Grym’s Top Ten Films of 2011
Not a great year for films. Overall worse than last year which wasn’t amazing either. Choosing the ten best is no easy task. Do the merits outweigh the flaws? Are we invested, do we give a shit? There were a few standouts this year. Im down with indie, foreign, and arthouse, but I also like horror, comics and armed simian revolution. I’m not saying these are all Oscar contenders, just the ones that resonated.
1. Drive
Part arthouse, part noir, part 70s action movie. Brutal and amazing. Albert Brooks is scary.
2. I Saw The Devil
Koreans make fucked up movies. This year’s top revenge/horror thriller comes courtesy of director Jee-Woon Kim. Crazy, funny, dark shit.
3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Should’ve been crap but was suprisingly awesome. Serkis reinvents creature acting. Monkey riot ending rules.
4. 13 Assassins
Miike channels Kurosawa in a slow burn of a film that explodes into a glorious bloodbath. Hour-long carnage sequence ensues.
5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Sleek and unflinching. Another great Reznor soundtrack. Standout lead performance.
6. We Need to Talk About Kevin
Abstract form and an emotional gut punch. Imagine “The Good Son” as a fucked up psychological art film. Swinton kills it.
7. X-Men: First Class
Flawed but ultimately wins this comic fan over- mostly due to Fassbender’s badass young Magneto.
8. Contagion
Soderberg’s latest multi-plot ensemble delivers paranoia on an epic scale. A smart non-traditional horror movie.
9. Hanna
A typical Bourne-style premise gets flipped into a poetic artsy action movie.
10. Rampart
