Recommended Movies from 2011

For your convenience, you can view all the LA Times reviewers' recommendations for the movies of 2011 that they considered most worthy of your time by following this link:
Recommended Movies from 2011.

Betsy Sharkey's Best Movies of 2011

Betsy Sharkey's top 10 movies of 2011:

1. “The Descendants”
2. “City of Life and Death”
3. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
4. “Beginners”
5. “Drive”
6. “Melancholia”
7. “Moneyball”
8. “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
9. “The Help”
10. “Young Adult”

For a list of close seconds and thirds, see Betsy Sharkey's year in review at the L.A. Times.

Related: Kenneth Turan's best films of 2011

Kenneth Turan's Best Movies of 2011

Turan's pick for best film of 2011 was not one that actually was shown in theaters. "The Clock" was screened briefly at the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA)

"A collage of clips created as an art installation by Christian Marclay from literally thousands of films, foreign and domestic, silent and sound, with some TV shows thrown into the mix, “The Clock” is structured minute by minute around a 24-hour time cycle. This may sound like a trivialization of the cinematic experience, but the reality is intoxicating."

Let's hope it shows up on Netflix of DVD someday or we get to catch it if rescreened by LACMA.

The rest of Turan's 10-best list:
“The Artist”
“City of Life and Death”
“Like Crazy”
“Midnight in Paris”
“Of Gods and Men”
“Poetry”
“A Separation”
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
“Win Win”

Memorable documentaries from the Sundance festival:
“Buck”
“If a Tree Falls”
“The Interrupters”
“Project Nim”
“The Redemption of General Butt Naked”
“Senna”
“We Were Here”

Non-Sundance docs:
“Circo”
“Nostalgia for the Light”

Foreign Films: The huge number of excellent foreign-language films that played in Los Angeles with hardly anyone seeing them, including:
“Double Hour”
“Carancho”
“Conquest”
“Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life”
“The Human Resources Manager”
“Le Havre”
“Kawasaki’s Rose”
“Point Blank”
“The Princess of Montpensier”
“Queen to Play”
“The Women on the Sixth Floor”

For commentary on his individual picks and more, see Kenneth Turan's best films of 2011 at the L.A. Times.

Related: Betsy Sharkey's best 10 films of 2011

Young Adult

"Young Adult": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

Director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody add their distinct light touch to dark comedy 'Young Adult,' with Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt terrific as troubled beauty and sarcastic beast.

When it's done right, as it is in "Young Adult," there is something absolutely mesmerizing about watching a train wreck unfold on screen. When the wreck in question is a narcissistic beauty played to scheming, sour, downward-spiraling perfection by Charlize Theron, cringing is definitely called for, but so is laughter.

Betsy Sharkey's review of "Young Adult" at the LA Times

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,' starring Gary Oldman and directed by Tomas Alfredson, based on John le Carré's novel, is perhaps the great spy tale of our time. The question at the heart of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is simplicity itself: Is there a Soviet secret agent at the very highest echelons of British intelligence? Getting to the answer, however, couldn't be more deliciously, thrillingly, brilliantly complex.

Kenneth Turan's review of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" at the LA Times

Melancholia

"Melancholia": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

How does the world end? When it is in the hands of the cinematic master of human misery, dark Danish auteur Lars von Trier, as it is in "Melancholia," it ends in extraordinary, horrific, searing, aching and unthinkable ways. It is his most hopeful film yet.

Still firmly rooted in the filmmaker's esoteric, frustrating, provoking, demanding narrative style, the movie is also amazingly romantic — lush, ripe, rich, delicious. Its apocalyptic vision is encouraging in its hopelessness; its star, Kirsten Dunst, luminous in her anguish and devastation. Excessive in every way, and yet restrained. Everything and nothing that you'd expect a film called "Melancholia" to be.

Betsy Sharkey's review of "Melancholia" at the LA Times

J. Edgar

"J. Edgar": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

Leonardo DiCaprio's darkly fascinating performance as J. Edgar Hoover is matched by director Clint Eastwood's deft work behind the camera.

"J. Edgar" is a somber, enigmatic, darkly fascinating tale, and how could it be otherwise?

Turan's review of "J. Edgar" at the LA Times

The Descendants

"The Descendants": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

In director Alexander Payne's intimate drama, George Clooney is powerfully effective as a man forced to reassess his life and legacy after a family crisis.

Betsy Sharkey's review of "The Descendants"at the LA Times

The Artist

"The Artist": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius' film is a delightful throwback to Hollywood's early days, when actors used their faces, not dialogue to convey the story. It manages to be both witty and convey the spirit of bygone days. "The Artist" is the wonder of the age, as much a miracle as "Avatar," though it comes at things from the totally opposite direction.

Kenneth Turan's review of "The Artist"

Puss in Boots

"Puss in Boots": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

The stylish and fun 3-D animated movie mixes hard-boiled adventure, nursery-rhyme characters and a charismatic cat voiced by Antonio Banderas that you don't want to cross.

Dashing hat with debonair feather? Check. Footwear made for walking? Check. Alluring Spanish accent? Double check. The cat is back. After supporting roles in three "Shrek" movies, the feisty feline Puss in Boots finally has a film of his own, and those who have cried out for animated justice will be saying "It's about time."

A treat to experience visually (especially in lively 3-D) and verbally, "Puss in Boots" is a family film where the adventure and invention never flag and the tongue-in-cheek humor doesn't linger far behind.

Read Turan's full review of "Puss in Boots" at the LA Times

Puss in Boots 
Opened October 28, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 30 min.

Long before he met Shrek, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), having just been named a hero for saving a woman from a charging bull, is run out of town on suspicion of bank robbery, even though the true villain is Puss' friend, Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis). Though there is still animosity between them, Puss and Humpty reunite to steal a goose that lays golden eggs. Joining them for the adventure of nine lifetimes is notorious cat burglar, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek).

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris
Director: Chris Miller
Genres: Family, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Puss in Boots"

Martha Marcy May Marlene

"Martha Marcy May Marlene": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

Identity and the destructive power of cults on kids are played to perfection in Sean Durkin's existential thriller.

Elizabeth Olsen gives an edgy, raw turn. "Martha Marcy May Marlene," with a frightfully fearless Elizabeth Olsen playing all of those Ms, is a difficult title that perfectly suits this wonderfully difficult film. It'd be easy enough to say this is a drama about the destructive power of cults on youth, which it is, but really what writer-director Sean Durkin has given us is an existential thriller about identity and just how tenuous a grasp we have on who we really are.

Read Sharkey's full review of  "Martha Marcy May Marlene" at the LA Times

Martha Marcy May Marlene
Opened October 21, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 41 min.

After escaping from a cult, a young woman (Elizabeth Olsen) is haunted by her experiences there and fears that its vicious leader (John Hawkes) may be trying to find her.
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia
Director: T. Sean Durkin
Genres: Psychological Drama, Thriller

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

Margin Call

"Margin Call": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

The Wall Street drama with a top-notch cast revisits the 2008 financial meltdown from the inside.

Starring a top cast including Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci and Paul Bettany, "Margin Call" returns us to where previous films, including the Oscar-winning documentary "Inside Job" and the HBO drama "Too Big to Fail," have gone before: the opening days of 2008's global financial crisis. But this time, it's different.

It's different because this confident, crisply made piece of work does an expert job of bringing us inside the inner sanctum of a top Wall Street investment bank in extremis, giving us a convincing and coolly dramatic portrait of what it must have been like when titans trembled.

Read Turan's full review of "Margin Call" at the LA Times

Margin Call 
Opened October 21, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 46 min.
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker
Director: J.C. Chandor
Genres: Art House/Foreign, Suspense/Thriller

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Margin Call"

Like Crazy

"Like Crazy": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

Director Drake Doremus' intensely wrought and immensely satisfying love story features star-making performances by Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin. "Love hurts," the classic song lyric insists, "love scars, love wounds and mars."

If you are experienced enough to understand love's fragility but still romantic enough to embrace its power, "Like Crazy" will put you away.

Deserved winner of the grand jury prize at Sundance, this story is as simple as two people mad about each other and as complex as intense relationships inevitably get.

Read Turan's full review of "Like Crazy" at the LA Times

Like Crazy
Opened October 28, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 29 min.

While attending college in Los Angeles, Jacob (Anton Yelchin), an American, and Anna (Felicity Jones), who hails from London, fall madly in love. However, the young lovers are forced apart when Anna violates the terms of her visa and must return to England. Jacob and Anna discover the difficulties of maintaining a long-distance relationship in the face of their changing lives. Yet, no matter how often circumstances pull them apart, they always find themselves back together again.

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston, Oliver Muirhead
Director: Drake Doremus
Genres: Romantic Drama, Drama

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Like Crazy"

Le Havre

"Le Havre": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

Finnish writer-director Aki Kaurismäki polishes his style of deadpan absurdism to a hilarious gloss in this tale of underdogs united. Buster Keaton isn't dead, he's alive and well in Finland, where under a new identity he pursues his own particular brand of deadpan absurdism to wonderful effect. If the name Aki Kaurismäki doesn't mean anything to you, it should, and "Le Havre" may be the film to make it happen.
Read Turan's full review of "Le Havre" at the LA Times

Le Havre
Opened October 21, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 43 min.
Kaurismäki's 16th feature concerns a young African refugee (newcomer Blondin Miguel) who is thrown by fate into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a well-read bohemian who works as a shoe-shiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering solidarity of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation.

In French with English subtitles.

Cast: André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Blondin Miguel, Elina Salo
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Genres: Art House/Foreign, Comedy, Drama

Movie times and tickets from Fandango for "Le Havre"

Kawasaki's Rose

"Kawasaki's Rose": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

"Kawasaki's Rose" is about secrets and lies, about truths that have been hidden, then revealed, then hidden again. This intricate, powerful, unsettling film brings us into a world of profound moral complexities where facile judgments must be suspended because even the best people can become complicit in evil.

Directed by the veteran Czech team of director Jan Hrebejk and writer Petr Jarchovsky (responsible for the superb Oscar-nominated "Divided We Fall"), "Kawasaki's Rose" peels away layers to reveal even deeper ones. It's a film rich in psychological and political currents, sunken pools and treacherous eddies that can trap the unwary.
Read Turan's full review of "Kawasaki's Rose" at the LA Times

Cast
Lenka Vlasakova - Lucie Daniela Kolarova - Jana Martin Huba - Pavel, Lucie's Father Milan Mikulcik - Ludek, Lucie's Husband Antonin Kratochvil - Borek, an artist Petra Hrebickova - Radka, a TV reporter Ladislav Chudik - Kafka, an ex-secret police investigator Anna Simonova - Bara, Lucie's daughter Martin Schulz - Kristian, a television news editor Isao Onoda - Mr. Kawasaki Crew Jan Hrebejk -

Director Rudolf Biermann

We Were Here

"We Were Here": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

'We Were Here' is a moving documentary of how the AIDS epidemic devastated and transformed San Francisco's gay community. An extraordinarily moving examination of how the AIDS epidemic both devastated and transformed San Francisco's gay community, this clear-eyed and soulful documentary brings us inside the contagion in a way that is so intimate, so personal, you feel like you're hearing about these catastrophic events for the first time. Read Turan's full review of "We Were Here" at the LA Times

We Were Here
During the 1970s, San Francisco became a safe haven for the gay and lesbian community, providing a place where one could live openly, away from discrimination. But, after almost a decade of celebration, the city was hit by a wave of shock and grief when it became ground zero of the AIDS epidemic, with hundreds of gay men falling victim to the disease. Director David Weissman explores the incredible story of love and loss through the eyes of five men and women who experienced it firsthand.

Opened September 9, 2011
Runtime:1 hr. 30 min. Cast: Ed Wolf, Paul Boneberg, Daniel Goldstein, Guy Clark, Eileen Glutzer
Director: David Weissman
Genres: Documentary, AIDS,GLBT, San Francisco gay community

Movie times and tickets for "We Were Here" from Fandango

Senna

"Senna": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

This documentary about Brazil's Ayrton Senna is a moving tribute to one of the best Formula One drivers who ever lived and who died tragically when he crashed on a race track. "Senna" is a documentary with the pace of a thriller, a story of motors and machines that is beyond compelling because of the intensely human story it tells. Brazil's Ayrton Senna was the boy genius of Formula One racing, winner of three world championships before dying in a crash in 1994 at age 34, a driver current and former Formula One racers recently voted the greatest who ever lived. Read Turan's full review of "Senna" at the LA Times

Senna
The most exciting driver to ever race Formula One, the handsome, charismatic Ayrton Senna became a Brazilian national hero and an icon to racing fans worldwide. But you don't need to know the first thing about racing to be thrilled and moved by Asif Kapadia's high-octane documentary, composed entirely from archival footage. It's an edge-of your-seat documentary that explores the backroom politics, bitter rivalries and the glamour of a sport that leaves no room for error. At the same time, it's a character study of a near-mythic genius who was a man of uncompromising humanity and grace.

Opened August 12, 2011
Runtime:1 hr. 44 min.
Cast: Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Frank Williams
Director: Asif Kapadia
Genres: Biography, Sports & Recreation, Documentary, Formula One Racing

Movie times and tickets for "Senna" from Fandango

My Afternoons with Margueritte

"My Afternoons with Margueritte": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

It takes a special skill to make a film feel as soft and light as a summer breeze, and yet that is what French director Jean Becker accomplishes with "My Afternoons With Margueritte," a glimpse into the everyday of two ordinary lives. This little gem is all about the nature of chance encounters and how they can change us in unexpected ways. Read Sharkey's full review of "My Afternoons with Margueritte"at the LA Times

My Afternoons with Margueritte
Adapted from Marie Sabin-Rogers’ novel La Tête en Friche, this charming comedy looks at the unlikely bond between the illiterate Germain (Gérard Depardieu) and the 95-year-old woman Margueritte (Gisèle Casadesus), whom he meets on a park bench in a small French town. Germain’s rocky relationship with his aging mother and his lack of education are formidible hurdles, but he has a hunger for knowledge that the cultured and articulate Margueritte is eager to feed.


Opened September 16, 2011
Runtime:1 hr. 22 min
Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Gisele Casadesus, François-Xavier Demaison, Maurane, Patrick Bouchitey
Director: Jean Becker
Genres: Comedy Drama
In French with English subtitles.

Movie times and tickets for "My Afternoons with Margueritte" from Fandango

The Help

"The Help": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

"The Help" is a delicious peppery stew of home-cooked, 1960s Southern-style racism that serves up a soulful dish of what ails us and what heals us. Laughter, which is ladled on thick as gravy, proves to be the secret ingredient — turning what should be a feel-bad movie about those troubled times into a heart-warming surprise. Read Sharkey's full review of "The Help"at the LA Times

The Help
"The Help" stars Emma Stone as Skeeter, Academy Award–nominated Viola Davis as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as Minny—three very different, extraordinary women in Mississippi during the 1960s, who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project that breaks societal rules and puts them all at risk. From their improbable alliance a remarkable sisterhood emerges, instilling all of them with the courage to transcend the lines that define them, and the realization that sometimes those lines are made to be crossed—even if it means bringing everyone in town face-to-face with the changing times.

Opened August 10, 2011
Runtime: 2 hr. 17 min.
Cast: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia L. Spencer, Jessica Chastain
Director: Tate Taylor
Genres: Period Film, Drama

Movie times and tickets for "The Help" from Fandango

The Debt

"The Debt": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

Bristling with dangers both corporeal and cerebral, "The Debt" is a superbly crafted espionage thriller packed with Israeli-Nazi score settling. A steely Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain stalk its sinister interior, upping the ante and the adrenaline with every twist and turn. Thanks to director John Madden's tightly coiled action sequences, this is as booody as it is brainy. Read Sharkey's full review of "The Debt" at the LA Times

The Debt
The espionage thriller begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Helen Mirren) and Stefan (Tom Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds). All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio (Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, and Sam Worthington) tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel (Jesper Christensen) in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team’s mission was accomplished – or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations.
Opened August 31, 2011 | Runtime:1 hr. 44 min.
Cast: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Jesper Christensen, Marton Csokas
Director: John Madden
Genres: Psychological Thriller, Unglamorized Spy Film, Thriller

Movie times and tickets for "The Debt" from Fandango