The IndieWire Critics’ Poll is so thoroughly exhaustive, it’s exhausting just trying to get a manageable list trimmed down to post. IndieWire surveys nearly 160 critics and reveals all the internal numbers. So you can see the integrity of their math and vice versa. Categories are expandable to dozens and dozens of rankings, so there’s a lot of fascinating gratifying/infuriating detail in the complete breakdown.
Best Film
1. The Tree of Life
2. Melancholia
3. A Separation
4. Drive
5. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
6. Certified Copy
7. Mysteries of Lisbon
8. Hugo
9. Margaret
10. Meek’s Cutoff
11. Shame
12. The Descendants
13. The Artist
14. Take Shelter
15. Martha Marcy May Marlene
(full list up to #60, after the cut)
Best Director
1. Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
2. Lars von Trier, Melancholia
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
3. Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive
4. Raul Ruiz, Mysteries of Lisbon
5. Kelly Reichart, Meek’s Cutoff
Best Performance
1. Michael Fassbender, Shame
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
2. Anna Paquin, Margaret
3. Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy
4. Yun Jung-hee, Poetry
5. Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
Best Supporting Performance
1. Christopher Plummer, Beginners
2. Albert Brooks, Drive
3. Jeannie Berlin, Margaret
4. Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter
5. Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
Best Ensemble
1. Margaret
2. Bridesmaids
3. A Separation
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
4. Margin Call
5. House of Pleasures
Melancholia
Midnight in Paris
The Descendants
Best Screenplay
1. A Separation
2. Margaret
3. Moneyball
4. Young Adult
5. A Dangerous Method
Certified Copy
Mysteries of Lisbon
Best Cinematography
1. The Tree of Life
2. Hugo
3. Drive
Melancholia
4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
5. Meek’s Cutoff
Partial expanded list of IndieWire’s Best Film rankings. (Gotta give grudging respect to any group that makes looking for your personal favorite feel like a scavenger hunt.)
1. The Tree of Life
2. Melancholia
3. A Separation
4. Drive
5. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
6. Certified Copy
7. Mysteries of Lisbon
8. Hugo
9. Margaret
10. Meek’s Cutoff
11. Shame
12. The Descendants
13. The Artist
14. Take Shelter
15. Martha Marcy May Marlene
16. A Dangerous Method
17. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
18. We Need to Talk About Kevin
19. Film Socialisme
20. Weekend
21. Poetry
22. Nostalgia for the Light
23. The Interrupters
The Skin I Live In
24. Midnight in Paris
25. The Arbor
26. Le Quattro Volte
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
27. To Die Like a Man
28. Beginners
29. A Brighter Summer Day
30. Le Havre
31. Moneyball
32. Of Gods and Men
33. Attack the Block
34. Tuesday, After Christmas
35. House of Pleasures
36. Bridesmaids
37. Incendies
38. PINA
39. City of Life and Death
40. Aurora
41. The Future
42. Jane Eyre
43. Contagion
I Saw the Devil
44. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
45.Bill Cunningham New York
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
46. Project Nim
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Trip
Young Adult
47. Bellflower
48. Go Go Tales
Pariah
Win Win
49. Cold Weather
Warrior
50. 50/50
Margin Call
51. Into the Abyss
52. BEING ELMO: A Puppeteer’s Journey
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
53. Extraordinary Stories
Senna
54. El Sicario: Room 164
Super 8
The Time That Remains
War Horse
55. 13 Assassins
Bombay Beach
Sleeping Beauty
56. Agrarian Utopia
Rango
57. Another Earth
J. Edgar
The Guard
58. Higher Ground
Tomboy
59. The Muppets
United Red Army
60. Hanna
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Like Crazy
Tabloid
Terri
Ryan/Sasha, I see the Southeastern Film Critics Awards on your tracker, but not Chicago. Has it always been that way? I thought you considered Chicago worth mentioning.
If these “critics” whom were polled have decided that Tree of Life was the best film of the year then why isn’t that film garnering more acknowledgement from the various film critic groups?
Tree of Life is currently the film with the most accolades from critics’ lists. You can check metacritic tally here:
http://www.metacritic.com/feature/movie-critic-best-of-2011-top-ten-lists
Or http://criticstop10.com/
The film is above any other by a wide margin.
(And by the way just noticed on Metacritic that the latest critics picks addition was…. Awards Daily! Nice one 🙂
^
[sorry, Jeremie, comment was temporarily detained as potential spam because of the 2 hyperlinks]
Maybe it didn’t age well over the year.
Either way, this debate is exhausting.
I wonder if some people think before talking. Check out the reviews (all of them) for The Tree of Life, Drive, The Artist, and so on. RT and MT give the average and while it is understandable that Potter for example would fall some steps later, it is never understandable that it’s always the film they raved about and just “couldn’t find a place into their top 10”. Which is the case, again and again. A 100% cream of the crop ain’t easy to get when you’re a blockbuster. And not with such an average. It’s not the bible but it’s a good sign.
If you still doubt, begin counting the awards and top 10 success of “The Help” and then compare it to Potter’s.
There is something very strange about this list and I don’t mean the accuracy of the counts but if these “critics” whom were polled have decided that Tree of Life was the best film of the year then why isn’t that film garnering more acknowledgement from the various film critic groups? Maybe I just haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the 10 best of the year but it seems to me that if they all loved it so much that it would be taking nearly every top film critics award across the country. And it could be that I’m being short sighted by assuming a group of 160 critics could be or are representative of their collective.
War Horse at 54? Moneyball at 31? What were they all given one vote and then they just shouted out the first thing that came to their mind. I do admit as much as I personally dislike Bridesmaids that seeing it ranked 2 for ensemble made a great deal of sense. When you look past the script these women truly pulled off a great ensemble.
Oh well just one more spoon of sugar in the coffee I guess. Oh and as mubble jumble as I found Harry Potter to be it certainly did not deserve to be ranked at 60. Something smells really foul there.
My favourites are #1 and #2. Seems like I finally developed a taste.
On Criticstop10.com Potter currently sits at #14. Not amazing, but better than possible Oscar nominees Shame, Take Shelter, MMMM, The Help, Beginners, 50/50, We Need to Talk About Kevin, War Horse, Tintin, and Tattoo, among others…
Jake, all you have to do is to simultaneously press ‘Ctr + F’, then type in ‘Young Adult’. That’s how I found the exact same movie being listed. I’ve been doing that for a while with Theron, following her rankings.
I have to say, it’s not looking stellar for her. But she’s gaining traction for Snow White and the Huntsman and based on a 2-minute trailer, she’s doing very well. That means the Academy might decide she’d bring in younger viewers or something.
Not that she should get in based on that strength alone, of course. I just hope she gets nominated, especially since I believe Olsen and Swinton were overrated. I like Swinton, but she did nothing new or interesting in this role, and I don’t see how it can be distinguished from what she’s done before. Actors need to show versatility in order to get the Big Nod, if you ask me.
is Young Adult on there?
Jake G
Young Adult was voted #4 on the Best Screenplay list and #46 on the Best Picture list.
Charlize Theron is #9 among lead performances, Patton Oswalt is #11 among supporting.
#4 + #9 + #11 add up to… #46
(the film itself is less than the sum of it’s parts)
Paddy M, the scores they give the film reflects their review for it. I suspect they haven’t watched it recently and thus seem to forget about it’s acomplishments as a movie.
Guess a guess.
It’s more like 90 films – the numbers don’t skip when there is a tie, which should be done
The Village Voice poll, a bit more authorative, might come out as early as tomorrow; if not, then next week
Excellent. This is much much closer to my own sensibility.
Jessica Chastain is showing up everywhere. It´s so unreal. How can somebody be in so many good movies in just one year?! Spooky.
another critics list another no.1 placement for best film of 2011 Tree Of Life 🙂
Tree of Life tops yet another list (and currently sits atop the metacritic top 10 compilation), and still people are actually considering that it wont be nominated for best picture. The Academy would absolutely embarrass themselves if that happened which, as is becoming more and more obvious, it will not.
It’s kind of insane to see Tree of Life doing as well as it is, considering it was released in MAY. If it was released in September/October, there would be no question about a best picture nomination. Ah, the absurdity of awards season.
Still no love for the most overlooked movie of the year, Hanna.
* all they are is estimations
The closest anyone has come to being a dick on this page was in calling someone else a dick.
I agree with what you’re saying, Jeremie. Facts and figures are fine to throw about, but they mean very little when all they are is a estimations and condensations of often already condensed opinions.
People have been talking about the Academy rewarding Deathly Hallows Part 2 as something of a tribute to the series, like they did with The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps the Metacritic 100s are much the same – an acknowledgement of the achievements of the series. It’s a good film, but I wonder how many critics perceive it to be anything more than that when evaluated individually, out of context.
Fantastic. I love seeing Hugo or Tree of Life at the top of any list. I really need to find Margaret and A Separation…
Jeremie, no need to be a dick
’cause that’s the only explanation I have.
What about reading the actual reviews and stop taking Metacritic and RT as the sacred bible? You know, go back to reading words, with full sentences longer than 140 characters, and filled with feeling and critical reactions expressed on full pages length. Not just snippet of a review processed into a magic number. If anybody had actually done that, all your sorry HP fans would have realised, as we’ve always told you, that, no, it has never been the best reviewed film of the year. Hence its poor showing on critics’ lists. Fucking move on.
Wow, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 at 60. Almost felt like a slap in the face.
Always glad to see Hugo and Marty in the mix!
Now, that’s the list! My own list has Fassie/Shannon in the 1-2 spots for actor and all of my top ten accounted for in the upper regions of the list. Not getting the Bridesmaids/Ensemble, though – I must be missing something.
Jesus, I think most critics were just overreacting when Potter came out cause mostly crap had came before it.
I know for the week after I saw it I would have given it a solid 10 but after seeing films like Midnight in Paris, Hugo, Drive and The Artist it no longer felt like a 10 to me because those movies had so much more going for them
Well my favorites were easy to find number 4 and 8
Completely EAGER to see Margaret.
Funny the best reviewed big/important film of 2011 sits on #60. I wonder how many critics have contradicted their previous ranks and ratings this fall, just scared of being labelled as “sold” to the industry.
’cause that’s the only explanation I have.
All of my favorites are accounted for, even if Like Crazy is holding on right at the end. Quite a thorough list, that
I am fairly surprised that Margaret did so well in these rankings, it’s a film I didn’t know existed until recently, I don’t recall it playing in any theater, nor do I know of any release date.
I believe, unless I am succumbing to severe amnesia, that it’s directed by Ken Lonergan who should have won everything for You Can Count on Me. I loved that film so much, it’s brought me to tears many a time.
Looking forward to seeing Margaret.