Best Films of 2011

I tried to list the best films and performances in various categories. I didn't keep to a specific number but tried to pick a top tier in each category. A friend has been asking me to do this for the past couple of years and I've been remiss. There are some spoilers in here.

BEST DRAMA
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Moneyball
Take Shelter
Shame
Win Win

I think that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo didn't get a best picture, director or score nomination is biggest crime in the oscars this year. I think it was very well done and liked it better than the swedish version. I only had two issues. While I thought Daniel Craig was good, I couldn't avoid thinking about James Bond and I found all the characters in the family a little confusing. The Help worked for me and I thought it was the only consideration for Best Picture through September. I liked Win Win when I saw it but didn't think it would be in consideration by the end of the year, I was wrong.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
The Artist
Tree of Life
Ides of March
My Week With Marilyn
Too Big To Fail
Hugo
A Separation
A Better Life

All of these were very good and worth seeing but had some flaw to me. The Artist slows down about two-thirds of the way through for far too long. Tree of Life is the most polarizing film of the year though a lot of it worked for me. Ides of March fell down on it's plot, just ending. The Marilyn parts of My Week With Marilyn were very good, the main character was a bit weak.

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Being Elmo
Last Days Here
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress
How to Die in Oregon
Hell and Back Again
Saving Face

I think Being Elmo had everything and was a lot of fun. It's my overall favorite film of the year. Last Days Here I saw at IFFBoston and it's just an amazing story with a crazy ending. El Bulli makes you a fly on the wall at one of the best restaurants in the world and just sucked me in. How to Die in Oregon had an amazing lead and a strong story. Hell and Back Again is the same. Saving Face at 40 minutes is technically a short, but for such a devastating topic had a redemptive ending.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
The Interruptors
Hot Coffee
Love Crimes of Kabul
Project Nim
Better This World

BEST ACTION FILM
X-Men: First Class
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Captain America
Haywire
Point Blank
Killer Elite

The middle segment of Mission Impossible was perhaps the most fun I've had in the movies since Inception. It's just perfectly put together and a lot of fun. The rest wasn't quite up to those standards and the last segment was a bit of a let down. I thought X-Men: First Class put everything together nicely though the final battle was a bit weak. Captain America also did well and benefited from being a period piece, though there was a bit too much montage. Haywire, Point Blank and Killer Elite all are much more realistic and worked very well and were just a little too confusing at times.

BEST COMEDY
The Guard
Horrible Bosses
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

I thought it was a crappy year for comedies. The Guard is quite fun though is more of a character study than pure comedy. Horrible Bosses took a bit to setup but then I thought worked very well. Tucker and Dale had a great premise and was a great horror spoof. Harold and Kumar was much better than the second film and not as a good as the first. Still some fun moment and Neil Patrick Harris was great.

The much praised Bridesmaids had some funny moments (most of which involved Melissa McCarthy) but that's about it. I think Kristen Wigg really misunderstands what resolution means. Some of the conflict was the result of misunderstandings that were never corrected and other was situational which never actually changed.

Crazy Stupid Love had the wrong tone for the lead, I just couldn't sympathize too much. Instead, the sub plot of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone stole it. The ending did wrap things up unexpectedly and that made it a much better film, but it didn't save it.

50/50 also failed in making the lead a non-character

BEST DIRECTOR
David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Brad Bird for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Terrance Mallick for Tree of Life
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Martin Scorsese for Hugo

I think Fincher did a great job with Dragon and Brad Bird came close to perfection for the middle third of Mission Impossible. Mallick just has to be recognized for what he did in Tree of Life, I don't know how you structure a film like that and I don't know anyone else who could do so. It didn't always work but a lot of it did for me. Michel Hazanavicius did a lot great with The Artist, just trying a black and white silent film now is impressive. He also covered a lot of different genres very well. There is a little bit of sound and at first I thought it was a cheat, but then I realized he used it to dramatic purpose when today it's just taken for granted. It just needed better pacing. Scorsese did a lot right with Hugo but people like either first or second half and not quite both. I appreciate that 3D was used well and that the train station became a real place and I loved the film history lesson. I thought the characters were a little thin.

BEST ACTOR
Michael Shannon in Take Shelter
Michael Fassbender in Shame
Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Brendan Gleeson in The Guard
Paul Giamatti in Win Win
Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Shannon and Fassbender were both amazing playing characters with internal demons. Just stunning to watch. Dujardin had to do a lot of different things, action, drama, comedy, dance and do it all without speaking. He did great. Gleeson and Giamatti both really brought their characters to life and supported the whole film. Pitt was good in Moneyball and didn't depend on ticks but somehow I think still deserves to be on this list.

BEST ACTRESS
Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn
Bérénice Bejo in The Artist
Viola Davis in The Help
Rachel Weisz in The Whistleblower
Jessica Chastain in The Debt
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady

I think it was a great year for leading roles for women. Rooney Mara had to transform and do some harrowing things and pulled it off completely. Michelle Williams really did channel Marilyn though maybe not Norma Jean (but I think that was deliberate in the script). Bérénice Bejo had to do everything Jean Dujardin had to do. I hated The Iron Lady and I think there was too little Margaret Thatcher and too much senile old woman, but in the scenes that were there, Streep pulled off playing one of the most known women in the world at a variety of ages. Davis, Weisz and Chastain all did great jobs in demanding roles.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer in Beginners

I'm not sure how to judge this category. I don't think he had any competition. I wasn't that impressed with the other Oscar nominees. The only others that work for me are these and Plummer is far better in a much better role.

Christoph Waltz or John C. Reilly in Carnage?
Don Cheadle in The Guard?
Hoffman or Giamatti in Ideas of March?
Patton Oswalt in Young Adult?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids

Again, I don't know how to judge this. I think Bejo's nomination was wrong because she had a leading not supporting role. But there weren't that many other qualifying roles. Janet McTeer was good in Albert Nobbs and Elle Fanning in Super 8 had one great scene that everyone mentioned. Kate Winslet was very good in Carnage but I think it was a leading role.

BEST ENSEMBLE
Carnage
The Help
Ides of March
Margin Call
Too Big to Fail
Horrible Bosses

Carnage had four great actors playing against each other the whole time. The others all had strong large casts.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Guard
Take Shelter
Midnight in Paris
The Artist
Margin Call
A Separation

I think Midnight in Paris had the best idea, but needed some more polish to make it a great film. The characters were weak, particularly the finance and family. The historical figures were fun but one note and Owen Wilson was just Woody Allen without particularly memorable lines. The Guard had everything and Take Shelter was a great character study. The Artist told a good story with little dialog and even that done with title cards. Margin Call pulled off a lot of topical technical description and a lot of characters. A Separation was good story with a bunch of twists and interesting situations.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Moneyball
The Help
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Ides of March
Carnage
The Descendants

I read Moneyball after seeing the film and thought they did a great job finding a narrative though I wish there was just a little more math in the film. I saw the play God of Carnage just before seeing the film and noticed a few different lines but not much. The film added an opening and closing scene with different characters and while I didn't care for the opening, the new closing scene made it. I haven't read Tinker Tailor but my understanding is that you have to figure it out the way the main character does, there isn't narration. The film does too and I think it works better in a book where you can flip back through pages than it does in a movie theater. I haven't read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but I did see the swedish version of the film and appreciate the things they choose to highlight in the US version.

BEST SCORE
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

It was loud and disturbing and intense and unforgettable and yet added to the film without overpowering it.


WORST FILMS
The Iron Lady
The Trip
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Battle Los Angeles

It's really hard putting these four film together. I laughed twice at The Trip, it just didn't work for me. The Iron Lady was an insult. Here's a great idea, let's make a bio pic about Britain's first female and one of the longest serving and most controversial prime ministers. And lets get Meryl Streep to play her! Oh and here's a great idea, lets spend 80% of the film on her Alzheimer stage. And the other 20%, lets do montages of political events and make as many of them dream sequences as possible! Let's refer to every other character by their first name only, if even that much! Let's even throw in an ironic line of her complaining about how people today care only about feelings and not actual thoughts. This film could have been about any senile woman who merely thought she was prime minister.

But really Transformers and Battle Los Angeles are in a different class of stupid.

MOST PROLIFIC DEBUT SINCE EDWARD NORTON:
Jessica Chastain had two small films in limited release in 2010 but then was everywhere in 2011. She was great in each of The Help, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, and The Debt and each role was different. She's also in Coriolanus which just came out and I haven't seen yet.

BEST OPENING CREDITS
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Bondian yet different and disturbing and intense. Awesome. Did any other film have an interesting opening credits sequence?

The worst opening credits were for Drive.

BEST RUNNING:
No one runs like Tom Cruise and he did it again in Mission Impossible.

Midnight in Paris

WISH IT WOULD HAPPEN
Ides of March: I would love to see an election where one campaign was run by Philip Seymour Hoffman and one was run by Paul Giamatti.

BEST CONSPIRACY THEORY
Trollhunter: I still look at power lines differently

WHY HAS NO ONE THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE
Stake Land: Has a brilliant tactic against a walled town involving an innovative use of vampires. As far as I know it hasn't been used before and it's just delicious.

BEST FRIEND
Sean Pelletier in Last Days Here.

BEST USE OF 3D
Both Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Pina were good documentaries that were improved with 3D. Hugo did okay with it, but I think would have been just fine in 2D.

BEST MOVIE I SAW ONLY BECAUSE IT GOT AN OSCAR NOMINATION
Warrior. A better than average sports movie.

BEST LINES

Tucker and Dale vs Evil: Tucker: Oh hidy ho officer, we've had a doozy of a day. There we were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property.

The Guard: Sergeant Gerry Boyle: I'm Irish. Racism is part of my culture.

The Ides of March: Stephen Meyers: You can lie, you can cheat, you can start a war, you can bankrupt the country, but you can't fuck the interns. They get you for that.

Midnight in Paris: Man Ray: A man in love with a woman from a different era. I see a photograph!
Luis Buñuel: I see a film!
Gil: I see insurmountable problem!
Salvador Dalí: I see rhinoceros!

MOST MISUNDERSTOOD SCENE
Tree of Life: I found it daring to take a 20 minute segue after someone asks something like "What do we mean to God" (or something like "What are we in the universe?") to show the birth of the universe culminating in the evolution of life on Earth. I loved how the dinosaur brothers acted just like the human brothers. People next to me were walking out complaining that they didn't want to see a nature special but I found it mesmerizing.