Blog Archives
Cinema Fanatic’s Favorite Fifteen Films of 2010
So we’ve gotten to the end of the year, which, of course, means end-of-the-year lists. I don’t think 2010 was the worst year ever, but it pales in comparison to 2009. Last year I was in love with so many films – starting very early in the year and continuing into January of this year with the films I wasn’t able to see before ’09 ended. I really just think 2010 will go down as a mediocre year. I did, however, still manage to come up with a list of my 15 favorite films of the year. I’d like to emphasize that this list is based on my favorites and not necessarily a “best” list. I’d also like to note that, unlike last year, I was able to see almost all of the 2010 releases I was interested in seeing before the New Year. There were three, however, that I missed that I wish I could have seen before making this list: The King’s Speech, 127 Hours and Blue Valentine. There’s no guarantee those would have made the list anyhow, but I still wish I could have seen them. Regardless, I did manage to see fifty-five 2010 releases this year, a personal record for new releases. I’d also like to note that I’ve seen over 500 new-to-me films this year, but I’ll make a proper round-up post for that tomorrow (I’m watching movies til Midnight tonight!).
The list is after the cut, because I think my #1 is a little shocking and I want to keep up the suspense.
State of the Race, Updated Precursors Chart
Still seeing several frontrunners – The Social Network for Best Picture, David Fincher for Best Director and Christian Bale for Best Supporting Actor in The Fighter. Best Actress seems to be split between Natalie Portman in Black Swan and Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. Toy Story 3 seems to be the one to beat for Best Animated Film (no surprise there). A lot of the critics groups only have one screenplay category and Aaron Sorkin continues to dominate there. The SAG and Golden Globe nominations really help us get a shortlist of what actors will compromise the nominees for the Oscars, though they sometimes throw us a curveball. Once the PGA, WGA and DGA release their nominees we’ll have a better idea of what we might see Oscar nomination-wise.
click picture for higher resolution.
Updated Precursors Chart
With the influx of critics groups announcing their winners over the weekend, it’s time again to update the precursor chart. It looks like so far frontrunners include The Social Network (7 wins, plus on AFI’s Top Ten of 2010), David Fincher for Best Director(6 wins), Aaron Sorkin for Best (Adapted) Screenplay (6 wins) and Toy Story 3 for Best Animated Film (6 wins)
click the photo for higher resolution.
Precursors Chart and Some Frontrunners
It’s that time in Awards Season wherein I start maintaining a Precursors Chart, a handy chart that lets you know what films have won what awards. So far the char only has the Washington D.C. Film Critics, National Board of Review and Hollywood Film Award winners. But I’ll update it once a week or so as the various critics associations and guilds announce their winners.
(Click on the picture to see it full-sized)
So far the main frontrunners are The Social Network for picture, director and adapted screenplay, Christian Bale in The Fighter for supporting actor and Toy Story 3 for animated film. The rest of the categories are still pretty spread out, although we do have a pretty good look at possible nominees.
Three Contenders: Shutter Island, Toy Story 3 and Inception
I feel like 2010 has been a relatively slow year for movies. It’s almost universally acknowledged that this has been one of the worst movie summers ever. There are only about two or three films that have already been released this year that I’ve yet to see that I actually really want to see. That being said, there has also only been three films released this year that are even close to Best Picture quality: Shutter Island, Toy Story 3 and Inception. If the Academy is really going to keep having ten slots in that category, Hollywood is going to have to do a lot better than only three great films in a matter of seven months. I love all three of these films. Toy Story 3 made my whole family cry, including my 59-year-old father. I still can’t decide if I liked Shutter Island more or Inception more. The thing is both movies are full of great performances, but Shutter Island is really about Leo’s performance, whereas Inception felt like a true ensemble piece. I think I’m going to have to see Inception one more time before I can make that decision.
Spoilers may lurk after the cut.
the diary of a film history fanatic 