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.
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