#s 1-5

5. Winter’s Bone - This is why, despite all my complaining about the pageantry and self-importance of the Oscars, I’m still glad that they exist. Here’s a little known film that I had heard of but probably wouldn’t have gotten around to seeing if it hadn’t been for this. It’s a fact that year in and year out it’s easier to get nominated in the Best Actress category than the Best Actor, there’s just a dearth of good female leading roles that there’s a lot less competition. Well here’s one of the few very good ones, and Jennifer Lawrence nails it playing a 17-year-old that’s forced to deal with things no 17-year-old should have to. An excellent portrayal of poor, rural America, the things people have been forced to do, and the culture it has spawned.

4. True Grit – For better or worse I’ve never seen the original and thus can’t do a comparison. Here’s another really good female role that’s once again nailed by a young actress – Hailee Steinfeld. She gets a Supporting instead of Leading Actress nomination because, um, well I guess the studio decided she had a better chance of winning that. I don’t really understand how the individual with the most screen time in the movie is somehow a supporting role but there you have it. The comment I made earlier about Pixar could be said about Jeff Bridges as well. He always brings it and, Tron Legacy notwithstanding, as a rule he’s simply not in bad films. Like The Fighter, original concept is not this film’s strong point (it’s your pretty basic Western revenge tale) but is proof again that if you take a cliché and inhabit it with a good script and strong performances you can still end up with a memorable tale.

3. Inception – Let’s get this out of the way. Any film with a blatantly open ending is guaranteed to piss some people off. And the criticisms about the film making less than perfect sense and being overly complicated are fair. But I also think they miss the point. The way this film is meant to be seen is with a dream mindset, by which I mean that basically you’re Ellen Page’s character and it’s your dream. When you dream, each dream has its own logic and you don’t question it at the time. It’s only later when you think back and say “wait, that didn’t make any sense.” So it is here. This is a film to be experienced, not analyzed to death for every logical thread. No, that doesn’t mean that I give carte blanc to every film to make no sense because they can just say “it makes its own kind of sense.” This is a special case because of its subject matter, but to elaborate further would get into spoiler territory, and I don’t want to go there. Of all the films on this list, this is the one I had the most fun with and is probably the one that will have the most repeat viewings (well, technically it will probably be Toy Story 3 but they won’t all be voluntary). The last third of the film may be a bridge too far so to speak and is what keeps it from taking the number 1 spot. Finally, a quick word about the ending. Often, an open-ended conclusion is viewed as laziness on the part of the author. And speaking as an author of a screenplay who did choose to end it openly precisely because I couldn’t think of a good way to end it, I can say that it’s sometimes justified. But that is not the case here. This film ends in the best possible way. To end it any other way would have directly contradicted one of the main themes of the film.

2. The King’s Speech – This is the kind of movie people “expect” to see nominated for Best Picture. A period piece about the British royalty with lots of costumes and accents. But anyone who just dismisses it as that is missing out. This is a very accessible movie and one that anyone with even a passing fear of public speaking can relate to. Yes it’s true that the monarchy doesn’t have any actual power and didn’t then, but I wouldn’t suggest that it means what the king does or says doesn’t matter. The British monarchy is the one part of their government that remains constant. Prime ministers come and go as different parties come to and then leave power. That stability makes it a powerful symbol of the British Empire, particularly back then when Empire was really still the operative word. In fact, I think it’s precisely because the king has no actual authority that the speech carried so much importance. Figuratively, if you only have a pen and no sword, the pen becomes all important. I can only imagine the kind of fear that was being felt in England as Hitler marched across Europe. And I also can only imagine what the effect of a king seemingly shaking in his boots would have had on the morale of the nation. Would it have meant a different end to the war? That’s probably going a bit too far, but you never know. In any case, this film does a great job of setting up this story and then giving great performances to bring it home. Geoffrey Rush, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a performance of him that I didn’t enjoy immensely (whether or not the film he was in was any good or not). I think the best way to describe him is that he’s just eminently watchable. And Colin Firth, you really can’t say enough good things about the job he does here. Fleshing out a character in three dimensions whose precise problem is his inability to communicate has got to be the ultimate challenge for an actor and he not only pulls it off but makes it look effortless as well.

1. The Social Network - Another one that I’ve talked about previously on here so I’ll keep this one brief. Ebert often says how good a film is doesn’t depend on what it’s about but how it’s about it. That’s certainly applicable here. I could really care less about Facebook, so please believe me when I say that whatever your opinion of it is will have no bearing on whether or not you like this film. What this movie is really about is what happens when some very smart but inexperienced people have a good idea and try to turn it into the next BIG idea. And from that springboard an extraordinarily engaging story unfolds. Jesse Eisenberg does just a phenomenal job walking a real tightrope of a character. You’ve got a guy that’s brilliant but extraordinarily arrogant and the trick is to take both of these naturally alienating qualities and still create a character that the audience likes. And the way that Fincher chooses to tell this tale is pitch perfect. It’s one thing to read about how these giant companies start up with an idea and a few friends and end up with multi-million dollar lawsuits between them, but it’s another to actually see it unfold step by step. This is simply a captivating film with some great performances (yes, even including Justin Timberlake) and perfect direction.