{"id":62152,"date":"2011-12-28T13:03:13","date_gmt":"2011-12-28T13:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2011\/12\/28\/top-ten-films-of-2011\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T13:16:35","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T13:16:35","slug":"top-ten-films-of-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/top-ten-films-of-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 Films of 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Ten Films of 2011<\/strong>by Wilson Morales<\/p>\n

Of the many films I have seen this year (over 250), these are the films I thought were the best of 2011. Some will be recognized come Oscar time and some may not, but if you get a chance, check out these films and see why I considered them the best of this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

1. The Artist<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Michel Hazanavicius
\nScreenwriter: Michel Hazanavicius
\nCast: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, Malcolm McDowell, John Goodman, Missi Pyle, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky\u2019s the limit \u2013 major movie stardom awaits. \u201cThe Artist\u201d tells the story of their interlinked destinies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2. The Descendants<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Alexander Payne
\nScreenwriter: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
\nCast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel, Patricia Hastie<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning SIDEWAYS, set in Hawaii, \u201cThe Descendants\u201d is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family\u2019s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Drive<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
\nScreenwriter: Hossein Amini, Nicolas Winding Refn
\nCast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDrive\u201d is the story of a Hollywood stunt driver by day (Ryan Gosling), a loner by nature, who moonlights as a top-notch getaway driver-for-hire in the criminal underworld. He finds himself a target for some of LA\u2019s most dangerous men after agreeing to aid the husband of his beautiful neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan). When the job goes dangerously awry, the only way he can keep Irene and her son alive is to do what he does best\u2014Drive!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4. A Separation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Asghar Farhadi
\nScreenwriter: Asghar Farhadi
\nCast: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moaadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Set in contemporary Iran, \u201cA Separation\u201d is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage. Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh. Simin sues for divorce when Nader refuses to leave behind his Alzheimer-suffering father. Her request having failed, Simin returns to her parents\u2019 home, but Termeh decides to stay with Nader.<\/p>\n

When Nader hires a young woman to assist with his father in his wife\u2019s absence, he hopes that his life will return to a normal state. However, when he discovers that the new maid has been lying to him, he realizes that there is more on the line than just his marriage.<\/p>\n

But when Brendan\u2019s unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

5. Warrior<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Gavin O\u2019Connor
\nScreenwriter: Gavin O\u2019Connor, Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman
\nCast: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Jennifer Morrison, Nick Nolte, Maximiliano Hernandez, Frank Grillo, Erik \u201cBad\u201d Apple<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two brothers face the fight of a lifetime \u2013 and the wreckage of their broken family \u2013 within the brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting in Lionsgate\u2019s action\/drama, \u201cWarrior.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. Even though years have passed, recriminations and past betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

6. War Horse<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Steven Spielberg
\nProducers: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
\nScreenplay by: Lee Hall and Richard Curtis
\nBased on the book by: Michael Morpurgo and the recent stage play by Nick Stafford, produced by the National Theatre of Great Britain and directed by Tom Morris and Marianne Elliot<\/p>\n

DreamWorks Pictures\u2019 \u201cWar Horse,\u201d director Steven Spielberg\u2019s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. \u201cWar Horse\u201d begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets\u2014British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter\u2014before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man\u2019s Land.<\/p>\n

The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse\u2014an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. \u201cWar Horse\u201d is one of the great stories of friendship and war\u2014 a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is arriving on Broadway next year. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

7. Pariah<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Dee Rees
\nScreenwriter: Dee Rees
\nStarring: Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans, Pernell Walker, Charles Parnell, Aasha Davis, Sahra Mallesse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adepero Oduye, who had earlier starred in the short film, portrays Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her parents Audrey and Arthur (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell) and younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse) in Brooklyn\u2019s Fort Greene neighborhood. She has a flair for poetry, and is a good student at her local high school. Alike is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. With the sometimes boisterous support of her best friend, out lesbian Laura (Pernell Walker), Alike is especially eager to find a girlfriend. At home, her parents\u2019 marriage is strained and there is further tension in the household whenever Alike\u2019s development becomes a topic of discussion. Pressed by her mother into making the acquaintance of a colleague\u2019s daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), Alike finds Bina to be unexpectedly refreshing to socialize with. Wondering how much she can confide in her family, Alike strives to get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity \u2013 sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

8. Margin Call<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: JC Chandor
\nScreenwriter: JC Chandor
\nCast: Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell and Aasif Mandvi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inspired by the world financial collapse in the fall of 2008, Margin Call takes place in the Wall Street offices of a powerful investment bank during the worst 24 hours in their financial history. After realizing they are looking at a financial meltdown, the executives scramble to minimize their losses at their investors\u2019 expense before the morning trading bell rings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

9. My Week With Marilyn<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Simon Curtis
\nScreenwriter: Adrian Hodges
\nBased on Colin Clark\u2019s diaries, \u2018The Prince, The Showgirl and Me\u2019 and \u2018My Week with Marilyn
\nCast: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Dominic Cooper, Emma Watson, Julia Ormond, Dougray Scott, Zoe Wanamaker, Toby Jones, Philip Jackson, Geraldine Somerville, Derek Jacobi, Simon Russell Beale<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of \u201cThe Prince and the Showgirl.\u201d The film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Aurthur Miller (Dougray Scott).<\/p>\n

Nearly 40 years on, his diary account \u201cThe Prince, the Showgirl and Me\u201d was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as \u201cMy Week with Marilyn\u201d \u2013 this is the story of that week. When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

10. Attack The Block<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Joe Cornish
\nScreenwriter: Joe Cornish
\nCast: Nick Frost, Jodie Whittaker, Luke Treadaway, Flaminia Cinque, Joey Ansah, Lee Nicholas Harris, Chris Wilson, Terry Notary, Maggie McCarthy, Jacey Sall\u00e9s, Adam Leese, Sammy Williams, Karl Collins, Jumayn Hunter, Danielle Vitalis<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the producers of \u201cShaun of the Dead\u201d and \u201cScott Pilgrim vs. the World\u201d comes \u201cAttack the Block,\u201d a fast funny, frightening action adventure movie that pits a teen gang against an invasion of savage alien monsters. It turns a London tower block into a fortress under siege, and a weapon wielding teenage thugs into heroes. It\u2019s inner city versus outer space.<\/p>\n

\n

Share<\/a>