As in “lean,” as well as “enumerate”–I have missed quite a few potentially worthy films, besides not yet having access to a bunch of others. But, still: ’tis the season. Great filmgoing (or dvdviewing) experiences of the year:
Hugo
The above is the only one likely listed in order–Scorsese’s use of 3D was so entrancing that I was in a sort of rapture, even without a central storyline (and a corollary aesthetic) that played to my cinema-nerd pretensions and an emotional heft that (even when most extravagantly sentimental) socked my just-plain-nerd sensibilities, too.
And I’d also pull out two which would likely maintain a space on a list even if I’d seen many more of the hotshot titles–I didn’t just really like them, I thought they were fantastic films.
Bridesmaids
Meek’s Cutoff
The rest I’ve just alphabetized — all films that I enjoyed *and* found in some fashion intriguing, ‘though as often for simply doing a bang-up job inside a genre (or, with Malick, being so dang different and energizing right up until it deflates and becomes more dutifully familiar):
Attack the Block
Beginners
Crazy, Stupid Love
The Guard
Hanna
Rango
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Super
Tabloid
The Tree of Life
The Unjust
Win Win
The next three I didn’t see ’til January ’11, ‘though they were released the prior year, but:
Four Lions
Enter the Void
Night Catches Us
My three favorite films of the year examined the daily struggles of living and the fine art of dying in loving, complex, often opaque bursts of visual storytelling best described as cosmic impressionism (lyrical interpretations of the cosmos embracing/interrogating all its recorded history and unpierced mysteries). In Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life the filmmakers offer a clear sense of character and narrative momentum (never fearing to capture moments of sublime emotional specificity) juxtaposed against larger, grander generalizations as to how the universe and those who inhabit it works. Each film openly embraces the uncanny; past, present and future flow in and around and through each other, generating a kind of heightened spiritual awareness of the inexplicably strange and beautiful forces of the world in concert. The films are also works of unmistakable elegance and repose – thoughtful, considerate, nuanced meditations on temporal impermanence (among other things); but each is also invested in telling stories, compelling stories. Take, for example, the final moments of Uncle Boonmee, who is dying of kidney failure on a farm in the north of Thailand near the border of Laos. Recognizing his time is coming to a close, Boonmee, his sister-in-law, his nephew the Buddhist monk, and the ghost of Boonmee’s long dead wife journey deep into the forest and enter a cave which, after some time capturing the mystery and grace of the underground space, suddenly and inexplicably opens itself up to the stars and moon. The old man, who worries his karma will be affected because he killed so many communists during the war, sits quietly in the moonlight. The tube which drains excess urine from his kidney is released and the clear liquid flows onto the floor of the cave as Tong, Boonmee’s nephew, casually adjusts his position to avoid the flow. Meanwhile, in the shadows, a group of red-eyed monkey-men, forest hybrids who coexist in the material and the spiritual world, observe the man’s death with a level of tenderness and curiosity. One of them might very well be his son, who disappeared years earlier in the forest and was never seen again. It is a startlingly serene and surreal sequence. Oh, yeah, did I mention there’s a scene in the film where a catfish (perhaps one of Boonmee’s former lives) fellates a Thai princess in a river stream. Words don’t really do any of these films true justice.
Two other films round out my top five films of 2011. Nicolas Winding Refn’s mesmerizing Drive and Paul Feig’s body genre spectacular rom-con angst fest Bridesmaids (written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo). Great stuff!
Other films I believe to be worth the effort (in alphabetical order):
The Arbor (Clio Barnard): a stirring, unconventional, uncompromising documentary about the life and death of British playwright Andrea Dunbar
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish)
Beginners (Mike Mills): ¾ of a great film which shines brightly whenever Christopher Plummer in on the screen. The central romance between Ewan McGregor and Mèlanie Laurent drags the film down a notch . . . but Mills is a talented and generous director, who keeps control over the Gondry-esque whimsy without sacrificing a damn thing.
Cedar Rapids (Miguel Arteta)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
Hugo (Martin Scorsese)
Super 8 (J.J. Abrams)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
Weekend (Andrew Haigh): perhaps the most romantic movie of the year chock full of love and heartbreak and joy and brutal, transformative honesty.