Honorable Mention: Monsters (Click here to read my review)
With Monsters, director Gareth Edwards proves that a big budget is not a necessity when making a monster movie. I read somewhere that Edwards took his two lead actors (Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able) down to Mexico and Texas to shoot the movie guerilla-style. Though the journey seems a bit too long-winded and drawn-out at times, the environments are what blew my mind here. Edwards filmed portions of Monsters in Texas in the wake of Hurricane Ike, and this use of real-world devastation goes a long way toward creating a convincing and believable monster-ravaged world.
10. Let Me In (Click here to read my review)
Cloverfield director Matt Reeves really surprised me with his remake of the 2009 Swedish vampire masterpiece Let the Right One In. Reeves clearly decided to respect both the literary source material and the film that precedes his own; elements of both are present here. Several improvements on the Swedish original exist in this take on the material, primarily the introduction of Elias Koteas's character. I had fairly low expectations for this movie, admittedly because it's a remake, but those expectations were shattered. This is a wonderful English-language adaptation of the Let the Right One In story, with excellent performances by child actors Chloe Grace Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
9. Unstoppable (Click here to read my review)
This was a shocker for me. Tony Scott's movies are often enjoyable, but his affinity for trippy editing usually brings them down quite a few notches in my book. Not so, however, in the case of Unstoppable. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine star as train conductors who go after a runaway locomotive carrying volatile chemicals across Pennsylvania. I've come to believe, following my viewing of Unstoppable, that every awards season needs a film like this as a lead-in. Unstoppable probably won't win any Oscars, but its leads give great performances and the action is well-paced and a joy to behold.
8. 127 Hours (Click here to read my review)
2010 was the year of the one-man show, as evidenced by acclaimed turns by Ryan Reynolds in Buried and James Franco in this gem, directed by Danny Boyle. The director reunites with several big players from his previous effort, the Oscar-sweeping Slumdog Millionaire, to bring to the screen the harrowing story of Aron Ralston. Ralston was forced to amputate his own arm in 2003 when he became trapped under a boulder while hiking in Moab, Utah. Boyle and company deliver a wonderful movie, but it's Franco's memorable turn as Ralston that sets this one apart.
7. The Town (Click here to read my review)
Ben Affleck is quickly proving himself to be a formidable director on the Hollywood scene. His sophomore effort, an adaptation of Chuck Hogan's novel "The Prince of Thieves", focuses on bank robbers in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, from which the film takes its title. Affleck plays Doug MacRay, a thief who becomes involved with the manager of a bank he recently robbed. Jeremy Renner plays MacRay's childhood friend, a hot-headed troublemaker with some destructive tendencies. "Mad Men"'s Jon Hamm plays the FBI agent out to catch them. Rebecca Hall, Blake Lively and the late Pete Postlethwaite also give memorable turns. Though we've seen this story quite a few times before (think Heat meets Point Break), it's the powerhouse cast that sets The Town above much of the other heist flicks out there.
6. True Grit (Click here to read my review)
I knew True Grit would be a great film; I just didn't expect it to be as funny as it is. Jeff Bridges plays the legendary Rooster Cogburn, a drunken U.S. Marshall hired by a young girl to bring her father's killer (a hilarious Josh Brolin) to justice. Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, just 14 years old, plays that young girl, and she manages to hold her own next to her co-stars. Matt Damon also gives a memorable turn as a Texas Ranger who loves to tell people he's a Texas Ranger. A True Grit remake may not have been entirely necessary, but it did make me wish that all remakes could be directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Not many people saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and that makes me lose a little bit of faith in humanity. Michael Cera may have worn out his welcome in Hollywood a while ago, but he's excellent as the title character in Edgar Wright's third film. Packed full of hilarious pop culture (especially video game) references and characters who break into fights instead of songs, Scott Pilgrim provided some of the best cinematic moments of 2010. Examples: Brandon Routh as a dumb vegan, a scene-stealing Kieran Culkin, all the "Legend of Zelda" shout-outs, "I'm in lesbians with you", etc.
4. Toy Story 3
Hollywood, this is how you do a threequel. Toy Story 3 takes place years after the second installment in the series, and sees Andy getting ready to head off to college. Through the usual series of mix-ups and misunderstandings, Woody, Buzz and their pals end up at Sunnyside Daycare Center, a seemingly fun place ruled by a pink bear who smells like strawberries. Everything is not as it seems at Sunnyside, as the toys soon learn. In this third outing, Pixar delivers a hilarious, emotional, heartfelt and sometimes heart-wrenching final chapter in the Toy Story trilogy, one that made more than a few people cry in their seats. And as with all of Pixar's cinematic offerings, Toy Story 3 has something to offer for all ages. My personal favorite was the Ken doll, voiced perfectly by Michael Keaton.
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Click here to read my review)
Splitting the final chapter in the Harry Potter series into two films was probably a financial move by Warner Bros., but it has also paid off in spades in the creative department thus far. Part 1 never feels rushed, and the three lead actors give their best performances to date. We spend a lot of time in the woods with Harry, Ron and Hermione, but Deathly Hallows: Part 1 also delivers some of the series' best moments. Though fans could still make an argument for Prisoner of Azkaban, I believe Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is the best Harry Potter film to date.
2. The Social Network (Click here to read my review)
David Fincher's masterpiece The Social Network is a very big reminder of how many components must come together to make a great film. Those components came together better than I could've imagined here. It's rare to see a director, a screenwriter, actors, musicians and more mesh so cohesively. Here, we see the film's creative crew, including Fincher, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and a plethora of perfectly-cast actors, join forces to make a film that I would consider robbed if it didn't win the Best Picture Oscar this year. Sorkin's script may take some heavy creative liberties in its telling of the founding of "The Facebook", a fact that's a little disappointing to me. However, the quality of The Social Network makes me not care so much. This is a well-acted, perfectly-scripted and beautifully-directed piece of cinematic genius that, in many ways, defines the age we live in.
I'll be posting this on Facebook, so go figure.
1. Inception (Click here to read my review)
Would you really expect anything else from me? Christopher Nolan's masterful film isn't perfect, but it was easily the best film experience I had in 2010. Nolan somehow managed to combine James Bond with The Matrix, throwing a little dash of 2001: A Space Odyssey into the action for good measure, and ended up with something awesome. The director created a world in which dream-sharing is possible, and then decided to run with it. Like The Matrix before it, Inception manages to deliver an extremely imaginative world and story while simultaneously giving us landmark action sequences. The spinning hallway is easily my favorite action set-piece in film history.
Nolan's approach to the behind-the-scenes aspects of his films is refreshing, to say the least. Watching the Inception's Blu-ray documentaries, you hear the phrase "in-camera" a lot. The guy likes to actually shoot his films, rather than CG them later. Studying these special features further reveals that Nolan actually built a spinning hallway. He actually caused avalanches. And he didn't shoot in 3D. He's a filmmaker who makes movies the way he knows they should be made, and the results are always stunning. To think that his next film is the third Batman movie makes me more excited than I can type.
Well, there's the list. Please, post your favorite movies of the past year below, I'd love to read them.
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