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My 2011 Top Ten List
My favorite time of the year has finally come. It’s the time when I can finally take a break from reporting on other individuals and groups choices for best of the year and actually focus on my own. If any of you missed last year’s, here’s a link to last year’s big list. Over the next week, leading up to the Oscars, I’ll be writing a series of posts that will encompass my feelings on the 2011 year in films. I’ll start things out with my Top Ten List, featured here, followed by two posts chronicling the nominations and winners of the 2nd Annual Edgy Awards. Hopefully, I can maintain concentration and get all of this done before the entire awards season comes to a head.
To be quite honest, this is probably my least favored year of films in terms of quality in at least a decade. I’m not sure what exactly went wrong or rubbed me the wrong way, but there was something lacking in the overall caliber of releases. Disappointing to say the least. Perhaps, it’s not even the overall batch of films, but rather some favorites of the film critic and connoisseur community just did not register in my book. Yet, even with the diminished standard, I still feel compelled to give a shout out of recognition to the films that were more than respectable. The following seven films, listed alphabetically, are some examples of damn fine filmmaking, but had just a few too many flaws that kept them out the final ten.
Here we go. The runners-up are as follows:
“The Artist”
Written and Directed by
Michel Hazanavicius
A delightful and sometimes intriguing romp into the throwback world of silent filmmaking, highlighted by some great design qualities and a stellar lead performance by Jean Dujardin. Yet, the film really suffers from having…well…nothing really important to say or leave us with.
National Board of Review Crowns “Hugo”
This is quite a disturbing bit of news this afternoon, at least in my mind. While I’m glad that “The Artist” didn’t take this down and assert itself not only as the critical darling of the year, but also the frontrunner for Best Picture. There’s just way too many more qualified films to give this to.
Plenty of other things to talk about here, including the disturbing snubbage in all categories of “Moneyball,” but I’ll get into all of that in an all-encompassing post of the entire week later.
Here’s the full list of winners, including their Top Ten Lists:
Best Picture: “Hugo”
Best Director: Martin Scorsese – “Hugo”
Best Actor: George Clooney – “The Descendants”
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton – “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer – “Beginners”
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley – “The Descendants”
Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser – “50/50”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash – “The Descendants”
Best Animated Feature: “Rango”
Breakthrough Performance: Felicity Jones – “Like Crazy”
Breakthrough Performance: Rooney Mara – “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Debut Director: J.C. Chandor – “Margin Call”
Best Ensemble: “The Help”
Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender (“A Dangerous Method,” “Jane Eyre,” “Shame,” “X-Men: First Class”)
NBR Freedom of Expression: “Crime After Crime”
NBR Freedom of Expression: “Pariah”
Best Foreign Language Film: “A Separation”
Best Documentary: “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
Special Achievement in Filmmaking: The Harry Potter Franchise – A Distinguished Translation from Book to Film
Top Films (in alphabetical order)
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Drive”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”
“The Ides of March”
“J. Edgar”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)
“13 Assassins”
“Elite Squad: The Enemy Within”
“Footnote”
“Le Havre”
“Point Blank”
Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
“Born to be Wild”
“Buck”
“George Harrison: Living in the Material World”
“Project Nim”
“Senna”
Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
“50/50”
“Another Earth”
“Beginners”
“A Better Life”
“Cedar Rapids”
“Margin Call”
“Shame”
“Take Shelter”
“We Need To Talk About Kevin”
“Win Win”
My 25 Most Anticipated Films of the Season
Tis the season. What season is that? It’s kind of hard to say. I suppose it’s a combination of fall and winter. I suppose it’s when the awards season really starts to heat up. More than that, however, it’s the time of year when good movies are released. That’s what it is, primarily. It’s the season of good movies, and I look forward to it all year long.
In honor of that, I thought I’d throw up a little list entailing the movies that you absolutely should not miss. Now, these are not necessarily films that you’re guaranteed to like. I’m not even guaranteed to approve. Neither is this an Oscarish type of list, for its guaranteed that nearly half of these movies will never even see a nomination at the Kodak.
What these films do have in common is that they have not yet been released to the general public and from trailers, stills, stories, festival performances and what some critics have already said about them, they look pretty good to me. These are the movies that I really cannot wait to see. With each title in the countdown, I’ve included a few words about why I find these films so promising. I’ve also posted each film’s trailer (except for the small few that have yet to release one). So without further adieu, enjoy, and remember this list if you plan on seeing at least twenty-five movies in the next few months.
NOTE: Two films most would expect to be on here, are not. “Moneyball” would have made a spot on the list, but I have already caught an advance screening of it (AND LOVED IT). “Drive” would also certainly find its place on here, since I have not yet gotten a chance to see it, but since it has already been released, it excludes itself from the rest of films featured.
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25. “Margaret”
September 30th (limited)
WHY IT’S HERE: Pretty weird situation here. The film looks to have an interesting plot, a great cast. However, after being delayed release for six years, you’d think this film’s going to have some severe flaws and issues. The winning flip side is that after that much time of waiting and hoping, the amount of anticipation this film carries with it is more than enough reel me in.
The Edge of the Frame 