Top 10 of 2010 (A.J.'s Picks)

by A.J.

The Academy chose to stick with 10 Best Picture nominations and I'm excited about that. It shines a light on a broader range of movies and we get a pretty good idea of what movies were highlights of that year. Movies like 127 Hours get a second chance in the theaters and smaller movies like Winter's Bone get a spotlight shined on them. On Sunday the Academy will pick one as the Best Picture of the Year from the list of 10 nominations. It took me a while, but I finally saw enough movies from last year to feel confident enough to make a 10 Best list for 2010. There's actually some overlap between my picks and the Academy's nominees. Of course, in the end awards matter little, but recognition for good work is always nice, especially when the right work gets recognized.

10. The King’s Speech

I used to stutter when I was a little kid, it wasn’t severe or debilitating, but it was frustrating not being able to communicate with those around me. The King’s Speech is everything I expected it to be, which is a good thing, actually a great thing. So we've seen the story of the reluctant pupil and the flamboyant teacher, we know where it is going but it’s done very well. Well-acted by Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter and well-directed by Tom Hooper. The story and the performances, from the lead and supporting cast, thoroughly humanize the royals.This film is not only a well-done historical period piece, it’s also a genuinely inspirational story that never slips into melodrama.

9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

This is The Empire Strikes Back of the Harry Potter series. As the story of the kids at Hogwarts has progressed, the films in the series have also progressed in quality and substance. Maybe it’s the filmmakers behind the movies or the ever-darkening path J.K. Rowling has set for Harry Potter. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been and things are very serious, but this movie doesn’t get any darker then it needs to be. The story follows Harry, Hermione, and Ron as they search for the Horcruxes and learn about the Deathly Hallows and some of the best moments of the film are the ones focused on the young characters dealing with matters far beyond their age. I wasn’t a Harry Potter fan when these movies first started coming out but I am now, a fan of the movies anyway, and I can’t wait for the next one.

8. 127 Hours

Yes, James Franco is stuck in one place for just about the entire movie; yes, the scene where he frees himself is intense to say the very least. But, when you put the talents of James Franco together with the high energy level of Danny Boyle you get a very entertaining movie. 127 Hours is based on the true story of Aron Ralston, so when he gets stuck in a crevice in Utah with his right arm caught under a boulder you know that he escapes and it becomes pretty obvious right away how he manages that. Don’t let that one scene put you off from seeing this movie. James Franco gives an amazing performance and Danny Boyle’s high-energy filmmaking techniques never allow a dull moment. This movie was overlooked the first time around and now that 127 Hours is back in theaters I definitely recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

7. Please Give

Nicole Holofcener’s latest is the kind of movie about New Yorkers that you would expect from Woody Allen circa the 1970’s or 80’s. Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt play a couple who run an antiques store. They get antiques for their store by buying them from the family members of recently deceased people. They’re also at odds with the granddaughters of the old lady next door whose apartment they plan to buy once she dies. But they’re not bad people, though Catherine Keener’s character feels she must atone for her lifestyle. We get to see the couple and the granddaughters move through their lives in a non-theatrical way but it’s never boring, never pretentious. It’s funny, a little off-beat, and just a little melancholy and definitely worth watching.

6. Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go is about the tragedy of mortality. The characters in the movie have nearly fixed life spans. It’s not a spoiler to say that the kids at Hailsham boarding school aren’t exactly human, or maybe they are; who gets to decide such things anyway? It’s the same question posed by Blade Runner and while that subject is science fiction in nature the story told here is much more personal and introspective. The original score by Rachel Portman wonderfully underscores the emotions being portrayed on screen. It’s a drama about three people dealing with their lot in life. It’s not depressing, but wistful and a good film.

5. Toy Story 3

The tagline for Toy Story 3 could be “it will make grown men cry.” I’ll admit, there were a lot of emotions flying around while I watched this movie. I wonder if it’s because these movies have more or less coincided with my generation’s growing up and leaving behind our toys. Toy Story 3 doesn’t feel like a sequel; it’s the continuation of the story of Andy’s toys. The toys find themselves facing a bleak future but when they’re donated to a local daycare things get even bleaker since it is run by a corrupt stuffed bear that smells like strawberries. So in addition to being an emotional story about growing up and leaving things in your life behind, it’s also an exciting prison break movie. Pixar has still yet to make a bad movie.

4. True Grit

‘True Grit’ is just an old-fashioned way to say ‘American Badass’ but what you might not expect is that the main badass in this story is a 14-year-old girl named Maddie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld). She’s the show stealer in this movie. In one of the most memorable scenes, and funniest in that Coen Brothers sort of way, Maddie essentially hustles a livestock trader into re-buying horses he doesn’t want. I haven’t seen the 1969 John Wayne version, but the general consensus is that this is the better version of the two. I find it to be truer to the Westerns of Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood than the more classic John Wayne, adventure Westerns. Jeff Bridges is plenty badass too as Marshall ‘Rooster’ Cogburn. The journey in this movie is Maddie’s story, and it’s a personal one, so this doesn’t really feel like an adventure movie. There’s some beautiful imagery in this movie which the Wild West is always apt to provide.

I very seriously thought about having a three-way tie for my pick for best movie of the year. Every time I think about these movies I still get really excited and talking about them makes me want to watch them again. They do the things a movie should do and make me feel the way movies should make me feel:

Black Swan

I’ve already written some about Black Swan in a previous post, so I’ll be brief here. When someone hears that the new Darren Arronofsky film is about a ballerina, how could they expect anything different? The handheld camerawork and over the shoulder shots, which have been overused in recent years, are used with purpose in Black Swan. I can understand (almost) every complaint people might have about this movie. I can see how it would be frustrating to watch scene after scene if you figure it’s all in her head, but even that serves a purpose too. This is a well-made, well-acted film that deserves to be given a chance.

InceptionHeist movie, thriller, drama, action, science fiction, meditation on dreams and reality and our perceptions thereof, first-rate cast, unique and substantial story, amazing visual/special effects mixed incredibly well with real locations and actors, and all executed extremely well. What more could I ask for from a movie? I had high expectations for the latest Christopher Nolan movie and my expectations were exceeded. That doesn’t happen as often as it should. The subject matter, dreams, gives Nolan a lot of possibilities to follow; but he restrains the story, which makes such a sci-fi/fantasy premise manageable, because it is for the most part a heist movie and a great one at that. There are dreams within dreams within dreams each with its own landscape and plot points but it’s never hard to follow. It’s also never difficult to understand, but Inception doesn’t dumb anything down, never underestimates the audience. Inception rightfully deserves its Best Picture Oscar Nomination and I’m still trying to understand how Christopher Nolan was overlooked for a Best Director nomination, but hopefully he’ll get recognized for Inception’s original screenplay.

The Social Network

Some friends raised the question of whether a movie about a social networking website, about college kids, would appeal to anyone outside of “our generation." Other people in “our generation” (current twenty-somethings) I’ve talked to about The Social Network didn’t like it or weren’t even interested in watching (granted that's only a small pool of a large group). You don’t have to be a part of any generation to understand or enjoy this movie. The founding of the website facebook.com is a McGuffin for a movie about a lawsuit. It’s also about ambitious young men eager to stand out in an institution of already well-accomplished young people. Jesse Eisenberg has gotten a lot of attention for playing Mark Zuckerberg, and rightfully so, but Andrew Garfield also gives a great performance as Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg’s friend and the co-founder of Facebook. This movie is very dialogue-heavy, but that’s okay with a script this good by Aaron Sorkin and direction by David Fincher. I can watch this movie again and again and I like it more and more. There’s so much more I can say about this movie, about the acting, the writing, the seamless use of special effects, the underlying motivations that drive these characters. Perhaps what I like most about The Social Network is that though Zuckerberg is the main character your sympathies aren’t always for him. Every character has his say about what happened; every character gets to be presented in a light that lets us see all the qualities and flaws that make someone who they are.