BEST MOVIES OF 2011 so far

[Chris Knipp]

BEST MOVIES OF 2011 so far


Movies I've liked so far this year (English language):

Ivan Reitman: No Strings Attached (2011)
Miguel Arteta: Cedar Rapids (2011)
Aaron Katz: Cold Weather (2011)
Tom McCarthy: Win Win (2011)
Terrence Malick: The Tree of Life (2011)
Woody Allen: Midnight in Paris (2011)
Adam Reid: Hello Lonesome
Andrew Rossi: Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011)
Richard Ayoade: Submarine (2010)
Michael Winterbottom: The Trip (2011)
Justin Lin: Fast Five (2011)
Matthew Vaughan: X-Men: First Class (2011)
Gavin Wiesen: The Art of Getting By (2011)
Azrael Jacobs: Terri (2011)
Cindy Meehl: Buck (2011)
Bernard Rose: Mr. Nice (2010)
Seth Gordon: Horrible Bosses (2011)
James Marsh: Project Nim (2011)
Richmond Riedel: Target Practice (2010)
Joe Cornish: Attack the Block (2011)

Movies I've liked so far (other languages):

Kiran Rao: Dhobi Ghat: Mumbai Diaries (2010)
Xavier Dolan: Heartbeats (2010)
Denis Villeneuve: Incendies (2010)--ND/NF
Pierre Thoretton: L'Amour Fou (2011)
Kôji Wakamatsu: United Red Army (2007)
André Øvredal: TrollHunter (2011)
Caroline Bottaro: Queen to Play (2009)
Michel Leclerc: The Names of Love (Le nom des gens 2010)

Other movies I liked (unreleased):

Martin Provost: The Long Falling (2011)--R-V
Alain Corneau: Love Crime (2010)--R-V -- release Sept. 2
J.C. Chandor: Margin Call (2011)--ND/NF -- release Oct. 21
Bogdan George Apetri: Outbound (2010--ND/NF
Göran Hugo Olsson: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975-ND/NF -- release Sept. 9
Dee Rees: Pariah (2011)--ND/NF -- I have seen a trailer but release TBA
Paddy Considine: Tyrannosaur (2010)--ND/NF
Agustí Villaronga: Black Bread (2010)--SFIFF
Federico Veiroj : A Useful Life (2010)--SFIFF
Clio Barnard: The Arbor (2010)--SFIFF
Park Jung-bum: The Journals of Musan (2010)--SFIFF
Lech Majewski: The Mill and the Cross (2011)--SFIFF -- release Sept. 14
Dan Geller, Dayna Goldfine: Something Ventured (2011)--SFIFF
Christoph Hochhäusler: The City Below (2010)--SFIFF
Tatiana Huezo: The Tiniest Place (2011)--SFIFF
Essential Killing (Jerzy Skolimowski 2010) Paris
The Kid with the Bike (Dardenes 2011) Paris -- Sundnace Selects will release
Tomboy (Céline Sciamma 2011) Paris -- release Nov. 16
Xavier Durringer: La Conquête (2011) about Sarkozy
Lars Von Trier: Melancholia (2011) -- release Nov. 11

RV=Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, NYC, Feb.
ND/NF=New Directors/New Films, NYC, Mar.
SFIFF=San Francisco International Film Festival, April.

[oscar jubis]

Lots of good movies to look forward to. I haven't seen most of them. Didn't like the Woody Allen and Winterbottom movies enough to list.I liked Win Win and the Malick picture but don't love them. Most of my very favorites so far this year are not on your list. Stuff I've listed or discussed elsewhere. I enjoy finding out how movies hold up a second or third viewing. Nostalgia for the Light comes out on DVD next month. Can't wait!

[Chris Knipp]

oscar jubis
Lots of good movies to look forward to. I haven't seen most of them. Didn't like the Woody Allen and Winterbottom movies enough to list.I liked Win Win and the Malick picture but don't love them. I didn't say "love" but "liked." "Movies I liked so far this year." By saying "so far" I'm indicating other better ones will come along later and push many of these out. This is a work in progress, an attempt to make sense out of a much longer list. And love and like are pretty gross simplifications anyway, aren't they?

I just added Joe Cornish's Attack the Block (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3136-ATTACK-THE-BLOCK-%28Joe-Cornish-2011%2)to my list of 2011 English language favorites.

[oscar jubis]

From the films distributed this year that I have seen, these are my favorites in rough order of preference (that will probably change as I get a chance to re-watch them during the next 5 months or so). All of them are likely to get into my year-end list.

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (Chile)
I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I COME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU (Brasil)
UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (Thailand)
LE QUATTRO VOLTE (Italy)
CERTIFIED COPY (Iran)
BLACK IN LATIN AMERICA (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/) (USA)
THE TREE OF LIFE (USA)
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (USA/UK)
THE TIME THAT REMAINS (Palestine)
CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH (China)
NEDS (Scotland)
OF LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS (Costa Rica/Colombia)
CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (Germany/France/USA)
A USEFUL LIFE (Uruguay)
THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER (Israel)

[Chris Knipp]

Glad you made this list. I have missed
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (Chile) (which was in the SFIFF)
I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I COME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU (Brasil) (new to me)
BLACK IN LATIN AMERICA (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/) (USA) (new to me)
THE TIME THAT REMAINS (Palestine) (which was at IFC Center)
THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER (Israel) (sounds familiar, not sure)
NEDS (Scotland) (important director, didn't know, despite April US release)
OF LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS (Costa Rica/Colombia) (perhaps SFIFF? should see)

Wanted to see the Palestinian one and am curious about the Israeli one. Don't know how I missed NEDS and that is one to look for. realize the high regard UNCLE BOONMEE and LE QUATTRO VOLTE are held but I don't share it. I will hang on to TREE OF LIFE. I like A USEFUL LIFE but am not so wedded to it, probably. The others I shhould see.

[oscar jubis]

Peter Mullan's follow-up to The Magdalene Sisters passed under the radar of most critics, who I think would embrace it.Same goes for my undeniable top two which unlike NEDS have been granted Metacritic pages (85 and 87 score).

[Chris Knipp]

Top twe being
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (Chile) 85
I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I COME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU (Brasil) 87
I see you are right. I don't see much sign that Neds had US theatrical viewings. In some festivals. HOw did you see it?

[oscar jubis]

Here's the release schedule for NEDS. It was one of a series of British films touring the country:
http://www.frombritainwithlove.org/venues/screening-schedule/#NY

[oscar jubis]

The most enjoyable and insightful movies I have seen since my last post are Miranda July's The Future and Raul Ruiz's Mysteries of Lisbon. The latter may be the best film I have seen all year. It is certainly not a film you watch casually. One has to prepare for it because of its length: 4 and a half hours shown in two parts with a brief intermission in between. Don't go into it tired, moody or hungry. The demands on the viewer who doesn't speak Portuguese (used in about 75% of the film) and French are great because there is a lot of subtitled dialogue and voice-over narration to read.

Mysteries of Lisbon is the penultimate film directed by Raul Ruiz (1941-2011), the obsessively prolific, itinerant filmmaker from Chile. I've seen only about 10 of his 100+ films. I hope that it becomes easier to see more of his fragmented, gargantuan filmography including docs, shorts, and made-for-TV features. MoL is like a new sibling for Manoel de Oliveira's Doomed Love (1979) in that both films are extended-length, fairly faithful adaptations of sprawling 19th century novels by the (also) prodigiously prolific Camilo Castelo Branco (1825-1890).Like in Klimt (2006), and most of his recent work, the camera is highly mobile and fluid in the manner of Ophuls films such as The Earrings of Madame de... and La Ronde. It's quite a pleasure to watch how the camera is constantly reframing and thus changing our sense of space and our point of view. Additionally,the film utilizes split-focus diopters to allow the deepest focus possible so that Ruiz can give us his most characteristic composition: a close-up of character on a side of the frame, usually in profile or near profile, competing for our attention with perfectly clear backgrounds that include doors, mirrors, or halls that extend into the very depths of the frame. Simply gorgeous, complex visuals that use chiaroscuro lighting as befits the period in which the film is set.

The narrative is audacious to say the least in its multiplicity of characters (some of whom have serial identities), temporal jumps, multiple narrative points of view, digressions, plot threads that converge, parallel, juxtapose each other. I find it most remarkable that the film is not "difficult" in that it is easy to follow and makes perfect sense (if one is paying attention). The film is demanding and perhaps challenging because it requires alert attention for 4+ hours. But it's never obscure, confusing, or obfuscating. Like most films by Ruiz that I know, Mysteries of Lisbon is a narrative but it is also about narrative. It has the reflexivity of modernist works while embracing certain may-I say classical elements of the genre of the period drama. This one will stick in the mind for years. A memorable film indeed.

[Johann]

Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a contender for best film of the year.
And not just because I'm a huge fan of the man and his career- this one really is amazing.
If anybody else made a film about the Chauvet caves it wouldn't have the same impact.
I'm certain of it.
Herzog knows how to present a subject. The way he attacks a film subject is unlike any other.


TREE OF LIFE is a special work. Always will be to me.

I haven't seen any of the others you guys list.
I suck.
I wish I had unlimited funds for my movie addiction.

[Chris Knipp]

THE ACADEMY'S DOCUMENTARY SHORT LIST (http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2011/20111118a.html).

I have seen only 5 out of 15 (highlighted), which seems pretty weird. Omitted are Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, Morgan Spurlock and Steve James, which indicates this is not as good a list as it ought to be. I would have included INTO THE ABYSS and THE INTERRUPTERS in any 15 best of the year US docs, from what I know. I am not a fan of TABLOID, for my reasons, but Morris deserves very serious consideration, and omission of Herzog, who had a notable doc two years in a row, seems very questionable indeed.


Herzog's "Into the Abyss," Morris' "Tabloid," Spurlock's "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" and James' "The Interrupters" did not make the short list of 15 documentaries eligible for the feature-length prize at the Feb. 26 Oscars. -- Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/20/oscar-documentary-short-list_n_1104038.html)

THI LIST:

"Battle for Brooklyn" (RUMUR Inc.)
"Bill Cunningham New York" (First Thought Films)
"Buck" (Cedar Creek Productions)
"Hell and Back Again" (Roast Beef Productions Limited)
"If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" (Marshall Curry Productions, LLC)
"Jane's Journey" (NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG)
"The Loving Story" (Augusta Films)
"Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" (@radical.media)
"Pina" (Neue Road Movies GmbH)
"Project Nim" (Red Box Films)
"Semper Fi: Always Faithful" (Tied to the Tracks Films, Inc.)
"Sing Your Song" (S2BN Belafonte Production, LLC)
"Undefeated" (Spitfire Pictures)
"Under Fire: Journalists in Combat" (JUF Pictures, Inc.)
"We Were Here" (Weissman Projects, LLC)

[Chris Knipp]

Several other admired documentaries that did not make the Oscars list are Clio Barnard's "The Arbor," Patricio Guzmán's "Nostalgia For The Light," Leonard Retel Helmrich's "Position Among The Stars," and Asif Kapadia's "Senna." Oscar brought up Nostalgia for the Light earlier. I reviewed The Arbor, which I saw in the SFIFF, and it is very good.

[oscar jubis]

When I list my favorite documentaries, I don't see the point of leaving out those produced for television. Two of my favorites this year premiered on PBS: Black in Latin America (David Louis Gates, Jr.) and Prohibition (Ken Burns).

I am surprised that a list of presumably the top 15 documentary films of the year would leave out The Interrupters and the two Herzog docs released this year: Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss (saw it last night, recommended).

Looking forward to Paradise Lost III, since I liked the first two so much.

[Chris Knipp]

TV is another category, though certainly fine docs come on the box.

I am surprised too. But you know the Oscars, Oscar...

[oscar jubis]

I guess I could have a separate category for "Documentaries originally produced for television" but, for my own purposes of list-keeping, I include every doc that had a release date during the calendar year whether it premiered on TV or theater.

[Chris Knipp]

It does need to be a separate category but it is a valid one. Frankly I don't know about TV docs now because I stopped watching TV -- except later on DVD. Otherwise I'd probably mention the great ones myself.

[oscar jubis]

I learned a lot from these two PBS docs. They are probably already out on DVD, if you are interested.

[Chris Knipp]

I added NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT and NEDS and THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER to my Netflix queue. The Ken Burns is too long and I am not a fan of Ken Burns anyway. The others are mostly on DVD but not yet available on Netflix. My top priority of the ones you list that I haven't seen probably would be THE TIME THAT REMAINS -- on DVD but not on Netflix.

[oscar jubis]

Even if you end up not writing reviews of these films on your queue, please let us know if you enjoyed them, or not.

[Chris Knipp]

Most definitely.

[oscar jubis]

The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced yesterday in Los Angeles that NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT is the winner of their award for best documentary feature of 2011. I have yet to see any film, doc or fiction, that I love as much.

[Chris Knipp]

The IDA award story. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/02/idUS127934910720111202) I'm waiting to see it. By the way, I personally was very much impressed by and liked The Tiniest Place/El lugar mas pequeño, (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3054-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2011&p=26093#post26093) a documentary I saw (and reviewed on Filmleaf) at the SFIFF this year that may have something in common with this one but has not had a US release. (Nostalgia for the Light had some US theatrical showings via IFC).

GOTHAM INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS 2011

Some good lists to show what the edgy new people and films are, or those thought of as being so. Particularly important is the BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR category.

NOMINEES AND WINNERS:

BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR
MIKE CAHILL/ANOTHER EARTH
SEAN DURKIN/MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
VERA FARMIGA/HIGHER GROUND
EVAN GLODELL/BELLFLOWER
DEE REES/PARIAH--WINNER

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
FELICITY JONES/LIKE CRAZY--WINNER
ELIZABETH OLSEN/MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
HARMONY SANTANA/GUN HILL ROAD
SHAILENE WOODLEY/THE DESCENDANTS
JACOB WYSOCKI/TERRI

Under BEST FEATURES they give us a more mainstream group:

BEAT FEATURE
BEGINNERS/MIKE MILLS--WINNER
THE DESCENDANTS/ALEXANDER PAYNE
MEEKS CUTOFF/KELLY REICHERT
TAKE SHELTER/JEFF NICHOLS
THE TREE OF LIFE/TERRENCE MALICK--WINNER

BEST DOCUMENTARY
BETTER THIS WORLD/GALLOWAY, DE LA VEGA--WINNER
BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK/RICHARD PRESS
HELL AND BACK AGAIN/DARFUNG DENNIS
THE INTERRUPTERS/STEVE JAMES
THE WOODMANS/C. SCOTT WILLIS

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE
BEGINNERS--WINNER
THE DESCENDANTS
MARGIN CALL
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
TAKE SHELTER

BEST FILM NOT PLAYING AT A THEATER NEAR YOU
CODEPENDENT LESBIAN SPACE ALIEN SEEKS SAME
GREEN/MADELEINE OLNEK
THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED/STRAUSS, ANASTASIAN
SCENES OF A CRIME/HADAEGH, BABCOCK--WINNER
WITHOUT/MARK JACKSON

GOTHAM INDEPENDENT FILM AUDIENCE AWARD
GIRLFRIEND/JUSTIN LERNER--WINNER
BUCK/CINDY MEEHL
BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER'S JOURNEY/CONSTANCE MARKS
WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE/DAWSON, GRICUS
THE FIRST GRADER/JUSTIN CHADWICK

Comments: BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR: I'm not personally a fan of ANOTHER EARTH, but it is a kind of indie victory in publicity and release terms. The others are great, and obvious, choices, and I like that they chose the underdog, PARIAH, which is about a minority person, a black lesbian, and a charming film with an appealing lead, Adepero Oduye. For breakthrough actor, Jacob Wysocki is an undderdog nomination, but Felicity Jones is an unexpected new star of more viability, so that's a choice with some logic behind it. BEST FEATURE: The choices have an independent feel, even if I am not a fan of BEGINNERS, I'm a big one of THE TREE OF LIFE. I like the fields/nominees, even if I'm not behind the winners. In the last two categories I'm out of my depth.

[Chris Knipp]

FILM COMMENT LISTS FOR 2011. PLUS THE GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS

The Film Comment, i.e., Film Society of Lincoln Center, annual best lists are just out (Dec. 16, 2011). Many, and all the top ten in both lists (with the exception of TREE OF LIFE and KILL LIST), were shown at this or last year's NYFF. THE HELP is not listed. THE TREE OF LIFE, UNCLE BOONMEE, and MELANCHOLIA among US-released films and among un-released, festival-only films the top choices were the politically charged THIS IS NOT A FILM and the difficult-to-sit-through but auteur-prestigious TURIN HORSE and ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA. Austere, arguably elegant choices, but far from the world of the Oscars.

In a more Oscar-friendly segment of the film prize world, Golden Globe nominations were also announced. yesterday (Dec. 15). The NYTimes article is here. (http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/golden-globe-nominations-go-to-the-help-the-descendants-the-artist/) THE ARTIST, THE HELP, and THE DESCENDANTS were the most nominated titles. However, the Times noted that despite the dominance of THE ARTIST, the nominations "did little to clear up a blurry awards picture in Hollywood" -- besides which the Golden Globes are often not indicative of final major award outcomes anyway. Those three dominated best drama, a category that "also included 'Moneyball,' 'War Horse,' 'The Ides of March' and 'Hugo.' Hollywood, of course, paid just as much attention (or more) to the snubs. . ." and among those, "Perhaps most notable was the complete shutout of an expected Oscar darling, 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,' a post-Sept. 11 drama from the director Stephen Daldry and the producer Scott Rudin." That's one I'm curious about (releasing Dec. 25). The trailer looks good.

Here are the Film Comment lists, which are definitely a FSLC and cinephile outlook on the year's releases and non-US-releases:

RELEASED 2011
1. TREE OF LIFE Director: Terrence Malick
2. UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
3. MELANCHOLIA Director: Lars von Trier
4. A SEPARATION Director: Asghar Farhadi
5. A DANGEROUS METHOD Director: David Cronenberg
6. MYSTERIES OF LISBON Director: Raúl Ruiz
7. CERTIFIED COPY Director: Abbas Kiarostami
8. MEEK’S CUTOFfDirector: Kelly Reichardt
9. HUGO Director: Martin Scorsese
10. POETRY Director: Lee Chang-dong

11. FILM SOCIALISME, Director: Jean-Luc Godard
12. LE HAVRE, Director: Aki Kaurismäki
13. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU, Director: Andrei Ujica
14. LE QUATTRO VOLTE, Director: Michelangelo Frammartino
15. THE DESCENDANTS, Director: Alexander Payne
16. NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT, Director: Patricio Guzmán
17. A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY, Director:
Edward Yang
18. MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, Director: Woody Allen
19. TAKE SHELTER, Director: Jeff Nichols
20. MARGARET, Director: Kenneth Lonergan
21. SHAME, Director: Steve McQueen
22. DRIVE, Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
23. CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, Director: Werner Herzog
24. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, Director: Tomas Alfredson
25. TO DIE LIKE A MAN, Director: João Pedro Rodrigues
26. THE INTERRUPTERS, Director: Steve James
27. THE ARTIST, Director: Michel Hazanavicius
28. TUESDAY, AFTER CHRISTMAS, Director: Radu Muntean
29. AURORA, Director: Cristi Puiu
30. WEEKEND, Director: Andrew Haigh
31. THE SKIN I LIVE IN, Director: Pedro Almodóvar
32. CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH, Director: Lu Chuan
33. CONTAGION, Director: Steven Soderbergh
34. OF GODS AND MEN, Director: Xavier Beauvois
35. MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, Director: Sean Durkin
36. BRIDESMAIDS, Director: Paul Feig
37. THE TRIP, Director: Michael Winterbottom
38. MONEYBALL, Director: Bennett Miller
39. THE ARBOR, Director: Clio Barnard
40. THE FUTURE, Director: Miranda July
41. INCENDIES, Director: Denis Villeneuve
42. SUPER 8, Director: J.J. Abrams
43. UNITED RED ARMY, Director: Koji Wakamatsu
44. ROAD TO NOWHERE, Director: Monte Hellman
45. TABLOID, Director: Errol Morris
46. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Director: Rupert Wyatt
47. TERRI, Director: Azazel Jacobs
48. J. EDGAR, Director: Clint Eastwood
49. JANE EYRE, Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
50. PINA, Director: Wim Wenders


UNRELEASED 2011
1. THIS IS NOT A FILM Director: Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
2. THE TURIN HORSE Director: Béla Tarr
3. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
4. THE KID WITH A BIKE Director: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
5. THE LONELIEST PLANET Director: Julia Loktev
6. MISS BALA Director: Gerardo Naranjo
7. FOOTNOTE Director: Joseph Cedar
8. KILL LIST Director: Ben Wheatley
9. SLEEPING SICKNESS Director: Ulrich Koehler
10. PLAY Director: Rüben Ostlund

11.POLICEMAN, Director: Nadav Lapid
12. THE COLOR WHEEL, Director: Alex Ross Perry
13. TWO YEARS AT SEA, Director: Ben Rivers
14. ALPS, Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
15. GOODBYE FIRST LOVE, Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
16. 4:44 LAST DAY ON EARTH, Director: Abel Ferrara
17. DREILEBAN, Director: Christoph Hochhäusler, Christian Petzold & Dominik Graf
18. THE RETURN, Director: Nathaniel Dorsky
19. THE DEEP BLUE SEA, Director: Terence Davies
20. WUTHERING HEIGHTS, Director: Andrea Arnold
21. CORPO CELESTE, Director: Alice Rohrwacher
22. OSLO, AUGUST 31ST, Director: Joachim Trier
23. THE STUDENT, Director: Santiago Mitre
24. ATTENBERG, Director: Athena Rachel Tsangari
25. ELENA, Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
26. YOU ARE NOT I, Director: Sara Driver
27. WORDS OF MERCURY, Director: Jerome Hiler
28. CRAZY HORSE, Director: Frederick Wiseman
29. FAUST, Director: Alexander Sokurov
30. SEEKING THE MONKEY KING, Director: Ken Jacobs
31. DISORDER, Director: Huang Weikei
32. PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY, Director: Peter Bo Rappmund
33. PATIENCE (AFTER SEBALD), Director: Grant Gee
34. GREEN, Director: Sophia Takal
35. WE CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN, Director: Nicholas Ray
36. KILLER JOE, Director: William Friedkin
37. DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, Director: Whit Stillman
38. SLOW ACTION, Director: Ben Rivers
39. BONSAI, Director: Cristian Jimenez
40. MICHAEL, Director: Markus Schleinzer
41. A SIMPLE LIFE, Director: Ann Hui
42. TAKE THIS WALTZ, Director: Sarah Polley
43. HORS SATAN, Director: Bruno Dumont
44. DARK HORSE, Director: Todd Solondz
45. CURLING, Director: Denis Côté
46. ALMAYER’S FOLLY, Director: Chantal Akerman
47. 20 CIGARETTES, Director: James Benning
48. POLISSE, Director: Maïwenn
49. WITHOUT, Director: Mark Jackson
50. THE INNKEEPERS, Director: Ti West

[oscar jubis]

The late Edward Yang's A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY is my favorite movie of 1991 and one of my Top 10 movies of the decade of the 1990s. It finally had a one-week run in NYC in 2004. It has apparently been re-released last month hence its inclusion on the Film Comment list. If I was to consider it as a new release, and I don't, it would most certainly tower over anything I've seen all year (and last year). I hope it is released on Region 1 DVD so more people can have access to this unequivocal masterpiece.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks, Oscar. I will watch it. I love Edward Yang's Yi-Yi--one of those profound humanistic masterpieces the Asian directors seem to do so well. I have lined up to watch NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT and THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER, thought I'm in NYC with many external distractions.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks, Oscar. I will watch it. I love Edward Yang's Yi-Yi--one of those profound humanistic screen masterpieces the Asian directors seem to do so well. I have lined up to watch NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT and THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER, though I'm in NYC with many external distractions.

[Chris Knipp]

Oscar, I wish you had not "thrown away" your neat and astute brief commentary (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3124-BEST-MOVIES-OF-2011-so-far&p=26894#post26894)on Ruiz's Mysteries of Lisbon on this thread. I don't agree with you that it is perfectly easy to follow, but it is certainly gorgeous, and it may stay with you. Everyone is listing it as one of the best of the year. And why not?! The only difficulty for me is that for me, this is one of last year's films, since it was in the NYFF of 2010, when I reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2875-New-York-Film-Festival-2010&p=25192#post25192) it. And in Filmmleaf Festival Coverage, that is about eight series or festivals ago. But it seems it was released in US theaters, some anyway, this year. August 5, to be exact. So says IMDb. My review is full of protestations about how dauntingly difficult it is to sit through continuously, and how dauntingly difficult it is to follow. I mention that it should be seen on a big screen, but at least since many will see it on their home monitor, in that way it will be easier to follow, perhaps with a synopsis in hand!

Viewers should be warned that MoL's interweaving narratives are complex and ambiguous and not so clear as you imply. But beautiful and haunting it certainly is. The only other of Ruiz' films I've seen is his Proust one, and that is circular and haunting and mysterious too, and I couldn't follow that either. The friend I saw it with, who was a big Proust person, agreed that to follow it well without a prior knowledge of Proust would have been impossible. So that's how he works, I guess.

But none of that matters, because as you say, it is a remarkable film. Your description is far more discerning and helpful than mine, except that I give more information about the background and content in my review. I liked your comment on the images, which is enlightening. I would not have known of the link with Manoel de Oliveira's Doomed Love (1979).

THE MYSTERIES OF LISBON is coming up on everybody's US 2011 Best Lists. in Fact according to Metacritic's collective critics' list, it's #10, in between TINKER TAILOR and MELANCHOLIA. Strange bedfellows indeed.

[Chris Knipp]

This is a tally that is updated, but at present it looks as follows. I've left out the scores and just give you the titles and the order they're in:

1 The Tree of Life
2 Certified Copy
3 Drive
4 A Separation
5 The Descendants
6 Hugo
7 Margaret
8 The Artist
9 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
10 Mysteries of Lisbon
11 Melancholia
12 Take Shelter
13 A Brighter Summer Day
Meek's Cutoff
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
16 Shame
17 Moneyball
Martha Marcy May Marlene
The Skin I Live In
20 Poetry
Bridesmaids
A Dangerous Method

Comment. I have not seen MARGARET, A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY. Have not tended to list because I saw them last year: CERTIFIED COPY, UNCLE BOONMEE, MYSTERIES OF LISBON, POETRY, MEEK'S CUTOFF, and of those the only one I really like is the somewhat flawed POETRY. I also don't really like: TINKER TAILOR, BRIDESMAIDS, A DANGEROUS METHOD, A SEPARATION. THE SKIN I LIVE IN? It's good, but doesn't do it for me the way TALK TO ME did. Not sure. I do not at all dislike, but am not a fan of, HUGO. SHAME? Overrated, a pretentious disappointment, which does not live up to the promise of HUNGER.

So that leaves me with the following. I leave MoL on. It is beautiful and unique; it is the only one left in my list that is not in English. Please note, though, like last year's big favorite CARLOS, it is a TV miniseries, not a feature film (but nobody seems to care anymore). These are all movies I'll include in my final Best of 2011 list(s).

The Tree of Life
The Descendants
The Artist
Mysteries of Lisbon
Melancholia
Take Shelter
Moneyball
Martha Marcy May Marlene

[Chris Knipp]

Americans can still see THE DESCENDANTS and THE ARTIST, TAKE SHELTER, and MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, in NYC anyway. And they ought to go and see any of the others on the critics' best lists above too, such as A DANGEROUS METHOD, HUGO, and DRIVE (also still showing). The Iranian film in Farsi, A SEPARATION, is listed as coming out Dec. 30. Don't forget other movies are coming out between today (December 19, 2011) and the end of the year. Schedule of final holiday releases below. THE DARKEST HOUR, a dark sci-fi movie about Internet operatives in Russia battling aliens, is widely commented upon as being a weird release for Christmas day. But some people need a break from Jingle Bells. PARIAH is a very limited release but it's a great little indie film about a black lesbian in NYC; I've reviewed it here. THE GIRL WITH A DRAGON TATTOO is much anticipated. PINA has been very widely praised (another from the NYFF that I didn't respond to personally though). Jolie's Bosnian war film has come in for some praise. I'm thinking WE BOUGHT A ZOO is too upbeat and cheery for me. I'm doubtful that WARHOUSE will work with real horses but I'm curious about that and also DARKEST HOUR and guardedly curious about Daldry's EXTREMELY LOUD, adapted from the post-9/11 bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer. The Bay Area release of THE IRON LADY (Streep doing Margaret Thatcher in a biopic) is set for Jan. 6. I've got a review of it I'm holding for one of its release days.

DECEMBER 21
The Girll with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher's English language version)
The Adventures of Tintin (Spielberg)

DECEMBER 23
We Bought a Zoo (2011) (Cameron Crowe) with Matt Damon / Scarlett Johansson
In The Land Of Blood And Honey (Angelina Jolie)
Pina (Wim Wenders) with Dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal / Pina Bausch

DECEMBER 25
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Stephen Daldry) with Tom Hanks / Sandra Bullock
The Darkest Hour (Chris Gorak) with Emile Hirsch / Olivia Thirlby
War Horse (Spielberg) with Jeremy Irvine / Emily Watson

DECEMBER 28
Pariah (Dee Rees) with Adepero Oduye / Pernell Walker

DECEMBER 30
The Iron Lady (Phyllida Lloyd) with Meryl Streep / Jim Broadbent Harry Lloyd
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi) with Leila Hatami / Peyman Moaadi

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for calling my commentary on The Mysteries of Lisbon "neat and astute" and other very friendly things. I wish my current responsibilities allowed me to post more often and watch more current releases, but that is not the case. The semester ended and I will be watching more new movies so I can post comments in our FilmLeaf. I will probably check out Hugo next (I've only read comments by you and cinemabon, no other reviews). Currently preparing material for the course I teach in Spring and doing research for a long essay on Palestinian Cinema and Elia Suleiman due in early May. Keep those reviews coming!
I noticed that metacritic loves CERTIFIED COPY, and so do I.

[Chris Knipp]

It's very heartening that you maintain contact with the site and your contributions are very valuable even though few. I have Nostalgia for the Light and The Human Resources Manager with me in New York to watch on DVD. It's a great pity that I missed A Brighter Summer Day and in fact the whole Edward Yang retrospective at Lincoln Center -- I wasn't around when it was shown November 22-27. But I could have seen but skipped Lonergan's Margaret (I was here then, but my excuse is that I was busy with the NYFF screnings); if you'd hyped it earlier on I might have not missed it. These are among your shrewd recommendations. I'm surprised and interested that you are focusing on Palestinian films and wonder what drew you to to them -- the diaspora link; your own ancestry is Arab I now remember your explaining the origin of the name Jubis from "khubis", خبز -- bread in Arabic, when your grandfather(?) entering the country? As you may recall I have studied Arabic for many years and lived in Egypt and Morocco so naturally I'm interested in Arabic films in general. I have not seen all Elia Suleiman's films but I like what I have seen very much. I just missed The Time That Remains at the IFC Center ( January 7 - February 10, just before I cane back for the Rendez-Vous and New Directors/New Films. Good success with all your endeavors, thanks for your continuing contributions, and I look forward to more next year if you have more time as you say.

I think everybody loves Certified Copy, except me.*




__________________________
*I know it's very accomplished but it just seems too much like a trick, a posh parlor game, to me. It needs something more gritty about it, more like Fabián Bielinsky's Nueve reinas, not that that's necessarily a better film. Or maybe I would like it to be even more conceptual and artificial and surreal, like Rivette's L'Annee dernière à Marienbad... I don't know.

[Chris Knipp]

Good news in NYC for catching up -- this is #7 in the Metacritic's critics' combined 2011 best list but I have not seen it -- Kenneth Lonergan's MARGARET is coming back to Cinema Village Friday. Richard Brody reports this in his New Yorker Magazine movie blog (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2011/12/margaret-returns.html) reporting from a Tweet by Mike D'Angelo. Incidentally in his LA venue I find D'Angelo is another of the movie critics I like who is disappointed by Scorsese's HUGO. His Nov. 23 review was headed "Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' is a hollow spectacle." (http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2011/nov/23/film-martin-scorseses-hugo-hollow-spectacle/) Milder than Walter Chaws one out of four stars (http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/hugo.htm), but still negative.

[Chris Knipp]

The VILLAGE VOICE i (Dec. 22, 2011) has published its annual film polls of 95 US critics. The critics' polls reflect more exotic offerings now available -- though not to mainstream American viewers. The list runs to 100; below are the top 20. A Separation is Iranian and not released yet even in NYC. Mysteries of Lisbon is a European miniseries, Uncle Boonmee is in Thai, Poetry is in Korean and film socialisme is in gibberish. Mainstream audience members would not be likely to want to sit through any of the top nine movies listed here, nor would the last three be accessible or appealing to them. But it's encouraging that a first-time small-budget US writer-director, Sean Durkin (Martha Mary May Marlene) is receiving top recognition, as is the British newcomer Andrew Haigh (Weekend), and the sophomore effort of the talented Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter), whose admired debut was Shotgun Stories (2007). The Best Actor and Best Actress lists give more famous names everyone will know. They are from longer lists too that you'll find on the VOICE website; the list titles are linked.

Though Chastain isn't listed here, the two big new actors of the year in film are Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Both seem everywhere all of a sudden and their outstanding talent has gained recognition. Chastain is in Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help, and The Debt this year. Fassbender is in Jane Eyre, X-Men: First Class, Shame, and A Dangerous Method. And that includes five of the most admired films of the year. It looks like Brad Pitt is not just a pretty face: he is listed as one of the year's best actors for his performances in both Moneyball and Tree of Life, and I don't think that's unjustified. The acting powerhouse -- he always projects steel spring energy -- is the astonishing Ryan Gosling, who appears in Crazy, Stupid, Love; Drive; and The Ides of March this year.

VILLAGE BEST FILM LIST (http://www.villagevoice.com/filmpoll/cat/film/2011/)
The Tree of Life
A Separation
Melancholia
Certified Copy
Mysteries of Lisbon
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Margaret
Meek's Cutoff
Drive
Take Shelter
Hugo
A Dangerous Method
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Descendants
Weekend
The Artist
Poetry
Shame
Film Socialisme

VILLAGE BEST ACTOR LIST (http://www.villagevoice.com/filmpoll/cat/actor/2011/)
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Peyman Moaadi, A Separation
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
George Clooney, The Descendants
Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Ryan Gosling, Drive
Michael Fassbender, A Dangerous Method

VOICE BEST ACTRESS LIST (http://www.villagevoice.com/filmpoll/cat/actress/2011/)
Anna Paquin, Margaret
Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy
Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
Yun Jung-hee, Poetry
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Keira Knightley, A Dangerous Method
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Viola Davis, The Help

P.s. Tomorrow I indeed will be able to see Lonergan's Margaret at Cinema Village, so I won't have that gap in my knowledge of the year's best. Today I saw Emilio Estevez's The Way, starring his father,Martin Sheen. Maybe not one of the year's vest, but a valuable experience, meditating as it does on mortality, loss, and other serious issues while taking us along the way of pilgrimage of San Juan de Compostela.

[oscar jubis]

It's very heartening that you maintain contact with the site and your contributions are very valuable even though few. I have Nostalgia for the Light and The Human Resources Manager with me in New York to watch on DVD. It's a great pity that I missed A Brighter Summer Day and in fact the whole Edward Yang retrospective at Lincoln Center -- I wasn't around when it was shown November 22-27. But I could have seen but skipped Lonergan's Margaret (I was here then, but my excuse is that I was busy with the NYFF screnings); if you'd hyped it earlier on I might have not missed it. These are among your shrewd recommendations. I'm surprised and interested that you are focusing on Palestinian films and wonder what drew you to to them -- the diaspora link; your own ancestry is Arab I now remember your explaining the origin of the name Jubis from "khubis", خبز -- bread in Arabic, when your grandfather(?) entering the country? As you may recall I have studied Arabic for many years and lived in Egypt and Morocco so naturally I'm interested in Arabic films in general. I have not seen all Elia Suleiman's films but I like what I have seen very much. I just missed The Time That Remains at the IFC Center ( January 7 - February 10, just before I cane back for the Rendez-Vous and New Directors/New Films. Good success with all your endeavors, thanks for your continuing contributions, and I look forward to more next year if you have more time as you say.

I think everybody loves Certified Copy, except me.*




__________________________
*I know it's very accomplished but it just seems too much like a trick, a posh parlor game, to me. It needs something more gritty about it, more like Fabián Bielinsky's Nueve reinas, not that that's necessarily a better film. Or maybe I would like it to be even more conceptual and artificial and surreal, like Rivette's L'Annee dernière à Marienbad... I don't know.


You remember well what I said about my family history. I'll be more specific: 3 of my 4 grandparents were Christian Palestinians (most can trace their roots back to Europe) who emigrated to America (well, Central America, El Salvador) in the 1920s when they were in their teens. My other grandmother was 1st generation Greek-Salvadoran so there you go. I am also taking a course in Middle-Eastern Literature (mostly Jewish and Palestinian authors) in the Spring and my professor (who was a farmer in a kibbutz for 12 years before becoming an academic) allowed me to write about films for my final essay for the course. Besides all that, I have always wanted to get real deep into Suleiman's films because I think they are great. I love THE TIME THAT REMAINS: A Chronicle of a Present Absentee and I look forward to writing a detailed analysis of it.
I hope you check it out. It's out on DVD. It's great that you'll be watching Nostalgia for the Light (and also the Human Res. Mger). I am watching a lot of new movies right now. Finally watched the amazing Meek's Cutoff and the very interesting Shame . I'm trying to watch enough 2011 movies to feel comfortable posting a list of favorites the way I've always done. I will also rewatch Tree of Life and others that looked promising on first viewing. I will not include Edward Yang's masterpiece as I consider it a 1990s film. I will post as soon as I hear it's being released on DVD.

[Chris Knipp]

I like Suleiman and look forward to The Time That Remains. It is not available from Netflix, not now anyway. I have Nostalgia for the Light and will watch it soon. I am afraid I was not so impressed by The Human Resources Manager. Israeli films are always interesting but I agree with those who thought this not as well framed as his previous films, its first part not integrated with its last part and its nameless characters lacking specificity or depth. Actually I am not as impressed by his earlier films as many are. Other Israeli directors impress me more. I feel like he was trodding on Tony Gatlif and Emir Kusturica territory and not doing as good a job at the wild Eastern European thing as they do (though they can be sloppy and uneven too for that matter, but when they're hot they're way better than this).

On the other hand I just saw Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret and was blown away by it. It's definitely going on my best list. I will put up a review of it.

Somebody drew a parallel between Margaret and the Iranian A Separation, as two culture's studies of legal systems and I thought that was interesting, though writers need to stop trying so hard to make clever connections among the year's films. Margaret is not even totally one of the year's films. But I think you're probably right in not listing Yang's. At least Lonergan is very much alive even if Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella are not.

I feel at a loss about what to include in the list. I think there are too many good candidates. As usual I'll have to spread them out ino English only, foreign only, and unreleased only lists, plus a separate best documentary list.

I have my worst of the year: Mark Pellington's I Melt with You, starring Rob Lowe. I need to see New Year's Eve, with Ashton Kutcher, which could be no. 2. And there would be a kind of poetic justice if the two most gorgeous men in Hollywood were in the two worst movies of the year.

[Chris Knipp]

Ebert's list has been out for some time but he added more later. I like most of his choices, though I think other new indie films such as Bellflower are less flawed than Another Earth, is one quibble, and I wouldn't rate Shame that high or Drive. I haven't seen all of these but I have reviewed many of them on this site. Interesting that he tried alphabetical listing once but it met with an "uproar." It's the method I prefer. I can pick my faves but I don't like to rate them like wines or something. Ebert's descriptions of the films are often very sweet and you can find them here. (http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/12/the_best_films_of_2011.html)
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________________



ROGER EBERT'S JOURNAL
The Best Films of 2011
By Roger Ebert on December 15, 2011 4:06 PM | ovies won't be familiar. Those are the most useful titles for you, instead of an ordering of movies you already know all about.

One recent year I committed the outrage of listing 20 movies in alphabetical order. What an uproar! Here are my top 20 films, in order of approximate preference.

1. "A Separation"
2. "Shame"
3. "The Tree of Life"
4. "Hugo"
5. "Take Shelter"
6. "Kinyarwanda"
7. "Drive"
8. "Midnight in Paris"
9. "Le Havre"
10. "The Artist."
11. Melancholia
12. "Terri"
13. "The Descendants"
14. "Margaret"
15. "Martha Marcy May Marlene"
16. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2"
17. Trust
18. "Life, Above All"
19. "The Mill and the Cross"
20. "Another Earth"

Those are my top 20, leaving out documentaries, which I will list later. To include them on the same list would be ranking oranges and apples. There were many other excellent films in 2011, some fully the equal of some of these. Alphabetically:

"13 Assassins," "The Adventures of Tintin," "Beginners," "Blue Valentine," "Boy Wonder," "Certified Copy," "The Future," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," "The Guard," "The Help," "Higher Ground," "I Will Follow," "J Edgar," "The Last Rites of Joe May," "Le Quattro Volte," "Margin Call" "Meek's Cutoff," "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol," "Moneyball," "Mysteries of Lisbon," "My Week with Marilyn," "Poetry," "The Princess of Montpensier," "Rango," "A Screaming Man," "Silent Souls," "Tyrannosaur," "Queen to Play," "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," "War Horse" and "The Whistleblower."

Note: Many of you asked if I forgot about "We Need to Talk About Kevin." Not at all. It doesn't even have an opening date in Chicago, and so will be on my list of the best films of 2012. But if it helps, just say I called it "one of the best films of the year," which it certainly is. Watch Tilda Swinton here as she talks with me about the film at the Toronto Film Festival: http://bit.ly/qYwRJf

--ROBER EBERT'S JOURNAL

[oscar jubis]

[QUOTE=Chris Knipp;27158]This is a tally that is updated, but at present it looks as follows. I've left out the scores and just give you the titles and the order they're in:
1 The Tree of Life
2 Certified Copy
3 Drive
4 A Separation
5 The Descendants
6 Hugo
7 Margaret
8 The Artist
9 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
10 Mysteries of Lisbon
11 Melancholia
12 Take Shelter
13 A Brighter Summer Day
Meek's Cutoff
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
16 Shame
17 Moneyball
Martha Marcy May Marlene
The Skin I Live In
20 Poetry
Bridesmaids
A Dangerous Method [/SIZE][/B]


I don't understand how they came up with the posted list. The list of the highest scores for 2011 films at metacritic is as follows:


We Were Here
Metascore: 94

* Release Date: Sep 9, 2011

#
My Perestroika
Metascore: 90

* Release Date: Mar 23, 2011

#
Poetry
Metascore: 89

* Release Date: Feb 11, 2011

#
The Artist
Metascore: 89

* Release Date: Nov 23, 2011

#
The Arbor
Metascore: 88

* Release Date: Apr 27, 2011

#
I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You
Metascore: 87

* Release Date: Mar 25, 2011

#
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Metascore: 87

* Release Date: Dec 9, 2011

#
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Metascore: 87

* Release Date: Mar 4, 2011

#
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Metascore: 87

* Release Date: Jul 15, 2011

#
Moneyball
Metascore: 87

* Release Date: Sep 23, 2011

#
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
Metascore: 87

* Release Date: Sep 9, 2011

#
13 Assassins
Metascore: 87

* Release Date: Apr 29, 2011

#
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Metascore: 86

* Release Date: Apr 29, 2011

#
Of Gods and Men
Metascore: 86

* Release Date: Feb 25, 2011

#
Children of Hiroshima
Metascore: 86

* Release Date: Apr 22, 2011

#
The Interrupters
Metascore: 86

* Release Date: Jul 29, 2011

#
City of Life and Death
Metascore: 85

* Release Date: May 11, 2011

#
Nostalgia for the Light
Metascore: 85

* Release Date: Mar 18, 2011

#
Take Shelter
Metascore: 85

* Release Date: Sep 30, 2011

#
The Tree of Life
Metascore: 85

* Release Date: May 27, 2011

#
Meek's Cutoff
Metascore: 85

* Release Date: Apr 8, 2011

#
Position Among the Stars
Metascore: 84

* Release Date: Sep 15, 2011

#
The Descendants
Metascore: 84

* Release Date: Nov 16, 2011

#
Project Nim
Metascore: 83

* Release Date: Jul 8, 2011

#
Hugo
Metascore: 83

* Release Date: Nov 23, 2011

#
Le Havre
Metascore: 82

* Release Date: Oct 21, 2011

#
Incendies
Metascore: 82

* Release Date: Apr 22, 2011

#
The Trip
Metascore: 82

* Release Date: Jun 10, 2011

#
Certified Copy
Metascore: 82

* Release Date: Mar 11, 2011

#
To Be Heard
Metascore: 82

* Release Date: Oct 14, 2011

#
Mysteries of Lisbon
Metascore: 82

* Release Date: Aug 5, 2011

#
The Inheritors
Metascore: 81

* Release Date: Sep 9, 2011

#
Beginners
Metascore: 81

* Release Date: Jun 3, 2011

#
Weekend
Metascore: 81

* Release Date: Sep 23, 2011

#
Kati with an I
Metascore: 81

* Release Date: Apr 8, 2011

#
Thunder Soul
Metascore: 81

* Release Date: Sep 23, 2011

#
Melancholia
Metascore: 81

* Release Date: Nov 11, 2011

#
Midnight in Paris
Metascore: 81

* Release Date: May 20, 2011

#
Tuesday, After Christmas
Metascore: 81

* Release Date: May 27, 2011

#
The Mill and the Cross
Metascore: 80

* Release Date: Sep 14, 2011

#
The Four Times (Le Quattro Volte)
Metascore: 80

* Release Date: Mar 30, 2011

#
Senna
Metascore: 79

* Release Date: Aug 12, 2011

#
Coriolanus
Metascore: 79

* Release Date: Dec 2, 2011

#
Drive
Metascore: 79

* Release Date: Sep 16, 2011

#
The Soft Skin (1969)
Metascore: 78

* Release Date: Mar 11, 2011

#
My Joy
Metascore: 78

* Release Date: Sep 30, 2011

#
Putty Hill
Metascore: 78

* Release Date: Feb 18, 2011

#
Foreign Parts
Metascore: 78

* Release Date: Mar 10, 2011

#
The Guard
Metascore: 78

* Release Date: Jul 29, 2011

#
The Yellow Sea
Metascore: 78

* Release Date: Dec 2, 2011

#
The Princess of Montpensier
Metascore: 78

* Release Date: Apr 15, 2011

#
Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness
Metascore: 78

* Release Date: Jul 6, 2011

#
Benda Bilili!
Metascore: 77

* Release Date: Sep 30, 2011

#
Bill Cunningham New York
Metascore: 77

* Release Date: Mar 16, 2011

#
Circo
Metascore: 77

* Release Date: Apr 1, 2011

#
Louder Than a Bomb
Metascore: 77

* Release Date: May 18, 2011

#
Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Jul 8, 2011

#
Rebirth
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Sep 2, 2011

#
Jane Eyre
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Mar 11, 2011

#
Buck
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Jun 17, 2011

#
Inni
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Nov 11, 2011

#
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Oct 21, 2011

#
World on a Wire (1973)
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Jul 22, 2011

#
Margin Call
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Oct 21, 2011

#
A Dangerous Method
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Nov 23, 2011

#
Bobby Fischer Against the World
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Sep 9, 2011

#
Submarine
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Jun 3, 2011

#
The Muppets
Metascore: 76

* Release Date: Nov 23, 2011

#
Love Exposure
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Sep 2, 2011

#
Rango
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Mar 4, 2011

#
Silent Souls
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Sep 16, 2011

#
Attack the Block
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Jul 29, 2011

#
Win Win
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Mar 18, 2011

#
Bridesmaids
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: May 13, 2011

#
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Sep 2, 2011

#
The Desert of Forbidden Art
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Mar 11, 2011

#
Caterpillar
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: May 6, 2011

#
Point Blank
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Jul 29, 2011

#
Scheherazade Tell Me a Story
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Aug 12, 2011

#
Pina
Metascore: 75

* Release Date: Dec 23, 2011

#
The Woodmans
Metascore: 74

* Release Date: Jan 19, 2011

#
Tabloid
Metascore: 74

* Release Date: Jul 15, 2011

#
Into the Abyss
Metascore: 74

* Release Date: Nov 11, 2011

#
The Time That Remains
Metascore: 74

* Release Date: Jan 7, 2011

[Chris Knipp]

I don't understand how they came up with the posted list. The list of the highest scores for 2011 films at metacritic is as follows: You have copied out all Metacritic's 2011 Movie Releases by Score list (avesl Bec)of what the Metacritic aggregators estimated at the time to have been the most high rated films during the year. The most enthusiastic individual reviews. But that's not the same as the films that the critics now, at the end of the year, decide in thinking back over all the films they've seen are the year's best. The title of the list I gave from Metacritic is 2011 Film Critic Top Ten Lists. ("http://www.metacritic.com/feature/movie-critic-best-of-2011-top-ten-lists?tag=supplementary-nav;article;1) (Metacritic also prints the individual lists there.) They explain their combined list thus:
Below, we collect every year-end Top Ten list published by major film critics and publications. This page will be updated throughout December and January whenever new lists are published; be sure to check back frequently.

We Were Here and My Perestoika, which got such enthusiastic reviews at the time, and hence rank so high on the list of the highest scores for 2011 films at Metacritic, don't figure in the 2011 Film Critic Top Ten Lists compilation. Often critics find nothing but good to say about a given film, but at year's end don't decide to rank it as highly when considering it in a wider context. Rankings are cruel, and by nature limiting. Reviews on the other hand are a chance to celebrate and eulogize. But when the time comes to make the list of the year's best, what got the biggest rave at the time may not be the best indication.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for the reply.
There are some films that simply have not been viewed by a significant number of critics because they don't have a publicity machine behind them and had limited or short releases. Retentive primacy also plays a factor in that films watched at the beginning of the year get forgotten. There is a natural tendency to list recently-viewed films, especially by people who don't keep records. I imagine there are critics who figure Suleiman's amazing THE TIME THAT REMAINS: Chronicle of a Present Absentee was a 2010 release. It feels that way: it opened in NY on January 6, 2011. Same goes for the best completely forgotten 2011 release: I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I COME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU (which I plan to rewatch soon). For me that is probably the clearest indication that a movie is good: whether or not I feel compelled to rewatch it (and how it holds up during those viewings and reveal stuff I didn't catch before).

[cinemabon]

Did I just miss it somewhere, or did you review "My week with Marilyn" somewhere else? The performance of Michelle Williams blows any other female performance of the year out of the water. If that isn't a Best Actress performance then I don't know a fucking thing about the one gut feeling I've had my entire life.... its that good.

[Chris Knipp]

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN was part of the New York Film Festival and I reviewed it in the 2011 NYFF Festival Coverage section October 9. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3137-New-York-Film-Festival-2011&p=26884#post26884) I noted Michelle's accomplishments -- and Eddie Redmayne's -- in their respective roles and said the movie "looks likely to draw some attention at Oscar time. "

[cinemabon]

I followed your thread, unfortunately I am unable to post any reply to that post. However, I would just like to go on record that I thought "My week with Marilyn" was a superb and highly overlooked film and should be included on some of these lists for "best" acting catagory.

Kenneth Branagh's interpretation of Lawrence Olivier was spot on (although I thought Julia Ormand's Vivian Leigh was restrained at best and Judy Dench didn't even try to copy Thorndike, rather just an aging Judy Dench, which is alright since I like her anyway). And while Eddie Redmayne performed his part as the dewy-eyed youth caught in the headlights of a film production company, it was Michelle Williams who captured that essence of Marilyn - the way Monroe looked into the camera, the way she walked, the way she held her head - everything about the actress Williams managed to channel via her masterful performance. My wife, who does not watch "old" movies the way I do, came away fascinated with Marilyn Monroe, wanting to know more about the actress and her life. She peppered me with questions for two days! It is rare that an actor can give so much to role and bring life to well known personality in such a way that compliments that person with the most sincerest form of flattery.

If "My week with Marilyn" is not nominated for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actor, I feel it will be the one of the worst sins the Academy has ever commited... and since I am not without sin, I will not cast any stone, only aspersions.

[Chris Knipp]

Only the reviewer cleared for the festival can post in the Festival Coverage threads. That's why I put up a thread for the festival in the Forums. So you could post a comment on MY WEEK WITH MARILYN on the NYFF 2011 Forum thread. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3121-Nyff-2011&p=26885#post26885). You have to go back and find it. The search box in the upper right of this page willl take you there. I think that would be here:

http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3121-Nyff-2011&highlight=nyff+2011

Definitely Williams' performance is the greatest focused feat of mimicry. It's essential that it be convincing and impressive or the movie, which remembers a celebrity, would probably not work. None of the other actors tries that hard; just an approximation in the spirit of the person and the period is deemed to be enough, I reckon. I wasn't that impressed by Brannagh's imitation of Olivier's voice, look, etc., but I guess the film gives the memoirist's sense of how he behaved then, and Brannagh is an authoritative actor. He seemed to be the new Olivier at first, though he hasn't quite lived up to that great promise.

Of course Marilyn is the center of attraction. The story wouldn't exist without her. But young Clark (Redmayne) is equally essential. It's he who had the experience and wrote the memoir and it's all seen through his starry eyes.

I'm planning to see this movie again today with a friend.

[cinemabon]

Much of the film also relies on the Marilyn Monroe "look" or to be more specific, the way she appeared when photographed. It takes a good cinematographer to copy the work of others while at the same time making it appear fresh. So that in addition to Williams' performance and the direction given to the scene by Simon Curtis, the lighting and photography by first time film shooter Ben Smithard (who came from a history of television shows) deserves special mention as well. Curtis chose someone who captured the essence of Marilyn with light in several scenes (such as the bath tub scene, her first entrance onto the production set, and the staircase in the castle). I was especially impressed with the variety of ways the Curtis/Smithard team captured her spirit in the way they had her supine on the bed and the chaise lounge (we could add make up effects here, too). I felt at times I was watching Marilyn in a studio being shot by some expert cameraman, moving his lens into any position and catching that beautiful essence of senuality that she projected with so little effort.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7175/elizabetholsenmarthamar.jpg
Elizabeth Olsen with Hugh Dancy
of Martha Marcy May Marlene
at NYFF

I'm still working on my 2011 Best Movies Lists, but here is a teaser, a whole list of Best American films. I know your favorite movies aren't listed here. But these are mine -- I think. I will have Best Foreign (including other English-speaking countries this time), Best Unreleased (in the US) and I am working on a Shortlisted list. Also a list of American Indie films, because those are victories. That list includes Pariah and Terri. You will be able to get these on DVD.

BEST AMERICAN
Tree of Life (Terrence Mallick)
Melancholia (Lars von Traier)
The Descendants (Wes Anderson)
Margaret (Kenneth Londergan)
Moneyball (Bennett Miller)
Martha Marcy May Marlene Sean Durkin
Margin Call (J.C. Chandor)
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
Crazy, Stupid, Love (Glenn Ficarra, John Requa)
Warrior (Gavin O'Connor)