The Absolutely, Positively, No Doubt About it Best Films of 2010

Once again, I'm submitting my list of the best films of the year about two months later than everyone else. Since no one is paying me to do this, and since I'm literally in the middle of nowhere, it takes time for films I want to see to make its way to my neck of the woods. I still have missed a good chunk of films I have been dying to see from last year, among them "Another Year", "The Illusionist", and most of all Olivier Assayas' epic "Carlos". I had just discovered Assayas last year when I chose his film "Summer Hours" as the best film of the year, but I knew my city would not get "Carlos" especially in its long televised version. In any case, here is my top ten list of films I saw last year. Enjoy, debate, tell me what you think.

1. True Grit: Joel and Ethan Coen are on a hot streak. "True Grit" is the flip side of "No Country for Old Men", making way for warmer characters, high action and wonderful American dialect the brothers are known for. This time they borrow from Charles Portis' endearing novel of the same name and bringing to life a story that takes its place among the best of western myths.

2. Hereafter: Clint Eastwood's study on the afterlife shows the director's strength as a passive director. The film may have come off as too phony and fussy, but Eastwood seems to be sitting back observing what these characters will do next with death looming over the entire film. The movie isn't depressing, it's life affirming. Not many people responded to this movie, yet I found it to be one of Eastwood's best films.

3. Exit Through the Giftshop: Utterly hilarious, this film shows its true colors about halfway through, when a seemingly true documentary about street art turns on itself and becomes a story about its own filmmaker. The film then takes liberties as to what documentary is and also what makes an artist, all the while being the funniest film of the year.

4. Fish Tank: A british export about a tough, furious young girl who seems to be ready to explode at any given moment. The only person who seems to take notice of her is her mother's boyfriend, but that relationship becomes unstable itself which leads the film to dangerous consequences in the end. The film was one of the hits at Cannes, and is just getting a release by Criterion this month, check it out.

5. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: This film has already achieved cult status having sold out midnight showings. The mainstream missed the boat on this one when it was released, thus missing out on the most inventive movie of the summer (Sorry "Inception") Directed by Edgar Wright and starring the modern great stone face Michael Cera, the film incorporates pop culture such as video games and comic books into its highly comic sensibility, it's also about a cad accepting his responsibilities.

6. The Social Network: A vastly entertaining movie about the creation of Facebook as told mostly fictionally by a wonderful script by Aaron Sorkin and tense direction by David Fincher. The film has a rapid fire pace that reminds one of a Howard Hawks Ben Hecht film. It takes what could've been a run of the mill American made story and turns it into a metaphor of how the world has been monopolized by social media.

7. Shutter Island: Martin Scorsese's largly misunderstood film, I found this to be his best outing with star Leonardo DiCaprio despite that actor's failings at creating a truly believable accent. The film is part film noir, part horror film, with an interesting look to it. Scorsese strives in all of his films to make a personal statement, and he does this with this film while using its genre as a backdrop. The master may have slipped a bit in the years, but he seems to be making a comeback.

8. Greenberg: Noah Baumbach, creates a wonderfully comedy/drama with Ben Stiller giving his best performance ever as a man who's life didn't quite turn out the way he wanted, but he struggles to find happiness within it before it all crushes around him. This is a great, brilliant observational comedy concerned about the heartbreaks but also the surprises of middle age.

9. The Kids are All right: Another wonderful comedy/drama about what happens when children who have two lesbian mothers go out in search of their birth father and the implications that happen after that. The film takes some unexpected twists from the heartbreaking to the ridiculous, but leaves the film with its characters changed and perhaps stronger because of it. There is no bad guy in this film, it deals with everyone on an equal plain, its situations because complicated because that's what life throws at us.

10. The American: George Clooney gives one of his best performances saying almost nothing in this existential thriller about a man who creates weapons for assassins. He lives his life mostly alone not being able to trust anyone, however things are complicated when he tries to leave the business for a woman he falls for. Taking it's cue from the Antonioni films of the early 60s, "The American" turned out to be too arthouse for mainstream audiences, yet it's still quiet and beautiful to look at.

Special mention should also go to Roman Polanski's "Ghost Writer", "Winter's Bone", Tilda Swinton's brave bold performance in "I am Love", Paul Greengrass' intelligent action film "Green Zone", and Zach Snyder's "Legend of the Guardians".

All in all, this wasn't the strongest year for film. Recently I've been watching a box set from the BBS company who produced films like "Easy Rider" and "Five Easy Pieces" and watching the power of those films compared to today's is like night and day. I'm still waiting for a film to change the rules on us, until that day comes, I hope the films above will suffice.

The Best Picture Nominations: How they measure up

Well I've pretty much done all of my 2010 movie watching before the big Oscar night. I haven't had the chance to see all the nominations, but I was able to catch all the Best Picture nominations. While I wouldn't say all of these films deserve the place for top ten films of the year, it was surprising that I enjoyed all of them on some level. But if you want my pick for best picture this year then all you have to do is look down.

1. Black Swan: This is a gigantic messy movie, that's not to say I didn't enjoy it. Most movies are imperfect and director Darren Aronovsky should get credit for trying something so stylistically melodramatic and ambitious. The climax of the film was one of the great moments I had at the movies, as it decided to go for broke. It was entertaining and daring, yet flawed in many ways.

2. The Fighter: Had more people gone to see this film, it might've been the front runner. "The Fighter" has a lot in common with "Rocky", it's a boxing movie, it's crowd pleasing, and it deals with a lot of colorful dysfunctional characters, in short it's the type of movie the Oscars eat up. I enjoyed "The Fighter", even when I knew where it was going early on, the acting is top notch by everyone, no doubt Christian Bale deserves his nomination as does Amy Adams, but Best Picture? The film comes off as being safe, it's too by-the numbers to be truly extraordinary.

3. Inception: When "Inception" first came out, I wrote about seeing it on my blog back then. The film has many supporters but also detractors, I'm in the middle, I find it to be a well made action movie and Christopher Nolan knows how to make big looking pictures, yet calling this a masterpiece is far fetched. The film falls flat in its world of dreams within a dream within a dream. The concept is too concrete, and Nolan takes too much special care to explain the rules of his dreamscape fantasy, I wish he could've made it more abstract, still it gets points for popcorn entertainment, but that final shot of the spinning top is probably the most overrated ambiguous ending ever.

4. The Kids are all right: One of the most pleasant human comedies I saw all year, with wonderful performances by all. "The Kids are all right" is one of the closest films I've ever seen that got to that sophisticated form of Lubitsch. The comedy here comes from real situations, and the people are believable, a romantic triangle is formed but leaves it pretty complicated at the end. Nothing is wrapped up in a little bow. The dialogue and situations go from ridiculous to heartbreaking. Julianne Moore's performance is a glaring omission on the Academy's part.

5. The King's Speech The Unfortunate front runner of the Oscars. "The King's Speech" is probably the least interesting film on this list, that's not saying I didn't enjoy it. Colin Firth is admirable, Geoffery Rush is worthy of his nomination and I wish there was more of Helena Bonham Carter. Yet the film shows off the trappings of what the Academy looks for. The film is calculating, it's by the numbers, it shows it colors from the first frame. Movies like these can be enjoyable, it's usually because of the engaging story, and great actors, all of which this has, yet there are many movies like it, nothing like it is new or exciting. I can choose many films like it, that I'd rather watch again.

6. 127 Hours: Danny Boyle's follow up to his Oscar winning success "Slumdog Millionaire" is fast, furious and engaging (For the first 30 minutes or so), By the time the set up was established, I was waiting for when this guy would cut his arm off and get rescued already. If there ever was a film begging for a short film concept, this was it. Boyle tries to keep our interest by submitting various hallucinations, yet it becomes repetitive after awhile. The one thing that keeps your interest is James Franco who displays the kind of goofy charm he's becoming known for. Franco is a movie star waiting in the wings, and this may be his way to get there.

7. The Social Network: The Ying to "The King Speech"'s yang. If there is an upset on Sunday, it will be because of this gem of a movie. "The Social Network" is one of the most entertaining films of the year, it breaths life in the facebook story by commenting on the fact that the Social media of today was created by a man who seemed to have his own faults in socializing. Directed with assurance by David Fincher and written brilliantly by Aaron Sorkin, "The Social Network" seems more fictional than real, making way for Sorkin's unique story of a social misfit who becomes the mogul to the entire world of facebook. One of the few films of the year I would see again.

8. Toy Story 3: Pixar's latest completing the trilogy of toys who come to life. I truly liked "Toy Story 3", the entire series of films is one of the funniest and most inventive with endearing characters, yet I can't honestly say I was more moved by this than by "Up" or "Wall-E".

9. True Grit: For some, "True Grit" might just be a wonderful throwback to the western genre. For me it was the best film of the year, a film wonderfully entertaining and enthralling with The Coen Brothers adopting the language of Charles Portis' novel. It seems to be the flip side of "No Country for Old Men", showing a world where morality and heroism does exist. The film is a celebration of time and place brought to life by the best American film team money could buy.

10. Winter's Bone: The token indie film of the group. That is by no means diminishing the power of "Winter's Bone", it's simply meant as a comment that the Academy tries to look edgy by nominating a small films such as this. That being said "Winter's Bone" has two of the best performances of the year at its forefront that of Jennifer Lawrence as a teenaged girl living in the Ozarks forced to raise her younger brother and sister, and John Hawkes as her meth addicted Uncle who may also be her saving grace. "Winter's Bone" is tough rigid and unsentimental, it shows there is originality still out there, I wasn't able to quite warm up to it as much as I wanted to, but perhaps time will let me come back to it again.

2010's MVP: Matt Damon

As we draw to a close on awards season, I would say there are many actors and performances that were overlooked on Oscar season, Tilda Swinton in "I am Love" and Katie Jarvis from "Fishtank" come to mind. Of course it's the Academy, we come to expect their predictable favoritism to mostly non-challenging films.

I'm still trying to keep with my deadline of watching as many of 2010's movies before the big night, but for now, I'm counting down my choice for some of the best of last year. Instead of choosing an obvious best actor or actress from last year, I've chosen a performer who I think has embodied the best of what 2010 had to offer. This year it goes to Matt Damon, a man who is becoming more and more interesting to watch as an actor, and as time goes is becoming a full fledged movie star in his own right.

The Academy missed Damon's best performance so far in his career in 2009 when he was overlooked for his tragic-comic portrayal of an incompetent whistle blower in Steven Sodebergh's "The Informant" which was one of the best films of last year. Instead he was nominated for Clint Eastwood's interesting but ultimately safe soccer/apartheid film "Invictus". Damon put on a South African accent for that role, but "The Informant" was the better film and better role.

As 2010 came along, Damon didn't slow down at all, he has embodied the kind of reliability on screen that movie stars should show. If George Clooney is our generation's Cary Grant, then Matt Damon surely must be our Henry Fonda, there's something quiet and heroic about him, he never seems to show off, but there is much going on in his head. Even though he's best considered a man of action, Damon never lets that get in the way of honing his craft.

2010 gave Damon roles to show off his movie star charisma tenfold. He was first seen early last March in Paul Greengrass's overlooked and underrated Irag action film "Green Zone", playing a military field operator wondering why he and his team haven't found any weapons of mass destruction. The film is an intense action film which fictionalizes the political repercussions of America going to war, it may simplify the issues for a pop corn audience, yet it remains intelligent visually giving a realistic action movie that Damon and Greengrass probably perfected with "The Bourne Supremacy".

Later in October, Damon was seen as the primary star in Clint Eastwood's examination of the afterlife in "Hereafter". Damon plays a man tortured with an extraordinary gift of contacting loved ones from the dead. It becomes a burden for him, he chooses to think of his gift as a curse, rather than a blessing.

There was much criticism for the film when it was first released, some people thought the multiple storylines and the coincidences in the film were unrealistic, however I found it a touching film, and Damon comes off the best with his low key unassuming performance, it's here where he shows off how much an actor doesn't have to "act" so much.

Damon's banner year ended with a supporting role in The Coen Brother's "True Grit", which became his biggest success of the year. Damon plays LeBeuf (pronounced Le Beef)a Texas Ranger, who joins forces with Jeff Bridges' Rooster Cogburn to track down a wanted killer.

"True Grit" was probably the most crowd pleasing film I saw all year, it had characters who were endearing and heroes who had a certain honor. LeBeuf starts off rather cocky and arrogant, yet as the film progresses, we learn more about him and he has his own square to settle. "True Grit" tackles the classic western themes of heroism, and Damon fits in just right, getting the chance to be a little broad and funny, but never losing the sense of the character.

There were other great performances last year, but what Matt Damon showed this year, and why I like going to his movies is his natural charisma, he has all the stylings of a movie star and that's just as important in movies as the character actors who like to immerse themselves in a role. Damon shows a smartness in front of the camera most modern movie stars don't, he also picks interesting and challenging roles. Chances are when you go into a Matt Damon movie, you'll see at least something that's always worth watching.

Special Jury Prize of 2010: Plastic Bag

It's been nearly a month since I last blogged, due to some technical difficulties, but I'm back. Stay tuned for my best of list of 2010 in days to come, as we make our way to the Oscars. For now, I am revealing my Special Jury Prize for 2010. This is a film that is unique among other films of this year, a film that can't quite fit with the others.

This year I pick Ramin Barhani's short film "Plastic Bag". This is an 18 minute short film which debuted early last year. I first viewed the film on Youtube, it tells the story of the life of a plastic bag as narrated by Werner Herzog. It follows its journey from breathing new life in a super market, from coping with its own immortality as it gets caught in a huge vortez in the ocean.

The film is rather beautiful to look at, it sort of adds to that floating bag idea from "American Beauty" without making it pretentious. The image of the bag finding its soul mate and the two of them floating around in the sky is rather sublime. The film also speaks an an environmental precaution tale yet we don't really know that until the end. I watched the film three times throughout the year, and although it's only 18 minutes its one of the best films of the year, perhaps it is the best one I've seen. Much like last year's film "Sita Sings the Blues", "Plastic Bag" was able to be seen for free from the internet, which speaks for the future of film, although I would say this is a film I would love to see on the big screen. From what I know "Plastic Bag" is still being shown on youtube, for those of you who think you have seen every important movie this year, check this one out.