Oscars 2011: Desperately Seeking a Masterpiece

2011 represents either the weakest year for great films in a while, or at least for those that have been released so far.  One can’t use Rotten Tomatoes for this because they don’t draw a hard enough line.  Ditto for the Critics Choice.  But Metacritic draws a hard enough line that we can look back at previous years to see if there were any very well reviewed films being released before the end of the year.  Where are those movies that start to hit the low to mid 90s on Metacritic?  Do we really have to wait until the end of the year to see them?

Here is how different this year has been from previous years, going back to 2006.  I’m only looking at films that were released before October 20, 2010, and I’m going higher than our highest get, which is 87 (Harry Potter and Moneyball). There is nothing approaching 90 0r higher.  Melacholia doesn’t count because it doesn’t have enough reviews and it hasn’t yet opened.  I suspect that The Artist will be a high scorer with plenty of 100s.  I’m going to bet The Descendants does very well also.  But beyond that?

How has it looked by this point in previous years? I’m leaving off movies that either aren’t eligible, don’t have enough reviews, or will never figure in to the race.  There is usually at least one around 90 by now.

2006
The Queen-91
United 93-90
(Best Picture winner, The Departed at 86)
Late release high scorers:
Pan’s Labyrinth-98(!),
The Lives of Others-89
Letters from Iwo Jima-89

2007
Ratatouille-96
(winner No Country-91)
Late release high scorers:
Diving Bell and the Butterfly-92
No End in Sight-89
Once, Away from Her-88

2008
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days-97
Wall-E-94
Man on Wire-89
(winner-Slumdog Millionaire-86)
Late release high scorers-
The Class-92

2009
The Hurt Locker (winner)-94
Up-88

2010
The Social Network-95
Toy Story 3-92
A Prophet-90
Winter’s Bone-90
Inside Job-88
The King’s Speech (winner)-88

2011
We Were Here (doc, is it eligible?)-95
Harry Potter-87
Moneyball-87