My Top 25 Movies of 2011

Whilst pulling stuff from the various websites where my work is hosted to archive here I came across my ‘end of year’ lists that each contributor was asked to compile. What follows is my Top 25 movies of 2011 that I submitted at year’s end to the website I was working for at the time.

25.       Battle: Los Angeles

Critically and commericially reviled by everyone else on the planet, I had an absolute blast with this film. And never did I think I would ever say that about a film in which Michelle Rodriguez is present playing, once again, the same ‘stereotype’ that she created and has went to town with. This was just big, bombastic, simplistic, bullet-fast entertainment that opened the ‘summer silly season’ superbly for me. (Try saying that five times really fast!) It’s not out to win awards or linger in your hearts. It’s just there to entertain in the biggest and dumbest way possible (and that “None of that matters” speech by Aaron Eckhart certainly wins the award for ‘dumbest’!)

 24.       Rango

There was nothing about this film that appealed to me in the lead up to its release - and there were far too many other animated studio films on my radar ahead of it. I was burnt by Gore Verbinski destroying my love of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie with its sequels, I was feeling like Johnny Depp was starting to get a little over-exposed and, as a general rule, I try not to see movies that have Isla Fisher in them because I feel like I’m encouraging her ineptitude. But, when this landed on blu-ray, I decided to check it out as a potential gift for my nephews… and I just completely fell for it. It’s inventive, very funny, absolutely unique and unashamedly entertaining - The set-piece involving the ambush for the water-bottle and the kamikaze bats was just an out-and-out cinematic joy!

 23.       Blue Valentine

The ‘anti-date’ movie of all ‘anti-date’ movies. This holds a place for just being a jaw-droppingly difficult but involving watch, with great performances from Williams and Gosling as they continue their rise towards being the greatest actors of our generation. Anyone who watches this for the titilation of seeing Williams in the nude will hopefully get so sucked in by all that goes on before said scene, that when it comes they’ll be too busy squirming with discomfort in their seat to get any cheap thrill.

 22.       Fast & Furious 5  

The opening act, alone, contains a sequence in which our protagonists steal cars from inside a moving train by offloading them onto an awaiting truck, and then through crazy events end up in a brawl that sees the truck blow up and our ‘heroes’ having to drive one of the stolen cars out of the way of an upcoming bridge and off the edge of a cliff hundreds of feet up - where they sail through the air, land in water below, get captured by local gang-members and escape because Vin Diesel is too machismo-soaked to be held by the conventions of heavy chains! … That’s enough to get your dick hard right there, huh? And that’s not taking into account the fact that the rest of the film contains scenes where fingerprints are lifted CSI style from bikini bottoms OR where a gigantic safe is dragged through the streets of Rio at high speed whilst pursuing police cars are obliterated in its wake! … And The Rock is in it saying dumb-ass lines that sound Shakesperean coming from him! This is just a truly GREAT piece of utter ridiculous blockbluster fare - and the fact that it is a FIFTH installment of a franchise of very questionable quality AND is this bloody good, is amazing in itself!

 21.       Submarine

I genuinely thought this was going to be over-acclaimed, pretentious tripe if I’m honest. And Richard Ayoade’s criminally unfunny columns in Total Film, in the lead up to its release (and since) didn’t do much to instill confidence in me that he was going to pull this off as his directorial debut. The genuine surprise of just how good it was is part of this film’s appeal; Consistently amusing, brilliantly performed across the board and directed with a panache I though Ayoade would not possess - Submarine is a film we should be thankful exists within the British Film Industry, because if David Cameron has his way, they’ll not make many more like it!

 20.       Essential Killing

It’s the ultimate thinking-man’s ‘chase’ movie. Almost wordless throughout, we follow an enemy combatant (Vincent Gallo) who is plucked from the deserts of Afghanistan by US Forces, escapes their custody somewhere in the frozen wastelands of Europe and begins a desperate plight to stay on the move and avoid re-capture no matter what that may entail having to do and what effect it will have on what little humanity he has left. It moves ridiculously fast whilst still finding the time to pause long enough for the awkward beauty of Gallo’s surroundings to be captured by the viewer’s eyes. This really is a total gem of a thriller.

 19.       Senna

I don’t have any interest in or knowledge of the sport of Formula One racing. Nor do I have any real understanding of who Ayton Senna was or what he stood for. So it speaks volumes for the power of this documentary that I was completely captivated from start to finish. Utilising some truly astounding archival footage, pieced together to make a thrilling narrative, Senna is a ridiculously assured and involving piece of documentary cinema.

 18.       Troll Hunter

This was a genuine surprise. I’m kind of ‘done’ with the whole “found footage” subgenre and I thought that the premise of this alone sounded just flat out stupid. And yet through the unwavering conviction of the filmmakers involved, I was utterly captivated by what is a funny, scary and really quite clever little film that uses CGI pitch-perfectedly to sell a silly concept so very well.

 17.       Red Hill

This film came, went and re-arrived very quickly here in the UK after quite a long delay between its US festivals debut. I thought it was a brilliant piece of work with excellent performances in it… One part urban western. One part reworked slasher horror film. All parts sublime homage to early John Carpenter… This is tense, atmospheric cinema at its very best. And it’s unknown and under-rated enough right now for you all to pick it up and champion it like you’ve found yourself a real undiscovered jewel within all of what cinema has to offer.

 16.       True Grit

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought nothing good could come from the mighty Coen Brothers jumping on the remake bandwagon when this was first announced. But then, like quite a few films on this list, it arrived in the face of great prejudice on my part and just delighted me from start to finish. Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Stanfield complete drive this film as it takes the Western genre and ‘quirks’ it up whilst keeping the ‘epic’ feel that so many of its ilk require to succeed. It’s dryly funny throughout, constantly engaging and surprisingly touching.

 15.       Super

“Shut up Crime!” … I was looking forward to seeing this, going in thinking that it would be the cheap-and-cheerful version of Kick-Ass from the previous year. Instead I witnessed this very funny, wholly inappropriate, genuinely engaging, low-budget ode to the superhero genre that is drowning the movie industry at present. Rainn Wilson is a genuine surprise in this. More so if all you know him from is the American version of The Office. It’s a great little film with a really dirty under-current.

 14.       Attack The Block 

Joe Cornish had absolutely no right to be this cocky and confident in his directorial debut. Especially considering he’s working for the first time with a high concept and a lot of tricky FX and stunt-choreography. And yet, come the movie’s end, you feel like he’s been making films for decades. This is fast, furious, crazy, funny, attention-grabbing cinema! The film exists as if the world’s biggest Spielberg and Carpenter fan has been given the keys to the kingdom and told “Write a love-letter to the masters!” 

       

13.       Point Blank

In short: Purely exhiliterating! This moves like a bullet out of a gun and, at seventy odd minutes with its running time, there’s not an inch of fat on it. It’s French genre-filmmaking at its very best; Going on to show that you don’t need to make plastic-coated Hollywood wannabe B-movie schlock a la Luc Besson in your home country to make a movie worthy of international attention - Watch in awe as a male nurse saves the life of a criminal and pays the price for it when the corrupt cops and fellow criminals who want him dead kidnap the nurse’s pregant wife and give him a simple instruction: Break the injured criminal out of hospital and bring him to a designated location in a set period of time or the wife dies! … Everything you need to get you set is there in the first ten minutes. From there, it’s time to hang on to your seats!

 12.       Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy.

Dense. Complex. Intelligent. Thought-provoking. Gripping. This film is all of them and more. In theory it shouldn’t exist because there’s no need for it to do so, simply because the original 70s Alec Guinness led BBC series is perfect in adapting the original source material to the screen. But exist it does - More so in a manner that is, for me, superior even to the much-adored Guinness version. This isn’t a film to let float around you as background noise whilst watching it at home. It’s a film that needs and deserves every inch of your attention. And a second viewing. You won’t regret giving this a go.

 11.       Contagion

** SPOILER ALERT ** … Any film that has the good grace to kill off both Gywenth Paltrow AND Kate Winslet is more than okay by me. Steven Soderbergh puts his own original spin on the Irwin Allen all-star disaster movie, by way of this multi-stranded tale of a new virus slowly descimating the world’s populace and the effect of our governments in trying to combat it. It plays as completely real as it can possibly muster whilst still miraculously staying within the realms of a mainstream Hollywood drama. It feels epic throughout without a running time to evidence it as such. It’s attention-grabbing, pulsating and exceptionally good stuff!

 10.       13 Assassins

If you’re only going to see one samurai movie from 2011 that respects the heritage whilst going pedal-to-the-metal on crazy action choreography then this is that movie - It’s a crackin’ film who’s ambition and scope just keeps exceeding and exceeding itself until it takes itself out of the stratosphere in one big final FORTY-FIVE MINUTE cresendo of violence, in-camera stunt choreography and amazing long-take action set-pieces as thirteen brave samurai warriors attempt to assassinate a psychotic warlord, having to deal with his army that stand in the way. The entire third act sees acclaimed and somewhat legendary director Takeshi Miike booby trap a whole village, set our heroes down in the centre of it and then send in hundreds of soldiers to do battle. The result? A glorious, utterly excessive show of blood, carnage and genuinely perfect cinematic action!

 9.         Bridesmaids

Forget all this bullshit about this film being the one that made everyone realise that “women can be funny” because it’s utterly insulting to all the great comediennes who have done some sublime work over the last few decades (*cough* Gilda Radner, Madeline Khan, Shelley Long, Jane Curtain, etc. *cough*). This isn’t about one sex suddenly becoming funnier then the other, or which sex IS funnier then the other. This isn’t about how a ‘chick flick’ became as big a success across the sexes as this has (This isn’t a ‘chick flick’ in the conventional sense at all!). What this IS about is the fact that a hugely under-rated comedienne finally got her ‘moment’ to step up with something that she and her friend wrote, and steal the industry’s hearts and minds - It’s big, brash and very, very, very, funny! That’s all there is to it. It’s a big Judd Apatow production with all the bells (great supporting cast) and whistles (excellent behind the scenes talent) that come with that… and it’s got a whole heap of heart too!  

 8.         The Kill List

Know as little as you possibly can about this film before you see it! Go into it cold, if you can. And stay with it. As difficult and perplexing as it may get, stay with it. And in return you will get one of the most enthralling, disturbing, difficult, but never anything less then original experiences you could possibly ask for! … Two British hitmen, recovering from their botched last job, take on a new assignment. That’s all you need to know. Now seek it out and indulge!

 7.         The Guard

Utterly irreverent. Completely politically-incorrect. And just flat-out hilarious. This is THE comedy of the year, with Bridesmaids just nipping at its heels. Only the Irish could take the ‘buddy’ movie subgenre and spin it on its head as delightfully as it is done here as a black FBI agent turns up in a small Irish town on the hunt for a gang of criminals, and is forced to team up with a lazy, racist, xenophobic small town Irish police officer. You’ll not laugh as hard at another film this year, seriously!

 6.         127 Hours

I didn’t think this would appeal to me at all. I only went into it on the good grace that Danny Boyle had earned with Slumdog Millionaire. I’d heard all the hype about ‘that’ sequence. I’d heard that James Franco was ‘good’. I just didn’t think it was going to be my ‘type of thing’. Instead, I was met with an experience that genuinely challenged and moved me quite considerably. Here was a director working at the top of his game to give superb visualisation AND movement to a one actor/one location scenario. And here was an often mocked actor giving a genuinely terrific, moving and fantastically involving performance that captivates you from the get-go!

 5.         I Saw The Devil

This is not an easy watch by any stretch of the imagination. It is very dark, very gory and… It’s extreme viewing, there’s no two ways about it. But even in the face of all of that, it is one of the best ‘cat-and-mouse’ style thrillers of the last few years. It stands toe-to-toe with Oldboy as one of the best ‘revenge’ movies you’ll see (… what is it about the Koreans and revenge?!?) and it’s directed with a pace and eye that has to be seen to be believed. Watch this through your fingers if you have to, but definitely watch it!

 4.         Animal Kingdom

To call this “the Australian Goodfellas” is just flat-out lazy. It’s a brilliant bit of gangster cinema, played down and dirty whereby the mundanity of how the characters are presented is part of the overall effect. This is the best Australian film in quite some time, featuring actors who a lot of us have seen grow up on our screens in the 80s and 90s. Used in the way they are here proves to be devastatingly effective. None more so in the case of Ben Mendelsohn who - in one particular scene, accentuated by possibly the most horrible use of a ‘classic’ Air Supply song - will drop your jaw and make you squirm!

 3.         The Fighter

This film had no right to be as good as it is. And yet it exists as it does because, at one perfect moment, a variety of talent converged together and decided to ‘play’ at the top of their games. Mark Wahlberg - normally, for me, a vacant and irritating presence when playing the lead - takes the main role and has the good sense to always be on the back foot around the heavy-hitting talent surrounding him; much like the character he is portraying was in real-life. And David O. Russell’s decision to shoot the boxing sequences “as real” recycled through TV coverage was inspired and works very much in the film’s favour.

 2.         Drive

This film is a goddamn work of art. Seriously. It is just perfect: Every single actor in it delivers a performance of perfect nuance. The direction is absolute pitch-perfect in its tone and intent. The violence is used to perfect effect in order to get the maximum reaction required. The soundtrack is heaven-sent. It is just so utterly, utterly sublime.

 1.         Warrior

THE under-rated underdog movie of the year. Whatever you think this movie is going to be, it surpasses your expectations in every regard. It’s an epic disfunctional and estranged family saga told through the prism of a sporting underdog movie, in which we’re given ample (but never gratuitous) screen time to get to know and care for these characters before simply settling down to one of the most engrossing and emotional sporting journeys the screen has seen in some time. Every single person involved is acting their socks off, but the one that steps above and beyond everybody to steal the entire film has got to be Nick Nolte. If Nolte isn’t nominated for an Academy Award this year for Best Supporting Actor then there is zero justice in Awards Season at all. The scene in which Tom Hardy goads Nolte’s character to drink and then pulls him back in is one of the most devastating, heartbreaking moments in ‘man’ movie history! This was considered a ‘flop’ this year at the American box office. It fared a little (but not much) better here in the UK. Don’t let that tell you anything other then the fact that it deserves to stand alongside The Shawshank Redemption, The Thing and Blade Runner in terms of audiences just not quite being ready for certain masterpieces!