The Best Movies of 2010

What can I say about the movies of 2010? In the wake of Avatar, we got a lory load of crappy 3-D movies like Clash of the Titans. It only makes me sicker to know that a sequel to that Sam Worthington debacle is in the works.

 

Shame on anyone who saw that film in 3-D because if you did, your money was robbed. Although, the makers of Clash are darn good thieves. They got away with it being the number one movie for two weekends straight and a worldwide box office of nearly half a billion dollars, despite the overwhelming complaints about the post-conversion to 3-D being horrible.

 

If you're a person who loves animation, 2010 was a treat. Toy Story 3 obviously was the big winner at the box office, but it was just one in a year filled with great cartoons, including entries from Bill Plympton and Sylvain Chomet.

 

Hollywood romantic comedies continued to be a dying genre in 2010. Katherine Heigl, Jennifer Aniston and the makers of Sex and the City 2 all gave us lackluster reasons to take our significant others to the movies. There was of course the nerd fantasy Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but in a year that boasted Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love as the best romantic film, then you know we're in trouble.

 

I think if 2010 should be known for anything, it should be known as the year of the documentary. In case no one was paying attention, a ridiculously huge amount of awesome documentaries were unleashed into the world, so many good ones I don't know where to start.

 

You had the all docs on controversial figures like Jack Abramoff, Joan Rivers, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hugh Hefner, and Elliot Spitzer. There were two war documentaries with conflicting purposes. The first was Restrepo, which confirmed comraderie amongst soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, while the other was The Tillman Story, which politicized and manipulated that same comraderie.

 

Two non-fiction features tackled the public education system, Waiting for Superman and The Lottery, each with amazing soundtracks by The Roots and TV on the Radio, respectively. A couple of historical films about the Walt Disney company were released. There were docs that pulled at your heart strings like Kimberly Reed's Prodigal Sons and Spike Lee's If God is Willin' and Da Creek Don't Rise, and there were docs that messed with your mind like Joaquin Phoenix's hoax I'm Still Here, the adaptation of Freakonomics, and the very twisty Exit Through the Gift Shop.

 

I know I regularly bash big-budget movies and I'm not going to stop, but I have to confess to a guilty pleasure. Call me a sucker for these tortured teen flicks with their supernatural storylines, but I have to admit that I enjoyed The Twilight Saga: Eclipse this year. Yes, it's better than the first two in the series, which isn't saying much being that the others were awful, but I don't know. There's just something about this movie that sucked me in more than the Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter.

 

But, I was very shocked this year. There were a lot of movies going into 2010 that I thought I'd like and there were others that I thought I'd hate. Nonetheless, the opposite happened. Going into 2010, I thought I'd love the next Christopher Nolan film, based on my love of his past films. Except, I didn't. I thought I'd absolutely hate the next M. Night Shyamalan film, based on my utter disappointment of his past films. Except, I didn't.

 

I didn't think I could love Annette Bening or Ewan McGregor more, but both proved me wrong. Both were in two movies each this year, and, in one of their two, each had to play a gay character. Both were superb. Both were funny and both showed what bold and interesting actors they are, and with every movie on my list, that's what I was taken by, bold and interesting things.

 

The Best Movies of 2010... In Theaters

 

BLACK SWAN by Darren Aronofsky

EASIER WITH PRACTICE by Kyle Patrick Alvarez

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP by Banksy

WINTER'S BONE by Debra Granik

TOY STORY 3 by Lee Unkrich

MOTHER AND CHILD by Rodrigo Garcia

THE GHOST WRITER by Roman Polanski

I LOVE YOU, PHILLIP MORRIS by John Requa & Glen Ficarra

PRODIGAL SONS by Kimberly Reed

THE FIGHTER by David O. Russell

CATFISH by Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders

THE ILLUSIONIST by Sylvain Chomet

SOLITARY MAN by Brian Koppelman & David Levien

THE RUNAWAYS by Floria Sigismondi

 

Honorable Mentions

 

FAMILY AFFAIR by Chico Colvard

BLUE VALENTINE by Derek Cianfrance

NEVER LET ME GO by Mark Romanek

LIFE DURING WARTIME by Todd Solondz

IN 200 CHARACTERS OR LESS by Mauro Giuffrida

 

Best Overlooked DVDs

 

Best Dramas

 

UNTHINKABLE

STONING OF SORAYA M.

THE BLACK BALLOON

PEACOCK

MOON

TOE TO TOE

CHLOE

TO SAVE A LIFE

DREAM BOY

LOVELY, STILL

HARRY BROWN

CA$H

THE GOOD GUY

ORDER OF CHAOS

STRANGER IN US

 

Best Comedies

 

BIG FAN

BARRY MUNDAY

BLACK DYNAMITE

WHIP IT

DON MCKAY

THE JOB

WHY AM I DOING THIS?

MYSTERY TEAM

YOUTH IN REVOLT

BIG GAY MUSICAL

PASSENGER SIDE

DARIA: THE COMPLETE SERIES

ALLY MCBEAL: THE COMPLETE SERIES

DIARY OF WIMPY KID

 

Best Documentaries

 

PASSING STRANGE

AFGHAN STAR

PHYLLIS & HAROLD

GOOD HAIR

SOUL POWER