And I'm back with another installment of my top 10 lists that nobody asked for. This edition I'm looking back one decade to 2011, a solid if not exceptional year for movies that turned out one all time favorite and several solid greats. I most distinctly remember it as the year a movie I actually think is quite bad -- The Artist -- came out of nowhere and won top honors at the Oscars over much more esteemed competition.
It was another year dominated by blockbuster sequels -- with another Harry Potter, another Pirates of the Carribbean, another Transformers, another Twilight and another Hangover topping the charts.
Still, there were a lot of interesting films and breakout performances (Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt both. had a terrific year, while George Clooney was robbed of a richly deserved Best Actor trophy) that I still remember fondly. Here is my top 10 for 2011.
10. Midnight in Paris - It's awkward to include this surprise commercial success from Woody Allen at a time when his reputation and cultural relevance are getting a long delayed re-evaluation, but its hard to deny that this wasn't one of his best and most endearing late career offerings. The fact that he isn't in the lead and the immensely like Owen Wilson is, goes a long way and the movie's note perfect nostalgia for a pre-WWII world is inspiring. Allen would have a couple more strong pictures in him before resorting to pure retreads, but this one can still be embraced for all the right reasons.
9. Bridesmaids - Still, one of the most uproariously funny comedies in recent years. It works because between the comedic set pieces, it's actually a very honest and moving depiction of female friendship. The entire cast is terrific -- Kristen Wiig, in the right role, is a bonafide emovie star -- and it's the movie that seemingly overnight turned Melissa McCarthy into a household name (she scored a very rare Oscar nod for a broad comedy). Wiig and company wisely resisted the urge to pursue a sequel, this is one of those gems that's just right the way it is.
8. The Ides of March - A throwback, old school talky political polemic that works because the cast is peerless. George Clooney, who also directs, gets to show a little bit of his dark side, while old pros like Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei get to bite into meaty supporting turns in this look at an ambitious political operative (played to perfection by Ryan Gosling) whose idealism is crushed when her gets too personally involved in the campaign he's signed onto. An underrated, earnest drama.
7. Contagion - Well-received when it came out, it's become one of the most revisited and prescient films of all time in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. A movie that maybe was undervalued when it was first released because is it so sleek and star-studded, but it's also incredibly smart and perceptive about how a global health crisis might play out on a small and large scale. I wish Soderbergh kept making films like these, he is so skilled at making topical entertainment that works on virtually every level. A modern day classic.
6. Moneyball - The film that probably best captured the essence of Brad Pitt's star persona (until Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). He does some of his career best work as an ex-ball player turned exec who briefly experiences glory when he decides to upend convention wisdom of the sport and embrace complex metrics in order to win. A sports movie unlike any other I've seen, gorgeously photographed and thoughtfully rendered and its finale is an unexpected emotional wallop.
5. Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol - The film that reignited the most exciting action franchise in movies right now and for a time my favorite after the original. Director Brad Bird uses his incredibly creative animation brain to bring some of the most mind-bending action sequences of all time to the screen. The Dubai tower sequence may be the best action spectacle of the entire series and Cruise is having a lot of fun in the part for perhaps the first time. An immensely re-watchable epic.
4. The Tree of Life - For better or worse, I think this film represents the apex of Terrence Malick's unique brand of moody, visual storytelling. A breathtaking meditation on the nature of man and family, it's a sprawling, not entirely comprehensible masterpiece -- featuring stellar turns from Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt and even more glorious imagery that ranks among the best I've seen in any film. A beautiful tone poem that managed to find something if an audience but was also too obtuse for some (including co-star Sean Penn, who once admitted to not knowing what his role meant).
3. The Descendants - Director Alexander Payne's possible warmest and therefore most accessible film about a soon-to-be widowed father (played gloriously by George Clooney) who learns his dying wife was cheating on him amid a high stakes land dispute in his native Hawaii. Lots of trademark deadpan Payne humor here, but also some truly sensitive and heartfelt portrayals of father-daughter relationships. A lovely looking film with a delightful mix of belly laughs and brutal heartache. It should have been the Oscar favorite, but I guess it wasn't gimmicky enough.
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - David Fincher not only improves on the best-selling book but creates what could have been a franchise built around Rooney Mara's stirring lead performance as an unconventional investigator opposite a bookish Daniel Craig. They have real sparks in this elaborate whodunit that's got top notch production values, a dynamic visual palate and genuine pathos to boot. I'm not sure why this movies wasn't a bigger phenomenon at the time, but it's definitely one of my favorites of this director's impressive filmography.
1. Drive - The epitome of cool, Nicolas Winding Refn's character study of a stoic, mysterious getaway driver turned Gosling into a sought after leading man and made everyone think twice about the persona of comedic actor-director Albert Brooks. It works as a genre crime film, as an ode to movies like The Driver and Thief and as an art film. Deliriously violent, unpredictable and incredible to look at. It's simply one of my favorite movies because it has a little bit of everything I want when I go to the movie.
PAST TOP 10 FAVORITE LISTS
1970 #1 movie - M*A*S*H
1974 #1 movie - The Godfather Part II
1975 #1 movie - Nashville
1976 #1 movie - Taxi Driver
1977 #1 movie - Star Wars
1978 #1 movie - The Deer Hunter
1979 #1 movie - The Jerk
1980 #1 movie - The Shining
1984 #1 movie - Ghostbusters
1985 #1 movie - Fletch
1986 #1 movie - Blue Velvet
1987 #1 movie - The Untouchables
1988 #1 movie - Coming to America
1989 #1 movie - Batman
1990 #1 movie - The Grifters
1994 #1 movie - Pulp Fiction
1995 #1 movie - Heat
1996 #1 movie - Fargo
1997 #1 movie - Boogie Nights
1998 #1 movie - The Big Lebowski
1999 #1 movie - Eyes Wide Shut
2000 #1 movie - Nurse Betty
2004 #1 movie - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005 #1 movie - A History of Violence
2006 #1 movie - Casino Royale
2007 #1 movie - There Will Be Blood
2008 #1 movie - The Wrestler
2009 #1 movie - Inglourious Basterds
2010 #1 movie - The Social Network
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