The Year of the Double Take (Best Films of 2010)

| By Colin Biggs on Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 saw many things; the rise of more original scripts, the box-office flops of properties that were thought to be assured, and surprisingly films with adult audiences did well in a year that could have killed them. Mind-fucks seemed to be the theme of the year as Shutter Island, Black Swan and Inception stirred up audiences considerably. I myself needed two viewings of both Shutter Island and Inception to fully grasp what happened.

The Town took Affleck's sophomore effort into the realms of some of the best crime drama offered and the two weeks of December had Jeff Bridges go from neon-cloaked Zen Master to drunken Marshall with a penchant for killing.

Animated and foreign films did not make the cut for me personally, especially after Up and Fantastic Mr. Fox debuted strongly last year, but Toy Story 3 did make up for much of the slack. I did not get a chance to catch How to Train Your Dragon so that probably colored my opinion of the genre this year. However, documentaries were quite good (and two of them ended up in my top ten favorites).

Films that very nearly made the list include a low-key love story between two outcasts and a film involving redemption for a man cast in his brother's shadow. Films that ended up on several year's best lists - like Kick-Ass and The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo - were closer to the bottom of my barrel.

Colin's Top Ten
Shutter Island
Inception
Blue Valentine
The Social Network
True Grit
Toy Story 3
The Town
The Tillman Story
I Love You Phillip Morris
Easy A
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