5. We Bought a Zoo (dir. Cameron Crowe)

Today is an age of cold hearted narcissism. In an age where we all join up on twitter attempting to get more and more followers to listen to our every 140-character thought (ps. Please follow me). We don’t care what you do with yourself as long as you’re not interrupting my thing. So when a film like this comes along and shows you that people are capable of wonderful things that is so sincerely expressed as this then you know why I found myself smiling ear to ear throughout the film.

It may not be on many people’s top ten of the year, but it caught my attention in a way not many films in 2011 did.

4. The Descendants (dir. Alexander Payne)

Sometimes we’re all dealt a shit hand, even the more privileged of us. So when Matt has to deal with dealing out the bad news that his wife is going to be taken off life support and die to his family and her friends and try his best to keep it together while everyone is looking on him and judging him for how he’s handling it all, we’re forced to sit there and ride along with him. Add the fact that we, as well as Matt, discover that his soon to be dead wife was cheating on him then we’ve got a real emotional journey of how, over the course of less than a week, do we go through all of these feelings without shortchanging anything.

Payne keeps a level of brevity to Matt’s character and how he reacts to his situation in such a way that makes it so much more effective because the moments where we get him being truly emotive are so beautiful and earnest that we connect with them much more than we would otherwise.

3. The Muppets (dir. James Bobin)

What more can I say to praise this movie. It’s heartwarming, nostalgic, and downright a fun time in the theatre. I can’t speak for those people who go in not knowing who or what a Muppet is, but the film fits The Muppets franchise in such a wickedly smart way that I can’t help but call it the best Muppet film to date. Thank you Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller, Bret McKenzie and whoever in the Muppet studio that said yes.

2. Senna (dir. Asif Kapadia)

Not since Man on Wire has a documentary given me a tale of a man doing something so astounding that I couldn’t stop myself but be amazed. F1 fan or not you cannot watch this movie and not be amazed at Ayrton Senna and what he accomplished every time he hit the track then you are a man without a soul.

1. Drive (dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)

I’ve been that one guy who hasn’t quite fallen in love with Refn as a filmmaker just yet. I admire his visual style, but his thematic quirks haven’t won me over just yet (I promise to finally watch the Pusher trilogy soon).

With that said however, this film is the exception to that rule. The style and the fetishistic use of violence within the movie is what grabbed me and took me on a drive (huh… huh… see what I did there?) through this beautiful story of how this loner, man with no name, decided to try and do good by this woman he’s fallen in love with. Gosling is disturbingly good as the succinct protagonist who uses his words as needed and always gets a point across, even with hammers.

What’s Your #1 Film of 2011?

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