Your favourite film of the year

Melancholia for me.

I’m in the Hugo camp. House of Tolerance is close though. Both will probably become all-timers for me.

There are still a ton I’ve yet to see, but out of what I have seen:

- The Tree of Life
- Drive
- Midnight in Paris (I anticipate this and Drive being the most rewatchable films I’ve seen this year)
- Melancholia
- 50/50

Wish Shame was on that list, but I was pretty disappointed by it. Attack the Block was fun, though. This also wasn’t that good of a year for big tentpole/blockbuster releases, hell, it’s been a shit year for mainstream releases. The only “big” movie I saw/enjoyed was X-Men: First Class. Though I’m seeing Mission Impossible today and I’m pretty excited.

So far my favorite film of the year is Take Shelter. Have to see way more films though to make a final verdict.

DRIVE

Top “5”

The Turin Horse
The Tree of Life
The Kid with a Bike
A Separation
Dreileben

The Tree of Life

Slow Action [dir. Ben Rivers]

I haven’t been able to watch too many 2011 films, but for now, I’d have to say it’s a virtual tie between Malick’s Tree of Life and Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives.

^^interesting Blue, because i remember you being a little skeptical of Tree at first, am i right?

Either way, good film but i preferred others.

This has been a great year for cinema – for blockbusters (X-Men, Super 8, Mission: Impossible), for docs (The Interrupters, Black Power Mixtape, Into the Abyss), for American independent (Take Shelter, Martha Marcy, Margin Call), and for foreign (Michael, Snowtown, Tomboy).

All six of these films I could easily call my favorite film of the year:

1. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2. Melancholia
3. Drive
4. Shame
5. The Tree of Life
6. We Need to Talk About Kevin

^^I thought Drive was your favourite of the year Santino? Change your mind?

Drive was my favorite until I saw Melancholia and Tinker. Haha.

It’s the only film on this list that I’ve seen multiple times and like Tak said, I think it’s the one I’ll most rewatch. But Tinker and Melancholia hit me on a different level.

Nice to see some people give some love to Snowtown. Joks, you really need to support your continent and see this! lol

^^See what? Snowtown? i saw it months ago.

I watch at least 5-8 new Australian movies a year on average, out of the 15 or so that are produced. Most Aussies are even lucky to watch one! So i’m doing my bit, thank you very much! :-)

Aussie movies are pretty ordinary though. we have decent actors and technicians but few visionaries. Our directors generally tend to be the problem.

Tree of Life

Joks – Oh, I thought you hadn’t seen Snowtown. What did you think of it?

I can’t say I’m too familiar with Aussie filmmakers other than the usual big names (Weir, Noyce, Luhrmann). I will admit though, Rabbit Proof Fence really hit me on an emotional level.

^^I liked it Santino, but not as much as others. Ditto Animal Kingdom.

The last really good Australian movie was Samson and Delilah imo.

^Samson and Delilah sounds vaguely familiar. I’ll have to check it out.

Drive

^^marcus, how does that Goldthwait pic compare to World’s Greatest Day in terms of quality? i really liked that one.

@ Joks,

interesting Blue, because i remember you being a little skeptical of Tree at first, am i right?

Hah, you caught me. :P Well, I was rather vociferous in my protests regarding all of the a priori nut busting (aka premature ejaculation) that was happening all over the forums even before people had seen the film. Can’t really declare a film great until you see it, right? Even if it is directed by Terrence Malick…

Probably the most enjoyable was Duncan Jones’s Source Code, I think Jones is turning out to be one of the most creative directors around at the moment. Von Trier’s Melancholia was truly mind-blowing, but the handheld camera stuff became mildly irritating as did some of the somnambulistic acting. Drive was pretty entertaining, it looked good, and Gosling was on form as The Driver, although Carey Mulligan felt a bit under-used. Another favourite was Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy, which featured some excellent acting from it’s British cast, due in part a great screenplay, solid directing from Alfredson, and quite exceptional art direction and photography.

I was rather disapointed to have missed Andrew Haigh’s Weekend, Celine Sciamma’s Tomboy and the Dardenne Brothers The Kid With A Bike. They all sounded exceptional.

The Tree of Life
Hugo
Drive

(have not seen Midnight In Paris yet)

Here’s what an entertainment journal from Canberra has to say regardng the best of 2011:

10. Tangled
9. Submarine
8. Page One: Inside The New York Times
7. Beginners
6. 127 Hours
5. Bill Cunningham New York
4. The Tree of Life
3. Midnight In Paris
2. Drive
1. Black Swan

My comments:

Okay, so I haven’t seen it, but Tangled? Come on, how good could it be, really?

Beginners looks promising, still haven’t seen it.

After all I’ve read about it, Drive better be bloody good when I finally get around to seeing it.

Black Swan was first released to a commercial audience in Australia last year: I know, I saw it on New Year’s Eve. And it was released elsewhere in 2010. Hence it does not belong on this list for chronological reasons. It also doesn’t belong on the list for quality control purposes.

Just looking at the films made these days, not too much grabs me.

Ideas and ideals…as Tom Laughlin would say.

Hence I spend much of my time watching the popular classics, the cult favourites and discovering lost treasures.

P.S. I saw Super 8…promising at the start but really ordinary in the latter stages of the film.

I am well aware I may have the campgrounds all to myself on this one, but of the 2011 Films I’ve seen so far this year, I liked Hanna the best, with Another Earth just behind

Century of Birthing (Lav Diaz, 2011)

Midnight in Paris.

Poetry. Another devastating but brilliant film from Lee Chang-dong.

I wish more people would have seen it. It was a big award winner and critical favorite in South Korea.
Kino opened it in the US but few saw it. Netflix has it.

I’ve liked some films, but I can’t think of any that got me really excited, so I don’t feel comfortable picking any as a favorite. I think the most impressive film I saw all year was Night Fishing by Park Chan-wook. This was shot on an Iphone, but even if it wasn’t, it’s still a terrific film. Recommended.

@Matt L

FWIW, we had a good conversation of Poetry a few months ago. Kenji also recently started a thread on the film, too. I do think people here would have liked the film, and it would have been a pretty good one to discuss.