The best movies of 2011

This wasn't the greatest year in recent memory for cinema: Audiences steered clear of the some of the most-challenging efforts, like Shame and Higher Ground. Many critics inexplicably rallied around the metaphysical bombast and pseudo-profundity of works like Melancholia, Certified Copy and The Tree of Life. The epic imagination that propelled the most exciting movies of recent years -- Carlos, Inglourious Basterds, Up, The Dark Knight -- was virtually nowhere on display.

Still, if most of the year's strongest efforts were of the smaller-scale variety, to be found around the margins of the mainstream, well, the pleasures they offered were still considerable. Here are my picks for the 10 best films of 2011, with information on where and how you can see them.

1 Shame

British visual artist Steve McQueen's wrenching second film follows a tortured sex addict (Michael Fassbender) whose life begins to unravel after his unstable sister (Carey Mulligan) moves in with him. What begins as an intimate character study expands into a kaleidoscopic portrait of life in our speeded-up, digital age, where everything is for the taking, but nothing ever satisfies. Fassbender's fearless, scarily transformative performance will one day be talked about in the same terms as Marlon Brandon's in Last Tango in Paris and Robert De Niro's in Raging Bull. Now playing at the Angelika Dallas and Angelika Plano.

2 In a Better World

An old-fashioned melodrama about violence and redemption that also touches on very timely issues about bullies and their victims, Susanne Bier's film was the much-deserved winner of this year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. On DVD.

3 Bridesmaids

It tackles a difficult, thorny subject -- the preposterous societal pressures we place on women to marry and have children by their mid-30s -- while also managing to be both outrageously funny and deeply humane. The girl-powered ensemble cast, featuring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy and Rose Byrne, was the year's finest. On DVD.

4 Weekend

Two men hook up at a bar and head home, but the one-night stand evolves into a weekend-long conversation: Might this relationship be for keeps? Writer-director Andrew Haigh's bittersweet romance asks big questions -- about life, love and what it means to be gay in a mostly straight world -- with an unassuming grace. Expected to be released on DVD in February.

5 Bill Cunningham New York

This documentary follows the famed New York Times fashion photographer as he races around the city snapping photographs of the most fashionable women he sees. With a gentle touch and a big heart, director Richard Press shows us a man who might have outlived his Golden Era but who refuses to go quietly into the night. On DVD.

6 The Ides of March

This George Clooney-directed drama isn't a trite story of idealism gone sour, as many of its detractors carped. Instead, it's a kind of modern-day All the King's Men, a bitingly satirical tale of a natural-born shark who steadily finds his sea legs in the murky ocean of American politics. In the central role, as a guy you think you are supposed to love, but pretty soon come to hate, Ryan Gosling gives his most magnetic performance to date. Available on DVD Jan. 17.

7 Higher Ground

Director and star Vera Farmiga's drama about one woman's complicated, decades-long struggle to come to terms with religion never found an audience -- a shame since it is so thoughtful about a subject that American movies rarely address. The lousy commercial response also probably killed Farmiga's Oscar chances; in a just world, her haunting performance would be the front-runner for this year's Best Actress prize. Available on DVD Jan. 10.

8 50/50

Director Jonathan Levine, screenwriter Will Reiser (who based the story on his personal experience) and the extraordinary Joseph Gordon-Levitt turn every disease-of-the-week cliché on its ear with this foul-mouthed comedy about a young man who is diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer. When life gives you lemons, the movie cheerfully asserts, you might as well play the sympathy card and try to get laid. Available on DVD Jan. 24.

9 The Artist

French director Michel Hazanavicius' Hollywood-set silent comedy follows a fading 1920s movie star who can't make the transition to the talkies. The sheer technical majesty of all this -- it really is a silent movie, photographed in black and white, with intertitles in place of dialogue -- threatens to obviate the emotion, but the terrific cast, including Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman and a Jack Russell terrier named Uggy, finds a way to make this cinematic experiment feel warm and accessible. Now playing at the Angelika Dallas, Angelika Plano

10 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

A majestic coda to an extraordinary eight-part film franchise, the final "Potter" movie was gorgeous-looking, thrillingly staged (watch out for that roller coaster ride through the bowels of Gringotts) and -- when Harry gets one last chance to visit with his loved ones who have passed away -- utterly heartbreaking. On DVD.