The Best Films of 2010

Before I go into detail about my top ten films of 201, please allow me to drop a few other lists on you so you can take the actual top ten list with a grain of salt. Mostly because anyone who makes a list such as this knows they are going to get attacked by people who don't agree with or don't understand why things are the way they are. So let me start by making brief lists outlining the films that didn't make yesterday's worst list or forgotten list. Here are what I believe to be the most underrated, most overrated, and the biggest guilty pleasures of 2010.


Most Overrated Films of 2010 (in no particular order):

Black Swan (If you read past this point, good for you. If you want to complain, I have my reasons.)
Kick Ass

The Kids Are Alright

The Fighter

The Tillman Story

Machete

Waste Land

Lebanon

Fair Game


Most Underrated Films of 2010 (in no particular order):

The Square

Solitary Man

Waiting for Superman

Cyrus

Animal Kingdom

I Am Love

Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Kings of Pastry

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Let Me In

Guilty Pleasures of 2010 (in no particular order):

MacGruber

How to Train Your Dragon

Get Him to the Greek

Defendor

Best Worst Movie

Daybreakers

Piranha 3D

I'm Still Here

Winnebago Man

The Town

Dinner for Schmucks

The Trotsky

The Next Three Days

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Disappearance of Alice Creed

And now, the moment that according to my best averages 70-75 of you have been waiting for, my top ten films of 2010:

10. True Grit - It is one thing to make a very serious western. It is another to make a silly western. Then you have the Coen brothers who take somewhat silly western caricatures and craft a serious and thought provoking piece around it. This might end up being the kind of film that resonates with general audiences that the Coen's haven't had since Raising Arizona. Great performances all around, especially from Jeff Bridges and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

9. Greenberg - I can't stand films where Ben Stiller plays the guy who is chronically embarrassed by everyone around him. It is one reason (amongst many, many others) why Little Fockers made the bottom of my worst of the year list. I like my Ben Stiller to be either a complete caricature (Zoolander, Dodgeball, Tropic Thunder) or to be a c0mpletely normal, non put upon human being. Greenberg showcases his strengths at more serious roles and he turns in what I believe is the best performace of his career. It isn't an easy film to watch since everyone is incredibly messed up on the most basic psychological levels, but I just couldn't look away.

8. Rabbit Hole - I do have some problems with the script for this one (it is very obviously and sometimes painfully adapted from a stage play and the screenplay does precious little to hide it), but Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, and Dianne Weist are all award worthy in this well made domestic drama that really makes one question where grieving for the loss of a loved one ends and healing truly begins. It all feels so painful and real and it firmly establishes director John Cameron Mitchell as a force to be reckoned with.


7. Exit Through the Gift Shop - Is it real or is it fake? Is it art or commerce or a nuisance? Who cares? It is all great entertainment. Banksy's documenting of a man who wanted to document him lives up to it's tag line as the ultimate "street art disaster movie." It is at turns an interesting portrait of artists in relationship to commerce and a laugh out loud comedy. Maybe the two go hand in hand after all?

6. Restrepo - Before Restrepo, I have not been able to engage myself with any fictional or documentary accounts of modern warfare. I never thought that any of them have been able to truly grasp what it is to be involved in what is essentially a futile war. Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's documentary of a platoon in Afghanistan is the best film to bring it all home to the average viewer. These are men who know their place in the army very well and are trying to make the best of being located in the worst outpost possible, named after a guy that not many people in the platoon liked that much to begin with.

5. Winter's Bone - Ozark based film noir sounds like a pretty touchy proposition, but writer/director Debra Granik deserves a lot of credit for making the most relentlessly entertaining and suspenseful film about backwoods folks since Deliverance. This is like L.A. Confidental where everyone is addicted to crystal meth and they all live in trailers. Jennifer Lawrence's lead performace, as a young woman determined to track down her deadbeat father, is also the most underrated performance of the year. The fact that it is getting lost in all the award season shuffle and hub-bub is a real shame.

4. Easy A - There comes a point where if you have seen a film more than 5 times and enjoyed it every single time on a consistent basis that you can't deny that you thought it was one of the best films of the year. Easy A is that movie for me. Emma Stone's lead performance is one of the best comedic turns of the year (her Golden Globe nod was the only one in the Lead Actress in a Musical or Comedy category that was actually deserving of being recognized). The supporting cast is phenomenal and I actually find new jokes every time I watch the movie. I am an unabashed John Hughes fan and this is the kind of film I had wished he made post-Home Alone. It might be only at number 4 on the list, but trust me when I say that I got more entertainment mileage out of Easy A than any other film I saw in 2010.

3. The Social Network - David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's much lauded look at the creation of Facebook is not only a well made film, but quite possibly the most entertaining film ever made where people just sit around computer screens and giving depositions ever made. Fincher's style and Sorkin's dialogue (which before this film, I never really enjoyed on the small screen) play well off one another. Also, bonus points for saving all the moralizing about living in an online world until the final frames of the film. This is a movie that is quite simply about the creation of a business and nothing more, but despite that it still manages to be quite entertaining.

2. Carlos - While technically a French television mini-series, it is hard to imagine Olivier Assayas' sprawling epic as anything short of cinematic in scope. Following the rise and fall of Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez from a minor player in terrorist plots to a huge figure in Middle Eastern based terrorism, Assayas has created a wholly immersive experience unlike anything I have experienced in years and Edgar Ramirez plays the hardest role of any actor this year and demands recognition in some form or another.

1. The King's Speech - I am not one who gives over to hype very easily (just look at where Black Swan ended up), but all of the praise being heaped upon The King's Speech feels well deserved. It is very easy to make a feel good film about a person overcoming a handicap of any sort, no matter what their social status. To make a film about royalty and make them seem simultaneously regal and human is another trick altogether. Colin Firth sheds the assured persona we have seen from him time and time again to portray a man who can be both prideful and deeply insecure in the same breath. The film looks great and feels more entertaining than pretty much any other film that came out this year. It might be "Oscar bait," but top to bottom there has never been a more engaging bit of "Oscar bait" ever created.


The films that JUST missed the list (in order that they would have followed):

11. Toy Story 3
12. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
13. Please Give
14. A Film Unfinished
15. Inception
16. Marwencol
17. Never Let Me Go
18. Buried
19. Micmacs
20. Shutter Island