I probably wouldn’t call 2011 the best year in movies. Cinemas were dominated by sequels, prequels and the like. Still, great things squeaked through, as the best stuff is wont to do. This list isn’t exactly a collection of the best in 2011, however. It’s more a list of movies I wouldn’t mind re-watching. Because, let’s be honest, as great as Drive was and as much as it blew me away, I’m not exactly dying to revisit that scene where Ryan Gosling makes pudding out of some guy’s head. This is lighthearted fare for the most part, most of them comedies because, well, I like to laugh.
The Skin I Live In
I am a very devoted Pedro Almodovar film and have for a life time now been re-watching his films. The Skin I Live In isn’t my favorite and it isn’t his funniest or most charming piece. It’s actually quite fucking twisted. But all of Almodovar’s films are nuanced pieces of art. There is always more hidden, more to discover, so much more to learn about complex stories and even more complicated characters. One viewing is akin to a layover in some unfamiliar city. You kinda gotta live in an Almodovar film to fully understand it.
Our Idiot Brother
Paul Rudd is ridiculously charming and funny, even when playing an idiotic loser of a man. Paired against Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer and Rashida Jones, Our Idiot Brother just really works. It’s a film about women, anchored by a man that is no one’s romantic interest and it remains hilarious and heartwarming, without being saccharine or dishonest. What a feat!
Bridesmaids
I’m not gonna lie. I’ve already seen Bridesmaids like four times this year. It was that movie that everyone said was proof women could be funny, which was frankly sickening. Of course women can be funny! What kind of asshole was asking for proof? Moving on, however, the film is just quotable gold and performances, female and male, are excellent.
The Muppets
I’ve never seen a Muppet movie before this one. I never even watched Sesame Street as a child, although I was a fan of Muppet Babies in my youth. The point is, I wasn’t The Muppets target demographic. But my husband insisted and I do have a huge crush on Jason Segel’s Marshall from How I Met Your Mother, so I went. I was surprised by how much I laughed, how catchy those songs were, and how much the romance between a frog and pig meant to me by film’s end.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
This is another film I’ve already seen more than once, twice in theaters. I feel like Harry Potter has been in every list I produce this year in some way or another. I am a woman obsessed and unashamed. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was a perfect ending to something that means so damn much to so many people. I’ve heard from so many people that this film marked the end to their childhood, but fuck that. I never want to close the chapter in my life where Hogwarts was a home and an escape from my drab muggle surroundings.
Sarah McBride’s thoughts on music, film, lit and life can be found at sarahism.com. You can follow her on twitter @sarahism.