Best of 2010
It’s that time of the year when movie lovers look over film’s shoulder at the year that was and count down their picks for its best movies. It’s been nearly a year since The Gibson Review first launched so I figured I’d count down the ten best - those films that were reviewed best by yours truly and some that weren’t featured on this site.
This time, I’m not playing favorites. There may come a time when Film Faves circles back to this year, but not today.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of this year’s movies (41 to be exact). But before I count down, I must first admit there are a few bright spots of the year that for one reason or another I have yet to catch, but fully intend to during the next couple months.
Those films are:
Animal Kingdom
,
Blue Valentine
,
Buried
,
Catfish
,
Cyrus
,
Dogtooth
,
Fair Game
,
The Fighter
,
Four Lions
,
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
,
The King’s Speech
,
Never Let Me Go
,
Rabbit Hole
,
Restrepo
,
Salt
,
Somewhere
,
The Tillman Story
, and
Waiting for ‘Superman’
.
It may be said that no “Best of” list is complete without some of those movies. If that’s the case then you’ll have to accept this list as incomplete for the time being. Regardless, even though the former half of the year was quite lackluster, it still became a challenge to boil what I was able to see down to a list of ten.
Here they are:
10.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
After seeing
Tron: Legacy
, my respect for
nearly doubled. Director Edgar Wright managed to create a film with more thrilling fight scenes than most of the year’s action movies. Adapted from Brian O’Malley’s comic series,
Scott Pilgrim
was a clever blend of video game, indie rock, and comic book cultures in a romantic comedy rich with substance and eye-popping visuals.
9.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
This was a thrilling near-end for what is quite possibly the greatest children’s fantasy film series of all time. Rich with pay-offs of previous installments and mature content,
emphasized how greatly these films have detailed this world of magicians and how the leads have matured into fine actors. Oh, and did I mention the franchise’s incredible assembly of the top British talents, most of which are crammed into this one film?
8.
How to Train Your Dragon
I was fortunate enough to see this film at the theaters in 3D. Twice.
How to Train Your Dragon
(aka
Dragon Movie!
around my house) may be a familiar story, one that has parallels to last year’s
Avatar
– but it’s one of the best versions of this familiar story. And it is every bit the spectacle James Cameron’s sci-fi epic was and in half the time! I was greatly impressed by how well the flying sequences played in 2D; the jaw dropped often. If you missed it in 3D (which was superior to
Avatar
’s and one of only three of this year’s worthwhile 3D excursions), but have a decent HD home theater system then you owe it to yourself to check this out.
7.
Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller has its influences, but nothing else is quite like it. Mostly about a buttoned-up young woman’s attempt to lose herself, which results in her
losing it
instead,
Black Swan
is equal parts character-based drama, body horror, and mind-bender. Aronofsky adds some clever uses of mirrors and the colors white, black, red, and pink for character and symbolism. Natalie Portman gives a very convincing performance as a ballet dancer who just wants to be perfect, but is haunted by her insecurities and visions that may or may not be real.
Black Swan
just falls short of Aronofsky’s best work, but does pirouettes around others.
6.
Kick-Ass
is the year’s most exciting and enjoyable action film – and the most underappreciated film of the year. It is an unabashedly fun film that pulls no punches. It winks at other superhero movies, admits their ridiculousness, yet embraces them completely and gives them a wild, wet kiss. Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz gave stand-out performances (and sparked controversy) as the father/daughter crime-fighting duo Big Daddy and Hit Girl. These characters have the most memorable scenes, but those scenes feature some of the most brilliantly executed filmmaking I’ve seen this year: the hostage first-person-shooter scene, Hit Girl’s John Woo-influenced action scenes, and Big Daddy’s warehouse blow-out shown to us via Teddy-cam. Not only that, but this is a film that was self-financed and looks like a big budget studio film. Those who can’t stand a bit of edge to their action should look elsewhere. The rest of us should savor
Kick-Ass
.
5.
Winter’s Bone
is a great character-driven mystery with excellent performances, featuring one of the year’s best characters, Ree Dolley (Jennifer Lawrence). Moody, yet as naturalistic as you’ll ever find,
Winter’s Bone
is so low-key it went under many people’s radar earlier this year. But it is as fine a film as you’ll ever see in 2010.
4.
When I screened the 1969 western starring John Wayne last August for The Gibson Revue, I selected it not only because it fit with the theme of a loner befriending others or that it, like
Let the Right One In
, was an adaptation of a novel. I selected it in part because I knew it, like the Swedish film, was being remade – and once I saw the original I knew the Coen Bros. were the right people for the job. Coincidently, the western fared better than the vampire story. It is one of the most beautiful and engaging films you’ll see this year, which had a decent crop of new female talent pop up, including Chloe Moretz and Jennifer Lawrence. Just as 2010 was tipping its hat and bidding us adieu, it gave us Hailee Steinfeld also.
3.
Toy Story 3
is the year’s best sequel – and there were a lot of sequels! It’s extremely clever and side-steps the traps of other sequels, animated or otherwise, for a beautiful and thrilling story that fondly bids these characters a fond farewell. This is the film that will make you laugh and cry like no other. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Pixar can treat its next couple sequels of other films with the same brilliance.
2.
Inception
is best-remembered as a mind-bending thriller with ingenious stunts. It was also the first truly great original idea to hit theaters this year. Under the surface was also an intriguing message on storytelling, specifically in movies, by a man who is one of today’s most exceptional storytellers, Christopher Nolan. For several months, this
was
the best film of the year.
1.
The Social Network
Timeless, yet era-defining,
is the film that is not only about the King Geek of an era ruled by geeks in nearly every way but also about how geek-kind was destined to rule our future. Our society has been defined by a technology created by geeks like Bill Gates and entertainment that is derived from geekdom’s literature, comic books. Mark Zuckerberg is just the latest geek to rule another aspect of society: social interaction.
The Social Network
is no “Revenge of the Nerds”-tinged biopic. Nor does it ever treat its audience as though its intelligence is inferior to its subject by spelling everything out. Nor is it a biopic that simply fires off a list of factual scenes. It is about how one man’s idea can change a world – and how it did. Featuring the year’s most nuanced and complex performance, by Jesse Eisenberg, with a superb script by Aaron Sorkin and magnificent direction by David Fincher,
The Social Network
is not just the best of a bunch of really good films – it is the greatest film, hands down; one that will surely be remembered for decades to come.
Honorable mentions must go to:
Easy A
Exit Through the Gift Shop
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Mother
A Prophet
Shutter Island
Those are the best movies of 2010. Do yourself a favor and hunt them down in theaters or wherever you rent movies these days.
If you agree or disagree with my picks, please leave a comment below or on Facebook or drop me an email at