FAVORITE FILMS OF 2010

1. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)

Regardless of its incongruities, it is hard not to succumb to the visceral power of Black Swan or fully appreciate the beauty of its direction or the brilliance of its acting. Darren Aronofsky is a director of great audacity and his film about a perfectionist ballet dancer leaves us limp.

2. Hereafter (Clint Eastwood, 2010)

Octogenarian Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter is an understated but deeply moving meditation on death and how it affects those left behind. It is a quiet and slow-paced film that treats every character with respect. The film is emotional, yet it is honest emotion that carefully avoids melodrama and sentimentality

3. The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010)

Lionel Logue, a speech therapist from Australia, proves extremely valuable in his attempt to help King George VI overcome a stammer in Tom Hooper’s highly entertaining The King’s Speech. Based on a true story, the film is not only an engaging experience, but also one that is quite moving.

4. Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

Winner of the 2010 Golden Lion in Venice, Somewhere is film of observation and nuance without a conventional plot, a unique character study about the emptiness of the life of a Hollywood celebrity. It is a work with a core of conviction and authenticity, mirroring Coppola’s own experience of growing up in a celebrity household. Though the pace is slow, it is a compelling and moving experience, one that is filled with the joy of discovery

5. Kynodontas ( Dogtooth, Yorgos Lanthimos, 2009)

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth is a provocative and disturbing film about the effect on a middle-class suburban family when the father takes total control of the lives of the three adult children, restricting their access to the outside world. The three unnamed children, a boy and his two sisters walk, talk, and act like zombies, wooden and undeveloped emotionally. While what Lanthimos is trying to say is unclear and every scene can have multiple meanings, Dogtooth is a jarring experience that you are not likely to soon forget.

6. 36 vues du Pic Saint Loup (Around a Small Mountain, Jacques Rivette, 2009)

82-year old auteur Jacques Rivette’s Around a Small Mountain is a charming and utterly captivating lament for the passing of time. At 84 minutes long, the shortest Rivette film to date, it evokes nostalgia for a bygone era of shows that relied on an intimate connection between performers and audience.

7. Ajami (Scandor Copti and Yaron Shani, 2009)

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2010, Ajami makes clear the human cost of decades of strife between Jews and Arabs. Set in Jaffa, Israel, it captures the look and feel of a community in disarray with such raw urgency that it could easily be mistaken for a documentary.

8. The Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)

The Winter’s Bone depicts how a young girl’s life is changed when the sheriff informs her that her dad, on the run after being arrested, has put the family’s house up as bond and unless he is found and convinced to turn himself in, her family will lose their house.

9. Incendies

Dennis Vlilleneuve’s Incendies is a film of searing emotional intensity, graphically depicting the brutality of ethnic conflict and the physical and emotional toll that it can bring to a country and its people. It is a family drama, an abiding mystery, and a visceral cry against the insanity of war.

10. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)

Andrea Arnold’s honest Fish Tank is the story of a fifteen year-old girl’s struggle for self respect. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Arnold uses the fierce slang of the streets, overt sexual encounters, and hand-held camerawork to tell an authentic story of adolescence.

11. Rabbit Hole (John Cameron Mitchell, 2010)

Rabbit Hole is a poignant and affecting look at two deeply wounded individuals fighting a long and difficult battle to stay afloat and begin life anew after their four-year old son Danny is killed by a teenage driver when he runs into the street chasing his dog.

12. Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010)

In Greenberg, Roger, an angry, unpleasant individual, has come to Los Angeles to babysit his brother Philip’s suburban house. He is helped with the shopping by Florence, a young assistant to Philip and they are drawn to each other out of a mutual need for affection and support.

13. Uncle Boonmee who can Recall his Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)

Uncle Boonmee is a film about myths and memories that evoke the thin line between the world of reality and that of spirit. It is like a dream that is real when you are dreaming but illogical when you wake up, a series of images that can only be experienced.

14. Belle Épine (Dear Prudence, Rebecca Zlotowski, 2010) (Unreleased)

Set in Paris, Dear Prudence is an impressionistic story of a sad and lonely adolescent who begins to lose her bearings as a result of her inability to grieve her mother’s loss. The film creates a believable sixteen-year-old in pain trying to navigate in an emotional no-man’s land.

15. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010)

Scott Pilgrim is an unemployed 22-year-old who plays bass guitar in a rock band in the zany comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The film delivers high energy entertainment, connecting with its audience through smart dialogue, heaping spoonfuls of fantasy, and tons of technical wizardry.

16. Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)

Directed by elusive street artist Banksy, Exit describes attempts by L.A. store owner Thierry Guetta to capture the world of street artists. The film may be real or a tongue-in-cheek spoof of the gullibility of the public and the crass commercialism of the art world, but only Banksy really knows.

17. The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010)

Based on the novel Ghost by Robert Harris, Ghost Writer is about an unnamed author (Ewan McGregor) who is hired to complete the memoirs of former British Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) after the previous ghost writer was found dead, his body washed up on a beach in New England.

18. Waste Land (Lucy Walker, 2010)

In Waste Land, we go inside the squalid landfill known as Jardim Gramacho on the outskirts of Rio to see through the eyes of the “pickers,” who live and work in this squalid environment, and who become the subjects of the expressive art of Vik Muniz, a renowned painter.

19. O Estranho Caso de Angélica (The Strange Case of Angelica, Manoel de Oliviera, 2010)

Underscored by the calming background of a Chopin Sonata, The Strange Case of Angelica is the work of a master who challenges us to see the “absolutely unbroken continuity” between life and death. The film is often static, yet it is atmospheric, moody, and spiritually informed.

20. Armadillo (Janus Metz Pederson, 2010)

Janus Metz’ powerful documentary, Armadillo, depicts the bravery and camaraderie and also the addictive high of several Danish soldiers, seemingly just out of their teens, that comes from their participation in the war in Afghanistan. Depending on your point of view, the soldiers are either making a difference or perpetuating atrocities in an unwinnable war.

Honorable Mention

Please Give, The Sleeping Beauty, Poetry, True Grit, Howl, Eat Pray Love, The Last Train Home. Babies, The Secret in Their Eyes

Most Disappointing films of 2010

Shutter Island, It’s Complicated. Another Year, Mao’s Last Dancer, Never Let Me Go, Invictus, When You’re Strange, I Am Love

Best Actor

1. Matt Damon – Hereafter
2. Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
3. Ben Stiller – Greenberg
4. Michael Cera – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
5. Ricardo Darin – The Secret in their Eyes
6. Stephen Dorff – Somewhere
7. Christos Stergioglou - Dogtooth
8. Ibrahim Frege – Ajami
9. George Clooney – The American
10. Ricardo Trepa – The Strange Case of Angelica

Best Actress

1. Natalie Portman – Black Swan
2. Yung Jungee – Poetry
3. Cecile de France - Hereafter
4. Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
5. Greta Gerbig – Greenberg
6. Lea Seydoux – Dear Prudence
7. Jennifer Lawrence – The Winter’s Bone
8. Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
9. Katie Jarvis – Fish Tank
10. Jane Birkin – Around a Small Mountain

Best Supporting Actor

1. Frankie/George McLaren - Hereafter
2. Vincent Cassel – Black Swan
3. Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
4. Andrew Garfield – The Social Network
5. Miles Teller – Rabbit Hole

Best Supporting Actress

1. Elle Fanning – Somewhere
2. Mila Kunis – Black Swan
3. Tilda Swinton – I Am Love
4. Bryce Dallas Howard - Hereafter
5. Dianne Weist – Rabbit Hole