutal when called for – but nor is it cynical or particularly edgy in approach; it likes its characters, cares about them, and doesn’t get any jollies from hurting them. This is a moody, melancholy film about living in America – about dealing with desperate setbacks, hanging on to hope as the world goes to shit, trying to raise children and take care of the people you love. Oh, and vampires. I love this movie to death – it’s my favorite horror film in many, many years.

1. Shame (Steve McQueen) – One would have thought the title would give people a clue about what this movie’s actually about, yet people keep going on and on about sex addiction, as if that were the alpha and the omega of this amazing movie about the impossibility of connecting with others when you can’t stand to be with yourself. Amidst all the hysteria over the nudity and the NC-17 rating, I keep coming back to the simple scene with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan talking on the couch, with him throwing up every emotional barrier he knows and her trying desperately to bulldoze them. Devastating.

And Some Moments That 2011 Burned Into My Retinas:

The final shot of Melancholia, summing up the entire movie in a few unforgettable seconds.

Shame: Fassbender, Mulligan, Looney Tunes, couch.

Jeannie Berlin throwing Anna Paquin out of her apartment for using the word “strident,” in Margaret.

Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill orchestrating a player trade in real time, in Moneyball.

Insidious’ cold open, followed by the year’s best title card.

Absentia: Courtney Bell taking the policeman’s hand to keep walking, but he stops.

Steve Carell trying to defuse an explosive parent-teacher conference in Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Enemy soldiers briefly laying down their guns in War Horse.

An impromptu wrestling match in a forest in Heartbeats.

Drive, in the elevator.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s pre-op collapse in 50/50.

An indie rock number morphs into “Tainted Love” in David McKenzie’s tragically underseen You Instead.

The incredible footage that opens How to Die in Oregon.

Midnight Son’s defiantly triumphant ending.

Emma Roberts tormenting Freddie Highmore at a restaurant in The Art of Getting By.

Elizabeth Olsen climbing into an occupied bed in Martha Marcy May Marlene.

That fucking catfish in Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.