The 10 Best Movies Of Summer 2011

Director: Glenn Ficcara and John Requa
Stars: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon

To call Crazy, Stupid, Love a “romantic comedy” seems like an unfair slight. By doing so, you’d lump the summer’s best date movie into the same box as films starring Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler, Katherine Heigl, and/or Sarah Jessica Parker, and desecrate its commendable script with allusions to such narrative malarkey as Valentine’s Day. But, hey, you’ve got to call a spade a spade, right? And, technically, Crazy, Stupid, Love is a rom-com.

Well, in all actuality, it’s much more than your basic rom-com; on deeper inspection, Steve Carell’s first big post-Office look is a tender glimpse into the heartbroken lives of characters wading through a failed marriage, hindered by shallow playboy tendencies, and dumbstruck by puppy love. The emotional moments hit hard (a phone exchange between Carell and Julianne Moore is heart-melting stuff), and, thanks to great performances from all on board (particularly Ryan Gosling’s revelatory comedic work and Emma Stone’s adorable wit), the characters aren’t one-note ciphers. It’s like He’s Just Not That Into You as constructed by people who’ve never undergone lobotomies.

Director: Jason Eisener
Stars: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Brian Downey, Robb Wells, Gregory Smith

Hobo With A Shotgun is a film specifically made for a certain type of movie lover, the viewer who watched the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez exploitation throwback Grindhouse and thought, “That was pretty cool, but why’d they chump out so much?” Birthed from essentially the same idea as Grindhouse, that being the desire to stage a late '70s/early '80s trash flick through modern filmmaking, writer-director Jason Eisener’s ridiculously hardcore feature debut is, in terms of its nearly flawless mimicking of older conventions, superior to Grindhouse, not to mention every other wink-wink exploitation riff made in recent years.

As the titular hobo, B-movie favorite Rutger Hauer is horror’s answer to Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler: an oft-forgotten veteran blasting his way through a glorious comeback with pure go-for-it zeal. Hauer’s deadpan seriousness is the perfect complement to everything else in Eisener’s fucking mental production, a relentless smasher of taboos in which little kids are torched, human heads are smashed between bumper cars, shotgun rounds are discharged in public more than toilet paper is thrown on Mischief Night. Together, the director’s lunacy and Hauer’s hilariously serious performance offset each other enough to render Hobo With A Shotgun as the best kind of dysfunctional marriage.

Director: Alex de la Iglesia
Stars: Carlos Areces, Antonio de la Torre, Carolina Bang, Manuel Tallafe

A better title for this one might have been Clown With Machine Guns, or Clown With A Machete. Shit, maybe even Homicidal Clown Drives An Ice Cream Truck. Tell us you wouldn’t pay to see movies with those titles. Not that The Last Circus is a bad name; identifying the story of a lovestruck madman in colorful face paint who goes on a killing spree in fascist 1973-era Spain, the film’s actual title is fitting, but it’s unable to justifiably encapsulate Spanish writer-director Alex de la Iglesia’s unparalleled vision of balls-out mayhem. We’re not even sure if any label could do so.

Arriving in limited art-house theaters in mid-August, The Last Circus demonstrated to the lucky few able to see it on a big screen just why it has made thick waves at various film festivals over the last year and change. It’s the ultimate cornucopia of gratuitous indulgence; the violence is unhinged and excessive (complete with a guy frying his own face with a hot iron), the women are scantily clad and scalding hot (namely love interest Carolina Bang—yes, that’s her real name), and ideas are totally bonkers (at one point, the main character hides out in a forest, naked, and lives like an un-caged animal).

To de la Iglesia’s credit, though, The Last Circus is also a fascinating character study, tracking the mental rise and physical fall of a marginally sympathetic lunatic with an unpredictability that sets the film apart from just about any other movie you’re likely this year or next.

Director: David Yates
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Tom Felton

With the breakneck and superb final entry Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the producers behind the record-breaking Harry Potter movie franchise didn’t just wave goodbye to theater patrons—they chucked up gangster deuces. Dumbledore fanatics who’ve been with the series since 2001’s Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone received a nonstop action spectacle that tied up the overarching plotlines, mainly Harry’s feud with Lord Voldemort and Hermione’s reluctance to slide into first base with prudish Ron; for apathetic ticket-buyers, director David Yates’ ending of the Potter brand delivered more impressive effects and awe-inspiring set-pieces than any other summer product, except, perhaps, Michael Bay’s overloaded Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.

Potter’s staggering gross figures stand as Hollywood’s highest dollar amounts for any movie franchise, but, artistically, that’s not the biggest victory that Deathly Hallows: Part 2 solidified. That distinction goes to the film’s gratifying sendoff quality; fears of Daniel Radcliffe’s iconic character suffering through a swan song akin to The Matrix Revolutions or The Godfather Part III have officially been assuaged. If we gave a shit about those Twilight movies, we’d wish for Team Edward Cullen members to feel a similar satisfaction from the forthcoming Breaking Dawn installments. But we don’t, so we won’t.

Director: Sion Sono
Stars: Maketo Ashikawa, Denden, Mitsuru Fukikoshia, Megumi Kagurazaka, Hikari Kajiwara

Released in late July in few enough nationwide theaters to count on one hand, Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono’s brutal Cold Fish swam under the public’s consciousness, though it deserves extensive critical praise (which it received from the few reviewers who actually covered it) and viewer awareness. And that’s where we come in; the summer’s best horror movie, Cold Fish is a serial killer flick with real bite that’s a no-brainer for this list.

Purportedly based on “real events,” Sono’s dense horror-thriller follows a pushover of a father whose teenage daughter goes to work for a rival fish shop’s overbearing owner, who also happens to be a mass murderer with more than 50 bodies to his name and a propensity for dismembering his victims in an isolated cabin filled with religious iconography. As the dad becomes an unwitting accomplice, poppa’s own killer instincts come out to play.

The first half of Cold Fish is the darkest of comedies, patiently introducing sexual dysfunctions into its mix before erupting into a final act overflowing with blood, guts, and bleak tragedy. At nearly two-and-a-half-hours long, Sono’s film transpires with the patience of a comparably superior serial killer movie, David Fincher’s Zodiac; while Fincher’s subtly unnerving flick has the upper hand, Cold Fish carves its own consummate identity through sheer gruesomeness.

Director: Paul Feig
Stars: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Chris O'Dowd, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Hamm, Wendi McLendon-Covey

OK, so we’re as guilty as any other imprudently chauvinistic guy. Despite the presence of both current and former SNL lookers Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, the lady-driven Bridesmaids, prior to its release, never felt like more than an equal opportunity ploy that’d offer some laughs but ultimately go the way of, say, The House Bunny—moronic, we know. But, as its phenomenal $168 million box office intake shows, director Paul Feig’s blockbuster comedy is a crowd-pleaser for all sexes that’s destined for 40 Year Old Virgin-like durability. We owe the ladies a sincere apology.

Especially Wiig, who anchors the film with an equally hilarious and endearingly vulnerable performance as the love-deficient BFF of Rudolph’s soon-to-be-hitched character; aided by Rose Byrne’s believably snooty performance and breakthrough champ Melissa McCarthy’s flatulent scene-swipes, Wiig’s long overdue starring vehicle (which she also co-wrote for super-producer Judd Apatow) achieves “funniest movie of 2011” status without really trying all that hard—one gets the sense that all involved had a carefree blast making Bridesmaids.

A few of the sequences don’t know when to end properly (a possibly byproduct of Wiig’s Saturday Night Live experience, where skits hardly ever conclude successfully), and the story’s payoff isn’t as irreverent as it could have been, but that’s all good; Bridesmaids, like a sexy woman, overcomes its flaws by offering unabashed, and often raunchy, pleasures. What, you thought chauvinism was completely dead?

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till, Zoe Kravitz, Oliver Platt

In a summer jammed with superhero movies, only one could emerge as the season’s best, and the victor is X-Men: First Class. The rest of the comic book lot was altogether enjoyable, but the non-X films’ flaws are tough to forgive; Thor’s action pales in comparison to its riveting Shakespearean drama, Captain America: The First Avenger lacks memorable characters, and Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern, is, well, Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern; director Matthew Vaughn’s (Kick-Ass) mutant revival, on the other hand, is across-the-board strong, rocking with a spy movie script that rivals the best 007 flicks and benefitting from a pair of excellent leading men (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender).

Like each of its superhero flick peers this summer, X-Men: First Class is a structurally familiar origin story, tracing back to the early friendship days of Professor X (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender); what sets it apart, though, is the script’s deft intermingling of Cold War intrigue, historical revisions, and ensemble character development, which Cowboys & Aliens, another high-concept comic book adaptation, could not accomplish. Hopefully the creative minds behind next year’s The Avengers have taken sufficient notes.

Director: Joe Cornish
Stars: John Boyega, Franz Drameh, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Nick Frost, Jodie Whitaker, Luke Treadaway, Simon Howard

One of the summer’s biggest disappointments is that the British sci-fi flick Attack The Block, the benefactor of fervent online buzz, didn’t explode as the season’s most profitable indie sleeper turned major hit. Attribute the minor letdown to both a hard-to-find, limited release and an unfortunate lack of mainstream exposure; once writer-director Joe Cornish’s vibrant debut hits DVD and Blu-ray, though, expect it to reach a cult following—or at least it damn well should.

Similar in plot to J.J. Abrams’ inferior Super 8, Attack The Block centers on a gang of teenaged London hoodlums who take on an alien invasion that’s infesting their projects; inspired by everything from The Goonies to old John Carpenter flicks, Cornish’s breathless action pic keeps the jokes firing, the violence effective, and the kids’ themselves genuine, namely the crew’s brooding leader (played wonderfully by breakout star John Boyega). And, unlike the aforementioned Super 8, the film’s aliens are quite satisfying, resembling bear-like shadows and sporting neon-green eyes and snarling ferocity.

Seeing the electric Attack The Block in a theater packed with loud, energetic viewers was one of 2011’s most enjoyable cinematic experiences for all those who did so—too bad only a few of you actually did.

Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Owen Wilson, Rachel MacAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Tom Hiddleston, Alison Pill, Corey Stoll, Adrien Brody

To be honest, we didn’t think Woody Allen still had it in him. It’s foolish to underestimate a cinematic icon such as the New York heavyweight, we know, but, after his one-two punch of mediocrity with 2009’s Whatever Works and last year’s unbearably dull You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, your man Woody seemed to be on the verge of a harsh fall-off. In typically slick form, though, the tight-lipped Allen sucker-punched all skeptics with Midnight In Paris, a fantastical and breezy dream of a romantic comedy that both reinvigorated the filmmaker and made us like Owen Wilson once again—that’s one hell of a double-edge feat.

The magic of Midnight In Paris lies in what its commercials and trailers didn’t tell us; sold as a character-driven, subtle comedy about a guy finding himself in the legendary French city, Allen’s best film in decades actually plays like an amiable Twilight Zone episode. Wilson’s character is a hack screenwriter who dreams of becoming a respected novelist, and, while in Paris with his cold-hearted wife (Rachel MacAdams), Wilson encounters literary spirits such as Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Thor’s Tom Hiddleston); along the way, he also falls in love with Pablo Picasso’s free-spirited mistress (Marion Cotillard).

The film’s supernatural elements are charming, not macabre, and Allen’s intention is to promote the worldliness and cultural appreciations of literature and art, as well as tell a delightful story. Midnight In Paris succeeds on all fronts; it’s consistently funny, well acted, and quietly poignant. He might be 75 years old, but, yes, Woody Allen is 2011’s comeback kid. Or man, rather.

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Stars: James Franco, Freida Pinto, Andy Serkis, Tom Felton, Brain Cox, John Lithgow

Back in April, before the summer movie season officially jumped off, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was little more than a seemingly unnecessary blip on moviegoers’ radars; shit, we nearly left it off of our most anticipated summer movies list. Can you blame us? All signs pointed to something akin to this summer’s Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. James Franco stars as an esteemed scientist? It’s a dreaded “reboot” of a franchise that’s already been abused no thanks to Tim Burton’s underwhelming 2001 remake Planet Of The Apes? It was nearly impossible to expect anything great.

Well, just call Andy Serkis’ Hollywood’s own real-life Ethan Hunt. In all of his performance capture glory, the chameleon-like British actor delivers arguably the year’s most emotionally rich performance, turning the house-trained chimp Caesar into a multidimensional, heartbreaking, and, as the film progresses, forcefully dominant character that almost single-handedly upgrades Rise into an A-plus echelon. Serkis received notable help from director Rupert Wyatt, who's no slouch with grandiose action (the Golden Gate Bridge climax is a triumph) or ape-driven drama.

Come February, when Eddie Murphy is announcing Academy Awards presenters, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes will most likely only wrangle up nods in the effects categories, but it’ll be a damn shame. The year’s nowhere near over, but, as it stands today, no one’s given a more dynamic and powerful performance all year than Serkis’ work as Caesar. If you don’t think so, go suck on a banana, hater.