The Best Films of 2011

1. THE TREE OF LIFE (Terrence Malick, 2011)

Terrence Malick’s deeply felt THE TREE OF LIFE finds immense potency in its universal evocation of growing up. Malick and his editors expertly weave together the micro and macro strands into a stunning tapestry in praise of creation and natural and supernatural adoration. With its solemn tone and dominant use of hushed voiceover, THE TREE OF LIFE functions as a two-hour, eighteen minute prayer. Malick’s sacred depiction of eternal human conflict, both inward and outward, is one of the great achievements in cinema for this year and any other.

2. CERTIFIED COPY (COPIE CONFORME) (Abbas Kiarostami, 20xx)

CERTIFIED COPY is an endlessly rich study of a relationship as the platonic ideal versus its all too human form. Abbas Kiarostami utilizes Juliette Binoche and William Shimell as signifiers of their genders and worldviews, not necessarily as individuals, as he charts how two people are when a relationship originates and the versions of them that exist years later. This mind-blowing drama of intellectual rigor and emotional resonance uses reflective surfaces that allow CERTIFED COPY to look different every time you see it.

3. MARGARET (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)

A New York teenager’s reactions to a bus accident serve as Kenneth Lonergan’s way of exploring the national response to 9/11 in this sprawling drama. MARGARET contains untold layers as it follows Anna Paquin’s Lisa lose her innocence in expecting the outside world to conform to her inner life and learning that it won’t. This highly ambitious film vibrates with rage and sorrow and yet also points toward the connections to ease the pain. MARGARET is a major achievement but has been difficult to see. For Columbus-area readers, it’s lone public screening in town takes place March 7 at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

4. TAKE SHELTER (Jeff Nichols, 2011)

TAKE SHELTER considers where the line is that separates a prophet from a madman. Jeff Nichols follows the progression of the protagonist’s mental dilemma and feels the strain that comes from agonizing over a man’s capacity to do right by his family. In an outstanding performance, Michael Shannon portrays such a conflict with great sensitivity and control.

5. SOURCE CODE (Duncan Jones, 2011)

This nimble science fiction-inflected thriller excites via the urgency of a soldier’s mission to stop a terrorist from blowing up a train while bringing compassion to the repeated scenario he cannot affect. SOURCE CODE hints at an intriguing moral question regarding utilitarian philosophy, but whether the film amounts to anything more than a highly entertaining thrill ride isn’t necessarily important.

6. SUPER 8 (J.J. Abrams, 2011)

Playing with his Steven Spielberg movie maker kit, J.J. Abrams fashions a retro blockbuster in SUPER 8 that’s part monster movie and part coming of age story. Many of my favorite films of the year dealt with coming to terms with loss and letting go of the past. SUPER 8 just happened to do so with large, impressive setpieces and tender and funny interactions between kids on the verge of adolescence.

7. MELANCHOLIA (Lars von Trier, 2011)

With MELANCHOLIA Lars von Trier crafts a bold, intensely felt vision of depression via the story of two sisters awaiting Earth’s obliteration by a newly discovered planet. While existence hangs in the balance, von Trier’s fatalistic embrace of impending doom is starkly beautiful and strangely reassuring. Without question Kirsten Dunst’s Justine is the director’s surrogate, someone who finds comfort in the awareness that years of despondency and anxiety were not for naught. Now that her worst possible fear can be confirmed, what else is there to do but submit to the inevitable? In a film full of strong images, its final one is most striking for what it says about accepting those things that cannot be changed.

8. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (Tomas Alfredson, 2011)

The art of observation gets a fascinating showcase in TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. The Cold War espionage thriller is a model of narrative minimalism. With nary an overblown James Bond setpiece in sight, director Tomas Alfredson displays marvelous precision in showing how an agent might do the difficult work, and Gary Oldman is the epitome of quiet cool as the investigating George Smiley. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY is low key, which is only appropriate, but it is also electrifying when it cuts through the noise to the buried truth.

9. TABLOID (Errol Morris, 2010)

For TABLOID Errol Morris finds a bizarre true story from 1977 known as the Mormon sex in chains case. A former beauty queen was accused of following a man to England and then abducting, seducing, and raping him. How much any of it is to be trusted is left up to the viewer of this wildly entertaining documentary, but Morris suggests that the desire to impose a narrative, whether for personal or commercial reasons, overrules the truth.

10. 50/50 (Jonathan Levine, 2011)

Although the main character is diagnosed with cancer, 50/50 is less about the disease and more concerned with the struggle for loved ones to provide support and for the afflicted to allow them to help. This sharply written and performed dramedy tends toward the glossy side, yet it persuades with healthy doses of sincerity and decency.

(Author's note: Since it's a question I've fielded often enough, A SEPARATION [JODAEIYE NADER AZ SIMIN] is not included on this list or my Honorable Mentions for a very simple reason.  I haven't seen it.  It has not yet opened in Columbus nor been available to me. To date, the only chance I had to see it was at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, but it wasn't on my schedule.)

The Best Films of 2010

1. LOURDES (Jessica Hausner, 2009)

LOURDES asks what a miracle is, on whose terms one should be determined, and who is deserving of such a blessing. A marvelous Sylvie Testud plays a woman with severe multiple sclerosis who is healed while on a pilgrimage in the southwestern French town. Director Jessica Hausner observes with detached amusement and seriousness how this seeming miracle changes the individual and the crowd in typical and unexpected ways. LOURDES shows reverence to the mystery while skewering how people try to divine it.

2. INCEPTION (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

Dazzling in its conception and execution, INCEPTION continues Christopher Nolan’s reign as the maker of Hollywood’s brainiest and eye-popping films. This multi-layered leap into the dream world electrifies with its visual and narrative construction. Perhaps INCEPTION’S commercial and critical success will plant the idea that blockbusters don’t always have to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

3. TRUE GRIT (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2010)

Joel and Ethan Coen settle into a vintage western remake that also has room for their signature quirks and humor. TRUE GRIT may be the most classical Hollywood film the brothers have made, but they’ve invested it with a great deal of craftsmanship and personality too. The performances are outstanding across the board. Hailee Steinfeld carries herself well with the immature certainty of youth while while Jeff Bridges’ Dude-ified Rooster Cogburn keeps the laughs coming.

4. FOUR LIONS (Chris Morris, 2010)

Comedies don’t get any nervier than director Chris Morris’s FOUR LIONS, which is built on the exploits of bumbling Islamic terrorists in a cell near London. Boldness in and of itself in a comedy doesn’t mean the material is actually humorous; however, FOUR LIONS is packed with razor-sharp wordplay and glorious slapstick that make it an explosively funny and unsettling film.

5. EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (Banksy, 2010)

The brash and hilarious survey of the street art scene in the documentary EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP is enough to put one’s head spinning. Banksy, a celebrated graffiti artist and the film’s director, presents a quick history of this underground. Then he turns things around to discuss the nature of art, authorship, commerce, and hype. You never know when the rug will be pulled out below you in this thought-provoking and highly entertaining film.

6. HADEWIJCH (Bruno Dumont, 2009)

HADEWIJCH delves into its study of religious ecstasy and confusion with uncommon thoughtfulness. Julie Sokolowski delivers a great performance as a young woman working to make her proud displays of faith more humble, especially after she is sent from a cloistered life back into society. Her religious belief and assurance is powerfully examined as a lifelong dialogue instead of a simple choice that ends the conversation.

7. TOY STORY 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010)

The well is usually long dry by the time of the third film in a series, but the creative minds at Pixar again prove themselves an exception to the rule. TOY STORY 3 brings what should be a fitting conclusion to the adventures of Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the crew in this breakneck action picture and affecting meditation on family.

8. NEVER LET ME GO (Mark Romanek, 2010)

Spanning 1978 to 1994, NEVER LET ME GO tracks three special children who grow up together in a boarding school. In his skillful adaptation of the fantastic Kazuo Ishiguro novel, screenwriter Alex Garland reveals the secret about these characters basically from the outset, yet the underlying science fiction aspect is treated as a canvas for the relationships and emotional turmoil instead of being the main focus. NEVER LET ME GO can be about the soul, technological innovation, media messaging, or any number of things beyond what the plot spells out. Still, the main story regarding love and purpose plays as its own kind of beautiful heartbreak.

9. THE TILLMAN STORY (Amir Bar-Lev, 2010)

THE TILLMAN STORY is a tough and principled documentary about a family’s loss, their persistent search for the truth, and the manufacturing of myths and heroes. Pat Tillman did the unthinkable for a professional athlete. Months after the September 11, 2001 attacks, he left a lucrative career in the National Football League to become an Army Ranger. Tillman refused to explain his motivation for the choice. After he was killed in action, the official report told of a heroic battlefield death that didn’t mesh with the covered-up facts. Tillman became a symbol for the war that he never wished to be. In telling the story of his family’s pursuit for answers, director Amir Bar-Lev also explores our need for unquestionable heroes and how creating them is a disservice to them.

10. MARWENCOL (Jeff Malmberg, 2010)

The documentary MARWENCOL reveals the imaginative creations that bloomed out of tragedy and need for one man. After being assaulted Mark Hogamcamp lost his memory and turned to a unique way of rediscovering his identity and trying to recover. In his yard Hogancamp builds a World War II-era Belgian town he dubs Marwencol and fills its with dolls that function as the the alter egos of himself and those important to him. Director Jeff Malmberg provides a deeply empathetic view of loneliness and powerful evidence of art as an outlet. He also exercises restraint and displays respect for Hogancamp as he freely and frequently talks about the pain of being alone. This artist born out of necessity discusses his Marwencolian representation and imaginary world with a depth of feeling that most would reserve for real acquaintances. Some of the documentary’s most touching portions provide insight into the expressive and healing properties of the art on the creator.

#1

Next Tuesday Paul Markoff and I will tape our annual Academy Awards preview and Best and Worst Films of 2008 episodes of Now Playing. Our first show, taped in March 1997, was an hour-long special debating the Oscar nominees and predicting the winners. At the end we tacked on our own Top Ten lists for 1996.

Neither of us were seeing movies at the rate at what has become the norm with the show in production. It goes without saying that the movies I chose to see and pay for in my pre-critic days went through a filtering process more than the practically limitless abundance made available to me as a critic.

Naturally, that first pre-critic Top Ten list probably looked much different than it would have if I'd been reviewing films. For '96 I picked BIG NIGHT as the best film of the year. Would I still keep it in that lofty spot? I don't know--I think I've only seen it once--but I suspect I probably wouldn't. It takes time to develop critical faculties, and the person on the verge of reviewing films and engaging in the practice in those early years isn't the same person I am now.

As Now Playing nears the start of its 13th production year, it is interesting to look back at those films I've chosen to laud as the year's best with a critic's authority. I think it's a pretty respectable list--of course I would--and I don't regret any of these picks even if I wouldn't be averse to a tweak here or there.

If I were to replace any, the likeliest candidate is 2000 topper TRAFFIC, although what would assume its spot--off the top of my head, ALMOST FAMOUS, DANCER IN THE DARK, GEORGE WASHINGTON, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, and WONDER BOYS would challenge--is hard to say.

My Top Ten lists prior to 2003 are not on this website. I'm not sure if I even have all of them still. Nevertheless, I thought it might be fun to share what movies I selected each year. Perhaps there's a pattern to discern, perhaps there isn't. Anyway, enjoy.

1997: The Ice Storm
1998: The Truman Show
1999: Being John Malkovich
2000: Traffic
2001: Mulholland Dr.
2002: Punch-Drunk Love
2003: Gerry
2004: Dogville
2005: Kings & Queen (Rois et reine)
2006: The Prestige
2007: There Will Be Blood
2008: WALL-E