Films of 2011 / Honorable Mentions

Before I start my top 10 it's time for a quick synopsis of the remaining films I saw this year, I wanted to go through some...

HONORABLE MENTIONS

LA QUATTRA VOLCE

This was an experimental film I saw at WIFF that I didn't get around to covering in my synopsis of the film festival back in April. It follows a path of reincarnation between an old man, a goat, a tree, and I think (I can't remember the film perfectly) a pile of coal. Yeah, it's pretty difficult. But you can see what it's trying to do, and it truly uses camera techniques and movement to try and tell a poetic story.

ANITA

WIFF selection as well... a tale of a mentally handicapped Argentinian Jewish girl who is shell shocked by a terrorist attack and is set on a confused path around Buenos Aries, as various characters with their old flaws are annoyed by her naivete but eventually altered by her complete innocence to darker elements of the world. This was pretty sweet and touching, but other movies covered newer ground for me.

THE ARBOR

And another 2011 WIFF... of the obscurities I saw at the festival this one actually showed up on the AV Clubs year-end list as one of their best films. It has a very narrow focus on the short reckless life of a ground-breaking London playwright. But I have to admit I didn't realize how compelling the documentary style was until I was reminded of it by the AV Club's review. The documentary uses actual audio testimonials from the subjects, but the actual visuals are staged with other actors lipsyncing to the recordings. You bet it was a unique experience. I wonder if this type of narrative style will pop up in new films, because it's true I've never seen anything like it before.

HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER

I had tickets for this at 2011 WIFF, but had to leave early because of the weather (or maybe it was getting late... I've bailed out of WIFF before). HuluPlus came through a few months later. This dragged out a bit but at times it was incredibly tense. A young intern type and a seasoned scientist/engineer are stationed in a very remote Russian island to do radiation tests. The mood is set and some tragic news (delivered through fuzzy channels) creates something very dark. The tone is a little off sometimes and there's a central mystery to a character's motivations that doesn't give me anything more than confusion... which makes a 2 hour plus movie hard to sit through.