Best Films of 2011 You Probably Didn't See

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Boy, do I love movies. All kinds, too—your sci-fi flick, your rom com, your action-adventure, your cool, subtitled foreign film. However, because both my time and my pocketbook are pretty limited, as I'm sure yours is, I tend to miss lots of what's released in any given year—so I have to prioritize. What do you make sure you go to see? Anything with Ryan Gosling in it? Every wide-release blockbuster? Tween vampire movie sequels?

I personally don't opt for word-of-mouth. Not because I don't think any of my friends know what they're talking about, but because I want as many perspectives as possible from people who, to some extent, know what they're looking for in a well-made film.

So—what with the outrageous cost of a movie outing these days (ten bucks for the ticket, seven for the popcorn, five for the drink—even with the buck off for a combo deal, that's about twenty bucks for just me), I tend to be willing to pay only to see films that are highly rated by the majority of those pesky professional movie critics.

Almost without exception, I've noticed that the larger share of excellent reviews seem to be handed out to small independent films. Is that because as a general rule, they're better films? The juries out. All I can tell you is that in any list of favorite movies I make in any given year, the majority tends to be composed of limited release indies.

Here's my shortlist, which isn't meant to be exhaustive. If your favorite small film isn't here, I might not have seen it. So feel free to pimp your fave in the comments!

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Fox Searchlight Pictures
Metacritic Score: 85/100

It got a lot of hype, but in the end, it was ranked no higher than 15th its opening weekend. The word-of-mouth might not have been great. It's tough to watch, if you're stuck in the idea that only linear modes make sense for a movie to be palatable. The opening sequence can be stultifyingly tedious if you're not buzzed or stoned. You might think it long and kinda arty-pretentious.

Why is it on my list? Because I love the risk the filmmaker took to make this kind of film in this contemporary era of the louder, faster, funnier. Because the young star, who barely says a couple of dozen words in the whole film has a face that will haunt you. Because I'm shocked to have now seen Brad Pitt actually act well in two (or is it three) films in a row now. Because after the opening sequence, you begin to feel as though you're being shown, rather than told, everything that you're receiving, and you're made to participate, rather than simply sitting back and letting the movie do your thinking for you. Because I'm all about imagery in all art forms, and I'm a visual director myself.

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Fox Searchlight Pictures
Metacritic Score: 75/100

If the film had gotten more attention, the young lead's turn would have been hailed as the "breakout performance of the year." Subtle, uncalculated and completely engaging, he begins as such an enigma that if you hadn't watched the trailer, you'd be as shocked as the protagonist is to discover that this kid, who looks more like a poster boy for the stoner/slacker generation, would turn out to possess the skills his "benefactor" then exploits for his own end.

It's not our everyday feel-good family drama, though it turns out in the end to be almost that very thing, and the always fabulous Gemignani (I knew he'd be a star—not because of the overrated Sideways, but because of his next few roles) does have the usual epiphany in the end. But it's spare and direct, and the performances are so uniformly sure, you'll wonder why anyone would bother with the expense and bother of CGI and 3D when really, the acting and directing should always be enough.

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Magnolia Films
Metacritic Score: 81/100

Another image-rich film, this one spends most of its time catching its two female protagonists in what feel like moments of complete candor, as though they'd forgotten a film crew was coming to shoot a wedding, then stuck around unnoticed while life continued in the days following. No one ever appears like they're acting in it, and because of this, the viewer feels everything they feel. It's Kristen Dunst's best work since her 12-year-old turn in Interview of A Vampire. Charlotte Gainsbourg, who plays her sister, is equally compelling.

The beauty of the film lies only partly in its gorgeous visual elements. The script juxtaposes the family curse, a debilitating depression that all of its members deal with at different levels of dysfunction, against a backdrop of global proportions. The world is literally about to end. We wonder, though only for a moment, why no one on the outside has noticed. Because, as a device, the world has failed to prepare itself to end, the film's response is small in scale, but enormously magnified, because we are required only to deal with the psychology of, rather than the action in response to, impending doom. It's like watching the internal downward spiral of a world, through the glass of the downward spiral of its inhabitants. It's breathtaking.

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Sony Pictures Classics
Metacritic Score: 81/100

Whimsical, funny, and stunning to look at all at once, Midnight In Paris is classic Woody Allen. A feast for both the eyes and the brain, the film will certainly appeal much less to the bestseller crowd than to those more literate. It requires an audience who reads books rather than magazine covers, but interestingly never gets high-handed nor takes itself too seriously.

Owen Wilson serves as the perfect young Woody, a little goofy-nebishy, earnestly searching for himself while stumbling loquaciously through each scenario. The gamine Marion Cotillard couldn't be more luminous or appealing. But it's the bevy of characters from our literary and artistic past, all of whom seem to have implausibly converged on 1920's Paris, who form the engaging core of the film—Gertrude Stein, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and a perfect, hilarious Ernest Hemingway to name a few. If you're anything like me, the "Aha" moments of recognizing each character will make you laugh out loud.

I won't go on, 'cuz I don't wanna wreck it for you. Rent it when it comes out, or keep an eye on your art house to see if it shows up on their schedule. It'll be worth your time, I promise. ◊

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