What is this strange, unholy fascination that respectable columnists and film critics have with Jason Eisener‘s Hobo With A Shotgun, which will have its blood-spattered debut at Sundance 2011? Movieline‘s Stu Van Airsdale expressed enthusiasm (along with yours truly) last September, and now the Toronto Star‘s Peter Howell has it at the top of his list of must-see 2011 films. It’s the sound of the title, of course — cool, funny and bloody idiotic. Plus the vengeance of the disenfranchised.

God knows how many others out there are chanting “Hobo With A Shotgun! Hobo With A Shotgun! I must see Hobo With A Shotgun!”

Howell’s other 2011 favorites are Guy Maddin‘s Keyhole, Sarah Polley‘s Take This Waltz, David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method (hey, these are all Canadians!), Pedro Almodovar‘s The Skin That I Inhabit, Lynn Ramsay‘s We Need To Talk About Kevin, Wong Kar-wai‘s The Grandmasters, Walter Salles‘ On the Road, Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life, Jon Favreau‘s Cowboys and Aliens and Martin Campbell‘s Green Lantern.

Mine, to repeat, are The Ides of March (d: George Clooney), J. Edgar (d: Clint Eastwood), Young Adult (d: Jason Reitman), We Bought A Zoo (d: Cameron Crowe), Moneyball (d: Bennett Miller), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (d: Stephen Daldry), Larry Crowne (d: Tom Hanks), The Descendants (d: Alexander Payne), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (d: David Fincher), The War Horse (d: Steven Spielberg), The Tree of Life (d: Terrence Malick), Haywire (d: Steven Soderbergh), On The Road (d: Walter Salles), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (d: Thomas Alfredson), The Whistleblower (d: Larysa Kondracki), The Skin That I Inhabit (d: Pedro Almodovar), This Must Be The Place (d: Paolo Sorrentino) and One Day (d: Lone Scherfig).