Pictures: My Top Dozen Favourite 2011 Films

So here it is, finally. My top dozen favourites of 2011. I wanted to dedicate a post to each of the films and write about them in detail, but this has taken long enough (3 months!) and school work never seems to be over. I’ll just go ahead with a small list for now, and hopefully in the future, I’ll get to give some space to each of them separately.

Though I’d like to think that I have a pretty good taste and my favourite film equates the best film, I’m not confident enough in my academic knowledge of cinema to claim such a thing – and generally, I don’t think anyone should be. So what I’ve written here is a list of my favourite films of 2011. A film like Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, which I respect much more than I love, couldn’t find a place here, for example, because having seen it twice now and despite absolutely,wholeheartedly being floored by its central performance, I can’t say the film as a whole touches me in any way.

There are a few titles I wish I hadn’t missed but as I said, it’s already late March and definitely time to move on to the new year. Ultimately, the entire year can be summarized in 18 films for me. As per tradition – and by that I mean an arbitrary rule I made up just last year – this blog only awards a Top Dozen so as much as it pains me to do so, I’ll have to leave six films off the list. Ask me on a different day and these honourable mentions can swap places with any of the films in the bottom six of my top dozen. No matter the placement, I love all these films and I’ll be going back to them in the future. And if you haven’t had the chance to see any of them yet, I really hope I can encourage you to do so.

Honourable Mentions

Miss Bala (dir. Gerardo Naranjo), Young Adult (dir. Jason Reitman), Weekend (dir. Andrew Haigh), The Skin I Live in (dir. Pedro Almodovar), Attack the Block (dir. Joe Cornish), Tomboy (dir. Celine Sciamma)

12. Moneyball (dir. Miller)

There are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there’s fifty feet of crap. And then there’s us.

11. Sleeping Beauty (dir. Leigh)

You are very beautiful, very talented. But we are going to make you even more beautiful, even more talented.

Visionaries: 2011's Best in Writing and Directing

Screenwriters

6. We Need to Talk About Kevin 

by Lynne Ramsey and Rory Stewart Kinnear based on the novel of the same name by Lionel Shriver

5. Young Adult

written by Diablo Cody

4. Moneyball

written by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian based on the novel Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

A Night With A Rock Band (And Their Music Videos)

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of watching my favourite Iranian band, Kiosk, play an amazing show at Toronto's Mod Club. Even as an ardent fan of the band who was sure they wouldn't disappoint, I was still surprised at the astonishing quality of their show. Everything came together so well; the lively gypsy-inspired tunes, the incredibly smart political satire, the bitter love songs, the atmosphere of the club (but for the drunk girl who repeatedly hit me in the head), everything was ripe for a great night, and indeed, it ended up being one.

Anyway, after the concert my sister pointed me to one of their music videos that, strangely, I hadn't seen before. And I absolutely love it. For those of you who don't speak Farsi, you might guess from the title and the video's theme that this is a break-up song. It's a poignant post-mortem on a failed relationship and the words describe the difficulty of letting go of the shared memories. I love how the minimal animation quite literally materializes the memories in the shape of shared "stuff" and utilizes the band's cheeky brand of humour even though the lyrics don't show a trace of it in this instance.

Natalie.

Because...well, who needs a reason to post a picture as beautiful as this?

Thespians: 2011's Best Performances

Honourable Mentions

Tom Cullen and Chris New (Weekend), who gave us the year’s most believably romantic pas de deux, and Michael Fassbender (Shame), whose raw emotional turn marked yet another intriguing collaboration with Steve McQueen, came really close to making the final list. Similarly, Ryan Gosling (Drive) and Stephanie Sigman (Miss Bala) as two semi-silent anti-heroes gave perhaps the most iconic performances of the year that deserve to show up on every such list. On a related note, Juliette Binoche (Certified Copy) would have been on this list (all the way at number 2) had she not been mentioned on the list last year. I got around to the film on the festival circuit so I count it as a 2010 film.

12. Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin)

For conveying terror, helplessness, misery and confusion, all without words; for her thoughtful and balanced examination of a flawed character; and for continuing her streak of challenging performances in auteur pieces

11. Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead)

For his commitment; for gradually opening up years of pent up tension, inferiority and vengeance; and for an uncompromising portrayal of bruised virility and pride

Craftsmen: 2011's Best Technical Achievements

Just when you thought the Oscars are the last set of awards given out and you can put 2011 behind you, here come the prestigious Amiresque Awards^TM. I know I’m late to the party with these, but nobody sends me screeners and I wanted to watch everything so it took a while.

I’ll be back with my favourite actors, actresses, directors, writers and films throughout next week. For now, here are my favourite technical achievements in 2011 (I've limited myself to one mention per film to spread the wealth):

Honourable Mentions

Costume Design and Visual Effects of Immortals, Cinematography of Jane Eyre, Production Design of Pa Negre, Editing of Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Production Design of Hugo

12. The effects team behind the Visual Effect of Attack the Block

For compensating for the tight budget with creativity, for creating memorable monsters, and for serving the story without being gimmicky

11. Jacqueline Durran for the Costume Design of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

(also noteworthy: Production Design)

For understanding the intricacy of men’s clothing, for building character from the threads, for conveying the different classes of MI6 agents, and for working beautifully in tandem with the production design team