My Top Ten Films of 2010

As I read more and more top ten lists from critics across the globe, I wonder if 2010 was really a bad year in film. My list of the ten best is not going to be as diverse as some--as much as I'd like to claim the film buff status, living in the Phoenix metropolitan area does not lend itself to lots of foreign film watching, and I'm bad about my Netflix queue--but there are plenty of solid mainstream films along with independent pictures that were released in some fashion this past year. And, as it usually goes, looking at the 2011 slate is pretty scary, if you're looking for quality. If you want quantity, or blockbusters, your cup overfloweth. For the rest of us, the only comfort is that Netflix may add more low-budget pictures to its site in the days, weeks, and months to come.

A few notes, before we get into the list. First, and it should really go without saying, this list is compiled of films I thought were the best of the year. I've been reading some people whose agendas for creating these lists aren't to represent their opinions as to nudge people to watch films they may not have heard of or be familiar with. While that is a somewhat noble idea, let's get one thing straight: if you make a top-ten list, it should be representative of what you think, not what you want me to think. With that said, a few honorable mentions are in order. Some films I saw this year were good, but not great, and some of them are here just because the year was so weak--to me, of course--that I've only got a few films below the top ten to begin with. The King's Speech is a very nice, very pleasant, mostly well-made, and very well-acted movie. It did not wow me, it did not blow me away, but it was good, if you like that sort of thing. Luck to Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush at the Oscars; they may both win. 127 Hours is another flashy Danny Boyle movie that's boosted into any sort of greatness by the performance of the film's lead, James Franco, Oscar host (and soon-to-be director, I guess). I wish Franco's total commitment was shared by Boyle, who gets too impatient and feels free to flit around the world as opposed to make a more intimate film, stuck with one poor guy trapped by a boulder. Exit Through The Gift Shop is a fascinating documentary--and yeah, I bought into it--about how street art is made, and how street artists can manipulate their way into being famous. Banksy, the mysterious man who's at the top of the street art world, presents a compelling and intriguing portrait of delusion in the form of Thierry Guetta, now known as Mr. Brainwash. There's no question that this is worth watching, but I wasn't as blown away as some were. Nothing really wrong here; just not my favorite. So, let's get to the list.

10. How To Train Your Dragon

It is a sign of how weak the movies I saw this year were that this film is on my list. Don't get me wrong; Dragon is a good movie, filled with some of the most thrilling non-Pixar animation and 3D effects I've ever seen. What frustrated me about the movie is that while DreamWorks, at least some of the time, has the ability to create animated worlds that rival those of the folks up in Emeryville, their story department continues to be woeful. In 2008, some people raved about Kung Fu Panda, a movie whose animation is groundbreaking, if you're DreamWorks and it's 2000, and whose story is groundbreaking, if you're DreamWorks, and it's 1990. The animation in Dragon is as good as DreamWorks has ever been, and as good as most animation has ever been. The story is the opposite. I'd seen variations on the "My dad doesn't get me" trope in better animated movies like Ratatouille and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. That said, any movie that makes a calculated attempt to give Craig Ferguson plenty of time to crack jokes is fine by me.

9. Winter's Bone

Some movies live or die on their performances. For the most part, 127 Hours lives or dies on James Franco's performance. If you don't like Franco, or the character he's playing, you're stuck with him in a very small place for 90 minutes. With regards to Winter's Bone, the latest film from Debra Granik, it's a little different. While Jennifer Lawrence, as the film's lead, Ree, is on screen for pretty much every scene, the world she inhabits is a vast expanse of desolation. Ree lives in the Ozarks and embarks on a frightening journey into a hell close to home when she has to figure out the whereabouts of her criminal father before the house where she raises her siblings is taken over by the bank. Ree's still a teenager, but she's whip-smart and willing to put her life on the line to save her family. Lawrence, who I'd never seen before, is a wonder, a true star in the making. The other notable performance comes from character actor John Hawkes, as Teardrop, Ree's uncle. Teardrop knows more than he's letting on, but he's also the kind of guy who believes that he can terrorize his family because he's family; if you're not family, then watch out. Hawkes has never inspired terror in his other roles, but here, he's as intimidating as the gruffest of action heroes. Lawrence, Hawkes, Granik's spare direction, and the realism of the world make this one a standout.

8. Mother

2010 was a great year for female performances. Just like another film on this list, Mother is about the lengths a person will work towards to achieve a sense of balance in the world. The lead of the film, played by South Korean actress Kim Hye-Ja, is an older woman who works as an acupuncturist and herbalist. She lives with her son, who's in his late twenties and is developmentally disabled. Their relationship is beyond close; in more than one scene, we see them sleeping in the same, very small bed (and, yes, just sleeping). When he's accused of killing a schoolgirl one night and arrested by the incompetent local police, she sets out to prove his innocence. Just as Ree descends into hell in Winter's Bone, so it goes for the title character in Mother, who can be strong enough to get the information she wants, but is never strong enough to accept the truth. Directed by Bong Joon-Ho, Mother is both an unnerving character study and a crackling crime drama. What holds the film together is Ja, whose fully realized performance is as wondrous and scary to behold as you could dare dream.

7. Shutter Island

There are some critics who'll tell you that liking this movie is wrong, because you're really just too weak to pan a Martin Scorsese film. Those people are woefully mistaken; while some people may not want to pan Scorsese, great filmmaking is great filmmaking. While no one--yes, not even me--would put Shutter Island next to such all-time classics as Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, what this movie has to offer is Scorsese's sheer love of the craft of filmmaking. Ostensibly a mystery story about two federal marshals investigating the mysterious disappearance of an inmate at the titular insane asylum, Shutter Island is a vibrant character study and a haunted-house throwback. Invoking Val Lewton and other horrormeisters of the 1940s and 1950s, Scorsese presents us with a chilling world where half of the doctors advocate lobotomies just like they'd advocate a cup of coffee, where up is down, and so on. It sounds cliche, but what makes the film work so well is that the ruse is evident. Watching this film on repeat viewings makes it more tragic, more poetic, and more fiendish. The film hinges on Leonardo DiCaprio, as the intense, somewhat screwed-up lead investigator. DiCaprio delivers his best performance in years as a man dying to get back to his wife and kids, someone who's incredibly dedicated to getting revenge and justice in one fell swoop. Delirious, wild, and exhilarating...welcome to Shutter Island.

6. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

I said this when Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World came out in August, and I'll say it again. Watching this film was watching a director fully discover his talents. When I watched There Will Be Blood or Inception for the first time, it was like watching the great artist figure out exactly what he's best at. Paul Thomas Anderson had been making films for a decade, just so he could work himself up to the story of Daniel Plainview. Christopher Nolan had been making films for a decade, just so he could create a world where a man can be in multiple dream worlds (and it all makes sense). Edgar Wright had been making films for years just so he could work up to the world of Scott Pilgrim, a twentysomething slacker whose world is turned upside down when he falls in love. Explaining this movie is pointless; you're either in or you're out. You either buy the world of a guy who can fight people and, in killing them, turn them into gold coins, or you don't. I did, and loved this film. For the right person, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, held together by Wright's fluid and kinetic style along with great performances from Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Kieran Culkin, is the most entertaining film of the year. Even though I'm no video game nut (and being one does help), this was a truly rewarding experience.

5. True Grit

Joel and Ethan Coen go their own way. With any luck, now that True Grit has become their highest-grossing film by a long way, they'll be able to do so with extra funding. What True Grit may lack in quirk, it makes up for in sheer thrills. I said so before, but though I may not consider this to be one of their all-time best films (for that, we look to Fargo and No Country For Old Men), True Grit is just plain fun. Though there are twists along the way, it's also a simple story told with plenty of flair. The film is, like some of the other films on my list, anchored by great performances. Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges; all of these actors are their typical excellent selves. What makes the film truly unique is the performance of newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, who embodies the young Mattie Ross so completely without ever being precocious, a quality that's rarer and rarer these days among young actors. There are numerous great sequences in this film (the opening and closing 20 minutes are each amazing in their own ways), and I'm glad it's reaching a wide audience. You may come expecting an old-fashioned Western, but you will leave surprisingly touched and moved.

4. The Social Network

Yes, friends, someone doesn't think The Social Network is the best film of the year. All kidding aside, I get the love for this film. It features arguably Aaron Sorkin's best work (every time I listen to the "Do I have your full attention" scene, I find it hard not to love the film even more), the score is one of the year's best, David Fincher's direction is as superb as ever, and the performances, even from Justin freaking Timberlake, are amazing. What you must note here is that I'm not going to pick apart any flaws. My top four films are all, in some strange way, interchangeable. We've now entered the upper echelon of American cinema in the year 2010. I remain blown away that any movie about the creation of a website--any website--could be as fantastically entertaining as this. The marketing belied a smart sensibility, but it also tipped a movie that was going to be tense. Shocker of shockers: The Social Network IS a tense film. While I wouldn't go so far as some have to compare it to the political thrillers of the 1970s, there's a strange, unwavering suspense that seeps throughout every scene, every shot, and every line. Issues of truth or sexism aside, The Social Network is one of the best and most compelling "Rise to fame" films ever.

3. Toy Story 3

I do not cry at the movies. When I was younger, to maintain what I thought were appropriate appearances, I would try to make myself cry at movies where it seemed to be a correct response. But I just don't do it. So I don't know what to tell you about the final 20 minutes of Toy Story 3, where I was almost uncontrollably sobbing. Whatever sensible part of my brain I have was turned off as I watched Woody, Buzz, and friends face down certain doom in an incinerator straight out of hell, genuinely thinking that director Lee Unkrich and writer Michael Arndt were going to do it. They were going to kill off one of the beloved characters from this trilogy of films. Of course, the toys who we've followed from Andy's room to Pizza Planet to a day care all survive, but there was a moment or two where I thought they'd go the way of Bambi's mom. The final scene, where Andy hands off his toys for good, was equally as touching for other reasons. I don't want to sell the rest of the film short, from the adventurous opening to the Dali-esque touches in the toys breaking out of the day care center, but what truly solidifies Toy Story 3 as one of the best films of the year is that it sticks the landing. There are other trilogies, though very few, that have ended well, but the Toy Story trilogy is the best of them all. Lee Unkrich, a Pixar employee for years, can rest well knowing he gave Woody and Buzz the right send-off.

2. Inception

One of the best single moments in any film this past year comes right at the end of Inception. We see shots of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, and Ellen Page, all as they're waking up in their various dreamworlds. Page is stuck in a limbo world, but then she gives herself the appropriate kick to get out of that world, and into the next dream level, and into the next, and into the next. Gordon-Levitt and Hardy are able to join her in the same level, also giving themselves kicks. The almost blissful looks on their faces are echoed in the audience, as they wake up just when they're supposed to, and the impossible becomes real. Writer-director Christopher Nolan gave himself an amazing challenge with Inception: make an elaborate and detailed action film about dreams, and keep it grounded with a solid emotional core. Some people don't think he met every aspect of the challenge, but I was hooked from top to bottom. Leonardo DiCaprio, as the leader of a group of criminals of the mind, once again inhabits a damaged man mourning the loss of a wife whose hold on him is so profound, it weighs on everything he does. What Nolan does visually is matched by what he creates in the characters: a very real sense of loss and regret. Add that to some of the most jaw-dropping action (I'm still jealous of Gordon-Levitt for being in the zero-gravity sequence), and you have Inception, an impossible achievement.

1. Black Swan

There's something to be said for total and utter commitment to an idea. Each of the top four films on this list are committed to the very end to their stories, their characters, their ideas. For this and many other reasons, I offer up Black Swan, the best film from wunderkind director Darren Aronofsky, featuring the best female performance of the year (and also the best from its performer). What Black Swan is nothing short of redefining a movie star. Natalie Portman has been a star up until now; now, she is an actress. As Nina Sayers, a fragile ballerina given the role of a lifetime when she's cast as the lead in a new version of Swan Lake, Portman grabs us from the first second she's onscreen, dancing in a dream. Aronofsky is so adept at creating a world where we're not so much voyeurs into Nina's life as we are Nina herself that the final act doesn't feel unnatural or strange, it feels frighteningly appropriate. The other performances, from such actresses as Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder, are perfectly modulated. At no point do the performances feel false; each performance manages to be realistic even though we're viewing it through the prism of Nina's fractured state of mind. Some are going to tell you that Black Swan is a tough sit, but I haven't felt as enthralled by a film this year. Nothing about the movie feels false or implausible, because no fever dream is ever false. Black Swan is a glorious treasure to behold.