Fafhrd on 31/12/2010 at 10:50

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This year is really hard to rank, because there were so few gems amongst so much forgettable pap, and then a couple of the legitimately great films just didn't work for me emotionally.

So lets try and rank these bitches, shall we?

Stuff that I didn't see at the time of creating this list, but I really wanted to:
Never Let Me Go
Get Low
The King's Speech
Four Lions
The Illusionist
Monsters
The American
The Ghost Writer
Green Zone
Winter's Bone
The Fighter
Christ that's a lot...

Stuff that I liked, but didn't leave a lasting impression:
The Wolfman
Piranha 3D
Legion I am a sucker for Angels + Guns + Apocalypse
Red
Repo Men
The Book of Eli

15-11
Some of these I'll explain, some I won't
15. Daybreakers
14. Toy Story 3: This was not Pixar firing on all cylinders. This was Pixar going back to the well in a way that I hoped I would never see. Yes, by dint of being Pixar they couldn't make anything less than a really, really good movie. But after Ratatouille, Wall-E and UP, to see them make something that felt as heavy handed and gag driven as this is just disappointing. They can do, and have done, so much better.
13. Iron Man 2: Disappointing, but not deserving of the disdain that it's been getting. It relied on Robert Downey, Jr's charm to carry it, but the first wasn't exactly innocent of that crime.
12. Harry Brown: Michael Caine Kills Chavs. You're God Damned right that's why it's on my list.
11. The Town: Ben Affleck continues to surprise as a director. Gone Baby Gone is the better film, but for a sophomore effort this was pretty damn good.

The Top Ten:
10. Tron: Legacy: I'll probably go down in history as the biggest apologist for this movie. It's flawed, to be sure, but it's also a pretty perfect sequel to the original (which is one of my all time favourite movies), and it's nowhere near the cinematic cancer that geek circles have been making it out to be. I'm hoping for a fascinating director's commentary on the blu-ray.

9. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: This probably would have ranked a lot higher up until about three weeks ago. It's kinetic, it's beautifully shot, it perfectly captures the feeling of falling in love with someone that you barely know, and it's got a fantastic soundtrack. I'd say it's Edgar Wright's second best film, after Shaun of the Dead.

8. Cyrus: I probably should revisit this one. It absolutely belongs on this list, but I'm having a hard time writing my reasoning. It is not at all the comedy that it had been sold as, which made it harder to process. Jonah Hill's best work as an actor.

7. Greenberg: Simultaneously one of the funniest and most profoundly sad movies of the year. Yeah, Greenberg is an asshole, but his assholism is coming from a place of intense regret that has been eating him for the past twenty years, ultimately causing a complete nervous breakdown (pre-film). So we're left with this character study of a thoroughly broken human being simultaneously trying to put himself back together and fighting against any sort of human connection. James Murphy doing the soundtrack (and the remix of 'All My Friends' used in the trailer) is probably the strongest statement of intent for what this movie was about

6. Black Swan: This'd be the 'legitimately great film that didn't work for me emotionally.' The biggest complement that I think I could give it is that it made me want to actually go to a ballet.

5. The Social Network: See my earlier post. It's not my favourite film of the year (obviously), but there is a special sort of genius dripping out of making a movie that is essentially a series of depositions about a god damn website that I don't even use so utterly fucking compelling.

4. Inception: By far Christopher Nolan's best work, and I'd wager the most re-watchable film to come out this year, with what should hopefully become breakout performances for almost all of the supporting cast.

3. How To Train Your Dragon: Yeah, that's right. I ranked this above Toy Story 3. Where that felt in every way like a giant step back for Pixar artistically, How To Train Your Dragon was Dreamworks stepping fully out of the shadow of the Shrek films and making something with a genuine warm beating heart at its core (Kung Fu Panda, oddly enough, showed the first tentative steps in this direction). This is probably the best animated 'boy and his dog' story since The Iron Giant. There are so many moments of pure magic in this movie: Hiccup and Toothless's bonding, the test drive, Astrid's first flight, the battle against the ur-dragon in the clouds... I could go on. And Hiccup losing his leg is a pretty ballsy thing to go out on for a kids' film. The only reason I didn't get this on blu-ray on the day of release is because I want the 3D version.

2. 127 Hours: James Franco's Oscar reel. But beyond that, a genuinely tense, and even thrilling, movie about a guy stuck under a rock for five days. How does that work? James Franco and Danny Boyle.

1. True Grit: I should probably give myself some more time on this one before ranking it, but fuck it. The Coen Brothers continuing to ride the wave of unstoppable awesome that they started with No Country for Old Men. Roger Deakins continuing to stride the earth as a god amongst cinematographers. Jeff Bridges being cantankerous in a way that only he really can, and the arrival of a fantastically stellar new talent in Hailee Steinfeld. I don't think I'll regret saying this is the best film of 2010.

Angel Dust on 1/1/2011 at 00:25

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Well it ain't on mine cos it hasn't been released over here yet. If the buzz is anything to go by, I'm sure it'll be up there when it finally does arrive.

Saw The Kids Are All Right the other day and it's in my best of the year list now. The trailer made it seem like a self-satisfied TV movie but the actual film is much more nuanced, real and involving. It's pretty funny too with terrific performances from all 5 principal cast members.

Queue on 1/1/2011 at 00:42

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You know, that might be a bad thing since films with lots of hype typically don't seem to be as good as they really are--because you expected more. Go into it expecting a Western, not a Coen Brothers film.

You know, a John Wayne film I'd actually love to see the Coens lend their take to (though they say, of course, they had no idea there was a previous version of True Grit--I love how they fuck with people) is, The Quiet Man, by the great John Ford.

Dia--we're watching Despicable Me in a few minutes. :thumb: What were you disappointed with in the Harry Potter film, btw? Most people say it's too long, which is ironic that the common complaints with the past two films were that they were not long enough (and should have been two movies each).

Dia on 1/1/2011 at 01:23

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Re: Despicable Me - keep watching through the credits, Q! Lots of lol's (the Evil Minions' antics kind of reminded me of my kids).

Re: Harry Potter; yeah, it was tooooo long in as far as the dramatic silences were concerned. Those silences were just so obviously filling in & taking up time that could've been better spent with more story/dialogue/something-other-than-silence-and-dramatic-shots-of-the-actors. The boring parts were made deliberately just so they could split the last movie into two separate movies. Sucked. Way to ruin a potentially good movie, imo.

june gloom on 1/1/2011 at 07:45

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Having sat down to watch it recently I have to agree that it was at least a half-hour too short.