To The Maxxx

Tomorrow: Oscar Nominations
Today: My 25 Favorite Films of 2011, in alphabetical order

ALPS, Yorgos Lanthimos

ATTACK THE BLOCK, Joe Cornish

ATTENBERG, Athina Rachel Tsangari

BEGINNERS, Mike Mills

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK, Richard Press

THE DESCENDANTS, Alexander Payne

DRIVE, Nicholas Winding Refn

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, David Fincher

HANNA, Joe Wright

HUGO, Martin Scorsese

KILL LIST, Ben Wheatley

THE LINCOLN LAWYER, Brad Furman

MARGARET, Kenneth Lonergan

MELANCHOLIA, Lars von Trier

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, Woody Allen

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA, Nuri Bilge Ceylan

PINA, Wim Wenders

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Rupert Wyatt

A SEPARATION, Asghar Farhadi

THE SKIN I LIVE IN, Pedro Almodóvar

SUBMARINE, Richard Ayoade

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, Tomas Alfredson

THE TRIP, Michael Winterbottom

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, Lynne Ramsay - this is #1 for me

WE HAVE A POPE, Nanni Moretti

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I also enjoyed:

50/50, Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, Beyond The Black Rainbow, Buck, Bullhead, Contagion, A Dangerous Method, The Devil’s Double, The Double Hour, Fast Five, Le Havre, I Saw The Devil, In A Better World, Insidious, The Interrupters, Jane Eyre, The Kid With A Bike, The Last Circus, Margin Call, Meek’s Cutoff, Miss Bala, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Oslo August 31st, Our Idiot Brother, Page One: Inside The New York Times, Point Blank, Project Nim, Rampart, Rango, Senna, Sleeping Beauty, Take Shelter, Snowtown, Terri, The Tree of Life, Tuesday After Christmas, Tyrannosaur, Weekend, Woody Allen: A Documentary

My Favorite Performances:

• Elena Anaya as Vera Cruz The Skin I Live In
• Adrien Brody as Dali Midnight in Paris
• Rob Brydon as Rob Brydon The Trip
• Jessica Chastain in almost everything
• Olivia Colman as Hannah Tyrannosaur
• Paddy Considine as Graham Purvis Submarine
• Dominic Cooper as Uday Hussein The Devil’s Double
• Bill Cunningham as himself Bill Cunningham New York
• Kirsten Dunst as Justine Melancholia
• The ensemble of A Separation
• Judy Greer as Julie Speer The Descendants
• Woody Harrelson as Dave Brown Rampart
• Daniel Henshall as Tom Bunting Snowtown
• Tom Hollander as Isaacs Hanna
• Spike Jonze as Alán Moneyball
• Ariane Labed in Alps
• Anders Danielsen Lie as Anders Oslo, August 31st
• Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
• Joyce McKinney as herself Tabloid
• Robert Montano as the Waiter Shame
• Gary Oldman as George Smiley Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Ron Perlman as Nino Drive
• Al Pacino as Al Pacino Jack & Jill 
• Anna Paquin as Lisa Cohen Margaret
• Michel Piccoli as il Papa in We Have a Pope
• Christopher Plummer as Hal Beginners
• Paul Rudd as Ned Rochlin Our Idiot Brother
• Matthias Schoenaerts as Jacky Vanmarsenille Bullhead
• Andy Serkis as Ceasar Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Stephanie Sigman as Laura Guerrero Miss Bala
• Tilda Swinton as Eva Khatchadourian We Need To Talk About Kevin
• Shea Wigham as DJ Corliss The Lincoln Lawyer
• The Tanztheater Wuppertal company as themselves Pina

Favorite Cinematic Event:

Christian Marclay’s The Clock at LACMA

Favorite older film I saw for the first time this year:

Possession, Andrzej Zulawski (1981)