2010--The Year in Review

Back in 2010, when this blog was a little less than two years old, my favorite movie of the year was Noah Baumbach's incisive character study Greenberg, about a failed NYC musician who, while temporarily transplanted to Los Angeles, continues with his exhausted aim to simply do nothing in life. It deeply struck me with its sterling dialogue and especially with its achingly revealing performances from Ben Stiller, Rhys Ifans, and the stunning Greta Gerwig, an ultra-indie star who really broke through this year with her sweetly smart, dejected party girl who falls for the troubled title character against her questioning judgment (I still see Gerwig as one of the most exciting actors working--to me, her inclusion in any film's cast continually makes that movie a must-see). Mainly, I loved Greenberg because it seemed to be peering directly into my own brain in expressing Roger Greenberg's immense dissatisfaction with the way the drab world has turned out for him and for everyone else hailing from the utterly abandoned Generation X. But, nowadays, I feel like giving a movie Best Picture for this penetrating achievement is a little egotistical, and probably simply not justifiable (though I reward Greenberg in the two categories it absolutely deserved to be victorious in). Maybe this is just another chink in the self-destructive armor of my aimless generation. Sorry. Ultimately, I had to side for the movie that captured the zeitgeist to a tee.

David Fincher's The Social Network, with its dazzlingly fast-paced Aaron Sorkin script, is the complete package: immaculately photographed, acted, written, scored, and edited. This quasi-biopic of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg got lightly raked over the coals for straying from the facts (Zuckerberg himself just saw it as a good movie, and didn't really put up a fight), but the film is still a perfect example of how screenwriterly inventions can enhance the retelling of an ostensibly "true" story rather than hamstring it. In the face of such a gripping movie, the facts don't matter: The Social Network is radically successful in illustrating how this lonely genius and nascent billionaire codified life on the net in order to win friends and lovers, and yet ended up driving those closest to him far, far away--and let's remember: much of the movie is quite accurate. Fincher's film deserves comparisons to Orson Welles' Citizen Kane--that's how good it is (and this is by knowing design). Even so, I didn't get too upset when Tom Hooper's more traditional biopic The King's Speech ended up winning Best Picture at the Oscars; it, too, was a beautifully crafted piece, with some of the finest acting of the year, led by Colin Firth's superb take on the stuttering King George VI, and banked by Hooper's gorgeous direction and David Seidler's supreme scripting. It wasn't the best movie of the year, but at least it was a true contender.

2010 was another exceptional year for world cinema (led by Apichatpong Weerasethakul's otherworldly Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and by one more wonderful Mike Leigh film, Another Year, commanded by Leigh's longtime collaborator Leslie Manville, gutting us with her rich performance as a drunken, romantically desperate friend testing the patience of a happy London professional couple). There's also another impressive slate of documentaries this year, with Charles Ferguson's outstanding dissection of the 2008 economic meltdown Inside Job easily trumping its impressive competitors (documentaries are clearly getting more knowing in this era). But 2010 was also a year that made it increasingly clear that Hollywood studios were abandoning adult audiences in their over-catering to childish tastes, all in service of the big buck. The Social Network, Inception, Toy Story 3, and The Fighter, with Christian Bale's transformative supporting performance, would stand among the smartest studio product of the year, but the rest of 2010's most notable output largely hailed from indie and foreign outlets. And so the period's prime movies would become harder and harder for the masses to locate at theaters. This vexing issue's only gotten more seriously gnawing since, as it effectively lowers the tastes of a worldwide moviegoing public who'd already rather mindlessly be happy chomping popcorn on a rollercoaster instead of being eternally affected emotionally or intellectually by a work of art. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: THE SOCIAL NETWORK (US, David Fincher) (2nd: Greenberg (US, Noah Baumbach), followed by: Another Year (UK, Mike Leigh); Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul); Inside Job (US, Charles Ferguson); The King’s Speech (US/UK, Tom Hooper); Inception (US, Christopher Nolan); Tiny Furniture (US, Lena Dunham); Mysteries of Lisbon (Portugal/France, Raoul Ruiz); Tuesday, After Christmas (Romania, Radu Muntean); Marwencol (US, Jeff Malmberg); Of Gods and Men (France, Xavier Beauvois); The Fighter (US, David O. Russell); Never Let Me Go (UK, Mark Romanek); Carlos (France, Olivier Assayas); The Illusionist (France, Sylvain Chomet); Let Me In (US, Matt Reeves); Exit Through the Gift Shop (US, Banksy); Boxing Gym (US, Frederick Wiseman); The Ghost Writer (US/France, Roman Polanski); Easy A (US, Will Gluck); The Trip (UK, Michael Winterbottom); Poetry (South Korea, Lee Chang-dong); Please Give (US, Nicole Holofcener); Heartbeats (Canada, Xavier Dolan); Aurora (Romania, Cristi Puiu); Silent Souls (Russia, Aleksey Fedorchenko); The Kids Are All Right (US, Lisa Cholodenko); Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (US/UK, Edgar Wright); Certified Copy (France, Abbas Kiarostami); Black Swan (US, Darren Aronofsky); Blue Valentine (US, Derek Cianfrance); Frozen (US, Adam Green); Meek’s Cutoff (US, Kelly Reichardt); The Tillman Story (US, Amir Bar-Lev); Biutiful (Mexico, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu); A Letter to Elia (US, Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones); The Town (US, Ben Affleck); You Don’t Know Jack (US, Barry Levinson); Winter’s Bone (US, Debra Granik); A Little Help (US, Michael J. Weithorn); Toy Story 3 (US, Lee Unkrich); Catfish (US, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman); Film Socialisme (France, Jean-Luc Godard); Smash His Camera (US, Leon Gast); Rabbit Hole (US, John Cameron Mitchell); Restropo (US, Sebastian Junger and Tim Heatherington); The Oath (US, Laura Poitras); Louis C.K.: Hilarious (US, Louis C.K.); Solitary Man (US,  Brian Koppelman and David Levien); Four Lions (UK, Chris Morris); Animal Kingdom (Australia, David Michod); True Grit (US, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen); Barney’s Version (Canada, Richard J. Lewis); Senna (UK, Asif Kapadia); I’m Still Here (US, Casey Affleck); Cold Weather (US, Aaron Katz); Red (US, Robert Schwentke); Submarine (US, Richard Ayoade); Temple Grandin (US, Mick Jackson); A Cat in Paris (France/Belgium, Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol); Monsters (UK, Gareth Edwards); Buried (Spain/US, Rodrigo Cortés); Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Germany, Werner Herzog); Tangled (US, Nathan Greno and Byron Howard); Splice (Canada/France/US, Vincenzo Natali); Salt (US, Philip Noyce); Insidious (US, James Wan); 127 Hours (UK/US, Danny Boyle); Leaves of Grass (US, Tim Blake Nelson); Iron Man 2 (US, Jon Favreau); Multiple Sarcasms (US, Brooks Branch); Tabloid (US, Errol Morris); Somewhere (US, Sofia Coppola); Stone (US, John Curran); Shutter Island (US, Martin Scorsese); The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal, Manoel de Oliveira); Tamara Drewe (UK, Stephen Frears); How to Train Your Dragon (US, Dean de Blois and Chris Sanders); Kick-Ass (US/UK, Matthew Vaughn); The Killer Inside Me (US, Michael Winterbottom))



ACTOR: Colin Firth, THE KING'S SPEECH (2nd: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network, followed by: Edgar Ramirez, Carlos; Ben Stiller, Greenberg; Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine; Javier Bardem, Biutiful; Steve Coogan, The Trip; Al Pacino, You Don't Know Jack)



ACTRESS: Leslie Manville, ANOTHER YEAR (2nd: Emma Stone, Easy A, followed by: Yun Jeong-he, Poetry; Natalie Portman, Black Swan; Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine; Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy; Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone; Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christian Bale, THE FIGHTER (2nd: Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech, followed by: Andrew Garfield, The Social Network; Peter Wight, Another Year; Rob Brydon, The Trip; David Bradley, Another Year; Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right; Jeremy Renner, The Town)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Greta Gerwig, GREENBERG (2nd: Amy Adams, The Fighter, followed by: Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom; Haylee Steinfeld, True Grit; Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right; Dianne Wiest, Rabbit Hole; Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech)



DIRECTOR: David Fincher, THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2nd: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, followed by: Mike Leigh, Another Year; Noah Baumbach, Greenberg; Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech; Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture; Christopher Nolan, Inception; Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan)

NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul) (2nd: Of Gods and Men (France, Xavier Beauvois), followed by: Mysteries of Lisbon (Portugal/France, Raoul Ruiz); Tuesday, After Christmas (Romania, Radu Muntean); Carlos (France, Olivier Assayas); The Illusionist (France, Sylvain Chomet); Poetry (South Korea, Lee Chang-dong); Heartbeats (Canada, Xavier Dolan); Aurora (Romania, Cristi Puiu); Silent Souls (Russia, Aleksey Fedorchenko); Certified Copy (France, Abbas Kiarostami); Biutiful (Mexico, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu); Film Socialisme (France, Jean-Luc Godard))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: INSIDE JOB (US, Charles Ferguson) (2nd: Marwencol (US, Jeff Malmberg), followed by: Exit Through the Gift Shop (US, Banksy); Boxing Gym (US, Frederick Wiseman); A Letter to Elia (US, Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones); Catfish (US, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman); Smash His Camera (US, Leon Gast); The Tillman Story (US, Amir Bar-Lev); Restropo (US, Sebastian Junger and Tim Heatherington); Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Germany, Werner Herzog); The Oath (US, Laura Poitras); Louis C.K.: Hilarious (US, Louis C.K.); Senna (UK, Asif Kapadia))



ANIMATED FEATURE: THE ILLUSIONIST (France, Sylvain Chomet) (2nd: Toy Story 3 (US, Lee Unkrich), followed by: Tangled (US, Nathan Greno and Byron Howard); A Cat in Paris (France/Belgium, Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol); How to Train Your Dragon (US, Dean de Blois and Chris Sanders))



ANIMATED SHORT: MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON (US, Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate) (2nd: Day and Night (US, Teddy Newton), followed by: Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No (US, James Blagden))



LIVE ACTION SHORT: GOD OF LOVE (US, Luke Matheny) (2nd: Successful Alcoholics (US, Jordan Vogt-Roberts), followed by: I’m Here (US, Spike Jonze)



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh, GREENBERG (2nd: Mike Leigh, Another Year, followed by: David Seidler, The King's Speech; Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right; Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Aaron Sorkin, THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2nd: Robert Harris and Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer, followed by: Alex Garland, Never Let Me Go; Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini, Winter's Bone; Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, followed by: Mikhail Krichman, Silent Souls; Jeff Cronenweth, The Social Network; Wally Pfister, Inception; Matthew Libatique, Black Swan)

ART DIRECTION: INCEPTION, Alice in Wonderland, The King’s Speech, Shutter Island, True Grit

COSTUME DESIGN: ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Mysteries of Lisbon, Heartbeats, The King's Speech, True Grit  

FILM EDITING: THE SOCIAL NETWORK, The King’s Speech, Inception, The Town, Greenberg



SOUND: INCEPTION, The Social Network, Black Swan, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, The King’s Speech

SOUND EFFECTS: INCEPTION, Salt, Toy Story 3



ORIGINAL SCORE: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2nd: Hans Zimmer, Inception, followed by: Alexandre Desplat, The King’s Speech; James Murphy, Greenberg; Rachel Portman, Never Let Me Go)



ORIGINAL SONG: “Chason Illusionist” from THE ILLUSIONIST (Music and lyrics by Sylvain Chomet) (2nd: “Never Let Me Go“ from Never Let Me Go (Music and lyrics by Luther Dixon), followed by: “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 (Music and lyrics by Randy Newman); “We Are Sex Bob-Omb“ from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Music and lyrics by Beck Hansen); “Country Strong” from Country Strong (Music and lyrics by Jennifer Hanson, Tony Martin and Mark Nesler))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: INCEPTION, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Social Network

MAKEUP: THE WOLFMAN, Alice in Wonderland, Black Swan

The Top 25 Movies of 2010

Not many movie years out there like this one. It started off godawful slow, but once the summer was half over, it felt like we were in the midst of a full-time parade of landmark cinema. Per usual, there were a few crashing disappointments come December, but overall, there were lots of breathtaking pieces sprinkled throughout these past 12 months, and a shocking number of them were about REAL PEOPLE and REAL EVENTS! 2010 gave us a hefty package of comedy, drama, action, horror, news, romance, spectacle, and mystery, and I haven't even seen everything I need to take in (as usual on filmicability, these lists are a work-in-progress, changing as I catch relevant titles). And, is it me, or are a bunch of these films about letting go and accepting reality? Or am I in that point in my life where I'm only reading this into stuff? (Ahh, pshaw...come to consider it, I think it's all there in the movies.)

1) The Social Network (US, David Fincher) 

  2) Greenberg (Noah Baumbach)
Doing nothing requires a lot of effort.

3) Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Passage into old age, with a great filmmaker's coterie of MVPs.


4) The King's Speech (Tom Hooper)
A leader finds a voice in a brilliant piece of old-time entertainment.

5) The Fighter (David O. Russell)
An old story made anew by a top-flight acting ensemble under inventive direction.

6) Inside Job (Charles Ferguson)
How the mess we're in happened.

7) Inception (Christopher Nolan)
Time, dreams and movement vivisected. The visual experience of 2010.

8) Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman)
Punches thrown and footwork nailed in a Texas locale run over with rhythmic soul.

9) Let Me In (Matt Reeves)
No mean feat, this--to take a much loved movie and best it.

10) The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet)
A final script from Jacques Tati, beautifully realized through animation.

11) The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski)
We're up against a comedy of errors if we want to get to the truth.

12) Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)
NYC upper-class guilt gets a honest workout.

13) The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Chodolenko)
The comedy of the year, the heartfelt sort of which we rarely see.

14) Easy A (Will Gluck)
The OTHER comedy of the year, with a captivating, hilarious lead performance from Emma Stone.

15) Carlos (Oliver Assayas)
Gangster or freedom-fighter? You decide.

16) My Dog Tulip (Paul and Sandra Fierlinger)
The best animated film of 2010 is also the year's greatest love story.

17) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Edgar Wright)
Put your quarter in and spar to see if you can love again.

18) Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek)
After Tarkovsky's Solaris, the saddest science fiction movie ever made.

19) Frozen (Adam Green)
Real tension, literally, found in icy climbs.

20) A Letter to Elia (Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones)
The fan letter all us movie geeks would like to compose for our filmmaking idols.

21) Mother and Child (Rodrigo Garcia)
Conceptions made in innocence, regret and hope.

22) Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (Dean Flischer-Camp and Jenny Slate)
The most cuteness-laden and addictive film of the year: I've seen it thirty times.

23) Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance)
Romance, born and snuffed out.

24) Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy) 
A great joke, well told.

25) Lebanon (Samuel Maoz) 
Unfair wartime, seen through the lens of a tank's gunsight.

OF NOTE: Buried, Winter's Bone, Catfish, Cyrus, Day and Night, Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No, Dogtooth, Fish Tank, Four Lions, I Am Love, I'm Still Here, Insidious, Leaves of Grass, Louie CK: Hilarious, Lovely Still, The Oath, Rabbit Hole, Red, Solitary Man, Smash His Camera, Splice, Temple Grandin, The Tillman Story, The Town, White Material, Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?, You Don't Know Jack, Youth in Revolt

GUILTY PLEASURES: Death at a Funeral, Hot Tub Time Machine, Monsters, Multiple Sarcasms, Salt, Stone 

My 10 favorite classics I saw for the first time in 2010: A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, 46); Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003); Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins, 74); Nuremberg: Its Lesson For Today (Stuart Schulberg, 48); Nights and Weekends (Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig, 2008); Disneyland Dream (Robbins Barstow, 56); Catalog (John Whitney Sr., 61); Our Day (Wallace Kelly, 38); Hausu (Nobuhiko Ohbayashi, 77); Deep End (Jerry Skolimowski, 70) 

Best Picture: The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher -- The Social Network
Best Actor: Colin Firth -- The King's Speech
Best Actress: Lesley Manville - Another Year
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale -- The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Greta Gerwig -- Greenberg
Best Original Screenplay: Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh -- Greenberg
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin -- The Social Network
Best Cinematography: Grieg Fraser -- Let Me In
Best Production Design: Eve Stewart -- The King's Speech
Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan -- The King's Speech
Best Editing: Lee Smith -- Inception
Best Sound: Black Swan
Best Special Effects: Inception 
Best Music Score: Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, The Social Network
Best Thriller: Frozen
Best Comedy: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Best Documentary: Inside Job
Best Animation: The Illusionist
Best Action Film: Inception 
Best Entertainment: The Social Network
Most Promising Director: Matt Reeves -- Let Me In
Most Promising Actor: Andrew Garfield -- The Social Network and Never Let Me Go
Most Promising Actress: Greta Gerwig -- Greenberg
Most Underrated Films: My Dog Tulip and Easy A
Most Neglected Films: Greenberg, Let Me In, and Never Let Me Go
Most Imaginative Film: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Best Re-Discovery: The Outsiders (director's cut)

MOST OVERRATED MOVIES OF THE YEAR: 127 Hours, Toy Story 3, Animal Kingdom, Get Low, Gasland
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS: Shutter Island and Nowhere Boy
WORST MOVIES I SAW THIS YEAR: Kick  Ass, Unstoppable, and Macgruber
WORST STUDIO FILMS I DIDN'T SEE IN 2010: Alice in Wonderland, The Last Airbender, and Sex and the City 2
WORST INDIE FILMS I DIDN'T SEE IN 2010: The Human Centipede and Babies

PERSONAL HIGHS THIS YEAR: Getting to meet my favorite filmmaker in the world, Mike Leigh, after watching his newest, Another Year, at the New York Film Festival (and meeting a lot of my film blogging colleagues there, to boot). Also, getting to sit a couple hours with Player Hating: A Love Story and War Zone filmmaker Maggie Hadleigh West. Having my 150 Best Movie Endings article twittered about by Roger Ebert in May. Being given, as a token of friendship, my first personal film print of a movie I love, Thanksgiving, by its writer/director Alex R. Johnson. And last but not least, participating in the Movie Geeks United podcast and hitting more than 160,000 hits on filmicability!

BEST MOVIE-WATCHING EVENT OF THE YEAR: Seeing some amazing experimental Super 8mm, 16mm, and video work at the Millenium Film Workshop's monthly first come, first serve "show your own movie" show, along with my friend, celebrated documentarian Richard Sandler (who did The Gods of Times Square and, most recently, the 8mm footage for Winter's Bone; he was unspooling for the first time his newest experimental work, Forever and Sunsmell, based on the piece by John Cage and the poem by e.e. cummings). Saw some incredible work: a piece on food modification by Lily White and an absolutely astounding piece of 70s-era NYC pixilation by a man who introduced himself only as "Mr. E". Seeing all of this in the East Village's historic Millenium, where Stan Brakhage attended many a premiere, was overwhelming!

NYFF Review #6: Another Year

I'm convinced. Actually, I've long been convinced. There is not a better filmmaker walking the earth right now than Mike Leigh.

Why else do movies, or any other art form, exist but to make the viewer feel something? So if you want to see movies that make you emote joy or discomfort or anger followed by joy again, then see a Mike Leigh movie. I defy any attentive person to witness Life is Sweet without giggling manically throughout and then breaking into sudden tears when jolly mother Allison Steadman confronts hard-hearted daughter Jane Horrocks about her disenchantment with the world. Why wouldn't one blanch at and then agree with David Thewlis' hope-murdering rants against existence in Naked? How could you not be moved by smirking Philip Davis and nurturing Ruth Sheen looking out for while making fun of the departing, clueless Jason Watkins in High Hopes? What jerk could fail to marvel at Jim Broadbent, as W.S. Gilbert, giving precise notes to his cast while building upThe Mikado in Topsy Turvy? What human can't understand the pain of husband Tim Stern as he suffers the sharp words of Allison Steadman's callous wife Beverly during Abigail's Party? And when Imelda Staunton's Vera Drake gets visited by the police, whose heart isn't thrust throatward? I must now offer some scenes:


David Thewlis and Peter Wight in 1993's NAKED


Allison Steadman, Janine Duvitsky, Tim Stearn and John Salthouse in 1977's ABIGAIL'S PARTY


Timothy Spall and Leslie Manville in 2002's ALL OR NOTHING


Jane Horrocks and Claire Skinner in 1990's LIFE IS SWEET


Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan in 2008's HAPPY-GO-LUCKY


Shirley Henderson in 1999's TOPSY-TURVY


Imelda Staunton and cast in 2004's VERA DRAKE

Mike Leigh has been making all sorts of movies--from features to shorts to TV movies--since his incredible 1971 debut Bleak Moments. In that film, he pretty much set the stage for what we could expect from him: exacting examinations of the less fortunate, or less wise, or more gifted, among the rich and poor denizens of London. He's never deterred from his station, because he knows when he's found a good and wealthy thing. And the stance has not yet betrayed him, regardless of time period or personage.

His newest film, Another Year, doesn't disappoint. In a way, it's kind of a Mike Leigh fan film, in that it includes a cast that he's well familiar with. Jim Broadbent, as the patriarch, marks his fifth film with Leigh; Ruth Sheen, as the matriarch, notes her fifth film as well; and lead Leslie Manville notches her seventh time out with the deviser/director.

Note that I used the word "deviser." Just in case you're not aware, Mike Leigh's movies are not written like other movies are. This is what makes them so special. You can never tell where they're going because the maker, and the actors, never know where they're going, either. In short, in the beginning stages of a project, Leigh arrives at an idea for a film, then asks a set of actors to join him, and then they together organize a story based on Leigh's idea. After a series of improvisations, the director later solidifies the results into a stolid script. Leigh, who has a deep and ongoing involvement in the theater, has in this way kept his ardor of the stage's surprising qualities kicking and has transmogrified them into his passion for cinema, too. This, I submit, makes him the most original filmmaker working today.

He's never operated in any other way. He's the modern originator of this process, and you can tell that his actors love him for it. At least, I could tell this, having attended the Q&A with Broadbent, Sheen, Manville, Leigh and producer Georgina Lowe following the screening of Another Year at the 2010 New York Film Festival (Another Year is dedicated to Leigh's longtime producer, the recently passed Simon Channing Williams). I have to say, the ovation at the fest was the most fervent I'd experienced. The film got a minute of applause, and each of the participant's got 30 seconds applause a piece. That's almost five minutes of love there.

And so deserved it was. Another Year is yet another masterpiece from Leigh. It's a film about aging, yes, and it's consequently about the quickening of time (this is a very important element of the film, and one I fear might be overlooked by younger film writers). It's also a film about the limits of friendship, and how much well-adjusted mates can stand before their less well-adjusted friends drag them down. Broadbent and Sheen play a happily married couple named Tom and Gerri ("That's brilliant," says another character). He's an engineering geologist, and she's a counselor at a hospital, where she works with a troubled Mary, played by Manville. Tom and Gerri are cheery and upbeat, with only Mary's continual troubles causing them consternation. The year in question--quartered into seasons--puts their relationship to the test, as it begins with Mary's breakup with a bloke, and continues with her desperate fascination with Tom and Gerri's son Joe (Oliver Maltman). We know where this is going to go, but Mary has no idea, because she's sodden by alcohol. (Mike Leigh's movies have a lot to do with the downsides of alcohol, because they're so attuned with their U.K. place in the world.)

Manville is a marvel here. Given her seven appearances in Leigh films, you'd never recognize her as the person who played the eye-shadowed new wife in Grown Ups, the snooty next-door neighbor in High Hopes, Gilbert's powdered spouse in Topsy Turvy, or the sadly deluded, depressed mother in All or Nothing. In Another Year, she plays a recognizable Leigh type, but she makes the role absolutely her own. Mary is a lady who was once sure of herself, but who has let life pass her by. The largely lighthearted Another Year catches this character as she begins to realize the horror of the nest she's built for herself.

There are four characters who help her to this point. Imelda Staunton (an obvious Leigh veteran) is a depressed housewife appealing to Gerri, and informing Mary that marriage isn't necessarily the answer. Peter Wight, unforgettable as Tom and Gerri's hardy friend Ken, is a overweight alcoholic who's romantic advances clue Mary in about what she really desires, to her terror. Karina Fernandez, as Joe's lover Katie, gently accepts Mary's scorn as the woman Mary never could have been. And David Bradley, in the last fourth of the film, as Broadbent's newly-widowed brother Ronnie, looks perplexed as Mary asks, after his wife's funeral, whether or not he'd like a cuddle (these are among the best scenes in the film).

Does this sound complicated? It's not. Leigh's movies, save for their characters' thick brogues (not in evidence here), are never hard to understand. They might be hard to WITHSTAND, but that's a great thing. They make you feel, and feel deeply. Another Year does so not only with its terrific acting and direction, but with its gleaming widescreen photography (by valued Leigh regular Dick Pope) and its unusually gorgeous music by Gary Yershon (I always love the scores to Leigh's movies, but this one is especially emotional, and I blieve Leigh thinks so, too, according to his comments to the NYFF audience).

I couldn't believe my great fortune to be in the same big room with the makers of Another Year. After it was over, I waited patiently to see what would happen. Manville, Sheen and Broadbent hung out in the lobby of the Water Reade Theater, talking eagerly to the press. I could have asked them a million questions. But I was most interested in saying something personal to Mr. Leigh, so I had to pick my battles. I didn't want to ask Mr. Leigh for an autograph (though I had a VHS copy of Life is Sweet in my pocket). I merely wanted to tell him something.

So, I guess some would say I was stalking him. Maybe. I called to him as he opened the door to go out of the theater.

"Mr. Leigh?" I called. And he stopped, as I'd hoped, right in front of the Walter Reade.

"Hi. I just wanted to tell you something." I took my place in front of him, and looked into his impossibly blue eyes. They really struck me; they'd never seemed so blue in all the photos I'd seen.

"I just wanted to tell you. I'm so happy to talk to you, and tell you how much your movies mean to me. They make me feel so many things all at once, and that's what I go to movies for." I had to hold back tears here. "There's really nothing like them. And I just wanted to tell you how much I love them. And I wanted to thank you for them."

"Well, thank you," he softly said. "Thank you very much. What's your name?"

And I realized I didn't have my pass around my neck. "My name is Dean Treadway, and I help with a podcast called Movie Geeks United, and I do my own blog called filmicability. I know you're busy, but I have a couple of questions. I've read you've never been satisfied with the look of Abigail's Party, given that it's shot on video. Have you ever thought of remaking it on film?"

"Oh, no. It so much a piece of its time, there'd be no point in going back to it. It is exactly as it should be. It's done."

"It is very much at home in the 1970s. I can understand that. I was wondering, there's so much of your stage work that I haven't seen. Is there any chance I can see some of it here in New York?"

"Well, I'm looking to restage a play I did called Ecstacy. Are you familiar with that?"

"No, not really. I've seen the title, though."

"Well, that's in the works."

And then I couldn't resist. I pulled out my Life is Sweet VHS. "I gotta do this. Could you sign this, Mr. Leigh? I usually prefer to get people to sign one-sheets, but I couldn't find a one-sheet for this movie. It's my favorite of your works."

"Is it?" he asked, as he signed. "Oh, yeah," I said, "It makes me feel great every time I watch it."

"Well, thank you..."

"Thank you, Mr. Leigh, for everything."

"Good luck to you, Dean." We shook hands lightly, and then the best filmmaker on the planet walked away from me, looking me in the eye, and I remain, still, to this day, dumbstruck.

The Top 40 Movies of 2010

Not many movie years out there like this one. It started off extremely slow, but once the summer was half over, it felt like it was going to be a landmark year for cinema. There were a few disappointments, but overall, there were lots of breathtaking pieces, and a shocking number of them were about REAL PEOPLE and REAL EVENTS! 2010 gave us a hefty package of comedy, drama, action, spectacle, and mystery, and I haven't even seen everything out there (as usual on filmicability, these lists are a work-in-progress, changing as I see new things). Anyway, with only a picture and a 15-word review limit for each title, here are my choices for the best movies of the year:


1) Greenberg (Noah Baumbach)
Doing nothing takes a lot of effort. Performance of the year: Greta Gerwig.


2) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apiachapong Weerasethakul)
Sunken jewels, red-eyed ghosts, a talking catfish, a life passed, and temporal shifts.


3) Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Passage into middle age, with a great filmmaker's coterie of MVPs.


4) The Social Network (David Fincher)
Being social while in a bubble of his own.


5) The Fighter (David O. Russell)
An old story made anew by a top-flight acting ensemble under crisp direction.


6) Inside Job (Charles Ferguson)
How the mess we're in happened.


7) Inception (Christopher Nolan)
Time, dreams and movement vivisected. The visual experience of 2010.


8) Boxing Gym (Frederick Wiseman)
Punches thrown and footwork nailed in a spot full of heart.


9) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Edgar Wright)
Put your quarter in and see if you can love again.


10) The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski)
What we're up against if we want to get to the truth.


11) The King's Speech (Tom Hooper)
A leader finds a voice in a brilliant piece of old-time entertainment.


12) Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)
NYC upper-class guilt gets a workout.


13) The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Chodolenko)
The comedy of the year, the likes of which we rarely see.


14) Mother and Child (Rodrigo Garcia)
Conception and choices made in regret and hope.


15) Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
Perhaps the year's most chance-taking picture. Portman and Kunis spar for top billing.


16) Silent Souls (Aleksei Fedorchenko)
Incredible cinematography adorns this haunting piece from Russia.


17) Frozen (Adam Green)
Real tension, literally, found in icy climbs.


18) Tuesday, After Christmas (Radu Muntean)
A marriage's dissolution, told straightforwardly.


19) A Letter to Elia (Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones)
The fan letter we'd all like to compose for our filmmaking idols.


20) Aurora (Cristi Puiu)
What is this man up to?


21) Carlos (Oliver Assayas)
Gangster or freedom-fighter? You decide...


22) My Dog Tulip (Paul and Sandra Fierlinger)
The best animated film of 2010, about a subject that needs to be plumbed more.


23) The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (Andrei Ujica)
Such opulence, and so poorly spent.


24) Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (Dean Flischer-Camp and Jenny Slate)
The most addictive film of the year: I've seen it fifty times, at least.


25) Youth in Revolt (Miguel Arteta)
Michael Cera can keep his schtick going for a while, given this and Scott Pilgrim.



26) Exit Through The Gift Shop (Banksy)
Is this a joke? God, I hope it is.


27) Certified Copy (Abbas Kierostami)
Edward Albee and Richard Licklater meet in a mash-up.


28) Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos)
From Greece, what might be the most difficult, but original, film of 2010.


29) I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino)
Pure gorgiosity.


30) Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)
Not as good as Part 2, but even lesser Pixar can make a year-end list.


31) You Don't Know Jack (Barry Levinson)
Al Pacino returns to form with one of his finest showings in a decade.


32) Winter's Bone (Debra Granik)
Saying hello to a new acting presence: Jennifer Lawrence.


33) Four Lions (Christopher Morris)
Didn't know terrorism could be so funny, did ya?


34) Animal Kingdom (David Michôd)
A crime family, and a loving mother.


35) Multiple Sarcasms (Brooks Branch)
A 70s-flavored character study, with stupendous acting by all.


36) Temple Grandin (Mick Jackson)
A great mind finds her place in the world.


37) Monsters (Gareth Edwards)
District 9 done right.


38) Hot Tub Time Machine (Steve Pink)
The oldsters put up a fight.


39) Splice (Vincenzo Natali)
Somewhere Mr. Cronenberg is smiling...


40) Leaves of Grass (Tim Blake Nelson)
Edward Norton delivers a terrific double-time comic performance.


SPECIAL MENTION: A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
Seen by most in 2010, this would be near the top of the list if I hadn't seen it last year. One of the greatest gangster/prison pictures ever made.


MOST OVERRATED MOVIE OF THE YEAR: 127 Hours
WORST MOVIE I SAW THIS YEAR: Year One
WORST STUDIO FILM I DIDN'T SEE IN 2010: Alice in Wonderland
WORST INDIE FILM I DIDN'T SEE IN 2010: The Human Centipede

More individual awards to be seen at the turn of the year. 2011 is gonna rock. Best year ever. And I hope you agree. Have a happy one--glad to be back, myself.