2011 was an intriguing year for movies — more so, I believe, than last year. Over half of the movies in my list are “foreign,” a label that feels increasingly archaic and extraneous. The Academy Awards only considered my favorite film of the year a contender in the Best Foreign Language Film category. One film pushed the limits of 3-D technology, while several others pushed the boundaries of exploring relationships on the big screen.
Note that I do not call these the “Best Films of 2011.” The beautiful thing about films is that each viewer becomes his own critic. As vehemently as friends and I may disagree with each other, the reason we argue in the first place is because we have developed such a deep passion for the movies. Inevitably, we dish out our loves and hates in equal doses.
But for now, let’s stick to the positives. Listed below are my favorite films from the last year. There are a couple that I have not seen yet — notably “Take Shelter” — but this list will make do for now. If some of these movies don’t ring a bell, that is all for the better. As Roger Ebert notes in his own best-of list, those previously unknown films are the most useful and exciting to discover.
11. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
I initially dismissed “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” as yet another lame, money-grabbing prequel/sequel. But my best friend raved about it, and when I reluctantly joined him in the theater for a second viewing, I was happy to discover that it was good — very good. It tosses out the dated and rather nebulous Cold War fears of the original for an even more disturbing notion: that in our desire and hubris to improve our race, we bring about our own destruction.
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” masterfully walks the line between silliness and drama, settling on a tone that is pleasurably irreverent and earnest. The sweeping character arc of Caesar (played by the impressive Andy Serkis), the ape who will soon rule humans in the inevitable sequel, is one of the year’s best.
[Dir. Rupert Wyatt | IMDb | Trailer]
10. The Skin I Live In
You walk into a Pedro Almodóvar film knowing that you’re not going to come out the same. Just take a deep breath and plunge into the ensuing madness, knowing that you’re in good hands. Admittedly, they are hands that subject you to not one, but two horrific rapes. But dammit, if it doesn’t make for a ripping story. “The Skin I Live In” is one of the most creative and — literally — gender-bending revenge tales in recent memory. You leave it shaken, but pining for more.
[Dir. Pedro Almodóvar | IMDb | Trailer]
9. Senna
“Senna” is technically a documentary, but it doesn’t have the hallmarks of one. By the end, you know very little about Senna’s personal life; it instead focuses almost entirely on his short but brilliant career as a Formula One driver. This lack of a background holds the documentary back a bit, but it also makes for a very tight and gripping narrative. There are no cuts to talking heads. Interviewed friends and family members are instead relegated to passing on-screen credits, as the filmmakers allow the racing footage do the talking. Gradually, you realize that those races and Senna’s personal life were one and the same.
[Dir. Asif Kapadia | IMDb | Trailer]
8. Margin Call
“Margin Call” is upsetting. I left the theater thoroughly disgusted by the investment firm characters who, in this fictionalized account, trigger the 2008 financial crisis. I initially diverted these feelings — unfairly — to the film itself. But “Margin Call” gradually chips its way into the mind, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I watched it two months ago.
The sharply written script, by J.C. Chandor, who was also the director, is easily the year’s best. Chandor paints his characters as flawed people, but does not let them off the hook. The cast is more than up to the challenge. Kevin Spacey plays a clueless manager with a moral compass; Paul Bettany is a sexaholic who can barely support his family, despite his seven-figure salary; Zachary Quinto is a brilliant, innocent analyst who, after first spotting the disaster, gets quickly eaten up by the system.
And finally, there’s Jeremy Irons, playing the snaky CEO who is willing to destroy the economy in order to keep his company afloat. The scene in which Irons calmly eats breakfast over an unsuspecting New York City may be the year’s most terrifying.
[Dir. J.C. Chandor | IMDb | Trailer]
7. Bill Cunningham New York
This tiny documentary wisely keeps its breadth limited to one remarkable man, the one and only Bill Cunningham. Cunningham, a photographer for The New York Times who maintains a lovely video series on street fashion, is an adorable, shy guy whose passion for photography is completely infectious.
I wrote a reflection on the documentary earlier this year, but what emerges is a portrait of a man who remains quite lonely, holding tightly to his own secrets. The filmmakers don’t push the issue; they slowly and imperceptibly strip away the layers, culminating in an astounding scene in which they gently ask Cunningham if he is gay. The camera stays on him for several minutes as he tries to remain composed and come up with an answer. The moment could have been exploitative, but Cunningham refreshingly comes across as someone who’s just as vulnerable and human as the rest of us.
[Dir. Richard Press| IMDb | Trailer]
6. A Separation
The title of this remarkable Iranian film is more than apt. Here is a collapsing family that finds itself pitted against their former house sitter, who claims they pushed her down some stairs and killed her unborn child. Dark stuff, to be sure, but there are no villains here, just flawed people trying to get by on a lower-middle class income. Unlike “The Descendants’” rather reductive portrayal of family tensions, “A Separation” feels like a film about real people. Where “The Descendents” used Hawaii as a pretty backdrop, “A Separation” gives viewers a complete sense of urban Iran, from the subtle tensions between its men and women, to the bustling streets and courtrooms. Director Asghar Farhadi’s decision to stay on a pointedly ambiguous shot at the film’s end would simply not happen in a Hollywood movie — this film has balls.
[Dir. Asghar Farhadi | IMDb | Trailer]
5. Submarine
“Submarine,” which I wrote about a few months back, is a great film about adolescence, selfishness and self-discovery. Director Richard Ayoade has an impressive, dynamic sense of composition and camera movement. His film is very funny, but its humor is rooted in an honest and serious consideration of identity. We may be the king of our own little worlds, but what happens when that hubris collides with the reality of relationships?
[Dir. Richard Ayoade| IMDb | Trailer]
4. Weekend
“Weekend,” which I reviewed recently, is now the standard by which all other gay films will be measured. Using a minimalist, meticulously composed style, director Andrew Haigh creates one of the most honest romances ever put to film. The movie ends on a perfect, uplifting-yet-ambiguous note, and the chemistry between its two leads continues to sizzle long after the final frame.
[Dir. Andrew Haigh | IMDb | Trailer]
3. The Tree of Life
It took three screenings before Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” fully clicked with me. (You can read my thoughts on my first screening here.) For better or for worse, this is a very personal film. Malick’s bucolic vision of childhood probably does not match that of most of his viewers. Oh, but what a vision. The film has an oddly straightforward, narrative logic to it: Upon learning about the death of their son, the family considers the larger meaning of life, before they jump back into the specific memories of their childhood. The brilliant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki has a knack for keeping his camera unhinged, ready to capture a moment or a character’s face at its most expressive. If he does not win the Oscar for Best Cinematography this year, I will be deeply shocked.
[Dir. Terrence Malick | IMDb | Trailer]
2. Hugo
“Hugo” is love in cinematic form. It shamelessly pulls inspiration from the earliest stages of film history, complete with Ben Kingsley playing Georges Melies. It is the rare case of nostalgia producing a breath of fresh air, life and inspiration for the present. The 3-D is a perfect marriage of art and technology, used to augment camera movements and characters’ emotional states.
With “Hugo,” Scorsese and his longtime collaborators Robert Richardson (cinematography), Thelma Schoonmaker (editing), and Dante Ferretti (production design) are at the top of their game. The result is nothing short of staggering, and its effects can be felt by all audience members. At a screening I attended, several kids in the audience gasped when Hugo discovered that his diary had been reduced to ashes. This is a complex film with a lot of dialogue, but Scorsese’s sense of visual language is so powerful that he easily forges a connection with viewers.
[Dir. Martin Scorsese| IMDb | Trailer]
1. Incendies
“Incendies” is technically a 2010 film, but since it didn’t screen at any other American festivals outside of Telluride, I’ll bend the rules a bit. “Incendies” is a monumental work, and one of cinema’s greatest epics. The fact that it barely had any screen time in theaters this spring is a tragedy.
It begins on a small level, in present-day Canada, where a sister and brother are tasked by their recently deceased mother to find their long-missing father. As the sister reconstructs her mother’s traumatic past, director Denis Velleneuve deftly travels among multiple points of view and places in time. The mother, it turns out, was an outcast who found herself stuck in the middle of a religious-based civil war in an unnamed Middle East country, based loosely on Lebanon.
André Turpin’s masterful cinematography suits every moment, with impressively executed natural lighting that doesn’t draw attention to itself. ”Incendies”‘s unwavering look at the way wars shatter individuals and societies simultaneously is second to none. In its oddly jumbled way, “Incendies” is the perfect anti-war film.
[Dir. Denis Villeneuve | IMDb | Trailer]
