Films of 2011 – Best of 2011

Time Out's film team nominate their favourite movies of 2011

There was little consensus about the year’s best films, but when it came to end-of-year stocktaking, two American works grabbed the limelight: Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree of Life’ and Kenneth Lonergan’s ‘Margaret’. 2011 was also a strong year for British cinema, and our critics honour homegrown films as diverse as ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’, ‘Senna’, ‘Kill List’ and ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’. It was also a big year for the European titans, with new films from Pedro Almodóvar (‘The Skin I Live In’), Wim Wenders (‘Pina’) and Lars von Trier (‘Melancholia’). Elsewhere, some of us were enraptured by a quiet Italian movie about goats (‘Le Quattro Volte’), while others loved a tender tribute to silent cinema (‘The Artist’).

All of Time Out's film critics have chosen their favourite five films and one turkey. See all the lists below:

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Dave Calhoun, Film editor

1. Margaret
Dir Kenneth Lonergan, US
Maybe it’s risen to the top because I saw it this month – but Kenneth Lonergan’s long-awaited character study of a New York teen (a superb Anna Paquin) in crisis is an exemplary study in trauma and the most interesting film I’ve seen so far about America in the wake of 9/11.
2. Pina
Dir Wim Wenders, Ger
In an era when audiences are happy to watch theatre, dance and opera beamed live into cinemas, Wim Wenders’s documentary about German dance pioneer Pina Bausch showed how performance can be taken out of theatres and represented on film with true love and imagination.

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3. We Need To Talk About Kevin
Dir Lynne Ramsay, GB
Not only was it exciting to have Lynne Ramsay’s ideas back on the big screen after too many years away, but this British filmmaker’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s book – bold, scary, uncomfortable – made the wait worthwhile.
4. The Skin I Live In
Dir Pedro Almodóvar, Sp
Pedro Almodóvar turned Thierry Jonquet’s mildly interesting novel ‘Tarantula’ into a stylish and irresistably creepy exploration of many of his recurring themes: mother-son relationships, masks, sexual identity and power. It was pleasing, too, to see him welcoming Antonio Banderas back into his gang.

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5. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Dir Tomas Alfredson, GB
It took a Swedish director, Tomas Alfredson, to take the Brit-lit thriller somewhere interesting, as this adaptation succeeded in retaining many of the nuances of John Le Carré’s novel, often with just a nod here and a wink there. Gary Oldman offered a parallel Smiley to savour alongside the memory of Alec Guinness.

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2011's turkey: The Beaver
Dir Jodie Foster, US
Puppetry of the penis – the idea of Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster playing man and wife was as ridiculous as the idea of a man’s depression and suicidal thoughts being solved in cahoots with a fluffy toy. Ghastly.

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

David Jenkins, film critic

1. The Tree of Life
Dir Terrence Malick, US
Towers over the competition. Terrence Malick’s cosmos-spanning film is the spiritual cinematic high of the twenty-first century so far.

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2. Margaret
Dir Kenneth Lonergan, US
I can't recall a contemporary American film that has gotten as close to encapsulating the mellifluous, metaphysical and profoundly humane spirit of Eric Rohmer. Depressing to think it nearly slipped through the cracks.
3. The Portuguese Nun
Dir Eugène Green, Fr
Finally, French iconoclast Eugène Green gets some love in the UK. Some compared Green's film to the work of Robert Bresson, but this is like nothing else out there.

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4. Tomboy
Dir Céline Sciamma, Fr
It’s been a vintage year for female filmmakers (extra shout outs to Julia Leigh’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and Kelly Reichardt’s ‘Meek’s Cutoff’). This second film by French director Céline Sciamma was petite but perfect.

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5. Norwegian Wood
Dir Tran Anh-Hung, Japan
Vietnam’s Tran Anh-Hung worked his languid magic on Haruki Murakami’s supposedly ‘unfilmable’ novel and delivered a depressing film about depression that was richly philosophical and visually gorgeous to boot.

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2011's turkey: How Do You Know
Dir James L Brooks, US
I’d rather have my limbs amputated then tossed into an industrial mincer and fed to diseased pigs than sit through this humour-neutral smug bomb again. How it got on to the cover of Film Comment I’ll never know…

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Tom Huddleston, film critic

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Derek Adams, film critic

1. Le Quattro Volte
Dir Michelangelo Frammartino, It
Michelangelo Frammartino’s gentle, languorous three-part essay on Italian pastoral life remains for me the most harmonious, thought-provoking film of the year. All human life is here? Affirmative.

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2. True Grit
Dirs Ethan and Joel Coen, US
Epic in scope, the Coens’s Western remake won me over with its engaging, naturalistic screenplay delivered with gusto by Jeff Bridges and young newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

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3. Senna
Dir Asif Kapadia, GB
Who would have thought a documentary about a Formula One racing driver could be so enthralling, emotionally uplifting and downright entertaining. A brilliant slice of documentary making.

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4. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Dir Steven Spielberg, US
Steven Spielberg’s first Hergé adaptation hasn’t pleased some purists but for me it’s easily the most entertaining mainstream film of the year – and the most gorgeous to look at.
5. Limitless
Dir Neil Burger, US
A great concept imaginatively mounted, Neil Burger’s stylish, briskly-paced pharmaceutical thriller lured me to the edge of the seat with its gripping premise and extraordinary special effects.

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2011's turkey: Big Mommas Like Father Like Son
Dir John Whitesell, US
This contemptible, barrel-scraping farrago of a sequel lacked laughs and any form of common decency. Enough already.

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Geoff Andrew, contributing editor

1. True Grit/The Princess of Montpensier
Dirs Joel and Ethan Coen, US/Dir Bertrand Tavernier, Fr
Slightly cheating, I’ve picked five imaginary double-bills to sum up 2011. These first two films represent genre filmmaking at its best: the past thrillingly, plausibly and very affectingly brought back to life.
2. Archipelago/A Separation
Dir Joanna Hogg, GB/Dir Asghar Farhadi, Iran
Families, hired help, generational and class tensions… and deliciously destructive deceits galore.
3. Le Quattro Volte/Nénette
Dir Michelangelo Frammartino, It/Dir Nicolas Philibert, Fr
What, philosophically, does it really mean to be alive? Existence and consciousness illuminatingly and amusingly reconsidered.
4. Contagion/Men on the Bridge
Dir Steven Soderbergh, US/Dir Asli Ozge, Turkey
How we survive, crowded together in today’s urban environments, explored in ways both intelligent and worrying.
5. Poetry/A Screaming Man
Dir Lee Chang-dong, S Kor/Dir Mahamet-Saleh Haroun, Chad
Familial responsibilities and wider ethical dilemmas, examined with lyrical simplicity and disarming honesty.
2011's turkey: Melancholia
Dir Lars von Trier, Den
A waste of time, probably, to select a film with no artistic ambition, so... this was portentous, frequently tedious and not a little silly.

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Cath Clarke, film critic

1. The Tree of Life
Dir Terrence Malick, US
Who else could stretch cinema to its limits like Terrence Malick? A boy’s life, dinosaurs and the beginning of life on earth: we were talking about ‘The Tree of Life’ for weeks in our house. Poetic, beautiful and fierce.

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2. The Artist
Dir Michel Hazanavicius, Fr/US
The most heart-singingly lovely film of the year. I was quite literally singing in the rain (or tap-dancing like a four and a half year old) after Michel Hazanavicius’s homage to silent movies.
3. Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Werner Herzog really showed what you can do with 3D, filming the 32,000 year-old Chauvet cave paintings. A tight race with Wim Wenders’s ‘Pina’: Herzog swings it with his voiceover.

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4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Dir Tomas Alfredson, GB
What a brilliant year for British film with ‘Submarine’, ‘Archipelago’, ‘Neds’, ‘Weekend’, ‘Tyrannosaur’ ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Dreams of a Life.’ For the sheer thrill of watching so many world-class actors in one film – not least that leading-man comeback by Gary Oldman – this gets my vote.

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5. Bridesmaids
Dir Paul Feig, US
Another nail in the coffin for that dusty old ‘women aren't funny’ line.

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2011's turkey: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Dir Rob Marshall, US
It looked like whimsy when Johnny ‘I’m not blockbuster boy’ Depp first sashayed into the multiplex wearing eyeliner. Now, I’m not sure even a new film with Tim Burton can dry out his soggy reputation.

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Nigel Floyd, film critic

1. The Skin I Live In
Dir Pedro Almodóvar, Sp
Pedro Almodóvar's fetishistic, gender-bending drama, starring Elena Anaya and Antonio Banderas, sees the Spanish director back on shocking, subversive form.

Buy this film on DVD
2. Melancholia
Dir Lars von Trier, Den
Kirsten Dunst is a heartbreaking revelation, as crippling depression and potential apocalypse are given the inimitable Lars von Trier treatment.

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3. Snowtown
Dir Justin Kurzel, Australia
Justin Kurzel's bleak, insightful account of Adelaide's infamous 'Bodies in the Barrels' killings majors in nerve-shredding tension and dread.

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4. Senna
Dir Asif Kapadia, GB
Asif Kapadia's dramatically tense and involving documentary is a moving testament to the charming Brazilian racing driver who lived to compete.

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5. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Dir Tomas Alfredson, GB
A forensic, stripped-down adaptation of John le Carré's 1974 espionage novel, by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson ('Let the Right One In').

Buy this film on DVD
2011's turkey: Wuthering Heights
Dir Andrea Arnold, GB
Inexplicable artistic decisions, absurd political correctness, dubious casting and director Andrea Arnold's characteristic focus on micro details at the expense of narrative sense.

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Trevor Johnston, film critic

1. Le Quattro Volte
Dir Michelangelo Frammartino, It
A genuine original from Italian director Michelangelo Frammartino, exquisitely made, filled with wisdom and compassion.

Buy this film on DVD
2. Poetry
Dir Lee Chang-dong, S Kor
Social commentary done with subtlety, enterprise and insight as Lee Chang-dong gets a UK release at last.

Buy this film on DVD
3. Mysteries of Lisbon
Dir Raúl Ruiz, Port/Fr
Raúl Ruiz departs on a high with the best nineteenth-century literary adaptation since Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Barry Lyndon’.
4. Pina
Dir Wim Wenders, Ger
Space and movement, joy and pain, as Wim Wenders single-handedly justifies the existence of 3D.

Buy this film on DVD
5. Miss Bala
Dir Gerardo Naranjo, Mex
Michael Mann meets Robert Bresson on Mexican backstreets. Like wow…

Buy this film on DVD
2011's turkey: Mother's Day
Dir Darren Lynn Bousman, US
Not the year’s worst, but so shrill, cynical and annoying it’s profoundly depressing.

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Anna Smith, film critic

1. We Need To Talk About Kevin
Dir Lynne Ramsay
With its knockout performances, suspense, visual splendour, dark humour and disquieting psychological insights, this ticked a lot of boxes for me.
2. The Guard
Dir John Michael McDonagh, Ire
There’s a lot of joy to be had from this mischievous, clever crime comedy with the always-wonderful Brendan Gleeson.

Buy this film on DVD
3. Dreams of a Life
Dir Carol Morley, GB
Utterly gripping and haunting in a very real sense, this docu-drama is one of the most memorable and original films of the year.
4. Melancholia
Dir Lars von Trier, Den
I’m not always willing to be drawn into Lars von Trier’s world but this one had me hooked with its jaw-dropping cinematography and offbeat take on the disaster-movie genre.

Buy this film on DVD
5. The Artist
Dir Michel Hazanavicius
If there’s one film this year I’d recommend to anyone – of any age or taste – it’s ‘The Artist’: an uplifting, playful and delightfully humorous tribute to silent cinema.
2011's turkey: Big Mommas Like Father Like Son
Dir John Whitesell, US
Martin Lawrence wasn’t funny in a fatsuit the first time round – three times certainly is not the charm.

Dave Calhoun l David Jenkins l Tom Huddleston l Derek Adams l Geoff Andrew l Cath Clarke l Nigel Floyd l Trever Johnston l Anna Smith l Anil Sinanan

Anil Sinanan, Bollywood film critic

1. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Dir Zoya Akhtar
Three 'desi boyz' decide that 'you live only once' and go on a life-changing credible road trip across Spain. Olé!

Buy this film on DVD
2. Delhi Belly
Dir Abhinay Deo
Shit happens (literally) in this comedy of errors you can laugh along with, rather than at.

Buy this film on DVD
3. Dhobi Ghat
Dir Kiran Rao
Realistic examination of love and loss across the huge class divide in India's 'maximum city'.
4. That Girl In Yellow Boots
Dir Anurag Kashyap
Gritty expose of life in Mumbai's underworld as experienced by a single white British female.
5. Ra.One
Dir Anubhav Sinha
Shah Rukh 'King' Khan retains his throne in this enjoyable sci-fi 3D singing superhero flick.
2011's turkey: Ready/Bodyguard
Dir Anees Bazmee/Dir Siddique
Mindless masala trash with gym bunny Salman Khan equating stripping to acting.

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Comments

By Daniel - Mar 4 2012

How anyone can list bridesmaids on favourite films is beyond me. The humour is far from intelligent and relies on trying to shock the audience with women soiling themselves. Drive, the guard and Ides of March were all high points for me.

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By Somewittyname - Dec 29 2011

Drive & The Descendants really stood out for me! The Ides of March also impressed. It's been a good year for Gosling and Clooney!

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By Mike - Dec 24 2011

1) Howl
2) NEDs
3) 127 Hours
4) Henry’s Crime
5) Submarine
6) Inside Job
7) Hanna
8) Rabbit Hole
9) Drive
10) Little White Lies
.
Turkeys:
Sucker Punch/Rango/True Grit/West Is West/We Need To Talk About Kevin

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By sticky - Dec 23 2011

Top Films of the Year:

=1. Animal Kingdom / Little White Lies

=3. A Separation / Bridesmaids

Ignore Picky Peter's comments, see below, re Bridesmaids, because this
was a really hilarious and very moving film with seriously funny women. Plus
the fact that the film's star, Kristen Wiig, co-wrote the film just underlines what
a genius she is.

=5. Kill List, N.E.D.S., We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Silence, Miss Bala,
The Fighter

Turkeys of the Year: The Adjustment Bureau, Submarine, One Day, Hugo

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By Dave from Canada - Dec 20 2011

I'm surprised nobody included "Hugo". Main story-line, subplots, music, cinematography, acting, everything was just perfect! AND a great homage "to the movies". Best thing Scorcese has ever done, and one of the best performances Kingsley has given. Certainly the best thing I saw in 2011.

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By Peter's Peck of Pickled Peppers - Dec 20 2011

Bridesmaids.... seriously.... are you kidding me.... possibly the worst film I have seen in a long long time. Woman are funny and have been for a long time. Just not in this. The leads are unlikeable and just, well, crap (literally - don't watch it to find out why). Avoid at all costs.

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By Pretentious, impenetrable - Dec 18 2011

Tom Huddleston's comments on The Tree of Life sound worryingly like that old 'you'll go a long way' KitKat advert from the 80's.

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By james moore - Dec 17 2011

top films for me;
1 DRIVE
2 troll hunter
3 senna
4 kings speech
5 the thing 2011

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By Scrumpyjack - Dec 14 2011

Not one mention of DRIVE.

Time Out gets more farcical as time goes on!

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By critique - Dec 14 2011

1) Biutiful
2) Submarine
3) X Men First Class
4)The Inbetweeners Movie

Can`t make a 5th yet and there are a fair few candidates (Essential Killing, Miss Bala, Snowtown) which I`ve yet to see due to the provincial multiplexes` favouritism for mainstream movies.

As for the Time Out critics` choices, they demonstrate huge bias towards the "arthouse", as ever, though it`s nice to see more commercial fare like Attack the Block and Tintin popping up in a couple of lists.

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By Ani Jackson - Dec 13 2011

How I Ended This Summer (Popogrebsky) and Generation P (based on the Pelevin book) are teo outstanding Russian films that released in 2011. They certainly deserve mention.