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DIY’s Films Of 2011: 10 - 1

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Which movies make our top ten of the year?

Posted 20th December 2011, 10:21am in Film, by Becky Reed
This year's Best Of left us with a dilemma like never before. For we witnessed one of the greatest films of the last decade, let alone year, at the London Film Festival. However, The Artist is technically released on 30th December, but in one London cinema (and the ugliest one to boot). Opening nationwide on 6th January 2012, we feel this glorious film belongs in next year's list, when more than a roomful of people have had the chance to see it.

Following the first half of our list, today we present our top ten of 2011, where we celebrate the films that thrilled us, shocked us, pleased us, and exceeded all expectations; the best of their genres and the ones we can't forget, from devastating dramas, adorable comedies and sickening thrillers.

10. HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN




A glorious technicolour gorefest, Jason Eisener's exploitation homage is exceptional. Having already won a Grindhouse trailer competition in his native Canada, Eisener was on to a winner landing the iconic Rutger Hauer as the titular homeless vigilante. The tone is spot-on; completely outrageous and excessive, it's staggeringly violent, but never offensive, and frequently knowing and hilarious. Hauer battles evil of Biblical proportions in a desolate, lawless town ruled by a sadist family - behold the human pinata and the human manhole cover as just a couple of many sick set-ups. It looks amazing, and the chaos is held together by Hauer's heroically committed delivery. Read our original review here.

9. BLUE VALENTINE




A rare male-driven romance, Derek Cianfrance's relationship drama is agonisingly honest. Developed over years with his dedicated leads Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, the pair are gut-wrenchingly powerful as the married couple who've drifted apart after years of domesticity. As Gosling attempts to rekindle the flame during a distressing date night in a tacky love motel, flashbacks to the heady early days show how easily passion can mask incompatibility. Cianfrance drops subtle bombshells that frequently come back to haunt the couple in harder times. Refreshingly and unusually candid, intimate and raw, it's often uncomfortable to watch, but Gosling and Williams have never been better. Read our original review here.

8. THE SKIN I LIVE IN




Pedro Almodóvar brings his baroque style to what is essentially his first stab at macabre horror, adapting Thierry Jonquet's novel Tarantula. A dramatic score and unsettling photography accompany a never-better Antonio Banderas as a revered plastic surgeon with a dark secret. Elena Anaya is extraordinary as his body-suited captive, living in confined luxury, before an intruder upsets the apple cart. Almodóvar's psychosexual thriller has a gleeful sense of the grotesque that would warm the cockles of David Cronenberg's warped heart. A flesh-crawlingly nightmarish mad scientist fable, its killer twist is revealed midway, leaving plenty of time to "enjoy" the surreal ride. Read our original review here.

7. ANIMAL KINGDOM




The most remarkable aspect of this incredible Melbourne crime drama is what's missing; David Michôd's debut feature is drenched in aggression and palpable fear, but there is minimal violence. A moody thriller that simmers with tension and quiet rage, it features the fascinating Jacki Weaver as the menacing matriarch, based on a real criminal grandmother. Her testosterone-heavy quasi-family of Joel Edgerton, Sullivan Stapleton and the riveting Ben Mendelsohn take in James Frecheville's orphaned teen relative, with Guy Pearce the detective hoping to earn the boy's trust. A supremely confident film with an air of gravitas that sets it miles apart from its peers. Read our original review here.

6. NEVER LET ME GO




Criminally underrated, Mark Romanek's elegant adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel is one of the finest book-to-film translations in recent years. An impressively subtle sci-fi piece, the power comes from the chilling aspects of a rewritten history and a post-war medical breakthrough being portrayed as so ordinary. A love story between three childhood friends, Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield have a very depressing fate as adults. Uncannily brilliant child casting helps elevate this unique drama into something special. Bleak, yet with a glimmer of hope, Alex Garland's faithful screenplay is aided by heart-breaking performances from three of the UK's most exciting actors. Read our original review here.

5. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN




Lynne Ramsay's unforgettable take on Lionel Shriver's novel is one of the most radical and daring adaptations of the year, and it's a risk that paid off. A layered, nightmarish examination of a mother's guilt, it features an exceptional performance from Tilda Swinton, matched by an uncanny Ezra Miller as her sociopathic son. An exaggerated metaphor for the lack of maternal bond, Swinton is painfully open as the reluctant mother with a warped perspective. Ramsay's film is strikingly beautiful, ugly, disorientating and gripping all at once, with a feeling of dread and terror in one woman's memories that would rival the greatest horror movie. Read our original review here.

4. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS




Breathing life into the superhero genre in the most imaginative and successful reboot since Star Trek, director Matthew Vaughn makes the origins story of Professor X and Magneto the most stylish and electrifying action film of the year. Wisely casting James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, the latter's intense, icy Bond-like Erik steals the film in every jaw-dropping scene, but its his chemistry with McAvoy that seals First Class's success. Best of the X-Men franchise, best superhero film of an over-saturated year by a mile, it's a miracle it turned out so well - Vaughn turned the film around in a staggering eight months. Read our original review here.

3. BRIDESMAIDS




Annoyingly billed as the "female Hangover", Paul Feig's comedy is in a league of its own. Kristen Wiig steps from supporting actress and Saturday Night Live alumnus as star and co-writer of a film that is riotously funny and pitch-perfect. Wiig's a demented ball of panic and resentment as a maid of honour undermined by flawless trophy wife Rose Byrne. Knock-out performances from a killer ensemble cast of improvising comediennes, it's Melissa McCarthy who is pure genius in a star-making turn. Squirm-inducing toilet humour sits alongside pure slapstick, and the big-hearted comedy is the freshest in years. Read our original review here.

2. KILL LIST




Ben Wheatley's haunting British horror stands out in an otherwise poor year for the genre. An ambitious hitman thriller with a subtle twist, it boasts gallows humour and a chilling score that could raise the dead. Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley are the contract killers whose list grows increasingly unnerving and unpredictable. Something epic and wicked is alluded to throughout, with Wheatley allowing your imagination to take the film as far as you dare. A gothic, off-kilter buddy movie, it boasts startlingly natural performances from Maskell and Smiley. Until it stumbles with an ending that's been overdone, Kill List is a near masterpiece. Read our original review here.

1. SUBMARINE




For his directorial debut, IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade made a duffle-coated, Nietzsche-reading, Serge Gainsbourg-listening Craig Roberts the year's most unlikely teen hero. This droll adaptation of Joe Dunthorne's coming-of-age novel works as a love letter to cinema and to the cynicism of teenagers, with every frame a gorgeous, semi-iconic work of art. A doe-eyed Roberts and a sardonic Yasmin Paige are the difficult school sweethearts, with all the pain and agony of teenage love magnified by Alex Turner's score and Erik Wilson's glorious photography in Swansea's less glamorous locations. Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor are touching as the parents of the unique snowflake who thinks in Super 8 film, and daydreams his eulogies. For all its stylistic touches, Submarine achieves the incredible feat of being a romanticised memory that isn't remotely twee or try-hard. For all its spine-tingling beauty, Submarine is also a wonderfully witty and asute comedy, thanks to Paddy Considine's figure of fun. In a year that's been consistently very good indeed as opposed to belting out pure classics, Submarine edges the others out with bucketloads of charm. Read our original review here.

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