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1. Another Year (Leigh) ... A
2. Winter Vacation (Li) ... A
3. Poetry (Lee) ... A
4. Shutter Island (Scorsese) ... A-
5. Post Mortem (Larraín) ... B+
6. My Joy (Loznitsa) ... B+
7. It's Your Fault (Berneri) ... B+
8. The Social Network (Fincher) ... B
9. The Ghost Writer (Polański) ... B
10. Love in a Puff (Pang) ... B-
11. Please Give (Holofcener) ... B-
12. At Ellen's Age (Marais) ... B-
13. Caterpillar (Wakamatsu) ... B-
14. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Wright) ... B-
15. Animal Kingdom (Michôd) ... C+
16. Winter's Bone (Granik) ... C+
17. The Invisible Eye (Lerman) ... C+
18. Rabbit Hole (Mitchell) ... C+
19. Blue Valentine (Cianfrance) ... C+
20. Black Swan (Aronofsky) ... C
21. All Good Things (Jarecki) ... D
22. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Columbus) ... D
23. I Saw the Devil (Kim) ... F

Mistérios de Lisboa
Film socialisme
Happiness Runs
Somewhere
Sebbe
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Jack Goes Boating
Rabbit Hole
Please Give
Kaboom

as of 10/28/12

Have not seen enough to make a top ten 10 yet.

Pretty Good:
True Grit

Not Bad:
Black Swan
Uncle Boonmee
Winter's Bone
Somewhere
Inception
Restrepo

Might Give Another Shot Someday:
Social Network
Scott Pilgrim
Poetry - Lee Chang-Dong
The American
Never Let Me Go
13 Assassins
Valhalla Rising
Norwegian Wood
Biutiful

Would Not Watch Again:
Shutter Island
The Town

2010 Osaka, Japan/Philadelphia, U.S.A.

1. Carlos
2. Confessions, directed by Nakashima Tetsuya
3. Restrepo
4. White Material
5. True Grit/A Serious Man (2009) (tie)
6. Mother, directed by Joon-ho Bong
7. Collateral Murder (wikileaks)/Standard Operating Procedure, directed by Errol Morris (tie)
8. Hearts and Minds (1974)/Winter Soldier (1972) (tie, both films were released in Japan for the first time in 2010)
9. A Prophet
10. Four Lions
The next ten
11. The Social Network
12. Inception/Shutter Island (tie)
13. Enter the Void
14. The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series
15. The Fighter
16. Outrage
17. The Ghost Writer
18. Ototo, directed by Yamada Yoji
19. The Hangover
20. Unstoppable/Nicholas Cage Losing His Shit (youtube) (tie)

A very good year, with several films that have since made it into my all-time favourites (especially How Do You Know and My Joy). I've added some brief notes to my votes in the hope that someone might be prompted to check out one of these great films (which is after all the only sense I can see in this list-making business). In alphabetical order, as I find it difficult to rank between these:

1. Another Year (Mike Leigh). Was there ever a Mike Leigh film that didn't merit inclusion on a best-of-the-year list? The last shot of this seemingly warm and benign film - a textbook example of the Nabokovian device of misled empathy - is as emotionally devastating as anything in his oeuvre.

2. Aurora (Cristi Puiu). Often described (marketed) as a thriller, but really more like a pitch-black deadpan comedy in tone (lots of laughs in the theatre). Mungiu is all right, but as for as I'm concerned Puiu is the reigning master of the Romanian wave.

3. Carlos, TV version (Olivier Assayas). Don't really watch TV, but then again this is really cinema cut up in TV-digestible segments. Totally gripping from start to finish; extra points for the Wire "soundtrack" (although how he could leave out "In Vivo" or "No Warning Given" is beyond me!)

4. The City Below (Christoph Hochhäusler). I can't entirely shake a certain "academic" or "critic-made" feel in this and I Am Guilty, but the coherent totality of subject matter (high finance) and Hochhäusler's trademark steel-cold style grip all the way up to the jaw-dropping ending in this modern-day version of the story of King David (or Walsh's Silver River, as the director tips off in the end credits).

5. How Do You Know (James L. Brooks). In a rarely paralleled shitstorm of mass delusional malediction ("Is it just me or is this crap? Let's Google all the other reviews and find out!"), only Film Comment and Cahiers recognized this clever, consistent, and endlessly rewatchable tribute to classic comedy.

6. In The Face of Crime (Dominik Graf). Ripped through this trailblazing, utterly original and captivating 500-minute organized crime epic in basically one sitting, and I dare anyone to watch the pilot and not feel tempted to attempt the same. Will try to write something about this in a dedicated thread eventually.

7. My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa). The boring and commonplace "indictment of modern Russia" interpretation has somewhat overshadowed the deeper implications of this out-and-out masterpiece - if I had to put these in order, this would vie for #1 (along with Aurora).

8. A Stoker (Aleksei Balabanov). Ditto, actually.

9. The Strange Case of Angelica (Manoel de Oliveira). Embarrassingly I've only discovered Oliveira through these Cinema Guild releases, but better late than never. Utterly original, truly oneiric cinema in the great tradition of Buñuel.

10. The Trip, TV version (Michael Winterbottom). What do you know, more TV! I liked Cock and Bull Story OK, but this is even better - watched it three or four times straight through and still don't mind watching it again (my main distinguishing criterion between "top ten" and "also good").

Also good:
Bal (Semih Kaplanoğlu)
Essential Killing (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Hahaha (Hong Sang-soo)
Hospitalité (Koji Fukada) - this is a real gem, on its way to the top 10 once I figure out what to replace with it
Jack Goes Boating (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
Silent Souls (Alexei Fedorchenko)
Winter Vacation (Li Hongqi)

1. The Social Network
2. The Fighter
3. Inception
4. True Grit
5. The King's Speech
6. How to Train your Dragon
7. In a Better World
8. Shutter Island
9. Tangled
10. The Way Back

1. The Social Network
2. True Grit
3. Inception
4. And Everything is Going Fine
5. Toy Story 3
6. Exit Through the Gift Shop
7. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
8. Valhalla Rising
9. The King's Speech
10. How to Train Your Dragon

Making up for lost time. As per official U.S. release date:

1. A Prophet - 10/10
2. Dogtooth - 10/10
3. Carlos - 10/10
4. Fish Tank - 9.5/10
5. Animal Kingdom - 9/10
6. Blue Valentine - 8.5/10
7. Black Swan - 8.5/10
8. Exit Through the Gift Shop - 8.5/10
9. Winter's Bone - 8/10
10. The American - 8/10

1. Le quattro volte
2. Mysteries of Lisbon
3. The Robber (Der Räuber)
4. The Arbor
5. Nostalgia for the Light
6. Another Year
7. Animal Kingdom
8. Marwencol
9. Of Gods and Men
10. Putty Hill

1. Mysteries of Lisbon
2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
3. Tuesday After Christmas
4. True Grit
5. The Trollhunter
6. Valhalla Rising
7. Blue Valentine
8. Inception
9. I Saw The Devil
10. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

01 Attenberg
02 Mysteries of Lisbon
03 Un prophète
04 The Arbor ***
05 Animal Kingdom
06 Winter's Bone
07 Curling
08 Poetry
09 True Grit
10 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

11 Life During Wartime
12 Carlos
13 Cyrus
14 The Trip
15 Valhalla Rising
16 The Ghost Writer
17 Shutter Island
18 The Social Network
19 Another Year
20 Of Gods and Men

the rest in order

The Strange Case of Angelica
127 Hours
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
Restrepo
Enter the Void
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
The Myth of the American Sleepover
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Biutiful
Stranger Things

And Everything Is Going Fine
Blue Valentine
Insidious
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Tiny Furniture
Waiting for Superman
Rabbit Hole
Edge of Darkness
Tuesday, After Christmas
The Man from Nowhere

Inception
Somewhere
The Way Back
Black Swan

*** new

12-30-2017

1 - Inception - 10/10
2 - The Social Network - 10/10
3 - The King's Speech - 10/10
4 - A Letter to Elia - 10/10
5 - 127 Hours - 9/10
6 - Toy Story 3 - 9/10
7 - Shutter Island - 9/10
8 - In a Better World - 9/10
9 - Waiting for Superman - 9/10
10 - True Grit - 9/10


Other films seen:


The A-Team - 6/10
Alice in Wonderland - 3/10
Animal Kingdom - 8/10
Batman: Under the Red Hood - 8/10
Black Swan - 8/10
The Book of Eli - 6/10
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff - 7/10
Catfish - 8/10
Cave of Forgotten Dreams - 7/10
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - 7/10
Clash of the Titans - 4/10
Date Night - 7/10
Despicable Me - 7/10
Easy A - 7/10
The Fighter - 8/10
Four Lions - 6/10
Get Him to the Greek - 6/10
Green Zone - 7/10
Grown Ups - 4/10
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 - 8/10
Hot Tub Time Machine - 4/10
How to Train Your Dragon - 8/10
Iron Man 2 - 7/10
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths - 6/10
The Karate Kid - 8/10
Kick-Ass - 6/10
The Kids Are All Right - 7/10
Knight and Day - 7/10
Legion - 3/10
Let Me In - 7/10
Megamind - 7/10
Never Let Me Go - 8/10
The Other Guys - 6/10
Predators - 6/10
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - 4/10
Robin Hood - 7/10
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage - 8/10
Salt - 6/10
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - 8/10
Secretariat - 6/10
Senna - 8/10
Shrek Forever After - 5/10
Somewhere - 6/10
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - 4/10
Tangled - 8/10
13 Assassins - 8/10
The Tourist - 7/10
The Town - 7/10
Trek Nation - 6/10
The Trip - 8/10
TRON: Legacy - 7/10
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - 5/10
The Way Back - 7/10
Winter's Bone - 8/10
The Wolfman - 5/10
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - 6/10


Updated 2/9/15

2010 - A very top heavy year, among the movies I've seen... the drop off from the cream to the silt is pretty sharp.

1 Black Swan (Aronofsky)
2 A Prophet (Audiard)
3 The Social Network (Fincher)
4 Animal Kingdom (Michod)
5 The American (Corbijn)
6 Inception (Nolan)
7 True Grit (Coen Bros.)
8 Shutter Island (Scorsese)
9 127 Hours (Boyle)
10 Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Richet)

Notables: The Crazies, Cyrus, Green Zone, The Ghost Writer, Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, The Town, Toy Story 3, Valhalla Rising

Documentaries: Inside Job, Restrepo

Still Missing: Blue Valentine, Carlos, Dogtooth, Enter the Void, Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Fighter, Gasland, Get Low, Greenberg, Hereafter, The Kids Are All Right, The Killer Inside Me, Mother, The Next Three Days, Red Riding Trilogy, The Secret in Their Eyes, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Somewhere, Winter's Bone, Youth in Revolt

Year is determined by the date of the world premiere, i.e. IMDb rules.

Summary: Not the greatest year - or maybe I've been watching the wrong stuff - but it was nice to see Italy having one of its more interesting years for a while.

Films Seen: 73

Top Ten:
1) Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich - United States) - ****3/4
2) Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky - United States) - ****1/2
3) Neadekvatnye lyudi // Inadequate People (Roman Karimov - Russia) - ****1/2
4) Die Fremde // When We Leave (Feo Aladag - Germany) - ****1/4
5) Submarine (Richard Ayoade - United Kingdom) - ****1/4
6) Le quattro volte (Michelangelo Frammartino - Italy) - ****1/4
7) Copie conforme // Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami - France/Italy) - ****
8) The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko - United States) - ****
9) Gorbaciof (Stefano Incerti - Italy) - ****
10) The King's Speech (Tom Hooper - United Kingdom) - ****

On the Cusp:
11) Kongen av Bastøy // King of Devil's Island (Marius Holst - Norway) - ****
12) R (Tobias Lindholm & Michael Noer - Denmark) - ****
13) Una vita tranquilla // A Quiet Life (Claudio Cupellini - Italy) - ****
14) Senna (Asif Kapadia - United Kingdom) - ****
15) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright - United States) - ****

Watchlist:
Mistérios de Lisboa // Mysteries of Lisbon (Raúl Ruiz - Portugal)
Bal (Semih Kaplanoğlu - Turkey)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas - France/Germany)
True Grit (Joel & Ethan Coen - United States)
Loong Boonmee raleuk chat // Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Thailand)
Kosmos (Reha Erdem - Turkey)

Bottom Five: bearing in mind that I'm primarily going to watch stuff that I think I'll enjoy...
1) The Switch (Josh Gordon & WIll Speck - United States) - *
2) Life as We Know It (Greg Berlanti - United States) - *1/4
3) Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt - United States) - *1/2
4) The Tourist (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - United States) - *3/4
5) Easy A (Will Gluck - United States) - **

1. Another Year, Mike Leigh
2. Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky
3. Somewhere, Sofia Coppola
4. The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko
5. Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy
6. True Grit, Joel and Ethan Coen
7. Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold
8. Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich
9. Blue Valentine, Derek Cianfrance
10. Enter the Void, Gaspar Noe

out of 73 2010 films seen:

1. Inception
2. Temple Grandin
3. 13 Assassins
4. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
5. If God is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise
6. True Grit
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
8. Exit Through the Gift Shop
9. Easy A
10. Flipped

Flipped has really fallen in the rankings for me over the years, it's such a charming little story, but it doesn't hold up quite as magically as the first time I saw it. On the other hand, I was falling in love with my soon-to-be wife that summer, so perhaps my affection for the film was really about her.

hm:
Shutter Island
127 Hours
Made in Dagenham
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
The Fighter
Waiting for Superman
Despicable Me
Beginners
How to Train Your Dragon

1. White Material
2. Film Socialisme
3. Exit Through the Gift Shop
4. Never Let Me Go
5. Winter's Bone
6. Black Swan
7. Marwencol
8. Non ma fille, tu' iras pas danser/Making Plans for Lena
9. Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
10. The Housemaid

01. My Joy
02. Meek's Cutoff
03. Carlos
04. The Social Network
05. The Myth of the American Sleepover
06. Another Year
07. Poetry
08. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
09. Greenberg
10. Certified Copy

Next Tier: Winter's Bone, Green Zone, Inception, True Grit

Decent: Please Give, Shutter Island, Of Gods and Men, The American, Black Swan, Somewhere, Never Let Me Go

Not a fan: The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, Beginners, 127 Hours

Rubbish: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, It's Kind Of a Funny Story, Tiny Furniture

1. The Social Network
2. L'Illusioniste
3. Toy Story 3
4. Un Prophete
5. Inception
6. Rabbit Hole
7. White Material
8. Animal Kingdom
9. True Grit
10. Valhalla Rising

Honorable Mentions : Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Black Swan, Never Let Me Go, The Town, Blue Valentine, The Fighter, The Ghost Writer, Monsters, Unstoppable, The Man From Nowhere, The King's Speech, Winter's Bone, Ishqiya, Julia’s Eyes, How to Train Your Dragon, Kick Ass, The A Team, Salt, Easy A, Carancho, London Boulevard, Fair Game, Jack Goes Boating, 127 Hours, Greenberg, Cemetery Junction, Black Death, The Book of Eli, The Debt, Bedevilled, The Big Picture, The Wolfman, Paan Singh Toomar.


Others Seen: Iron Man 2, I Saw the Devil, Let the Bullets Fly, Machete, The Yellow Sea, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Band Baaja Baaraat, Shutter Island, Karthik Calling Karthik, A Bout Portant, Despicable Me, The Way Way Back, Green Zone, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Tron Legacy, In a Better World, RED, 13 Assassins, Prince of Persia, Centurion, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Alice in Wonderland.

01. Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)
02. Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
03. Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek)
04. Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
05. Mammuth (Gustave de Kervern & Benoit Delepine)
06. Poetry (Chang-dong Lee)
07. White Material (Claire Denis)
08. I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino)
09. Another Year (Mike Leigh)
10. Honey (Semih Kaplanoglu)

Honourable mentions: The Round Up (Rose Bosch), My Dog Tulip (Paul & Sandra FIerlinger), Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman), Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich), The Princess of Montpenser (Bertrand Tavernier), Black Bread (Agusti Villaronga) & The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausesau (Andrei Ujica).

1. Uncle Boonmee who can Recall His Past Lives
2. Toy Story 3
3. Mysteries of Lisbon
4. Certified Copy
5. The Social Network
6. The Ghost Writer
7. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
8. Inception
9. Another Year
10. True Grit

01. Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)
02. Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
03. Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek)
04. Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
05. Mammuth (Gustave de Kervern & Benoit Delepine)
06. Poetry (Chang-dong Lee)
07. White Material (Claire Denis)
08. I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino)
09. Another Year (Mike Leigh)
10. Honey (Semih Kaplanoglu)

1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright)
2. The Social Network (David Fincher)
3. Inception (Christopher Nolan)
4. Greenberg (Noah Baumbach)
5. Somewhere (Sofia Coppola)
6. Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik)
7. The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski)
8. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
9. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
10. Katalin Varga (Peter Strickland)

Past lists: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005-2000