Ann Hornaday’s best films of 2011

A glance at this year’s top box office performers may trigger a case of deep cinematic depression, suggesting a future bounded by “Transformers” sequels on one side and “Hangover” sequels on the other. But this year, I could easily have made a list of Top 20 films, including “The Artist,” “The Way,” “50/50,” “Of Gods and Men,” “In a Better World,” and the documentaries “Incendiary” and “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” Tough cuts, all. — Ann Hornaday

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10. “Win Win”

Tom McCarthy’s observantly funny film about a lawyer (Paul Giamatti, left, with Alex Shaffer) driven to comically dark lengths to support his family captured the economic anxieties of the year with compassion and warmth.

9. “Drive”

Nicolas Winding Refn’s quietly contained genre piece actually didn’t involve much driving, but it moved nonetheless, propelled by a transfixing lead performance by Ryan Gosling and Refn’s unimpeachable sense of style. Even when the film erupted into cartoonishly graphic violence, the wheels didn’t come off.

RICHARD FOREMAN JR SMPSP

8. “The Trip”

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon hammed it up through the gastro-pubs and literary waysides of northern England in Michael Winterbottom’s hilarious picaresque about friendship, ego and the sensuous pleasures of a really great meal.

Courtesy IFC Films

7. “Nostalgia for the Light”

Patricio Guzman’s stirring documentary, set in Chile’s Atacama Desert, engaged the Big Questions that occupied so many filmmakers this year, including memory, history, cosmic truths and the meaning of life — with the most rigor, insight and poetic lyricism.

Photo Courtesy of Icarus Films / PHOTO COURTESY OF ICARUS FILMS

6. “Take Shelter”

This superbly crafted thriller featured a career-making performance from Michael Shannon as a man haunted by visions of a coming apocalypse that may or may not be real.

Photo by Grove Hill Productions / PHOTO BY GROVE HILL PRODUCTIONS

5. “Beginners”

Mike Mills’s autobiographically inspired comedy-drama about a grown son and his father was sweet without being sappy and used bold visual graphics to give the storytelling verve and punch.

Focus Features

4. “Buck”

One of the most riveting films of the year, this gorgeously filmed documentary revolved around Buck Brannaman, the real-life “horse whisperer” whose work with horses takes on transcendent, life-healing dimensions.

Courtesy IFC Films

3. “Moneyball”

Bennett Miller’s thoroughly satisfying adaptation of Michael Lewis’s book featured Brad Pitt as baseball manager Billy Beane in a funny, moving homage to utility players — both on the field and off.

Melinda Sue Gordon

2. “The Descendants”

Comedy, tragedy, satire and humanism danced a delicate gavotte in Alexander Payne’s affecting family drama, which starred a dressed-down George Clooney as a distant husband and father trying to reconnect with his family, both past and present.

Merie Wallace

1. “Meek’s Cutoff”

Kelly Reichardt’s mesmerizing story of 19th-century settlers traveling to Oregon radically redefined the Western, stripping it to its most raw elements and reinvigorating it with immersive realism.

OSCILLOSCOPE FILMS

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

epa03714567 A Thai Buddhist family take an offering of lotus flowers to pay respects to a giant Buddha surrounded by more than 1,000 smaller Buddha statues at a Buddhism Park, on Vesak or Visakha Bucha day, in Nakhon Nayok, north of Bangkok, Thailand, 24 May 2013. Buddhist devotees throughout the world offer blessings at temples to mark one of the holiest days in Buddhism, commemorating the birth, enlightenment and the death of Buddha. EPA/BARBARA WALTON

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No fatalities reported; collapse over Skagit River shuts down main route between Seattle and Canada.

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from left to right, Bodybuilders Jorge Villatoro, Sidney Bumbrey, Eric Holmes and Ron Coleman show off their most muscular poses for the judges at the 2013 Musclemania - Capital Tournament of Champions Contest held at the Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center in Silver Spring, Maryland on May 18, 2013.
(Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

Flexing their muscles

Dozens of bodybuilders came out to Silver Spring to compete in the 2013 Musclemania Capital Tournament of Champions.

epa03714543 US actress Carmen Electra arrives for the Life Ball gala, at the airport Schwechat, in Vienna, Austria, 24 May 2013. The 21th Life Ball, an annual fundraising charity event for HIV and Aids projects, takes place at the Vienna City-Hall on 25 May 2013. EPA/HERBERT NEUBAUER

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Carmen Electra, Barbara Eden, Sharon Stone, Goldie Hawn, Jaden Smith and more.

A police forensics officer investigates a crime scene where one man was killed in Woolwich, southeast London May 22, 2013. British Prime Minister David Cameron has called a meeting of his government's emergency Cobra security committee after the killing of a man in south London, his office said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth (BRITAIN - Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

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Amid great destruction, residents of the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore begin to assess the severity of the twister that hit Monday.

WASHINGTON DC: MAY 22
Contestant Travis Rumans, 31 dances with his beloved glow sticks for talent at Penn Social in Washington, DC on May 22, 2013. The contestants help raise over $15,000 for the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
The Mr. DC pageant is a fundraising event to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
The qualifications for the Mr. District of Columbia finalists is that they must live, work and attend school in the District of Columbia between the ages of 21-30 who are unmarried, intelligent, and dapper in a suit.
(Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

Mr. D.C. Pageant contestants compete for charity

Contestants in the Mr. D.C. Pageant, a fundraising event, helped raise more than $15,000 for the Children’s National Medical Center.

A Burrowing owl tries to perch on a protective rope in a public park in Cooper City, Fla. Monday, May 20, 2013 as rain falls. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Animal views

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