RICHARD’S BEST OF 2011

Funniest Movie of the Year: “Bridesmaids.” Mixing a scene set in a hoity-toity wedding dress salon and food poisoning was one of the most inspired and crude ideas of the year.

Best Weeper Movie: As a film critic I shed more tears at “Jack & Jill.” Watching once-revered thespian Al Pacino debase himself in that movie was the saddest thing I saw on screen this year. For the general public, however, I defy anyone not to break down during the “mother and son” talk in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” Bring a towel to soak up the tears.

Best Kids Film: Hands down, Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” although as writer Fran Lebowitz said, it might be "too good for children."

Best Villain: The psychokinetic killer tire from “Rubber.” Yes, you read that right. Think Carrie with treads. Runner up: the germs from “Contagion.”

Best Animated Movie: For sheer eye popping visual candy “The Adventures of Tintin” ties with “Rango” but if we were talking about Best Animated Characters the award would have to go to “Happy Feet Two’s” bug-eyed Bill and Will, (voices of Matt Damon and Brad Pitt), can only be described as existential shrimps. Actually they are krill, a tiny marine crustacean, but they banter back and forth like Ionesco and Beckett discussing the vagaries of their limited lives.

Best Animal Appearance: Cosmo, the nine-year-old Jack Russell terrier in “Beginners”; cutest film dog since Benji, most talented since Rin Tin Tin. Runner up? Rosie the 9000-pound pachyderm who out-acted Robert Pattinson in “Water for Elephants.”

Most Revealing Performance: Michael Fassbender in “Shame.” It’s the most naked performance probably ever by a performer who will likely earn a Best Actor nomination. There is a great deal of nudity, but bodies aren’t the only things bared here. Playing polar personality opposites Fassbender and Carey Mulligan each reveal enough neurosis to keep Psyche 101 textbook writers busy for years.

Best Movie Parents: Mom Category: Charlotte Phelan played by Allison Janey in “The Help.” The dramatic mother has some of the movie’s best lines—“My daughter has upset my cancerous ulcer,” she cries at one point, and while she starts off as a stereotype of a 1950s Southern woman she ends the movie a changed person. “Courage sometimes skips a generation,” she says to her daughter, “Thank you for bringing it back to our family.”

Dad Category: Tom Hanks is barely in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” but is seemingly cast because of the goodwill he naturally inspires in audiences. The film needs a lovable dad who is largely absent through the story and Hanks perfectly fits the bill.

Best Romance / Rom Com: “Like Crazy,” the story of a British college in love with an American, only to be separated from him when she's banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa, has it all—a great love story and characters you care about.
Since there were no good rom coms released this year, I’ll leave that category blank until next year.

Best First Date Movie: “Melancholia,” the depressing end-of-the-world drama from Lars Von Trier. If a first date can survive the nihilism on screen then the relationship has a good chance of lasting. 

Best Lifestyle Porn: The suits Ryan Gosling wore in “Crazy, Stupid Love” (designed by Albert Hammond Jr. of the band The Strokes), the 70s-elegant house in “Paranormal Activity 3” (before the demons moved in) and Johnny Depp’s hair in “The Run Diaries.”

Best Action Movie: It feels like filmmakers blew up more things on screen this year than ever before, but for my money the most exciting action movie of the was “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.” The scene where Tom Cruise scales the outside of the tallest building in the world is guaranteed to make you chew your popcorn a little faster!