Top Five Films of 2010

2010: a good year for movies

 

Except for Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours*, I finally saw all of the 83^rd Academy Award’s Best Picture (2011 Oscar) nominees** during the past month. I still prefer Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give, while my Oscar list favorites are The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, and Inception. I thought of adding Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine to round out a Top Five list, but then remembered Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was also released this year***. The list is as follows:

1. Please Give  (Nicole Holofcener)
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World  (Edgar Wright)
3. The Kids Are All Right  (Lisa Cholodenko)
4. The Social Network  (David Fincher)
5. Inception  (Christopher Nolan)

Honorable Mentions: Blue Valentine, I Am Love, The Man From Nowhere, The Town, and Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (maybe I'm nuts or just getting younger with old age?)

Guilty Pleasure: She's Out of My League

* My apologies to Mr. Boyle, who I think is a wonderful filmmaker (see Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and Sunshine).

** Other Best Picture Oscar Nominees included True Grit, The Fighter, Winter’s Bone, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, Toy Story 3, and 127 Hours.

*** I have yet to see Animal Kingdom, Another Year, Everyone Else, The Illusionist, and Rabbit Hole--all 2010 releases.

I Am Love (2010) / Two Lovers (2008)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino / James Gray

Both Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love and James Gray’s Two Lovers look to melodramas of the past, with Joaquin Phoenix and Tilda Swinton as the leads in their own miniature operas set in Brooklyn and Milan/San Remo.  Themes of love/lust and following/breaking tradition drive each film.  John Adam’s score swells in key scenes of I Am Love in contrast to the film’s subtle pacing.  While in Two Lovers, the scenes play out as if they’re on stage but the textures of the interiors and exteriors of the apartment and Brighton Beach are very real—like its characters and their choices.

Trailers: I Am Love and Two Lovers (the UK version is less revealing). Both films can be seen on Netflix streaming.

Other reviews: I Am Love by John Powers and Two Lovers by A.O. Scott, Roger Ebert, and Bartleby (Pop Culture Ninja).

Film reviews in fifty words, a new series (2011); times two, one hundred words for two films.