1) Senna
You certainly do not have a to be a racing fan to enjoy Senna, although you might come out of the cinema with a new appreciation for the sport. At its heart, Senna is a study of a fascinating and flawed man, one of sport’s first superstars of the modern era who had and still has a messianic image in his own country. We were blessed with some brilliant feature length documentaries this year. Senna was the best of the lot and also my film of 2011.
2) Pina
Modern dance; not an art form that will draw punters in droves to the cinema. Not an art form that I particularly cared about before watching Pina. But then something happened, no doubt thanks to the skills of director Wim Wenders who has made Pina into the most extraordinary film I have seen in 3D, and of course no doubt thanks to the skills of choreographer Pina Bausch, who this film is about and who sadly died during the course of its making. Pina may be projected onto a flat screen, but Wenders’ mastery of the new 3D medium was such that this was a truly immersive, totally mesmerising, experience.
3) The King’s Speech
A decade-long bromance is at the heart of The King’s Speech. The friendship is between two men from worlds apart, but who are both as stubborn and belligerent as each other. One is eccentric Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue. The other is Bertie, the future King George VI. Featuring a brilliant central performance and a wonderful all-star cast, The King’s Speech is funny, charming and heart-warming.
4) Submarine
The ups and downs and make-ups and break-ups of young love are the key components of Submarine, one of the best and funniest British movies for many a year. Submarine may descend into caricature at times, but it is intelligent and wonderfully-written, with some genuine laugh out loud moments. It is a hugely enjoyable film which anyone who has been young or in love will be able to relate to, guffawing and grimacing in equal measure.
5) Drive
Ryan Gosling’s best film of a year that propelled him to Hollywood A-list is thrillingly sexy, scintillatingly stylish and with more than a hint of violence so outrageous that it becomes almost comic. Gosling stars as a mild-mannered Hollywood stunt driver and car mechanic who falls for his next door neighbour Carey Mulligan and gets caught up in the wrongdoings of her ne’er-do-well husband, recently returned home from prison. This is an illicit joy ride of a movie that won Nicholas Winding Refn the best director award at this year’s Cannes film festival.
