2011 Movies of the Year

Fist of all, I'll admit right off that I didn't go to all that many movies in 2011 (I'm more of a concert guy), so this list will be pretty short.  In fact, even if I listed every movie that I went to in 2011, I still wouldn't have half of a "Top 10" list.

But what I did see, I liked. A lot.  So we'll start with the beginning, the beginning of everything, as depicted by director Terence Malick in The Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life has to be the most artistically ambitious movie of this young century, yet at the same time incredibly meditative, thought-provoking and moving.  The sequence above is but a part of the response (and only a part of the response) to a demand, "Who are we to you? Answer me!" put by a family's mother to God himself (the question can be heard echoed in this clip, between the 1:20 and 1:45 marks, and again between 5:55 and 6:25).  Be careful what you ask, as the answer may alter your perception of the very universe.

From the beginning of the world to the end of everything, as depicted in director Lars Von Trier's Melancholia.  Because of their thematic and emotional differences, I didn't realize how parallel these two movies were, with their classical scores and non-linear plotting and extended wordless scenes of the cosmos, until I started putting this year-end post together.  Here's the opening sequence of Melancholia, considered by many the best part of the film, starting with a absolutely devastating close-up of an emotionally destroyed  Kirsten Dunst.

Between these two first two films, this post is threatening to collapse under its own weight before I can even complete it.  

Also beautifully photographed and very well acted is 2011's Hanna, starring the astonishing 17-year-old Irish actress Saoirse Ronan, of 2009's The Lovely Bones (which I didn't see until this year and could fit right in with the rest of these films).

Unlike the first two films, Hanna actually has a plot you can follow and action sequences and, unlike Melencholia at least, likable characters.  It's also simply beautiful to look at and suspenseful and interesting, and hence has made it onto my "Best of 2011" list.  Here's the official trailer for Hanna, which is a pretty good summary for those who've seen the movie, but barely even hints at how good this film is for those who haven't.

So that's my Top 3 list for 2011, culled from the 4 or 5 movies that I've actually seen this year.  But despite the low numbers, I don't need to see any more movies in 2012 if I can see three films this good again.