A Year in Film

Below is what I believe to be an accurate list of all the first-run films I've seen from 2011 along with links to my reviews where applicable. (Qualifying films must have made their theatrical debut in New York between January 1 and December 31, 2011 and must have had at least a week-long run.) My top 30 films are singled out for commendation with the top 10 ranked. Beyond that, films are listed alphabetically.

1. A Brighter Summer Day
2. To Die Like a Man
3. Mysteries of Lisbon
4. El Sicario, Room 164
5. Extraordinary Stories
6. Take Shelter
7. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
8. Beginners
9. Margaret
10. Le Havre

11-20
In the Family
The Interrupters
Kaboom
Love Exposure
Nostalgia for the Light
Of Gods and Men
Petition
Polytechnique
Terri
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

21-30
Caterpillar
Cold Fish
House of Pleasures
Poetry
The Princess of Montpensier
The Skin I Live In
The Sky Turns
Tabloid
The Time That Remains
Tuesday, After Christmas

The Rest
0s and 1s
3
3 Backyards
13 Assassins
50/50
Addiction Incorporated
The Adventures of Tintin
Agrarian Utopia
Albert Nobbs
All She Can
American: The Bill Hicks Story
The Arbor
Armadillo
The Artist
Attack the Block
Aurora
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
Bad Teacher
Bal
Battle for Brooklyn
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

The Beaver
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
Bellflower
Benda Bilili!
Berlin 36
A Better Life
The Big Bang
The Big Fix
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
A Bird of the Air
Bombay Beach
Bride Flight
Bridesmaids
Buck
Buried Prayers
Burning Palms
Buttons
Carancho
Cargo
Carnage
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Cedar Rapids
Certified Copy
Chasing Madoff
Circumstance
City of Life and Death
Cold Weather
The Colors of the Mountain
The Conquest
Contagion
Coriolanus
Cougar Hunting
Cracks
Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Crime after Crime
A Dangerous Method
The Debt
The Descendants
Desert Flower
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Dolphin Tale
The Double
Drive
Dzi Croquettes
Elevate
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Even the Rain
Every Day
Exodus Fall
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Fading of the Cries
The Family Jams
The Family Tree
Fanny, Annie & Danny
Film Socialisme
The First Grader
The Flowers of War
Footprints
Foreign Parts
Forks Over Knives
Friends with Benefits
The Future
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Go Go Tales
God's Fiddler: Jascha Heifetz
God's Land
The Guard
Gun Hill Road
Hanna
Happythankyoumoreplease
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Harvest
Heartbeats
The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch

Hell and Back Again
Hello Lonesome
The Help
Hesher
Higher Ground
Home
Hood to Coast
House of Boys
The Housemaid
How I Ended the Summer
How to Live Forever
Hugo
I Am
I Melt with You
I Saw the Devil
The Ides of March
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle
I'm Dangerous with Love
Immigration Tango
Impolex
In the Land of Blood and Honey
Incendies
The Inheritors
Inside Out
Insidious
Into the Abyss
An Invisible Sign
Ip Man 2
The Iron Lady
J. Edgar
Jane Eyre
Jane's Journey
Jig
The Journals of Musan
Journey from Zanskar
Jumping the Broom
Just Go With It
Just Like Us
Laredoans Speak: Voices of a South Texas Border City
The Last Circus
The Last Mountain
Leap Year
Lebanon, PA
The Lie
Life in a Day
Like Crazy
London River
Lost Bohemia
Louder Than a Bomb
A Love Affair of Sorts
Love Crime
Margin Call
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Meek's Cutoff
Meet Monica Velour
Meeting Spencer
Melancholia
Midnight in Paris

The Mill and the Cross
Miral
Moneyball
Monogamy
The Mouth of the Wolf
Mozart's Sister
Mumbai Diaries
My Joy
My Kingdom
My Piece of the Pie
My Week with Marilyn
The Myth of the American Sleepover
The Names of Love
Now and Later
One Day
One Fall
One Hundred Mornings
Oranges and Sunshine
Our Idiot Brother
Outrage
The Over the Hill Band
Page One: Inside the New York Times
Pariah
Passione
Paul
The Pill
Pina
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
La Pivellina
Plastic Planet
Potiche
Prince of Swine
Project Nim
Psychohydrography
Putty Hill
Le Quattro Volte
Queen of the Sun
Queen to Play
R
Rage
Rampart
Rango
Raw Faith
Rebirth
Rejoice and Shout
Repo Chick
Restless
Rid of Me
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Road to Nowhere
The Robber
Romantics Anonymous
Rubber
The Rum Diary
Sarah's Key
Scream 4
Senna
A Separation
Septien
A Serbian Film
Seven Days in Utopia
Shame
Shaolin
Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness
Silent Souls
Skateland
Sleeping Beauty
The Sleeping Beauty
Source Code
Submarine
Sucker Punch
Summer of Goliath
Super
Super 8
Surrogate Valentine
Sympathy for Delicious
Take Me Home Tonight
Tales from the Golden Age
Tanner Hall
There was Once...
Toast
Tomboy
The Tree
The Tree of Life
The Trip
Twelve Thirty
Two Gates of Sleep
Tyrannosaur
Under Fire: Journalists in Combat
Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story
United Red Army
A Useful Life
Vidal Sassoon: The Movie
Vito Bonafacci
War Horse
Warrior
The Way
We Are What We Are
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Weekend

What's Your Number?
When Harry Tries to Marry
White Wash
Win Win
Winnie the Pooh
Winter in Wartime
The Woman
Wretches and Jabberers
You All Are Captains
Young Adult
Young Goethe in Love

Year-End Poll Mania

It must be that time of year. While the temperature plunges precariously close to freezing and tentpole releases work their way across movie theaters, best-of lists and polls begin to proliferate. This year I was asked to participate in several surveys of which three (Slant Magazine, the Village Voice and Indiewire) have recently been published. Below are links to both the polls themselves and to my individual ballots. For the Slant piece, I contributed capsules for films number 9 and 15.

Slant Magazine
poll
ballot (scroll down)

Village Voice
poll
ballot

Indiewire
poll
ballot (no direct link, scroll down to list of participating critics)

End of the Year Atrocities

As December rolls around, we can be sure of one thing: movie theaters screening epic films dealing with historical atrocity. While the Holocaust has traditionally furnished filmmakers with sufficient award-season gravitas, this go-round finds directors beginning to branch out. While Angelina Jolie, working from her own screenplay, tackled the Bosnian War in her film In the Land of Blood and Honey, Zhang Yimou became the latest Chinese filmmaker to take on the Rape of Nanking with The Flowers of War. Both are covered in reviews linked below; neither is recommended.

In the Land of Blood and Honey (Slant)
The Flowers of War (Slant)
The Pill (Village Voice)
Addiction Incorporated (Time Out New York)

Tinker, Tailor, Sight and Sound

This severely belated set of linkthroughs comes well amidst December awards season, when the Oscar-baitiest films start to hit theaters and critics cram to see all the major releases before submitting their year-end lists and their contributions to best-of polls. While I'm rarely particularly impressed by the Hollywood December crop, this year my admiration does extend to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Tomas Alfredson's perfectly modulated, exquisitely rendered adaptation of John LeCarré's classic spy novel. As for lists and polls, there will be plenty more to come, but the British film magazine Sight and Sound has already posted their year-end survey, featuring, for the first time, a contribution from yours truly.

New Releases
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Slant)
My Piece of the Pie (Slant)
London River (Slant)
Romantics Anonymous (Slant)
Franny, Annie & Danny (Village Voice)
The Big Fix (Time Out New York)

Polls
Sight and Sound ballot