Critics' End of the Year Roundup

2011 is coming to end. Which means critics are making their best films of the year lists. I love a good list. I still have so much to see that I probably won't make my top 10 list until January. And because I know you are all busy people-but really wanna know what Time magazine liked the best-I've compiled a list (remember how I love those) of what various critics picked. Use it to update your Netflix queue, go to the theatre, pretend like you've seen a movie that no one has heard of. Either way you can thank me later.


The original and still the best Roger Ebert who went with 20 films this year:

1. A Separation
2. Shame
3. The Tree of Life
4. Hugo
5. Take Shelter
6. Kinyarwanda
7. Drive 
8. Midnight in Paris
9. Le Havre
10. The Artist
11. Melancholia
12. Terri
13. The Descendants
14. Margaret
15. Martha Marcy May Marlene
16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
17. Trust
18. Life, Above All
19. The Mill and the Cross
20. Another Earth

A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis at The New York Times decided on a random number and chose to list them alphabetically this year:

A.O. Scott's:

Bridesmaids;  A Bright Summer Day; Cedar Rapids; A Dangerous Method; The Descendants; The Future; The Help; Incendies; Into the Abyss; Margin Call; Meek’s Cutoff; Mysteries of Lisbon; Le Quattro Volte; The Tree of Life; Tuesday, After Christmas; War Horse; Warrior; Weekend; Winnie the Pooh; Young Adult

What are you guys looking at? You're on more critics list then any other film

Manohla Dargis's:

Abracadabra; Aurora; The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu; Bridesmaids; Contagion; A Dangerous Method; J. Edgar; Le Havre; Hugo; Melancholia; Moneyball; My Joy; Mysteries of Lisbon; Of Gods and Men; Poetry; Le Quattro Volte; The Return; Seeking the Monkey King; The Skin I Live In; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Voluptuous Sleep; Warrior

Entertainment Weekly, Time, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and The New Yorker after the jump

Owen Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly (It came out Thursday but it's not online yet. I guess they want people to actually buy it. Weird.):

1. The Tree of Life
2. The Descendants
3. Bridesmaids
4. A Separation
5. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
6. Beginners
7. Rampart
8. Crazy, Stupid, Love
9. The Trip
10. Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol

Lisa Schwarzbaum at EW:

1. Melancholia
2. Bridesmaids
3. The Artist
4. Hugo
5. A Separation
6. The Descendants
7. Pina
8. Moneyball
9. The Interrupters
10. Beginners

Richard Corliss at Time magazine:

1. The Artist
2. Hugo
3. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
4. The Tree of Life
5. War Horse
6. Super 8
7. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
9. Rango
10. Fast Five

Peter Travers at Rolling Stone just couldn't decide between 10 so picked 3 films for number 10. Way to be decisive:

1. Drive
2. The Artist
3. The Descendants
4. Moneyball
5. Midnight in Paris
6. Hugo
7. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
8. Margin Call
9. The Tree of Life
10. War Horse, The Help, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

David Edelstein at New York magazine also decided to do an alphabetical listing:

The Adventures of Tintin; Beginners; Coriolanus; The Descendants; Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life; Hell and Back Again; Into the Abyss; Margin Call; Mysteries of Lisbon; War Horse

David Denby at The New Yorker: 

1. Hugo
2. The Tree of Life
3. Margin Call
4. Certified Copy
5. A Separation
6. Contagion
7. The Descendants
8. J. Edgar
9. Source Code
10. The Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Kenneth Turan LA Times I don't know if this in any order. So, I'm just gonna list them

1. The Clock
2. The Artist
3. City of Life and Death
4. Like Crazy
5. Midnight in Paris
6. Of Gods and Men
7. A Separation
8. Poetry
9. Buck
10. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
11. Win Win
12. Double Hour

Film on the most lists: The Descendants on 7 out of 10

                                   The Tree of Life and Hugo on 6 out of 10

                                   A Separation and The Artist on 5 out of 10