Back Again for the Best in Movies for 2010

A rather dull year for film, which the majority ruled the dumb down cinema. More crap and the awful kind alike ran much of 2010's theatrical runs, however bad they were, the good ones were REALLY REALLY good. This was one of the more difficult top 10 lists to make not because of 1-5, but more for 6-10, whereas there just wasn't enough to claim TOP TEN of the year. Would have been better to make a top 5 list this year alone. Well, this is the list and films you wont see that may surprise you are as follows....

True Grit, a well acted movie with a rather slow script and perhaps a bit too much expectation going in. The Fighter, again wonderfully acted, especially Christian Bale, but didn't feel like a boxing film I haven't seen 100 times before. The Town, Affleck's wonderful sophomore run behind the camera, was a fine film but a bit missing the elegance and vigorance that made Gone Baby Gone such an engaging experience. I enjoyed the movie but never felt once there was anything remarkable to make it standout. TRON.....im just kidding.

Without further ado, here's who DID make the list...for the 3 or 4 of you that care, lol

# 10
THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Call me a Debbie downer but what is it when all of Hollywood’s major critic heads decide to get together and jump on the same movie as “the best of the year?” Social Network was a fantastic movie, perhaps the best paced/edited film of 2010. You never once felt the running time while falling in love with the story and its fruitful characters. But Oscar’s leading candidate for Best Picture? Really? I adored David Fincher’s rapidly-paced trip down short-ago memory lane of the inception of Facebook, but it is nowhere near Best Picture money. The way I felt Hurt Locker would be looked at years down the line I feel the same will occur with the wrongful placement of shooting Facebook to the top of the year’s best. Great film, worthy of nomination but like that one movie that you just know isn’t going to win, that’s the movie Facebook ought to be.

#9
KICK ASS

Easily the biggest surprise of 2010. Call it bad advertising or a crappy trailer, when I saw Kick Ass I did not expect the “Kill Bill of superhero flicks.” That is precisely how I described it to friends of mine when they looked at me like “really? Kick Ass that crappy looking kids hero movie…” Always a pleasure when you run into those flicks that catch you off guard and give you something completely different than you were getting yourself in for. Kick Ass was the action roller coaster bumpy ride of 2010, the crowd pleaser if you will. Not going to take any fancy awards but it solidified making audiences smile, laugh and yes even cry (a main character’s death had me gulping at the throat). Nic Cage in a supporting role shows he still has some acting chops in that winter career of his. And Hit Girl’s scene-stealing takes were all that was necessary to catapult Kick Ass into one of the year’s best.

#8
INCEPTION

On a scale of 1 to 10, Inception’s hype leading into the summer was at about an 18. Which means, how much more can a single director lead a summer with such high expectations and keep meeting them (Dark Knight a year ago)? As only James Cameron has shown consistency with, Christopher Nolan is slowly yet surely taking reigns as the director every studio is going to want to throw their money at and know whatever product comes out will produce. Inception was quite the cluster brain fart we all thought it would be. The only gripe I have with Inception, and the majority of Nolan film’s have this problem, is he doesn’t delve into much character depth. We don’t ever learn much about his characters, which makes it troubling to become attached to them. Inception, I don’t need to tell you, had an amazing screenplay. Well directed and fantastically executed by Nolan and his team. An entertaining cast, but not superb by any stretch. The fantastic fun it gave audiences is deserving alone to be mentioned in the year’s best.

#7
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

One of the more interesting films I saw in 2010, a film that on paper may not sound like much but indeed had much to offer. The story centers around two lesbian parents (Annette Benning and Julianne Moore) who shared a sperm donor (Mark Ruffalo, who plays the coolest, calm charismatic regular-joe type guy to perfection) for their now grown up two teenagers. When the kids want to meet their biological father, comedy follows. A Shakespearean blend transforms as drama unfolds when the story shifts from happy go lucky to unrest, sadness as the character you began enjoying may not be in the right and the character you rather despised may actually be in the right. A truly well told story about family, heartbreak, hard truths and maturity. Even through the eyes of teens and grown adults alike, who sometimes no matter how much they want something, can never fully commit.

#6

A KING'S SPEECH

The last movie I was delighted to catch before finishing this list. I had wanted to watch it knowing pretty well it probably would make the cut, from the buzz it's received and the recent Best Actor award from the Globes and SAG for Colin Firth, who absolutely relishes in the role of King George VI. Acacemy Award winner Geoffrey Rush also distributes an equally compelling performance as George's speech therapist, who the King seeks to aide him in his as-long-as-he can remember speech impediment. What may come off as a simple and rather dull story line, i can assure you is quite the contrary. Rush and Firth's chemistry is quite extraordinary, possibly the best man-duet on screen performance of 2010. They play off each other very well and carry this heavy weighted film with such delight and charisma its easy to fall in love with them. The movie is not only two characters deep as it derives from a well-selected supporting cast, including Helen Bonham Carter (crazy evil Piatrix from the Harry Potter series) as King George's wife and Guy Pearce (Memento) who plays his incompetent brother. It didn't hurt that the film's score, instead of something original, went with many of Beethoven's popular overtures and symphonies. This, in my opinion, added emotional depth to the film as many of Beethoven's movements have an almost hypnotic seduction to them. A King's Speech is a well revered movie that will surely be right for the picking come Oscar time. It fits the billing for prototypical academy award delights.

#5

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Scorcese, Coppola, Mann, when you hear these names most classic crime dramas come to mind. However, prepare to feast your eyes on one you never heard of. Animal Kingdom is led by a cast of rather unknowns in this Australian independent tour de force crime drama. Story takes centerstage for quite a dark adventure through J who reluctantly falls into his family bred lifestyle of gang busters and drug dopers after his mother ODs on heroin. He clearly isn’t like the lot of his family when it comes to the trade and its quickly noticed by the evilest mother of mothers played with tenacious venom by austrailan actress Jacki Weaver. The course of the movie unfolds watching the effects of seeing this human "animal" attempt to adapt to his drastic change of environments. No matter how difficult he may try, J clearly is in strange waters and the surrounding predators smell his indifference. Family, violence, love, morality, survival, the ensuing drama brings an intensity and vigorous grip to the audience that is well-deserving of recognition.

#4

THE GIRLWITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Who would have thought 2010, a rather dull year for films, would be the year of the psychological thrillers. Dragon Tattoo leads the cause, based on the immensely popular novel by Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson. Although its entirely in subtitles and filled with Swedish actors no one in America would recognize, the film was an utter rush of entertainment and mystery. A throwback to the “who done it” thrillers that have been long recycled and watered down. An investigative journalist is invited by a member of the Vanger family (five generations old) to discover the whereabouts of a missing young girl, who he fears may been murdered. The ensuing investigation by the journalist unveils more than he had bargained for when he begins to search into the families dark past secrets that some may not wish to see the light of day. This kind of story has brought back to life what used to make the best suspense thrillers so enjoyable and captivating. The novel and the film has become such a huge hit that it comes to no surprise Hollywood is already in the works to make an American version of it (could we see the same movie in a Top Ten list two years in a row?, lol). David Fincher of the Facebook film has been tapped to direct with James Bond’s own Daniel Craig as the lead. I for one will watch, if for any other reason, to see just how bad Hollywood can screw it up. This Swedish version is top notched in every way. Riveting from the very beginning, resounding performances by its unknown actors, especially the female lead who I have no clue how Hollywood expects to best. Even the usually letdown stage of these thrillers, when the man behind the murders is revealed, the confrontation and ensuing “why I did what I did” speech is very disturbing yet moving. A wonderful enjoyment that leads to believe with the proper director and cast, maybe Hollywood can find a way to remake an incredible story the right way.

#3
TOY STORY 3

The most successful movie of 2010 also left the largest lump in all our throats. TS3 was yet another remarkable tale from the never ending fountain of great tales studio Pixar. After the large success of the first two, it was easy to believe that part 3 would just be a run of the mill continuation of a kids dream. But Pixar knew it had to wrap up its rich characters and story with something to remind all of us, even the adults, what a toy used to mean. The gravity of TS3 isn’t just a story of Buzz and Woody trying to get back to Andy, after mistakenly being forgotten as trash by his mother and left for a daycare center from hell. The theme, underlined like most great Pixar flicks, is that toys opened an escape for all of us, at one point in time. A portal to another world where we could vanish and go back to everyday in our rooms and backyards. We breathed voice where one never existed. We gave life when there was only plastic. The most remarkable journeys only a child could imagine. When that stage in maturity gave way to bigger things like school, girls/boys, sports, that bridge between those two worlds closed and the last 20 minutes of TS3 best portrayed that feeling we all had when it was time to “grow up.” I’m not sure which of the Toy Story’s is the best, to be quite honest they all were fantastic. TS3 may be the best yet, but you can make a case for the entire lot. I know I will miss their adventures.

#2
SHUTTER ISLAND

The one film that will upset me the most when it won’t get a single nomination or award at all come Globes/Oscar time, but is well deserving. Shutter Island came out 11 months too soon for what purpose I do not know. The film is long forgotten now with all the current buzz-worthy flicks that are all released literally within weeks of each other. Shutter Island was a masterpiece by Martin Scorcese. A testament to just how incredible a director the man is. I have never known him to be involved in this particular genre and he may have very well made one of the best psychological thrillers I can remember. Leonardo Dicaprio gives a driven-performance of a lifetime that will go unheralded once more by the academy and others. There were not 5 better acted performances than his in Shutter Island in 2010. The story may be simple, two deputy US Marshalls investigate a missing patient on an island for the criminally insane. With strong performances from Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams and Ben Kingsley as the warden, the ensuing “whats real and whats not” begin to set into our protagonists mind. Is he being drugged? Is it a game? What is with the flashbacks to his WW2 days in which he cant get the thought out of murdering hundreds of german souldiers. The final twist, whether or not you knew it was coming, still leaves you awestruck by the final flashback we see of Leo’s character coming home to his wife. It’s a scene that even Dicaprio admitted in an article "took a lot" out of him to film. A film when watched a second viewing, after knowing the twist to the film, gives a whole new appreciation to how it all unfolded in the first place. An astounding achievement by Scorcese. Why this film gets no love is beyond me. Truly a classic psychological thrill ride I will soon not forget.

#1
BLACK SWAN

It was a tough toss-up between Shutter Island and Black Swan for my best film of 2010. At long last I came down to this one, because of the overall job by the cast, the story, even the music score and those last 30 minutes played by Natalie Portman where she goes full “heath ledger/joker” nuts in a role I think soon everyone will recognize what a crowning achievement she’s done. Black Swan tells the tale of a ballet dancer pushed to the edge to fulfill a role she may not be suited for. The story within the story, in the broadway play, is about a white swan who falls in love with a prince. But before she can marry him, the prince is seduced and taken from her by her evil twin, the black swan. Tormented in this discovery, the white swan, jumps to her death, for in death she can finally be free. Portman’s character is picture perfect for the white swan, but as the director of the play (acted with incredible charisma by Vincent Cassell) tells her, she is not fitted for the much darker black swan. He pushes her to find the character inside, nobody can get in her way but herself. Then there’s her alternate played by Mila Kunis who she feels threatens will steal her role. Portman continues to juggle between fantasy and reality while stumbling further down the rabbit hole she finds by discovering her inner-black swan. This leads to as dramatic and ambiguous a finale as you’ll see all year that synchronizes with the first showing of the ballet play. How a movie like Facebook is taking all the award crowns from a masterpiece like Black Swan is shocking me, I am hoping the Oscars don’t get it wrong again. Black Swan is a film that comes off as a ballet-dancer thriller. If anyone could ever conjure up such a story and come out of it making an astonishing result like Black Swan, that is a worthy candidate for Best Director. I hope this film gets the recognition it deserves come Oscar.