Best Films Of 2011: 11 Great Films You May Have Missed

The top seven highest-grossing movies of 2011 were all sequels, many of which were tricked out with epic battles, blinding explosions, vampires, werewolves, wizards, pirates, giant alien robots and Bangkok drug overdoses. But 2011 also provided a number of movies whose most spectacular moments were not so flamboyant.

These 11 movies are the ones you may have meant to see -- a solemn documentary about the death penalty, an expansive epic about all of human existence, a quiet drama about a grandmother learning to write poetry -- but, for one reason or another, slipped you by.

Instead of vampires, you get Kirsten Dunst's Justine, from Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" -- no blood is sucked or shed, though the world ends, and all of petty human cruelty is laid straight-up on the table. Instead of castle-shattering magical guerilla warfare, you get Terrence Malick's soaring half-hour long sequence depicting the birth of the universe in "The Tree of Life."

Kids may dream of being Jack Sparrow (or, for that matter, Bella Swan) -- but while few, if any, of the characters you encounter in these films have lives you'd fantasize about stepping into, many of them have lives that seem almost too familiar. Unsettling, ecstatic, psychotic, conflicted, impassioned; sweeping, intimate, grandiose, delicate, mysterious or all too plain, these 11 films won't necessarily let you escape reality, but might just help you come to terms with it, instead.

Read on for our list:

Comments

[Jayme Gerring]

01:28 PM on 01/15/2012

The Skin I Live In was AMAZING FANTASTIC AWESOME!

[ASRock78]

04:00 PM on 12/29/2011

"Melancholia" and "Tree of Life" were fantastic movies!!! Though I would say to anyone about to watch them...these are very deep movies, so open up your mind and let everything that is happening absorb or you will miss what the movie is about all together!

[LizzieWittstock]

09:55 AM on 12/28/2011

Win Win was a fantastic film. GO SEE IT!!! :D

[coalman987]

10:41 PM on 12/27/2011

Since nobody saws these films apparently it is okay to talk about and spoil elements of what happens at the end of The Tree of Life?

[mamacat]

11:05 PM on 12/23/2011

Thanks for the list!!!

I will look some of these up.

[Highball]

07:30 PM on 12/23/2011

I saw three of these: "Tree of Life," "Take Shelter," and "Melancholia." All three were excellent, each in its own way.

I would also add, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" to the list. I fear that nowhere near enough people will see this splendid film. It really is a companion piece, of sorts, to "Take Shelter." And Elizabeth Olsen is phenomenal in her feature debut.

[marilread]

12:30 AM on 12/23/2011

a novel approach

I often watch a channel and i wont advertise for them but michelle bachman often appears
and she's often pictured with a very young group of voters. A very nice looking group of
american female teenagers with pretty faces and nice hairdos a very photogenic group!
I see no other candidate pose with such a group,i see no votes in it,shaking their hands
politically wont do much for her and being pictured i dont know...but i do appreciate this
gesture and concern and care for american youth or any youth for that matter the future
of not only america but the world! Of course i always see her pictured with them and it
always brings a smile to her face...her agenda is always one i've been very sympathetic
about and am glad she is so disposed towards teenagers...but who wouldnt care for
such a young group of people...you wouldnt be human!!!This time no politics but
just an aspect/trait of a political candidate whom i encourage to stay in the race and
voice her influence

[samuraifrog37]

08:56 AM on 12/24/2011

"This time no politics"? Yours is a political comment if there ever was one. Her Agenda? Shes a homo phobic uninformed elitist politician who could care less about working America and the poor. Taking pictures with teenagers is easy. Maybe she should get a picture of herself hugging people in homeless shelters and unimployment offices. She's a WantWit with no new ideas for America...worthless.

[Russ Noe]

06:42 PM on 12/27/2011

You lost me at Bachman...

[Eric Graff]

05:54 AM on 12/22/2011

Saw none of these, missing none of these, will see none of these.......................

[kinogod]

04:52 AM on 12/22/2011

Take shelter. Tree of life isn't a film, it's a tone poem.

[kinogod]

04:52 AM on 12/22/2011

What list? There goes the huffpo with broken links yet again. Crickets.

[kasel1]

04:03 AM on 12/22/2011

Haven't seen a single one of them and, after your descriptions, probably won't see any of them. I really don't need to be depressed.

[NHBill]

02:52 AM on 12/22/2011

"Martha Marcy May Madeline" is very good.
It's about a Manson Family style cult for those of you afraid of Indie films.
And get a load of this the star of the movie is the Olsen Twins younger Sister Elizabeth Olsen and she's AMAZING!!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441326/

[Highball]

07:31 PM on 12/23/2011

Yeesh! I just wrote almost the same thing! HA. :)

[tsetatsuj]

02:30 AM on 12/22/2011

While many for the films here are indeed very good, the ONLY reason "Tree of Life" is on this list is Terrance Mallick, one of the most overrated directors in recent history. Like Kubrick before him, Mallick is big on form, and extraordinarily short on substance. "Tree of Life" exemplifies this. It's a beautiful looking film, with great performances and incredible effects by Douglas Trumbull, but it does nothing and goes nowhere, eventually arriving at nothing at all. This is certainly not one of the best films of the year, and belongs at the bottom of the list. Mallick needs to have someone reputable write his scripts for a change, and stick to the story for once. THEN he might become a fine director.

[NHBill]

02:44 AM on 12/22/2011

You got to be kidding?
One may accuse Kubrick of many things but "short on substance" isn't one of them.
There are scores of books and websites interpreting and decoding his films.
That work will continue for decades!
No filmmaker in the history of cinema has made denser more substantive films than Kubrick!

[Highball]

07:37 PM on 12/23/2011

One, I think your crack against Kubrick is absurd. I don't know how many of this films you've seen, but I couldn't disagree more.

Two, if you're a filmgoer who is desperate for plot-driven tales, then indeed, "Tree of Life" is probably not for you. Personally, I find plot to be only a tool, a tool that can be used to help with examination of character and theme. But it's only one tool of many.

"Tree of Life" is less prose and more poetry. It's not a simple three act narrative with a hero and a villain, or a romance that follows typical structure. It's a poetic examination of not only the characters in their specific setting, but of our nature as human beings, and how we can (or can't) live within the conditions we find ourselves in. It's about much more, as well.

But you're right in that it's not a standard narrative. But to say that there's no substance there is criminal. One might not like what the substance is, that's one thing. But it's definitely there.

[livnrght]

01:37 AM on 12/22/2011

This is why I don't pay attention to critics. They select the worst movies ever made for awards.
Tree of life the (F-ING WORST!) movie of the year 2011!!!!..­..

[rjakjr]

09:21 PM on 12/22/2011

You going to see that movie seems like a train accident of shallow versus deep... BOOM... head-on collission.

[gdmn2find]

12:17 AM on 12/22/2011

If I were on a deserted island with nothing but the movies mentioned in this story, a dvd player and tv. I would use them for signalling aircraft to rescue me instead of watching this garbage. I wouldn't watch them for a ship as big as a cruise liner if it meant rescue. This is why I don't pay attention to critics. They select the worst movies ever made for awards.

[NHBill]

02:45 AM on 12/22/2011

I betting you're an English major.

[mmerteuil]

01:36 AM on 12/24/2011

Michael Bay, don't be so bitter!