Here they are!
My movie picks for the year 2010. I have a few I still want to watch, but this year I’m closing the window before the Oscar picks come out tomorrow morning. Not even sure why I’m doing that, but at some point you just have to move on.
- True Grit — Another adaptation takes my #1 spot this year. I never saw the original with John Wayne, nor have I read the book, but I loved this movie. The ornate language, the freaky characters, the plucky little girl. All of it wrapped around a morality tale about retribution.
- The Social Network — I don’t like cynical movies — And this movie is deeply cynical — but something about the dialogue, the pace won me over. It had a buoyant quality that I really liked.
- Inception — An science fiction action flick, wrapped around a heist. I saw this with my 12-year-old son and just really enjoyed every minute of it. For weeks after we saw it, we kept egging one another on with the “BWAAAA, BWAAAA!” fog horn sound from the soundtrack.
- Scott Pilgrim vs The World — Wow, an outrageous coming-of-age story built around some sort of mythic comic book battle to the death. I was so disappointed Scott Pilgrim did so poorly at the box office.
- The Kids Are All Right — A family drama comedy Holly and I really liked. Mark Ruffalo was fabulous.
- Knight and Day — Remember Tom Cruise as the fat, bald Les Grossman, dancing lewdly in Tropic Thunder. Knight and Day is like 120 minutes of that. With Cameron Diaz. In a bikini.
- Unstoppable — A runaway train, a grizzled old train man, a new kid, a clever boss, and a bean-counting upper management guy. Predictable, but tense and good fun.
- 44-Inch Chest — A bunch of gangsters get together to deal with a little domestic spat among one of their own. Gritty and realistic, but so sad. Favorite image from the movie: Ray Winston running through the night, trying to escape the memory of beating his wife. There is something vaguely feminine in the way he holds his hands off to his sides, like big men do when they run.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. — Having watched the three leads grow up, I can’t help but root for them with each new movie. Each of them are turning into splendid actors, but I especially liked Rupert Grint in part 1.
- The Book of Eli — I expected zombies, but I found myself surprised and delighted with this story. I know the guy who wrote the screen play for this — if you consider occasionally being mocking me on the internet, the same as “knowing” somebody — so maybe I’m just biased.
Present Tense 