Kurt's Top 12 for 2010.
Personally, I spent more time (and money) on the festival circuit the past year than any other in over a decade of doing this in Toronto and beyond (more than six years at ScreenAnarchy - where does the time go?) Thus, I imagine my list below is a reflection of that. To wit: By my count only 4 films below have seen any sort of significant release in North America, but hey, I hope that this collection will serve the purpose of hearty recommendation instead of simply self indulgence. But let me go to that place for a second: The best individual screening I caught this year was the swanky new 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey that had a lengthy run at TIFF's new Lightbox multiplex, in a word: Stunning. Likewise, watching The Exorcist at 2:30 am in the morning in a sparsely populated mega-sized auditorium in Sitges was unique. Furthermore, a real surprise was catching 2008 South Korean period piece A Frozen Flower in a packed audience of couples at Fantasia in Montreal. Obviously more people were aware of the film that I was, for rarely do you see genre festivals function as a 'date night'; kudos Montreal for being so in the know. Lastly, a revisit of Wild At Heart and an assaultive viewing of the uncut version A Serbian Film at the Bloor Cinema confirms savvy programming and a willingness to keep Toronto, city of film festivals, on its toes.
2010 was a year of smart science fiction films (and, astonishingly, not one but two ennui-laden cloning dramas), trouble with reality (Leonardo Di Carprio gets the magnificent one-two punch, but Casey Affleck, Michael Cera and Natalie Portman all shine in their own cinematic fever-dreams) and while the vampire thing has gotten pretty lame with more sparkle and bad teen emo (or the perfectly fine if thoroughly unnecessary remake of an instant classic, Let Me In) along comes a vampire road movie with wit, balls and complete lack of pretense to reaffirm that genre films can be fun and smart and beautiful.
Onward.
12. Never Let Me Go (USA)
It was a tricky proposition to adapt a novel where the main characters know far less than the reader about the world, and what exactly is going on. Mark Romanek and Alex Garland find the balance in showing the audience exactly what motivates and restrains the young charges of Hailsham boarding school as their lives and purpose are slowly revealed. For anyone that has let expectations of society dictate their life and limits (few will admit how much of a factor this is) Never Let Me Go offers plenty of emotion to chew on without ever dumbing things down.
11. The Killer Inside Me (UK)
If nothing else, Michael Winterbottom's handsome and brutal adaptation should get me to read more Jim Thompson novels. Call it a revisionist noir, call it both a mythological and banal look at a sociopath (and Casey Affleck is assembling a rogues gallery of these ugly types), but don't fall into the trap of calling the violence or motive behind the filmmaking unnecessary. The Killer Inside Me may actually trump the Coen's No Country for Old Men, in demonstrating how violence and nihilism in United States can explode like steam off of a relief valve.
10. Stake Land (USA)
Destined to become a fan favourite, the sophomore pairing of director Jim Mickle and writer-star Nick Damici is such a quantum leap forward from their first collaboration (the solid Mulberry St.) that if they can make this sort of film-to-film improvement again, we will be looking at a classic along the lines Days of Heaven or Dawn of The Dead. Wonderful cinematography, bravura long-take shots, excellent use of voice-over and a score that is one of the best I have heard for a post-apocalyptic road movie in quite some time, hard to believe that this is all in service of a Western-Vampire-Road-Movie mash-up. Stake Land is something familiar, yet quite different, that stretches what genre movie-making is capable of. It remains a crowd pleaser and something that aims to stretch its audience a little bit on top.
9. Easy A (USA)
This meta-John Hughes picture never aims to exist in any sort of reality, but acts as a moral fable set in the world of cinematic high school. Emma Stone has a star-making performance as the girl who attempts to own the sense of shame and ostracizing placed upon her by a white lie and a very active rumour mill. Easy A may be a tad over-written in the same (but not quite the same) way as Juno, but the film relentlessly chips away at your cynicism and has perhaps the best movie-parents ever committed to celluloid ("Spell it with your peas!") If auto-criticism as a defense mechanism is not your thing, you might want to take a pass, for everyone else it is quicker than reading The Scarlet Letter.
And, hey! John Hughes references.
8. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (UK / Canada / USA)
Time will tell if Edgar Wright's manic and visually busy comic book adaptation will percolate into the ever-shifting notion of film aesthetic. For the moment it is a unique looking film with a fun boy-meets-girl story that ends up looking at the narcissism of 21st century youth. Michael Cera has had a good year re-inventing his own typecasting (see also: Youth in Revolt), but the real star is the director and special effects team that make a snarky-coming-of-age comedy into a visual tour de force. Scott Pilgrim paints in the margins more than any other film of 2010 and should reward multiple viewings.
7. Inception / The Social Network (USA/USA)
I group these films together because they appear to be the big winners in the list-making bonanza of 2010 (see also: Black Swan which was enough a disappointment to me to not make this list, although hardly a bad film) and have had enough ink spilled on them to last a life time. Both films are great, but curiously, the post-film conversations on both of these films seemed to be better than the films themselves. Inception suffers from too much exposition (and too little Marion Cotillard), while The Social Network had not enough, despite Aaron Sorkin's script being one of the biggest delights of the year, I wanted even more.
6. Womb (Germany / UK / Hungary)
A woman who loses her soul-mate abruptly and as a coping measure, gives birth to his clone and raises him as her child. This is one of those films that lets you tackle your own biases and sense of morality while it unfolds; you do not watch the film as much as you have a direct dialogue with it. Womb does not really tell you much about Eva Green's character or motives, but just lets the strangeness and incomprehensibility of human desire dominate the screen. It is also one of the most beautifully shot pictures of the year.
5. Balada Triste de Trompeta (Spain)
A magnificently silly, operatic Grand Guignol and Alex de la Iglasia's masterpiece for certain. One could spend loads of time connecting elements of this circus sideshow to the absurd history of fascism during the Franco decades in Spain, but it is a lot more fun to be overwhelmed by clowns wielding machetes or heavy caliber automatic weapons. The strangest love-triangle of the year has more abusive sado-masochism sexual antics of the circus performers than you can shake a stick at.
4. Confessions (Japan)
A heady mixture of revenge and consequences that would make Park Chan-Wook proud. Is it a deep meditation on school violence, or a wicked satire on Japanese culture? Either way, Confessions is an unforgettable film experience that makes the most of the medium to give you the negative side of human foibles.
3. Shutter Island (USA)
Easily the best American genre film to grace the screen in 2010. The double twist ending, the savvy use of character actors, the joyous visual look to the film all add up to a compelling reason why more prestigious directors should belt the occasional straight-up genre film. If Kubrick has The Shining, Scorsese has Shutter Island. Those hung up on 'plot' with this film, are missing out on one of the pure delights of cinema for the year.
2. Tabloid (USA)
No character in 2010 is bigger or more full of surprises than Joyce McKinney, a former Beauty Queen who is denied the love of her life by circumstance and the Mormon church, has the uncanny ability to rope available men around her to do her bidding. Errol Morris is as smitten with McKinney as her collective group of male accomplices who helped with here plans to take back her lover, and the British tabloid press who collectively latched onto the "Mormon Sex in Chains" story in the late 1970s, but he also takes an insightful look at how we spin the narrative to how best suits us; if you believe something long and hard enough, it will eventually become your truth. If someone would release this film wide with a smart marketing, this could easily be Morris' biggest film, and could rival Michael Moore at the box-office. I am not alone in loving this film and giving it as much word-of-mouth-love as possible. I am hoping that someone will find a way to bring Morris out of the realm of 'documentary-fan-boy' circles and into the mainstream.
1. Another Year (UK)
Heartbreaking, funny, painful, a touch of warmth balanced with a hint of schadenfreude, Mike Leigh continues his examination of what happiness is and how we sometimes find it and sometimes spectacularly fail to find it (See also Happy-Go-Lucky, Naked, All or Nothing). This is one of those Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf films where the entire cast should be handed all the awards and kudos available for bringing nuanced characters and situations to life out of scenarios as simple as a back yard meal or drinks after work. Leslie Manville's poor Mary cannot pull her life together and spends much of her time trying to convince her quite-successful-in-love-and-live co-worker that she is on track. Social awkwardness leavened with genuine caring and consideration ensues, you cannot help but leave this film a better person.
Honorable Mentions:
Rubber (France)
Trigger (Canada)
Greenberg (USA)
Heartless (UK)
Meek's Cutoff (USA)
Cold Fish (Japan)
Monsters (UK)
127 Hours (UK)
Black Swan (USA)
True Grit (USA)
13 Assassins (Japan)
The Parking Lot Movie (USA)
Films released in North America I am sorry I missed in 2010: Dogtooth (Greece), Metropolis: The Restored Version (Germany), Red White and Blue (UK), Animal Kingdom (Australia), Blue Valentine (USA), The Town (USA), I Am Love (Italy), Carlos (France), Marwencol (USA) and Somewhere (USA).
Films released in North America in 2010 that I caught at festivals in previous years and appeared on my last years best of list but still very much worth mentioning: Enter The Void (France), Valhalla Rising (Denmark), Agora (Spain), Mother (South Korea), Symbol (Japan), Mr. Nobody (Canada/Brazil/Germany), Splice (Canada) and The Good The Bad And The Weird (South Korea).
And Dammit, somebody, somewhere please release Amer (France/Belgium)
