The list below is of my favorite movies of 2011.
I wrote the other day how determining the best movies in a given year can be
tough because you can’t always tell whether or not a film will age well. Some
movies get better and better the more you watch them. Others make a great first
impression but might not hold up to multiple viewings. This list is a
collection of first impressions. These are all movies that left a mark on me
the first time I saw them. I’ll check back with them a few years down the road
and see how they hold up.
In the meantime, most are on DVD or will be soon (and The
Descendants is still in theaters now). So
use the on demand/online streaming/DVD-in-the-mail service of your choice and
check them out. (I’ll also share with you a well-kept secret of where to rent
movies that I use all the time: the library. Most local libraries have large
movie collections and get all the new DVDs. You might have to fight with the
woman down the block who has a crush on Ryan Gosling in order to get your hands
on a copy of The Ides of March
but, hey, it’s free.)
Woody Allen’s globetrotting continues with Midnight in
Paris, a breezy, time-traveling comedy
starring Owen Wilson who, in a fine performance, splits the difference between
his own comic persona and the neuroses of Mr. Allen. Those familiar with the
major figures of art and literature in 1920s Paris (Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude
Stein and Salvador Dali, to name a few that appear here) will be delighted but
you don’t have to get all the references to enjoy the film. Mr. Allen’s own
love of these artists shines through every scene and Mr. Wilson is great fun to
watch as he marvels at being transported to the bygone era he adores. A love
letter to the city and a bittersweet (though mostly sweet) study of how
nostalgia afflicts us all.
Take Shelter is an
absorbing psychological thriller about a blue collar Midwesterner, Curtis
LaForche (Michael Shannon), on the cusp of a schizophrenic breakdown. Or is he?
He begins having horribly realistic nightmares of an apocalyptic storm but are
the dreams premonitions of some rapture to come, or is his mind descending into
madness? Neither option bodes well for him and his family. The film, written
and directed by Jeff Nichols, is engrossing because Curtis’s supernatural fears
have real world consequences. When he becomes obsessed with renovating an old
tornado shelter in the backyard, the expenditure puts a significant financial
burden on his family. This is a beautifully shot, gradually paced and
absolutely gripping movie.
A Dangerous Method
follows the professional and personal relationship of psychologists Carl Jung
(Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) but this is not a
typical historical biopic. This is an exceptionally talky film; Jung and
Freud’s discussions on the subtleties of psychoanalysis are only occasionally
broken up by scenes of kinky sex between Jung and his
patient-turned-student-turned-lover, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley).
Despite the dry nature of the material though, there is a current of excitement
running through A Dangerous Method.
These were intellectual innovators on the verge of changing the way the world
thought about the human mind and director David Cronenberg elegantly captures
that moment in this fascinating film.
Alexander Payne’s films tell wonderful, human stories. Like
previous Payne features Sideways and About
Schmidt, The Descendants depicts a man facing a personal crisis, and does so
with compassion and humor. After a boating accident puts his wife in a
permanent coma, Matt King (George Clooney) is left alone to father his two
daughters. Meanwhile, as the lone trustee to a huge estate, he faces pressure
from the other side of his family to find a buyer for the property. The movie,
set against a gorgeous, Hawaiian backdrop, has a keen sense of culture and
history. It also ends on what might be my favorite final shot in a movie this
year.
The definition of what is cool is always changing and often we can look back and identify what
sparked certain trends in coolness. Attack the Block is the sort of movie we’ll look back on and say,
“Oh, yeah. That’s cool because Attack the Block did it first.” The movie follows a teen gang in
inner city London who unwittingly find themselves fighting off an alien
invasion. What’s kind of brilliant about it is that they react to this
extraterrestrial contact precisely how you’d expect a bunch of fifteen-year-old
boys to. When they kill their first alien, what do they do? They drag its
carcass through the streets and show it off to a few girls before bringing it
to the guy they buy weed from. Fast-paced, funny, sometimes gory, and featuring
impressive creature effects. A promising debut from writer/director Joe
Cornish.
An analyst for a powerful financial investment firm is laid
off but before he leaves the building he hands a flash drive to one of his
employees. “I think you should take a look at this,” he says. “Be careful.”
That’s the set-up of Margin Call, which
mostly takes place over one night as the gravity of the information on that
drive sinks in – it contains calculations that predict the firm’s doom – and
news travels up the ranks to the CEO. This is a tense film inspired by the 2008
financial crisis and successfully makes complex concepts accessible without
dumbing them down. Writer/director J.C. Chandor seeks to do nothing less than
question the morality of capitalism but never demonizes his characters.
Instead, he invites us to ask ourselves: What would I do in this situation? Is
jumping ship and saving myself the right thing to do? Characters in the film
are always asking this but the notion of what is “right” turns out to be a very
murky concept indeed.
This is a powerful story about two estranged brothers –
tormented Iraq War veteran Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgarton), a
physics teacher and father of two – who return to their roots as mixed martial
arts fighters. Tommy enlists the help of his father (Nick Nolte), a reformed
alcoholic and Tommy’s former trainer, to prepare for an upcoming tournament.
Brendan, meanwhile, starts participating in pickup matches to make quick cash
and stall foreclosure on his house. You might be able to guess where this is
going but Warrior is impressive in the
way it does not simplify its characters’ complex relationships while still
adhering to the crowd-pleasing formula of the fight genre. Audiences largely
dismissed Warrior because of
seeming similarities to The Fighter,
an unfair fate considering it is even better than that film. This one blew me
away.
Higher Ground
chronicles one southern woman’s relationship with religion, from her tenuous
beginnings with evangelicalism and following her as she is born again and
subsequently questions her faith. Though it features a fair amount of
preaching, the movie itself never preaches. It approaches its characters with a
critical eye and its subject matter with an open mind. Vera Farmiga, who stars
in the film and makes her directorial debut, is careful not to condescend. Some
members of the congregation are naive and old-fashioned but all of them are
complex individuals, not stereotypes. The film shoulders big topics – sex,
marriage, family, church and the role women play in all of those – but does so
gracefully and without passing judgment. This is a quiet movie about the
process of self-discovery; there are few grand, dramatic moments in it. Yet, in
its subtle way, the film uncovers something true and leaves a lasting
impression.
Tone can be a delicate thing. Mike Mills’s Beginners finds just the right one though; it has an emotional
frankness that does not soften its more tragic moments but also has a certain
whimsy and love for life that is infectious. We meet Oliver (Ewan McGregor) at
the start of a new relationship with Anna (Mélanie Laurent), a French actress
he meets at a party. This is intercut with remembrances of his late father
(Christopher Plummer) who, in the last years of his life, was diagnosed with
cancer and came out of the closet, living as an openly gay man for the first
time. The tender relationship between father and son is at the heart of the
film but its best moments are in the embellishments Mr. Mills adds. Oliver has
conversations with his father’s dog (who talks back through subtitles), recalls
childhood memories of his mother (Mary Page Keller) and reflects on the
differences between his father’s time and the present. A loose, almost free
associative structure helps to avoid melodrama. The film opens with the
father’s death and moves backward, retracing the end of his life while also
moving forward with Oliver’s developing romance and ending on a thoroughly
optimistic note. This is a film with style and wit that left on me an imprint
of its uniquely pleasant mood.
Terrence Malick is one of the few filmmakers today making
great literary art. His latest, The Tree of Life, has a poetic style, chasing moods, emotions and ideas rather than
following a straightforward, linear narrative. The film is a major achievement,
which is also to say it is not the most accessible or traditionally
entertaining of films but here’s my advice if you are interested: Brace
yourself for the abstractions of the extended cosmic prologue, which dramatizes
the beginnings of the Universe. Know that the domestic scenes set in 1950s
Texas suburbia that follow are rich in emotion and feature compassionate
performances from Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and newcomer Hunter McCracken.
Let the mosaic of imagery and music wash over you. Don’t expect a conventional
plot but look instead at the small, familial moments Mr. Malick creates and
find parallels in your own life. The Tree of Life can be a profoundly moving experience if you’re in
the right frame of mind for it. Terrence Malick has crafted a landmark in
contemporary American cinema and, for my money, the year’s best film.
- Steve Avigliano, 2/25/12
