The year 2011 went almost as badly for moviegoers as it did for Barack Obama. Nevertheless, a few titles sparkled and some of them are already on DVD. So consider this list of the top ten must-see films of the year:
War Horse: Remember Steven Spielberg’s Munich? Neither does he, apparently. With this return to David Lean-style sweep, Spielberg veers away from his failed attempts to make political statement films and proves that when he’s doing what he does best, no one else alive can match him. This wonderfully heartfelt and entirely irony-free story follows “Joey,” a stallion who gets separated from his young owner in England because of World War I. As we experience the horrors of the war through the horse’s eyes, Spielberg plays on the heartstrings like a virtuoso. (Some scenes may be a little intense for younger kids, but there is no explicit violence.)
Captain America: Marvel’s Thor was a disappointment but the studio that gave us Iron Man is back on track with this patriotic superhero story set in World War II. A scrawny little guy from Brooklyn (endearingly well played by Chris Evans) gets a chance to be the guinea pig in a scientific experiment that turns him into a super soldier. Contrary to Hollywood expectations (lefty execs thought having America in the title would be a problem), the movie was even a hit in Europe.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: A cool, dense, cerebral thriller set in dismal 1970s London, this adaptation of the John le Carré spy classic stars a superbly self-controlled Gary Oldman as retired spy George Smiley. Smiley is re-hired to figure out which member of the upper echelon of Britain’s intelligence service is actually working for the Russians in a sobering and skillfully designed puzzle that reflects on the Cambridge Spies. A top-notch supporting cast includes John Hurt, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth and Mark Strong.
The Artist. Believe it or not: A silent film is one of the year’s freshest, most original efforts. This throwback movie starring little-known French actor Jean Dujardin is about a hambone silent movie star discombobulated by the advent of talkies. Thanks to his noble retainer (a dryly funny James Cromwell) and his trusty Jack Russell terrier, though, he gradually finds his way back to the limelight. This delightful comedy is likely to get a bunch of Oscar nominations.
Crazy, Stupid, Love: Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling make one of the year’s most surprisingly effective comedy duos in this complicated romantic comedy for mature audiences. Carell plays a sad-sack office drone who, after being dumped by his wife (Julianne Moore), gets his groove back with the help of a local lothario (Ryan Gosling) who turns out not to be as shallow as he looks. Raunchy and hilarious moments mingle with more lyrical scenes in an expert mix.
Drive: Gosling gives another excellent performance (as he did in The Ides of March), this time as a coolly brutal getaway driver whose lone-wolf lifestyle is imperiled by his relationship with a young mom (Carey Mulligan) whose husband is in prison. Albert Brooks’ turn as a loan shark is excellent, and the movie’s striking visual style marks its young director Nicolas Winding Refn as a young talent to watch.
Midnight in Paris: Woody Allen fans haven’t had much to work with except Match Point in recent years, but this summer he had the sleeper hit of the year with this tongue-in-cheek nostalgia piece about a young novelist (Owen Wilson) who, on a trip to today’s France, steps through a wrinkle in time and finds himself cavorting with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. Reminiscent of Purple Rose of Cairo in its gentle humor, the movie charmed audiences looking for an antidote to tired blockbuster formulas.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams: A wondrous documentary shot in 3D, this exploration of the oldest art created by humans — the paintings inside the Chauvet caves in southern France — turns into a mystical inquiry about mankind’s relationship with his past and his highest aspirations.
Win Win: One of the movies’ leading underdog actors, Paul Giamatti, plays a small-town lawyer and high-school wrestling coach who winds up virtually adopting the teenage son of a doddering client. The kid, off-putting as he seems at first, turns out to be a star wrestler who helps his new coach get his family and his life back on track in a film that carries a resonant message about the importance of doing what’s morally right.
We Bought a Zoo: Cameron Crowe, who wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High and wrote and directed Almost Famous, has always been in touch with his youthful side, but this time he goes all in with a film based on a true story that is aimed at children and their parents. Matt Damon plays a widower (watch for a very funny Thomas Haden Church as his brother) who, while caring for his two kids, gets the strange idea of buying a disused zoo in California and reopening it to the public. Working with the animals and a pretty zookeeper (Scarlett Johansson), he gets his family in sync again. A good-natured holiday treat.
There have been some fantastic Chinese movies the last 3 years, what a shame Americans don’t get to see them.
Wally
New Zealand
which movies?
We don’t get to see them because the names of good Chinese movies are a state secret.
I’m still Laughing.
These get my vote for best reply’s
You two would feel right at home at IMDB’s user boards.
Will the rest of this post come later?
So glad to see “War Horse” on your list. It’s the best movie I’ve seen in years.
Surprised not to see “Descendants” on it, though.
And what’s with “Crazy, Stupid Love”? Wasn’t that the one where everybody’s hair, with the exception of Gosling’s blonde playboy for obvious reasons, was dyed the same color? They must have gotten a vat price and it’s just as well, since they were probably trying for chestnut but seem to have ended up with something bordering on magenta. (You have to forgive me about the dye thing. I often think I’ve landed here about two centuries too late this time around.)
“This throwback movie starring little-known French actor Jean Dujardin is about a hambone silent movie star discombobulated by the advent of talkies.”
I liked it better when it was called “Silent Movie”.
I remember the London Weekend Television miniseries of “Tinker, Tailor”, with Sir Alec Guinness as George Smiley. (Other people remember him as Obi-Wan Kenobi, to me he will always be Smiley.) But with a cast like Oldman, Hurt, & Co., I will probably have to see the new version.
As for “Captain America”- Giant flying-wing bombers, parasite fighters, and Hydra. From my old-time-pulp-and-comic-fan POV, what’s not to like?
cheers
eon
Speaking of Chinese films; I just watched “Red Cliff” by John Woo last night, and it is definitely a winner. Grossed more than “Titanic”—and for good reason. If you enjoy historical epics, see it.
Ordinarily, I would not imagine much could be done to improve upon Alec Guiness’s portrayal of George Smiley in the British television version of “Tinker, Tailor”—Guiness was born for the role—but I have such respect for Gary Oldman that I can’t conceive of him doing a middling job; therefore, I’m definitely going to see that. Be aware that TTSS is based on a rather subtle and intricate spy novel, so you will most enjoy it if you like psychological thrillers: Smiley methodically hunts down a mole in the highest ranks of British intelligence. Great story!
I concur. Red Cliff was FANTASTIC. “The Good, The Bad, and The Weird” is a keeper as well.
thanks for the heads up. I hadn’t even heard of some of these films.
My test for superhero movies is that I don’t tell the wife any of the backstory and see if she can follow it. She loved Iron Man and Spider-Man, was pretty much baffled by Green Lantern. She absolutely adored Captain America, as did I. It was good, wholesome fun. I loved that Cap couldn’t get drunk! Brilliant!
This list is discredited with the inclusion of Midnight in Paris. A very poor movie.
Totally agree. That movie sucked. But most of those on this list do as well.
Please, people. It’s “consorting,” not “cavorting.” Just look up the meaning of “cavorting” and imagine Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Picasso doing it!
Agree with that. Pleasant enough movie, rather silly really, but no where near best anything. I find Owen Wilson a completely vacuous and uninteresting actor.
Woody Allen could paint the Mona Lisa and I wouldn’t go see it.
What, no Hugo? Best thing Scorsese’s done since he turned down the diCaprio career detour.
Movie attendence hits 16 yr low in 2011. I wonder why?
Midnight stunk. Matt Damon bites. I’ll go see Warhorse.
Where’s “Arthur Christmas?” An excellent animation film.
I have this funny feeling that if I haven’t read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or seen the miniseries, I’ll be confused all movie long.
Midnight in Paris? Woody Allen? Man, what is your dope? Just in case I wanna get stoned out of my mind.
Woody Allen is the case of a very talented guy undercut by craven and pathetic character failings. No, I’m not referring to entertainment industry chatter about his sexual preferences and misadventures. All that is Allen’s private business. I’m referring here to Woody Allen the professional.
Allen needs to be liked, a weakness ruinous to honest art and literature that every determined artist must rise above. Worse yet, Allen suffers from a sad need to be seen for sophisticated. ‘Never let them see you sweat’ is a showbiz essential. Watching a talented guy who has it made in the shade sweat profusely merely to convince an audience that he’s cool and cosmopolitan is depressing.
Paris, literature, art, music Bloomsbury, La Belle Epoch–Woody tries so, so hard.
Starting out, Woody Allen was a nice-looking, funny, stand-up comedian. His short stories–The Kugelmass Episode is especially memorable–were a chuckle. His early movies were a howl. Then Allen began to take himself seriously. Bad move for a comedian.
Midnight in Paris is a weightless piffle. Egg kichel. Strictly souffle. The jokes are funny but they’re predictable. Old hat. Unserious, which every comedy should be but unserious also in a way no honest enterprise should be. At this stage in his career, Allen should be much further along.
Creative license has it’s limits. Even a light-hearted comedic fantasy must be credible on some level to succeed. Could a contemporary novel by a serious, contemporary novelist be accessible to a 1920s literary critic, as Allen’s film posits? Is there anyone in the real world so airheaded and self-absorbed as Allen’s protagonist in Midnight? Can anyone in any audience credit Woody the dramatist’s insistence that this celluloid character with his head in the clouds and feet that never touch the ground is a novelist?
What would you do if you could go back in time to the Roaring Twenties, Max? Me, I’d get a gun and make a beeline to Vienna. Look up a second rate painter and beer-hall loudmouth named of Adolf Schickelgruber. Put a bullet in his head and spare the lives of some twenty or thirty million human beings.
If Midnight in Paris is the best Allen can do, it means he peaked as a creative entertainer twenty years ago. That being the case, maybe Woody ought to to hang it up. Find a delightfully quaint farm in Provence that Cezanne might have painted and put himself out to pasture.
Woody seems to alternate needing to be liked with needing to absolutely screw his audience and destroy his career. How else to explain the turgid and inert Interiors immediately after Annie Hall propelled his career into orbit, and when Manhattan was also a hit, making a film like Stardust Memory that insults his fans. (And seriously reduced his grosses for much of the 1980s.) And then Soon-Yi incident to completely finish off his career. Because he’s a cult act now and not a mainstream $100 mil or bust filmmaker, and because he’s now in his 70s, he may feel less of a need to crap on his audience, but his occasional Kamikaze crashes were a regular feature of the glory days of his career.
Midnight in Paris was, to borrow a golf metaphor, sneaky-awful. If you must see a lesser Allen movie, I recommend “Broadway Danny Rose”. Quirky characters in a light plot – but funny and captivating with heart IMO.
Captain America, Drive & The Artist were very good.
Other nods for me:
The Lincoln Lawyer (much like McConaughey’s easygoing ‘A Time to Kill’ lawyer character though a total sleaze),
Hugo (Scorsese’s back! I too was getting sick of seeing albeit good though man child DiCaprio as a lead),
Rammbock (the German ‘Undead’ version),
The new Mission Impossible.
“Midnight in Paris” was sophomoric and unbelievably irritating. Or perhaps I should say irritatingly unbelievable. Whatever possessed Allen to cast Owen Wilson in this role? (Nothing against Wilson. I loved him in “Shanghai Noon,” which incidentally was a far, far better movie.)
“Crazy, Stupid, Love” left me feeling both crazy and stupid for having wasted my time and money on it. Carell and Gosling did well, but good acting can’t save a bad script and drivel is drivel.
As for me, I did like “War Horse,” “Win Win,” and “The Artist,” but I think I liked “Moneyball” best. Weird, eh?
To each his own!
“Cave of Forgotten Dreams” is an excellent film if a person is into archeology.
I’d like to add Cowboys & Aliens, RED, and Moneyball.
Sherlock Holmes ~ Game of Shadows, is a fun, very well acted and directed, intriguing movie that is well worth the price of admission. Downey and Law are a great team, hopefully there will be many more sequels.