2010 Year End List

I really can't put this off any longer, can I? Top ten films of 2010, here we go.

2010 was a rough year, but we endured, didn't we? So here's Joshua's top ten, the most notably absent film being Film Socialisme which I haven't gotten a chance to see yet. So sorry Kurt, Adam, I have no doubt it deserves to be on there.

10. Youth in Revolt
I know a lot of people didn't really like this movie as much as I did, but it really was the funniest thing I saw all year. Playing off of his stereotype with a confidence we'd yet to see in him, Cera took this movie over and just made it... really, really fun to watch. Well made, well acted, decent soundtrack and an amusing script.
9. The Illusionist
Faced with the inevitable obsolescence of what was once a profitable occupation, the protagonist of the Tati-scripted Illusionist is one of the most morose yet compelling animated characters of the last few years, and that is (what with Pixar and the like) quite the achievement. From moments wherein he searches for his missing rabbit with hideously gruesome implications to his neighbour, a clown, sitting alone in a dark room drinking and listening to circus music, Chomet hits all the right notes, especially at critical junctures such as --I don't know-- the heartbreaking conclusion where even feelingless blocks of meat's hearts are stirred.

8. My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?
Michael Shannon being my favorite American actor working today, this was bound to be on my list after he showed such poise in his few moments on screen in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. But just because it was an almost foregone conclusion that this would be a great movie doesn't mean that it's an easy movie to watch, or anything like what you'd expect. Herzog produces one of the oddest, most confused and disjointed narratives of the last few years, and simultaneously provides us with simplistic iconography that proves shockingly enduring. For whatever reason, that basketball left in the tree haunts my memory despite it not having much of an immediate impact at the time. Odd all around.

7. Psychohydrography
There's not that much to say about this incredibly nuanced experimental documentary about that would convey just how special a viewing of it can be. Tracing the water flow from the mountain down to the Pacific Ocean, Psychohydrography is aesthetically astounding, and first time director Peter Bo Rappmund really carves out his own niche under the guidance of genre giant James Benning.

6. Heartbeats
Though Dolan's influences are worn on his sleeve for most of this production, Heartbeats is about as sophisticated a feature as you could hope for from this young upstart. Complicated, well drawn and emotionally involving, Heartbeats is not only well-written, but it is exceptionally well directed. From the stop-start nature of Dolan's frequent slow motion sequences to the expressionistic dance scene set to "Pass This On" by The Knife, Heartbeats is a remarkable little film.

5. Survival of the Dead
How could a year go by and not have at least one zombie movie make my top five? Romero's Survival of the Dead is easily the best of his post-80s work as he turns out an engaging zombie western that delves into themes unfamiliar to most zombie features. No longer concerned with frightening the audience, Romero is content to provide us with iconic image after iconic image, all the while keeping us invested in the relatively concise but elusive plot. The dominating feature of Romero's newest work is that it proves his great courage, his unique vision which he refuses to compromise despite the constant criticism of his newer work.

4. Indian Boundary Line
Indian Boundary Line is the best of the experimental documentaries I saw this year, a combination of 8mm, super 8, and 16mm footage marking the transformation of the relatively obscure 'Indian Boundary Line' in Chicago. Director Thomas Comerford makes his case gently and with great ease, utilizing first person narration to its utmost potential.

3. Curling
An anecdote in the interest of full disclosure: during a screening of an infinitely inferior film called Sandcastle, the director of Curling, Denis Cote, sat down next to me. I'm just saying, I totally could have grabbed his thigh if I had thought it appropriate. So me and Denis are pretty close, yet I still feel that I can be objective in saying that I really thought Curling was going to be the best movie showing at the Vancouver Film Festival this year, bar none. From the idiosyncratic use of pop music to move from the ridiculous to the sinister to Cote's adept photographing of a snow storm as the father/daughter pairing stomp off home, Curling is a triumph of infinite awkwardness and occasional melancholy.

2. Trigger
This was the most difficult decision I've had to make yet on these year end lists, picking between Trigger and the number one spot. It was fucking brutal. Trigger is one of the best examples of Canadian filmmaking I've seen since... well, to be honest, since last year with McDonald's similarly effective yet vastly different Pontypool. McDonald has become somewhat of a Billy Wilder figure, dabbling in genre after genre without sacrificing quality. Trigger features two phenomenal performances from Molly Parker and the inimitable (and sadly departed) Tracy Wright, along with nods to the great work both had done with McDonald (and the wonderfully utilized Don McKellar and Callum Keith Rennie) on the vastly underrated and underwatched Twitch City. A fascinating example of the incredible emotions McDonald can evoke when working with an excellent script and actors like Wright and Parker who are capable of such versatility. Conveying great humor and great sadness from scene to scene, Trigger just misses the top spot by a hair.


1. How I Ended This Summer
What can I say, I'm a sucker for wide open vistas, radioactive beacons and isolated curmudgeons. How I Ended This Summer is an incredibly effective drama that pits common sense against fear and man against nature. With every frame expertly composed using the now ubiquitous Red camera, the power of this film's theatrical release was damn near palpable. At one point a bear suddenly appears on screen and a lady in the theater gasped with surprise. Terse and economical with its dialogue, the film features the two lead actors (Grigory Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis) almost exclusively save for the welcome interjections of the voice of Igor Chernevich and it is to their credit that the film is as enduring as it is. The film develops its characters to such a primal extent that the film's climactic confrontation is a passive, reluctant admission of subterfuge rather than the violent, chaotic conflict promised by earlier bursts of explosive tension.

Honourable mentions: True Grit, Ruhr, Thomas Mao.