Nothing about Richard Brody’s list of 26 films in The New Yorker touches me more than his introductory premise.
2011 in cinema could be called, with apologies to Joan Didion, the year of magical thinking. Many of the year’s best movies exalt the metaphysical, the fantastical, the transformative, the fourth-wall-breaking, or simply the impossible, and—remarkably—do so (following Didion’s theme) in response to loss, grief, mourning. These films depart from “reality” (or what is often offered up as such with a stern reproach to the ostensibly frivolous alternatives) not in order to forget the irrefutable but in order to face it, to think about it, to act on it more freely. And much (though not all) of the new realm of cinematic fantasy results from the increased availability and quality—the very inescapability—of sophisticated digital cinema. Every technological advance starts as a miracle, becomes a necessity, and ends up as a vice. Despite ambient complaints about the alienation of the real by means of the virtual, the powers of the virtual are now being wielded by artists, who reverse the course —- they restore to daily life its share of the miraculous.
Writing like that is a reminder that obsessing over the specific of each critic’s year-end round-up can sometimes tend to diminish what we value most about their work. Reading sharp analysis of films in their cultural context is one of the great pleasures associated with loving movies and thinking about what makes the best of them so special.
1. The Future
Miranda July is the Marguerite Duras of 2011: she infuses her movie with literature in order to make it more truly cinematic, reveals a choreographic precision that evokes physical intimacy and remoteness better than any other film this year, bares her metaphysical strivings in order to explore her most practical and venal fears and desires, fulfills the promise of her film’s exquisite title.
2. The Tree of Life
The very nature of inchoate thought, discovered and actualized by way of cinema. Terrence Malick overcomes the nearly insurmountable risks of the long-dreamed-of project to fuse autobiography and philosophy of mind, scientific fascination and religious reminiscences, desires and realities, a receding past and an uncertain future—and to do it with a fusion of dramatic intensity with visionary exaltation. The film’s very existence is a marvel.
(You’ll find a few more gems of crystallized distillation at The New Yorker, but I don’t want to re-publish the whole article)
3. Film Socialisme
4. Hugo
5. Certified Copy
6. Margaret
7. Petition
8. Putty Hill
9. Silver Bullets
10. A Screaming Man
11. The Interrupters
12. You All Are Captains
13. Bellflower
14. J. Edgar
15. Midnight in Paris
16. Terri
17. Impolex
18. Moneyball
19. Road to Nowhere
20. Bridesmaids
21. The Descendants
22. Uncle Kent
23. The Time That Remains
24. Le Havre
25. The Skin I Live In
26. Restless
Stopped reading when I got to ‘Film Socialisme’, the worst film of the year.
I was sorely disappointed by The Future. Such a step down for July. Lots of good picks here, regardless, and plenty I’ve never heard of
No Drive = no good
Agree with Alex: Certified Copy deserves more mentions.
Excellent that ‘Certified Copy’ is up so high, but disappointing that it’s behind ‘Hugo.’
Time lists The Future amongst its 10 worst films. Here it is at number one. No Artist or Drive either. Interesting list.
Thinking about it, it really is shaping up to be yet another “meh” year at the awards, and I’m already tired of all the bickering about the placement of the same 20 damn films, and how if one weird or unexpected film is on there, it must mean something is wrong with the critic, because everyone knows that the “best” films get rated best by everyone who is normal. At least this list is different.
This is a year that screams out for weird or unusual picks, because in my opinion, Hugo and The Artist are NOT great films, Moneyball was just okay, Woody Allen’s films just keep getting worse and worse, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was just as awful and maudlin as the original films, and while HP8 and Super8 were fun and exciting movies, they don’t deserve any sort of chance at best pic. I hope things I’ve never heard of get recognized, because all the popular films just seem sentimental, crappy and recycled this year.
At least Film Socialisme and We Are All Captains (a failure of a film, but a great, great attempt, like Shutter Island) are here, though I thought both were from a year ago.
The Future is a very slight work, but I think he put as #1 symbolically because it is such a small, quirky and personal work… which separates it from the nonsensical awards season of big, dumb, manufactured projects
Nice list, well spoken and thoughtful, and I’m glad he didn’t limit himself to a Pop Ten. At least we know it’s not something in the water.
I give up. That’s the first I’ve heard of THE FUTURE.
I loved Film Socialisme.
With so few “high profile” American films on the list, it’s weird to see J. Edgar do so well.
I’m iffy on The Future as Me and You and Everyone We Know was a terrible, pretentious film. But The Future does seem kind of interesting.
Did he not see Melancholia? 😛
You people are nuts. Brody is a too-smart-for-his-own-good kind of writer, and his taste in films is questionable. That being said, The Future was a good movie.
Brody always make me feel like a terrible writer. That said, an outstanding list.
I mean this year’s Weekend, not Godard’s Weekend (see above).
Though I don’t deny Richard Brody’s knowledge of film, I find him the most pretentious film commentators at the New Yorker. His mini-review of Weekend made me ill.
Anyone who quotes or alludes to the magnificent, mercurial Joan Didion is all right with me…
A very divisive list. Many films on there which many others didn’t like – mine would be The Skin I Live In; I haven’t yet seen Film Socialisme but I’m not sure that I’ll warm to it. He does write so beautifully though, and I admire him for not pandering to more conventional tastes with his choices.
Hugo, Margaret and The Tree of Life – now that’s a top ten list!