Top 10 Films Of 2011

In descending order, because that's how lists should be:

10) A Dangerous Method – David Cronenberg
This is more than a bio-pic. The film would have worked just as well with fictitious characters. 2011 saw its share of films dealing with the human mind when it comes to sexuality and this film states its purpose eloquently. There is very real danger behind temptation. And yes, the cause of suffering is indeed desire.


9) Attack the Block – Joe CornishThis was the best action film of 2011. Terrifying aliens pitted against a group of hooligans. The film plays out with a thrilling wit that’s unforgettable.

8) The Artist – Michel HazanaviciusI was fully expecting “The Artist” to be pretentious, but it was simple, elegant and just charming as hell.

7) Womb – Benedek Fliegauf
“Womb” is by turns heart-breaking and sickening. We feel revulsion and sympathy for our anti-heroine in equal measures. It’s not for everyone, but if you call yourself a cinephile, this film is not to be missed.

6) Sleeping Beauty – Julia LeighThe idea that prostitution is a kind of rape isn’t new. But I haven’t seen this concept so articulately stated as it is in this film. Fair warning: this movie is unsettling and very hard to watch. But it’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen to deal with just how sexuality and desperation can wreak havoc on someone’s life.

5) Melancholia – Lars von Trier
Von Trier has yet to make a bad film. His study of depression is spot on and his allegory is perfect. When you suffer from this illness, it is in fact like the end of the world. And the supporting cast was perfect. From Charlotte Gainsbourg to Keifer Sutherland, this is how people respond to a person suffering with depression. They try to sympathize, but they are filled with frustration and just don’t understand why you won’t just snap out of it.


4) 50-50 – Jonathan Levine
I don’t really expect a lot when I watch a mainstream film, but “50-50” took me completely off guard. The film deals with two themes: terror and friendship. And it avoids simple, trite answers to all the questions it raises. The love between these two friends touched me in a way no film has in years.

3) Hannah – Joe Wright – This is the best film of its kind since Frankenheimer’s “The Manchurian Candidate.” Everything, from the lighting to the score is perfect and helps the film hit its tone just right.

2) We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lynne Ramsay
This film hypnotized me from the first frame. It asks why tragedies like this happen, but it isn’t proud enough to pretend it has any of the answers. It poses several theories, like upbringing and environment. It also raises the possibility that some people, even children, are just evil. In the end “We Need to Talk About Kevin” is humble enough to admit it doesn’t know why people do these things.

1) Martha Marcy May Marlene – Sean Durkin
Every frame of this film is genuine, urgent and terrifying. It’s easily the best film of 2011.

Honorable Mentions:
These films didn’t make my top ten, but they’re just too good to ignore altogether.
“Drive”
"My Week With Marilyn"
“Tabloid”
“The Skin I Live In”
“The Descendents”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”
“One Day”

ArcLight Interview with Gary Oldman

This comes courtesy of ArcLight. They do a number of fantastic interviews.

You can find their page at youtube.com/user/ArcLightCinema

"Womb" - Benedek Fliegauf (2011)

"Womb" is brilliant and revolting.

I still don't know if I liked it or not.

But hey, anything with the 11th Doctor (or Eva Green, for that matter) is worth a look.

I believe I will wait a few months and watch it again.

Here's my review.

Also, I may have mispronounced Benedek Fliegauf's name.

If I did, apologies.

"The Way" - Emilio Estevez (2011)

Here is my video review of "The Way" complete with interviews from Martin Sheen & Emilio Estevez as seen on NBC Action News.

"Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" - David Yates (2011)

I’ll break the suspense and just tell you right off the top the Harry Potter film franchise has ended on a fantastic note.

The film is paced perfectly. It makes perfect sense why the decision was made to split “Deathly Hallows” into two films. “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” is so different from its predecessor that it really is in an entirely different genre.

From the opening Warner Brothers’ logo, it’s clear “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” was storyboarded and shot with 3D technology in mind. I have never seen a film use 3D to express so much of its theme and emotions of its characters the way this one does.

When “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” opens, dementors patrol the perimeters of Hogwarts, surrounding the school like smoke. Students trudge through the yard like inmates at a concentration camp or masses trapped in a “1984” dimension.
With those images, David Yates not only sets the tone of the film, but makes an immediate statement about the nature of totalitarianism: it’s simply the absence of joy.

The imagery of the Holocaust is so ingrained into our collective consciousness that films dealing with the most monstrous acts of the 20th century are emotionally devastating to begin with. It was an evil so incomprehensible, but so close and recent we can still taste it. Diagon Alley looks like the Warsaw ghetto.
But to say “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” uses these themes as an easy shortcut to elicit that tangible dread from us would be an injustice.

Once the tone of the film is set, the story kicks in and it stays in gear for the duration of the film. Daniel Radcliffe said in an interview that “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” starts as a heist film and evolves into a war movie.
That just about sums it up.

Without taking your hand and walking you through the story, there are just a few points to touch on.
Ghosts of Goering, and Josef Mengele haunt the corridors of Hogwarts. When Harry, Ron and Hermione arrive at Hogwarts after months of chasing horcruxes, they are greeted by a visibly bruised and battered Neville Longbottom.

As an avid fan of the books, I adore Neville Longbottom’s story arc and one of my complaints about the Harry Potter films was that he has been largely ignored. “Deathly Hallows Part 2” finally gives Neville’s character the justice he deserves.

Other Hogwarts students from earlier films are there too, emaciated and beaten down, but ready to fight for the hope Harry brings with him when he arrives at the school.
Cho, Seamus, Lee Jordan and others are gaunt, but assemble for battle nevertheless.

What follows is very heavy on effects, but basic-looking. Again, the 3D technology serves the story and characters rather than just being there for the sake of itself. The ghost of Helena Ravenclaw is enraged when she talks of the evil Voldemort has used her family’s property for and it’s a mix of Kelly Macdonald’s skill as an actress and the effects that convey that fury.

Even the battle sequences, with a couple of flashy exceptions, abandon the bright colors coming from magic wands as wizards duel. The fighting here, magical as it is, is vicious, to the point of bestial.
Oddly enough, the 3D technology and animated effects serve the stripped down look well.

From the moment the battle starts, there are shots of dead students littering the background.
Rowling and Yates refuse to shy away from horrors like the mass murder of children, even in a mainstream film like this. They don’t flinch as Hogwarts burns and people Harry love die.

Draco learns, as does Jeffrey Beaumont in David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” that evil is not glamorous. When its allure is stripped away, it comes down to human suffering. Evil is appealing, but you don’t see how it hurts until you’re sucked in. I don’t think most people understand the statement Rowling is making about the fashion of evil, the glamorization of monsters in our society.

Again, the point here is more than helped along through the use of animated effects. With each horcrux destroyed, Voldemort’s appearance actually changes. He looks frailer each time one is finished off.
Ultimately, when we see the soul of the Great Lord Voldemort, we are faced with a creature that elicits pity and revulsion in equal parts.

If you’ve read the book, you know what I’m talking about and if you haven’t, you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it. It’s an animated creature brought to pathetic life better than my imagination did itself when reading the book. By the way, managing to pull off something sadder and more grotesque than something that’s already in my head is quite an accomplishment.

The film climaxes with a dizzying one-on-one duel between Harry and Voldemort (it’s an incredibly nice touch when Harry simply calls his enemy “Tom”) and features a couple of deaths you must see in 3D.

It feels like I’m biting off more than I can chew, talking about all these different components in one post, but when you sit down and see the joyless Hogwarts castle for the first time, you’ll see exactly what I mean when I talk about 3D technology and animated effects fusing perfectly together with a film’s theme, tone and character development.

And Professor McGonagall is worth the price of admission alone, because watching an old lady just throw down is awesome.

"Free Jimmy" - Christopher Nielsen (2006)

"Free Jimmy" is largely unknown, but thanks to the age of Nexflix, you have access to it.

I demand you see it at once.

That is all.

Enjoy my video review.

Love, your Resident Film Snob.

Wild Target - Jonathan Lynn (2010)

Funny movie that could have been better.

Still, it's more than worth your time.

Here's my video review.