Best Films of 2010

In Films by Brock Bourgase

I wasn’t able to see all the 2010 films that I wanted to because of late Canadian release dates and there were some films that I didn’t catch until this year (although they were released earlier in other countries). Here is my best effort to rank the best films of 2010.

Oddly, I seemed to have seen the same amount of new films as I did last year.

2010 List:

  1. The Big Picture **** Irony and film.
  2. The King’s Speech **** Everything you would want in a film.
  3. Easy Money **** It’s not so easy as it seems.
  4. Black Swan **** Is it real?
  5. Inception **** I enjoy films by Christopher Nolan.
  6. Restrepo **** An intense experience.
  7. Neil Young Trunk Show **** Neil Young Rocks.
  8. Incendies ***½ A memorable Canadian film.
  9. Mesrine: Killer Instinct ***½ Vincent Cassel shines.
  10. True Grit ***½ A truly worthwhile remake.
  11. The Secret in their Eyes ***½ An entralling foreign combination of a detective story with a love story.
  12. Inside Job ***½ A financial horror tale.
  13. Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 ***½ More good work from Cassel and Jean-François Richet.
  14. Chloe ***½ A Toronto tragedy.
  15. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ***½ Who knew it would be all downhill from here?
  16. The Misfortunates ***½ Tragic comedy.
  17. Jaloux *** Barney’s Version for adults.
  18. Get Low *** True pathos.
  19. Barney’s Version *** Less than the book, better than the average film.
  20. Essential Killing *** A missed opportunity to study a character in greater depth.
  21. The Town *** Don Draper tackles the world of organized crime.
  22. The Social Network *** It is interesting to examine how we got here.
  23. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer *** Politics is a blood sport.
  24. Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today *** Poignant historical footage.
  25. The Runaways *** Sex, drugs, and rock and roll are a bad combination.
  26. 127 Hours *** Fortunately, nobody was ill in the theatre when I viewed the film.
  27. Solitary Man *** An insecure Gordon Gekko sends his daughter to college.
  28. The Messenger *** Characters that have not been previously explored.
  29. Sweetgrass *** What to do when times are changing?
  30. Robin Hood *** I enjoyed this film but many others did not.
  31. Waiting for Superman **½ Still waiting for a great film.
  32. Biutiful **½ Could have been much prettier and poignant.
  33. The Tillman Story **½ It is disappointing that this is what politics has devolved into.
  34. Prom Night in Mississippi **½ Gravitas can only take a film so far.
  35. Film Socialism **½ There’s always one “French” film every year.
  36. Un prophète **½ Could have been so much more.
  37. The People vs. George Lucas **½ When Greedo shot first, he should any Star Wars film released after 1996.
  38. The American ** Less than the sum of its parts.
  39. Shutter Island ** A weak Scorsese film.
  40. The A-Team ** I should have seen the signs by now.
  41. The Girl Who Played with Fire ** Worthy of a Mythbusters episode.
  42. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives ** A weak Palme d’Or winner (in my mind).
  43. Lebanon ** After fifteen minutes, the narrow premise wears thin.
  44. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I *½ The book also let me down.
  45. The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet’s Nest * Wholly unsatisfactory.
  46. Alice in Wonderland * Nobody has their hearts in this film.
  47. Freetime Machos * The blurb in the Hot Docs brochure was more memorable than the film.

For Your Consideration:

The actors, directors, screenwriters, and films listed below merit Academy Awards in my judgment.