2010 was a fine year for young actors and actresses, brainy blockbusters, and some of our favorite filmmakers trying different things and exploring new themes. Without further ado, here are our respective top 10 lists of 2010.
ANNE'S TOP 10
10. The Ghost Writer
Controversial director Roman Polanski was under house arrest while finishing this political mystery. The film’s sense of paranoia as it pertains to the government is palpatable. Although the movie is slightly slow going at times, it has a sense of dread at every piece of the puzzle. A very interesting film.
9. The Kids Are All Right
Annette Bening and Julianne Moore are a lesbian couple who have used the same sperm donor, (Mark Ruffalo) to conceive their two children, and now find him uncomfortably ingratiated into their lives. Other critics' amazement at how natural or how much like a “real family” they seem is only evidence of how few films there are that portray homosexuals as three-dimensional human beings and don’t fall prey to stereotypes.
8. Toy Story 3
Of course any film Pixar releases deserves to be on the top ten, although compared with their earlier efforts I wouldn’t rank it as highly as Up, Ratatouille or The Incredibles. The first two installments of this trilogy focused more on the toys' relationship to their human owners, and that connection to the audience’s own experience is why it’s so easy to tug at our heartstrings. Having the toys engaged in their own Great Escape-esque action flick was slightly less engaging for me, but it’s still a wonderful conclusion to a beloved saga.
7. The King's Speech
The look of this film is beautiful. Many of the shots look like a spread in Vanity Fair or Vogue. I thought that the relationship between Colin Firth as the troubled, stuttering King George and Geoffrey Rush as his speech therapist was immersive. There is a push and pull of letting your guard down to someone and accepting help that’s brilliantly expressed. This is one of this years many stand-out films with biopic elements.
6. Black Swan
This might be the most talked about movie this year, but I hope it’s for Natalie Portman’s wonderful performance and not just for the 2 minute lesbian sex-scene. I felt that the story was more of an interesting character study than a thriller with a good twist.
5. Inception
I spent three days after watching this movie checking on message boards to see what bits of information I may have missed and new attempts at deconstructing the plot. I haven’t been that wrapped up in a movie since Donnie Darko.
4. Splice
That’s right, a horror film has made my top 10. Even the horror-phobic viewer will appreciate this film. It questions morals, ethics, science and relationships. If you’re looking for a movie to take you out of your comfort zone, this is the best choice in 2010.
3. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
I saw this movie twice in the theater this year and I would have dragged more people to see it if it had stayed longer. The whole movie is chock full of catchphrases that I wish I could remember and use regularly to be as cool as these kids. I guess I have to watch it again.
2. The Social Network
Who could have guessed the Facebook movie would be a contender for this year's Best Picture. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin have made a compelling biopic with teeth.
1. I Love You Phillip Morris
This movie was amazing. I went to see it on my birthday because I knew I could see Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey make out, but the film was so much more than I expected. Quick, clever, a bit raunchy and got me laughing and crying. I think that Jim Carrey delivers the year's best performance for his challenging portrayal of a real-life gay con man who is currently serving a life sentence and may never see this film. The real crime, however, is that this was shelved for two years and only released in two theaters in New York. I hope it catches on through rentals
.
JACK'S TOP 10.
10. Kick-Ass
Gleefully violent and misanthropic like a bowl of blood-drenched Fruity Pebbles, this film version of Mark Millar's comic book series brilliantly undercuts the superhero myth by showing just how ridiculous the idea of a masked vigilante actually is. The action sequences are simultaneously thrilling and satirical, and although all the cast does fine work, the standout role goes to Chloe Moretz as a samurai sword-wielding, curse word-spouting pre-teen warrior named Hit Girl.
9. Toy Story 3
I was eight years old when the original Toy Story was released, and for many years it was my favorite film of all time. It gave me great pleasure to re-visit the universe that I had grown up with and felt almost like reuniting with a group of very old friends. Whereas Pixar's Incredibles, Wall-E, Ratatouille and Up are envelope-pushing masterpieces of animation, this film is comforting and sentimental like, well, a favorite toy. The cinematic landscape would be a much brighter place if all threequels could be this creative, intelligent, and emotionally affecting.
8. Shutter Island
Curious that Leonardo DiCaprio should appear in two films this year about how illusions, dreams, (and by extention, movies) provide a safe haven for the unstable mind, but can also be the beguiling sirens that lead to one's undoing. Shutter Island an Inception are both equally good films, and my favoring of the messier, more disturbing and idiosyncratic one is merely a matter of personal preference. With thankfully no pretensions in regards to genre, Scorsese fuses high and low art into a beautiful and terrifying Technicolor nightmare.
7. Splice
Here's b-movie creature feature that is as unsettling and uncomfortable to watch as anything directed by Todd Solondz. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are a hipster scientist couple who adopt one of their genetic creations and raise it as their own child. The picture addresses some incredibly dark and heavy subject matter that even most straight dramas don't touch upon, and is perhaps the best film about the fear of new parenthood since Eraserhead.
6. The King's Speech
It's no mystery as to why The King's Speech was both of my parents' favorite film of 2010. (In my dad's own words; "Thank god they made a film not based off of a bloody Marvel Comic!") As with True Grit, it's a film that feels older than it is, and I mean that as a compliment. The themes of leadership, personal courage and responsibility are ones that are rarely seen as often as they once were. Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter are all uniformly wonderful in their roles.
5. Black Swan
Although it tips its hat to Powell and Pressburger, Polanski, Argento and Verhoeven, for the most part this film is a continuation of the theme of performance as a means of self-sacrifice that Aronofsky explored in The Wrestler. Natalie Portman owns the screen as a tightly-wound ballerina who gradually becomes more unhinged as she reaches for long-repressed emotions in order to portray the titular creature in Swan Lake. I have high hopes for a victory for her come Oscar night, which, if it happens, will be more than deserved.
4. The Social Network
I will admit to pooh-poohing this film's premise when I first heard about it - who on earth would want to see a movie about Facebook, and why would Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher even be interested in making one? It's a testament to each of these artist's strengths that the film is so good - a classic lonely-at-the-top story, akin to There Will Be Blood with website programming instead of oil drilling, featuring Eisenberg's Zuckerberg as its quiet, shut-in Daniel Plainview. As anyone who's seen it can tell you, the film's title doesn't just refer to the website, but the entire American class system.
3. I Love You Phillip Morris
It's refreshing to see audiences and critics embracing The Kids Are Alright, as it's maybe the first "gay" film to be accepted by mainstream culture that doesn't deal heavily with outcast themes or end in tragedy. However, it still pales in comparison to this subversive firecracker of a comedy, which features the single best performance of Jim Carrey's career. This true story of a con man's determination to escape prison to be reunited with his lover is rude, lewd, foul-mouthed and politically incorrect, and it also happens to be one of the finest films about relationships I've ever seen.
2. True Grit
Although peppered throughout with trademark Coenesque quirky humor, the Brothers new film version of Charles Portis' novel, made once before in 1971 with John Wayne, finds them at their most big-hearted and romantic. Young Hailee Steinfeld's brilliant performance recalls Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon, and Bridges and Damon are at the top of their powers. Despite being a recent release, this is exactly the kind of movie they refer to when they say "they don't make 'em like that anymore."
1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
With his third feature, Edgar Wright joins the ranks of Frank Tashlin, Brian De Palma and Joe Dante as one of the world's most playfully cinema-literate directors. This adaptation of a Bryan Lee O'Malley comic book series draws upon 8-bit video game logic, anime-styled action setpieces, indie rock rebelliousness and heartfelt sweetness to depict a smitten young man's imagination run wild. The fact that it didn't do better business is disappointing to be sure - it's possible that audiences are suffering from Michael Cera fatigue, even though he plays a distinctly different character here from the sweet-natured softies he's known for. One thing's for sure, however, and that's that Scott Pilgrim is destined to become a cult film in the near future.
After various bit parts in Irma La Douce, Our Man Flint, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Burke's Law," and various other films and shows, she won the role of Varla, the leader of a gang of thrill-and-kill-crazed go-go dancers in Russ Meyer's seminal Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Meyer, who specialized in sensational yet oddly progressive sexploitation programmers featuring big-bosomed Amazonians, found his ideal female personified in Satana. Varla is a leather-catsuited thundercloud who delights in humiliating men in drag races and then snapping them in half like twigs. It's largely down to her characterization (if one can call it that; Meyer and numerous others from the set have attested that Satana was merely being herself) that Faster, Pussycat! has achieved its universal cult status and is held up as one of the greatest "trash" films of all time.
