Film Feature: Top 10 Films of 2011

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5. “Moneyball”

Moneyball
Photo credit: Sony

The old saw of “baseball as a metaphor for life” gets a new absolution through this claustrophobic and odd tale (those are compliments) of modern big-time sports. Brad Pitt is Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, whose prospects for the 2002 season are zero to nil, considering his small market budget versus the huge money of the New York Yankees. He hits upon an idea, perpetuated by an Ivy League stats nerd (Jonah Hill), to go after ballplayers who have certain run producing stats, but aren’t necessarily on the old-time scouting radar. Pitt maneuvers through this narrative like a wily veteran, and Hill (still in fat man mode) comes into his own as a wizard-like creature who views baseball solely through statistics. This film isn’t afraid to cheer on ledger sheets and the emotional attachments that fuel those cold numbers. The ending is strange, magical and yes, metaphorical.

HIGHLIGHT: While Oakland is in the midst of a record breaking winning streak, Jonah Hill stands among the cheering throng like a stoic alchemist.

4. “Margin Call”

Margin Call
Photo credit: Roadside Attractions

The wonder of fictional narrative is that it can analyze real events and give it a lyrical perspective the history deserves, much more than as it happened. In this case, “Margin Call” takes on the financial meltdown at last decade’s end, through a financial firm that realizes their shenanigans are going to kill the market, but allow them to survive. All the players cast in this film, including Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons and Zachary Quinto (Spock from “Star Trek”) represent different generations and motivations, and the result is Shakespearian, both in performance and prose (as written and directed in the feature debut of J.C. Chandor). Of all these heavy hitters it is Paul Bettany that emerges, his moral compass perfectly tuned to survival. Another end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it presentation, before and after the fall.

HIGHLIGHT: The function of a dying dog as a symbolic device, the overt open sadness, burial and all.

3. “The Artist”

The Artist
Photo credit: The Weinstein Company

An amazing idea, brought to fruition perfectly. Michel Hazanavicius had a daydream about a story set in the era between silent movies and the emergence of talkies, approximately 1927-1932, but in this daydream the film would be realized in the style of a silent film from the era. The result is sheer heaven for movie buffs, plus lovers of cinema style and entertainment. Hazanavicius casts impeccable faces for his homage, including French actor Jean Dujardin as the fading silent matinee idol and Bérénice Bejo as the sassy flapper who becomes an early talking picture star. Surrounding the leads are flawless and familiar mugs like John Goodman, James Cromwell and in a small but crucial part, Joel Murray. Many critics have been warning everyone not to be scared of the silent film nature of “The Artist,” and take it from there. I’m simply saying you’re in for a rare movie treat, and instead of spending extra bucks on a 3D flop, indulge in a big screen treatment of this film.

HIGHLIGHT: The use of sound and complete silence in key moments elevates the art form of the overall film.

2. “The Tree of Life”

The Tree of Life
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight

In many ways, this was the most outrageous, indulgent and speculative film of the year, but it succeeds as a creative wonder, and it allows your imagination to soar. Best described like “2001, A Space Odyssey,” except using a dysfunctional family at its center (rather than a monolith), iconic director/writer Terrence Malick evolves a very personal statement to a grand and motivational work of art. The meaning of life is on trial here, especially the warped notion of the American dream through a family struggling for that meaning in the 1950s. Brad Pitt plays a messed-up father, taking out his business frustrations on a clueless but supportive wife and kids. Sean Penn is one of his grown-up sons, lost in the technological blather of post-millennium distress. Through imagery, flights of fancy and finally a view of the end (afterlife or world?), “The Tree of Life” is rooted in the essence of what and who we are. The film is challenging, frustrating and magnificent.

HIGHLIGHT: The zen motion of random imagery, set against a formula of so-called normality.

Number One. “Melancholia”

Melancholia
Photo credit: Magnolia

The ultimate and literal end-of-the-world thematic, laced with incredible symbolism and truly irreverent madness. It is cinema as grand opera, scaling the heights of human reaction in the face of gone baby gone. Lars von Trier wrote and directed this astounding exploration of his own depression (melancholia), and starts it with a wedding in which a bride (Kirsten Dunst, in her best role) is emblematically running inland – in the midst of her civilized ceremony – while a tsunami is approaching the landscape. Her character maintains this signal within, and becomes significant by the second half of the film, which focuses on an impending incident. Rarely in cinema has the power of our instincts and the demonstrative manifestations of those instincts been so furiously and regally drawn. My reactive senses opened up from the first, unique opening sequence, to the bitter awe of the end. This film can change your point of view, if only about how to approach the end.

HIGHLIGHT: Planet Melancholia.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com