As last year, I only just finished watching all of the Best Picture nominees.¹ Since I haven’t missed a single Academy Awards broadcast in years, and taking into account that watching the Academy Awards without actually having seen the films¹ and the performances is somewhat pointless, I have spent the last week catching up on all the important² films of 2010 I hadn’t seen yet.

And I can honestly conclude that this year in film, as has been mentioned by many others, was mediocre at best. The output of films could be described as lazy; Hollywood in recent years seems preoccupied with putting out critically-exhausted, creatively-broke, and aesthetically-dead films, many of them remakes, prequels, sequels, or romantic comedies without the romantic and the comedy part, and a lot of them rely on visual effects only (the current 3D craze is a big part of this).

Thus, it is no miracle that all the films I have personally selected as best-of-2010 are quieter, more simple films. Not every single one has been independently produced, but even the bigger budget ones could be described as independent; independent from the commercially-obsessed Hollywood that feels that it has to dumb down its films to attract audiences.

And to be fair, sometimes I actually feel like Hollywood’s justified in doing this. When audiences would rather see a two-hour commercial for fireworks directed by Michael Bay, or the raping of yet another classic by the Smith family, than they would an intellectually and emotionally challenging film about the loss of a child, or a family struggle and search for independence in the Ozarks, the only conclusion possible is that audiences must be dumb, or at least, that they like dumb films. Entertainment has always had a rather mind-numbing flavour, but films like Some Like It Hot have proven that entertainment doesn’t have to taste like chalk.

Anyway, the best-of-2010 have a completely different taste. Since I do not have as much time as I had previous years to write this best-of edition, this will be an abbreviated edition. So, without further ado, here are the Best Films of 2010.

Best Films of 2010

Just to be clear, for a film to qualify, it should have a five-star rating (a Grade of 9.5, or more). Because I haven’t really kept up with posting my film ratings this year, I will post final Grades only, leaving the separate grades for screenplay, directing, acting, film score, and art setting behind.

The Best of 2010

Film	Studio	Grade	Stars
The King’s Speech	Weinstein Co.	9.7
Black Swan	Fox Searchlight Pictures	9.7
Animal Kingdom	Sony Pictures Classics	9.6
Rabbit Hole	Lionsgate	9.6
True Grit	Paramount Pictures	9.6

The King’s Speech and Rabbit Hole are the quieter films I talked about before. They excel in telling a story, encapsulating their characters, and showing what filmmakers should aim for: excellence. Even slight flaws can be excused in films this good; the rushed, imprecise portrayal of David (Edward VIII) is understandable in a film centred around his brother, but it’s a flaw nonetheless; Aaron Eckhart’s acting in Rabbit Hole is good, but seems to be missing that last 0.1% to excel: however, the film’s leading lady draws attention away from it.

Black Swan does the same as the before-mentioned films, but radically different. No quiet storytelling here; dramatic excellence, imposing and dazzling mastery, and histrionics in its best form. A film that’s literally breathtaking³ (at least in my case), with a descent into madness that is epically portrayed by Portman (and skillfully supported by Mila Kunis and Barbara Hershey). Well, all right, perhaps the melodramatics of it all can turn one off, but honestly, it worked for me.

83rd Academy Awards

Academy Award for Best Picture nominees

As mentioned above, 2010 was a somewhat lousy year. Just look at the following list of Best Picture nominees; it is not that all these films are bad (none are), but some don’t have a full understanding of the word excellence. I know I keep repeating the same word over, and over, but honestly, being nominated for and ultimately winning an Academy Award should be based upon excellence, and excellence alone.

Look at the following list, how much true excellence do you find?

1. The King’s Speech (9.7)
2. Black Swan (9.7)
3. True Grit (9.6)
4. Toy Story 3 (9.3)
5. The Social Network (9.2)
6. Inception (9.1)
7. Winter’s Bone (9.0)
8. The Kids Are All Right (8.7)
9. 127 Hours (8.7)
10. The Fighter (—)

If it were up to me, only three of these would be nominated (The King’s Speech, Black Swan, and True Grit). And yes, all right, I know I’m pretty obsessed with excellence, so I will allow 4.5 star films that are leaning to 5 stars (a very complicated way to say, with a Grade of 9.2 to 9.5) to be nominated: the nominee list will expand to five, with Toy Story 3 and The Social Network joining the group. Still not a very impressive list of nominations, if you ask me; especially when you take into account the grand total of films released this year. However, it would satisfy the former Best Picture protocol of nominating only five films (which still has my preference).⁴

Without actually ending with a conclusion (as I often do), and completely changing the subject from the previous paragraph: whether The King’s Speech or The Social Network will win—and at this point, expectation-wise I’m leaning towards The King’s Speech, but The Social Network has had an impressive run so far—this year’s Best Picture will at least be, as The Hurt Locker was last year, better than the 2008 recipient, Slumdog Millionaire.⁵