Brian's Favorite Films of 2011

I love movies. I love going to movies. I love talking about movies. Movies entertain. Movies educate. Movies can take you away. In 2011, for instance, we went to Europe with Hugo (France) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden). We traveled across the United States with Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (New York) and The Descendants (Hawaii). We went back in time with The Artist (1920s) and into the future with Real Steel (2020s). We went to Hogwarts once again with the final Harry Potter movie and we even got an up-close look at Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. And that's just to name a few.

When each year comes to a close with it comes a plethora of new and fresh films. 2011 wasn't a particularly strong year in movies, nonetheless it contained a number of pictures I enjoyed thoroughly and will enjoy for years to come.

With that I present you with my favorite films of 2011. Below I have chosen 15 movies, with five honorable mentions in alphabetical order and my ranked top 10.

Honorable Mentions

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
The perfect ending to, currently, the most successful film franchise ever. It might be the best in the series and it's certainly the most epic. We witness the monstrous battle of Hogwarts and learn Professor Snape's (Alan Rickman) true allegiance in the best sequence of scenes in the movie, maybe the whole series. Director David Yates and his talented British cast didn't hold anything back in this one.

Horrible Bosses
Yep, that's right. This is my favorite, flat-out comedy of the year and, believe it or not, the closest of these honorable mentions to making the top 10. So my 11th favorite movie of the year is about three guys (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis) who come up with a plan to kill their awful bosses. Said bosses are played in terrific, over-the-top fashion by Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrel and Kevin Spacey. I've always been a fan of Bateman's. His comedy is very subtle and relies on delivery and timing more than content and the core of this movie's comedy is a very Bateman-like style. There are many laugh-out-loud moments, with my favorite being a scene in which each man, with their cars parked in close proximity, try to leave a parking lot. It's not a long scene, but it's hilarious.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
The story of the West Memphis Three has garnered a lot of attention since the original trials in the mid-90s. Three teenagers from West Memphis, Arkansas were convicted of murdering three 8-year-old boys. HBO Films made a documentary released in 1996 about the first trials in which the men were convicted. Since then scores of people believe the men to be innocent and have rallied to get them freed. In 2000 HBO released a second film. In 2011, 15 years after the first film they once again interviewed the three men, who are still in prison at the beginning of the film, and are now in their 30s. All three documentaries are absolutely compelling and the third hammers it home.

Shame
It could be considered the most snubbed movie of the year, and for good reason. It's one of the most well acted movies of the year because of Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan and it's certainly one of the best directed of the year by artist Steve McQueen. Though it is not for everyone. It's rated NC-17 and contains scenes and situations of a very sexual nature. Fassbender's character is a sex-addict who has learned to function as normally as possible until his sister arrives unannounced and ruins his routine. It's very hard to watch at some points and Fassbender will blow you away.

Source Code
Possibly the most surprising entry on my list. Jake Gyllenhaal is a fine actor and he is on full display here. He plays an Army helicopter pilot who is fighting in Afghanistan until he suddenly wakes up on a train. After the train explodes he wakes up in a pod and slowly finds out he is part of a project that can put someone into another person's consciousness to relive the last eight minutes of his or her life. His goal is to find out who planted the bomb on the train. It's an unbelievable concept for sure, but I've learned to allow movies with impossible concepts to tell their stories instead of writing them off from the start. It's mostly a thriller, but it's got a lot of heart as well, and will likely surprise you. It's set in Chicago which helps too.


Top Ten


10. Margin Call

At the very beginning of the financial crisis an investment bank undergoes mass layoffs. One laid0ff employee is the head of the risk management department, played by Stanley Tucci, who at the time of his firing was working on a highly important project. He hands a USB drive to Peter (Zachary Quinto) another member of the risk department and tells him to "be careful." After working all night, Peter finishes the project and discovers the bank is about to exceed trading limits which will eventually destroy the company. Emergency meetings follow and the remaining employees, including Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons and Simon Baker, attempt to salvage the situation. The majority of the movie takes place in a 24-hour time period, which gives it a very fast-paced feel. The screenwriters avoid loading the script with too much jargon, and tell an easy-to-follow tale of the crisis that crippled businesses all across the country in the late 2000s. Very intelligent and very well acted.


9. Submarine

In this unusual coming-of-age story, 15-year-old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is unpopular at school until a pretty, dark-haired girl named Jordana (Yasmin Paige) shows interest in him. At the same time, his parents' already shaky marriage takes a hit when his mother's ex-boyfriend moves nearby. Oliver then tries to juggle his fast-moving relationship with  Jordana and his attempts to reconnect his parents to prevent a broken household. This proves to be a lot of work as he tries one unorthodox method after another to little results. In the process, he proves he has a lot of growing up to do as he makes several unwise decisions which threaten his future with Jordana. It's very unique and very quirky. Oliver is one of the most interesting and entertaining characters of the year because he thinks he's a world class genius and he's just waiting for the rest of the world to figure it out. Interestingly enough, this film's style reminded me a lot of the third entry on my list. Don't skip ahead, you'll find out soon enough.


8. Super 8

It might be the most under rated movie of the year and one of the most enjoyable experiences I had watching movies this year. Joe (Joel Courtney) and Charles (Riley Griffiths) are young friends who in the process of making a movie with other friends, witness a train crash and quickly realize something very unnatural caused it. Shortly after that several citizens in their small town begin to disappear and more unexplained things begin to happen. Director J. J. Abrams must be fond of the work of Steven Spielberg (who produced the movie). The whole film has a Spielberg style reminding me mostly of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Once the characters realize there is an extra terrestrial creature roaming the town, the kids try to figure out how it ended up there. With that creature Abrams takes another Spielberg approach and decides to make us wait to see it much like Spielberg did with the shark in Jaws or the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. It's a lot of fun and it has a great young cast. Along with Courtney and Griffiths, who are both great, are Elle Fanning, Gabriel Basso and Ryan Lee, whose character has a thing for pyrotechnics.


7. The Muppets

I've always been a fan of the Muppets, so I was looking forward to this movie immensely. The Muppets have a basic style in all of their films and television shows. Jim Henson's crew called it "affectionate anarchy." That hasn't changed at all, but this movie is a modern take on that classic style. Jason Segel, who also co-wrote, plays Gary who has a brother named Walter who is a huge fan of Kermit the Frog and the other Muppets. Gary and Walter, and Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams), travel to Los Angeles to see the Muppet Studios. Walter's excitement quickly fades when he realizes the studio is no longer used and has become decrepit over time. He also finds out an evil oil tycoon, played wonderfully by Chris Cooper, plans to tear it down. Walter and friends find Kermit to tell him this. Kermit decides to put on a show to make money to  buy the studio back and begins to round up the gang including Gonzo, Fozzie Bear and, of course, Miss Piggy. And along the way you'll spot many a celebrity making cameo appearances, which has become standard in Muppet movies. It's loaded with great songs and is one of the funniest Muppet movies yet. Segel truly understands the Muppet humor and the movie never strays from it. Possibly the best thing that came out of it is the new Muppet character Walter. A must see for any Muppet fans.


6. The Descendants

Hawaiian land baron Matt King (George Clooney in the best performance of his career) is forced into being a single parent of his two daughters when his wife enters a coma after a boating accident. This is uncharted territory for Matt. To this point, he's been a good father, though sometimes distant, but he has never had to raise his girls on his own. Meanwhile his family is close to making a big decision on what will happen to acres of land they own in Hawaii. Since Matt is the final decision maker, he has a whole lot on his plate. He soon finds out his wife was having an affair and he takes his daughters, Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and Scottie (Amara Miller) along with Alexandra's boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause) to Kauai to confront the man (Matthew Lillard in a comeback perfomance). Director and screenwriter Alexander Payne has a thing for funny movies with heavy emotions, see Sideways for example. It's an excellent script which doesn't always go where you expect it, but it never goes cheap on us. The choice to set the movie in Hawaii proved wise because the landscape becomes an additional character. If it were set in New York or something, it would immediately lose much of its charm.


5. Hugo

What a wonderful film this is. For a movie fan like me, this was quite a treat. I saw it in 3D which I can usually do without, but it really worked here. Legendary Martin Scorsese, takes a stab at a family film for the first time and he nails it. The movie is set in France in the 1930s and takes place mostly in a Paris train station. Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is a young orphan who lives in the walls of the station fixing the clocks, which he learned from his uncle who is no longer around. His father (Jude Law) taught him how to fix things before he died. Since his father's death Hugo has worked hard on fixing an automan, a writing robot, his father found. He befriends Isabelle (rising star Chloe Grace Moretz) who is the grand daughter of one of the shop owners in the station played by the great Ben Kingsley. This is where the story takes a most interesting turn. This is kind of a spoiler, so read on only if you've seen the movie or don't mind knowing. Kingsley's character turns out to be Georges Melies, who was a real life film pioneer who made hundreds of movies in the early years of the 20th century, his most famous being A Trip to the Moon from 1902. The story also includes an aggressive station inspector, Sacha Baron Cohen in a remarkable role, a sweet flower shop owner (Emily Mortimer) and a film historian (Michael Stuhlbarg). It's an absolute delight from start to finish.


4. A Separation

Coming from Iran is a powerful story of a family's struggle. Nader (Peyman Maadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) are a married couple who have a major disagreement. Simin wants to move abroad to provide better opportunities for their 11-year-old daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi). Nader, however, needs to stay in Iran to take care of his father who suffers from Alzheimer's. They begin to live apart which forces Nader to find a house maid who will take care of his father while he's at work and his daughter is at school. One day the house maid Razieh (Sareh Bayat) leaves the house to run errands and leaves Nader's father tied to a bed. Nader and Termeh come home to find him lying on the floor near death. Razieh returns to an angry Nader. An argument follows and he shoves her out the door. The next thing we know, Nader is being blamed for causing Razieh's miscarriage. Razieh and her hot-tempered husband, take Nader in front of a judge to file a complaint against him. Nader doesn't believe he caused the miscarriage and claims he didn't know she was pregnant. With such a heavy duty story, this film really weighed on me while I was watching it. We do witness the altercation, but don't see enough to know who's telling the truth. We also know we will learn new information soon enough. Maadi is the lead and is extraordinary, but Farhadi's character is the emotional core of the film since both of her parents want what's best for her and are trying to give her that. As deep and moving as movies get.


3. Beginners

Ewan McGregor plays a graphic artist in his late 30s named Oliver Fields. After the death of his mother, his elderly father Hal (Supporting actor nominee and favorite to win Christopher Plummer) comes out of the closet which changes Hal's entire view on life and makes him happier in the process. When the movie begins, Hal had just passed away from cancer and Oliver meets a pretty French actress named Anna (Melanie Laurent). The story is told in present time and flashes back to the last few years of Hal's life when he begins to date a much younger man named Andy (Goran Visnjic). Oliver is extremely affected by his father's death as well as dealing with his father's change of life style, but he appreciated how happy his father was at the end of his life. He tries to turn that energy into a good relationship with Anna. Oliver also takes on his father's dog, a lovable Jack Russell Terrier named Arthur. Arthur occasionally speaks to Oliver in subtitles. Director and screenwriter Mike Mills takes a very unique approach to this film. Oliver narrates and every time he tells a story from the past he gives us a brief overview of what was going on around that time. He quickly tells about movies and music and the overall atmosphere of that time. It makes the movie feel personal like Oliver is talking to us individually like a friend would. Overall, it has a very warm and believable feeling. This is the film I was referring to when I said Submarine, my No. 9 movie, reminds me of another film on the list. And oddly enough, in both movies the lead character's name is Oliver.


2. The Artist

A silent film in 2011? It doesn't seem believable. But it happened and the outcome is outstanding. It follows in the footsteps of classic films like Sunset Boulevard and Singin' in the Rain, which are about actors coping with movies changing from silent to talkies. This movie is set in the late 1920s, and one of the biggest stars of the time is George Valentin (Best Actor favorite Jean Dujardin in a star-making role). George meets a young dancer on the set of a film named Peppy Miller (supporting actress nominee Berenice Bejo). Once talkies begin to dominate the movie landscape, George's career begins to go down hill while Peppy's goes skyward. He struggles with this and begins to have marital problems with his wife played by Penelope Ann Miller. They get a divorce which leaves George with his only friend, another lovable Jack Russell Terrier played by Uggie, who routinely steals scenes. Director and writer Michel Hazanivicius had a grand vision and took a big risk with this movie. He wrote a script for a black and white, silent movie. He watched dozens of classic silent films in preparation and really got a handle on the melodramatic style and the way those films were made. Like most silent pictures, the music score is of great importance and composer Ludovic Bource hits it on the head. He also samples a piece of the score from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, which really fits the scene it's used in. You might think a silent film would bore you, but some of the most tense and edge-of-your-seat moments are in this movie. And my favorite scene of the year is the last five or minutes. All of the tension and drama they put you through is completely worth it.


1. Midnight in Paris

As with most Woody Allen movies, I figured I would like it, but I had no idea how much. I'm not usually a fan of Owen Wilson's, but he fits perfectly into the intelligent, but bumbling lead that Woody Allen usually wrote for himself in the past. Gil (Wilson) and his fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams) travel to Paris with Inez's parents. Gil, an author and screenwriter, would love to live in Paris some day and he often talks about the 1920s in Paris being the golden age of art. Inez likes Paris, but wants to remain in the United States once they get married. One night on a stroll through Paris an old car pulls up and the people inside invite him in. He is taken to a party where he meets Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. That's when he notices something magical is happening. He sees Cole Porter playing a piano and singing and soon meets Ernest Hemingway who talks to him about writing. Every night Gil returns to the same spot at midnight and the same car pulls up and he meets legendary artists from the 1920s including Pablo Picasso, T. S. Eliot, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel and Gertrude Stein who offers to help him with his new book. He also meets Picasso's mistress, the beautiful Adriana (Marion Cotillard). He knows this new discovery may be the inspiration he needs to become a better writer, but he also knows it might harm his relationship with Inez who seems to be on a different wavelength altogether and might be involved with her arrogant friend Paul (Michael Sheen). This is one of those movies I wish I could write. It's a mixture of comedy and fantasy, but there's no explanation as to why he's able to go back in time for a few hours a night. It just happens and Gil takes full advantage of it and enjoys every second of it. It's so well written and an absolute joy to experience. I've seen it twice and I'm still overwhelmed by it. Thus it is my favorite film of the year.


So there it is. Feel free to go check out the ones you haven't seen and don't be shy if you disagree completely. It's a matter of opinion. For example, I didn't like Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close or The Tree of Life very much, and they were both nominated for Best Picture this year.
Another year gone and another Brian's favorite list done. Stay tuned for my Second Annual Movie Achievement Awards followed by my Academy Award predictions. Both will be coming soon.