1. The Kids Are All Right: So beautiful. So real. Honestly, I went into it thinking it was going to be a heavy-handed message about same sex marriages and ended up with something so much more. Two of the best performances I have seen in ahwile given by two of the great female leads of our generation, Annette Benning and Julianne Moore. Really, go into this one with an open mind, certainly not a happy-go-lucky feature film.
2. Black Swan: Natalie Portman is on point for this one, even if she didn't dance every scene. Darren Arnofsky was robbed of the Best Director nod once again. He made ballet a cool, contact sport, and honestly I didn't think it was possible.
3. The King's Speech: Great movie all around. Good acting, good direction, great cinematography. Uplifiting true story. An absolute discrace that the MPAA decided to rate it R. What happened to viewing something in context?
4. Exit Through The Gift Shop: A great documentary. If nothing else extremely facinating, tells the story of 'street art'. There are characters in it too... boy are there characters.
5. The Social Network: A great piece of writing from Aaron Sorkin. Fincher is once again showing why he is one of the best directors around and Trent Reznor on the soundtrack makes it. As so many critics like to say... Generation defining.
6. The Fighter: One of the better sports movies in recent years. Christian Bale shows why he is regarded as one of the best, in quite possibly his defining role.
7. 127 Hours: A great story of will and triumph. See my earlier blog for a more complete review
8. The Town: One of the best car chases I have witnessed. Ben Affleck shows hes not just some sort of fluke director. And, if you like The Town, you have got to check out Gone Baby Gone... easily the most underrated film in the past decade.
9. Youth In Revolt: Michael Cera as Francois sums this one up. One of the better comedies put out in recent years.
10. Scott Pilgrim VS. The World: Pilgrim makes the list because of its inventiveness. Edgar Wright gets serious points for just having fun with this one and not being afraid to try something new. Really funny as well.
