By no means complete here are a few movies I saw in 2010 that I liked an awful lot, but were, for one reason or another, flawed: ambitious failures, great ideas halfheartedly executed, or just lacking that certain spark that one knows for genius when one sees it.
I Love You, Phillip Morris
Glenn Ficarra & John Requa (2009)
In the end this thoroughly enjoyable romp about a gay man on the wrong side of the law and the man he desperately loves doesn't have much there there. But it's a fun trip. Carrey's manic, plastic-faced shtick marries well with the character he plays. McGregor gives an outstanding performance as Carrey's soft-spoken, demure love-interest. I Love You, Phillip Morris is gay gay gay gay gay with a surprising, refreshing lack of condescension or sincerity and solemnity.
Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky (2010)
Am I arrogant enough to claim that my interpretation of Black Swan is more insightful than any of the critics I've read? Maaaaybe. I think I saw a fable about the transformative power of performance and the pursuit of perfection. The critics keep talking "horror movie" and "psychosexual thriller." This is like calling The Wizard of Oz a road movie or Frankenstein a novel about the dangers of home-schooling. Well, ymmv. I don't really care for Portman as an actress but she's very good here. I love Mila Kunis, and I wish she'd been given more to do, but what she does is done very nicely. And, of course, it's beautifully filmed.
Splice
Vincenzo Natali (2010)
Scene by scene it's very engaging, filled with ideas, and often deliciously creepy. But it never really jells into somehow coherent as a whole.
My roommate and I saw this at a budget theatre. There is a scene in the film toward the end with which the hoi poiloi were not the least bit happy. I've never heard an entire audience erupt in such vocal disgust unless it was the time I saw Brokeback Mountain with a group of patients on a psychiatric ward. (A story for another time.)
The Social Network
David Fincher (2010)
Despite Sorkin's smart, sharp writing let's face it, this is the Marvel Comics version of the story, Facebook: Origins. Nonetheless, I had a blast watching it. But then I felt the same way about Iron Man 2.
The Kids Are All Right
Lisa Cholodenko (2010)
What I love about Cholodenko's films is that her characters are allowed to explore new emotional, social, and sexual territory without being punished (as is the case with too many American movies). This film's major flaw was that it was clearly pandering toward a straight audience. I'm suspicious of movies where the protagonists are gay characters but there is significantly steamier heterosexual sex.
The Messenger
Oren Moverman (2009)
Thoughtful. Well-acted. Moving and realistic portrayals of loss & grief. A bit programmatic.
Year of the Dog
Mike White (2007)
Written and directed by Mike White who also wrote and starred in arguably my favorite gay-content film, Chuck and Buck. Here, Molly Shannon plays Peggy, a lonely, socially inept woman devoted to her dog Pencil. When Pencil moves on to the big dog park in the sky, Peggy's life changes inexorably and in decidedly odd ways. There are some very good set pieces, and great support from Laura Dern, as an overly devoted mother from Hell, John C. Reilly, Peter Sarsgaard, and Regina King.
So that is, along with the previous post, the best new or new-ish movies I saw in 2010. I saw many other fine films, but they are older than the three year scope I chose for these lists and often all ready very well known.
The two worst movies I saw in 2010 in the theatre were: Love & Other Drugs (Edward Zwick) and Morning Glory (Roger Michell, who also directed Enduring Love which was also unbelievably awful).
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