Favorite Movies of 2011

This list, obviously, is late in coming. Circumspection has narrowed my list of favorites in 2011 down to 5. At the top of the list is:

THOR: Of all the superheroes to make the leap into cinema, Thor is one of the easiest to screw up. Fortunately, Kenneth Branagh understands theatrical pulp better than any man alive. Instead of falling into the alluring trap of making Thor a fish-out-of-water story, he and Chris Helmsworth very deliberately establish Thor as the God of Thunder before placing him among mortals. When Thor hits its comic beats, you're not laughing at Thor. You're laughing at the foolish mortals for whom a day of reckoning is both inevitable and deserved. When it finally came, I was delighted. Plus, those who know me well know I have Viking issues. This was the feel good movie of the year, pure and simple.

THE IDES OF MARCH: Filthy and flawless. George Clooney, you remake yourself as my hero once every two years. What can I say? This was the most technically proficient movie of the year, and it made me feel simultaneously terrible and inspired. This movie places George Clooney on equal footing with the best dramatic directors. Wow.

THE ARTIST: I loved this movie. Doing something like this is almost impossible today, because nobody has the training. Yet here it is.

YOUNG ADULT: Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody crafted the perfect hate-letter to themselves, one with which every single artist can identify, and then they smacked us all in the face and told us to get the fuck over it. I owe them both many, many beers for this.

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN: Rutger Hauer is lost in a land of his own crazy headpoop, and every time you think it's about to get boring the director raises the stakes on you. Watch this movie with friends and beer. I did, and I loved it. It helps that this movie came along right when I was on a Rutger Hauer binge, but such is life. Good job, movie. Check out the scene where he tells a bunch of babies in the hospital that they're going to grow up into worthless scumbags undeserving of life! Amazing!