The Best Films of 2010

 

Enter the Void

The story may be somewhat uninteresting, but it’s all in the execution in Gaspar Noe’s ground-up re-invention of cinema, which treated the issue of subjectivity with enough respect not to relegate it to window-dressing.  Don’t confuse it for a “drug film” as some have done – this was the most immersive, creative and above all loving piece of film in 2010 (click here for full review).

Shutter Island

Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s psycho-thriller positively vomited everything up its sleeves straight into our eyes.  What reveals the precision of the schlock is just how successfully it all holds together while it twists apart, even offering a history of twentieth century trauma alongside its wonderfully overwrought mystery and fucking ugly ties.

Tron: Legacy

Stridently echoing the deep blue 3D steps of Avatar, this unpromising behemoth managed to considerably better James Cameron by allowing itself to be swallowed up by its own contradictions and allegorical baggage.  A committee-designed film if ever there was one, yet invested with the (accidental) smarts to dance a little dance when on top of the world, revealing the hollow uselessness of absolute digital totalitarianism (click here for full review).

The Runners Up

Daybreakers

A curiously well-worked out and fascinating vampire-filled future-world kept this short, jumpy film afloat even when it started to lose focus in the third act.  More narrative refinement could have sharpened the satire of consumer society but may also have polished off the rough edges which kept this particular viewer determinably entertained (click here for hilariously truncated review).

The Ghost

That arch sense of humour director Roman Polanski possesses stopped this perfectly crafted thriller from lapsing into the lefty whining which was in hindsight so very nearby.  Carefully considered architecture may have upstaged the performances for much of the running time, but these were only to be knocked into a cocked hat themselves by the glorious ending.

The Social Network

A very trendy film to like, but unfortunately it was indeed very good.  David Fincher’s subdued direction allowed Aaron Sorkin’s trademark Ivy League prose to shine through, nailing the contemporary moment in all its incompatible, alienated, over-privileged horror.

The Best Films of 2009

‘Avatar’

A sensory spectacular. To quote a colleague, ‘a masterpiece, if the most flawed movie ever to get such acclaim.’

‘The Hurt Locker’

Kathryn Bigelow returns from the wasteland with a meticulous unpacking of the twenty-first century American military psyche. It’s the modern-day ‘Platoon’, only well written.

‘In The Loop’

Whether Armando Iannucci is aware that his teetering-on-the-borderline-of-immaturity satire ends up compartmentalising the blame for the Iraq war to an out-of-control spin doctor, thus for the most part excusing the (here unseen) world leaders from blame, is immaterial: well-made, caustically written, and always on the move, ‘In The Loop’ was an outright success.

‘The International’

While other films of its ilk are happy to rest on the sobriquet ‘70s-style’, this precise but invested thriller managed to be both of its time (a banking crisis!) and timeless (how does the individual function within the system?) in its concerns.

‘Public Enemies’

In an example of superlative filmmaking, if not run-away entertainment, Michael Mann somehow marries the men-with-guns pomposity of his digital crime thrillers with the spooky existentiality of ‘Manhunter’.

Honorary mentions:

‘The Taking of Pelham 123’ (played to my fondness for New York-based heist thrillers), ‘The Hangover’ (a welcome tonic from the Apatow-domination of bromances), ‘Rachel Getting Married’ (bravely down-to-earth cinema about the dawn of responsibility), ‘Duplicity’ (not so much about the art of conning as the art of film-making, and how god-awfully repetitive and meaningless it becomes after a while), and ‘Let The Right One In’ (cool, stylish, scary, and very well made).

Round-Up of 2008

Two lists: 1)the best, and 2) those of which much more was expected, and so are more deserving of listing than “the worst” (the prize of which goes to Redacted); neither list is in any particular order.

The conclusion of this year of cinema-going? I need to be more adventurous. Only one foreign-language film, no documentaries, not even a plucky ham radio trying to make out with an iPod. Despite temptations to rename the list (“Large-Scale Hollywood Establishment Products Round-Up of 2008”) I chose to stick to my guns, and take the flak.

No honourable mentions here, but it should be said that Tropic Thunder nearly made both lists, and so got caught in an un-listed purgatory: the blame, for both, belongs to Ben Stiller. Also hovering between the brilliant and the banal was Quantum of Solace, in which director Marc Foster seemed to make up for the wholesale surrendering to Bournestyle by filling the margins of the film with unexpected delights: the regional fonts, the pill-peddling of Giancarlo Giannini, the sleekly swampy sound design and the J.G. Ballard-bothering desert finale to name just a few. (Please note that while Gone Baby Gone was only released in the UK mid-’08, it is a true 2007 film, and so is not included here as one the very very best).

The Best:

The Dark Knight
What can one say about this film that hasn’t been said a dozen times by reviews, articles, and conversations in coffee shops? A superb jumble of ideas and philosophy which somehow struck a chord with the entire country, being openly adored by people for whom the superhero genre is normally a punchline.

Appaloosa
Not only a showcase for some of the most majestic performances of the year, but also a literate and unusual film about semantics and specificity. A warmly affectionate piece of work which addresses Western mythos with an understated charm.

Franklyn
Due for a release in the UK soon (late February), Gerald McMorrow’s debut feature is at times stilted, but manages to create some rich and sombre alternative realities, and then just about keeps all the plates spinning as these begin to crash into on another in the final act.

Shine a Light
For the collection of incredible cinematographers working at their peak. For the unexpected explosion into full-screen twenty minutes into the IMAX version. For the witty, if stage-managed, prologue. Most of all, though, for the sheer elevating joy of the thing.

No Country For Old Men
For some a 2007 film. Also, for some, an excruciating exercise in cool detachment. To its fans, however, it’s an excruciating exercise in cool detachment. Simultaneously too faithful to Cormac McCarthy’s novel and not faithful enough, this is a brave, swiss-watch-accurate piece of film-making, only falling down in the more metaphysical tenets of the story.

In Bruges
Martin McDonagh’s debut as a film director was one of the unexpected gems of the year. Balancing darkly abrasive humour with metaphysical guilt and outright surrealism, In Bruges also boasts fine location shooting and three fantastic central performances.

The Chaser
This strange, hypnotic Korean film about an ex-cop turned pimp frustratedly trying to find the third of his girls to go missing is well worth seeking out both for the atmospheric visuals, and a script which is rich in subtle ironies, if not psychological depth.

The Missed Opportunities:

Taken
Liam Neeson playing Jason Bourne – what could go wrong? Plenty, it appears. Choppy film-making, a strong Europhobic streak, and some of the most unfittingly bizarre narrative choices of the year make Taken a frustrating and insulting watch when it could have been a first-class guilty pleasure.

Hellboy II
Included here only to mark the nailing of the coffin into my enjoyment of Guillermo del Toro’s cinema. Every time I get excited, and every time I get the same melancholic doomed love, extended central sequence of astonishing banality, clock-and-cog aesthetics, and irrational characters. Enough, I say. But that’s just me.

Max Payne
How do you screw up a heady brew of noir plotlines and apocalyptic aesthetics? Here’s how. That the unremarkable Constantine did it better tells you all you need to know, really.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
A film which, the more I think of it, the less I think of it. In telling the story of a man’s unusual life it succeeds finely, but in saying something more, something fresh, something sweeping, it fails. Perhaps this was intended, but for a Fincher film to evoke Robert Zemeckis seems like, well, a missed opportunity.

Body of Lies
William Monaghan, shame on you. We’ve come to expect poorly conceived but richly executed films from Ridley Scott, but your writing for him here is like an after-school exercise in Middle East suspicion.

Pride and Glory
Firmly in the tradition of other (both lesser and greater) corrupt cop thrillers, the crime of Pride and Glory is to offer so much and then deliver so little. Barring a completely unnecessary expository scene the first hour is bracingly shot entertainment, culminating in a fiercely believable confrontation between a seething Colin Farrell and a polite drug dealer in a frostbitten backyard. Then it all goes pear-shaped, and not even the brilliant closing shot can save it from ignominy.