The year has been rich in DVDs and Blu-rays, blockbusters and indie darlings. It would be easy to fill a best-of list with the higher-profile titles of 2011 – Bridesmaids, Crazy, Stupid, Love, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, or Star Wars and Citizen Kane arriving on Blu-ray in lavish packages. But it might be more useful to recall titles that were underrated or flew beneath the radar.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adéle Blanc-Sec (2010): This big-budget French fantasy-adventure from Luc Besson sees the resourceful heroine run risks in 1911 Paris to revive her comatose sister. See also: Tsui Hark's Chinese dazzler Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.
Never Let Me Go (2010): In the future, children are being raised in isolation for a purpose that only gradually dawns on them, and us. Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley are three of the graduates in this wonderful, ineffably sad tale based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel.
Brand New Day (also Bran Nue Dae, 2009): Geoffrey Rush is the big name in this lively ensemble road movie based on a hit Australian Aboriginal stage musical.
Nothing Sacred (1937):One of the best screwball comedies ever pairs Fredric March and the sublime Carole Lombard in the tale of a journalistic hoax. For years, the Technicolor movie has looked muddy on home video. The new Kino Classics release, authorized by the estate of producer David O. Selznick, is a vast improvement.
The Trip (2010): Made for British television and distilled into a theatrical release, this warm, funny outing by Michael Winterbottom has a simple premise: that Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, playing versions of themselves as they did in Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, are travelling to upscale country inns to review their fare. It's all an excuse for their witty, sometimes poignant banter and duelling Michael Caine impressions.
Flypaper (2011): This violent, comic tale of a heist gone wrong – two competing teams arrive to rob the same bank on the same day – is a model of storytelling economy and of a powerhouse cast enjoying themselves. Tim Blake Nelson and Pruitt Taylor Vince get the meatiest roles as two hillbilly bandits out of their depth, but look for Octavia Spencer (now winning plaudits for The Help) as a teller.
Tamara Drewe (2010): A sunny dramedy loosely based on Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, this ensemble film from Stephen Frears gives sparkling screen life to Posy Simmonds's comic strip about love, lust and betrayal at a writers' retreat in Dorset, England.
The Illusionist (2010): If you're a fan of exquisite animation or of Jacques Tati's comedies, and you haven't yet seen this bittersweet tale of a stage magician in search of an audience, what's keeping you? Based on a script by Tati, it's directed by Sylvain Chomet ( The Triplets of Belleville).
Zazie dans le Métro (1960): Louis Malle happily broke every cinematic rule in this freewheeling film about a curious and headstrong girl loose on the streets of Paris, as her uncle (Philippe Noiret) and other characters bounce off the scenery and each other. On Criterion DVD and Blu-ray.
Anything Goes (1954): This black-and-white version of the Cole Porter musical, rewritten to fit into 53 minutes, was performed live on NBC's The Colgate Comedy Hour. It survived in a pristine kinescope kept by Ethel Merman, who kicks off the show with a rousing rendition of Anything Goes. Co-star Frank Sinatra, still recovering from a mid-career slump, was about to win an Oscar for his role in From Here to Eternity. The DVD is the work of the Archive of American Television, whose other titles include Evening Primrose, starring Anthony Perkins in a 52-minute 1966 musical written for TV, with songs by Stephen Sondheim. It's set in a department store after hours, and yes, Perkins sings. He and Sondheim went on to co-write the 1973 murder mystery The Last of Sheila.
Other little-heralded efforts that stick in the mind: The Perfect Host (David Hyde Pierce in a 2010 thriller with tricks up its sleeve), Miss Nobody (a blackly comic 2011 vehicle for Leslie Bibb as an upwardly mobile office drone who isn't averse to pragmatic homicide) and Zonad (a deadpan 2009 Irish comedy about an escaped prisoner who persuades villagers that he's from outer space, and mooches off them). Quite a year, really.