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Counting down the best films of the year.
The first sad fact about top 10 lists is that there’s no way to tell how kind history will be to the movies you’ve picked. Just start looking through the annals of film history and you’ll discover any number of classics that were initially panned, as well as favorites of the time that no one’s watching anymore. But the truth of the matter is that 2010 blossomed into a year with more than its fair share of great movies, a number of which were almost direct compliments to each other. There were stories about families (The Fighter, Mother and Child) stories about friendship, both newfound and waning (The King’s Speech, The Social Network), and stories that featured fierce leading ladies under 20 (Winter’s Bone, True Grit). Our choices weren’t dictated by complementary themes, though. Rather, it was the depth of humanity, of grace and of feeling that made these films truly shine, not to mention their technical proficiency.
However, there’s a second problem with lists, and that is that no one can ever see everything that’s released within a given year. A number of anticipated titles (Rabbit Hole, Somewhere and Another Year are three in particular) just weren’t able to be seen in time. So, you won’t find them here. All the same, we believe that as far as 2010 went, it didn’t get much better than this.
10. The King’s Speech
Watching two completely unlike characters spar onscreen is part of what makes going to the movies so much fun, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better duo than Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech. More than just a history lesson, Tom Hooper’s film about a king struggling to overcome his stutter is an emotional drama about the power of friendship to change lives and break down barriers, both emotional and societal. Not too many films genuinely deserved to be called a “feel-good movie,” but this one wholeheartedly does.
9. Mother and Child
Rodrigo Garcia’s Mother and Child is a tour de force. Honest and heartfelt, it could be the most pivotal film about motherhood to date. Taking a realistic but hopeful approach, it avoids the superficiality of chick flicks and exposes the genuine beauty of its subject. With standout performances by Naomi Watts, Annette Bening and Samuel L. Jackson, every scene is visually and emotionally captivating. A story of love, forgiveness and the search for life’s meaning, a closing sequence insists there’s something spiritual and miraculous about a mother and child, something that transcends human experience. As one character says, “A person inside another person—it’s like science fiction.”
8. Exit Through the Gift Shop
The most intriguing aspect of Exit Through the Gift Shop is that no one knows whether it’s real or a hoax or a little of both. The film, by a British artist and political activist calling himself Banksy, follows a larger-than-life Frenchman named Thierry Guetta, who has allegedly dedicated his life to videotaping underground graffiti artists in Los Angeles. As Guetta, characterized by a dashing mustache and over-the-top accent, prepares to sell his work for a fortune, we start to ask ourselves important questions like: Does art have to be serious? What defines art? Is graffiti art? And this inevitably poses another pivotal question: Does the film’s artistic value hang on it being real or fake?
7. Toy Story 3
You can tell Toy Story 3 is going to be a more emotional ride than the first two when one of the toys mentions Little Bo Peep and Woody, lost in thought over the woman who’s no longer in his life, grows solemn, almost tearful. Pixar’s latest adventure with Andy’s toys is still funny, but it’s also sad, suspenseful and there’s a brush with death that borders on devastating. Toy Story 3 belongs less to the kids of today than it does to the twentysomethings who were kids when the first film was released. Like Andy, we grew up with those toys, and like Andy, we must say goodbye and move on to the bigger, if not better, things that life has to offer.
6. Winter’s Bone
In a scene midway through Winter’s Bone, 17-year-old Ree Dolly forces her younger brother to learn how to gut a squirrel. This incident is mirrored later on when Ree’s search for her missing father brings her to an ice-cold lake, the bottom of which holds a terrifying secret that could save her family’s home. It’s Ree’s courage and her firm belief that we do things because we must and not because we want to that drives her forward, which is the message of director Debra Granik’s chilling drama. No other film this year paints such a stark picture of life and of the drive that keeps us alive as Winter’s Bone. There is only one word for it: haunting.
