Favorite New Movies of 2011

1. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
Sorry so obvious.

2. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
The only one on the list that I watched twice.

3. Finisterrae (Sergio Caballero)
4. Essential Killing (Jerzy Skolimowski)
5. The Four Times (Michelangelo Frammartino)
I was glad to see these last two on so many year-end lists, because at the time I watched them they felt like secrets – in Atlanta, at least. Finisterrae is still a secret.

6. The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr)
7. Tabloid (Errol Morris)
8. Mysteries of Lisbon (Raoul Ruiz)
9. Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno (Bromberg, Medrea & Clouzot)
10. And Everything Is Going Fine (Steven Soderbergh)
11. Attack the Block (Joe Cornish)
12. Melancholia (Lars Von Trier)

Runners-up:
The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar)
Hugo (Martin Scorsese)
The Muppets (James Bobin)
True Grit (Coens)
Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)

Best Local Film: The Little Death (Bret Wood)

Best New Horror: Red State (Kevin Smith)

The Hobo With a Shotgun Award
for the most entertaining fake-grindhouse feature of the year goes to:
Machete by Robert Rodriguez
Runner-up: Hobo With a Shotgun