Saturday Night At The Movies
Subjective as hell : Top 10 films of 2010
By Dennis Hartley
A bit like you and me: Aaron Johnson in Nowhere Boy
I now don my Kevlar vest once again, to offer up my picks for the best films that opened in 2010. I should qualify that. These are my picks for the “top ten” movies out of the 50+ first-run features I have selected to review on Hullabaloo since last January. Since I am (literally) a “weekend movie critic”, I don’t have the time (or the bucks, frankly, with admission prices these days) to screen every new release; especially with that soul-sucking 9 to 5 gig that takes up my weekdays (so I can eat and pay rent and junk). Unless, of course, you’d like to offer me a six-figure salary, and cover my expenses to attend Cannes, Toronto, Sundance and TriBeCa…no? Then I’m afraid this is as good as it gets, dear reader-presented in alphabetical order, as per usual. Oh- and Happy New Year!
Creation- Although Jon Amiel’s film (written by John Colee and Randal Keynes) leans more toward drawing-room costumer, focusing on Charles Darwin’s family life-as opposed to, say, an adventure of discovery recounting the 5-year mission of the HMS Beagle to boldly go where no God-fearing Christian had gone before to advance earth and animal science, it is ultimately an absorbing portrait of Darwin the human being, not the bible-burning God-killer (or however “intelligent” designers read him). Full review
Inside Job- I have good news and bad news about the documentary, Inside Job, director Charles Ferguson’s incisive parsing of what led to the crash of the global financial system in 2008. The good news is that I believe I finally grok what “derivatives” and “toxic loans” are. The bad news is…that doesn’t make me feel any better about how fucked we are. At any rate, this may very well be the most important film of 2010. Full review
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work--“Do you want to know what ‘fear’ looks like?” exclaims Joan Rivers, motioning for a close-up of her fingers, tamping impatiently on a blank page of a weekly planner, “THAT is what ‘fear’ looks like.” Later on, she laments “This (show) business is all about rejection.” Any aspiring comics should heed those words of wisdom (and I will back her up on this). Fear and rejection-that’s the reality of stand-up. That being said, one could also take away much inspiration from Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg’s engaging “one year in the life” portrait of the plucky, riotously profane 75 year-old. But don’t try this at home-you won’t be able to keep up with her. Full review
Little Big Soldier- According to the Internet Movie Database, Jackie Chan has made 99 films; after a quick perusal, I’d say that I have seen approximately…four. So when I say that Sheng Ding’s Little Big Soldier is the best “Jackie Chan movie” I’ve ever seen, you can take that with a grain of salt. The story is set during China’s era of perpetual warring prior to unification under the Qin Dynasty. Chan (who also scripted and co-produced) is the “Big Soldier”, a world-weary Liang warrior who happens upon a wounded enemy Wei general (Lee-Hom Wang), after a battle. He takes him prisoner, hoping to collect a reward. Reportedly, Chan has been trying to get this film made for nearly two decades. It is a unique, splendidly acted and handsomely mounted comedy-adventure-fable, which also features my favorite line of 2010: “They are trustworthy, but truculent.” Full review
A Matter of Size- Yes, this is yet another romantic comedy about Israeli sumo wrestlers (ho-hum). It would have been easy for directors Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor to wring cheap laughs from their predominately corpulent cast, but much to their credit (and Danny Cohen-Solal, who co-scripted with Maymon) the characters (and the actors) emerge from trial and tribulation with dignity and humanity fully intact. Even the sight of four supersized Israeli gentlemen bounding through a grassy field, garbed in naught but their lipstick-red mawashis will make you stand up and cheer (as opposed to snickering). This is a lovely film about self-acceptance-and that is a good thing. Full review
My Dog Tulip-Paul and Sandra Fierlinger’s beautifully animated adaptation of the late British writer and literary magazine editor J.R. Ackerley’s memoir about life with his beloved “Alsatian bitch” is not for the Marley and Me crowd. There is much ado about loose poops and “double anal glands”. There’s lots of estrus fixation and doggie sex. But the film also contains something you won’t find in most Hollywood fare, and that’s heart and soul-sans the maudlin sentimentality. Because this is, at its heart, a love story. “Tulip offered me what I never found in my sexual life,” explains the narrator (Christopher Plummer), “…constant, single-hearted, incorruptible, uncritical devotion, which is in the nature of dogs to offer.” The film has a breezy jazz score by John Avarese. Full review
Nowhere Boy- A little gem from U.K. director Sam Taylor-Wood, which was one of my favorites at the Seattle International Film Festival this year. Aaron Johnson gives a terrific, James Dean-worthy performance as a teenaged John Lennon. The story zeroes in on a specific, crucially formative period of the musical icon’s life beginning just prior to his first meet-up with Paul McCartney, and ending on the eve of the “Hamburg period”. The story is not so much about the Fabs, however, as it is about the complex and mercurial dynamic of the relationship between John, his Aunt Mimi (Kirstin Scott Thomas) and his mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff). The entire cast is uniformly excellent, but Scott Thomas (one of the best actresses currently strolling the planet) handily walks away with the film as the woman who raised John from childhood. It’s gear. Full Review
Oceans- In their magnificent nature documentary, directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud wisely avoid hitting us over the head with cautionary rhetoric about mankind’s tendency to poison the precious well of life that covers three-quarters of our planet with pollution, overfishing and unchecked oil exploration. Any viewer, who becomes immersed in this stunningly photographed portrait of the delicately balanced aquatic ecosystem, yet fails to feel a connectedness to the omniverse we cohabit with it (and a resulting sense of shared responsibility) has something missing in their soul. Full Review
The Runaways- Anyone who harbors a fond remembrance for the halcyon days of Bowie, T. Rex and Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco might find themselves getting a little misty-eyed while watching Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways, a dramatization about how four young women (mentored by L.A. rock impresario Kim Fowley) high-kicked a breach in rock’n’roll’s glass ceiling with thier platform boots back in the mid-70s. Strong performances from Kristen Stewart (as Joan Jett), Dakota Fanning (as Cherie Currie) and Michael Shannon (as Fowley) help the film over a few humps. Full Review
Son of Babylon- A heartbreaking, tremendously moving “road movie” from Iraq. Set in 2003, weeks after the fall of Saddam, it follows the arduous journey of a Kurdish boy and his grandmother as they travel south to Nasiriyah, the last known location of the boy’s father, who disappeared during the first Gulf War. Director Mohamed Al Daradji and co-screenwriter Jennifer Norridge have delivered something here that has been conspicuously absent in the growing list of Iraq War(s) movies from Western directors-an honest and humanistic evaluation of the everyday people who inevitably get caught in the middle of such armed conflicts-not just in Iraq, but in any war, anywhere. Full Review
Honorable Mentions
As I always take great pains to point out in my introduction to the annual top ten post, I don’t have the time or circumstance to see and then write an in-depth review of every first run film. That being said, I inevitably do end up catching a few gems once they are available on DVD, that I would consider in hindsight to be among the best of the year; in order to retain the integrity of my own qualifying criteria, however, I cannot include them in the list. But I don’t believe there are any laws forbidding an honorable mention or two:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 
-Ingmar Bergman meets Kill Bill 
in this brooding, atmospheric Swedish thriller, directed by Niels Arden Oplev. The first installment of the three films based on Stieg Larsson’s posthumously published book trilogy, it’s an intriguing mash-up of serial killer mystery and political conspiracy yarn. An investigative journalist (Michael Nyqvist) is looking into the decades-old cold case of a young woman (possibly murdered) who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The family involved has powerful political connections and a dubious history (something that frequently goes hand-in-hand). An elusive, enigmatic young computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) with her own tortured, secretive past (and a dragon tattoo) is also looking to investigate the family for personal reasons, and offers to help. Lisbeth’s mission to expose the evil and corruption of the rich and powerful, and consequential travails have gained an interesting real world parallel with the ongoing Julian Assange caper. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong with the two sequels, and I suspect the fault lies with director Daniel Alfredson, who took over for The Girl Who Played with Fire
and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
. I found both films to be poorly paced and pedestrian in style. Normally, I abhor American remakes of European art house hits, but now I am intrigued to see David Fincher’s revamp (the first installment is due out later this year), because in this case, there is room for improvement.
Restrepo 
-Despite all the critical accolades, I avoided watching this film for the longest time, because I have developed a block against any documentary dealing with America’s current military involvement(s) in the Middle East (the mere mention of the subject tends to make me very, very, angry). But when it popped up unexpectedly on the National Geographic Channel recently, I thought I’d give it a go (especially since I was alone at home-where I wouldn’t make a public scene should I be compelled to yell at the screen). Guess what? There was no yelling. I was too riveted. Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington’s no-frills portrait of one year in the life of a platoon deployed in Afghanistan is the most gut-wrenching and uncompromising piece of combat journalism I’ve seen since The World of Charlie Company
(if you’re old enough to remember that one). There are no politics or voiceover narration to distract; just day-to-day life for a bunch of guys who want to do their duty, serve their tour and not get their asses shot off along the way. Saving Private Ryan
and Platoon
pale by comparison-this is the real deal.
The Secret of Kells
-This one seemed to live up to its title, slipping in and out of theatres like a thief in the night, and I’m sorry I missed it on the big screen-because it’s one of the most visually stunning animated films I’ve seen in quite some time (see it on Blu-Ray if possible). It’s a unique, family-friendly fantasy based on traditional Irish folk tales surrounding the origins of an illuminated manuscript from the 9th Century called The Book of Kells (an actual historical artifact, kept on permanent display at Dublin’s Trinity College). There are Tolkienesque touches (a diminutive hero, forest elves, marauding invaders), but this is one classic “quest” tale with a refreshing twist-the goal is not power or defeat of a villain, but rather the preservation of knowledge and illumination. For the amazingly vivid look of their film, Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey, through some kind of “secret” alchemy of their own, seem to have taken some of those marvelous medieval era woodcuts and paintings you see in museums and art books and brought them to life.
.
