Sol's Top 10 films of 2011
10. Puss in Boots
I always had a hunch that the 'Puss in Boots' spin-off would bring some new life to the tired 'Shrek' franchise and would certainly be the first entry in the franchise that one could consider decent since 'Shrek 2', but I didn't expect to actually love it to the point that it would be my 2nd favourite film from Dreamworks animation studios after the first 'Shrek'.
The film is genuinely funny - though it's far from laugh-a-minute. It clearly would rather that the story feels sincere and remains engaging throughout as opposed to sacrificing that in favour of some pop-culture joke where Puss sings "Who Let the Dogs Out?" or something.
'Puss in Boots' is, whilst formulaic to the degree that 90% of family films are, a valiant effort and one that's furiously entertaining and full of charm and imagination.
9. Rango
The second film on the list is also the second animated western on the list. ‘Rango’ is a film with a wonderfully unique sense of humour - although one that begins to fade as its runtime runs on - a remarkable visual style and some absolutely fantastic action sequences. It all adds up to make one very entertaining film, in spite of it running about 20 minutes too long.
8. 50/50
With 'Crazy, Stupid, Love.', 'Bridesmaids' and even 'Friends with Benefits', I suppose 2011 is the year of the romcom that doesn't suck balls (as well as the year of films about people whose fathers have Alzheimer's). ‘50/50’ is the best example of that trend - essentially being a standard romcom with cancer thrown in – but one that separates itself from the pack by being genuinely touching, genuinely funny and with a relationship that feels organic and not at all forced.
Everything in this film works. The drama is dramatic, the comedy is funny and, in all honesty, I came about as close to crying as I ever do during films. It handles a delicate subject with tact and panache.
7. X-Men: First Class
My favourite of the X-Men movies (although I say that as someone who wasn't a GIGANTIC fan of X2 -mostly because I never got particularly emotionally invested in those characters -something that couldn’t be further from the truth about this one). It's extremely obvious that the film was rushed through production with some ropey CGI and a lot of slightly flubbed edits, but to say that Matthew Vaughn was able to turn something this strong around in such a short time is absolutely to his credit.
The film's strongest aspect is its cast, almost all of whom are absolutely wonderful but the 60s production design and unashamed campy nature of the film also do it wonders. I was annoyed by countless holes in logic and the science of it all, but for the most part, these are problems I have with the ‘X-Men’ franchise as a whole rather than this film alone and therefore, it's not really fair on the film to get annoyed by them. I had to turn my brain off, but doing so allowed for a bloody good time.
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Given that all 4 of the 'Planet of the Apes' sequels and the Tim Burton remake are absolute crap, it's quite remarkable that not only is this film not crap - it's actually very good.
The ape-characters are all (surprisingly) very well defined and developed, and by the end, you’re rooting for them to overthrow humanity. The human characters are less well defined but let’s not dwell on that in this given that this countdown is all about praise!
The special effects are breath-taking. It's the best CGI I have ever seen and the darker scenes looked photo-realistic at times. What's more impressive though, is that these CGI apes have so much character. Motion-capture is known for horribly, dead-eyed characters such as those seen in Robert Zemeckis' films, but here the apes give better performances than some of the humans. It's remarkable.
Two moments (that I won’t go into here due to them being spoilers) aside, the film is a bloody good bit of fun. Something of a modern-day B-movie in the form of a huge, A-movie blockbuster and that’s fine by me.
5. Captain America: The First Avenger
A film that completely exceeded my expectations (seems to be something of a trend this year). It's an incredibly fun action film that delivered everything I wanted. Not only is it yet another strong entry into the Marvel movie-verse canon (my 2nd favourite after Iron Man, in fact), but it creates a unique, almost steam-punk world that's absolutely wonderful to experience. An alternate take on WWII with superheroes, a Nazi super-villain, laser beams, retro flying machines and Iron Man's dad? What's not to love? The cast are all fantastic, particularly Stanley Tucci, but also Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving. The story is simple, yet well structured, unique and you know... good!
I adored the way in which the film embraced its characters origins as WWII propaganda rather than shying away from it - actually working it into the plot. Everything up until the first USO show montage is practically perfect, in fact. And although the film goes downhill from there, it maintains a good level of quality till the very end.
'Super 8' is this year's intentional homage to Spielberg's films of the '80s, but 'Captain America' is the year's homage to those films that actually captures the spirit and more importantly, the fun of those films. I can't think of a better word to describe this film than 'fun', in fact. It's just glorious fun.
4. Melancholia
And what better way to follow up such a fun-fest than with this bleak affair? For me, this film was a near-perfect blend of sci-fi craziness and art-house pretention. I loved it.
It starts with the Earth being destroyed and then spends 2 hours examining Kirsten Dunst's (rather dull) home life and depression followed by similar things from her sister played by Charlotte Gainsbourg. Each sister occupies their own 'half' of this 2-chaptered film and the idea is obviously to show the contrast between them despite their obvious similarities.
I was disappointed as I almost expected a bitterly ironic ending in which the Earth didn't actually end and Kirsten Dunst had to live her life as a bitch that had essentially written off the last two years of her life - but the fact that the film doesn't throw any curve-balls at its audience just adds to its beautiful simplicity and ultimately it's an extremely harrowing and thought-provoking experience. It's filled to the brim with potential readings without any of it seeming too cryptic, and it never gets boring because it's essentially about a planet crashing into another planet. BOOM!
3. Source Code
A genuinely interesting and unique concept that juggles countless things at once. I guessed the twists and who was responsible for the bomb right away but that doesn't matter because the film isn't reliant on its twists and nor is it a whodunit. It's about the lead coming to terms with things and aspects of his life. It explores a lot of metaphysical ideas in a lovely, metaphorical way.
It's thrilling and I love that it dared to be as happy as it did in a world where pessimism is the new Hollywood ending.
2. Submarine
An absolutely remarkable debut film from Richard Ayoade - seriously, he's a name to watch. It's breath-takingly beautiful to look at, wonderfully relatable (in ways you’ll probably not want to admit) and pithy as hell. It somehow manages to feel fresh in spite of doing nothing particularly new - even its directorial style, whilst full of energy, is lifted directly from the French new wave. But it works. It works well.
1. Black Swan
For my money, the best film of 2010. But it was released in the UK in 2011, so as far as this list’s eligibility is concerned, for my money, it’s the best film of 2011. The direction is astonishingly good - brimming with little touches and details that turn what is an extremely conventional storyline into a remarkable and engrossing homage to the Italian ‘giallo’ films of the 1970s.
This film is so good that for a few seconds, I almost considered going to see some ballet because of how entranced I was by the ballet sequences in it. Then I remembered that real-life ballet is atrociously dull because when you watch it in real-life, you’re not seeing it through the vision of Darren Aronaronofsky.
Happy New Year!
Dan's Top 10 films of 2011
10. The Film: Crazy, Stupid, Love! The Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
I sat down to watch Crazy, Stupid, Love hearing good things, but trying to not get my hopes up too much. However, I was incredibly surprised as what I witnessed was a smart comedy with a truly emotional heart. Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is incredibly sympathetic as lead man whose marriage is crumbling at his finger tips and man of year Ryan Gosling brims with personality and charm as ladies man Jacob Palmer.
9. The Film: Rise of the Planet of the Apes The Director: Rupert Wyatt
I was not looking forward to the Apes sequel/prequel/reboot. Up until seeing the trailers and realising the James ‘Adonis’ Franco was in the starring role. It looked great. And surprisingly it was good. Not great, but good. James Franco was his great self in what was a conventional, but moving action film. The best thing about the film was definitely Andy Serkis as Caesar the ape. The worst bit of the film, Caesar talking. It may be necessary, but was definitely cringe worthy.
8. The Film: Moneyball The Director: Bennett Miller
Who loves Baseball? No one, OK moving on. But, who likes the film Moneyball? Me? Yes definitely. OK its ma bit slow in places, but that’s not to say that Moneyball isn’t a good film. Moneyball centres around the Oakland A’s baseball team and how their coach Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) redefined the way teams were run. But, don’t be too disheartened, there is not much Baseball involved. Most of it centred in boardrooms and locker rooms. A great cast give great performances, throwing life in to what felt like a dull premise.
7. The Film: Drive The Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
The second of three Gosling movies to make my top ten. Drive may be many people’s top film. I am not one of these people, but there is no doubting its talent as a film. A brooding revenge movie set as a homage to the 80s movies of the past, Drive is heart-stoppingly tense throughout with great performances by the whole cast. Yes, the music throughout does get annoying, but a great movie none the less.
6. The Film: Hanna The Director: Joe Wright.
Have you ever been enticed completely by a trailer. I have, with Joe Wright’s Hanna. Once having watched Hanna I was incredibly impressed. OK, so it’s not perfect, but it was refreshing to see a director indulging with the surreal and having so much fun with it. And how cool is a film with a sixteen year old Heroine that is as bad as she makes Liam Neeson look like a little girly girl.
5. The Film: Warrior The Director: Gavin O’Connor
I’m a competitive fighting fan. You’ll notice that later on in this list, also. But, that doesn’t mean all films with fighting in it appeal to me, they don’t. See Rocky 4 for an example. But, nothing can be as wrong for Warrior. Warrior is a movie about family, but it just so happens that this family decides to fight for a living. And what we have is such a heartfelt drama that has as much guts as it does fighting. Not being into MMA shouldn’t deter you from this movie.
4. The Film: Rango The Director: Gore Verbinski
Everybody loves Cowboys. Everybody loves Johnny Depp and everybody loves animation. Adding the three together seemed like a stroke of genius. And it was. Rango is far from a children’s movie as it cracks with adult humour and in jokes throughout. But these snippets of humour aren’t the real treat. The real treat is the story itself with a message about industrialization as important today as it was in the old west.
3. The Film: Ides of March The Director: George Clooney
Is there a more suave man out there than George Clooney? I don’t think so. He can do everything. As proved here in a film that he not only stars in, but co- writes, produces and directs. That doesn’t stop him giving a great performance in this satirical political thriller. The film’s lead man is yet again Ryan Gosling who punches through a terrific performance in this thriller that is heartbreaking as it is tense and probably more accurate than we’d like to believe.
2. The Film: The Fighter The Director: David O’ Russell
The only entry from this year’s Academy Award contenders is also my second favourite film this year. Yet another family drama with a competitive sport as its outlet. This time it’s boxing. But, boxing isn’t as key as the relationships of Mickey Ward (Mark Whalberg) and family, who all throw out phenomenal performances, no more potent that Christian Bale’s Dicky Erling.
And our number one is:
1. The Film: Super 8 The Director: J.J Abrahams
Hit and miss with some critics, J.J. Abrahams creates a 80s family adventure that homage’s everything he loved as a child. Not just a homage, Super 8 is a great film that delves deeply into loss and love as much as it involves monsters. Incredibly touching and wickedly smart, Super 8 is not only my film of the year, but one of my favourite of the last ten years. Even if it is for the train wreck sequence alone.
Well there you go. Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment at the bottom.
And most importantly...
Until next year, enjoy the show
Dan and Sol
