With my typical six-month delay, I am prepared to render judgment on my favorite films from last year. Herewith I list my choices in rough order of my intensity of response, with links to my original reviews plus rankings from the Film Comment critics poll.
Best of the year: In a come-from-behind victory, for me this year’s laurels go to Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments, which does not appear in the top 50 of the Film Comment poll, perhaps because its release fell between two years. Until the finish line, Jane Campion’s Bright Star (#15) led the pack, confirmed by a second viewing, while it was a second viewing that moved the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man (#8) up into this rank, while possibly dropping An Education (#24) into the next.
Outstanding: Domestically, my two choices come from different angles, the wonderfully animated Up (#23) and the quiet but deep American indie, Ramin Bahrani’s Goodbye Solo (#50). From abroad, three stand out: Still Walking (#26) from Hirokazu Kore-eda, Summer Hours (#3) from Olivier Assayas, and 35 Shots of Rum (#4) from Claire Denis.
Highly recommended: These run the gamut from the obvious to the hardly-heard-of. Avatar gets no love from super-serious critics, but to me the 3-D was irresistible. Likewise I’m a sucker for George Clooney’s charm and I found Up in the Air (#28) to be a high-flying vehicle. Greg Mottola’s Adventureland (#32) was equally charming. Short on charm but long on power were two imports, Steve McQueen’s Hunger (#42) and the Austrian thriller Revanche (not on list). The leading documentary of the year was Agnes Varda’s The Beaches of Agnes (#9), with other notables including Herb & Dorothy, Food Inc., and Tyson.
Recommended: I’m not as high on The Hurt Locker (#1) as many are, but I would rank another Iraq War-themed film as its equal – The Messenger (#39). For English language films that are not so grim, I’d single out Wes Anderson’s animated Fantastic Mr. Fox (#5), Andrew Bujalski’s up-from-mumblecore Beeswax (#38), Jeff Bridges’ bravura turn in Crazy Heart (NL), and out of the blue, the British soccer film, Damn United (NL). I share most of the critical esteem for a wide variety of foreign films: Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman (#2), the Dardennes brothers’ Lorna’s Silence (#10), Jia Zhang-ke’s 24 City (#11), Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon (#12), and Almodovar’s Broken Embraces (#30). I’d add two that didn’t make the critics’ list for some reason: the César-sweeping Séraphine, and German docudrama The Baader-Meinhof Complex.
Also-rans for me, in the order of their Film Comment rankings, include: The Limits of Control, The Sun, Two Lovers, In the Loop, Tulpan, Public Enemies, Where the Wild Things Are, District 9, and Tokyo Sonata. I found each worth watching, but none would I urge upon you.
There are few films of critical consensus that I haven’t seen yet, and some I have no intention of seeing, such as Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (#7) and von Trier’s Antichrist (#20). A few others were just non-starters for me, but there should be plenty here for you to add to your Netflix queue.
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