Best Films of 2010

5. Toy Story 3

Growing up is hard. I recognize this fact, but as someone who refuses to grow up, I do not accept it. I still have shelves and shelves of toys from childhood sitting in my room and I have never attempted to go through them and choose which ones I don’t want or don’t need. The thought has just never come across my mind. So on that level, I did not connect with “Toy Story 3”. In reality, “Toy Story 3” isn’t about how hard it is to give up toys; it is about the emotions behind leaving childhood and entering adulthood. Most of this generation has grown up with the Toy Story characters, just like Andy. Pixar tugs at the heartstrings of those 20-somethings in the audience who aren’t quite ready to give up their childhood, with the film’s referential final shot and closing words, “Toy Story 3” is here to assure us that we are strong enough to move on and that it is time for the next generation to enjoy the characters we have held so dear to our hearts for all these years.

4. Inception

Most people have already seen this movie, and trying to condense the complex plot into a single paragraph would be doing a disservice to Christopher Nolan’s excellent script. The basic idea is that technology has advanced to the point where people can consciously enter dream-space and interact with it. “Inception” specifically focuses on a set of criminals who specialize in stealing company secrets—only this time, their goal is to plant a secret in someone else’s mind instead of steal it. Emotions come into play and things go awry as the dream-world falls apart right in front of us. Recently I was linked to the Youtube channel of an eleven year old kid who talks like a creepy adult and reviews movies on morning shows. He refers to himself as “Lights, Camera, Jackson!” and pretty much thinks he is the coolest kid on the face of the earth. His review of “Inception” is infuriating and insulting. “It’s just too confusing…Dreams within dreams within dreams…if it wasn’t for Ellen Page we wouldn’t know what the heck was going on!” He gave Inception a C, the same score he gave “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” What a dumb little prick.

3. Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky’s ballerina thriller is similar in theme and tone to his last film (and what I consider to be the best film of 2008) “The Wrestler”. While much of the talk will come from the violence and disturbing visual effects used to portray Nina Sayer’s (Natalie Portman) “transformation” into a swan, the real punch of the film comes from its startlingly realistic portrayal of the behind-the-scenes life of a New York City ballet company. Much like in “The Wrestler”, this peek behind the curtain of the life of an entertainer is the most engrossing and memorable part of the film, taking an almost documentary-like approach to chronicling the life and career of the main character. “Black Swan” takes things in a different direction from “The Wrestler” by manifesting the backstage stress of a production of Swan Lake into a series of violent and horrifying hallucinations that ultimately dominate the film’s last half. These hallucinations will be the film’s calling card in years to come but I know that I will remember more about the behind-the-scenes drama and stress rather than the scenes where Natalie Portman has feathers growing out of her back.

2. The Social Network

There has been a lot of debate over the accuracy of David Fincher’s “The Social Network”. The debate, unfortunately, is pretty useless, as anyone with access to a computer and a few hours of time to do their own research will discover that a lot of the movie exaggerates or just flat out makes things up about Mark Zuckerberg’s (Jessie Eisenberg) life. However, much like Fincher’s “Zodiac”, the fictionalized bits don’t dilute or ruin the film’s ultimate point about the real life events, and instead only serve to enhance the story, the most notable example of this being Zuckerberg’s girlfriend in the film, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara). Erica is a completely fictionalized character—no one like her ever existed in Mark’s life and she didn’t break up with him, causing him to drunkenly create an early version of Facebook. Erica serves as a plot device, appearing only three times in the story (the opening, the middle, and the end), connecting three different parts of Zuckerberg’s life together, reminding us of the thing he lacks the most: human connection. So while Zuckerberg is all smiles in his “60 Minutes” interview and joking around with Jesse Eisenberg on “Saturday Night Live,” it is hard to imagine him watching this film and not seriously reflecting on his life and the decisions he made to get where he is today. Ultimately, I think that may have been the goal from the beginning.

1. Blue Valentine

“Blue Valentine” is a cutesy Brooklyn hipster love story starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as two young lovers full of life and hope. They face extremely difficult challenges and unfortunate circumstances but their love is strong and together they make it through the storm and end up devoting their lives to each other in eternal love. “Blue Valentine” is also a dark and defeating portrayal of a relationship that has completely fallen apart, starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as two aging spouses who no longer work together. They face what to most people would seem like trivial problems, but their relationship is so strained, their love for each other so far gone, that they can’t handle the little things anymore and their relationship completely implodes. The juxtaposition between the two sides of a relationship (the hopeful beginning and the terrible end) will haunt anyone who has ever had to experience a break-up. This is a film for anyone that has loved or had love lost. It speaks to nearly every level of a relationship and is one of the most insightful movies about love that I have ever seen. With an excellent soundtrack from Grizzly Bear and arresting performances/transformations from both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, “Blue Valentine” must be seen to be believed.