My favorites of 2011.

2011 was an amazing year for film, both foreign and domestic, particularly independent. Films made both here and abroad seem to focus on feelings of doom and apocalypse, and the unease of the times in which we live. It was quite astonishing, and a hugely ambitious year.
With the exception of my top 5 films, I'm not going to rank anything else.


1)The Turin Horse
What can I say that I haven't said? By far the most important film going experience of my year. To experience Bela Tarr's final film as part of NYFF with Tarr himself there was wonderful. It was inspiring and provoking. It posed questions I was too afraid to ask myself.
And, of course, the film itself is an incredible event. A swansong of melancholy from a master filmmaker, film doesn't get more challenging and fulfilling than this. Though too close to call now, this could end up Tarr's masterwork. Time will tell.

2)A Separation
The less you know about this film the better, but rest assured it's a intellectual and emotional masterwork, examining a changing society in ways that are profound while telling a simple, engaging story whose layers of meaning build and build until a mesmerizing last shot. I hope this film is embraced beyond the art house, because it's deserving of such attention. A masterwork.

3)Meek's Cutoff
In a year without A Separation or Bela Tarr, Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff would have topped my list. Reichardt takes huge risks with her third feature, taking a story she has explored before, but adding austerity and distance through the use of history and elegant camera work. An allegorical film with a ballsy, ambiguous ending that made me sit up in my seat.

4)Shame
Walking into Shame, I hoped Steve McQueen could live up to his debut Hunger, a near perfect film. He didn't disappoint. In fact, he may have exceeded. Shame is extraordinary, containing all of the aesthetic rigor and discipline of Hunger, but McQueen gets even more out of Fassbender (quickly becoming the most exciting actor working today) and his cast, resulting in a film that is
devastating, cathartic, and deeply challenging.

5)Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Anatolia excited me from the moment I heard about it at Cannes, and I was lucky enough to catch it at NYFF. On the surface a police procedural, Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan has made a film of subtlety and beauty. It's exploration of a people, place, and time is magnificent.

Martha Marcy May Marlene
By now MMMM has become the indie darling of the year, a fact which may cause some backlash, but that would be a mistake: this is an incredibly accomplished debut film. Loaded with foreboding, atmosphere, and magnificently fractured storytelling, MMMM was my favorite horror film of the year. (Except Possession, which is a special case and will be explained a bit later).

Hugo
The best studio film of the year of course came from Mr. Scorsese. A love letter to the cinema, and dark kid's movie at that. A wonderful experience. I walked into this expecting to walk out furious, and instead I was delighted.

A Dangerous Method
The other 'sex movie' starring Michael Fassbender, Cronenberg's newest is a real piece of work. Through composition and mannered performances, the director gives a sense of psychological revolution at work, and a nuanced exploration of Carl Jung. The way the film finally melds sex, politics, the mind, and personal responsibility is spell-binding.

Tuesday, After Christmas
The Romanian film of the year, with incredible performances and cinematography complementing a simple story of infidelity. A great, great work.

Note: Though a difficult to sit through, Aurora, another Romanian film from Cristi Puiu, is certainly worth seeing. Highly recommended.

Take Shelter
An excellent film that just got eclipsed by other works, Take Shelter is an on the money examination of the anxieties of modern America. Jeff Nichols has incredible control over his story and gets great work from an already great actor (Michael Shannon, who deserves far more attention than he has received).

Tree Of Life
If a film's success were built entirely on ambition, Terrence Malick's heartland epic about grief and existence would probably be at the top of my list. Tree is a massive work that's quintessentially American in the way it deals with our peculiar contradictions, naive optimism, and unique way of life. An idealized portrait for sure, but deeply moving nonetheless.

Le Quattro Volte
Michelangelo Frammartino's half doc/half narrative film has disappeared from the radar, but be reminded: it's a great film. Beautiful and touching, it details a few lives (not all human, and not all lives) in the Italian country side.

Certified Copy
Certified Copy is Kiarostami's love letter to European masters like Antonioni and Alain Resnais. An exploration of two strangers who seem to be inventing a past (or maybe the opposite), Juliette Binoche and opera singer William Shimell do great, mesmerizing work up to the film's incredible ending.

ADDITION 2/11/12
I somehow managed to forget Wim Wenders Pina, which was certainly one of the best of the year. A magnificent reflection on the Pina Bausch and her work, it also ranks with Hugo and Cave of Forgotten Dreams as an attempt to bring 3-D to a new level. I recommend this film wholeheartedly.

RETRO FILM OF THE YEAR:
Possession
I caught 1981's Possession at Film Forum earlier this month, and was blown away by this totally absurd horror film made by Polish genius Andrej Zulawski. A study of a deteriorating marriage, Zulawski has wrapped a gore-fest, psychological thiller, farce, and political statement into one two hour nightmare. At times laughable, but totally disturbing and intense, Possession is unique and admirable. See this film, if you can find it anywhere.

DISAPPOINTMENT:
Although Carnage was a train wreck, I was more let down by Von Trier's Melancholia. I managed to catch my favorite filmmaker's film twice in Prague last May, and while disappointed, I still very much liked the film. In the months that followed, I eagerly awaited it's U.S. release. When it finally arrived, I found myself still let down. Von Trier has made his least intellectually engaging, interesting film in many years. While ambitious and effective, Von Trier's manipulative methods are starting to wear thin, especially in a year with wide-open and unique films like Shame, The Turin Horse, and A Separation. While still a solid film, Von Trier has delivered something I never thought he would: a watered-down movie.


Not seen (but want to see): The Skin I Live In, Moneyball, Margaret.