Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Best Films of 2011!

A major hobby of mine is watching movies -- from brainless Hollywood comedy to artsy independent film, I love them all. Well, maybe I don't LOVE them all, but I do give them all a chance, at least. ;-) (For those of you curious about my reviews/ratings for movies, see my Miso account).

Every year I eagerly anticipate the release of the critics' top ten picks of the previous year. Better still, Metacritic.com publishes these lists together, and I go a step further; I compile all those lists into an UBER-list, and rank the movies by the number of lists each one appears on. (Metacritic itself does something similar, but stops after the first 20 or so...)

Granted, each year there's a lot of bloated, overhyped movies of mediocrity to sift through (I'm looking at you, "The Aviator"!), but in these same lists you can find little-sung gems like "Sunshine Cleaning" and "A Home at the End of the World". This year, I vehemently disagree with the #1 spot -- "Tree of Life" has many good parts that deserve to be in a much better movie. Preferably one WITHOUT random sequences featuring morose dinosaurs. (WTF? Exactly.)

Anyhoo, I always try and see as many as possible, especially as they become available to rent. Which lovely surprises lay in store? We shall see! Below is the list, for your viewing pleasure:


Rank Movie Title Votes
1 The Tree of Life 75
2 A Separation 44
3 Drive 44
4 The Artist 43
5 The Descendants 43
6 Hugo 40
7 Melancholia 38
8 Take Shelter 38
9 Moneyball 35
10 Certified Copy 32
11 Martha Marcy May Marlene 29
12 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 29
13 Shame 27
14 Beginners 26
15 Margaret 26
16 Meek's Cutoff 26
17 The Skin I Live In 23
18 Bridesmaids 21
19 We Need to Talk About Kevin 20
20 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 19
21 Midnight in Paris 17
22 Poetry 17
23 Rise of the Planet of the Apes 16
24 Weekend 16
25 A Dangerous Method 15
26 Mysteries of Lisbon 15
27 The Interrupters 15
28 Margin Call 14
29 Young Adult 14
30 War Horse 13
31 Attack the Block 12
32 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 12
33 Nostalgia for the Light 12
34 Bellflower 11
35 Le Havre 11
36 Le Quattro Volte 11
37 Of Gods and Men 11
38 The Arbor 11
39 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 11
40 50/50 10
41 Cave of Forgotten Dreams 10
42 Rango 10
43 The Trip 10
44 Win Win 10
45 Contagion 9
46 Super 8 9
47 The Future 9
48 Tuesday, After Christmas 8
49 Warrior 8
50 A Brighter Summer Day 7
51 Incendies 7
52 Like Crazy 7
53 Senna 7
54 The Help 7
55 13 Assassins 6
56 Project Nim 6
57 Submarine 6
58 The Adventures of Tintin 6
59 The Muppets 6
60 Another Earth 5
61 City of Life and Death 5
62 Film Socialisme 5
63 Pina 5
64 Bill Cunningham New York 4
65 Buck 4
66 Cold Weather 4
67 Coriolanus 4
68 Hanna 4
69 Into the Abyss 4
70 J. Edgar 4
71 Jane Eyre 4
72 Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol 4
73 Putty Hill 4
74 Tabloid 4
75 The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu 4
76 The Mill and the Cross 4
77 Another Year 3
78 Aurora 3
79 Carnage 3
80 Crazy, Stupid, Love 3
81 El Sicario, Room 164 3
82 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close 3
83 In the Family 3
84 Kill List 3
85 My Joy 3
86 Terri 3
87 The Clock 3
88 The Guard 3
89 The Illusionist 3
90 The Last Circus 3
91 To Die Like a Man 3
92 Tomboy 3
93 We Were Here 3
94 Wuthering Heights 3
95 A Better Life 2
96 Alps 2
97 Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey 2
98 Black Swan 2
99 Blue Valentine 2
100 Captain America: The First Avenger 2
101 Cedar Rapids 2
102 Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame 2
103 Extraordinary Stories 2
104 General Orders No. 9 2
105 Hell and Back Again 2
106 Higher Ground 2
107 How to Die in Oregon 2
108 I Saw the Devil 2
109 Leap Year 2
110 Love Exposure 2
111 My Week With Marilyn 2
112 Petition 2
113 Rampart 2
114 Seeking the Monkey King 2
115 Source Code 2
116 Sucker Punch 2
117 The Adjustment Bureau 2
118 The Kid With A Bike 2
119 The King's Speech 2
120 The Time That Remains 2
121 True Grit 2
122 Tyrannosaur 2
123 Winnie the Pooh 2
124 X-Men: First Class 2
125 3 1
126 50 1
127 A Screaming Man 1
128 A Useful Life 1
129 Abracadabra 1
130 Agrarian Utopia 1
131 Amigo 1
132 And Everything Is Going Fine 1
133 Animal Kingdom 1
134 Anonymous 1
135 Archipelago 1
136 Assassins 1
137 Beautiful Boy 1
138 Biutiful 1
139 Café de Flore 1
140 Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer 1
141 Crime After Crime 1
142 Damsels in Distress 1
143 Dogtooth 1
144 Elena 1
145 Elite Squad: The Enemy Within 1
146 Fast Five 1
147 Final Destination 5 1
148 Foreign Parts 1
149 Four Lions 1
150 Fright Night 1
151 Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life 1
152 Goodbye, First Love 1
153 Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench 1
154 Historias extraordinarias 1
155 Hobo With A Shotgun 1
156 Kaboom 1
157 Kinyarwanda 1
158 Knuckle 1
159 La Pivellina 1
160 Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen 1
161 Limitless 1
162 Love Crime 1
163 Mildred Pierce 1
164 Miss Bala 1
165 My Perestroika 1
166 No Strings Attached 1
167 On the Bowery 1
168 One Day 1
169 Oslo August 31st 1
170 Pariah 1
171 Pink Ribbons, Inc. 1
172 Polytechnique 1
173 Position Among the Stars 1
174 Psychohydrography 1
175 Redland 1
176 Rejoice and Shout 1
177 Road to Nowhere 1
178 Roadie 1
179 Secret Sunshine 1
180 Silver Bullets 1
181 Take This Waltz 1
182 Target 1
183 The Deep Blue Sea 1
184 The Double Hour 1
185 The Elephant in the Living Room 1
186 The Green Hornet 1
187 The Ides of March 1
188 The Inheritors 1
189 The Iron Lady 1
190 The Last Lions 1
191 The Mouth of the Wolf 1
192 The Myth of the American Sleepover 1
193 The Princess of Montpensier 1
194 The Return 1
195 The Strange Case of Angelica 1
196 The Three Musketeers 1
197 The Whistleblower 1
198 The Wise Kids 1
199 This Is Not a Film 1
200 Trollhunter 1
201 Tucker & Dale vs. Evil 1
202 United Red Army 1
203 Vengeance 1
204 Viva Riva! 1
205 Voluptuous Sleep 1
206 We Bought a Zoo 1
207 Wiebo's War 1
208 Wrinkles 1
209 You All Are Captains 1


Which ones of these have you seen? Do you have any recommendations? I'm all ears! :-)