My Choices for the Best 20 Films of 2011

Here is the list without commentary:

1. The Tree of Life

2. Melancholia

3. The Descendants

4. Hugo

5. Project Nim (documentary)

6. Tabloid (doc.)

7. Submarine

8. Midnight in Paris

9. The Skin I Live In (Spain)

10. The Ides of March

11. Senna (doc.)

12. The Troll Hunter (Norway)

13. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 version)

14. J. Edgar

15. Moneyball

16. "Bal/Honey" (Turkey)

17. Beginners

18. Drive

19. The Adventures of Tintin

20. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Frost/Nixon My Best Film of the Year

Here are my 20 favorite films of 2008. This is different than the original list which I posted in December, and it is very similar to the list I sent for the Film Comment Reader's Survey. As always, I post without commentary:


1. Frost/Nixon

2. Taxi to the Dark Side (doc)

3. The Edge of Heaven (Germany/Turkey)

4. The Flight of the Red Balloon (France/Taiwan)

5. Slumdog Millionaire (UK)

6. The Wrestler

7. Doubt

8. In Bruges

9. Elegy

10. The Visitor

11. Milk

12. Gran Torino

13. The Dark Knight

14. The Last Mistress (France)

15. Paranoid Park

16. Let the Right One In (Sweden)

17. Tell No One (France)

18. Man on Wire (doc)

19. Vicky Christina Barcelona

20. Takva: Fear of God (Turkey)*

*-Released in Turkey in 2006. Not released theatrically in US, but is available on dvd

My Premature Top 10 Movies of the Year List

I don't live in New York or LA or even Bethesda, Md., and I definitely haven't seen enough films compared to most film critics, but since everyone else posts a top ten movies of the year list, my thinking is simply: "Well, gee, why can't I?"



























To show this is not merely an exercise in narcissism, I will post the respective top 10 lists of my friends Phil Nugent (who lives in New York) and Joe Scott (who doesn't!) on my other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

I will post my Official Top Ten List some time right before the Oscars on Feb. 22 on one of my two blogs. For right now, this is what I have. I regret to inform my sister Lale Lovell that "Kung-Fu Panda" didn't make the cut:

1. "Taxi to the Dark Side" (doc)

2. "Edge of Heaven" (Germany/Turkey)

3. "Doubt"

4. "In Bruges"

5. "Elegy"

6. "The Visitor"

7. "Milk"

8. "The Dark Knight"

9. "The Counterfeiters" (Austria)

10. "Recount"*

*-Yes, I know it's an HBO movie, but it was great! And, this is a political year.

Honorable Mention:

"Brideshead Revisited," "Gonzo (doc)," "Stanley Kubrick's Boxes(doc)," "The Last Mistress (France),"Tell No One (France)," and "Vicky Christina Barcelona."