The Films Of 2010 (MCN) first tally

Movie City News posted their first tally of critic Top Ten lists a few days ago (December 9). With only six critics represented, it's a very small beginning: the final tabulation usually goes up a few weeks into January, and includes over 200 lists.

Still, no surprise that Social Network and Inception top the list by a significant margin, both widely-appreciated films, though neither are among my own favourites. The superb Winter's Bone is a solid third: I figured it for the top-listed indie film of the year, so it won't surprise me if it stays pretty high, though Toy Story 3 may well slip past it. I'm also pulling for Please Give, Animal Kingdom and Nowhere Boy, all of which have already appeared on at least one list. The King's Speech will get many more mentions. Nice to see Get Low already making a showing, as well.

Obviously the specific placings, etc, have no real significance: the great fun and value of this annual ritual is simply to come up with titles to rush out and see, and to think again about the films we've seen in the past twelve months that were stand outs.

For now, for what it's worth...

Movie City News 
Top Ten Scoreboard
Dec 9, 2010: first tally, 6 critic lists

1.  The Social Network 28
2.  Inception 27
3.  Winter's Bone 19
4.  Toy Story 3 17
5.  Town, The 14.5
6.  Greenberg 12
7. Black Swan 8
8. The Fighter 7.5
9. 127 Hours 4

Films occurring on only one list
Carlos 10
Let Me In 10
Wild Grass 9
Everyone Else 8
King's Speech, The 7
White Material 6
Takers 6
Father of My Children, The 5.5
Dogtooth 5.5
Inside Job 5.5
Company Men, The 5.5
Restrepo 5.5
Mother 5.5
I Am Love 5.5
Ghost Writer, The 5.5
Life During Wartime 5.5
A Prophet 5.5
Please Give 5.5
Scott Pilgrim vs The World 5
Kick-Ass 5
Get Low 5
Marwencol 5
Splice 4
I Love You Phillip Morris 4
Animal Kingdom 3
Fish Tank 3
Monsters 3
Jackass 3D 2
Other Guys, The 2
Green Zone 1
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger 1
Nowhere Boy 1
Sawgrass 0

I wonder whether the sharp decline in professional published film reviews this year will diminish the number of lists that will be considered for the meta-list.

*

For what it's worth, here are my personal favourites so far this year, in very rough order starting with the ones I got the most excited about...

Animal Kingdom
Please Give
Me And Orson Welles
Nowhere Boy
Winter's Bone
Of Gods and Men
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Secret In Their Eyes
The White Ribbon
The American
Get Low

Expect Dragon Tattoo to start showing up on some lists, though its rep may have tarnished by association with the disappointing follow-up instalments in the series by a different director. I don't expect most critics to share my affection for the Orson Welles pic: a peculiar pleasure. Foreign films suffer from the fact that their staggered release schedules split them across more than one year: Secret In Their Eyes and White Ribbon will be too old for some critics to consider this year, and Of Gods And Men will not yet have been seen by many.