Glenn Sumi’s Top 10 Movies

December 22, 2011Glenn Sumi

This was a big year for movies, and sometimes the most exciting action happened off-screen.

I can’t remember the last time there were so many “you’ll either love it or hate it” movies, like The Tree Of Life (loved it), Melancholia (loved), Bridesmaids (peed my pants laughing) and Midnight In Paris (hated). I’m pleased so many films in my top five have unconventional narratives. And I should point out that because of distribution schedules, my actual favourite movie of 2011, Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, opens in the first few weeks of January. Let’s hope the rest of next year is as good.

1. THE TREE OF LIFE (Terrence Malick)

Film can do a lot more than simply tell a story. Malick uses image, sound and text that whispers into your soul to capture the heights and depths of human experience. It’s a spiritual masterpiece you might want to re-watch on your deathbed. Bonus: the best classical music soundtrack in years.

2. THE TRIP (Michael Winterbottom)

I’d watch Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon share Michael Caine impressions any day, but Winterbottom’s film about two actor friends (named Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon) eating, drinking and arguing their way through fine restaurants and inns in northern England goes deeper, with insights about love and work that’ll linger in your memory for years. Kinda like a good meal.

3. ANOTHER YEAR (Mike Leigh)

The prospect of watching a year in the life of an ordinary, happy middle-aged London couple (Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen) doesn’t sound thrilling, but the Oscar-nominated script and authentic performances by Leigh’s ensemble make you hang on every word. He doesn’t flinch from witnessing the real pain and desperation around a calm family centre.

4. THE ILLUSIONIST (Sylvain Chomet)

Forget The Artist. Based on an unproduced script by French master Jacques Tati, Chomet’s touching look at a once-popular magician’s friendship with a young Scottish chambermaid achieves true Old World cinema magic – with haunting hand-drawn animation and barely a spoken word.

5. MELANCHOLIA (Lars von Trier)

The Tree Of Life’s more pessimistic sibling looks at depression, dysfunctional families and the end of the world. Besides many other things, von Trier is the first director to fully exploit that faraway look in Kirsten Dunst’s eyes. What does it all mean? Who cares when you’ve got images so startling, with Wagner’s Tristan soaring on the soundtrack?

6. WIN WIN (Tom McCarthy)

Flashier pictures have captured the end-of-year awards love, but McCarthy’s modest film about a lawyer/school wrestling coach caught in a moral quandary features one of the best scripts of the year and performances so natural you’ll only appreciate them on repeated viewings. After The Station Agent and The Visitor, McCarthy’s batting 1,000.

7. PROJECT NIM (James Marsh)

Marsh’s deeply disturbing doc is a real-life Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, with humans – vain, egotistical, ambitious – acting more like animals than the animals. This movie will make you sad and then furious.

8. ATTACK THE BLOCK (Joe Cornish)

Of 2011’s two fine films about kids vs. aliens, this one by newcomer Cornish impressed more with its imagination, minuscule budget and gritty pared-down argot. And unlike J.J. Abrams’s Super 8, it never asks to be loved.

9. WAR HORSE (Steven Spielberg)

Sure, it’s just a gussied up boy-and-his-dog story with a First World War setting and the dog replaced by a horse, but, damn, Spielberg knows how to use the medium to tell a tale that touches the heart. Along with his other holiday outing, The Adventures Of Tintin, this gloriously old-fashioned film demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

10. YOUNG ADULT (Jason Reitman)

Director Reitman and writer Diablo Cody flip the bird to the small-town epiphany movie in this wicked satire about a former prom queen (Charlize Theron) who’s convinced that her hometown ex wants her back – even though he’s happily married and a new father. Cody’s script, Theron’s fierce comic performance and Patton Oswalt’s nuanced turn as a former high school loser make this a comedy with a sharp edge.

Runners-up

The Adventures Of Tintin, Bridesmaids, Café De Flore, Drive, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Pina

Underappreciated

Beauty Day, The Adjustment Bureau, Margin Call, Drive Angry

MVP

Sure, this was the year of Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender and to some extent Melissa McCarthy, but let’s give some love to Ryan Gosling. While not People Mag’s Sexiest Man Alive, he showed off his range in three wildly diverse movies (The Ides Of March, Drive and Crazy, Stupid, Love.), broke up a New York City street fight and became a fashion icon wearing Drive’s smokin’ hot jacket.