Oh What, Oh What Will Be The Best of 2011.....

It is nearly the middle of October and therefore edging closer and closer to the end of the year.  This of course means it is edging closer and closer to that time when all we film critics go about that annual duty of naming the best films of the previous year.  Some of my fellow critical compatriots call this ritual a chore (and some of them are not just saying that to sound like the cool kid on the block - they actually mean it) but I quite look forward to it each and every year.   I have been making these lists ever since I could first watch movies.  First personally (scribbled about in multitudes of notebooks) and later publicly (ever since I "went live" with my website back in 2004) - so why should I change now.  Chore?  Hell no!

Of course we still have two and a half months worth of filmwatching to go before any semblance of a list can be concocted - and of course I have yet to see many of the films which may make such a list.  But there are some films, already released, that are sure to make the list.  Below are these films, but necessarily in the order they will eventually fall in my eventual Best of 2011 list.

Sure bets (in no particular order):
The Tree of Life
Melancholia
Super 8

Possibilities (also in no particular order):
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
Drive
Kaboom
Uncle Boonmee
Certified Copy
The Arbor
Rango
Meek's Cutoff
Source Code
Beginners
Hanna

Likely Runners-Up (once again, in no particular order):
Drive Angry
Le Havre
Super
Rubber
Horrible Bosses
We Are What We Are
Cedar Rapids
Contagion
Terri
Troll Hunter
Cracks
The Ward
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Hobo With a Shotgun
The Guard
Pina
The Future
X-Men: First Class

Now, as I said above, there are still quite a few films yet to see.  Films that could, or could not, sneak into that "possibilities" section, or even perhaps that "sure bets" category - at least the "runners-up" section.  The most likely of these upcoming films are below - and once again, are in no particular order of likability or anticipation.

A Dangerous Method
The Skin I Live In
Red State
The Artist
Martha Marcy May Marlene
The Rum Diary
The Thing
Sleeping Beauty
My Week With Marilyn
The Descendants
Hugo
Shame
The Muppets (yeah, I said it!)
Outrage
Carnage
A Separation
Young Adult
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Texas Killing Fields
Goodbye First Love
Take Shelter
We Bought A Zoo
We Need to Talk About Kevin
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Ides of March (no, I have not seen it yet!)

Well, that's it for now.  I am sure some of these films will fail to excite me as much as I hope, but some of them are bound to be in that eventual year end Best of list.  Said list should be coming right around New Year's Day, right here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.