2011 - Movies of the Year

Let's start with the turkeys... click the links if you want to know just how much I hated them.

Worst Five Movies of 2011

5. The Thing (2011)

4. Immortals

3. Season Of The Witch

2. Transformers 3

1. Green Lantern

Despite those, it's actually been a really good year at the cinema and I could easily have filled a Top 20 with runners up including Never Let Me Go, The Adjustment Bureau, The Skin I Live In, X-Men: First Class and The Guard. But if I have to pick 10...

My Top Ten Movies of 2011

10. The Inbetweeners

9. Thor

8. Another Earth

7. The Big Picture

6. The King's Speech

5. We Need To Talk About Kevin

4. 127 Hours

3. Source Code

2. True Grit

1. Super 8

Super 8 might not be the best film of the year, but it's the one which gave me the warmest glow - nostalgia for the kind of movie I grew up loving, like Back To The Future with aliens. The long awaited Coens / Bridges reunion was a shoe-in, but Super 8 had more twinkly eyed magic than I'd expected and deserves its place at the top... though I'm sure many would disagree.

What was your favourite movie of the year?

True Grit

Well, what do you say?

It's a Coen Brothers film with Jeff Bridges. So a film by my favourite writer/directors, starring my favourite actor, who were together responsible for my all time favourite movie.

And it does exactly what it says on the poster. It's many years since I saw the John Wayne version, and the only thing I remember is "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" (which is present and correct). The Coens have returned to the original novel as source material, and given it a quirkiness only they could get away with. There are some wonderfully random moments that contribute very little to the main plot but do give us that "mad world" vibe the Coens play so well. The cinematography is beautiful, particularly on the opening shot, thanks to another reliable member of the Coens posse, Roger Deakins. Matt Damon proves he can play character comedy as well as he does square jawed leading man, and Bridges is... well, Bridges. The ghost of John Wayne doesn't even get a look-in.

So it's exactly the film I expected... with one exception. I'm always wary of child actors (call it the Daniel Radcliffe Is Wooden effect) so I was prepared to suck air through my teeth at the precocious kid who has to carry the majority of the True Grit plot... yet Hailee Steinfeld excels. Only 13 when she took this role, she acts the socks off most Hollywood thespians twice her age. Definitely one to watch...