The 45 best movies of 2011
by durmus_sinasi | created - 26 Oct 2012 | updated - 28 Oct 2012 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Artist (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When George, a silent movie superstar, meets Peppy Miller, a dancer, sparks fly between the two. However, after the introduction of talking pictures, their fortunes change, affecting their dynamic.
Director: Michel Hazanavicius | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Votes: 248,487 | Gross: $44.67M
2. The Intouchables (2011)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Drama
After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver.
Directors: Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano | Stars: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Audrey Fleurot
Votes: 927,773 | Gross: $13.18M
3. A Separation (2011)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Votes: 258,282 | Gross: $7.10M
4. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
Not Rated | 157 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan | Stars: Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan
Votes: 50,224 | Gross: $0.14M
5. Drive (I) (2011)
R | 100 min | Action, Drama
A mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor's husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks
Votes: 703,471 | Gross: $35.06M
6. Warrior (2011)
PG-13 | 140 min | Action, Drama, Sport
The youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home, where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament - a path that puts the fighter on a collision course with his estranged, older brother.
Director: Gavin O'Connor | Stars: Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Morrison
Votes: 497,410 | Gross: $13.66M
7. The Help (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Drama
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 492,037 | Gross: $169.71M
8. Hugo (2011)
PG | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
In 1931 Paris, an orphan living in the walls of a train station gets wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 336,615 | Gross: $73.86M
9. The Tree of Life (2011)
PG-13 | 139 min | Drama, Fantasy
The story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents' conflicting teachings.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken
Votes: 183,984 | Gross: $13.30M
10. X: First Class (2011)
PG-13 | 131 min | Action, Sci-Fi
In the 1960s, superpowered humans Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr work together to find others like them, but Erik's vengeful pursuit of an ambitious mutant who ruined his life causes a schism to divide them.
Director: Matthew Vaughn | Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon
Votes: 722,928 | Gross: $146.41M
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
PG-13 | 130 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Harry, Ron, and Hermione search for Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes in their effort to destroy the Dark Lord as the final battle rages on at Hogwarts.
Director: David Yates | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon
Votes: 946,734 | Gross: $381.01M
12. The Skin I Live In (2011)
R | 120 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Jan Cornet, Marisa Paredes
Votes: 165,613 | Gross: $3.19M
13. Source Code (2011)
PG-13 | 93 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
A soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes.
Director: Duncan Jones | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright
Votes: 549,190 | Gross: $54.71M
14. The Raid: Redemption (2011)
R | 101 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.
Director: Gareth Evans | Stars: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy, Donny Alamsyah
Votes: 216,846 | Gross: $4.11M
15. The Kid with a Bike (2011)
PG-13 | 87 min | Drama
Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in a state-run youth farm. In a random act of kindness, the town hairdresser agrees to foster him on weekends.
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne | Stars: Thomas Doret, Cécile de France, Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione
Votes: 28,620 | Gross: $1.38M
16. Moneyball (2011)
PG-13 | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
Director: Bennett Miller | Stars: Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 463,900 | Gross: $75.61M
17. Midnight in Paris (2011)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Kurt Fuller
Votes: 449,490 | Gross: $56.82M
18. The Descendants (2011)
R | 115 min | Comedy, Drama
A land baron tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.
Director: Alexander Payne | Stars: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause
Votes: 251,594 | Gross: $82.58M
19. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale I (2011)
Not Rated | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
An indigenous clan-based people living in harmony with nature find their way of life threatened when violent interlopers from another culture arrive, intent on seizing their natural resources and enslaving them.
Director: Te-Sheng Wei | Stars: Masanobu Andô, Jun'ichi Haruta, Sabu Kawahara, Shiang-Chu Tang
Votes: 7,324 | Gross: $0.14M
20. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
R | 112 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined.
Director: Lynne Ramsay | Stars: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell
Votes: 167,542 | Gross: $1.74M
21. A Simple Life (2011)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama
After suffering a stroke, an altruistic maid announces that she wants to quit her job and move into an old people's home.
Director: Ann Hui | Stars: Andy Lau, Deannie Ip, Hailu Qin, Fuli Wang
Votes: 6,295 | Gross: $0.19M
22. Melancholia (2011)
R | 135 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård
Votes: 195,635 | Gross: $3.03M
23. Take Shelter (2011)
R | 120 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
Director: Jeff Nichols | Stars: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Tova Stewart
Votes: 107,914 | Gross: $1.73M
24. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A substance designed to help the brain repair itself gives advanced intelligence to a chimpanzee who leads an ape uprising.
Director: Rupert Wyatt | Stars: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto, Karin Konoval
Votes: 557,654 | Gross: $176.76M
25. The Turin Horse (2011)
Not Rated | 155 min | Drama
A rural farmer is forced to confront the mortality of his faithful horse.
Directors: Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky | Stars: János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos, Ricsi
Votes: 19,390 | Gross: $0.05M
26. Elena (2011)
Not Rated | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When a sudden illness and an unexpected reunion threaten dutiful housewife Elena's potential inheritance, she must hatch a desperate plan ...
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev | Stars: Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smirnov, Aleksey Rozin, Elena Lyadova
Votes: 15,203 | Gross: $0.02M
27. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
R | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong
Votes: 212,300 | Gross: $24.15M
28. Monsieur Lazhar (2011)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
At a Montréal public grade school, an Algerian immigrant is hired to replace a popular teacher who committed suicide in her classroom. While helping his students deal with their grief, his own recent loss is revealed.
Director: Philippe Falardeau | Stars: Mohamed Fellag, Sophie Nélisse, Émilien Néron, Danielle Proulx
Votes: 21,182 | Gross: $2.01M
29. In Darkness (2011)
R | 145 min | Drama, War
A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the German-occupied Polish city of Lvov.
Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader
Votes: 11,153 | Gross: $1.04M
30. Bullhead (2011)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama
Sint-Truiden, Belgium. Jacky, a young cattle farmer who is constantly pumped on steroids and hormones, is approached by a veterinarian to make a deal with a notorious beef trader.
Director: Michaël R. Roskam | Stars: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeroen Perceval, Jeanne Dandoy, Barbara Sarafian
Votes: 24,294 | Gross: $0.15M
31. Oslo, August 31st (2011)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
One day in the life of Anders, a young recovering drug addict, who takes a brief leave from his treatment center to interview for a job and catch up with old friends in Oslo.
Director: Joachim Trier | Stars: Anders Danielsen Lie, Hans Olav Brenner, Ingrid Olava, Malin Crépin
Votes: 29,596 | Gross: $0.10M
32. Attack the Block (2011)
R | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion.
Director: Joe Cornish | Stars: John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones
Votes: 111,367 | Gross: $1.02M
33. Sleep Tight (2011)
Not Rated | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Cesar, a miserable man who works as an apartment concierge, takes a special interest in an attractive woman who lives there. He goes to great lengths to trouble her.
Director: Jaume Balagueró | Stars: Luis Tosar, Marta Etura, Alberto San Juan, Petra Martínez
Votes: 46,639
34. Jane Eyre (2011)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A mousy governess who softens the heart of her employer soon discovers that he's hiding a terrible secret.
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga | Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell, Su Elliot
Votes: 92,950 | Gross: $11.24M
35. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Five college friends head out to a remote cabin for a getaway, but things don't go as planned when they start getting killed. They soon discover that there is more to the cabin than it seems.
Director: Drew Goddard | Stars: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz
Votes: 450,098 | Gross: $42.07M
36. Rango (2011)
PG | 107 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
Rango is an ordinary chameleon who accidentally winds up in the town of Dirt, a lawless outpost in the Wild West in desperate need of a new sheriff.
Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Timothy Olyphant, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 292,665 | Gross: $123.48M
37. The Flowers of War (2011)
R | 146 min | Drama, History, Romance
An American finds refuge during the 1937 Japanese invasion of Nanking in a church with a group of women. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.
Director: Yimou Zhang | Stars: Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Xinyi Zhang, Tianyuan Huang
Votes: 55,672 | Gross: $0.01M
38. Le Havre (2011)
Not Rated | 93 min | Comedy, Drama
When an African boy arrives by cargo ship in the port city of Le Havre, an aging shoe shiner takes pity on the child and welcomes him into his home.
Director: Aki Kaurismäki | Stars: André Wilms, Blondin Miguel, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Kati Outinen
Votes: 23,526 | Gross: $0.61M
39. War of the Arrows (2011)
R | 122 min | Action, Adventure
A skilled Korean archer goes up against the mighty force of Manchus with the sole purpose of rescuing his kidnapped sister.
Director: Han-min Kim | Stars: Park Hae-il, Ryu Seung-ryong, Kim Mu-yeol, Moon Chae-won
Votes: 12,793 | Gross: $0.25M
40. Shame (2011)
NC-17 | 101 min | Drama
A sex addict's carefully cultivated private life falls apart after his sister arrives for an indefinite stay.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Lucy Walters
Votes: 206,062 | Gross: $4.00M
41. Headhunters (2011)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
An accomplished headhunter risks everything to obtain a valuable painting owned by a former mercenary.
Director: Morten Tyldum | Stars: Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Julie R. Ølgaard
Votes: 106,902 | Gross: $1.20M
42. Weekend (II) (2011)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Romance
After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.
Director: Andrew Haigh | Stars: Tom Cullen, Chris New, Jonathan Race, Laura Freeman
Votes: 32,801 | Gross: $0.46M
43. 50/50 (2011)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.
Director: Jonathan Levine | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 342,738 | Gross: $35.01M
44. Tyrannosaur (2011)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama
Joseph, a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction, earns a chance of redemption that appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker.
Director: Paddy Considine | Stars: Peter Mullan, Archie Lal, Jag Sanghera, Mike Fearnley
Votes: 33,744 | Gross: $0.02M
45. Detachment (2011)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama
A substitute teacher who drifts from classroom to classroom finds a connection to the students and teachers during his latest assignment.
Director: Tony Kaye | Stars: Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, Marcia Gay Harden, Lucy Liu
Votes: 98,888 | Gross: $0.07M
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