Best Movies of 2011
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
MoneyballFront-office arguments filmed like heists, and an ending that refuses the trophy on principle.Read the review
Tinker Tailor Soldier SpyEspionage as clerical work in brown rooms, and Gary Oldman plays Smiley almost entirely through stillness.
The Tree of LifeA Texas childhood set beside the formation of the universe, and Malick makes the comparison hold.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2The payoff film, and the only one that gets to spend everything the series spent ten years saving.
HugoThe best case anyone made for 3D, wrapped around the sincerest thing Scorsese has ever filmed.
MelancholiaVon Trier gives away the ending in eight minutes, then proves that knowing does not help at all.
The IntouchablesTwo actors with total chemistry carry a crowd-pleaser past every objection you can raise to it.
Crazy, Stupid, Love.Gosling and Stone are starring in a sharper romantic comedy than the one assembled around them, and the babysitter subplot should not have survived a rewrite.
Horrible BossesA mechanical plot rescued by three villains who are visibly having more fun than anyone else on screen.
The Ides of MarchA campaign thriller with a first rate cast that settles for a sex scandal when it promised an argument about power.