By Joshua Cornelius

Once again, we’ve narrowed the traditional “Top 10″ films down to a scant three.  Trust me, it wasn’t easy.  Deciding on just three films that define your cinematic taste is all the more difficult when you find yourself running the kind of movie blog that doesn’t garner press screenings of films or DVD screeners.  That means the films we saw, we paid for.  As I’d stated in the introduction to our “Best Games of 2011″ article, the movies we saw were the ones that – through marketing, word of mouth, interviews, etc. – made us open our wallets.

As exciting a year for film as it was, we can’t wait for 2012.  Between The Avengers and The Hobbit alone, we might be coming up on one of the best years for cinema in recent memory!

Alexandra’s Faves

1. Attack the Block – The newest, freshest fresh jam in a year full of great adaptations.  Joe Cornish should be given all the prizes.  This is like Menace 2 Society meets Doctor Who — and it works.  Amazing beyond belief.  I cannot recommend strongly enough that you avail yourself of this film as soon as possible.

2. Thor - We are unbelievably lucky to be getting massive worldbuilding like this from Marvel, and this one rivaled Iron Man for the all-time best superhero film to ever come out.  It balanced its two worlds incredibly well – thank you, Branagh - and created an entire roster of film characters that I can’t wait to see again.  Also, it flipped the script on the male gaze without ever even commenting on it.  Amazing.

3. Drive - Evocative soundtrack, gorgeous cinematography, and a really fun meme spinoff generator (my life is infinitely better for having feministryangosling in it).  This is the film that made me give a shit what that dude from The Notebook does.  Also loved the call backs to classic “action” films like The Driver and pretty much Alain Delon’s whole career.

Runner-Up - Three-way tie between Captain America, X-Men: First Class and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  All solid entries into the action blockbuster genre, each with their own reasons for being great.

The period superhero film is a genre that can go oh so wrong (The Spirit) or oh so right.  Cap and X-Men are both examples of the latter.  For X-Men, Matthew Vaughn gave the franchise a new lease on life.  (He is a perennial favorite in my book — see: Stardust — and will continue to be so.  The film wasn’t perfect but better than it had any right to be, considering the last time someone tried to make an X-Men “origin” movie.  In addition to Josh’s suggestion below, I’d love to see an Academy-centered film where the kids get to be kids, as they were so briefly here.

Captain America is the only superhero film to make me cry pretty much ever.  ”You’ve been asleep, Cap.”  TEARS.  I didn’t want to like Chris Evans but I just couldn’t help myself.  Also, Sebastian Stan was terrific and I really hope he comes back.  Marvel, call me.  I have sequel ideas that are money.

I counted myself as a huge, huge fan of the first Sherlock Holmes film, but even I knew this one would have to step up its game if it wanted to outshine the balls-out amazing modern-day BBC interpretation that aired last summer.  Ritchie stepped up to the plate.  This one was a near-perfect distillation of everything that made the first work, without all the bullshit that dragged it down.  And while they basically played their big hand, I’d still fork over many dollars to see a follow-up.

Josh’s Faves

1. Drive – For all the reasons Alexandra lists and more.  Nicolas Winding Refn was the last filmmaker I’d expected to achieve mainstream cinematic success in America.  Drive hits all the right notes, and succeeds as a sustained exercise in style and restraint.  Filled to the brim with overlong takes, scant dialogue and infrequent bursts of violence, Refn’s film is somewhat more akin to the work of director Takeshi Kitano than Stanley Kubrick or David Lynch – whose stylistic indulgences certainly influenced Refn’s Bronson and Valhalla Rising.

More to the point, Drive made me not hate Ryan Gosling (or Carey Mulligan and her watery eyes), which in and of itself is a monumental feat.  It made me want to see Walter White (Bryan Cranston) in more film work… as soon as Breaking Bad wraps things up.  It also made me want to see Refn’s interpretation of another American city, as Los Angeles was so lovingly and uniquely shot for the film.

Drive is an easy win for me, but a well earned win.  It plays to every one of my cinematic leanings – the aforementioned overlong takes, scant dialogue and infrequent bursts of violence.  A film that shows what it means instead of saying it.  Drive is about the build-up, the experience of watching and loving film in the moment, for the moment.

If you don’t like Drive, I probably don’t like you.

2. The Tree of Life - This one really gobsmacked me, and I now completely understand why a million cinema bloggers were imploring me to see it on the big screen.  In the age of technology, we’ve seen nearly every one of the old masters (Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas) having a go at the digital cameras and 3-D.  Who knew that Terrence Malick would be the one to make something worth a damn?  The Tree of Life is the kind of lush and evocative filmmaking we might have received from Kubrick or David Lean.  A cinematic gift, and an experience that washes over the audience.  I likened my viewing of the film to standing in the ocean – hours later I might find myself still feeling the ebb and flow of the tide.  The Tree of Life made that kind of impression on me.

Cinema geeks will delight at an extended sequence featuring the work of Douglas Trumbull, the same effects master who realized the stunning vistas of space for 2001: A Space Odyssee and directed Silent Running.  Something you may not expect from a film that was advertised as a period drama about a Southern family.  Describing the film is not unlike describing 2001, in that the film is comprised of a series of loosely, but tangibly related vignettes.

The Tree of Life is not the kind of film you can prepare yourself for.  Now that it’s passed out of theaters, the best you can do is to track down a Blu-Ray copy of the film (it must be Blu-Ray) and indulge in one of the best films produced in the last decade.  Time has a way of whittling away all the nonsense, separating the wheat from the chaff and leaving just the very best films in our collective conscience.  The Tree of Life is one of these films.  Any year that a film like this is released is a good year for cinema.

3.  X-Men: First Class - This one is kind of a gimme.  First of all, I grew up reading X-Men, and all of its various incarnations.  Secondly, I have never been a huge fan of Bryan Singer’s particularly dour interpretation of the X-Men mythos.  Sure, yes, I understand that it paved the way for a decade of cinematic superhero shenanigans… but in so doing it sparked a trend in taking the source material just a bit too seriously.  The result is currently being bourn out in Christopher Nolan’s excessively gritty Batman franchise.

What I loved about the comic books was the tone director Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman were able to realize on screen.  First Class was able to find a way between, somewhere between drama and humor and the inherent pulpiness of it all, and developed compelling and interesting relationships for all the characters Singer had asked us to latch onto with no real reason.  Magneto and Mystique were finally (thankfully) rendered as complete and compelling characters, both with a fully realized arc.  If they decided to make a prequel to the prequel, a film about Magneto jet-setting around the world killing nazis, I probably wouldn’t just buy a ticket, I’d donate to the production.

First Class is a substantial evolution for this universe of characters.  My only quibbles with the film is that it so doggedly adheres to the regimen prescribed by its forebears.  First Class shouldn’t be the film that gives motivation to the characters of Singer’s films, it should function independently as its own new series.  Vaughn and Goldman clearly have a handle on these characters and where they need to go.  Shake loose the chains, and if a sequel is in order (as it is rumored to be), feel free to throw in a bit more of the whimsy that made First Class a joy to behold.

Runner-Up - Three-way tie between Captain America, Thor and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  I honestly didn’t think Joe Johnston had it in him to make something as thrilling as The First Avenger.  Ditto for Branagh with Thor and Guy Ritchie with Game of Shadows.  It was really just an incredible year for comic book properties, all but washing away the bad taste left by 2008′s The Incredible Hulk and 2010′s Iron Man 2.

In all, I’m happy to see Marvel properties eschewing the gritty “realistic” take popularized by Batman Begins.  Like the original Iron Man, Thor and Captain America really had to knock it out of the park to set us up for The Avengers.  It was going to take a real bit of work to make us like and want to see this trio of characters again.  Kudos to Disney and Marvel for their attempts so far.  Even if the hero genre collapses under the weight of the upcoming needless reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, it will have been an incredible ride.

Ritchie, you managed to make me respect you as a filmmaker with Game of Shadows.  The film is an evolutionary leap from its predecessor.  Ritchie and Downey found a place between style, plot and action, and managed not to let it all buckle under the weight of Downey’s all-consuming ego.  The film works better than it has to, and has left me practically clamoring for a follow up.

Well, that about wraps it up!  Come on 2012.  We’re ready for what’s next!