Movies – My Top 10 of 2011

Here is my list of the ten best 2011 movies.  I believe I’ve seen all the big mainstream movies except Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  I saw almost all of the Oscar nominated feature films.  I have not seen any of the Oscar-nominated foreign films or documentaries because they mostly have not been available.  From everything I have read, the foreign film Oscar winner A Separation might have had a good chance to make my Top 10, had I seen it.  Other than that, my list should be based on a pretty complete set of 2011 movies.

Last year I did my Top 10 right at Oscar time, but this year I had a couple more movies I wanted to see (i.e. Take Shelter) before I posted this list, so it slipped into March.  In case you think it’s a little strange to be doing a top 10 for a year that ended more than two months ago, I’d rather take the time to see as many movies as possible before compiling my list.  This means waiting for some of them to become available on DVD.

You’ll notice some movies in my Top 10 that did not receive any awards nominations.  I have never felt that getting an Oscar nomination was the be all and end all of how good a movie was.  In the list below, I felt the first three places were easily separated from the next seven in terms of how good they were.  In addition, the first two positions are almost 1 and 1A, rather than 1 and 2.

1. The Artist                                                            (Read my review)
2. Hugo                                                                   (Read my review)
3. Midnight in Paris                                               (Read my review)
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2  (Read my review)
5. The Ides of March                                              (Read my review)
6. Bill Cunningham New York                              (See below)
7. Margin Call                                                         (Read my review)
8. Another Earth                                                     (See below)
9. Warrior                                                               (Read my review)
10. The Muppets                                                       (Read my review)

Bill Cunningham New York – I do not have a review for this posted on my site.  I will likely have one at a later point.  I watched the film based on the review by Aiden R. at Cut the Crap Movie Reviews.  You can read it here.  While I did not impact me quite as much as it did him, I still felt it was the best documentary I saw from 2011.  I would give it four stars out of five.  July 4, 2012 update - I now have a full review written for this film.  You can read it here.

Another Earth – I do not have a review for this posted on my site.  I will likely have one at a later point.  For right now, the biggest thing you should know about this film is that despite the premise of a mirror Earth appearing in the sky, it is not science fiction.  Don’t expect factually accurate representations of gravitational effects, space travel, communications, etc. to appear in this film.  The other Earth is really the biggest metaphor for second chances ever put on film.  Don’t expect your standard sci-fi movie; expect a character study of two lost people connected by a single, tragic event.  I would give it four stars out of five.  July 3, 2012 update - I now have a full review written for this film.  You can read it here.

Those are my top 10.  What was your favorite movie of 2011?  Did I leave out a 2011 movie that you thought was great?  Let me know.  Maybe I didn’t see it.

By the way, the best TV show of 2011 just became available on DVD and Blu-ray.  It is Game of Thrones.  You can read my review of it here.

What 2012 movie are you most looking forward to?  For me that is The Avengers, coming May 4^th.  Here is the second trailer.  If you’ll allow me to channel the teen fanboy inside me for a second, then I’ll use that opportunity to say that this trailer is all kinds of awesome.