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The Best And Worst Of Film 2010

Written by Phil Brown Monday, 17 January 2011 10:43

With 2010 now a memory the time has come to look back on the year and evaluate how things went. As a film critic, this means compiling lists of the finest movies to flicker before my eyes over the last twelve months. The top spot goes to a title that rhymes with “reception” and best director honors should also be handed over to a certain Batman-loving Brit. However that list hardly covers the whole film spectrum of 2010. With that in mind we’d like to hand out a few separate honors for performances and movies you have missed that don’t necessarily fall into the “best film” category, as well as highlight some of the most painful cinematic atrocities of the year. Here are a few notable high(and low)lights from the last 365 days at the movies.




Best Performance By An Actor:  (Tie) James Franco (127 Hours) + Ryan Reynolds (Buried)

Let the history books show that 2010 was the year of pretty boy movie stars getting trapped in horrifically isolating situations. First Ryan “Van Wilder” Reynolds was Buried alive in a coffin for Halloween (something his legion of detractors long dreamed about) and then just in time for Christmas James Franco got his arm trapped under a bolder for 127 Hours before cutting it off with a dull pocketknife. Both actors were asked to carry an entire film by themselves and masterfully rose to the challenge. Neither Franco nor Reynolds had been given the chance to flex their acting muscles quite like this before and both roles will likely open new doors in their careers. But despite such impressive and career redefining work, it sadly looks as though neither will figure prominently in the yearend film awards. That’s a real shame. No one was better than Reynolds and Franco this year and it seems as though their films are getting ignored for simply being too difficult to watch for many squeamish voters.



Best Performance By An Actress: (Tie) Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Leslie Manville (Another Year)

Yes I know, another tie. I’m not being indecisive, it’s just that there are far too many stand out performances this year to nail it down to a single name. On the female side, it’s hard to imagine two performances more different than Natalie Portman’s melodramatic ballerina on the verge of mental collapse in Black Swan and Leslie Manville’s painfully realistic and hilarious portrait of a middle aged alcoholic in Another Year. Both put an extraordinary amount of work into their characters (Portman studied ballet for months, while Manville created her character from scratch with director Mike Leigh over 18 weeks of improvisation) and while their acting styles are as different as night and day, the results are no less impressive. Neither movie would work without their respective lead actress and no one broke more audiences’ hearts this year than these two lovely ladies. Expect plenty of awards.



Worst Performance: The Cast of Sex And The City 2

Four different actors demanded attention in the Best Performance category and now four more share the title of Worst Performance. Sex In The City 2 was an absolutely appalling study of vapid consumerism that set back the image of America and women by at least 100 years. The four aging sexpots of Sex In The City should be ashamed of themselves for returning for one final paycheck and portraying their cartoon stereotypes without even a hint of genuine human emotion. The only nice thing about this cinematic junk heap is that it ensures Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon will not escape the type-casting of their pathetic iconic roles any time soon and will hopefully vanish into obscurity. Dare to dream.



Worst Movie: The Last Airbender

At one time if a trailer featured the words, “from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan” it meant you were getting a clever thriller. These days it means you’re getting poorly plotted crap with stilted performances, muddy cinematography, and dialogue that would sound cheesy in a porno. The fact that Shyamalan could take a ridiculously entertaining animated series and turn it into painfully drawn out bore almost feels like a special achievement. The worst part? This sucker made over $300 million worldwide and will probably get a sequel. God help us all.



Most Underrated: Cyrus

The directing Duplass brothers made the leap from no budget mumblecore to low budget Hollywood dramedy with this strange little movie and didn’t loose their distinct voice in the process. The story of a middle-aged man-child struggling to start a relationship with a woman who has an unhealthy relationship with her adult son is a touchingly hilarious mix of comedy and drama presented with all the awkward messiness of life. It disappeared in theaters and barely made a blip on DVD, but is well worth watching for fans personal independent filmmaking. The fact that John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, and Jonah Hill aren’t up for any major acting awards so far is a crime.



Most Overrated: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy

Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo novels might be subway staples for many commuters looking to escape their ride by reading about a computer hacker being raped, but the movies are a colossal waste of time. Ok, that’s unfair. The first film in the series is actually pretty good (if overlong), but the sequels were made for TV and feature the kind of flat directing and idiotic writing (ex: a ridiculous super-powered blond thug) inherent to TV movies. If you enjoy the books or the original film run away from any theater playing the sequels as fast as you can. It will only ruin the series for you. Hopefully David Fincher will be smart enough to only adapt the first book for Hollywood. The only thing the sequels are good for is propping up a short leg on a wobbly chair.



Guilty Pleasure: Easy A

A high school sex comedy twist on the Scarlet Letter that revives the joyful, candy-colored escapism of the 80s teen romps of John Hughes, while also adding on a layer of self-consciousness. Hilarious, intelligent, and surprisingly heartfelt when needed, Easy A was both a wonderful surprise and the guiltiest of pleasures for adult audiences. If nothing else it establishes Emma Stone as an actress of considerable charm, wit, and beauty who deserves a crack at stardom.



Please Release Me: Four Lions

For me the best movie of 2010 was easily Four Lions. However, it didn’t make my Top Ten list because it was never released in Canada.  Why? Because it’s a comedy about four Muslim suicide bombers. The remarkable film is the directorial debut of British satirist Chris Morris, who made several groundbreaking TV series in the UK like Brass Eye and Jam that never made it overseas because they are simply too dark, shocking, and brazenly intelligent for North American audiences. In Four Lions, Morris uses comedy to explore the timely issue of terrorism and against all odds makes a movie that not only makes you laugh at the subject, but actually care about the terrorists without condoning their actions.  If a drama managed to say this much about terrorism this intelligently it would be endlessly praised. But because it’s a comedy, Four Lions was practically dismissed as trifle. That was a mistake. It’s a masterpiece. Sprint to the store when this gets an inevitable direct-to-DVD release.