Curtis’ View From the Back Row: The Best Movies of 2010

Happy New Year FOF’ers!  Time for my annual round up of the best of cinema that I saw in 2010. My criteria is not necessarily what was the most “important” film of the year, but what turned my cranks from an combination of entertainment, art, acting and pure visceral reaction.  For example the gritty realism of “Winter’s Bone”, one of the years major critical darlings, while admirable and well wrought, was a bit boring for me and was notable, in my opinion, most for a great performance from it’s young star and is not on my list.  Also, I’m sorry kids but there is no Burlesque (can we please admit that it’s pretty awful and that all of it’s charms are resting on firmly on the naked backside of it’s male co-star?).

The must-have look for every drag queen in 2011.

1. Black Swan.

Excessive, horrific, wild, gorgeous and deliciously camp, this movie is the one I can’t stop thinking about.  A force of nature performance from Natalie Portman anchors this tale of artistic perfection and the price that is paid for it.  This film manages to be high art and has all the trappings of a new cult classic at the same time.  I’m hoping that young queers will give up some of their slavish devotion to the terrible “Showgirls” and adopt “Black Swan” as their new obsession. This is a juicy riveting film worthy of our collective worship.

2. The Social Network.

  
It is the right film at the right time, but what makes it great for any year is the stunning script from Aaron Sorkin, the subtle performance from Jesse Eisenberg and the direction from David Fincher.  A film of Shakespearean heights culled from a website and bad friendships and business relationships didn’t seem possible, but here it is.

3. Toy Story 3.

The tear jerker and feel good movie of the year is an animated film.  From the geniuses at Pixar, this film elevates the trilogy to some of the greatest storytelling in film history.  Your heart is made of stone if you don’t love this one.

4.Inception.

A wonderful brainteaser of a film that is far from perfect but has the years most breathtaking visuals that complement rather the overall work instead of being it’s only joy.  And it has Tom Hardy in it.  yum.

5. Mother (Madeo).

A Korean export.  After Natalie Portman, my favorite female performance of the year is Hye-ja Kim in the titular role of a mother desperately trying to clear the name of her son who is accused of murder.  A detective procedural without a professional cop or detective.  Wonderful.

6. Ghost Writer.

A wonderful moody political mystery from Roman Polanski.  He remains one of the great directors.

7. True Grit.

The Coen Brothers deliver on this alternately fun and serious new take on the Western form.  Solid performances from the entire cast, with nice a star making turn from newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

8. A Prophet.

An Oscar nominee last year in the foreign language category this is the best crime drama of the year.  Complex, gritty, violent and riveting.

9. The Kids are All Right.

Lisa Cholendenko’s wonderful funny and insightful family comedy/drama about the children of a Lesbian couple who bring their sperm donor biological father into the family mix.  Explores truths about all family life and marriage without getting hung up on any didactic social message.  The best “Gay” film in years.  Look for Annette Benning to potentially win an Oscar for this one (she’s got Hollywood politics on her side this year).

10. 127 Hours.

I had to avert my eyes a couple times, but Danny Boyle managed to make a movie about a guy trapped under a boulder alone for several days in Southern Utah, and the gory solution to his problem a cinematic tour-de-force with a career best performance from James Franco that is elevating him to A list star status.

Honorable mentions:

• How to Train Your Dragon
• Animal Kingdom
• Exit Through the Gift Shop
• Let Me In
• Shutter Island
• Cyrus
• The King’s Speech
• Greenberg
• Tangled
• Joan Rivers; A Piece of Work
• 8: The Mormon Proposition
• Catfish
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

My surprise guilty pleasure movies of the year:  Piranha 3D and Predators

Best films made by friends that I would absolutely unreservedly recommend: Baby Jane? and All About Evil

This entry was posted on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 10:01 am and is filed under Culture & Style, Image, Movies, People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.