The Year in Film: Guardian critics on 2010’s best!

Pub date December 28, 2010
WriterCheryl Eddy
SectionPixel Vision

Dennis Harvey’s Top 20 of 2010

Note: because this was generally such a crap year, a “best” list seemed too much of a stretch. Ergo this is a Top 20 list, in no particular order, of films I enjoyed most one way or the other (The Killer Inside Me, Everyone Else, and I Spit on Your Grave definitely representing the other). No doubt The King’s Speech, The Social Network, and several other currently awards-baiting titles have finer qualities than some here, but they’re not what I’d gladly watch again right now.

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, UK/Netherlands)
The Tillman Story (Amir Bar-Lev, USA)
The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom, USA/Sweden/UK/Canada)
The Desert of Forbidden Art (Tchavdar Georgiev and Amanda Pope, Russia/UK/Uzbekistan)
Mother (Bong Joon-ho, South Korea)
City Island (Raymond De Felitta, USA)
OSS 177: Lost in Rio (Michel Hazanavicius, France)
Daddy Longlegs (Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie, USA/France)
The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, USA)
Let It Rain (Agnès Jaoui, France)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G18Y-S8YrQ0

Anton Chekhov’s The Duel (Dover Koshashvili, USA)
Everyone Else (Maren Ade, Germany)
Babies (Thomas Balmès, France)
Prodigal Sons (Kimberly Reed, USA)
I Spit on Your Grave (Steven R. Monroe, USA)
Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, USA)
Get Him to the Greek (Nicholas Stoller, USA)
MacGruber (Jorma Taccone, USA)
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould (Michèle Hozer and Peter Raymont, Canada)
[rec] 2 (Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, Spain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE_X2pDRXyY

Cheryl Eddy’s Top 10 of 2010

(1) Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, USA)
(2) Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, UK/Netherlands)
(3) Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, USA)
(4) The Social Network (David Fincher, USA)
(5) True Grit (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, USA)
(6) The Two Escobars (Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist, Colombia/USA)
(7) The Tillman Story (Amir Bar-Lev, USA)
(8) The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, France/Germany/UK)
(9) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, USA/UK/Canada)
(10) Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, USA)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm-mfxOiUXI

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks’ top films of 2010

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks teaches Film History at the Academy of Art University and curates-hosts the film series “Midnites for Maniacs,” which emphasizes dismissed, underrated and overlooked films in a neo-sincere way.

(1) Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
(2) Another Year (Mike Leigh, UK)
(3) Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio, Mexico)
(4) Sweetgrass (Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, France/UK/USA)
(5) Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, USA) and True Grit (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, USA)
(6) The Last Exorcism (Daniel Stamm, USA/France)
(7) Tiny Furniture (Lena Dunham, USA) and The Freebie (Katie Aselton, USA)
(8) Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, USA) and Daddy Longlegs (Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie, USA/France)
(9) Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, USA) and Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance, USA)
(10) White Material (Claire Denis, France/Cameroon)
(11) Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, USA)
(12) Machete (Ethan Maniquis and Robert Rodriguez, USA)
(13) 127 Hours (Danny Boyle, USA/UK) and Buried (Rodrigo Cortés, Spain/USA/France)
(14) Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine, USA/UK/France) and Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremaine, USA)
(15) Cyrus (Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass, USA) and Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, USA)
(16) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, USA/UK/Canada)
(17) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul,
Thailand/UK/Germany/France/Spain)

bonus round…

(18) You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Woody Allen, UK) and Film Socialism (Jean Luc Godard, France)
(19) Please Give (Nicole Holofcener, USA)
(20) Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman, USA)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fnojZw54ls

Louis Peitzman’s Top 10 of 2010

(1) The Social Network (David Fincher, USA)
(2) Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance, USA)
(3) Inception (Christopher Nolan, tk)
(4) Rabbit Hole (John Cameron Mitchell, tk)
(5) Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, USA)
(6) Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, USA)
(7) The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, USA)
(8) Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek, UK/USA)
(9) Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, USA)
(10) The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, France/Germany/UK)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk-EoUb0nvg

Max Goldberg’s Top Films of 2010

The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (Andrei Ujica, Romania)
Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman, USA)
Cold Weather (Aaron Katz, USA)
Foreign Parts (Verena Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki, USA)
In the Shadows (Thomas Arslan, Germany)
The Oath (Laura Poitras, USA)
The Social Network (David Fincher, USA)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul,
Thailand/UK/Germany/France/Spain)
You Are All Captains (Olivier Laxe, Spain/France)
Wednesday Morning Two A.M. (Lewis Klahr, USA)/Union (Paul Clipson,
USA)/Pastourelle (Nathaniel Dorsky, USA)

Kimberly Chun’s Top 11 of 2010

True grit, girl style: Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, USA), Easy A (Will Gluck, USA)
True camp, with a heaving side of eye candy: Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, USA), Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, France/Germany/Italy)
Indie family comedies for adults: Cyrus (Jay and Mark Duplass, USA), The Kids Are All Right, (Lisa Cholodenko, USA), Tiny Furniture (Lena Dunham, USA)
Indie crime family that eats its young: Animal Kingdom (David Michod, Australia)
Indie entrepreneurs run amok: The Social Network (David Fincher, USA)
“Made it, ma! Top o’ the world!” — border-crossing crime stories: A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France/Italy, 2009), Carlos (330-minute version, Olivier Assayas, France/Germany)