This article was written pre January 2010 and was meant to be published as a column in the Jamaica Gleaner. They’ve since sat on it and eventually they told me that due to timing – and length – they won’t be publishing it. So here’s my TOP TEN OF 2010 that (I hope) you’ve all been waiting to see. Enjoy.

When the year began there was a definite list of movies that I wanted to see and as I look back at the year I have to say that this is a year of many surprises. The year started out as being one of the worst years for cinema but at this point looking back I think that it’s definitely one of the strongest in the last ten years. I don’t think that we’ve had this many great movies in one full year since the year 2000.

For those of you who will read this top ten and scratch your heads as to how some films which were rated 10/10 lower than some movies rated 9/10 in my original theatrical reviews understand that this list is based off of my feelings as of this current moment. Based on revisiting certain films the movie has risen or sunk in stock in my mind and therefore what was once a 10/10 can noe be a 9/10 and vice versa.

Before I actually dig into what made my TOP TEN I’d like to say sorry to all those movies that I wanted to watch but didn’t get a chance to see for one reason or another. Some of those movies are: The Fighter, True Grit, Never Let Me Go, Blue Valentine, Marwencol, Jack Goes Boating, The Secrets in Their Eyes and Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.

10. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (dir. Edgar Wright)

It’s based on one of my favourite graphic novels, about Scott Pilgrim who meets the girl of his dreams – quite literally – and has to fight her seven evil exes in order to win her heart. The movie plays into so many subgenres; it’s a videogame movie, it’s a comedy, it’s a tournament movie and all at the same time the movie uses Edgar Wright’s very kinetic style to push the narrative forward in such a way that even though we’re just waiting with baited breathe to meet Scott’s next opponent we are also falling in love with Ramona with Scott. Read my full review here.

9. Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan)

Christopher Nolan is the director that’s pretty much everyone has come to realise as the master of the thriller. He’s taken us on journeys with characters who can’t seem to get any sleep, those who can’t remember what happened five minutes before, people who are trying to make you look left while doing something to the right and now he’s taking us into the subconscious to plant an idea in an act of corporate espionage.

When the year began this was the movie that everyone was looking forward to and now as I look back it was a wild ride. It’s the one movie this year that kept me buzzing constantly every time I finished watching it. Even now when I watch it for the fifth time I’m still discovering things that I didn’t notice before and still questioning what I think the end actually means. It’s biggest strength is that it leaves itself open to so many different interpretations that cannot be either proved or disproved but only strengthened through more dialogue. Read my full review here.

8. Exit Through the Gift Shop (dir. Banksy)

Banksy is an underground street artist from the UK. A while back an amateur filmmaker wanted to make a documentary on the street art movement and about Banksy. Late on in the process Banksy took over and decided that this filmmaker was a more interesting topic and decided to make the documentary about the filmmaker becoming a part of that movement and what he did to it. It’s one of those documentaries that take you to a world that you barely know about and keeps making you ask why you don’t know more. People are claiming it to be a fabrication which also brings into question as to whether this movie is a new elaborate prank by Banksy to comment on popular culture. Whatever you believe it doesn’t take away from how amazing a film this is. Read my full review here.

7. Mother (dir. Bong Joon-Ho)

A mentally challenged child is suspected of committing murder and his overprotective mother is out trying to solve the mystery that the police aren’t willing to. We’re taken into the life of Koreans in a way that I never thought was possible. The film is beautiful to view and if you’ve ever enjoyed a noir film like Casablanca then this is the movie that you’ve been waiting for. We go through the shadows to see what’s really happening in the community and brings us closer to the truth that we never wanted to know about these conspicuous people.

6. Cyrus (dir. Jay & Mark Duplass)

When a recently divorced man goes out one night and has a bit too much to drink he meets a woman and instantly he falls for her. The catch however is that she has a grown (22 year old) son who still lives with her and is a bit odd. What also troubles him is that it’s become painfully obvious to him that this son, Cyrus, is hell bent on making sure that this relationship doesn’t work. It’s the best dark comedy of the year about a guy who wants to win this woman and has to jump over a hurdle by the name of Cyrus. How much would you put up with to be with the woman you love? Would you ruin her relationship with her son to be in love? Or would you just walk away?

5. Winter’s Bone (dir. Debra Granik)

Ree Dolly’s father has skipped out on his bail and she has a week to bring him to the law or she and her family will be evicted from their home. Ree must try to navigate a male oriented underground methamphetamine cooking countryside. This world is run by men who don’t have time for any women and love to let their voice be heard. Sporting performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Jonathan Hawkes that are assured to win at almost every award ceremony for the next two months the film is a cliché detective story taken into a new setting that brings out a world that we definitely don’t know much of. It’s brilliantly set and even more brilliantly executed. Read my full review here.

4. The Social Network (dir. David Fincher)

It’s based on the book The Accidental Billionaires which is based on the story of how Mark Zuckerberg became the youngest billionaire in history when he decided to create the little known website Facebook. With Aaron Sorkin writing the screenplay not only is the narrative as easily understood as a tale of ambition and betrayal but the characters come out fully formed and so witty with every line of dialogue that I can’t help to fall in love with this thing every time I see it. Fincher brings his technical brilliance to what everyone assumed was a bare minimum effort story. The use of lighting to show the difference between the settlement meetings and the story of the actual creation of Facebook is so enthralling that the near two-hour runtime just runs away so easily that you’re ready to watch it again almost immediately. Read my full review here.

3. Catfish (dir. Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman)

It’s the movie of 2010 that every critic has feared to review because the beauty of it is that when you start watching it you don’t know what’s coming next and I have to say that I echo their sentiments. In 2007 Yaniv Schulman, a photographer, started a friendship with a fan of his work (an 8 year old girl who painted copies of his photographs) over Facebook. Over the coming months he ended up starting a romantic long distance relationship with this fan’s older sister (Megan). This movie is about that relationship and what came of it. It’s actually what I think is the perfect movie to watch immediately following The Social Network as a wonderful Facebook/social media story.

2. Buried (dir. Rodrigo Cortés)

Paul Conroy has been captured and we wake up with him in a coffin where he’s been buried alive with a lighter and phone and he’s told that if he doesn’t get someone to pay his ransom of five million dollars he will die where he lies. The movie is the best thriller of the year and a film that any fan of Hitchcock’s work would more than appreciate. The simple premise allows for more tension than you could ever wish to get in a movie and it delivers. When you think that the run of the mill thriller uses grand scenes which involve hundreds of extras, chase sequences and million dollar budgets that couldn’t come close to this one man in a box movie that I doubt will ever be duplicated successfully.

1. Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky)

Swan Lake is a ballet composed by Tchaikovsky in the late 1800s. Darren Aronofsky has taken that ballet and turned it into a movie about a ballet dancer who wants to be the best and star in the latest production of that ballet. Nina Sears is pushed to be the best not only by her peers but by one specific individual, Lily, who brings out her dark side. You see that transformation that Tchaikovsky did in the original ballet from the White Swan to the Black Swan. It’s brilliant and disturbing at the same time but also beautiful. If you think you like to see movies about real people going through their lives then this is a movie for you, especially lovers of classical music.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

With 2010 done and over with it’s time to look forward to the New Year. But before we go there I’d like to take a moment to mention a few films that were really great this year that just didn’t make the cut: The Killer Inside Me, A Prophet, Shutter Island, Kick-Ass, The American, 127 Hours and Animal Kingdom.

What was your favourite movie of 2010?