1. Dom Cobb – Inception
Alright haters, let’s get this straight one last time. Stop saying Inception failed to do what Dark City, or Eternal Sunshine, or Debbie Does Dallas did. Inception wasn’t trying to be all those other movies it is continually compared to. It was not a philosophical rumination on the nature of dreams, it was not meant to be the Citizen Kane of post-modern philosophy, it was not meant to get at any deep concept of what love is.
It’s attempt was to use the world of dreams as the backdrop for a kick-ass heist film, albeit with plenty of relational drama for our antagonist. Maybe you think it succeeded, maybe you think it didn’t, but you aren’t allowed to create your own imaginary comparisons to decide if a movie was successful. For example, you can decide to hate Jack-Ass 3D because you didn’t enjoy watching it, or as is true in my case, never plan to watch it, but it’s asinine to say it sucked because Knocked Up did a better job engaging what it means to finally become a real adult. You know, come to think of it, The Jerk sucked because Citizen Kane did a better job showing how a man might lose his soul as he gains success. And, Die Hard sucked because The Godfather II does a better job showing the impact men of violence have on a family. See that, I can use parallels in film to create bizarre criteria for film criticism too. Hooray!
If you want to compare Inception to a movie, or say it copied a genre, you need look no further than The Sting or Ocean’s 11. It’s not a big secret, just pay fucking attention and it’s pretty obvious. That’s the sort of movie they were trying to make, just in a way we’ve never seen before. Mission accomplished, bitches.
Yes, folks, this was a heist film.
Now, for a heist film to be entertaining, one of the primary needs is an engaging ringleader who is remarkably good at what they do, facing their toughest heist yet. Inception had that in spades, with Leo keeping shit real throughout the duration of our flight.
This fearless leader also needs a trusty side-kick to keep them honest (see Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or Brad Pitt in Ocean’s 11), a rich person to back the mission for one reason or another (see Ken Watanabe, or Elliott Gould in Ocean’s 11), some talented accomplices they’ve used on previous missions, who they recruit because they need the best (see Tom Hardy, or most of the team in Ocean’s 11), and a young protegé full of potential, so that our ringleader can explain how things work to the audience… I mean to the protegé (see Ellen Page, or Matt Damon in Ocean’s 11).
Still, it all revolves around the central ringleader. Leo kicked ass in this role. He was the perfect mix of swagger, skill, fear, and edge of sanity desperation. He brought a beautiful amount of depth and emotion to the role, enabling most audiences to care about whether or not that damned top stopped spinning.
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2. Scott Pilgrim – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Ah, Scott Pilgrim. Our lovable everynerd.
The clueless slacker who can’t get shit sorted out. Yet, in the end, he finally grows up enough to make peace with his greatest enemy of all. Himself.
Loved the novels. Loved this movie. Love Scott Pilgrim.
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3. Hit Girl – Kick-Ass
The messages about the failure to protect children, the harm of violence, etc. is totally lost because the movie is just so fun to watch.
I love this badass little preteen.
She had me at, “Okay, you cunts. Let’s see what you can do now.”
Profanity, FTW!
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4. Kevin Flynn – Tron: Legacy
Tron: Legacy was a movie which, for some reason, I was expecting to disappoint me. I kept that to myself, not wanting to speak some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy into existence. Perhaps it was the fact critics were split down the middle on the film. I know, I’m not normally the guy who listens to critics, but Rotten Tomatoes does offer a cumulative value that one single critic doesn’t, so, universal praise or disdain will at least get me to think twice. Whatever the reason, it was in the back of my mind that the film was going to fall flat with me. I’m glad I was wrong.
I loved Tron: Legacy, as did my decidedly non-nerd wife. Many of the unfair critiques of Inception could be more fairly made of T:L. You aren’t going to see me giving it any awards for dialogue, or emotional depth, etc. In a lot of ways, it was similar to last year’s Avatar, in that it was a hugely visual spectacle, offering something we haven’t seen before, but it didn’t go crazy in the story department. It was pretty straightforward, sometimes a little silly. Although, I should point out that in my opinion, while you can draw comparisons to Avatar, Tron was infinitely more enjoyable as a movie-going experience. This was the most pure fun I had at the movies this year.
Seeing Flynn back, after lifetimes in The Grid, was pretty damned cool for a child of the 80’s like me. In a way, Flynn was what Neo should have been in the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies. I know Flynn didn’t do much in the way of fighting, but even just the single scene in the club, when Flynn shows up and everything changes, was more excitement than Neo offered through four-ish hours of movie in Reloaded and Revolutions.
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5. Rooster Cogburn – True Grit
Yup, Jeff Bridges made it on the list TWICE. Any chance Rooster Cogburn secures him the honor of back to back Academy Awards for Best Actor? Which would also mean that two different actors win the award for playing the same character. Improbable, but definitely possible.
As I’ve already made clear during the Western manifestation of ‘Another Day. Another Movie,’ my unique inability to enjoy John Wayne’s flat, seemingly drunken delivery of lines resulted in me hating this character in the original film. Yet, I wasn’t worried going into this one, because the role was in the capable hands of the Coen Bros. and The Dude.
Even so, I wasn’t ready for just how great all the characters and performances in this movie would be. While it’s not the Coen Brothers’ best film by any means, I do think it’s their most accessible.
True Grit is really funny, like, laugh-out-loud funny, and that’s in large part due to Bridges and his prickly, drunken, violent man of the American West.
If I had unlimited money, I think I would see if Jeff Bridges would be willing to spend two weeks with me, if I in turn donated a ton of cash to charity; the first week he’d be The Dude the whole time, the second week he’d be Rooster Cogburn.
Yeah, I like that idea. Does anyone have a whole mess of money and the number for Mr. Bridges’ agent?
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6. Bonnie – Toy Story 3
Folks, don’t believe the lies. It seems common to buy into the myth that cynicism, fear, skepticism, and criticism are the best postures to maintain as an intelligent adult.
Bullshit.
Sure, healthy skepticism and critical thinking skills are necessary, but think back on the greatest minds in history. Inventors, authors, innovators, world changers. How many of those folks could be characterized first and foremost as cynics and skeptics and folks driven by fear? Not many. Innovation and creativity come from the realm of wonder and imagination, often to a childlike degree.
I’m not arguing for everything to be puppy dogs and rainbows. My favorite storytellers most often have imaginations characterized as ‘dark.’ Yet, even some of the more darkly, even cynically creative folks of the past, like Hemingway or Vonnegut or Heller, etc., couldn’t escape the pull toward imaginative creation. Pure cynicism doesn’t allow for creation, because, you know… what’s the point?
Dark wonder is still wonder. For example, from today, the macabre imaginations of Gaiman and del Toro are still wildly beautiful and redemptive. Darkness and death are realities we cannot escape, why not engage them through the lens of creativity and mystery.
Anyway. Enter, Bonnie. Girl had imagination to spare. Her life was overflowing with beauty and mystery and magic.
I want to be more like her.
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7. Hiccup & Toothless – How to Train Your Dragon
I’ve already written about these two lovable rascals at length.
One of my favorite on-screen relationships of 2010, they are certainly characters I will enjoy coming back to for years to come.
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8. Rapunzel & Flynn Ryder – Tangled
Wha..? Three of the movies in my heroes list are animated films? What am I, like 12? No, wait, lots of 12-year-olds pretend to hate animated movies. What am I, like 9?
Well, in my defense, I’ll at least point out that two of the animated films on this list were on Quentin Tarantino’s list of ten favorite films of 2010, Tangled being one of the two (granted, the second half of his ‘top 20’ list gets a bit insane, what with Knight and Day and Robin Hood being on there, but, whatever).
Tangled was supposedly Disney’s last fairy tale for the foreseeable future. Well, they left the princess game in style.
**spoilers**
They continued to distance themselves from the tired concept of ‘Princess needs a handsome prince to save her,’ which is wonderful. She doesn’t need Flynn Ryder, she just loves him anyway. She’s the leader. She’s the truly charismatic one. He dies for her, but she saves him with her love, the way princes have been doing for princesses in Disney films since Snow White started it all. Plus, even when he dies for her he does so because she inspires him to be better than he was before. Her goodness is contagious.
As for Flynn Ryder, it was refreshing they didn’t go through the ‘lapses back into his old ways’ routine, where he leaves her to sell her out and then comes back later. He is on her side all along, and she just thinks he leaves her when he is kidnapped.
Plus, he’s voiced by Zachary Levi, and I love that guy. Even though he is making those dumb Xfinity commercials for Comcast.
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9. Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network
There are no two ways about it: the man is a screenwriting god.
As soon as the movie was over… hell, before the movie was over, I was thinking to myself, ‘Sweet Lord, this screenplay is perfect.’
He really is staggeringly good. I was right there with everyone else, thinking, ‘Okay, I’m down with Sorkin, but a movie about Facebook? I’m not so sure I’ll ever want to watch that.’ Yet, great writing, direction, and acting made this movie easily one of my favorite films of the year, and as the critical awards and kudos continue to roll out, it appears I’m far from the only one who can say that.
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10. Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
Holy shit. Black Swan was amazing. Truly, unbelievably amazing!
Talking to Emily after we watched it, I told her I wished I could watch it again for the first time, just to experience it again, fresh. And I truly mean ‘experience.’ That’s the only way to accurately describe how I felt watching this movie. I experienced it.
The storytelling was absolutely stunning. Even the disturbing moments were never too disturbing, they were just disturbing enough to serve the story.
A beautiful film about beauty and perfection and brokenness and sexuality and abuse and fear and art and death and performance and power and relationship and madness and the uncomfortable reality that these things can never be totally separated, at least not in the world we currently inhabit. Oh yeah, and it’s about a ton of other shit as well. Layers people, layers!
And all the while, it was Aronofsky at the helm. He’s done so much brilliant work before, I don’t really get how he can leave all those other films behind so completely with the achievement of Black Swan, but Caucasian managed to pull it off.
P.S. – Clearly, those last two entries make it clear who gets my vote for Best Director and Best Screenplay this year.
