Best Movies of 2010

On 2009’s list, I declared Jesse Eisenberg the biggest star of the year, thanks to the presence of Adventureland and Zombieland.  Then, in 2010, The Social Network was released.  Needless to say, I have high hopes for 30 Minutes or Less.  Leo, Chloë Grace Moretz, Richard Jenkins, and Adrien Brody all attempted to be the biggest star this year, but 2010 was ultimately all over the place.

As usual, each of the top ten movies is accompanied with a memorable line.  As for the best line of the year?  Everyone say it with me:

“Machete don’t text.”

1. Inception
Devin Faraci of CHUD.com has written an essential article about how Inception is a metaphor for moviemaking.  When an audience watches a movie in a theatre, it is like a shared dream.  The roles in Inception correspond to the roles in a movie: Cobb is the director, Arthur the producer, Ariadne the screenwriter, Eames the actor, Yusuf the technical guy, Saito the financier, Fischer the audience, and Mal the element of himself that the director inevitably imprints the film with.  Faraci also hints at the idea that this metaphor can be extended to say that how we experience dreams is not only like how we experience movies but also how we experience life.  We never know how we get where we are at the beginning of a dream, and when a dream ends, we are rudely ripped from it without a real chance for resolution.  In life, we do not know how we got to where we began.  Think back to your earliest memory.  How did you get to that point?  Sure, you probably know when and where you were born, and your parents can fill in the rest, but you only know all that because that is what you are told.  And when we die, we die, rudely plucked from life.  Perhaps from the viewpoint of the afterlife, the logic of life will seem like the logic of dreams.  But while we have the chance, we, like Cobb, are fighting for resolution, working at that one thing, that one idea, that will change everything.
Memorable Line: “So do you want to take a leap of faith or become an old man filled with regret, waiting to die alone?”

2. The Social Network
Yes, The Social Network is meaningful because it is the story behind one of the major forces in today’s society, and yes, it has also got those classic themes of friendship, betrayal, and the temptations of power.  But what really makes The Social Network so thrilling is its portrayal of genius at work.  The reason that its scenes of typing are engaging is because we know that any line of code Mark Zuckerberg comes up with could be gold.  We love Sean Parker even though he is introduced following a one-night stand because he pays attention to everything, always looking for a way to innovate.  Our attention is held because we know that at any moment, these characters could have some genius epiphany.  And we are also so fascinated, because even though these geniuses have changed society, it is not clear that the ways they have changed society, or themselves, have ultimately been for good.
Memorable Line: “If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you’d have invented Facebook.”

3. The Fighter
I have heard some people argue that Christian Bale’s performance was too dominant in The Fighter and that he nearly took over the entire movie.  Well, Dicky Ecklund nearly took over his brother’s life with his shenanigans getting in the way of his brother’s career.  Obviously The Fighter was more about family dynamics than it was about boxing.  (Why else would the Gatti fights have only been included in the epilogue?)  Micky Ward is portrayed by Mark Wahlberg as a silent, almost diffident man surrounded by dangerously strong-willed family members.  The ultimate resolution of the movie, then, is for Micky to stand up to all of them.  It could just be the power of Wahlberg’s performance, or it could also be that some small American towns have big identities, but I bought wholesale The Fighter’s showier scenes.  The “I’m the one fighting” scene came across over-the-top in the trailer, but in the context of the actual movie, it was the only thing that made sense.
Memorable Line: “I want Dicky back.  And I want you, Charlene.  And I want O’Keefe.  I want my family.  What’s wrong with that?”

4. Black Swan
To be able to fully appreciate Black Swan, it is necessary to be clear about its genre: psychological thriller.  The thrills and chills in such a film all come from the main character’s head.  The challenge for the audience is to determine what is not real and what (if anything) is real.  The trick is that certain elements are explicitly marked fake or might as well be (the girl on girl action, Nina’s transformation into an actual swan).  So the audience is coaxed into believing that everything else is real, but a quick deeper glance questions the wisdom of such a belief: Who is Lily?  Why does she always look like Nina when she is seen in the shadows?  Why do no other characters interact with Nina’s mom?  Then there are the scenes that appear to be partially real and partially fake: did Nina actually scratch herself even though only her reflection is shown doing the scratching?  Because Black Swan is principally informed by what is going on in someone’s head, it will continue to be debated and answers will never be complete.  But what is clear is that whatever crazy synaptic processes were going on, they were what she needed to accomplish what she was after.  And that is so often how success happens.
Memorable Line: “Wait, did you have some sort of lezzy wet dream about me?” … “Shut up.”

5. Toy Story 3
There are not too many great G-rated movies nowadays.  Part of that is because there are not too many G-rated movies at all.  Also, it is because most filmmakers don’t know how to or don’t care to have whimsy carry an entire movie.  Toy Story 3 is not very deep.  It is plain to see that its theme is the struggle of feeling useless when growing old.  But that lack of depth is okay when you have whimsy, and friends.
Memorable Line: “Are you classically trained?”

6. Exit Through the Gift Shop
After seeing Exit Through the Gift Shop, I am still not sure who made this movie.  Going into it, I thought it was directed by Thierry Guetta and that he chose to pretend that Banksy took over the directorial reins midway through filming.  But Banksy is listed as the director.  And also Thierry Guetta/Mr. Brainwash may not be an actual artist or even an actual person.  There is speculation that his entire existence is a hoax perpetrated by Banksy and/or that Banksy is Thierry Guetta.  Regardless of what is to be believed about Exit Through the Gift Shop (and a lot of it does seem true, particularly the portrayal of the Disneyland police), it has plenty to say about art.  The emergence of Thierry and his ever-present camera in the street art scene forced street artists to reflect upon their work.  All art is temporary to a certain extent, street art particularly so.  But with Thierry around, it didn’t have to be that way.  But did street artists want their work to be more permanent?  Such permanence seemed to encourage the idea that street art is a particularly democratic art.  But with the attention and the prices that Banksy pieces have commanded, street art doesn’t exactly lack prestige and is hardly as democratic as it may once have been.  As it is then, the tale of Thierry Guetta is a cautionary one: perhaps it is a good thing when the art world isn’t exactly democratic.
Memorable Line: “I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don’t do that so much anymore.”

7. Let Me In
Let Me In is proof that unnecessary does not have to mean bad.  It made no sense that Let the Right One should have been remade.  It provided a Swedish perspective to what had become an all-encompassing craze in America.  Why would an American perspective need to be brought in?  Let Me In is definitely an Americanized version of Låt Den Rätte Komma In – Americanized in the best possible sense of the term.  Matt Reeves did not have to set Let Me In in the eighties, but it probably worked best for him because of the clips of Ronald Reagan he was able to get a hold of.  Setting this creepy tale against the backdrop of the rise of the moral majority was ingenious.  In a world of bullies and kind-hearted vampires, what is the role of religion?  And who are the real monsters?  Who isn’t?
Memorable Line: “Do you think there’s such a thing as evil?”

8. The King’s Speech
There have been plenty of great period British dramas in cinematic history, but I would place The King’s Speech in a more recent filmmaking trend by positing that it ought to be grouped with Superbad, I Love You, Man, and (to include some Britishness) The Damned United.  Yes, that’s right, The King’s Speech is a movie about bromance, or, as it was referred to at the time, male friendship.  My aunt was telling me that the relationship between these two men could not have worked if neither one was as strong-willed as the other.  I am not entirely sure if she meant the relationship Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush or the one between King George and Lionel Logue.  If she meant it both ways, then she was absolutely correct.  True friendship and dynamic acting comes from demanding the best from and respecting your friend and/or co-star.
Memorable Line: “Fuck fuck fuck!  Shit!  Balls … tits.”

9. Easy A
Just because you are a well-adjusted teenager does not mean you do not have to deal with the indignities of high school.  It is a hoot to watch Olive tell her tale because she is so mature and entertaining for her age, but she is not so mature as to not need any sympathy or to have no opportunity for growth.  Emma Stone really sells the whole package with her breakdown at the end.  Crying on camera is a tough trick, but she conveys what needs to be conveyed at the moment: she has tried so hard to be a good person, while it seems that everyone around her has decided that she cannot be.  This is generally a good strategy for making a well-adjusted person a memorable character: finally show her vulnerable side.
Memorable Line: “You know, you call me bitch a lot, okay. It’s not really a term of endearment.”

10. Splice
Is this list bookended by two movies that are metaphors about movies?  The metaphor of Splice can be extended to the creation of any work of art, or any act of creation really.  When you release a movie, publish a book, release an album, unveil a painting, etc., it eventually becomes something other than what you intended due to the response of the audience.  Similarly, once Clive and Elsa were able to bring a creature like Dren to life, they had relatively little control over how it would develop.  The fact that a creation could change to the complete opposite of what they had intended was brought to a stark reality.  If you have the power to play god, you have to be prepared for the possibility that your creations will shock you.  God was prepared.  Clive and Elsa, not so much.
Memorable Line: “…it seems that Ginger has undergone certain hormonal changes.  She turned into a male.”

Honorable Mentions (Not Quite Top Ten Material, But They Deserve to be Mentioned More Than They Have Been): Edge of Darkness, Hot Tub Time Machine, Knight and Day, The Losers, The Other Guys, Piranha 3D, Step Up 3D, Youth in Revolt

Probably Good Ones That I Missed: Animal Kingdom, Another Year, The Illusionist, Inside Job, Monsters, Restrepo, Un Prophete