Before I make any sort of statement it should be said upfront that you won't agree with my list or my summations. Best of lists are never the 'carved in stone' charts people believe them to be. I am simply stating my opinions and why I enjoy the films of the last year. So yes this is a list and encourage conversation on the blog about these various films and whether you liked them or not. To deride is something of an irony though, as many of you will take the time to read each of the blogs that will go up over the next twelve days and you will waste as much time as I have in writing my appraisals for cinema during 2010.
Yes this list is coming out in January. I apologize I'm not 'Social Network - relevant and current' but I have a job, and formerly had a degree to achieve so I missed certain things in the cinema and wanted to make sure that I caught up on everything that was supposedly great about 2010 at the movies. Now, I have still missed things but a blog in June about 2010 in cinema is particularly relevant. It isn't particularly relevant at the start of February either; but then again I feel if people read this then they might at least acknowledge I still write on this website from time to time. That and I felt that merely posting a list last year was rather lazy. At least in this format I give reason.
I have missed a few key movies and for that reason: don't hit me. Cyrus, Winter's Bone, Monsters and Easy A all passed me by. They will be discounted and certainly I will probably kick myself later for not seeing one of these films when I should have done. For that scold me, but if you want my opinion to encompass every film at the cinema this year send in donations for cinema tickets and I will happily get everything seen without feeling the pinch of an empty wallet.
Anyway, how was 2010 in cinema?
In comparison with last year it was incomparable, it was wonderful and joyous and too many great films to be had. I mean that. For once the cinema seemed to constantly be showing films that appealed to various audiences and not just the Bay crowd. By that I mean adolescent boys/ man-boys of a certain age group. The teenage man factor. This year women were catered for, with alternative programming - The Kids Are Alright, Winter's Bone, Going the Distance, Please Give, Sex and the City 2 (that one might not be appropriate). This year adults were genuinely considered at the movies - Shutter Island, The American, London Boulevard, Crazy Heart, The Town all came from the woods of Holly to entertain to the adults with no concessions made for the youngsters. Granted some are more fantastical than others in the adult department but never did the film cop out (a film by that very moniker did just that) for a cleaner brand of entertainment.
Not only that but animation ran rampant. Pixar closed off the greatest trilogy ever apparently (they did not). Comic book films upped the ante by daring to be wildly different in just about every way imaginable. The Eighties was revisited in the form of men on mission movies - some recollections far more blurry than others. Blockbusters were for the most part immediately seen and then instantly forgotten. World cinema became worthy of being seen on the big screen with the release of the Steig Larsson trilogy. A Prophet and The Secret in their Eyes showed us that world cinema could do the genre work as well, and maybe better, than the Hollywood system.
And Danny Boyle won an oscar for best director for a film about a Mumbai street urchin who speaks English, was distributed by Americans and was largely subtitled.
Wait! That was last, last year! No a woman won this year for making a non-political film about a political hot button topic and featured entirely a cast of men who practically ate machismo.
That's not the point. At any rate, I include my ten favourite films of last year and a further blog about the great films I felt that did not quite make the cut. It is this final blog post that I hope you'll pay attention to the most; if you can at all gauge attention levels when reading a blog. Clearly you are all students, unemployed or you have time to kill on the commute. For whatever reasons, these films were often overlooked by audiences when released and that is criminal. I am trying to start a cult club early. Let's not wait ten years for a film to become another Fight Club. See these movies now. Some you will know and definitely revolt against but these are just opinions. The others you maybe haven't are the more important ones. Until you've seen them you have no basis for argument, so shut up and watch them before you start whining. Ironically though, I will tell you to silence yourself after you've seen these films if your opinion doesn't immediately correspond with my own.
Enjoy over the next eleven posts. Agree, Disagree. Just make sure you've them before you give me grief.
And yes I am fully aware that this blog does nothing towards my goal of a top ten list, but hey...I like to write.
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