At the end of every year, I usually find it not too hard to pick out my favorites, but this year I found it especially hard to narrow down. There have been many memorable movies (both in a good and bad way), many great ones, many truly awful ones, and a surprisingly many fantastically memorabe ones. Those that stood out stood out beautifully, each in their own unique way, and even the worst directors of all-time released a not-too-awful spoof called “Vampires Suck.” Things are kinda lookin up. That being said there were some epic disappointments too, and light of that statement let’s talk about “Toy Story 3,” the only Pixar offering this year, and yet this year was the first year in four years that I have not had a Pixar in my top ten. I was not epically disappointed by TS3, yet it did not strike the same chord with me as TS2 did, and half the plot felt rehashed, but it’s not going to go on my Disappointments list because it wasn’t disappointing enough, and the farewell it gave to the series was heartbreaking and beautiful. So I’m sad I can’t in good conscience put it on my Top 10, but it will always hold a special place in my heart. So forgive the delay, and enjoy my favorites and not-so-favorites of 2010.

The Moments

3. Evil Grandma, Legion

This movie reeked of so much missed potential, and this scene is one reason why – the nice old lady suddenly turning rabid and climbing upside down on the walls spine-tingling and creepy and perfectly suited what that movie should have been like the whole time. Instead, we get talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. You really only need to youtube this scene, actually.

2. Arthur’s Fight, Inception

One of the biggest blockbusters of 2010 also boasted one of the most ingenous fights in movie history, reminiscent of mind-bending scenes still iconic today set in The Matrix. Christopher Nolan is notoriously bad at shooting action scenes, yet in this movie the twisting hallway somehow works for him and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Spider-Man like blows against the subconscious of Cillian Murphy are brutal and intense, while the music adds a fuel to the scene’s fire, visceral and grand all at once.

1. Toothless Writing, How to Train Your Dragon

The sweetest, most charming moment in any film this year came not from Pixar, but this little Dreamworks gem. I hesitate to spoil the moment for you, but suffice it to say that when Toothless (the dragon) grabs the stick and begins to spell out apparent gibberish, my breath was stolen, and the film’s score entrances you as Hiccup dances among Toothless’s twisted scriblings.

The Disappointments

3. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

For the longest time, Hollywood has not understood the potential video games have to make great movies, and that’s why there hasn’t been a decent video game movie yet. PoP managed to be decent, but it fell so far short of its potential with a great director wasted and a huge budget down the toilet. It was enjoyable, sure, but it basically just felt like another Mummy sequel. And why did they cast a white dude in the role??

2. Avatar: The Last Airbender

After the happening, I didn’t think I could lose any more faith in M. Night Shyamalan. Boy, did he prove me wrong with this movie. Shyamalan actually wrote Stuart Little back in the day, so he knows how to do family movies, and though the Nickelodeon show can be intense, it’s basically family appropriate. The dialogue is witty and enjoyable and perfectly balanced between lighthearted and serious. Shyamalan extracts all the joy of the series and turns the movie into a somber, dark affair full of blazing special effects and barely any character development for anyone. Box office for this movie was so disastrous there won’t be a sequel, and we’ll all sit and wait for the next Shyamalan disaster.

1. Iron Man 2

Here’s what was great about the first Iron Man: Tony Stark, great, sleek action, and a streamlined story. Not the huge boss battle at the end, not the ridiculous terrorist storyline at the beginning. IR2 makes the mistake that seemingly every superhero sequel except X2 and Spider-Man 2 are doomed to make: overstuff the story with a glut of characters and a bunch o’ action. It’s too bad the plot is too full because the dialogue is wonderful, and RDJ and Gwyneth Paltrow save the movie from being a total waste of time. It’s worth it to rent if you’ve seen the first Iron Man and just want to know where the story goes, though.

The Underdogs

3. Shutter Island

Why is it an underdog? If you’ll recall it was supposed to come out for awards season late in 2009, but after they premiered the trailer they changed the date and released a new trailer a month or two later. Usually when that happens it’s not a good sign, but the film manages to correct whatever flaws they apparently had, because it is a beautiful and dark meditation on the nature of disturbed minds with terrific performances, a gripping story, and a gorgeous setting.

2. The Karate Kid

Of course they were eventually going to remake this movie, and of course Mr. Miyagi would be played by Jackie Chan, but then of course they’d have to do it in China and call it The Kung Fu Kid, except they did the first part but not the second. Never mind all that BSing about the title. This is a great example of how to do a remake right, by changing the story just enough and modernizing it just a tad to make younger kids interested in it, and putting two great performers in the lead roles. Jaden Smith is intense and cocky but can be humble and endearing, while Chan takes Miyagi in a bit of a darker direction for the character that still works. If you have fond memories of the original this is definitely one to check out.

1. Tangled

This movie was so good it almost made my top ten, and it came from Disney, but not Pixar. It’s a great homage and throwback to the grand old Disney aventures of the early 90′s, like Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, with correspondingly memorable music and characters, like the classic rogue Flynn Rider, or the young innocent princess Rapunzel, or the evil “step-mom,” or the sidekick animal, Max the Horse or Pascal the chameleon. The animation is fresh and vibrant while still somehow feeling like it came out 15 years ago. This is the movie The Princess and the Frog should have been.

The Worst

3. Paranormal Activity 2

The very title mocks its own existence. The whole point and charm and appeal of the first one was that it came out of nowhere and almost had that “could-it-be-real” quality that chills us to the bone. I’m speaking metaphorically because I did not enjoy the first one, and the idea of a sequel was abhorrent. (Didn’t we do this already with Blair Witch 2?) Though it was hard to do, the filmmakers of PA2 should be proud of themselves for being worse than the original. The first one was scary because you didn’t know exactly what the thing was, but here you do, so the whole movie is just waiting for loud sound effects and cheap special effects and a predictable ending that lead, quite literally, nowhere. And now there’s a sequel planned. Hooray. Looks like this is the new cash cow.

2. Jonah Hex

Another graphic novel adapation paid no respect or attention, yesssss! Josh Brolin goes as gritty as can be and is always fun to watch, but the rest of the movie is patently ridiculous, with awful dialogue, terribly edited action scenes, inexplicable moments where a character will pull a gun out of nowhere and never pull it out again, or throw away a perfectly good gun because he’s run out of bullets. How this terrible script attracted such A-listers as John Malkovich, Josh Brolin, and Megan Fox is beyond me, but hey, everybody’s gotta have one epically bad movie on their resume, right?

1. Skyline

As terrible as Jonah Hex was, nothing this year could compare with the brain-dead alien attack snooze-laugh fest that is Skyline. A rip-off of countless movies, most notably Indepenence Day, the movie doesn’t even have a real ending, instead ending exactly where it should have begun. None of the people in this movie seem to have any idea what they’re doing, and often the plot will set itself up for some event that never ends up coming because it forgot about it. Characters mutter lines like, “This is happening, now.” with the gravest of import, as if life itself depended on him saying those words that way.  It’s almost a so-bad-it’s-good movie; you’ll definitely get some guffaws out of it.

The Honorable Mentions

3. Splice

Though the film stumbled and fumbled before the end, on the whole it has a very Cronenbergian feel to it, of science gone mad with twisted and terrifying results. The script can be surprisingly charming at times, bringing you into its spell to pull out the rug from under you when you least except it to take the script in strange, weird, and disturbing directions. Adrien Brody and Julianne Moore make a great nerdy couple, scientists on the brink of discovery who make human mistakes, and though the script sometimes feels incomplete they make it work and their little creation is a marvel. I won’t give anything else away; this is a movie you need to see for yourself.

2. True Grit

The Coen Brothers are on a serious roll now, and the only reasons this didn’t make my top ten was because there was so much else great that came out this year. Jeff Bridges gives a brutal performance and Matt Damon and Haillee Steinfelt kind of tag along in his wake, but on the whole the cast is marvelous, especially Josh Brolin as the cowardly villain. Though the tale is long and epic, it always feels down-to-earth and the dialog has a comfortable meander to it that can be quite witty at times and heartbreaking at others.

1. Daybreakers

One of the best vampire movies of recent years, one any red-blooded male should check out if they want to get the nasty taste of Twilight out of their mouths. Filmed by virtually no-name directors The Spierig Brothers, it carries a quiet menace to it, truly giving you the feel that this is world ruled by darkness and evil and that runs red with the blood of the innocent. About a world where vampires are the majority and humans are the hunted minority, the movie can be a bit heavy-handed with its message, but it’s always entertaining, features some great explosions and blood, and you’ve gotta check out Willem Dafoe as an ex-vampire hunter.

The Best

10. The King’s Speech

A subject that’s done all too often in movies, the historical drama can fumble in the wrong hands and soar to new heights in the right ones – and the latter is precisely what Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth do in this one, taking the based-on-a-true-story of the king and his speech therapist and transforming it into a kind of buddy comedy that manages to be inspirational and sad, thoughtful and provoking, and hilarious all at once.  Helena Bonhman Carter finally takes off the crazy wigs and pounds of eye shadow to deliver a quiet yet excellent performance in the almost-background as the king’s wife.

9. Black Swan

This movie is worth watching for almost the score alone, and the opening scene is a breathtaking display of artistry and beauty courted by madness and darkness. Natalie Portman gives a twisted performance about the decline and eventual disappearance of the sanity of a young ballerina asked to play both the white and black swan in Swan Lake. As she throws herself completely into her art, the riveting camera work, excellent cast, creepy cinematography and haunting story chill us and thrill us, blurring the line between the art and the artist. Black Swan is a film about what it means to truly lose yourself, and whether it ever can be done, if we should, and if we want.

8. How to Train Your Dragon

The best animated movie of the year, once again, did not come from Pixar. (sigh) How to Train Your Dragon takes the children’s books it was based on and creates a full immersive story that feels exactly like a picture book come to life. The animation is lush and gorgeous, the characters are larger-than-life yet relatable, the dragons are fantastic and awe-inspiring, and the story at the heart of it all about a boy and his dragon is heart-wrenchingly engrossing. There’s such a delicacy and precision to every element of the story here, and it’ll still be around in another ten or twenty years, enchanting viewers throughout the ages. It’s an instant classic. Dreamworks is unstoppable now.

7. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

I had no doubt I was going to enjoy this movie, as I loved both of this director’s previous efforts, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. But the sheer energy, creativity, and fluid kick-assery on display here floored even me. It’s got a lot of similarities in terms of quick-cut camera style to his previous efforts, but there’s enough of a difference to distinguish it as being a video game parody and not a cop or zombie one. Michael Cera plays the role he always plays, but that’s okay, he’s good at it, and the perfect choice to play the vulnerable and naive Scott Pilgrim. The movie is one great big oozing homage to video games and what makes them so much fun, with, not surprisingly, a bit of a thoughtful meditation of what defines relationships and what we make of them that somehow manages to sneak in there. Don’t tell the nerds, though.

6. 127 Hours

The premise sounds torturous – a man trapped in between a rock and a wall for 127 hours straight? It’s not that surprising to me that Danny Boyle was able to make this riveting, intense, and impossible to look away from. James Franco helps with his generous and vulnerable performance, but what really gets the job done here is the fantastic editing skills Boyle uses – extreme close-ups, zoom-outs, music, video camera, flashbacks, dissecting a frame – Boyle combines them like a true artist and pulls us down into the crevasses with Franco where we don’t want to come out until we know he’s gonna be okay. It’s an inspirational movie that can be difficult to watch, but rewarding and quite entertaining at times too.

5. The Other Guys

Once again a cop parody shows up on my best of list. And in its own way, this movie is almost as good as Hot Fuzz. With A-listers all the way from Michael Keaton to Sam Jackson to The Rock, with of course Will Ferrell and Marky Mark in the leads, the movie manages to be a solid homage/satire of buddy cop movies that’s hilarious from beginning to end, with the two leads sharing perfect comedic chemistry. It’s not as thorough a parody as Hot Fuzz, but it is solid and repeatedly re-watchable. And clever clever clever.

4. Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass is enjoyable on two levels: the visceral superficial one, or the subversive layered one – that of deconstructing the suphero phenomenon in order to deem it impossible for the real world – unless you go a little bit crazy, and step off the plane of this reality so to speak. The film is a sheer delight to watch – endlessly clever and inventive and brutally shocking at times too.

3. The Book of Eli

This January released floored all of my expectations. Though it’s set in the typical post-apocalyptic world we so often see these days (remember when movies were about saving the world?), there’s a kind of poetry in the the way the story of Eli unfolds across the barren wasteland, carrying in his arms the Truth that must be kept safe. Excellent action, great pacing, and Denzel Washington pulls way back and digs deep to play this character, while Gary Oldman devours the scene as the power-hungry Carnegie.

2. Inception

This movie could be Christopher Nolan’s crowning achievement. Though some may throw up their hands at the baffling potential metaphysical twists and turns the plot can take, it’s a beautiful and grand dive into the world of dreams. Each member of the cast delivers perfect performances, the soundtrack is insistent and ever-present, and the movie is endlessly rewatchable due to the already-iconic fight scenes and thoroughly enjoyable plot. With this and his indie hit last year 500 Days of Summer, too, Joseph Gordon Levitt has been cemented as a star, and for good or bad, this movie has made the career of several actors, and will remain a sci-fi classic for years to come.

1. The Social Network

This movie is like an endlessly inventive machine that whirrs and clicks with the machinery of the mind, riveting and intense despite, on the surface, merely being about the guy who happened to invent Facebook. David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorking construct a complex interplay of social dynamics, class, right and wrong, friendship, betrayal, seduction, and power into a seamlessly flowing story, heightened by the brooding, almost-tortured performance of Jesse Eisenberg; Andrew Garfield’s sympathetic desperate friend; and Justin Timberlake’s sizzling portrayal of Sean Parker, the founder of Napster. All of the other performances are great, with a special shout out to Armie Hammer, who played the twins. Specifically, both faces and one of the bodies, with digital manipulation enabling them to place his face onto a body double. And all of the performances emerge as human, each of them caught up in their own perception of right and wrong, of class, of money, of friendship. A powerful movie that almost hums with its terrific performances, razor-sharp script, and beautiful style.

The best horror films showcase a masterful manipulation of the balance between that perverse desire of expectantly waiting and wanting for something awful to occur and the mounting terror that builds as you hope that the characters you care for don’t fall prey to some evil of the night. “The Wolfman,” for a time, walks this line pretty carefully, but through some awkward and cliched plotting devices devolves all-too soon into that devilish pitfall of an monster movie – it’s more about the gross-goodiness of the monster than the humanity of the man.

And to be sure, there is much of that juicy flesh-ripping action that any horror fan loves, but it is the context in which it appears that cheapens the horror and capitalizes on the scares. Lawrence (Benicio del Toro) has just returned to his estranged father’s (Anthony Hopkins) cavernously dark mansion, on the news of his brother’s death by a mysterious half-man, half-beast creature. As he investigates into the death, he grows closer to Gwen (Emily Blunt), his brother’s widow, while an overly curious policeman, Aberline(Hugo Weaving), starts an investigation of his own.

However, to call it an investigation may be too generous. Both Lawrence and Aberline always happen to be in exactly the right (or wrong) place at exactly the right (or wrong) time, so the tension of waiting for a monster attack to occur is diluted. The scenes are always too clearly telegraphed by dark and creepy lighting or mountingly spooky music scored by Danny Elfman (not exactly known for his subtlety). And that’s the main problem with “The Wolfman”: not enough mystery, no terrifying fear of the unknown haunting the frames. When Lawrence morphs into the wolfman, it is a special effect, something to relish and admire, not something of awful unreality of which to be frightened. In spite of this, though, the movie is able to function on a more popcorn-entertaining level, due in part to a couple of master casting strokes and a couple of other serviceably reliable ones.

Benicio del Toro as the titular wolfman spends a lot of time looking morose and horrified, but there’s little else the script requires him to do, and he is really quite good at doing both. Sure it’s a bit one note, but it works for the movie. The same can’t be said for Emily Blunt and her awkward romance that’s been shoehorned into a movie bubbling over with testosteronic violence and gore. She shares zero chemistry with del Toro and mostly just serves as a pretty face.

And then we come to the two actors who steal the movie right out from underneath del Toro and Blunt’s noses. Anthony Hopkins is always a good choice, and here he exudes a quiet menace and self-assured craziness that are more scary than any of the random “boo!” shots director Joe Johnston gives us. Hugo Weaving’s performance is fascinating and actually easy to sympathize with – as he searches for the answers to this mysterious case his desperation is tangible, and his very acting ability seems to mutate his character into the hero of the tale, as opposed to the villain, which the script certainly wants us to think of him as.

Joe Johnston certainly knows how to make us jump, but he fails to see what is truly frightening. The scares in the movie are easy and predictable, but the acting is a step above par, and the creature effects look pretty grotesquely neat. The mood is very dark, gothic, and somber, but the well-executed action and transformation sequences are fairly thrilling. You’ll be entertained, but it’s doubtful anything will really scare you.

Ryan Bingham’s life is tidy and uncluttered, just the way he likes it. Jetting from town to city to metropolis and back again, firing hundreds of workers, because the companies of these employees don’t have the guts to fire them themselves. So they outsource the job of firing them to Ryan’s employer, who send him and 22 other people zooming across the nation on a daily basis, a handy rehabilitation packet in their hands and the words “you’ve been let go” always on their lips. Ryan is the company’s best employee, always eager to hop on a plane or spend a few hours in an airport lobby, and the movie’s premise is clearly a set-up to illustrate the lonely and isolated life Ryan leads and the importance of personal relationships in our daily lives. In fact, it is painfully clear, to the point where the movie feels less like one man’s personal journey and more like a series of pre-arranged vignettes that Ryan must travel through in order to become enlightened.

The most blatant example of which involves Ryan’s seminar and in-progress book, “What’s in Your Backpack?”, in which he offers listeners to pile all their worldly belongings and relationships into one bag and feel the incredible weight of it all before emptying everything and noticing the lightness of being that ensues. “It’s kind of exhilarating, isn’t it?” he says. That’s it. The lack of anything more substantial shows how the seminar and the book are merely lead-ins to that inevitable scene where Ryan pauses mid-speech and walks off stage, realizing the inherent hollowness of what he’s been preaching all this time. The seminar is reminiscent of the excruciatingly bland tripe Aaron Eckhart’s character spouts in his “A-Okay” seminar in “Love Happens.”

Alex is played by Vera Farmiga, and along with Anna Kendrick playing Natalie, the two represent almost everything that is wrong with the movie, despite being two very fine actresses in their own right. Natalie is the young doe-eyed upstart whose plans to revamp Ryan’s job into a firing-by-video-chat format to reduce the inflammatory costs of plane tickets and hotel rooms. She’s the catalyst for the whole plot of the movie, which involves Ryan flying her around and showing her the ropes. And, surprise surprise, she realizes it’s not that simple, while Ryan is challenged by her views about personal relationships. Their entire dynamic doesn’t have one second of spontaneity, and neither does Ryan’s over-hyped relationship with Alex.

A man pulls up to the curb in the rain, feigning concern that the cello you’re carrying in a bag will suffer water damage, so won’t you please put in his car so he can drive alongside you, because you’d have to be a fool to get into the same car with a strange older man. So you oblige him, until the rain bothers you enough that you ask to get into the car, fooled into thinking that you, not he, made the decision.

This pitch-perfect scene occurs in the first fifteen minutes of “An Education,” between Jenny, a young high school girl about to graduate in Britain in the 1960′s, and David, an older man who is a smooth talker and wise in the ways of the world. It showcases in a microcosm of the whole movie what life outside of school can do to you: woo you with its charms and blind you to its manipulations, however “honest” they may be, and trick you into believing that life works one way, and no other.

When Jenny first meets David, she is stifled by her life, set on a course decided by her parents long ago, a course headed straight for a fine education at Oxford. When David comes along, a seemingly wise older gentleman who has the utmost respect for her, he sweeps her off her feet as he takes her to the fanciest clubs, the most beautiful concerts, and the finest dining. Along the way, David and Jenny grow close, their love for culture and finer things narrowing the gap in age even as her new life distances Jenny from her old one.

At first “An Education’s” plot seems deceptively simple, but as the movie progresses it continually reveals deeper hidden layers to its characters, until not a one of them could be characterized as one-dimensional. All of them seem like they could step off the screen easily, and the movie consistently defies simplification. Of course, the performances are a huge part of this. Alfred Molina gives Jenny’s father a believable brusqueness and thick-headed stubbornness that reveals itself to be much more than the over-bearing father routine we’ve seen so many times before. His wife, played by Cara Seymour, offers a reasonable antithesis to his character and their marriage seems like one that could exist in the real world; not overly lovey-dovey, but not a constant shouting match either.

Without a doubt, though, the backbone of the movie are the performances of Peter Sarsgaard as David and Carey Mulligan as Jenny. Not only do they come across as developiong an organic and believable chemistry, but they each function as distintincly separate entities, not two cardboard cutouts created for the purpose of enjoying one another’s company. They have faults, foibles, and hidden depths the film explores with care and tenderness. Mulligan is the best thing about the movie, giving Jenny an instantly arresting innocence, while Sarsgaard plays a man on a semi-mysterious path with all the charm in the world radiating through that winning smile and those warm eyes.

“An Education” never makes the mistake of condescending to its audience or undermining its message and the trueness of its characters through simpleton themes and pedestrian values. By the end of the movie nobody is left with easy answers, and the characters, like in all great films, ride off into the sunset of the unknown, unsure of their fugure, but still educated and, possibly, edified by their experiences. And really, what more can any of us ask for?

Daniels does this in several ways. Throughout most of the film, Precious, when life is particularly bad for her, goes off into her head for these fantasy sequences where she pictures herself as a famous singing, acting, and dancing star, carefree and lovin’ the life. This, coupled with the friendships she develops at the alternative school – a group of girls whose very presence and friendship chemistry brighten the movie – make it fun rather than a chore to sit through, but what truly puts “Precious” above the common “everything sucks for this person” movie is how cleverly Daniels turns the movie into a parody of such films.

Casual observers won’t notice it, but the very ridiculousness of some scenes makes this conclusion inevitable if you’re really paying attention. Mo’nique as Ruby doesn’t just play an abusive mother, she plays a flat-out awful person with no redeeming qualities whatsoever and doesn’t just call her daughter a bitch, doesn’t just call her daughter a fat bitch, no, she calls her a fat, black bitch. And she doesn’t just hate Precious, she hates everything that gets in the way of her cigarettes, her TV, and her cats. Screw merely beating Precious with her fists, why not smack her with a frying pan? Why not throw a glass across the room at her? Why not send a fifty-pound TV careening through the air to try to explode the life from Precious’s body? And Precious doesn’t just have one baby from her dad, she has two! So the fun ensues from watching how many difficulties can possibly be piled up against the protagonist, how far the story can go before it becomes too clearly a parody and loses its resonance.

Judging from critical reaction to this film and its Best Picture nomination, the film goes just far enough to fool un-observant viewers into thinking they’ve got a real taste for that kind of life, while the film snickers behind their backs, knowing it has simultaneously skewered this view while showing how no movie can ever accurately or honestly summarize such real-life difficulties, and the inherent insanity of trying. In its own way, “Precious” is kind of a brilliant movie, that, though flawed, says more about real-life trials than most of its ilk ever do.