Best Movies of 2010

Not really. This list isn't necessarily of the best movies (I didn't see every movie released and some on my list I wouldn't even recommend watching). It also isn't strictly a 2010 list (one movie on it was released in 1938). What it is, is a list of movies I've watched this year that I think are worthy of being remembered.

After the jump, the list, in no particular order, along with my Twitter review for each.

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• War Dance: documentary of orphans in war-ravaged north Uganda who dream of winning national musical competition. Music transcendent. See it. Watched it two nights in a row. I've never done that before. If you have Netflix "Watch Instantly", watch it now. Thank me later. "In my heart, I am more than a child of war. I am talented. I am a musician. I am Acholi. I am the future of our tribe."

• Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010): Pseudo documentary about street artists and the nature of art & celebrity. New Warhol or fraud? Or both?
• Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010): Still doing it, long after she quit being funny. Like about 1970. Now, it's like watching a car wreck.
• The September Issue: documentary of Anna Wintour and Vogue. Sucks life out of fashion industry. Watch any season of Project Runway instead.
• The Cove (2009): Documentary of dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. Extraordinary film-making but does the world care? Japan doesn't.
• The Atomic Cafe (1982): History of atomic bombs told thru vintage newsreels and propaganda films. Why many distrust govt today. Why not all?
• The Hurt Locker: intense depiction of life ... and death ... with three IED techs in Iraq War. If war is hell, Kathryn Bigelow is its Dante.
• Collapse (2009): Conspiracies. Peak oil. Credit bubble. Overpopulation. Doomsday prophet says worst case has begun. See it. Do something.
• Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010): documentary about Jack Abramoff. What happens when you turn Congress over to market forces. Voters have done it again.
• Capitalism: A Love Story: heavy-handed, over-the-top propaganda, but a must-see. Alternately maddening and hilarious, always entertaining.
• The Art of the Steal (2009): documentary how Philadelphia broke Albert Barnes' will and stole his art collection, worth billions. See it.
• Baader Meinhof Complex: Another time and place, another generation of terrorists. The problem mutates, but it's still with us today. See it.
• Please Vote For Me (2007): Documentary about 3rd grade class election in China. Democracy may be new to China, but these kids are naturals.
• Of Time and the City: Nostalgic look at Liverpool through archive footage, music and poetry. You don't have to be from there to appreciate.
• My Winnipeg: Haunting reverie of the history of filmmaker's hometown. Cross between Grey Gardens, Of Time and the City, and Roger & Me.
• Tyson: Great boxer. One-dimensional human being. Ditto for this documentary. Just not enough to this man for 90 minutes in his own words.
• The Soloist (2008): First Julliard, then a homeless shelter. Music, mental illness and fleeting moments of grace. Life is precarious. See it
• Coco Avant Chanel (2009): No corset! Anarchy. A portrait of a talented, ambitious young woman on the rise. With Audrey Tautou! See it.
• Julie & Julia: Two women connected through a cookbook. Two stories reinforcing each other through a strong script. Great fun. Bon Appétit.
• Every Little Step: documentary about auditions for 2006 revival of "A Chorus Line," a musical about auditions. Kinda meta, no? Yes, see it.
• Cadillac Records: Masterful music by messed up musicians. Muddy Waters marred by muddy dialog. Beyonce makes it all worthwhile.
• My Flesh and Blood (2003): Think parenting is hard? Try 13 kids, most with special needs. Single mom has patience of Job. Kids inspire.

• True Grit (2010): Jeff Bridges chews up the scenery. Coen Bros. add enough sardonic humor to keep you laughing with the movie, not at it.
• Crazy Heart: washed-up country singer whose career is on the skids, then things go downhill. I'd buy that album. The Wrestler with guitars.
• Eat Pray Love (2010): I wanted to dislike this narcissistic excess, but I couldn't. I saw my own globe-circling journey of discovery in it.
• The Kids Are All Right (2010): Not really. And no one else is, either. Moms. Teens. Lesbians. Sperm donor. Affair. Unconventional. Serious.
• It's Complicated: it's long. Slow to get going, but when Streep/Baldwin/Martin poke smot, things get going. Life really can be complicated.
• Whatever Works: This movie doesn't. Crank meets runaway. Hearts melt. No surprise it took 30 yrs to bring this Woody Allen script to screen.
• What Just Happened: More to the point, why? Implausible showbiz comedy that's not really a comedy. De Niro phones it in ... with Bluetooth.
• Happy-Go-Lucky: Teacher, trampolinist, flamenco dancer, celebrator of chaos. The most unforgettable movie character you'll see all year.
• Seven Pounds: Distraught widower does good deeds for strangers. Effective tearjerker if you overlook preposterous premise, which is doable.
• Ostrov (The Island): Russian movie recommended by Rod Dreher about sin, death, guilt and penance, but being Dreher, mostly guilt. See it.
• The Proposal (2009): unfunny formulaic comedy w/ Sandra Bullock, who shows again her bad taste in scripts. Not even Betty White can save it.
• The Blind Side: good feel-good movie, more a family movie than a football movie. Sandra Bullock was good, not great. Compare with Precious.
• You Can Count On Me (2000): Single mom, sheltered son, drifter brother, stifling small town. Imperfect family with a big heart. See it.
• Precious: A very hard movie to watch about a very foreign life. My enormous respect to those who devote themselves to breaking the cycle.
• A Single Man: Great character study of a man whose lover dies and he can't deal with grief. "Living in the past is my future." See it.
• A Serious Man: Coen brothers black comedy. Man seeks advice from rabbi (and Grace Slick) when his life begins falling apart. I love quirky.
• Broken Embraces: Penélope Cruz. Love quadrangle with a lot of heartache. Movie within a movie. "People only fall down stairs in the movies."
• 8 1/2: I watched Fellini's classic in preparation for Nine, which critics say is inferior. That bodes ill. Still, there's Penélope Cruz.
• Nine: Burned out movie director suffers personal and professional breakdown. Visually sumptuous, musically fine. No need to make 9½ or 10.
• Amélie (2001): Quirky French comedy about lonesome girl who loves mystery and practical jokes and seeks romance. She's delightful. It's OK.
• An Education: a girl, smart and clever beyond her years, in a hurry to grow up, gains wisdom as she gets ... an education. See it.
• Up in the Air: portrait of a man w/o commitments who lets his guard down for an instant and life ensues. Me as George Clooney? I can see it.
• (500) Days of Summer: A romance that's fated to fail ... because the girl isn't sentimental. Like a third character says, she's a dude.
• The Informant: Fictionalization of ADM price-fixing case, and the oddest govt witness you'll ever encounter, a real-life Michael Scott.
• In the Loop: biting comedy/satire about dysfunctional US and UK foreign service staffers trying to stop run-up to Iraq War. Scary funny.
• Do The Right Thing: Tension between blacks & Italians in Brooklyn. No right thing anywhere. Neighborhood is the real star - color, lighting.
• Me and Orson Welles: Just OK. Movie makes Welles merely pompous, not a creative genius. I know why Zac Efron's here, but not his character.
• A Prairie Home Companion: The movie, screenplay by Keillor, directed by Altman. If you like the radio show or the movie Nashville, see it.

• Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland: A visual feast. Worthy sequel to Lewis Carroll's classic. Could use more of original's wordplay. See it.
• Sita Sings the Blues: animated retelling of ancient Indian epic with narration by modern shadow puppets & music from the 1920s. Very quirky.
• Where the Wild Things Are: Get inside head of a boy with social problems and a vivid imagination. See it. Warning: there's not much there.
• Despicable Me: amusing, heartwarming story, borrows from many sources, looks assembled by committee, lacks its own original concept, but OK.

• Inglourious Basterds: Not a bad thriller sandwiched between war porn beginning and ending. Oh, and camp. Quintessential Quentin Tarantino.
• District 9: South African apartheid, only with alien prawns. Oh, and the f@#&ing strangest buddy film you'll ever see.
• 2012: The end-of-the-world disaster movie, not the Palin election disaster, although just as catastrophic and even more absurd, if possible.
• The Road: Haunting, post-apocalyptic movie about a man and his son. Deeply depressing and still heartening. See it and "carry the fire."

• The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009): and kill them with their minds. Iraq, ESP and de-bleated goats. Theater of the absurd. Not absurd enough.
• Hot Tub Time Machine: Fantastic title. Crude movie. So-so knock-off of Back to the Future (1985). The '80s were funnier the first time.
• The Hangover: If I had a dollar for every weekend like that I had before I was married... (by the way, where did the chicken come from?)
• The Big Lebowski: mistaken identity leads to wild farce. Reminds me of Pineapple Express only twice as good. Only that's not saying much.
• Little Shop of Horrors: Not the musical, the 1960 black comedy. Just as quirky. Best movie shot in two days. Watch for young Jack Nicholson.

• You Can't Take It With You: Quirky 1938 Oscar-winning Frank Capra comedy. Tired of "It's a Wonderful Life?" Try this for the swellest time.
• The Bicycle Thief: Classic 1949 Italian film of a father (and son) dealing with postwar economic depression. See it again in 2010 America.