Writ­ten by Paul Stathakis  |  Jan­u­ary 29, 2012:

In 2011, we were tak­en on a clas­si­fied mis­sion which was impos­si­ble to for­get because it was incred­i­bly enter­tain­ing. We spent mid­nights in the Paris of the 1920s. We watched a base­ball team try to beat the odds. We root­ed for a boy and his spe­cial horse. We were car­ried into the lone­ly uni­verse of a soft-spo­ken get­away dri­ver. We watched, painful­ly, as a young man coped with a baf­fling dis­ease. We were remind­ed of that crazy lit­tle thing called love as a mid­dle-aged man took notes from a young hand­some men­tor. We were intro­duced to a bureau unlike any oth­er, unafraid to make spe­cial adjust­ments when nec­es­sary. There was a group of fun­ny brides­maids who proved that they could be as fun­ny as a group of hun­gover ush­ers. We also got a les­son in pol­i­tics when we were tak­en behind-the-scenes of a pres­i­den­tial cam­paign to see how messy things can get. And, final­ly, we were charmed by a lit­tle silent pic­ture that, iron­i­cal­ly enough, spoke to us more than any oth­er “talkie” this year. These are the films that marked 2011. These are the ones you’ll want to see if you like your movies the way I like them. Enjoy.

 

1. The Artist
(Dir. Michel Haz­anavi­cius, PG-13, 100 min)

 

2. Dri­ve
(Dir. Nico­las Wind­ing Refn, R, 100 min.)


3. Mon­ey­ball
(Dir. Ben­nett Miller, PG-13, 133 min.)

 

4. War Horse
(Dir. Steven Spiel­berg, PG-13, 146 min.)

 

5. Mid­night in Paris
(Dir. Woody Allen, PG-13, 94 min.)

 

6. The Adjust­ment Bureau
(Dir. George Nolfi, PG-13, 106 min.)


 7. The Ides of March
(Dir. George Clooney, R, 101 min.)

 

8. Mis­sion Impos­si­ble: Ghost Protocol
(Dir. Brad Bird, PG-13, 133 min.)

 

9. Brides­maids
(Dir. Paul Feig, R, 125 min.)


10. 50/50 (tie)
(Dir. Jonathan Levine, R, 100 min.)

 

10. Crazy, Stu­pid, Love. (tie)
(Dir. Glenn Ficar­ra, John Requa, PG-13, 118 min.)

 _________________________

 

Hon­or­able men­tions: Hor­ri­ble Boss­es, Ran­go, Super 8, Lim­it­less, The Trip, and Lar­ry Crowne (this one’s a guilty plea­sure, I enjoyed it, I thought it was good old-fash­ioned fun)

Biggest dis­ap­point­ments of the year: The Change-Up, Bad Teacher, Your Hig­ness, Hall Pass, Tres­pass, No Strings Attached, The Green Lantern, Straw Dogs, Car­nage, and Hugo (who would’ve ever thought that a Mar­tin Scors­ese pic­ture would ever disappoint?)

Copy­right © 2012 Paulz­eye. All rights reserved.