So this is 2012 eh? Only three more years and I’ll be able to hoverboard to work! (Shut up, a guy can dream).

2011 was an interesting year that taught me a lot of things. Some of these things were blog and movie related, others were personal and hopefully will help me become a better person. The year introduced me to a lot of great new friends, and brought me closer to many old friends. There were some sad moments, some angry moments, but most of all there were happy moments. Those happy moments are what I cling to – especially now. This is the time of year to be positive, and to look forward with hope and the belief in what’s possible. After all, tomorrow isn’t just “another day” as a heroine once said, it’s another year.

This year, my taste and habit took a bit of turn. I started looking further down the list for what I wanted to spend my time and money on at the cinema, and for that I was largely rewarded. That’s not to say that I’ve turned my back on the mainstream – far from it! I still want my popcorn movies, and I want to have fun watching them. Thankfully, 2012 seems to have quite a few goodies in the mainstream to offer.

But before we get to the adventures of Catniss Everdeen, Bruce Wayne, and Bilbo Baggins, let’s take one last moment to look back on 2011. I saw a lot of deeply memorable movies this year – these five will stay with me the longest…

Ryan’s Top Five Films of 2011


#5. THE MUPPETS… In trying to decide which films to dub the year’s best, I resort to emotional connection. There are many films that are solid offerings and will hold up to the test of time – but those aren’t my focus.

I want to focus on the films that brought me great joy, brought me to tears, or in the case of THE MUPPETS brought me both. Of the five films that make up my Class of 2011, this is by far the most flawed. But, in a manner befitting its joyful cast, it parlayed those flaws into something heartfelt, entertaining, and inspiring. What cannot be undervalued about this film, is the wonderful way it fits with the first three Muppets film. It’s as if the script had been around for years, and just needed  the perfect moment to be taken out of the vault. This whole year has been about a Muppet renaissance, and oddly it wasn’t geared at kids so much as it was the adults who loved them as kids, and maybe needed to feel like kids again.

(Full MUPPETS review here)

#4. WAR HORSE… I’d wager that I’m deeply in the minority on loving this film as much as I do, but I can’t dispute the emotional reaction I felt during this film’s final two-thirds. Steven Spielberg can chalk this up as a return to form, even if it’s not a new masterpiece in his cannon. Spielberg realizes that it’s possible to depict the horrors of war even without an R rating: Sometimes all it takes is a shot of a charging horse that has lost its rider. This movie takes a touching approach to showing us life during The Great War…for those who would lead it, those who would fight it, and those who’d have their daily lives ripped apart by it.

In an aside from what happens on-screen, I continue to be perplexed by the sight-unseen venom this movie continues to get from the collective (Admittedly, the film is marketed poorly). Take a moment and breathe people: It’s based on a well-recieved book that’s been turned into an award-winning play. You might be surprised by what the film has to offer.
(Full WAR HORSE review here)

#3. THE SKIN I LIVE IN… This was the only film of my five that didn’t play on nostalgia. Instead it kicked me in the nuts and stood over me laughing.

I’m ten years into my Almodovar literacy, and I have arrived at a conclusion: The man’s films will always be varying levels of great. Originally, I was told that this would be a horror film, and even though it’s not straight-up horror, what he has given us was so deliciously twisted and 100% unexpected. The man understands melodrama like few others, and his reunion with Antonio Banderas was well worth the wait. Note to Pedro: Now cast Antonio and Penelope Cruz in a future film. I fear that for many, this was a film that flew under the radar. Oscar buzz isn’t going to help it, since Spain has chosen not to submit it as its Oscar entry for Best Foreign Film. Hopefully people catch up with it when it hits DVD/Blu-Ray in March.

(Full SKIN I LIVE IN review here)

#2. THE ARTIST… As THE ARTIST’s stock has risen, a lot of voices have banded together to tell people what it’s not. I prefer to use my voice to tell you what it is. It’s elegant, it’s intelligent, and it’s charming. It doesn’t want to be the next great silent film so much as it wants to honour and evoke the era. It highlights a wonderful pair of performers who, in an attention deficient era cn command a crowd’s attention without saying a word. There have been other silent films that made the rounds on the festival circuit in the last decade so the fact that this movie was able to catch on with a broader audience should say something about its wit and its ability to transcend.

Quite simply, it’s a sign that you don’t need to dazzle your audience with trickery: You just need to win them over with moxie.

(Full ARTIST review here)

#1. THE TREE OF LIFE… Pretentious bugger, ain’t I? Admittedly, declaring THE TREE OF LIFE to be the best film I saw this year might cement my status as an elitist movie snob. If that’s the case, fit me for my ascot now. Jokes aside, the film tops my list for one main reason – in all of my moviegoing life, and certainly in my hardcore moviegoing life of the last ten years, I’ve never seen anything like this film. It’s not all that interested in telling us a story – it’s more interested in asking us questions. It does so with quiet philosophy, it does so with bombastic music, and it does so with some of the most stunning imagery ever put on film.

THE TREE OF LIFE isn’t so much a movie as it is cinematic poetry, or a cinematic symphony. It is something unconcerned with structure, and instead interested in letting every viewer’s thoughts wander to someplace different. Going back to the trend of nostalgia, it sends us to those different places by reminding us of the big questions we asked ourselves when we were all children of a certain age.

This is a film of elegance, and a film that dared to try something different. I can completely understand why viewers wouldn’t like it, and even how viewers could fully loathe it. Not only can I understand those positions, but I wouldn’t even argue them that they are wrong for seeing it so. Like a lot of great art, THE TREE OF LIFE is divisive – but I know which side of the dividing line I stand on.

For being so very different and so very, very beautiful, THE TREE OF LIFE takes the spot as the top film of the year for me.
(Full TREE OF LIFE review here)

Others on my shortlist for 2011 include 50/50, THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN, ARMADILLO, CARNAGE, CRAZY STUPID LOVE, THE DESCENDANTS, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, HUGO, THE IDES OF MARCH, THE INTERRUPTERS, A LONELY PLACE TO DIE, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, SUPER 8, and TAKE SHELTER.

What did you think? Please leave comments with your thoughts on the list, and your own selections for the best films of 2011.

57 Replies to “Good for Great (Ryan’s Top Five of 2011)”

  1. Just posted my version (and much more bloated) of the end of year list with my TOP 20 over at my site. Your 4,3,2 I’ve yet to see… 1 disagree with (but I expect that to be widespread since it’s a Malick film) and you’re #5 made my #3…

    I wished I had seen more of the December releases out here, but alas such is life…

    2011 turned out to be a slowroll of a year with so many great movies hitting in its last couple weeks forcing us all to scramble and catch what we could..

    nice list and well put forward. What will be our top film of 2012? Isn’t there a Malick? Nolan? Taratino? film all for 2012… My list be screwed now.

    1. No idea what will be tops in 2012, just happy that there are some great films to be experienced before the world ends.

      Most of those December releases didn’t really factor in for me, with the exception of THE ARTIST. On the whole, I found many of them good-but-not-great. By and large, most of the year’s best films were out up here by November!

      Looking forward to reading your list – happy new year sir!

  2. I keep expecting Attack the Block to make everyone’s Top 5 list but it never does. It’s my #1 of the year (and my #2 after The Warriors) but people either aren’t watching it or aren’t connecting with it the way I have.

    1. I connected with it big time, and had the podcast not already run long, you would have heard us discuss it. You’re right, it’s awesome and I’m really glad to see a smaller film like that catch on. Actually, now that you mention it, I didn’t get it on blu-ray for Christmas. I do believe I’ll be making a trip to the store after I respond to a few more comments.

    5. Wow – more love for DRIVE. I’m beginning to think I’m deeply in the minority as one who didn’t connect all that deeply with the film. I’ll have to rethink things a bit when the blu-ray comes out.

  4. Nostalgic list for sure. It’s been a great year for that particular genre.

    I’m waiting until I see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and RotPotA before I concoct my year-end list. But, I can say with certainty that Take Shelter will be #1.

    1. TAKE SHELTER would be an awesome choice for number one – a flick that was visually stunning for sure. As much as I loved TREE OF LIFE, I think I’d have to take Shelter Chastain over Tree Chastain.

      Apes and Tinker are both solid films, but I can’t say for certain how they’ll factor into your year-end list.

    2. I’m hoping Chastain gets her Oscar nod for Take Shelter, but it kind of looks like it’ll either be for Tree or The Help at this point because it’s more likely it’ll coincide with a BP nominee. Although Tommy Lee Jones got a nod a few years back for a smaller film when he was also in No Country. so I guess there’s still a little hope.

    3. That had more to do with the increased screentime, I believe. But, yeah, Chastain was better in Take Shelter if you ask me.

  5. Interesting choices. Sentiment FTW, huh? Also, can you introduce me to the other folks who have supposedly been banding together to denounce The Artist? Because, I’d love to meet them, I have significantly more ranting and raving to do about that film. I’ve been hearing a lot of what you echoed here thrown about in its favor, but saw very little of that on screen…

    1. Take a drive up to Toronto, you’ll be tripping over ARTIST dissenters.
      I find myself worrying about influxes in nostalgia…I’m not entirely sure what that means.

      By the way – what was your top film of the year?

    2. I’m working on my annual Top 15, having a devil of a time narrowing it from about 25 and kicking myself for failing to go see The Skin I Live In back in October…

    5. I know a few people for whom it’s number one of the year. It’s actually making me want to take all my Almodovar’s off the shelf and go on a bit of a Spanish melodrama bender.

  7. I was scrolling down the list, and only the image for your #1 pick was in view and for a split second I thought, “Yes! Sunshine!”

    Then I remember that Sunshine came out in 2008 and your list became slightly less cool.

    1. As much as I love SUNSHINE – and I do love SUNSHINE – the visuals in TREE OF LIFE make Boyle’s flick look like a screensaver slideshow.

      That reminds me, I need to go back and re-read my post with Douglas Trumbull with the benefit of hindsight…

  8. Well, I think you are absolutely right. With your #1. I can’t believe this is the first year I’m really paying attention to new releases and films in general (arthouse and all of that), and already I love The Tree of Life.

    2. Thanks.
      Yes, that is what I’m saying, I think… In the previous years I’d just “kinda watch this, kinda watch that”, whatever sounded interesting enough to watch on TV/ borrow from someone/ watch in cinema.
      I also watched a lot of sticky Bollywood films for some years, you know the kind that most people think of when they hear the word “bollywood”. Some of them are actually good, but most I don’t like anymore.
      I think the change really happened when I watched The Dreamers… well first of all because it shocked me so much, but also because it was the most experimental and non-mainstream film I had ever seen, I think…

      Anyway, I’m rambling but this was a brief explanation of my… well, the change of cinematic taste during the past 12-15 months.

    3. Ah yes, that moment of awakening. For me it was DEAD MAN WALKING back in 1996.

      Well I wish you nothing but cinematic bliss as you find even more films that suit your palette now and aren’t handcuffed by what you find at the multiplex, and likewise bid you happy hunting, as you dig up films of the past that appeal to your newly-widened tastes.

  9. Saying The Muppets was any less than amazingly (or nostalgically) fulfilling is probably to assume the person claiming that is without soul but it just missed the mark for me. I liked it, in part, and am more upset because I wanted to love it.

    Tree of Life really making the rounds as a Love/hate film but I have no problem saying I’m in the polar ‘negative’ camp. Though putting it as your Number 1 takes some commitment. Solid stance to take and I applaud you for that:)

    I’m still trying to see The Artist and War Horse but if they find a place here then they are, most certifiably, golden. None the less, fine, well rounded top 5 Hatter:)

    1. Interesting icon you’ve chosen Marc.

      Just curious, since it seems to be a chance to re-open the discussion, what about TREE OF LIFE didn’t you care for?

    2. I guess as shallow as it seems I was looking for a resolution. I mean I get the tough/absentee father thing. I get the personal struggles of the boys and the mother trying to keep it otgether. I do love the the angle Malick took to show the fascination of the beginning of life juxtaposed against the duality of the family’s lifetime. Even more interesting was that it was all told in tandem with the planet’s lifetime. But get to it already. Great to look at just long in the tooth and hard to keep attention when no point of interest (to me anyway) is being made.

      But the ending. Sean Penn was a cold by-product of his father’s upbringing and partly his brother’s death. But why go there? That was such a long lead up to a uneventful finale. Did he kill himself? Did the world end? I feel like I’m trying to remember a dream and just can’t put the pieces together but I’m not willing to go back to sleep to figure it out.

    3. But that’s the beauty of it – not the text that it reads to you, but where your brain goes to as you’re waiting for the next line. I know this probably sounds pretentious as hell, but it was the questions it caused me to ask as it unspooled that made it so indellible.

      I found myself thinking about maturity, religion, awareness, mortality, mercy, evolution, and so very much more while hanging around this Texan family. (Sidenote: Is growing up in Texas really that lyrical? If so, Lindsay and I might have to move before we have kids).

      With all this year-end talk about it, I’ve really been wanting to watch it again…just have to get through a few more unwatched Christmas gifts first.

  10. Nice list! Especially The Tree of Life topping it…I’m glad to see that people actually love that film (I’ve seen so many haters ever since the DVD release). Still have to see the rest – hopefully I’ll see The Muppets this week, War Horse either when I’m in Melbourne or as soon as I get back (the book is too sad, though!), and The Skin I Live In and The Artist as soon as they come out here. Can’t wait!

    2. Comes out on DVD here next week (I meant the DVD release in the US and people started to see it)…I’m actually pretty scared. My staff pick on it is going to be more of a warning.

  12. Unbelievably, I haven’t seen four out of your top five! None of your two though five picks have made it to Australia yet. And of course I’m one of those Tree of Life haters. We’re not gelling at all here man!!!

    1. I recall why you didn’t dig it, though I likewise (as usual) emplore you to come back to it sometime – MELANCHOLIA too.

      In other news, if those four are still on their way to Oz, I know you’re in for good things in the early part of 2012. Can’t wait to hear your takes on them.

      Remind me, what was tops of the year for you?

    2. I’m one voice of many in the chorus shouting DRIVE, with A SEPARATION a close second.

      Yeah they’ll all make it to Australia in due course I’m sure, though I think I’m gonna try and catch one or two of them in England when I’m there next week.

      I’ll revisit ToL and MELANCHOLIA eventually, but not for a few years. I need to let my hatred cool off a bit, otherwise I’ll have no chance of objectively reevaluting them. Until then I’ll just rage against them in the comments section of people’s blogs 😛

    3. Oh yeah, I’m not trying to pull the patented Ryan McNeil “Watch it Again” arm-twist…just saying someday, sometime, come back to them. Maybe if you see one or the other on TV one afternoon.

      Still haven’t seen A SEPARATION – not sure if I just missed its Toronto run or if it hasn’t played here yet.

      Back in England again? Wow – Tom Clift: International Man of Mystery.

  13. “Pretentious bugger, ain’t I? Admittedly, declaring THE TREE OF LIFE to be the best film I saw this year might cement my status as an elitist movie snob. If that’s the case, fit me for my ascot now.”

    Ha! ToL is still in the mix for my best picture of the year too… but if I’ve gotta wear an ascot, fugghedaboudit. 😀

    Nice list though!

    1. Welcome to The Matinee FOGS.

      Alright, I might be able to duck the ascot, but it seems like calling movies like TREE OF LIFE the year’s best comes with a slight degree of eye-rolling from those who see it as pretentious. Perhaps it’s not as bad as I thought.

      What *is* your choice for tops of 2011?

  14. Interesting selections, Ryan. I love a lot of your shortlist that didn’t make the Top 5 – but I am yet to see The Artist, and I wasn’t a big fan of War Horse (unfortunately, I’m on that side of the fence this time). But, I totally agree with your #1 pick (even though mine was Senna, and A Separation came in at #2 before ToL), and The Skin I Live In and The Muppets were both unforgettable experiences, for very different reasons.

    I also enjoyed the Matineecast where you were discussing your Top 5 with Lindsay, Simon and Sarah. Rounding out my Top 10 are Incendies (#4), Project Nim, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Drive, Take Shelter, Midnight in Paris and The Skin I Live In, but the list on my blog goes 30 deep (even though I am yet to see The Artist, Hugo, Dragon Tattoo, TTSS, Shame, Young Adult etc. yet. Here’s to another great year of film, and for me, an awesome couple of months ahead, catching up on delayed 2011 releases in Australia.

    1. Sounds like you have a lot to look forward to in 2012 – as do I since SEPARATION and KEVIN haven’t opened in Toronto yet!

      Thanks for listening to The Matineecast too, the episode took a lot of work so I’m happy to hear anyone taking a shining to it. Perhaps I’ll even manage to get you on as a guest in this new year!

    2. A Separation is yet to open in Sydney either, but my SFF experience with the film was unforgettable, and I think you’ll find it extraordinary. I’ll have to work on my podcasting skills – but I would be honoured to be a guest on the Matineecast!!

      1. I missed my chance at A SEPARATION at TIFF, but such is life when you’re trying to choose just a sliver of 300-some-odd selections. Least it gives me something to look forward to in coming weeks.

        There’s very little skill needed to podcast (just look at me!) so we’ll make it happen this year. Lookin’ forward!

  15. Enjoy reading your list, seems like you are a very sentimental person, with War Horse, The Muppets, and The Artist on your top 5.:)

    I also very much agree with your feelings and admiration of The Tree Of Life, it’s my #3 of the year, but that’s just semantics. It is the most ambitious film of the decade, an experience that is unlike any other film I have seen. This is a film where I can just drown in the experience and images and just experience. There are moments that didn’t work (like the ending), and take me out of the movie, but that just minor quibbles to an otherwise great cinematic experience.

    1. You’re local if memory serves, so I think in 2012 we’ll have to rally up and I can introduce you to a few other local movielovers who are all great people.

      As for the sentimental – guilty as charged. As much as I love the gritty and the cool, I found this year that it was the films that uplifted that lasted with me the longest. Could just be the place I’m at mentally these days, but perhaps it’s a sign of getting older. Who’s to say?

      Thanks for stopping by!

      1. Yes, I am from Toronto. Would love to meet other local movie lovers such as yourself, in this city. Actually, I did participate in the CAST voting this year, but I really haven’t not met anyone of you face to face.

        The sentimentality part is more of an observation than anything else. If it’s done well (like The Artist and War Horse, haven’t seen The Muppets), then it’s certainly deserves to be noticed.

        1. Well then in 2012 we’ll have to put a face to the name before too long!

          And you’re right, the sentiment *was* done rather well this year. Here’s hoping that can continue and that sentiment won’t be an automatic synonym for “sap”.

  16. I look forward to seeing The Skin I Live In, I just wish I hadn’t had the ending ruined for me before hand. Usually, I don’t mind spoilers, but I think I would’ve liked the surprise.

    1. Hey Brittani – haven’t seen you ’round these parts in a while!

      Whoever spoiled the surprise in THE SKIN I LIVE IN for you deserves to be tarred and feathered. I have shrugged my shoulders lately on what is and is not a spoiler, but that’s a film where the turn should really be kept quiet. The person who spoiled it for you is a tosser – I bestow upon them the curse of scratched blu-rays and low bandwidth!

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