Movies: Best Film of the Year: 2011

[Howard Beale]

The 2010 poll is still open, but currently led by:
1. Inception
2. Black Swan
3. The Social Network


For 2011, I've included the 9 Oscar nominees for Best Picture:

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Midnight in Paris
  
• The Tree of Life
  
• Moneyball
  
• Hugo
  
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
• The Help
• War Horse

Plus 12 others:

• A Separation
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Drive
  
• Source Code
• Once upon a Time in Anatolia
• Melancholia
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
  
• The Intouchables
  
• Bridesmaids
• Shame
• 50/50
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes

You can cast up to 3 votes, and the poll will be open for 5 days.

Feel free to offer suggestions for which non-Oscar-nominated movies I should include in the 2012 poll!

Click to read more...

 

[Trap Jesus]

Drive for me, with an HM to The Tree of Life. I think this is another year that seems a bit weak to me, although I think the more likely case for that is that I only got into movies later on so I've seen a lot more stuff in recent years.

 

[ghostnights]

I went Drive , Midnight in Paris and The Descendants

 

[Trap Jesus]

Non-Oscar recs for 2012:

The Cabin in the Woods
The Master
21 Jump Street

 

[kihei]

Best film of 2011: Once upon a Time in Anatolia

HM: Cafe de Flore; Drive; Turin Horse

Suggestion for 2012: Amour
Also worth considering: A Simple Life; Norwegian Wood; Life of Pi; No

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

2nd the addition of The Master. Would also definitely toss in Moonrise Kingdom for a non-BP 2012 nom. Also enjoyed films like Holy Motors and Cloud Atlas and Goon, though doubt either would get any traction in the poll.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I'll go the Kihei way:

Best film of 2011: Once upon a Time in Anatolia

HM: Melancholia, Tree of Life, L'Apollonide (Souvenirs de la maison close), Shame, Polisse

Suggestion for 2012: Berberian Sound Studio
Also worth considering: Holy Motors (That's really when I stopped watching loads of movies)​

 

[OhCaptainMyCaptain]

Captain America: The First Avenger

 

[discostu]

Not a particularly inspiring list for me, although, I've never got around to a quite a few on that list that I'd probably enjoy.

I picked Rise of the Planet of the Apes though. In a franchise heavy decade, that was one of the biggest successes from an artistic perspective.

The decade as a whole I find is defined as filmmakers having the technology to do pretty much anything, but not enough examples of them using it in ways that makes a story connect better. The POTA series achieved that though.

Caesar never felt like an artificial creation. I think it's the movie on the list I'd most likely to want to watch again give the choice.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

1- Horrible bosses
2- the skin i live in
3- the raid ( i Don't know if it"s a 2011 or a 2012 movie)
4- The Intouchables
5- Drive
6- Source code
7- the artist
8- The help
9- x-men first class
10- Monsieur Lahzar

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

What a difference a year makes. While the 2010 list is pretty loaded, this one is significantly less so IMO.

Vote Tree of Life.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Adored Drive.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

I'd also write-in Take Shelter for 2011 and since Jeff Nichols is now on my mind I'll also suggest Mud for 2012.

 

[Howard Beale]

My picks for this year:
1. A Separation
2. Midnight in Paris
3. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

 

[EXTRAS]

If these are all the best films of 2011 then that year was really weak.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

What a difference a year makes. While the 2010 list is pretty loaded, this one is significantly less so IMO.

Vote Tree of Life.

If these are all the best films of 2011 then that year was really weak.

That's weird, I feel the opposite. I haven't seen much from 2011, and I have at least 3, maybe 4 films better than my pick for 2010.

 

[HanSolo]

Boy this was a pretty crappy year.

 

[Savi]

I though 2011 was better overall than 2010 to be honest, but sometimes you gotta dig deep to find good movies. The Oscar nominations for 2011 I think were garbage, apart from Moneyball and The Descendants I didn't like any of those movies, I especially loathed Tree of Life for example.

These were the best, for me.

1. Drive (Refn, US)
2. Café de Flore (Vallée, Canada)
3. A Separation (Farhadi, Iran)
4. Another Earth (Cahill, US)
5. Starry Starry Night (Lin, Taiwan)
6. Portable Life (Boonman, Belgium)
7. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Durkin, US)
8. I Melt With You (Pellington, US)
9. Blowfish (Lee, Taiwan)
10. Moneyball (Miller, US)

HM: Love (Eubank, US); 170 Hz (Van Ginkel, Netherlands); Detachment (Kaye, US); Little Black Spiders (Toye, Belgium); Eva (Maillo, Spain); The Hidden Face (Baiz, Colombia); Oslo, 31 August (Trier, Norway)

Taiwan doesn't get much talk in regards to movies but they have been on the rise this decade and there have been some beautiful films coming out of there. I think Starry Starry Night for example is really accesible as well for people who don't normally watch foreign films.

Oh and I still haven't seen Once Upon A Time in Anatolia

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

That's weird, I feel the opposite. I haven't seen much from 2011, and I have at least 3, maybe 4 films better than my pick for 2010.

For me, there are two movies here — Tree of Life and Drive — that I think are great. A couple that are good and then a big drop off including five movies that I actively, deeply hate. (Haven't seen Anatolia so it is exempted).
But 2010 for me, I look at that list and even the my least favorite movies there (probably Shutter Island and 127 Hours ...) would be in the top 10 here.

I'd take my top 5 in 2010 over my top 5 in 2011 too.

Funny how that goes.

 

[Puck]

My pick might be controversial in the Me Too era but I chose Midnight in Paris as best film. Difficult choice that year but I also enjoyed The Intouchables, Drive was great pulp fiction and Dragon Tattoo was entertaining for a computer geek like myself. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a classic example of foreign films produced in a censorship country where a Director uses subtle or subliminal ways to get their message of protest across (and not get stopped because it mostly goes over censors heads).

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

For me, there are two movies here — Tree of Life and Drive — that I think are great. A couple that are good and then a big drop off including five movies that I actively, deeply hate. (Haven't seen Anatolia so it is exempted).
But 2010 for me, I look at that list and even the my least favorite movies there (probably Shutter Island and 127 Hours ...) would be in the top 10 here.

I'd take my top 5 in 2010 over my top 5 in 2011 too.

Funny how that goes.

Hmmmm.... Top-5 from both lists:

Anatolia - 2011
Melancholia - 2011
Tree of Life - 2011
Black Swan - 2010
Uncle Boonme - 2010

Top-8 including films not listed (wanted to do a top-10, but it got really blurry):

Anatolia - 2011
Melancholia - 2011
(L'Apollonide) - 2011
Tree of Life - 2011
Black Swan - 2010
(Biutiful) - 2010
(Bibliothèque Pascal) - 2010
(Polisse) - 2011

I'll admit that the list here is overall weaker, with half the films that shouldn't even be considered good films, but the top-end is stronger to me.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Hmmmm.... Top-5 from both lists:

Anatolia - 2011
Melancholia - 2011
Tree of Life - 2011
Black Swan - 2010
Uncle Boonme - 2010

Top-8 including films not listed (wanted to do a top-10, but it got really blurry):

Anatolia - 2011
Melancholia - 2011
(L'Apollonide) - 2011
Tree of Life - 2011
Black Swan - 2010
(Biutiful) - 2010
(Bibliothèque Pascal) - 2010
(Polisse) - 2011

I'll admit that the list here is overall weaker, with half the films that shouldn't even be considered good films, but the top-end is stronger to me.

I think a combined top 10 for me would have 3 from 2011 (Drive, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter) 6 from 2010 (Boonmee, Scott Pilgrim, Winter's Bone, The Social Network, Black Swan, Blue Valentine) ... and one wildcard. Maybe Midnight in Paris or The Skin I Live In (2011) or Certified Copy or True Grit (2010). So maybe a little closer at the top than I thought ...

But the backend of the 2011 list is still pretty dreadful for me. It's easy to pick on The Help and Extremely Loud but I also think The Artist, Shame and War Horse are actively, aggressively bad movies.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I think a combined top 10 for me would have 3 from 2011 (Drive, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter) 6 from 2010 (Boonmee, Scott Pilgrim, Winter's Bone, The Social Network, Black Swan, Blue Valentine) ... and one wildcard. Maybe Midnight in Paris or The Skin I Live In (2011) or Certified Copy or True Grit (2010). So maybe a little closer at the top than I thought ...

But the backend of the 2011 list is still pretty dreadful for me. It's easy to pick on The Help and Extremely Loud but I also think The Artist, Shame and War Horse are actively, aggressively bad movies.

Haven't seen The Help, nor Extremely Loud, nor War Horse. The Artist was a 4/10 to me. But I like Shame a lot!! I agree with you though, stuff like Midnight in Paris, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Moneyball, even though ok movies, shouldn't be IMO considered as top films in any given year. Haven't seen Harry Potter nor Bridesmaid, but I'm pretty confident they're even worse, Source Code would have been fun as a TV-movie at best, and A Separation is pretty good, but widely overrated. So yeah, pretty weak list.

But 2011 still has My Little Princess, Schlafkrankheit, En terrains connus, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Madrid 1987, Turn Me On Dammit, Sleeping Beauty, A Dangerous Method (a weak Cronenberg entry, but still interesting), Le gamin au vélo, Tomboy - all pretty good films, and I haven't even seen much films that year.

 

[Puck]

The groaner on that list for me was Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The first one was a classic but the sequels were all mostly crapola pumped out by a Hollywood committee of writers for additional Box Office exploitation. I won't complain if they stop the monkey business already.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

But 2011 still has My Little Princess, Schlafkrankheit, En terrains connus, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Madrid 1987, Turn Me On Dammit, Sleeping Beauty, A Dangerous Method (a weak Cronenberg entry, but still interesting), Le gamin au vélo, Tomboy - all pretty good films, and I haven't even seen much films that year.

Only seen two of these so it looks like I got a lot of catching up to do ...