Top 10 Films of 2011

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Top Musical of 2011

"The Muppets" (James Bobin, Disney)

A Separation (2011) *****

A superlative Iranian drama about a serious dispute between two couples. It's impossible, in view of the current tensions between Iran and The West over nuclear weapons and terrorism, not to see this film as a political allegory about a mutual lack of understanding among people. A well-deserved Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film.

Madrid 1987 (2011) ****

W ciemnosci (2011) ****

Q (2011) ****

Apres le sud (2011) ****

L'Apollonide Souvenirs de la maison close (2011) ****

Chico And Rita (2011) ****

Super (2011) ****

Crazy Horse (2011) ****

Secrets Objects (2011) ****

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) ****

Drive (2011) ****

The Descendants (2011) ****

Shame (2011) ****

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) ****

The last instalment in the ''Harry Potter'' saga. Dark, apocalyptic, somber, frightening and very fast-paced (unlike several recent episodes). Closer in sprit to the ''Lord Of The Rings'' trilogy than to the first ''Harry Potter'' films, but quite impressive. Ralph Fiennes steals the movie as Voldemort.

Laurentie (2011) ****

Love Actually Sucks (2011) ****

The Adventures Of Tintin (2011) ***

An exciting animated action film based on the famous European comic books. Here, Tintin resembles an all-American action hero (a diminutive Bruce Willis with a weird hairdo) more than the original Hergé creation, but director Steven Spielberg nonetheless managed to accurately depict many memorable supporting characters, including Captain Haddock, Dupont and Dupond (Thomson and Thompson) and Bianca Castafiore. Only Professor Tournesol (Calculus) fails to make an appearance. The story is based on three Tintin's books (“Le Secret de la Licorne”, “Le Trésor de Rackman le Rouge” and “Le Crabe aux pinces d'or”), with one scene taken from “Coke en stock”, but most of the film's second half is entirely original, including the most exciting action pieces (essentially, everything from Tintin's arrival in the Arab prince's palace to the dueling port cranes is nowhere to be found in any of Hergé's books).

Hugo (2011) ***

Martin Scorsese's love poem to a great pioneer of cinema, Georges Melies. Visually stunning, complex and cleverly constructed film that manages to enchant the viewers with its technical prowess while telling a touching and beautiful story about a great artistic genius.

L'Ordre et la morale (2011) ***

French docudrama about a hostage crisis in Nouvelle Caledonie during the 1988 presidential election in France.

Le Chat du rabbin (2011) ***

Uneven, but often brilliant animated film about Africa, Judaism, Islam and Russia.

The Help (2011) ***

There are a few weak and unconvincing scenes (especially Constantine's firing and Stuart breaking up with Skeeter), but otherwise it's an engrossing, moving and biting drama about racial and class conflicts in Mississippi in the 1960's. Bryce Dallas Howard is particularly good as a racist Southern bitch who gets her just desserts (quite literally, actually). Jessica Chastain is quite moving as a young trophy wife cruelly ostracized by all women in town. Viola Davis's Oscar-nominated performance is flawless, but it's actually a supporting role, with less screen time than Olivia Spencer, who won as Best Supporting Actress (while Davis was inexplicably nominated as Best Actress, and lost to Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady").

Arthur Christmas (2011) ***

Entertaining animated feature about Santa Claus' younger son trying to deliver a Christmas present to a little girl in England.

Rango (2011) ***

Animated western about a heroic lizard saving a lawless town from thirst.

Machine Gun Preacher (2011) ***

True story of Sam Childers, an American missionary in South Sudan who fights against Joseph Kony's LRA (Lord's Resistance Army).

The Muppets (2011) ***

Superb songs (including Oscar-winning "Man Or Muppet" and the legendary "Mahna Mahna", not to mention "Life's a Happy Song" and, of course, "The Muppet Show Theme"), self-reflexive humor ("This is going to be a really short movie", "You were reciting some sort of important plot point", "Are we working for the bad guy?"), Amy Adams and the Muppets. What more can you ask for ?

Atlas Shrugged Part I (2011) ***

The first part of an adaptation of Ayn Rand's famous novel about innovators and elite enterpreneurs going on strike, leading to a complete collapse of a socialist society.

Rio (2011) ***

Excellent animated film about birds, birdnappers, Rio and the Rio carnaval.

Anonymous (2011) ***

A "DaVinci Code" in iambic pentameter - a tale, told by Roland Emmerich ("Independance Day"), full of sound and fury, signifying that William Shakespeare might have been a fraud. However, the "Stratfordian vs Oxfordian" authorship controversy is almost of a secondary importance here, overshadowed by the sex life of Queen Elizabeth and the political intrigues related to her succession. Like with Dan Brown's story of Mary Magdalen, the fiction is far more fascinating (and intriguing) than the boring reality, making us wish that it was all true, but ultimately, once again, does it really matter ? What difference does it make if "Hamlet" was written by a legitimate son of a glover or an illegitimate son of a queen ?