The Cranky Critic Best of 2011

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The BEST OF 2011
BEST FILM	BEST MOVIE	ANIMATED	FAMILY FILM	DOCUMENTARY	WORST FILM

The Artist	Source Code	Winnie the Pooh	Hugo	*Chasing Madoff*	Melancholia
Carnage Cook County The Help Warrior	Rise of the Planet of the Apes Harry Potter DH2 Sherlock Holmes A Game Of Shadows Tucker and Dale vs Evil	Rango Puss in Boots Happy Feet Two	The Muppets	Louder than a Bomb Page One	All's Faire in Love Passion Play
THE TOP TEN: For the first time in 15 years, the top ten includes a film I flat out told readers NOT to see. *Cook County* was technically perfect. Its subject matter, on the other hand... oy. Just mising the list: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Puncture and Young Adult FAMILY FILM: If your kids are under 10, *Winnie the Pooh* and *The Muppets* win out. If you have children old enough to understand the little bit of film history in *Hugo*, the charm of Martin Scorsese's picture is quite wonderful.
Actor	Actress	Director	Supporting Actor	Supporting Actress	Ensemble Performance
Anson Mount Cook County	Glenn Close Albert Nobbs	Martin Scorsese Hugo	Patton Oswalt Young Adult	Viola Davis - The Help	Carnage
Jake Gyllenhaal - Source Code George Clooney - Ides of March Chris Evans - Puncture	Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady Charlize Theron - Young Adult Vinessa Shaw - Puncture	Roman Polanski - Carnage George Clooney - Ides of March	Albert Brooks - Drive John C Reilly - Carnage Jim Broadbent - The Iron Lady	Vanessa Redgrave Coriolanus Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Best Actor: A big part of Cook County is the performance of Anson Mount. His character is capital "d" Despicable. His acting made us hate the guy as much as understand his, uh, way of "thinking". Best Actress: Meryl Streep will win Oscar for representing a real person, Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady. On the other hand, Glenn Close created a character from whole cloth in Albert Nobbs and we give more points for that. Best Supporting Actress: a near dead tie amongst the three listed. Both Janet McTeer and Viola Davis turned in a whole list of great performances for the year but we think Davis' role in The Help just pushed the right button. As for Best Supporting Actor Patton Oswalt. See Young Adult and you'll understand our pick. Patton's competition for Oscar will come from Albert Brooks (in Drive)
Screenplay (Original)	Screenplay (Adapted)	Cinematography	Foreign		SHORT FILM
Source Code	Carnage	Melancholia	Hanna		*The Porcelain Unicorn*
Our male friends arguing Kirsten Dunst as a bride vs. Kirsten Dunst naked aside, Melancholia bored the crap out of us. Pretty pictures belong in an art gallery but pretty pictures are what cinematography is about, and by just a sliver over the equally incomprehensible Tree of Life, Melancholia takes the win. While we don't have the time, or much of an inclination, to screen the glut of short films that are the life blood of film festivals, as long as it's available for viewing on the 'net you should click the imagelink and have a look at The Porcelain Unicorn

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The Cranky Critic® is a Registered Trademark of, and his website is, copyright © 1995-2012 Chuck Schwartz. Articles and interviews by Paul Fischer are copyright © 1999 - 2006 Paul Fischer. All Rights Reserved. All images, unless otherwise noted, are property of and ©, ®, ™ their respective studios. Used by permission. Not to be used or copied for any commercial purpose. Academy Award™(s) and Oscar®(s) are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The BEST OF 2011