15. Terri
This one sort of crept under the radar a bit. It's a coming-of-age film about this massive 15 year old named Terri... he isn't really picked on at school, but he doesn't really fit in either, mainly because he wears pyjamas all the time and lives with his brain-frozen uncle. The school's deputy principal (played by John C. Reilly, who's just an all-round awesome dude) decides to make Terri one of his 'pet projects' and the two become friends. Think Rushmore but not as intellectual or faux-arty.
14. The Inbetweeners Movie
It's not gonna set any awards ceremonies on fire, but this is one heck of an enjoyable comedy. I laughed ridiculously hard as the boys awkwardly embarked on the holiday of a lifetime, staying at the world's worst hotel and systematically ruining all of their chances to get laid. You don't need to have seen the TV series in order to enjoy this movie, just think of it as a British American Pie or The Hangover Part II. The experiences of the four main characters should be equally familiar to any Australian readers who had a traditionally misspent youth, and I think the tone is the perfect mix of realistic awkwardness and teenage tomfoolery.
13. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
This is my obligatory foreign language film for 2011. It's a Thai film made by a gay Thai filmmaker who treads more on the arty side of things... normally these sorts of films don't really appeal to me all that much, but there's something about Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives that's so radically original and visually memorable. Uncle Boonmee is a orchard owner in a regional part of Thailand who is coming towards the end of his life. One day his sister-in-law comes to visit him and while they're sitting around the table some supernatural beings decide to join them. This includes Boonmee's long-lost son, who has become a scary-looking ape-creature. It's a strange, slow-paced, and dreamlike film. It's hard to explain it in any detail, but I can guarantee you that this is the only place where you will see a deformed Thai woman have sex with a talking catfish.
12. Super 8
Okay, so Super 8 practially falls over itself to try and be so much like a late '70s/early '80s Spielberg film that it barely ever qualifies as original, but for a child of the '80s like myself it's a heady treat of dark candy. This film made me want to revisit all those classic films from my childhood and it also managed to be a great, suspenseful adventure. A big part of its appeal is in its recreation of the late '70s midwest of America, and the cast of relative unknowns (child actors included) are uniformly excellent.
11. Win Win
Like Terri, this one also snuck up on me. Tom McCarthy (probably best known for playing the role of the dodgy journo in season 5 of The Wire) has slowly been cultivating a 'side' career as a director of exceptionally solid indie-dramas (his previous films, The Station Agent and The Visitor, helped elevate the careers of Peter Dinklage and Richard Jenkins respectively). Win Win is probably McCarthy's best film so far, a healthy dramedy about a stressed-out small town lawyer/wrestling coach (played by Paul Giamatti) who doctors some legal forms in order to scam money out of a senile retiree (Burt Young). Giamatti's already complicated life begins to get even more complicated when the retiree's grandson shows up and shows an aptitude for greco-roman wrestling. This is a feel-good flick that never feels manipulative, and plays like a cross between Little Miss Sunshine and Rocky.
10. Rango
I didn't expect much out of this, but I think it turned out to be the best animated feature film of the year. Mixing all kinds of plot points and tropes from a wide array of classic films and genres (most notably the film Chinatown and the Western genre), Rango has a lot of fun breaking the mould for CGI adventure movies. Decidedly unfriendly to children at some points, Rango treads a fine line between the comic and the morbid, and is a subverisve spaghetti western that will shock and entertain even the most 'adult' of viewers.
9. Our Idiot Brother
I think this comedy is hugely underrated, and it's easily Paul Rudd's best performance so far. Rudd plays Ned, a hapless free spirit who isn't quite an 'idiot', more just naive. Ned's problem is that he thinks the best of everyone and is ultimately too trusting for his own good. After serving a stint in prison for selling weed to a uniformed police officer, Ned comes out to find that his girlfriend has a new boyfriend and won't give him back his beloved dog (named 'Willie Nelson'). Ned's three self-absorbed sisters try to help him out, but it doesn't take long for Ned's positive outlook to interfere with their respective lives. This is a great character-based comedy that doesn't rely on adult or gross-out orientated humour, and is a film where you'll fall in love with the lead character.
8. Hesher
Speaking of best performances, you really have to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this film as Hesher. Hesher isn't really the main character in this movie, he's just this mysterious wandering metalhead who decides to start squatting with a family. The family consists of a young boy, a dad, and a grandma. The mum in this family has recently died, and the family is having a tough time dealing with it. Hesher is one of the funniest and most original characters to ever be put on film. Remember when Johnny Depp first played Captain Jack Sparrow back in 2003 and everyone went apeshit for it? Well, that's the reaction that Joseph Gordon-Levitt deserves for this movie. Hesher gets points for me simply for the fact that Gordon-Levitt based his character on Cliff Burton, the original bassplayer for the band Metallica. Who the heck bases a character on Cliff Burton? The answer to that is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is truly one actor to watch over the course of the next few years. This film also contains the greatest funeral eulogy you'll ever hear.
7. Hanna
On the surface Hanna looks like a typical bullshit assassin-thriller but it's so much more than that. Directed by the guy who's best known for the literary adaptation Atonement, Hanna is part Cold War spy thriller, part messed-up fairy tale. Cate Blanchett is the evil stepmother out to get the innocent princess (Hanna), and Eric Bana plays the Woodsman-figure. Featuring a brilliantly original score by the Chemical Brothers, and a creepy subtext about the dangers of home-schooling, this is the perfect antidote for the dozens of mindless actions films that Hollywood pumps out year after year.
6. Snowtown
Instead of a detail-heavy TV-esque true story plodder ala the various 'Underbellys', Snowtown is actually one of the most insidiously creepy Australian crime films to ever be put on the screen. Few films get as up close and personal with real life serial killers as Snowtown does. Whilst it is highly disturbing, don't watch this film expecting a horror gorefest... it's better than that. It's an unassuming documentary-like look at the welfare culture that gave birth to the horrendous mystery of the snowtown acid-barrel murders, and a study in sociopathic manipulation. The Snowtown gang's ringleader John Bunting is one scary dude, an effect achieved primarily by actor Daniel Henshall's understatedly smug performance.
5. Attack the Block
There have been a few alien-invasion films over the last year or so, but none are as original as this British film from the producers of Shaun of the Dead. At first the 'heroes' of the film (a gang of estate hoodlums) seem completely unredeemable, but it eventually comes to pass that these kids are the sort of characters who are the best equipped to deal with an alien infestation. The aliens are a great, unique design too - simple but scary and effective. The action, dialogue and character-interplay all rings true and makes for an adrenalin-charged horror/sci-fi combo that holds the attention from start to finish. A great film that I can see myself watching more than a few times in the near future!
4. Submarine
Indie coming-of-age comedy Welsh-style. Submarine is dazzlingly inventive, witty, and sparkles with the enthusiasm of youth... Oliver Tate is the kind of creative and sensitive arsehole that should be more than familiar to a few viewers, and his hapless misadventures in a Welsh coastal village make this cinematic diary an instant classic. Features some quirky supporting turns from some underrated character actors in the 'adult' roles, and the director more than occasionally pushes it into brilliant music video territory.
3. Super
Imagine if the hero of Kick-Ass had been a pathetic middle-aged man suffering from some kind of unspecified mental illness and you should have some idea of what this film is like. I was expecting this movie to be a retread of the standard comic book material, but it's a lot more than that. Super wades into the kind of truly weird moral grey area that films like Kick-Ass and Watchmen were too cowardly to touch, and its impact on me was every bit as heavy as the violent swing of Rainn Wilson's boltcutters. Watch out for Ellen Page, who gives an unexpectedly deranged performance as the hero's feisty sidekick.
2. Bridesmaids
I can hear your groans from here. I know I've ranked this one quite highly, but I just can't fault my enjoyment of it! I know it doesn't do a whole lot to break the bromance/event comedy formula of many recent Apatow or Todd Haynes flicks, but this was hands down the funniest film I've seen in a very long time. Key to its success is the breakout performance of the too-long-unsung Kristen Wiig. Female 'orientated' comedies are too often dominated by comedic vacuums like Katherine Heigl or Julia Roberts (actresses who get cast because they're famous rather than funny). Bridesmaids bucks this tradition, and is also standout hilarious because it hits all its balls into the outfield.
1. Drive
Hands down the best film I've seen in years. I can't explain it, you just have to watch it. Ryan Gosling is the new king of cool. That stillness, that soundtrack, that scene in the elevator! This is a Goodfellas, Taxi Driver or Reservoir Dogs for a whole new generation. It reaffirms my faith in great filmmaking and proves that original and awesome films are still getting made today.
Some honourable mentions...
I also enjoyed these films a lot too: Moneyball, The Guard, X-Men: First Class, Thor, The Way Back and Beginners.
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