A lot of movie pundits have agreed to label 2011 as a weak year. I suppose I see where they are coming from. I can only claim to love just a few of 2011's releases, but I sure did like a lot. Titles like "Certified Copy," "Melancholia," "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" showcased crisp and intelligent European cinema as good as anything else in the past several years. Commercial American films such as "Contagion," "Hugo" and "Moneyball" paired sharp screenplays with excellent visuals. Independent cinema shined too, with films like "Martha Marcy May Marlene," "Take Shelter" and "Sahkanaga" standing out. One film, however, stands heads and tails above the rest.
After years of doing this, one usually develops a sense of how strong or weak the year in film is pretty early on. But once you start going back and compiling a list of accolades, each year seems strong in it's own right. Check out my top twenty films of 2011 after the jump.
