My top five movies of 2010

Seeing as how in less than 24 hours, the Academy will have handed out of its 2011 Oscars, I figured that this would be the perfect time to finally get around to posting my top five movies of 2010. For the first time ever, I accomplished the feat of seeing all 10 Best Picture nominees. I'm sure this was an easier task back when there were only five nominees. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, 2010's film offerings were so much stronger than 2009's. The Academy's top picks are all films that I think can justify being honored as nominees. Personally though, I'd replace Winter's Bone with Ben Affleck's The Town, and from what I've been told, Blue Valentine held its own against the nominees too. I also heard that one shouldn't wear mascara when seeing Blue Valentine, but that's probably advice that doesn't really apply to me ...

Before I get to my top five picks, here are a couple quick thoughts about the films that didn't make my top five:

127 Hours. I came really close to putting this one in my top five. James Franco is absolutely on fire right now. If it's possible for a person to go viral, then James Franco has gone viral. I want to say that this was the best performance of his career, but I still haven't seen Milk. (It's on my Netflix queue.) If it wasn't for Colin Firth, Franco would be hours away from a Best Actor statue.

The Kids Are All Right. I really liked this movie. I have to admit though, I didn't see what the big deal was with Annette Bening. She was ... OK? If anyone from this film deserves Best Actress recognition, it's Julianne Moore. Yeah, there's the argument that Bening was the person the story was built around, but that was also Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter – and he's not even nominated.

True Grit. Who doesn't love Jeff Bridges? I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who hates him. Despite that though, Jeff Bridges is getting dangerously close to becoming a caricature of himself in his movies. Within the past few months, I saw True Grit, Lonely Heart and Tron: Legacy. When it comes down to it, Bridges almost played the same character in these three movies.

The King's Speech. I picked this one to win Best Picture in my Oscar pool ... because I want to win my Oscar pool. Great film, great performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. I just have a few movies that I liked better and that I'm going to be more inclined to revisit.

And now, my top five movies of 2010:

5. Black Swan. I can honestly say that I've never seen a movie like Black Swan before. I can also honestly say that I still don't know what exactly happened in Black Swan. Which is necessarily a bad thing. Natalie Portman without a doubt deserves the Oscar for Best Actress. Darren Aronofsky finally put together a movie that was an absolute hit (personally, I liked The Wrestler better, but the Academy did a fantastic job stiffing that film), and judging by the fact that he's working on The Wolverine now, he's found his place among the upper echelon of Hollywood directors.

4. The Fighter. This was one of those movies where I had to constantly stop myself from cheering during the fights. I did let a discreet fist pump pass after Mickey Ward wins his title. Acting-wise, there wasn't a weak spot in the movie. Mark Wahlberg was the quiet rock of the film (with the exception of the "Not yooo!" scene) and Christian Bale made sure that next time his name is on a Batman poster it'll have "Academy Award winner" before it.

2T. Toy Story 3 and Inception. Don't make me choose. While I do have a clear favorite for 2010, I can't pick between Toy Story 3 and Inception. Both movies that ignore the desire of studios to pump out mediocre crap, these two films could easily take Best Picture in other years (well, Toy Story 3 would need the Academy to recognize that animated films are just as deserving as their live action counterparts).

In my Top Five of 2009 Redux, I said that Up is Pixar's greatest non-Toy Story accomplishment. Well, Toy Story 3 is Pixar's greatest accomplishment period. In fact, it probably stands with The Lion King as one of animation's greatest accomplishments ever. Pixar should be applauded for not only killing the original Disney-led incarnation of Toy Story 3 but also for waiting a decade to perfect this film. Pixar is everything that the pop culture-referencing, sequel-churing Dreamworks isn't. The fact that audiences connected at such a deep emotional level with Toy Story 3 speaks volumes about the movie. Animated movies about toys shouldn't cause adult men to get choked up ...

While we're all still trying to figure out Inception, it's clear that Christopher Nolan knows how to captivate an audience and deliver blockbuster entertainment. In a world of Yogi Bears, we need more Inceptions. We need to more movie that challenge us. It's unfortunate that visionaries are only allowed to create movies like Inception as part of studio deals to keep Batman money coming in. Don't get me wrong, I love The Dark Knight and I already love The Dark Knight Rises, but it shouldn't take this kind of scenario for a studio to take a chance on something daring.

1. The Social Network. I've already watched The Social Network at least five times. The movie doesn't get old or boring to me. Every single part of it works. The actors. Aaron Sorkin's dialogue. David Fincher's ability to turn a movie full of talking about computers into something fast-pasted and crushing. In a perfect world, The Social Network would win the Oscar for Best Picture this year. Hey, it may still happen, but I'm not too optimistic. The King's Speech is a movie built to win an Oscar. Historical. Majestic. British. The Social Network's ability to capture this generation just may be its biggest obstacle to Oscar glory.

Now all I need is ten months to see how these rankings hold up. Oh, and a quick addendum to my revised list for 2009: I recently saw (500) Days of Summer for the first time. I loved it. Not sure if it would break my top five, but I figured it at least deserved mention in this conversation.