Better late than never! James' in the Top 10 of 2010

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It got so late in the day that I figured posting a Top 10 list now might be a little after-the-fact, but thanks to the reassuring tardiness of my fellow Twitch cohorts Eight Rooks and Sean Smithson, I was encouraged to drag my lazy arse over the finishing line after all. It's been a fabulous year for films in my opinion, and I certainly watched more movies in 2010 than in any other year - 544 all told including oldies & repeat viewings - and so whittling that list down to just 10 was nigh on impossible.

So, honorable mentions to the following fantastic films: INCEPTION, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, TOY STORY 3, BLACK SWAN, SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, SHUTTER ISLAND, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, THE MISFORTUNATES, ALAMAR and AGNOSIA.

I also want to give a special shout out to these impressive Chinese language films - coz, occasionally I do actually like some! - DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME, THE STOOL PIGEON, FIRE OF CONSCIENCE, DREAM HOME, LOVE IN A PUFF, AU REVOIR TAIPEI, NO PUEDO VIVIR SIN TI, REIGN OF ASSASSINS, LET THE BULLETS FLY, LITTLE BIG SOLDIER and even IP MAN 2.

But in the end there can be only ten, and here they are:

Just when the local Hong Kong film industry was looking limp, uninspired and devoid of creating anything other than tedious period propaganda pieces, in stepped Clement Cheng and Derek Kwok with this fantastic martial arts comedy. Starring a host of kung fu stars from yesteryear, including Leung Siu Lung, Chan Koon Ti and Chan Wai Man, not to mention the irreplaceable Teddy Robin it's the story of a gang of aging fighters defending their club-turned-tea house from a gang of hungry property realtors. It's packed with humour, romance and some of the year's best fight sequences, easily making it the best Hong Kong film of 2010.

For some people, seeing Ryan Reynolds shut in a pine box is their idea of wish fulfillment, but I've always been a fan of the guy and with next year's GREEN LANTERN, he may finally break into the A-List proper. This ultra low-budget Spanish-made thriller sees Reynolds play an environmental aid worker in Iraq who gets kidnapped and wakes up to discover he's been buried alive. Armed only with a torch, a lighter and his cellphone, Reynolds desperately tries to get himself rescued, while running out of air, time and hope faster than the battery on his mobile. With the entire film taking place within the confines of this one coffin, it is a staggering achievement that Reynolds, and director Rodrigo Cortes are able to create a film as exciting, tense and horrifically claustrophobic as this.?

Chris Morris has been treating the British public to subversive, culturally aggressive comedy for over a decade now and it was a joy to have the pleasure of meeting him when I was in Texas earlier this year. What struck me was not how funny he was, but quite the opposite. He's an intelligent and fairly intense fellow, who genuinely cares about society going to shit and his way of addressing the problems he sees is by poking fun at them and showing up their own absurdities. For his first film, Morris sets his sights on a group of ill-equipped imbecilic would-be suicide bombers in middle England. The results are not only hilarious - FOUR LIONS is easily one of the year's funniest films - but surprisingly poignant and sad too. It's essential viewing from a major talent.

I struggle to think of a film that had a more profound emotional effect on me in the last twelve months than this devastating documentary. The film charts the guilt-ridden mission of Ric O'Barry, renowned dolphin trainer turned guerilla activist as he attempts to undo the intolerable cruelty that he feels he has inflicted on the world's dolphin population. Back in the 60s, O'Barry trained the dolphins featured in the TV series FLIPPER, the success of which fuelled a global interest in the creatures that saw the water park industry expand exponentially. And where do these parks go to get their showboating stars? A small town in Japan called Taijii. Local fishermen trawl the oceans for dolphins, herding them into a remote cove where those not sold for entertainment purposes are...well, you'll just have to watch to find out. O'Barry's attempts to catch these goings-on on film are thrilling, life-threatening and ultimately devastating.

I'm very comfortable with my sexuality but Goddamn Won Bin is one good-looking sonofabitch in this movie! We have been inundated with Korean revenge thrillers over the last few years, with 2010 alone producing BEDEVILLED, I SAW THE DEVIL and this fine piece of work, and while the other two are certainly grimmer and grittier, Lee Jeong Beom's film is far and away the most entertaining. Won Bin plays the titular enigmatic hero who runs a small pawn shop and fawns silently after a young hostess and makes an unlikely friend in her tweenage daughter. When both are kidnapped by the Mob, Tae-Sik (Won) reveals himself to be all kinds of badass and unleashes unholy hell on anyone who comes between him and his imperiled neighbors. Slicker than a tin of pomade, more stylish than someone wearing said pomade and gleefully violent in a way that just makes you beam from ear to ear, this movie is an absolute cracker.

It's been a long time since there was a new Christmas movie on the map that didn't feature Tim Allen or Reece Witherspoon, or in fact make you simply loathe the holiday season and scamper off into hibernation. Emerging from the remote chilly confines of Finland, Jalmari Helander's debut feature could well be the film that takes Christmas movies back to the glory days of GREMLINS, SCROOGED or even DIE HARD. In Scandinavia, Santa Claus isn't that jolly fat chap you see on the side of Coke bottles, but a terrifying ogre who kidnaps naughty children from their beds and eats them. He's also real. So, when an archeological dig discovers something, or someone, buried deep under the ice, young local lad Pietari has every reason to be afraid. When his best friend goes missing, he has no choice but to enlist the help of his father to take down Santa Claus! Destined to be a cult Christmas classic in years to come, RARE EXPORTS is the perfect festive treat!

I had no idea what to expect from this Swedish comedy about "musical terrorists" and it took me completely by surprise. Six struggling musicians form an underground group who perform subversive acts of random percussion in bizarre and potentially illegal locations. They break into a hospital OR, they storm a bank, only to play out the next movement of their "Sound of Noise" symphony using random objects they find at the scene. On their tail is Inspector Warnerbring, the tone deaf outcast from a family of musical geniuses, whose obsession with the group and their crimes leads to peculiar developments that will eventually involve the entire city. It has been a while since I've seen a film as original, joyous and shamelessly life-affirming as this and I can't wait for the opportunity to see it again, cranked up loud, to revel in these bizarre and uniquely wondrous sounds.?? ??

Set far into the future, the world's last remaining mortal human being is about to die. Before he does, however, he reminisces to a visiting journalist about the long and eventful life he has led. Every different version of it. You see, early on, young Nemo was forced to choose between leaving home with his mother, or staying with his father. It was a decision that would haunt him forever. So Nemo resolved never to choose, to live every possible version of his life that opened up before him. Jaco Van Dormael's film may appear to be a work of science fiction, but only as much as something like ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is, using a technological gizmo to explore impossible plains of reality. We see Nemo (Jared Leto) explore a city life with his mother, a provincial youth growing up with his father, his futures with three different brides - all beautifully shot and wonderfully rendered in an intoxicating blend of dreams and reality, desires and destiny. It may be a difficult film to explain, but it is a gorgeous, haunting, desperately romantic film that is impossible to forget.

A bizarre and confrontational work, CONFESSIONS plays at times like an emo rock music video, so stylised is its presentation. But beneath the flashy visuals and eclectic (yet rather excellent) soundtrack, is a vicious tale of one woman avenging the death of her young daughter in the most sadistic and manipulative way possible. On her last day as form room teacher, Yuko declares to her students that she believes those responsible for her daughter's death are in her class and that she has already taken steps to ensure they will not go unpunished. What follows is an examination of bullying, victimization, intimidation and all number of bizarre mother-child relationships as Yuko pushes her victims into some horrifically dark directions. All that said, the film is often very funny and directed with dazzling flair by Nakashima Tetsuya that often deliberately undermines the film's pitch-black content. The result is a film that challenges and seduces its audiences in roughly equal measure.

I love nothing more than an epically staged and classically told tale of honour, courage, retribution and redemption and there are few genres that can handle these themes more adeptly than that of the samurai film. On hearing that Miike Takeshi was mounting a remake of Kudo Eiichi's 1963 film 13 ASSASSINS I was intrigued, if not immediately overwhelmed with excitement for the project. The prolific director of such cult favorites as AUDITION and ICHI THE KILLER had never really ventured into this genre before and his most recent output, dividing his time between the adolescent CROWS ZERO brawling flicks and teeth-gratingly obnoxious kids' fare like YATTERMAN, had left me cold, to say the least. I could not be more pleased to discover therefore, that his version of 13 ASSASSINS not only shows a maturity and sense of the classical that his work has never even hinted at in the past, but that the film itself could be declared a classic of the genre and quite possibly the best samurai film since Yamada Yoji's THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI from 2002.

When the Shogun dies and it appears his psychotic brother is set to take over the kingdom, a number of high-level government officials secretly engineer an assassination attempt, for the greater good. The film spends nearly an hour gathering its players together for the mission ahead, including a number of old favourites such as the washed up, retiring warrior, the cock-sure young try-hard, the desperate impoverished samurai who has no choice if he is to put food on the table again, and fans of everything from Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI to Soderbergh OCEAN'S 11 will revel in witnessing these genre staples being adhered to so lovingly. The second half of the film, however, erupts into an orgy of orchestrated violence, as the assassins lay siege to the shogun and his hugely superior entourage as they pass through a small hillside town. Every character is given his moment to shine, and as the heroes inevitably begin to fall, Miike inspires genuine compassion from his audience, as well as dazzling them with an unstoppable barrage of wonderfully conceived set pieces. No other film in 2010 surprised or delighted me as much as this one, and for that it is officially my favorite film of the year.

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