Best of 2010: Films

I've struggled with ranking a few of these. I even toyed with the idea of not ranking this year but decided that was a cop out. If everyone else can, so can I. So I give you my ranked list, as much as the ranking part kills me this year. Same rules as last year:

1. The feeling I left the theater with.
2. The film's watchability—would I want to watch it again and again?

Top 10 movies of 2010

Inception
I think Inception got the top spot in this list because of No. 1 there—the feeling I left the theater with. I remember feeling like I had to scoop myself out of the seat and re-enter a world that was different from the one I'd started watching the movie in. Dramatic? Yes. But when was the last time you saw a movie that completely and utterly blew you away? Not just with special effects, that's easy, but with an idea executed so beautifully and that was actually saying something, all the while being incredibly entertaining. After watching this movie I just wanted to shout, "see this is what happens when Hollywood gives money to actual talent!" Debate all you want about if the top stops spinning at the end. The point is, it doesn't matter and Cobb doesn't care. He is where he wants to be. I guess I can relate to that part. In dreams we can be with the people we love. And when in them, it doesn't matter that they aren't real. Kind of like movies.

The Social Network
Here's another one that had my mind reeling after leaving the theater, but for very different reasons. Five powerhouse performances make love to whip smart writing. The actors just destroy the script. I've heard people say Jesse Eisneberg and Michael Cera suffer from the same one-note, one-character sickness. I can't disagree more with that assessment of Eisenberg's performance as Zuckerburg. You can't even compare that deadeye defiant stare he wears throughout this movie with the mawkish, sweet guy he plays in Adventureland. There are also larger issues at work with all the praise the film has garnered. This is a movie completely of our time. Not just society's time as a whole but of my own. Zuckerberg is my age. There are scenes in the movie that show how Facebook spread from college to college. I vividly remember when Facebook hit KU. How it felt to start using it and the obsession it started for so many. It's so rare to see a film that feels so of its moment when you hear Justin . . . er Sean Parker plead with Mark during that scene at the club, "This is OUR time," you know he's talking to our section of the audience. And he is right.

Black Swan
I feel like Black Swan kind of sneaked up on me. I had read very little about it, which is becoming increasingly rare for me. The trailer really did its job this time and, somehow, I ended up excited to go on opening night. After it was over, this was a film that was hard to shake. Natalie Portman absolutely transforms on screen. During the finale, when she finally embodies the Black Swan, you feel like you are watching a completely different person. Despite its moments of cringe-worthy violence, the film is achingly beautiful and not just because of the dances, the costumes or the actors because as bat-shit crazy as it can be, you can still identify with that feeling of wanting to be perfect at any cost.

Toy Story 3
I declare a blanket ban on any more entertainment writers/bloggers being surprised that animation can actually be an effective medium for adults. I have seen Toy Story 3 at least three times and I cried each time. There is something so moving about it, especially the end of the movie. Throughout the film our beloved toys are struggling with their place in the world. Should they accept their time is over and retreat? Should they hope for something more? Who hasn't felt that way? The real piece de resistance is after the toys have made their way back to Andy's, ready to accept their destiny in the attic, they are saved by the boy who they thought had forgotten them. If you can watch that scene when Andy passes his toys on to the next generation without welling up, you are dead inside. It just illustrates so well how growing up is about letting go, and how bittersweet that can be.

127 Hours
I love when movies produce unexpected reactions. I expected to be horrified by the much-discussed arm amputation scene. Would I close my eyes? Would I pass out? Would anyone around me get sick? But when I think back at the movie now, having seen it, it's not the gruesome maybe 15-20 minutes of that moment that I focus on. It's the feeling that washed over me when it was over. But first, let's rewind—the film is a fantastic exercise in the term one-man show. James Franco, as Aron Ralston (a real person who, while mountain climbing in Utah, became trapped when a boulder falls on his hand), holds the whole film on his very attractive shoulders. The drama unfolds as he slowly comes to the realization of what he must do to survive. We watch him wrestle with it, reject it and then come around to it and we as an audience struggle as well. We know what's going to happen but that doesn't make the decision any less fascinating to watch. When he finally musters the resolve, we do too and we watch, and urge the scene to move faster, for him to finally get free and when he does, an incredible feeling washed over me. A feeling that brought me instantly to tears like no other movie I saw this year, tears of pure joy, sadness and relief. Franco's acting has never been more beautiful than in that moment and you've never seen anything like it.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Those that have read this book know there is a section in the middle that is a slog. It makes sense why it is in there but it was frustrating for many readers. Our trio is increasingly isolated from everything they know, including each other, and the chapters that detail this massive road trip serve to showcase just how insurmountable their task is. When they announced they were splitting the book into two, there was relief because it meant we knew we were in for an incredible Part 2 because they'd have a whole movie to spend time on the Battle of Hogwarts. But we knew getting through Part 1 was going to be tough. How do you make this part of the book into a compelling movie? Moving the slow parts by as fast as possible and focusing on our characters, that's how. Has the relationship between these three ever been such a showpiece of these movies? Not until this film and it is completely better for it. These kids can finally act and the film lets them. It's a dark, bleak movie but one that is impossible to take your eyes off of.

The King’s Speech
I was of the opinion that Colin Firth was robbed last year. Yes, I did not see Crazy Heart but come on! I love The Dude as much as the next guy but Colin Firth gave the performance of his career in A Single Man. Until now. The King's Speech, on the surface, seems like a traditionalist in a year of movies that threw abandon to what makes traditional Oscar bait. That doesn't make it any less fantastic. Firth just melts into this character. The relationship between Bertie and his speech therapist is as dynamic as any other couple on screen this year. They meet. They find their rapport. They fight. They make up. It's so refreshing to see a film about male friendship that doesn't rest on child-male humor to get the point across. By the end when title cards tell you about how their friendship progressed as King George's reign, you've just witnessed something truly inspiring and original.

Blue Valentine
This is the movie I was waiting for before making my top 10 for this year. I knew from the moment I read about the casting that this would be something special. I don't think I realized just how awful that something special would make me feel. The "something special" is these two actors (Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling) and their performances. The movie itself examines the destruction of a marriage, pieced together by glimpses of their meet-cute and when reality settled in. I think some pieces are missing in their story but at the end it doesn't matter. It's like a boxing match between them as they tear each other apart. What they create is just so beautiful, so heart breaking and so unabashedly real.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Speaking of original, this one may take the cake for the year. It shares something with The Social Network for me, and it isn’t the “similarity” of the two leading men. Note: I’ll put Michael Cera in this movie up against any moment of Michael Cera in his other movies as an example that though he’s always awkward that doesn’t mean he’s not talented. It’s that those films were made with my generation in mind. When you see the film, its not surprising that some critics felt it was too spastic, unfocused and erratic. I loved every minute of it. I think most people my age did. It just felt like it was made just for us. So when it didn’t do well, we could feel superior in that those stuffy critics and older movie watchers just didn’t “get it.” But fine, it’s not for everyone, and we’ll take it for our own.

Easy A
I struggled with picking the final addition here. I had The Fighter in this spot but I decided what I like about The Fighter wasn't strong enough to push Easy A off this list. The movie itself is pretty standard sports/boxing movie stuff with some drug abuse thrown in. I chose to go with Easy A because, while based on The Scarlet Letter, it is still one of the most original films that was released this year. As I said in a previous post, when I saw the trailer for this, it felt like a breath of fresh air, and the film followed through on that promise. Yes, Emma Stone is the reason this is not your average "teen" comedy. In lesser mortals' hands, say a Hayden Panettiere, the film wouldn't be nearly as fun, funny or even interesting. Although an incredible supporting cast of Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Thomas Hayden Church, Lisa Kudrow and Penn Badgley buoys her, Stone owns the movie and you can't take your eyes off her.