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Best Movies of 2010
Dec. 31st, 2010 03:32 pmI just looked through the list of movies we watched this year (yes, I keep such a list) and these were the ones that made the biggest impression on me. I don't guarantee they were all released in 2010 because I'm not a marketing department. Here they are in the (approximate) order we saw them:
1. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Best Terry Gilliam film since Brazil and more satisfying than that classic. The only problem was unavoidable... Heath Ledger wasn't alive to film his character's denouement, But Colin Farrel did a good job standing in.
2. Plein Sud. Dreamy, sad film we saw at the Inside Out Festival, by the director of Come Undone (Presque Rien). A young man travels south with his late father's gun, possibly to kill himself after he meets his mother. Along the way, he picks up brother and sister hitchhikers. The relationships are all tenuous and suggestive and fascinating.
3. A Single Man. Stunning at almost every level. I am of the opinion that the ending is perfect, though others disagree. Julianne Moore is just getting better and better.
4. Gommorha. The most amazing organized crime film I've ever seen. About the Camorah (sp?) crime syndicate in Naples. Violent, darkly funny. A vision of societal apocolypse. Wonderfully constructed.
5. I Am Love. Warning: Snake thought it was pretentious. Tilda Swinton in a classic Italian clan drama. Deeply romantic and affecting.
6. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. Zhang Yimou directs the story of a Japanese father, estranged from his adult son. The son is very ill in hospital and the only way the father can reach out to him is to travel to China on the son's behalf to finish filming the son's documentary on Chinese opera singers. The journey to reach his son takes him thousands of miles away from him.
7. Frozen. A very simple horror/suspense that is true to its premise throughout. Very effective and literally chilling.
8. Welcome. Having walked from Iran to France, a 17-year old boy cannot sneak over to England to be reunited with his girlfriend, so he decides he will train to swim the channel. The boy's quest becomes the raison d'etre for a French swim coach. Incredible indictment of the treatment of refugees in Calais. Beautiful, touching film.
9. Greenberg. Noah Baumbach directs the anti-Woody Allen film. Ben Stiller is brilliant in a part that shows that it's not as much to be the neurotic Jewish anti-hero as Woody makes it seem. A testament to seeing the true person behind their ticks.
10. Splice. From the brilliant director of Cube, a genius horror movie that is not about the hubris of corporate genetic engineering, but about generational child abuse. The film is smart enough to wink at its own premise before it gets down to its true metaphorical purpose. The acting is uniformly excellent and the effects very satisfying.
Honourable mentions to Ondine, Happy-Go-Lucky, The Kids Are All Right, Mongol, and the Silence of Lorna.
Worst thing we saw: The Road.
Most over-the-top-omg-wtfweretheysmoking? bad film: The Box.
1. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Best Terry Gilliam film since Brazil and more satisfying than that classic. The only problem was unavoidable... Heath Ledger wasn't alive to film his character's denouement, But Colin Farrel did a good job standing in.
2. Plein Sud. Dreamy, sad film we saw at the Inside Out Festival, by the director of Come Undone (Presque Rien). A young man travels south with his late father's gun, possibly to kill himself after he meets his mother. Along the way, he picks up brother and sister hitchhikers. The relationships are all tenuous and suggestive and fascinating.
3. A Single Man. Stunning at almost every level. I am of the opinion that the ending is perfect, though others disagree. Julianne Moore is just getting better and better.
4. Gommorha. The most amazing organized crime film I've ever seen. About the Camorah (sp?) crime syndicate in Naples. Violent, darkly funny. A vision of societal apocolypse. Wonderfully constructed.
5. I Am Love. Warning: Snake thought it was pretentious. Tilda Swinton in a classic Italian clan drama. Deeply romantic and affecting.
6. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. Zhang Yimou directs the story of a Japanese father, estranged from his adult son. The son is very ill in hospital and the only way the father can reach out to him is to travel to China on the son's behalf to finish filming the son's documentary on Chinese opera singers. The journey to reach his son takes him thousands of miles away from him.
7. Frozen. A very simple horror/suspense that is true to its premise throughout. Very effective and literally chilling.
8. Welcome. Having walked from Iran to France, a 17-year old boy cannot sneak over to England to be reunited with his girlfriend, so he decides he will train to swim the channel. The boy's quest becomes the raison d'etre for a French swim coach. Incredible indictment of the treatment of refugees in Calais. Beautiful, touching film.
9. Greenberg. Noah Baumbach directs the anti-Woody Allen film. Ben Stiller is brilliant in a part that shows that it's not as much to be the neurotic Jewish anti-hero as Woody makes it seem. A testament to seeing the true person behind their ticks.
10. Splice. From the brilliant director of Cube, a genius horror movie that is not about the hubris of corporate genetic engineering, but about generational child abuse. The film is smart enough to wink at its own premise before it gets down to its true metaphorical purpose. The acting is uniformly excellent and the effects very satisfying.
Honourable mentions to Ondine, Happy-Go-Lucky, The Kids Are All Right, Mongol, and the Silence of Lorna.
Worst thing we saw: The Road.
Most over-the-top-omg-wtfweretheysmoking? bad film: The Box.
