The Top Ten Best Films of 2011

Disclaimer: due to the usually late release dates of film in The Netherlands I have not yet seen some films that have already had their US/UK releases (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, The Muppets). For the same reason some films are for me part of 2011 despite their first release in 2010 (True Grit, Black Swan). Finally there is one film I really wanted to see but did not get around to: Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive. I will pick it up on DVD or Bluray and get back in touch about it.

10 Tree of Life

Who would have though that a Terence Malick film, besides ethereal whispers and meditations on the meaning of (a) life, could feature dinosaurs? Brilliant!

9 The Adventures of Tintin

Another film in which the plot did not matter ebcause the visuals were so beautiful. Spielberg explored the possibilities of animation, motion capture and 3D and comes up with some of the most captivating action sequences and original transitions of the year.

8 Contagion

A film that literally gives you the creeps. I was scared to sneeze, to touch my face, to touch objects in public places. Well, for an hour or so at least. Soderbergh manages again, after Traffic, to mix topicality with suspense and entertainment.

7 Bridesmaids

I called it the best comedy of the year, and Bridesmaids is the ultimate proof that, despite the inevitable toilet humor, American comedy is still very much alive. Also: despite the involvement of non-funny-man Judd Apatow.

6 Source Code

The 2011 heir of Inception. A smart intelligent action sci-fi flick that only revealed its plot priblems upon retrospection, never during the movie itself. And upon finally seeing Duncan Jones’ previous film Moon (2009) one could argue that Inception is the heir of Moon…

5 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Based on the Jasper’s Take Award winning trailer my expectations were perhaps set too high, and my disappointment inevitable. But Thomas Alfredson delivers a moody, beautifully designed and shot thriller with outstanding performances accross the board.

4 True Grit

The best thing about True Grit is that it is not a typical Coen brothers film. It is first and foremost a gripping western and a great adaptation of the Charles Portis novel. The directorial peculiarities are restricted to the details, which is nice after the essential Coen film that was A Serious Man.

3 Carnage

I called it the best comedy of the year. Polanski does Sartre, but with laughs. And the old master is getting a bit sentimental in his old days, considering the last shot. Furthermore Carnage had the best ensemble performance of the year.

2 Black Swan

A film that touched me, literally, physically. I could not get up at first when the ending credits started to roll. Aronofsky may not be for everyone, but for me he is the most consistently overwhelming filmmaker of the last two decades

1 The Artist

It’s not original to think this is the film of the year, but it is. Especially for me, as I am closely studying both silent film and its musical accompaniment, and the aesthetic changes brought about by the introduction of sound. A film that forms a perfect tripple bill with Singing in the Rain and Sunset Boulevard. A feelgood film, a romantic adventure and a modern classic of the postmodern age, but without an ironic tone. The best film of 2011 was without a single doubt Michel Hazanavicus’ The Artist.

A Smart and Compelling SF Adventure – the Source Code review

Imagine. You’re an American helicopter pilot, flying missions in Afghanistan. You black out. You wake up in a train, opposite a gorgeous woman who calls you Sean. Not your name. You are confused. You are Captain Colter Stevens. But when you look in the mirror of the train bathroom, you see a different face than yours. You panic, but before you can figure out what has happened the train explodes and you die in a ball of fire. And then these same 8 minutes happen again and again.

Source Code is the incredibly smart, incredibly effective new thriller by Duncan Jones, who had his breakthrough two years ago with the cheap-but-not-cheap-looking science-fiction film Moon. That film as a huge success and brought the British director on the agendas of the big American studios.

And although no big studios are directly involved in Source Code, the budget is obviously higher, and so are the stakes. Source Code tries to be this year’s Inception (perhaps fighting over that title with the upcoming JJ Abrams film Super 8). And it succeeds. It does not have the same big blockbuster profile, but it does have the smarts, the action, the pace and the emotional pay-off.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, the army pilot charged with travelling back to the last 8 minutes of teacher Sean Elstree’s life, in order to find out who bombed the train Elstree was on. For the same bomber has announced an even bigger attack, and must be stopped as soon as possible. Jeffrey Wright and Vera Farmiga are the army scientists with the hapless task to structure the plot and explain to Gyllenhaal with strange techno-babble why this time-travelling is possible in the first place. Yet they pull it off. As a science-fiction film, Source Code is a sort of Being John Malkovich meets Back to the Future film. A puzzling combination that nonetheless works.

Gyllenhaal meanwhile is likable, gruff and efficient. He needed this film, this chance, after the awfulness of last year’s Prince of Persia, and he does not spoil the possibility to get his career back on track (excuse the pun). Sparring with him is the gorgeous and wonderful Michelle Monaghan (whom I mostly remember from Mission: Impossible 3). Though she only gets to live the same 8 minutes over and over again Monaghan manages to actually develop her character Christina throughout the film. It is utterly believable that Colter Stevens will give up his mission or even go rogue in order to save her – even if his superiors tell him that the Source Code program is merely a recording of the past, that cannot be altered beyond the eight minutes it is long.

It is true. There were moments in Source Code where I felt I was being tricked. That there was a gap in the plot, or an illogical inconsistency undermining the believability of the film. But to the credits of Duncan Jones and his collaborators I must also admit that these moments did not really bother me until I was out of the theatre, thinking back on the film. Even more to their credit, I still can’t really tell you what was wrong. The film is too well made and too fast and fascinating to allow you these doubts. It races forward, like Tony Scott’s Unstoppable with an actual plot, and feels shorter than it actually is.

Source Code is so far the best big film of the summer. And how cool is it that they have trains inAmericawith two floors!