LISTMAS – Best Movies of 2010
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Perhaps Banksy’s greatest work of art yet? This obviously provoked some thinking on my part . Interestingly, it’s an excellent film whether it’s true or not, which isn’t something you’d say about most documentaries.
Dogtooth
Saw this at the festival last year, but I guess it counts as having been released this year, blah blah. Anyway, it’s endlessly inventive, a surprisingly versatile parable about social control of belief.
Enter the Void
Same as above with regards to the festival. This is a frustrating film as its formal rigour is paired with subpar characterization and plotting. But the technique alone makes it one of the most memorable films of the year.
Restrepo
Theory: the best films about war this decade have been documentaries. Restrepo isn’t an issues doc – it’s verite with some great interview footage mixed in. The subject is a single platoon of US soldiers in a particularly hostile valley in Afghanistan. It’s extremely powerful, and thought-provoking as a result of its immersiveness rather than any undue provocation by the filmmakers.
Winter’s Bone
This will haunt you. Ostensibly it’s about a poor teen in Missouri trying to find her deadbeat dead, and thereby finding crystal meth corruption everywhere in her extended family. But it evokes feelings of America’s decline. Perhaps the first US post-apocalyptic film set in the present.
Shutter Island
It was a strong year for psychological thrillers and also mindfuck movies, and Shutter Island is a masterful example of both. Scorsese is the shit, yo. Also, the music selections are absolutely fantastic.
Carlos
This is pretty riveting. In scope and topic, it feels similar to Sodeberg’s Che films. However, the Carlos story is less a war movie than a spy thriller.
A Prophet
Damn, son. This one is rough. It’s not as bleakly prisonish as the first 20 minutes’ murder-during-hash-for-blowjob exhange would have you believe, however. It’s really more of a mob movie, and certainly one of the best I’ve seen in the past decade.
Cyrus
This was definitely my favourite comedy of the year. It’s technically a rom-com, a genre I hate, but it leaves out all the emotional manipulation and just feels honest. Which I felt was quite an achievement.
Two films that I either grudgingly like or amiably begrudge
The Social Network – as I posted earlier, I admired it as expertly crafted, a near-perfect film that totally missed the significance of its subject.
Inception – Enjoyed it greatly during the watching, but thinking about it later it gradually fell apart. It’s a film about dreams that feels nothing like dreaming. I wanted to say “it’s a film about explaining rules” but that’s unfair as it is certainly not as bad as that makes it sound. It’s a good film that appears great on first watch.
Films that might be on this list had I seen them
Marwencol, Tamara Drewe, Another Year, Blue Valentine