The Top Five Movies of 2010

Those of you who’ve listened to this month’s podcast will already know the result of my Top Five Movies of 2010. Nevertheless, I thought I’d include it in text form for those of you who prefer the written word to its spoken cousin.

5. A Single Man

It is Colin Firth, rather than Jeff Bridges, who should have won the Best Actor accolade at the oscars this year. His role as George completely captivated me throughout Tom Ford’s directorial debut.

As he deals with the grief of losing his soulmate, we gasp at the beauty of the cinematography in the frame, while sympathising with the ugliness of the situation Firth has found himself in.

The supporting cast of Julianne Moore and Jamie Bell are equally important, as they attempt to give some comfort to the grief-stricken Firth.

There’s also an attention to detail mirrored in both its main character and the filmmaking that allows us to be enchanted by A Single Man from start to finish.

4. Winter’s Bone

Another film with an incredibly strong central performance. This one sees the seventeen year old Bree (Jennifer Lawrence) trying to make sure her family doesn’t lose her home, after her drug-dealing father doesn’t turn up for his court appearance.

Set in the stark, cold, Ozarks, it’s a film with a real sense of place. Aside from the beautifully captured environment, it also gives you a real sense of the community Bree must negotiate to get justice for her family.

This community has its own moral code, its own way of doing things. As she explores it, we as an audience take that journey with her. All of which culminates to give us haunting, beautiful fable sure to earn its lead an oscar nod.

3. The Social Network

Aaron Sorkin’s use of dialogue is second to none in his generation. And that is surely proven with this, his latest project. A film about geeks, court cases, and coding has no right to be entertaining. Yet you never doubt its appeal because of the way Sorkin presents the subject matter.

Words burst and fizzle across the screen similar to the manner of a shoot-out in a Western. Statements and phrases attempting to land the killer blow in almost every scene. It really is a masterclass in writing.

Of course making an entertaining, smart script means nothing if you haven’t got anything to say by the end of it. Thankfully a story about the birth of the most important communication tool over the last decade has no such problem.

As we see the underhanded methods Zuckerberg used to set-up Facebook, we are forced to take sides, consider moral questions, and question how our own views on privacy and friendship have changed since joining our own online social network. A film very much ‘of our time’.

2. Another Year

The only British film on the list tells the story of a settled, contented husband and wife, and their unsettled, dissatisfied friends.

It’s a film which takes place over the course of a year. Showing us one weekend from each of the four seasons. As we move between the times of year, Leigh uses colour filters to bring out the greens of Spring and the harsh greys of Winter.

It’s also a film which takes its time to introduce us to people and their nature. All the information comes very naturally from conversations, and like all of Leigh films, getting to know them is more akin to getting to know friends than characters in films.

Each character has a great sense of self, which makes them both believable and relatable. Ultimately this is quite a sad film. Its title, Another Year, represents a melancholy to the process of growing older and spending an extra twelve months on this earth.

What we experience over the year with the characters, however, has a grounding in reality few films are able to achieve. Leigh, as always, capturing something of human nature in a way few directors can.

1. Of Gods and Men

A story of a community of French Monks living in Algeria may seem like a strange choice for Film of the Year.

The movie tells the true story of eight monks who are living peacefully in a small village with the Muslim community around them.

However, their way of life is put tot he test by Islamic terrorists who visit them during the night and make it clear they’re not welcome. The Monks have a choice, to stay and complete their ‘calling’ or leave with their lives still intact.

It’s a movie directed by an atheist yet with a strong sense of the spiritual to it. The director chooses to fully engross the audience in its small community of monks. As we attend services, tend the garden, and treat the sick, we gradually get a very real sense of the kind lives these men lead.

Perhaps this is best summed up by a scene in which the monks share a meal together; the theme from Swan Lake playing in the background. As the camera cuts from face to face to face, we see the emotion of the music unlocking a real and tangible humanity in each of the monks.

The movie as a whole gave me such a fresh and unexpected experience that I feel it is more than deserving of The Film of 2010.

For some differing opinions of the Top Five Movies of 2010, you can listen to this months podcast, where my co-hosts Dave, Steve and Laura give their picks:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8634900/ObserveALot6.mp3

EIFF Review: Winter’s Bone

In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road the apocalypse has happened. It’s cold, and the father and son at the centre of the movie can trust no one if they hope to survive.

In Winter’s Bone the world hasn’t ended. It is cold, however, and the young girl at the centre of the movie has almost no one she can turn to to help feed her dependent mother and younger brother and sister.

Nevertheless, Winter’s Bone does feel a bit like the apocalypse. The isolation that seeps over the landscape and community at the heart of the film creating an eery sense that there is no world beyond the boundaries of the town she lives in.

Ree is seventeen and looking for her father, a crystal meth dealer who has skipped bail. If she can’t find him, she’ll lose her house and hence her family. To find him she must locate and confront the dealers potentially responsible for his disappearance: all of which creates tension and despair in every scene.

Winter’s Bone is an astonishing, haunting movie that completely captivated me from start to finish. The central performance of Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Ree is outstanding. Combine with cinematography that allows the landscape to become inseparable from the soul of the community and you’ve got a movie which lingers long after you’ve left the cinema.

The themes the movie deals with: of family, of crime and of having to grow up too fast are all handled in a very gritty, realistic way. I know nothing about life is Southern Missouri but completely believed in this depiction of it as people deal with problems outside of the law; a community which knows everything about everybody; and individuals with their own well-established views on what’s right and wrong – capable of both surprising cruelty and surprising tenderness.

Winter’s Bone is a movie which says a lot despite containing characters who say very little. It’s a movie which is completely captivating and enthralling. I hope it’s a movie that receives a wider audience than just the festival circuit since it’s probably the best film I’ve seen this year.