The Films of 2010 (MCN) Jan 8+

Vancouver audiences have the chance to view at least the shortened version of the hard-to-see #10 critic favourite Carlos this week at our beloved Hollywood theatre. Also, Mike Leigh's new one (Another Year, #13) previews tomorrow morning at the Park, and will likely open soon. And if you're interested in seeing one of the year's most intriguing documentaries (Marwencol, #42), probably your only chance this year will be Wednesday night at Pacific Cinematheque: see you there! (Ah, just learned that Marwencol moves to the VanCity a couple days after its Cinematheque run, and that Wednesday night is our one chance to see Sweetgrass (#31) - details here.)

I haven't quite figured out how updates to the Movie City News tally of critic top ten lists are working this year. It seems they add to it on an ongoing, ad hoc basis. Though the current chart is still dated January 8, it includes far more critic lists than it did on January 8: for example, the front-running Social Network has grown from 862.5 to 1022.5 points.

The bad news this week is that the hyped-up and much-hyped action puzzler Inception has muscled aside the extraordinary smaller film Winter's Bone for the #2 slot, with Darren Aronofsky's ballet mellerdrammer steaming up behind. In the good news department, the astonishing Aussie crime drama Animal Kingdom hit video shelves this week, and perhaps as a result has leapt from #32 to #24, with another new-to-DVD foreign crime drama hot on its heels (England's Red Riding Trilogy). Two of my favourites inched up, Blue Valentine and Please Give. Get Low is popular with Soul Food readers: it jumped up from #107 to #85. And Hadewijch sounds like Soul Food: we'll know more once we get a chance to see it: it entered the charts at #102.

Movie City News
Compilation of Critic Top Ten Lists for 2010

1 The Social Network 1022.5 ( was #1 ) onscreen & Videomatica
2 Inception 563.5 ( 3 ) Videomatica
3 Winter's Bone 525.5 ( 2 ) Videomatica
4 Black Swan 519.5 ( 5 ) onscreen
5 Toy Story 3 494.5 ( 4 ) Videomatica
6 The King’s Speech 468.5 ( 6 ) onscreen
7 127 Hours 330 ( 7 ) onscreen
8 Kids Are All Right, The 319 ( 8 ) Videomatica
9 True Grit 288 ( 9 ) onscreen
10 Carlos 275.5 ( 10 ) Short version at The Hollywood to Jan 20

11 The Fighter 272.5 ( 11 ) onscreen
12 Ghost Writer, The 239.5 ( 12 ) Videomatica
13 Another Year (Mike Leigh) 200.5 ( 13 ) Preview: Park, 10am Sun Jan 16
14 Exit Through The Gift Shop 174 ( 14 ) Videomatica
15 Prophet, A 172 ( 16 ) Videomatica
16 I Am Love 155 ( 17 ) Videomatica
17 Inside Job 150.5 ( 15 ) onscreen
18 Dogtooth 143.5 ( 18 ) Videomatica Jan 25
19 Blue Valentine 132.5 ( 20 ) onscreen
20 Please Give 129.5 ( 21 ) Videomatica

21 Let Me In 120.5 ( 22 ) Videomatica Feb 1
22 Greenberg 109.5 ( 19 ) Videomatica
23 Mother (Madeo) 107.5 ( 26 ) Videomatica
24 Shutter Island 98.5 ( 24 ) Videomatica
24 Animal Kingdom 98.5 ( 32 ) Videomatica
26 Red Riding Trilogy 92.5 ( 33 ) Videomatica
27 Town, The 90 ( 23 ) Videomatica
28 Scott Pilgrim vs The World 88 ( 29 ) Videomatica
29 Four Lions 87.5 ( 34 )
30 Never Let Me Go 76 ( 28 ) Videomatica Feb 1

31 Sweetgrass 73.5 ( 27 ) Videomatica
32 White Material 72.5 ( 25 )
32 Wild Grass 72.5 ( 30 ) Videomatica
34 How to Train Your Dragon 71 ( 38 ) Videomatica
35 The Secret in Their Eyes 70.5 ( 39 ) Videomatica
36 Rabbit Hole 69.5 ( 40 ) onscreen
37 Everyone Else 69 ( 31 )
38 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo  65.5 ( 35 ) Videomatica
39 Somewhere 61.5 ( 37 ) onscreen
40 Enter the Void 55.5 ( 36 ) Videomatica

41 Fish Tank 53.5 ( 41 ) Videomatica
42 Marwencol 48 ( 42 ) JANUARY 19 ONLY, PACIFIC CINEMATHEQUE
43 Vincere 46.5 ( 47 ) Videomatica
44 Alamar (To The Sea) 45 ( 45 )
45 Buried 38.5 ( 43 ) Videomatica Jan 18
46 Kick-Ass 38 ( 44 ) Videomatica
46 Trash Humpers 38 ( 51 ) Videomatica
46 Last Train Home, The 38 ( 55 ) Videomatica Feb 1
49 Secret Sunshine 36 ( 55 ) Videomatica
50 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 35 ( 48 ) onscreen
50 Restrepo 35 ( 52 ) Videomatica

52 Tangled 34 ( 50 ) onscreen
52 Daddy Longlegs 34 ( 59 )
54 Catfish 33.5 ( 46 ) Videomatica
55 Strange Case of Angelica, The 33 ( 47 )
56 Life During Wartime 31.5 ( 65 )
56 Tiny Furniture 31.5 ( 99 )
58 Lebanon 30 ( 54 ) Videomatica Jan 18
59 Lourdes 29.5 ( 53 )
59 Illusionist, The 29.5 ( 61 )

61 Monsters 28.5 ( 86 ) Videomatica Feb 8
62 Oath, The 27.5 ( 63 ) Videomatica
63 Splice 27 ( 60 ) Videomatica
64 Boxing Gym 26 ( 55 )
65 Biutiful 25.5 ( 64 )
65 Tilman Story, The 25.5 ( 79 )
67 The American  24.5 ( 58 ) Videomatica
68 Father of My Children, The 22.5 ( 69 )
69 Company Men 21.5 ( 61 )

70 Agora 20.5 ( 88 ) Videomatica
71 Waiting for 'Superman' 19 ( 66 ) Videomatica
71 Mother and Child 19 ( 94 ) Videomatica
73 Film Unfinished, A 18.5 ( 81 ) Videomatica
74 And Everything Is Going Fine 18 ( 67 )
74 I'm Still Here 18 ( 67 ) Videomatica
74 Prince of Broadway 18 ( 88 )
77 Bluebeard 17 ( 70 ) Videomatica
77 World on a Wire 17 ( 70 )
79 Jackass 3D 16 ( 72 ) onscreen
79 Machete 16 ( 72 ) Videomatica
79 Girl Who Played With Fire 16 ( 72 ) Videomatica
79 Inferno 16 ( 75 )
79 Fair Game 16 ( 91 ) onscreen
79 Ricky 16 ( DNC )

85 Conviction 15 ( 76 ) Videomatica Feb 1
85 Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 15 ( 76 ) Videomatica Jan 25
85 Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench 15 ( 81 )
85 Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl 15 ( 94 )
85 Get Low 15 ( 107 ) Videomatica Feb 22
85 Ajami 15 ( DNC ) Videomatica
85 Amer 15 ( DNC )

92 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work 14.5 ( 78 ) Videomatica
93 Hereafter 14 ( 79 )
94 Mademoiselle Chambon 13.5 ( DNC )
95 Our Beloved Month of August 13 ( 81 )
95 I Love You Phillip Morris 13 ( 81 )
95 Night Catches Us 13 ( 81 )
98 Despicable Me 12.5 ( 86 ) Videomatica
99 Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, The 12 ( 88 )
99 Mesrine (Parts 1 and 2) 12 ( 100 ) Videomatica
99 Made in Dagenham 12 ( DNC ) onscreen

102 Town Called Panic 11 ( 91 ) Videomatica
102 Square, The 11 ( 110 ) Videomatica
102 Hadewijch 11 ( DNC )
105 Mid-August Lunch 10.5 ( 93 ) Videomatica
106 Around a Small Mountain 10 ( 94 )
106 Alice in Wonderland 10 ( 94 ) Videomatica
106 City Island 10 ( 94 ) Videomatica
106 Easy A 10 ( 104 ) Videomatica
106 Cyrus 10 ( 110 ) Videomatica

111 Down Terrace 9.5 ( 105 ) Videomatica
112 100 Voices: A Journey Home 9 ( 100 )
112 Tron: Legacy 9 ( 100 ) onscreen
112 Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector 9 ( 103 )
112 Exploding Girl 9 ( DNC ) Videomatica
116 Juche System, The 8.5 ( DNC )
117 Nowhere Boy 8 ( 107 ) Videomatica Jan 25
117 Way Back, The 8 ( 118 )
117 Soul Kitchen 8 ( DNC ) Videomatica

120 My Dog Tulip 7.5 ( 105 ) Videomatica
120 Babies 7.5 ( DNC ) Videomatica
122 OSS 117: Lost in Rio 6.5 ( DNC )
123 Other Guys 6 ( 107 ) Videomatica
123 It's Kind of a Funny Story 6 ( DNC ) Videomatica Feb 8
125 RED 5 ( 110 ) onscreen
125 Robber, The 5 ( DNC )
127 Green Zone 4 ( 113 ) Videomatica
127 Nice Guy Johnny 4 ( 113 )
129 Unstoppable 3 ( 115 ) onscreen
129 Piranha 3D 3 ( 115 ) Videomatica
129 You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger 3 ( 115 )
129 Tempest, The 3 ( DNC )
133 Howl 2 ( DNC ) Videomatica

The boldfaced titles are my strong favourites, plus Of Gods And Men, which hasn't had a wide enough release yet to show up on critic lists. I also liked - quite a lot - True Grit, Black Swan, Toy Story 3, The Secret In Their Eyes, Secret Sunshine and Get Low.