2010 Top 10 List: A Work in Progress

If you exclude Film Society screenings and retrospectives within the International Film Festival I have to date seen 55 features in theatres in 2010.  Though the year is far from over “Nexus” itself is at an end for another academic season so why not conclude, as per tradition, with a ‘Top 10′ list?

On the whole 2010 wasn’t a bad year.  While the very best movies were made in languages other than English and on the whole masterpieces from Hollywood were thin on the ground, the resurgence in New Zealand filmmaking was heartening.  Outside of the features listed below, Gaylene Preston’s moving documentary about her father’s war experiences, “Home by Christmas”, also deserves mention.

My first list details the 10 worst films of the year.  Given that I lack a masochistic streak - tending to side step rather than champion shit - it’s far from comprehensive.  Nonetheless, the following, listed in relative order of merit, should be avoided:

10. “Every Jack Has His Jill” : proof that Hollywood doesn’t have a mortgage on cheesy romantic comedies this Gallic nonsense about true love and destiny is the furthest thing from “Amelie”.

9. “The Concert”: a text book example of how not to make a political satire, this Russian/French co-production mixes laughs uncomfortably with melodrama and classical music.  For Tchaikovsky die hards only.

8. “Invictus”: Big Clint Eastwood somehow manages to make a film about the 1995 Rugby World Cup final without once mentioning food poisoning.  Enough said.

7. “Alice in Wonderland”: Tim Burton butchers Lewis Carroll in this overlong, over-plotted and far too charmless adaptation.

6. “Predicament”: a good looking but completely unengaging version of Ronald Hugh Morrieson’s last unfilmed book.  Local cinema’s biggest disappointment of the year.

5. “The Men Who Stare at Goats”: a great cast and great story wasted.  Fractured, tonally inconsistent, thematically confused.

4. “Iron Man 2″: a witless sequel, poorly structured and paced and without any of the tongue in cheek grace of the original.  When Scarlet Johansson in leather seems dull something is seriously wrong.

3. “The Lovely Bones”: Sir Peter comes a cropper, messing up the fantasy and pulling his punches with the violence.  Is this really the guy who made “Heavenly Creatures”?

2. “Nine”: appallingly misconceived musical remake of Fellini’s “8 1/2″, reducing the wildly cinematic original to the level of the ploddingly theatrical.  Everyone is miscast.

1. “The Expendables”: Sylvester Stallone drops the ball yet again, finding nothing for his geriatric 80s action stars to do.  Bloodless, in every sense of the word.

Enough of the negative.  The ten best of the year, in reverse order:

10. “Bright Star”: beautiful, thoughtful and moving, this quiet film about the romantic life of poet John Keats perfectly captures his 19th century milieu.  A stunning return to form for Jane Campion.

9. “Up in the Air”: part non-romantic comedy, part social-political commentary, a wholly original feature about relationships and the crisis facing a credit-crunch challenged American middle-class.

8. “Toy Story 3″: lightening strikes for a third time, with Woody and Buzz proving themselves Pixar’s answer to Disney’s Mickey and Donald.

7. “Boy”: an instant New Zealand classic. Taika Waititi doesn’t put a foot wrong as writer, director or actor in his serio-comic coming of age story set on the east coast in the 1980s.  Poignant, almost despite itself.

6. “Broken Embraces”: another near masterpiece from Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz, the Spanish auteur reflecting on his own filmmaking past in a densely structured tale of a blind director, a beautiful actress and the rich financier who comes between them.

5. “Inception”: Christopher Nolan reaches fresh heights in this imaginative science fiction epic about dreams, mortality and love.  A rare combination of action, romance, and intelligence.

4. “The Hurt Locker”:  for once an Oscar winner lives up to the hype.  Kathryn Bigelow’s tense thriller might be set in Iraq but its focus is much broader.  It’s less a war film than a subtle study of masculinity.

3. “The Secret in their Eyes”: looking and feeling like a film noir, with two stories involving the same characters set 25 years apart, this Argentinian murder mystery is the year’s best romance.  The political subtext is ever secondary to the touching tale of a man in love with his boss.

2. “A Prophet”: a long, impeccably paced and shot prison film detailing the career of a French Arab teen turned mafia kingpin.  Disturbing violence co-exists with poetic dream sequences better than you might think.  Demands and repays close attention.

1. “I Am Love”: pure, Visconti-like cinema.  Visually rich and evocative, with much emphasis on set and costume design, the use of music and unbelievably fluid camerawork. The narrative might be obliquely presented but the climactic payoff is overwhelming.