Best & Worst Movies of 2011

1. Incendies

The French-Canadian production Incendies was a shoo-in to top our list. A paradox of beauty and horror, its Middle Eastern journey of discovery, in which an adult brother and sister learn revolutionary truths about their late mother, was the whole heartbreaker package.

2. Black Swan

Black Swan was another harrowing journey entirely from director Darren Aronofsky, who shot a needling probe into the moonscape of mental illness. As a fixated prima ballerina, whippet-muscled Natalie Portman literally went nuts for her art.

3. Bridesmaids

And now for something completely loco… Paul and Horrible Bosses were hot tickets but the sunny irreverence of Bridesmaids charmed the box-and-dice off audiences everywhere. Led by a perfectly frazzled Kristen Wiig, five very funny maids made mince-meat of marital niceties.

4. Cave of Forgotten Dreams

I’m still blown away by German director Werner Herzog’s documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. In his unfailing hands, the discovery of pristine, 32,000-year-old rock art in a French cave became a gateway to the essence of humanity.

5. Burning Man

On the home front, Burning Man, about a Bondi chef (Brit Matthew Goode) struggling with a roaring onslaught of bereavement, was urgent, poetic and insightful while playing like a hellacious thrill ride.

6. Biutiful

Javier Bardem is another powerhouse act. Always reliably great, he pushed the limits of terminal pain in Biutiful with his wasted, desolate portrayal of a dying Barcelona criminal.

7. Insidious

Their all-stops-out Saw series had me squirming in a not-good way, but it’s James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s envelope-ripping showmanship that slammed haunted-house horror-show Insidious.

8. Real Steel

You don’t expect to be blinking back tears in a movie about robot boxing, but I wager you did at the sensational Real Steel. With its thundering ‘bots and soft-centred, father-son bonding, it was a kicky trip and the perfect date flick (that father being one Hugh Jackman).

9. Super 8

Sometimes ace movies creep up on you. Writer-director J.J. Abram’s alien actioner Super 8 didn’t have every reviewer raving but it surely deserved to – the snowballing hullabaloo its zany kids confronted built into a far-out blockbuster.

10. Midnight in Paris

And last, yet in no way least, if the wisely contained whimsy and luxurious élan of writer-director Woody Allen’s sweat treat Midnight in Paris didn’t set you pining for the City of Lights, you’re official one tough crowd.

And the Worst…
Oh dear. Like the proverbial girl with the cuel, when they were good, they were very, very good. But when they were bad, they were sexiest, stale and gross.

1. Hall Pass

Courtesy of the Dumb and Dumber Farrelly brothers, Hall Pass stumbled from the infantile to the knuckle dragging moronic as married dudes Owen Wilson and Jason Sudekis tried vainly to play the field.

2. Something Borrowed

Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin fared no better in the odious Something Borrowed, a misogynistic nonstarter that bitch-slapped female friendship by having Goodwin sleep with Hudson’s fiancé. It’s a low act, but characters this spineless and obnoxious deserved every insult.

3. Johnny English Reborn

Moving on (please!) to DOA frachises, it was no-systems-go for Johnny English Reborn. Rowan Atkinson’s prize-goose MI7 agent was a hoot in 2003 when we hadn’t seen every one of his bits. Memo to film studios: by-rote recycling is for garbage.

4. Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son

Martin Lawrence didn’t get the memo: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son was the third outing for the blubbersome Hattie Mae Pierce. Not only can three be a madding crowd, the bigger corpulent cross-dressers are, the harder and more humiliatingly they fall.

5. Snowtown

Laughs took a back seat in the toxic mess of Snowtown, which ghoulishly dug in the dirt on the appalling actions of serial killer John Bunting, but in failing to give any crucial insight into him, was a squalid dead end.