In a year where even the best movies weren't perfect, it was all about the individual moments for me. For more traditional lists of the year's best films, check out cltampa.com/arts. For now, here's my 10 best movie moments from 2010:
The forever-spinning top: Inception
Is Leo dreaming? Is he in limbo? And is this movie really over? The final shot of Inception elicited gasps from audiences and inspired more online geek theorizing than the finale of Lost.
Zuckerberg and Parker hangin' at the club: The Social Network
My favorite moment in my favorite movie of the year: Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and devil-in-disguise Shawn Parker (Justin Timberlake) sit down for drinks at a posh Silicon Valley club. The music pumps, the lights swirl, and the mass confusion that comes with unexpected, meteoric success is given visual life by the brilliant David Fincher.
James Franco breaks his arm: 127 Hours
Most of the chatter about 127 Hours centered on the moment when hiker Aron Ralston (James Franco) cuts off his boulder-squashed arm with a rusty pocket knife and escapes to safety. But let's be honest: cutting off your arm is easy. Breaking both bones — one at a freakin' time! — so that you can sever the limb, now that's hard. I still can't shake that SNAP!
The big race at the end: Racing Dreams
Racing Dreams was a little-seen doc about a junior go-kart racing circuit that's a feeder league for NASCAR. A low-key masterpiece that confronts issues of class, gender and discipline in surprising ways, it's also a hell of a lot of fun, climaxing in a thrilling final race where the future of all the key players hangs in the balance.
Educational opportunity reduced to a raffle: Waiting for "Superman"
There was no more heartbreaking scene this year than the climax of Davis Guggenheim's Waiting For "Superman," as the sadistic bounce of a bingo ball denies a decent future to most of the kids we've gotten to know in the film.
The dinner where Annette figures it out: The Kids Are All Right
The year's best movie about the struggles of family, The Kids Are All Right is a smartly observed take on why we hurt most those that are closest to us. Annette Bening is almost certain to win an Oscar, and for her clip I hope they show the dinner party scene where she finally warms up to Mark Ruffalo's donor-daddy, only to realize that he's banging her partner (Julianne Moore) behind her back.
Paper blowing down the street: The Ghost Writer
Roman Polanski's comeback film (or is it his grand finale?) would have had the best ending of the year if not for Inception. Without giving it away, all the action takes place off screen, save for the pages of a manuscript whipping down a London street.
Richard Jenkins' speech about losing his family: Eat Pray Love
The year's preeminent chick flick gets stolen by a dude? Believe it. Richard Jenkins is only in Eat Pray Love for maybe a half hour, but he absolutely steals the movie by creating a distinct (and curmudgeonly) character who shares an unexpected and tragic tale of familial woe with Julia Robert's lovelorn searcher.
Mr. Tortilla Head: Toy Story 3
In a movie filled with visual invention, it was the sight of a wafer-thin tortilla outfitted with cartoon eyes and the voice of Don Rickles that finally did me in. I still can't eat Mexican food without laughing.
Iraqi shock and awe: Green Zone
The Paul Greengrass-directed Green Zone was the year's smartest action movie, recycling major events from the Iraq War into a taut suspense yarn about a U.S. Army officer (a Bourne-again Matt Damon) hunting non-existent WMD in the desert. Greengrass' camera trades the well-known panoramic view of the infamous "shock and awe" bombing for a much grittier ground-level experience, in turn creating the most thrilling use of special effects in the service of a story that I saw this year.
This article appears in Dec 30, 2010 – Jan 5, 2011.