It’s that time of year again. Overall, a painfully disappointing year from Hollywood. Wrought with sequels and still choking from the wake of the 2007-2008 Writer’s Strike, 2011 may be the worst year for movies in my lifetime (certainly in the last decade since I’ve considered myself a connoisseur of such things). Notwithstanding Netflix or anything else, I don’t think I would go out of my way to buy or see many of these movies again. Underwhelming publicity campaigns and Rotten Tomatoes scores only pulled me out to see 36 titles. Having seen so few, I am certainly missing a handful that may find their way onto this list posthumously. We’ll see. I’ll recommend them as they come.

All negativity and pessimism aside, the following ten films made an impression on me and I recommend them. Cinephiles, please go out of your way to see my #1. In reverse order:

And for full disclosure, below you can find a list of every movie I saw that was released in theaters this calendar year:

• War Horse
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• The Adventures of Tin Tin
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
• The Ides of March
• My Week With Marilyn
• Hugo
• The Muppets
• J. Edgar
• The Descendants
• Moneyball
• In Time
• The Artist
• Bridesmaids
• Hanna
• Hobo with a Shotgun
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Drive
• Contagion
• Attack the Block
• 30 Minutes or Less
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Cowboys & Aliens
• The Guard
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
• Super 8
• X-Men: First Class
• The Tree of Life
• Thor
• The Beaver
• Atlas Shrugged: Part I
• Win Win
• Super
• Paul