Best and Worst of 2010: Pete Roche

Pete Roche's Best Movie's of 2010

1. THE FIGHTER – Mark Wahlberg bulked up to play welterweight boxer “Irish” Micky Ward for the title role in David O. Russell’s THE FIGHTER. Costar Christian Bale underwent an even greater transformation, dropping pounds to portray Ward’s emaciated, crack-addled half-brother, Dickie Eklund. Augmented by a brilliant supporting cast (including Amy Adams), THE FIGHTER is the gritty true-life tale of an unknown pugilist from Lowell, Massachusetts who must reconcile with an overbearing mother and troublesome brother to advance his career.
2. INCEPTION – Sure, the dream-within-a dream (within a dream) premise of INCEPTION is preposterous. We know it can’t happen. But hey, Christopher Nolan, who successfully recharged the Batman franchise, has fun exploring dreamland with his band of mind-muggers (including Leonardo Dicaprio, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy). Exceedingly clever and intellectually stimulating, INCEPTION became the most talked-about thriller of the year, what with its rules, risk of “limbo,” and “kicks.”
3. WINTER’S BONE – 17-year old Ree Dolly must find her bond-skipping father or she’ll lose their family home in the Ozarks. Magnificently played by Jennifer Lawrence, Ree is exceedingly mature for her years; she’s got to look after her younger siblings and feeble mother in the absence of her drug-dealing dad. Her quest lands her smack in the middle of a white-trash blood war, where family loyalties and codes of silence prevail. Director Debra Granik takes advantage of the woodsy region and cold weather; the perpetually gray skies are a fitting backdrop to Ree’s seemingly hopeless task.
4. TOY STORY 3 – Woody, Buzz, Jessie and company are accidentally thrown out with the trash while Andy packs for college. A strange turn of events lands the toys in a day care facility, where they assume the lowest rung on a hierarchy enforced by sinister Lots ‘O Huggin’ bear. Great-looking and every bit as emotional as the first two installments, TOY STORY 3 doesn’t shy away from placing Woody and friends on the brink of oblivion. It’s still a kids’ film at heart, so they can’t exactly destroy the toys—but the writers provide a resolution that left this sappy father (and former child) misty-eyed.
5. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT – Annette Benning and Julianne Moore are married, middle-age lesbians whose teenage kids search out their sperm-donor dad. Hip, eco-conscious restaurateur Paul is willing to meet his college-bound daughter and identity-confused son, but his presence inevitably causes friction in the home, especially after Moore’s character starts “working” with him. Can the kids maintain a relationship with their biological father, or will Paul forever be, as Benning describes him, an interloper? It’s a smart, funny examination of unconventional families.
6. 127 HOURS – James Franco is a one man tour de force in Danny Boyle’s chronicle of real-life, Gen-X adventurer Aron Ralston, the guy who in 2003 amputated his own arm to free himself after spending five days pinned beneath a boulder in a Utah canyon. Franco brilliantly spans the spectrum from euphoria to agony and back again. Boyle’s tight shots make us feel like we’re pinned right there with Ralston, who must fight off dehydration and hysteria while weighing his options, which basically include life or death.
7. BLACK SWAN – It’s Sybil meets Swan Lake: Natalie Portman is aspiring ballet superstar Nina, who wants the lead role in a high-profile production of the celebrated play. But her director questions whether the demure girl has enough sensuality to portray the white swan’s darker twin. Nina suspects she does, but must first deal with her psychotic mom and a rival dancer (Mila Kunis) who may be more fitting for the dichotomous role. Winona Rider and Vincent Cassel costar in Darren Aronofsky’s reality-bending thriller, which at times recalls FIGHT CLUB, SHUTTER ISLAND, and AMERICAN PSYCHO in its schizophrenic shuffling of perception.
8. THE AMERICAN – Hiding out in a scenic Italian village after his last job, a hit-man called The Butterfly (George Clooney) strikes up an affair with a local prostitute and swaps confessions with a priest. When his boss phones to have him construct a weapon for a rival assassin, Clooney finds out just how far he can take his spiritual metamorphosis. Directed by the guy who shot all those lovely black-and-white U2 photos in the late ‘80s (Anton Corbijn), THE AMERICAN is slow but smart—and the cinematography is as handsome as its leading man.
9. UNSTOPPABLE – Denzel Washington already halted a runaway train for director Tony Scott (see THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1-2-3), but the suave actor returns to do it again in UNSTOPPABLE. Joining Chris Pine (the new Captain Kirk) on a Midwestern railway, Washington must race his locomotive to stop an unmanned train whose chemical cargo will poison a Pennsylvania town if it crashes. No CGI or karate fights here—just a good old-fashioned blue collar race against time.
10. GREENBERG – Ben Stiller plays a discharged mental patient who lives in his vacationing brother’s L.A. mansion. Prone to anxiety attacks and paranoia, and obsessed with traffic laws, Roger Greenberg has a fling with his brother’s equally eccentric personal assistant and opens old wounds with ex-bandmates he hasn’t seen in fifteen years. It’s easily Stiller’s best (and most serious) work since PERMANENT MIDNIGHT, and he doesn’t go “full retard.” And don’t think that Steve Winwood “Back in the High Life” T-shirt was lost on me. Responding to the aphorism, “Youth is wasted on the young”, the perpetually flummoxed Greenberg goes one further: “Life is wasted…on people.”

Honorable Mention

(In alphabetical order)

THE A-TEAM, BOOK OF ELI, EDGE OF DARKNESS, FROM PARIS WITH LOVE, HOWL, KICK-ASS, MEGAMIND, METROPIA, THE NEXT THREE DAYS, ONDINE, PIRANHA 3-D, SHUTTER ISLAND, TANGLED

Best Documentaries of 2010

1. RUSH: BEYOND THE LIGHTED STAGE
2. WINNEBAGO MAN
3. RESTREPO
4. OCEANS
5. BEST WORST MOVIE

Worst and/or Most Disappointing Movies of 2010

1. CATS & DOGS: REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE
2. SAW 3-D
3. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
4. THE SPY NEXT DOOR
5. THE TOOTH FAIRY
6. JONAH HEX
7. HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 1
8. MACGRUBER
9. SKYLINE
10. MARMADUKE