Top 10 Week: Films of 2010

Honorable Mention: The Social Network, The Trotsky, Fair Game, Never Let Me Go, Shutter Island


#10: The American

A throwback to 1970s filmmaking, Anton Corbijn's follow up to his debut Control is a tightly wound and all together engrossing piece of work. George Clooney delivers one of his best performances to date as an assassin on one last job who finds that he's become the target.


#9: True Grit

A thoroughly delightful and exciting western from Joel and Ethan Coen. Jeff Bridges steps into the role originally played by John Wayne and makes it his own, while co-star Hailee Steinfeld shines as the story's spunky heroine.


#8: Inception

The most talked about and debated film of 2010. Christopher Nolan's mind bender is a clever, well-executed caper about a team who invades the psyche of their mark in order to plant an idea in his head. Featuring a great ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception is the great event film of the year.


#7: The Kids Are All Right

With great performances all around and an intelligent script, The Kids Are All Right alternates easily between being funny and being heartbreaking. Not as gritty as Lisa Cholodenko's previous efforts but a nice jump into the mainstream (how is it that a movie about kids with two moms can be considered mainstream when gay rights remains a hot button issue?).


#6: The King's Speech

A moving and beautifully made historical drama, The King's Speech hits all the right notes from beginning to end. Colin Firth shines as King George VI while Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush deliver solid supporting performances. The film might be a crowd pleaser, but it's never corny.


#5: Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky's dark tale of ballet, madness and sexual confusion is an intense, sometimes horrifying, sometimes mystifying thriller. Natalie Portman is at the top of her game as the dancer who can't reconcile her white swan side to her black swan side without destroying herself, and the screenplay will keep you guessing right up until the very end.


#4: 127 Hours

Few filmmakers could take the story of 127 Hours and make it work. Danny Boyle not only makes this story of one man in one location visually and narratively interesting, he provides it with a sense of movement and urgency that you wouldn't think was possible. Actor/writer/professional weirdo James Franco delivers an amazing performance which goes a long, long way towards the film's ultimate success.


#3: The Ghost Writer

Roman Polanski is a problematic public figure (to put it kindly) but he's a great filmmaker. The sheer level of craft on display in The Ghost Writer is astounding and the performances are terrific. Its story is loosely (and savagely) based on former British PM Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, and if some of its more inflamatory plot points are even remotely true, writer Robert Harris should probably watch his back.


#2: Winter's Bone

Debra Granik's gritty, insular story of a girl who will stop at nothing to find her father (or his body) is harrowing, intense and engrossing. Jennifer Lawrence delivers a star-making performance as our hero, Ree Dolly, whose odyssey takes her to the darkest of depths before allowing her to surface once again into the light. Winter's Bone is a damn near perfect movie.


#1: I Am Love

I did a lot of back and forth with myself over whether Winter's Bone or I Am Love (one so dark, the other so light) would end up being #1 on my list. Ultimatly, I had to give it to Luca Guadagnino's tale of an Italian housewife who finds the inspiration to want more. This beautiful, sensual film practically sings off the screen; it's a gem of a movie that shouldn't be missed.

Top 10 Week: Performances By Women in 2010

#10: Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech

In The King's Speech Helena Bonham Carter does not just deliver a supporting performance, she delivers a supportive performance. There is little glory to be gained in playing the character who holds the protagonist's hand and then holds her breath, but Bonham Carter delivers a really solid, understated and effective performance.


#9: Carey Mulligan, Never Let Me Go

Carey Mulligan's character in Never Let Me Go is the pillar of strength around which the story is built. Playing the character from teenager (lovelorn but not desperate, clever but not meanspirited) to adult, she infuses her with warmth, maturity and intelligence. The characters in the film are considered something other than human; the humanity of Mulligan's performance belies that theory.


#8: Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right

Julianne Moore has to cover a lot of bases in The Kids Are All Right, her character alternatly flaky, lonely, guilt-ridden and anguished as the story progresses. Her character is, I suppose, "the bad guy" but Moore brings such vulnerability to the performance that it's difficult to see her as the villain. Her passionate, moving speech at film's end is one of the many highlights of the piece.


#7: Naomi Watts, Fair Game

One of the most overlooked performances of 2010, Naomi Watts' portrayal of Valerie Plame is a performance that is going to be worth revisiting in the next couple of years. She portrays Plame as a strong, principled woman, so dedicated to her work that she's reluctant to fight back even in the face of betrayal by the government she has served so faithfully for so long. It's a less is more performance and its impact is great.


#6: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

I don't know that any performance in 2010 had more pluck than that of Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit. Playing a character of determination, intelligence and authority beyond her years, Steinfeld more than holds her own opposite co-stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper. She's definitely an actress to watch out for in the future.


#5: Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer

As The Ghost Writer's Lady MacBeth figure, Olivia Williams delivers a chilling and brilliant performance. Her character is one of the film's central mysteries and perhaps its most compelling, thanks in no small part to her incredibly skilled and very intriguing performance. If you haven't seen The Ghost Writer yet, you're really missing out.


#4: Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone

Ree Dolly is a young woman who can do anything because, against all odds, at her core is a determination that cannot be beat. When she tells the Sheriff that she'll find her father, we feel confident that come hell or high water, she'll make good on that promise. The strength that Jennifer Lawrence brings to this character is what carries the film; it simply would not work without that quiet sense of authority that she brings to the role.


#3: Tilda Swinton, I Am Love

Tilda Swinton is pretty much always a good bet and her performance in I Am Love is fantastic. Playing the Russian-born wife of an Italian businessman who is reawakened to the possibilities of life by a younger man, Swinton infuses the role with vulnerability and an intense sensuality. It's a beautiful, at times heartbreaking, performance.


#2: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Arguably the most intense performance of the year, Natalie Portman's portrayal of a ballerina swiftly descending into madness is absolutely brilliant. Black Swan is a film that unsettles the audience, leaving us consistently uncertain as to what is reality and what is fantasy, and Portman's performance keeps us off balance, careening from one extreme to the other and back again. Her final words are "It was perfect." There's really no better sentence to describe Portman's performance.


#1: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Annette Bening's Nic is a character with high expectations of others and she can sometimes be very tough on the people that she loves. She's a hard character in many respects, unyielding, and yet there is also a core of vulnerability that gradually becomes more and more apparent. Bening's best moments are those when she simply reacts, betraying the emotions that Nic might prefer to keep hidden. For me, this was the most compelling performance of 2010.

Top 10 Week: Performances By Men in 2010

#10: Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Mark Ruffalo has always been a dependable and consistently excellent actor, so it should come as no surprise that his performance in The Kids Are All Right is great. His character is deceptively simple, the laid back guy who just goes along, up for whatever. However, there are depths to the character and layers that Ruffalo reveals. Just watch his final scene in the film, that helpless, pleading look on his face. You'll see what I mean.


#9: Jay Baruchel, The Trotsky

I've been a Jay Baruchel fan since the sadly short-lived TV show Undeclared and he's never let me down. Though, it is a bit odd that he's still playing teenagers. His performance as a Trotsky obsessed teen determined to bring about a revolution is engaging and funny and all around brilliant.


#8: Christian Bale, The Fighter

As Mark Wahlberg's older, drug addicted brother who has long since crashed and burned, Christian Bale shines. Though a few critics have written off his performance as "showy," I think it rings with authenticity from beginning to end. Bale has, shockingly, never been nominated for an Oscar. I think it's safe to say that that will change with this performance.


#7: Jeff Bridges, True Grit

Not many actors would be brave enough to step into John Wayne's iconic shoes but leave it to Jeff Bridges to do it and make it work. His Rooster Cogburn is a gritty, tough, occasionally drunk S.O.B. who knows how to take care of business. With a character as colorful as Rooster, it would be easy to go over the top, but Bridges keeps it in line and delivers a great, compelling performance.


#6: Andrew Garfield, The Social Network

As the one who gets left behind, Garfield is really the emotional centre of The Social Network. In my review I described him as playing "the wife" role (whereas Justin Timberlake gets to play the rival for the protagonist's affections), which I think is a fairly accurate description of his place in the story. The wounded puppy thing that he's so adept at works especially well here. He's the film's only really sympathetic character and his suffering helps give the film it's resonance.


#5: John Hawkes, Winter's Bone

Mad, bad and dangerous to know, John Hawkes' character Teardrop is the scariest character in a film full of scary characters. This is a commanding performance, one of controlled intensity. Teardrop is a man of few words, but Hawkes plays him with his whole body, his posture alone saying what 1000 words never could. This is not just one of the best performances of the year, it's also (sadly) one of the most underrated.


#4: George Clooney, The American

George Clooney's performance as the haunted and on-guard assassin is one of the best of his career. It's a quiet performance that depends less on what he says than on how he looks when he's not saying it. He plays a man with many secrets, many regrets, and a whole host of fears and Clooney is able to convey all of that. It's an effective performance that leaves a lasting impression.


#3: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network

Jesse Eisenberg is no stranger to playing unlikeable characters (if you haven't seen The Squid and the Whale, I highly recommend it) but he always manages to bring some element of humanity to them that makes them work as protagonists. As depicted in The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg is a brilliant thinker but totally lost when it comes to interacting with other humans. At times he seems almost robotic but Eisenberg's performance never seems artificial or contrived.


#2: Colin Firth, The King's Speech

In The King's Speech, Colin Firth gets to play both the hauteur and the humility of King George VI. He is a proud man consistently humiliated by his stutter, his dignity undercut by his own mind and body. There are great depths to this performance, which never allows the character's disability to become a crutch for the actor. In all likelihood, Firth will win an Oscar for this performance. He certainly deserves it.


#1: James Franco, 127 Hours

For most of its running time, 127 Hours is simply "the James Franco show." Trapped and alone, the character contrives various plans of escape, relives old memories, and tries to keep himself amused and sane. Franco's performance is at times funny, at times heartbreaking and, in one scene in particular, almost unbearably intense. He has nobody but himself to play off of for much of the story, but his performance never becomes tiresome nor does it ever falter. It's brilliant from beginning to end.

Top 10 Week: Scenes of 2010

#10: Second Chase Scene, The Town
All of the action sequences in The Town are extremely well done, but the second chase scene, which follows the crew as they flee through narrow streets with the FBI in hot pursuit, is especially good. I wasn't quite as enamoured with The Town as many were (at least, it would seem that way given how many top 10s it's landed on and Best Picture nominations it's received), but there's no denying the technical skill demonstrated here.


#9: It's All Fun Before Disaster Strikes, 127 Hours
127 Hours has a lot of really intense scenes (and has, by my estimation, no bad scenes), but this one, in which Aaron enjoys an interlude with two female hikers is laid back and fun, but goes a long way towards establishing Aaron as a character and the arc he must travel. During the course of his ordeal, Aaron comes to realize that he's not the invincible superhuman being that he thought he was. In this scene, however, he's still firmly in that mindset, the cool thrill seeker who can do anything and everything.


#8: Cobb's First Shared Dream with Ariadne, Inception
A film as narratively complex (read: mindfucky) as Inception needs to clearly establish its ground rules to the audience before its story can properly get under way. Cobb's first shared dream with Ariadne does a lot of explaining, but it does so in a very engaging and artistically interesting way.


#7: Picnic with Clara, The American
Man, is this scene ever tense. In the film George Clooney's assassin on the verge of retirement comes to believe that he's fallen into a honey trap. He takes the woman in question to a remote location, ostensibly for a picnic, and then vacillates over whether he thinks she's an enemy or whether he's misunderstood the situation. If he kills her and discovers that he was wrong, then another innocent woman has died by his hand; but if he's right but convinces himself that he's wrong, he ends up dead. It's a great, great scene.


#6: Ree and Teardrop Stopped By The Sheriff, Winter's Bone
... Speaking of taut scenes, this one's pretty nerve-wracking. Ree and her uncle, who like everyone else in the community has an inherent distrust of the law, are stopped by the Sheriff, leading to a brief standoff. For a moment it looks as if it might turn into a shoot out but, ultimately, the Sheriff backs down (though he takes pains to make it clear to Ree later that that's not really what he did), solidifying that Teardrop is the baddest mofo in the Ozarks.


#5: There Are No Exceptions, Never Let Me Go
The characters of Never Let Me Go are brought into the world with a heavy cross to bear, that being the knowledge that they exist solely for the purpose of extending the lives of others. They do not wish to escape their fate, but the rumour that they can apply to extend their time gives them a little sliver of hope that makes life bearable. The revelation that there are no exceptions is devastating, leading to the film's emotional climax.


#4: First Scene, The Social Network
This sharp, rapid-fire scene covers a lot of ground. The dialogue is not only clever, it also gives us a pretty clear picture of the person Mark Zuckerberg is. He's obviously very smart but he's also deeply socially awkward, so alienated that his failure at social convention doesn't even quite register. Sure, he knows that his girlfriend (ex-girlfriend by the end of the scene) is mad, but he's not really sure why. It's a perfectly constructed and executed scene.


#3: Nic's Realization, The Kids Are All Right
There are a lot of melodramatic ways in which a story can reveal an infidelity, but the quiet, minimalist way that The Kids Are All Right deals with the revelation is about 100 times more effective. Nic finds the evidence, returns to the dinner table, and then everything else falls away as she silently puts the pieces together and the truth really sinks in. Annette Bening has a lot of great moments throughout the film, but this is her finest.


#2: Final Scene, The Ghost Writer
I'm sure I'll be discussing this one in the Great Last Scenes series. It is such an exquisitely crafted scene in which The Ghost finally experiences a moment of triumph over his adversaries (finally having discovered exactly who those adversaries are) and then it all collapses. And! We don't even get to see that part, it's merely suggested to us from sounds just out of range of the camera's eye and the loose manuscript pages that float by on the wind.


#1: The Church Confession, I Am Love
This is the big moment in I Am Love and I doubt it could have been handled any better. It's not just a matter of Emma's confession, it's also her husband's response, which is so devastating and cuts straight to the heart of the matter. His retort - "You don't exist." - releases her, freeing her from the unhappiness of her life and giving her leave to start over. It's a perfect scene in terms of both craft and execution.

Top 10 Week: Posters of 2010

#10: The Social Network
I love how the picture of Jesse Eisenberg kind of looks like a mugshot. I also like that the poster is simple and yet very evocative of the tone of the film.


#9: The Trotsky
Power to the people! I think this poster both captures the fighting spirit of the film and highlights many of the film's best moments.


#8: Never Let Me Go
I think this poster is great both because it's a beautiful image and because of what the image suggests. The two are running away but they're running down a pier, which has a very defined and certain end. In the film the two fight for more time but, ultimately, come to realize that the end is inevitable. Beautiful and so sad.


#7: The Expendables
I haven't seen The Expendables but I suspect that this is a matter of truth in advertising. I mean, you pretty much know what you're going to get from a movie with a poster like this, right?


#6: Inception
One of my favourite parts of Inception is when Ariadne starts playing around with the dreamscape, folding the city over on itself, so I think that's why I like this poster so much because it plays on the same warping of perspective.


#5: Date Night
I don't know what it is about this poster, exactly, but it makes me laugh every time I see it. I think it's the "What? Oh, just an ordinary night" attitude Steve Carrell and Tina Fey exude.


#4: Let Me In
The intersection of wholesome and creepy.


#3: 127 Hours
It's not often in life when you can pinpoint exactly where things went wrong. Just looking at this shot makes me want to yell, "Dude, don't."


#2: The American
A very old school poster for a very old school-style film. Love it.


#1: Black Swan
Black Swan actually has a ton of really cool posters but these two are my favourites. So creepy, so beautiful, so perfect.