It’s been an interesting year for film, with all sorts of good stuff getting released, both mainstream and more niche. So with the end of the year fast approaching, Movie Muser’s own Mike Martin has picked his top 10 of the year. Take a look below to see if you agree with him, and he may even gives you a few tips for lesser known treats to go and discover.
10. The Stoning of Soraya M
A deeply angry, passionate, in-your-face yet surprisingly subtle and clever story of how a woman is picked on and sentenced to be stoned to death for a crime she did not commit. Its amazingly watchable, even beautiful to look at, and will leave you mentally exhausted but strangely hopeful.
9. Toy Story 3
See, I can do mainstream too. The trilogy was one of the few genuinely consistent charming films that really appeal to children and adults alike, with no smugness or clever-clever jokes. Many people found the ending of TS3 too upsetting, but for me it was a scene earlier, in an incinerator, which really did it for me. Touching, funny and rounded out the story in a satisfying way. Hollywood can do it when it tries why doesnt it try more often?
8. Undertow
It sounds like a cross between Ghost and Brokeback Mountain but this Peruvian drama was a real surprise and totally convincing. Set in a small fishing village where everyone knows everyone elses business, a fisherman with a pregnant wife enjoys a gay relationship with an outsider artist, but wants the best of both worlds. When his lover dies he is confronted with the truth of what he is, and is forced to do the right thing. Subtly, deep and engaging.
7. Life During Wartime
This sequel of sorts to Todd Solondzs Happiness has the same sense of disturbing, harrowing undercurrent to what appears to be normal peoples lives. Its a tough, deeply uncomfortable watch but underneath there is some sense of warmth. The great Allison Janneys blind date scenes with Michael Lerner are both hilarious and deeply grating, and her nine-year-old son appears stuck in the middle of a nightmarish adult world of disappointments. Brilliant.
6. Crazy Heart
The mighty Jeff Bridges finally gets his Oscar in this slight but quietly effective story about a shambling drunk country star way past his best given the chance of redemption through Maggie Gyllenhaals reporter. Bridges is as usual effortlessly charming, edgy, shambling and completely believable. Colin Farrell also surprises as Bridges nemesis who turns out to be a good guy after all, and the film never overstretches its fairly simple narrative. The songs are great too, for country fans.
5. Tony
What a little treat this turned out to be. This very low-budget British horror film, clearly based on Dennis Nielsen, is amazingly effective, very sad and surprisingly funny. It also looked absolutely amazing considering its tiny budget, especially the final scenes where Tony wanders around Londons Soho and Docklands, either looking for his next victim or considering giving himself in.
4. A Prophet
Did we really need another prison drug movie? Well, yes actually, as this brilliant French thriller turns into an existential treatise on regret, doubt and the value of loyalty. Tahar Rahim was nominated for a Bafta, and the film was the favourite for Foreign-Language Oscar it won neither, but it still found a sizeable audience in Britain, proving there is always room for interesting movies whatever language they are in.
3. An Education
Usually low-budget British films about the 60s have me running for the exit, but this was a consistently surprising, very funny and sometime dark look at that much-covered decade. Carey Mulligan made her name as the lead, a charming schoolgirl who is led astray by a clearly seedy Peter Sarsgaard and his dubious friends. It succeeds when it clearly shouldnt, and even Alfred Molina steps up to the plate.
2. Winters Bone
The years best US indie film seemed to come out of nowhere, with a first-time director and a young star no-one had heard of. It also invented a new genre country noir and was grim, bleak and raw as a winters day. It was also however a supremely clever piece of storytelling, with Jennifer Lawrences painfully young, fragile heroin stomping up and down a mountain to try and save her dysfunctional family. It looks and sounds totally authentic, and is utterly gripping.
1. Secrets In Their Eyes
2010 will be remembered as a year with the usual assault by Hollywood blockbusters, which were poorer than usual, slightly fewer US indie films than the norm and the usual excellent selection of foreign-language films. The favourites for the Foreign-language Oscar were A Prophet and White Ribbon, but the Academy pulled a surprise with this Argentinian emotional murder mystery thriller. When it finally came out six months later we could finally make the comparison, and on balance the Academy probably got it right. Secrets is a brilliant thriller but much more than that, a passionate, fiercely angry film about tragedy and loss. Its pulsating and stays with you for a long time, and the acting is universally excellent. Brilliant stuff.
And the years turkey: There were the usual selection of dreadful romantic comedies (Leap Year, Happy Ever Afters), M Night Shyamalan rubbish (Last Airbender) and British made-for-TV nonsense (A Closed Book), but for sheer, big-budget, made by a decent director but its still dreadful, the winner was the truly painful Tom Cruise clunker Knight And Day. Its formulaic, dull, woefully scripted and in parts just plain weird. Surely thats the end of Cruises career lets hope.
