The Best Films of 2010

Films are not meant to be listed, but we do it anyway. I have no problem with it, as I quite like them. Lists are easily digested, providing a great deal of information in a small amount of words. I think it’s important for critics to make year-end Top 10 lists, simply because they are then on record as to what they recommend from the past year in film. That said, they are an absolute headache to make, something I discovered as I compiled the list below. There are films I so desperately wanted in that would not fit, and, in all honesty, there are films towards the bottom of the Top 10 that were once at the top. After all the agony, blood, sweat, and long nights of crying myself to sleep while blasting “Everybody Hurts”, I give you the best films of the year.

10.

Toy Story 3

This is perhaps the most universally beloved film of the year, and rightfully so. Toy Story 3 is another Pixar masterpiece, telling what will likely be the final chapter in the Toy Story series. Our toys have not grown older, but their owner Andy has, and he's going off to college. The toys must now face the next step: will they be put in storage? Will they merely be thrown into the trash? Instead, they opt to go to Sunnyside, a daycare run by Lots-O-Huggin Bear. Woody objects, insisting they stay loyal to Woody. What an magnificent, yet surprisingly dark film this is, addressing large themes without condescending or making anything too obvious. Toy Story 3 brings the tale of Woody, Buzz and pals full circle in the most satisfying, gutwrenching way possible. 

9.

Never Let Me Go

Mark Romanek’s entrancing Never Let Me Go may well be the year’s most ambitious film, and despite the occasional stub of the toe I could not help but be blown away by the undertaking, and thus it has found a spot on this list. Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield all give impressive performances as three “donors”, people who only exist to provide organs to those on the “outside”. They must force themselves to accept the fact that they were doomed to live short, unpleasant lives so that others may live long, comfortable ones, but that is not an existence many will easily accept. Together they just try to live normal lives, but their mortality looms in the distance, and cannot be ignored. Not many saw Never Let Me Go, but those who did found a heartbreaking and unforgettable piece of filmmaking.

8.

The King’s Speech

King George VI (Colin Firth) could never spit out what he needed to say, and as such he feared he could never lead his country, particularly with a well-spoken man like Adolf Hitler preparing for war right across the channel. He faces this struggle with the help of unconventional speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). What could have easily been a snore-inducing awards season period piece becomes a fascinating and touching film, thanks to the impressive direction by Tom Hooper and, most of all, the performances of Firth and Rush in the lead roles. Much of the viewing experience is spent simply watching these two sitting in a room having a conversation, yet you buy, and are entranced by, every second of it. The King’s Speech will long be a shining example of how to do Oscar bait the right way.

7.

127 Hours

All Aron Ralston had to do was give up, let his guard down for a few minutes, and he would have died. However, to him this was not an option. Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours is a powerful film, showing us a man who had every reason to accept his fate, yet he kept his mind elsewhere. Boyle makes the film appropriately claustrophobic whilst reminding the audience of the possibility of freedom. All complaints that the film doesn’t stay in trenches long enough miss the point: Ralston’s mind never was meant to stay there. If he were to dwell on his predicament then he would have died. Instead, as he sits in the canyon with his arm pinned against the wall, he focuses on what he has to do to survive. Throw in an astonishing performance by James Franco, and 127 Hours is a beautiful and often brutal reminder that being alive is just, you know... better.

6.

Enter the Void

Gaspar Noé's brilliant two-and-a-half-hour drug trip Enter the Void is a slow, haunting look at a life that went off the rails and ended too soon. It places us inside the mind of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), and it keeps us there even after his untimely and violent demise. In life he was a drug dealer/addict whose parents were killed in a car crash at a very young age. He lives in Tokyo with Linda, his sister played by Boardwalk Empire's Paz de la Huerta. Ever since their parents' death they've struggled with separation and loss, and as they grow older their own lives are corrupted by sex, drugs, and other sins of that nature. Perhaps Noé occasionally goes too far, but ultimately he goes where he goes for a reason. His film is simultaneously bleak and hopeful, and it asks the big questions. Have our lives mattered? Was it all worth it? And most of all, what exactly happens when it finally comes to an end? All I've written here barely does justice to this film's soaring ambition and visual originality. 

5.

Black Swan

At the beginning of Black Swan, Natalie Portman’s Nina Sayers is not a girl, not yet a woman. She is cast as the Swan Queen in a New York production of Swan Lake, but her director, played by Vincent Cassel, is frustrated by her devotion to innocence. He wants her to become the Black Swan, the seductive antithesis to the White Swan. In her quest to find her inner bad girl, she becomes confused, stressed out and paranoid. The final third of Black Swan is devoted to keeping the audience guessing, constantly presenting images and events that may or may not be real. Director Darren Aronofsky is able to ground it enough in reality so that the more insane developments don’t come out of left field, and he is helped greatly by Natalie Portman’s brutally honest and disarming performance. This was a year when many films asked the audience to guess what was fact and what was fiction or fantasy, and Black Swan takes it to acid trip levels while still keeping a head on its shoulders.

4.

Inception

Hey, remember that Christopher Nolan movie about a team of dream-invaders that came out this summer? Yeah, that one. I, like many, was so infatuated with Inception the first time out that I rushed to call it the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then I proceeded to call out those who dare speak ill of it. Well, now that the fervor has died down, it is still apparent that Christopher Nolan has made a great film. It’s the rare summer blockbuster with brains to spare, constructed with care and precision that leaves the viewer in awe. As an action movie, it doesn’t give you a second to breathe, but it's so packed with ideas that scene after scene remains stimulating on every level. The third act is a marvel, bouncing between realities effortlessly. It’s all very, to use the South Park terms, “complex and cool,” and as a result it’s the most thrillingly adventurous film of the year. Sure, it’s incredibly reliant on video game logic, and as a result many were turned off. For the rest of us, Inception is a towering achievement.

3.

Winter’s Bone

It’s a man’s world out there, and Winter’s Bone illustrates this in an understated but haunting fashion. Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 17-year-old girl who already functions as the woman of the house, as her mother is suffering from catatonia and her siblings are much younger than she. One day a police officer comes by and alerts her that her father, a drug dealer, has disappeared. Worse yet, he put up the family house as bond. Unless Ree’s father is tracked down, her family’s about to lose their home. Soon she finds herself in the midst of the local drug trade, where just about everybody seems to know exactly what’s going on, yet they refuse to help, fearing their private lives are about to be invaded. Yet Ree, a tenacious little thing, refuses to give up. There’s a way things work in the Ozarks, and the meth dealers in town aren’t about to let a little girl mess everything up. It’s at the same time a compelling mystery and a portrait of a community which long ago sold its soul to the devil.

2.

The Fighter

I fully realize that I loved The Fighter more than just about anyone on the face of this planet. It’s a conventional boxing movie right to its core, but I truly found it to be unusually absorbing and moving, mostly thanks to several great performances from the likes of Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams, and work from Christian Bale that should get the Oscar right freaking now. Wahlberg’s Micky Ward is a boxer with potential to be great, but his family seems intent on derailing his career. As the film goes on he must choose between loyalty to his family (and crackhead brother) or himself, and scene after scene is a joy to watch unfold. For one reason or another, boxing always seems to produce the best sports films, and The Fighter, directed by David O. Russell, is another great one that is able to separate itself from the pack.

1.

The Social Network

Undoubtedly the most popular pick for the best film of the year, but that’s because it deserves it. Directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network is, quite simply, on a completely different level than any other movie that came out this year. It tells the story of the man who changed the way humans interact with each other, for better or for worse. However, there is very little actual commentary on the social networking age, except for an offhand comment here or there. Instead it’s a portrait of modern America, and what it takes to get ahead in this world. At the center of it all: Mark Zuckerberg. He is man incapable of achieving impressive social status at Harvard (he was just dumped by his fictional girlfriend) so he creates a website which not only drops a newfound fortune in his lap, but is born out of his own dissatisfaction with himself.

It has been well-documented that The Social Network is a less-than-accurate depiction of the characters involved, but who cares? The movie is not about Zuckerberg exclusively, but about what happens when a group of unprepared kids stumble upon a billion dollar goldmine. At the forefront are two terrific performances by Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield as Zuckerberg and the best friend Eduardo Saverin, respectively. They are two different people who each want to take the website in their own direction, Eduardo focusing on the business while Zuckerberg wanted to keep it “cool”. At any point, Zuckerberg knows he’s the smartest man in the room. While this may help him launch the website to worldwide fame, ultimately he finds himself alone at his computer, waiting for some acknowledgement of his existence. When the Beatles’ song “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” kicks in, it seems to be taunting him. He has everything he has ever wanted, but was it all worth it?

This list is subject to change, as a handful of films have yet to come out in my area. Check back periodically for updates. I will also alert readers to updates on Twitter (@MattKraus813).

The Rest of the Best (Films That Just Missed the Cut)

11) Naomi Watts stars in Fair Game, a fascinating and exciting political drama about the 2003 Valerie Plame fiasco and the media circus that ensued. 

12) Lisa Cholodenko’s utterly real family comedy/drama The Kids Are All Right, with a pair of terrific performances by Annette Bening and Julianne Moore.

13) True Grit, a rare audience-pleaser from the Coen brothers that succeeds on most every possible level. No more and no less than a great modern western.

14) Street artist Banksy’s probably fake/maybe real documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.

15) The probably real/maybe fake documentary Catfish, a cautionary tale for the social networking era.

16) Martin Scorsese’s wonderfully creepy psychological thriller Shutter Island, another 2010 film which makes the audience question reality.


17) The Greek film Dogtooth is a demented little number; telling a tale of the ultimate hovering parents. Not for everyone, but it's my kind of strange.

18) Get Him to the Greek, the Nicolas Stoller-directed Forgetting Sarah Marshall spinoff which keeps the laughs coming at every turn.

19) Ben Affleck directs his pants off with The Town, a heist thriller with great performances and action sequences that’s far better than it has any right to be.

20) Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton face off in Stone, a haunting drama about a prisoner and his parole officer. The question is: who is the more innocent man?

21) Everyone’s favorite racehorse Secretariat gets the crowd-pleasing Disney treatment it deserves, and the resulting film is surprisingly moving.

---------

Thanks for reading, everyone! Stay tuned for what will no doubt be a fun 2011!