2010 Superlatives

Best Director
David Michod Animal Kingdom
Christopher Nolan Inception
David Fincher The Social Network
Roman Polanski The Ghost Writer
Darren Aronofsky Black Swan 


Best Male Performances
Ben Stiller Greenberg
Colin Firth The King's Speech
Jesse Eisenberg The Social Network
Leonardo DiCaprio Shutter Island
Leonardo DiCaprio Inception
Sean Penn Fair Game
Ryan Gosling Blue Valentine Aaron Eckhart Rabbit Hole Javier Bardem Biutiful     Annette Benning Mother And Child Annette Benning The Kids Are All Right Emma Stone Easy A Hye-ja Kim Mother Julianne Moore The Kids Are All Right Naomi Watts Mother And Child Naomi Watts Fair Game Natalie Portman Black Swan Nicole Kidman Rabbit Hole Michelle Williams Blue Valentine Ben Mendelsohn Animal Kingdom Chris Marquette Life During Wartime Christian Bale Fighter, The Geoffrey Rush The King's Speech James Frecheville Animal Kingdom John C. Reilly Cyrus John Hawkes Winter's Bone Miles Teller Rabbit Hole Richard Jenkins Let Me In Samuel L. Jackson Mother And Child Cherry Jones Mother And Child Dale Dickey Winter's Bone Marion Cotillard Inception Melissa Leo Fighter, The Olivia Williams Ghost Writer, The Hailee Steinfeld True Grit Dianne Wiest Rabbit Hole                                    
Cinematography
True Grit Inception Black Swan Social Network, The Animal Kingdom   
Editing Inception Shutter Island Social Network, The American, The Fighter, The  
       Hans Zimmer Inception Michael Giacchino Let Me In Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross Social Network, The Gustav Santaolalla Biutiful John Powell Black Swan "Pimps Don't Cry" - Adam Mckay, Will Ferrell, Jon Brion The Other Guys "Little One" - Lucy Schwartz Mother And Child "If I Rise" - Dido 127 Hours "Life During Wartime" -  Life During Wartime "Never Say Never" - The Karate Kid
Social Network, The Inception Enter The Void 
Adapted Shutter Island Rabbit Hole Social Network, The Fair Game Ghost Writer, 
Original The Toy Story 3 Inception Mother And Child Blue Valentine Animal Kingdom  
Best Soundtrack   Kick-Ass   Social Network, The   The Other Guys   Let Me In   Cyrus 
Best Voice Work Jeff Garland Toy Story 3 Paul Rudd Casino Jack And The United States Of Money Tom Hanks Toy Story 3 Stanley Tucci Casino Jack And The United States Of Money Michael Keaton Toy Story 3 
Best Ensemble   Inception   Cyrus   Animal Kingdom   Shutter Island   Date Night 
Best Pair Chloe Moretz & Kodi Smit-McPhee Let Me In
Best Line "You have part of my attention; you have the minimum amount" The Social Network "I getting mad… is this what men do?" Blue Valentine "No, I have a job where I CAN get drunk at 8am." Blue Valentine "I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people." The Town "And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn't have somebody nipping at our fin." Catfish 
Most Entertaining ("The Happening" Award)   Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
    
Best Poster
127 Hours
The Social Network
Animal Kingdom
Inception
Enter The Void

Most Groan-worthy Product Placement Award BMW Ghost Writer


The Congratulatory Lack of Product Placement Award 
The Karate Kid
Most Underrated Film of the Year Mother And Child
Most Overrated Film of the Year True Grit
Best Directorial Debut David Michod Animal Kingdom
Breakthrough Male Performance James Frecheville Animal Kingdom
Breakthrough Female Performance Hye-ja Kim Mother
Best Performance In A Bad Film Chris Marquette Life During Wartime
Worst Performance In A Great Film Paz de la Huerta Enter The Void
Best Hero "J" - James Frecheville Animal Kingdom
Best Villain "Pope" - Ben Mendelsohn Animal Kingdom
Best Trailer The Social Network
Most Surprising Film The Ghost Writer
Most Ambitious Film Inception
Most Disappointing Film (Based on Expectations) Winter's Bone
The Sexiest Film Black Swan Fish Tank The Social Network Easy A The Killer Inside Me

The Best Films of 2010

Film 2010

  

 

55 titles... a lot of bad ones, a lot of good ones. Maybe one or two for the top 100, but nothing too memorable. Here's the breakdown:

The Worst

5 The Expendables

It surely was the manliest line-up of any film this year, but considered the ‘action’ talent involved, it wasn’t a good action movie.  

4 A Prophet

Rants and raves are aplenty here for ‘A Prophet,’ but I didn’t see the draw.

3 Tooth Fairy

Okay, so obviously I didn't expect this to be good, so I took it with a grain of salt and had a surprisingly good time... but, oh yeah, it's bad.

2 44 Inch Chest

NOTHING HAPPENS.

1 The Spy Next Door

Pretty much as bad as you can get, but I was never tempted to walk out or scream in anguish. 

Not The Best

(From Worst to Good)

I'm Still Here Could have been something with real meaning, but Phoenix opted for poop jokes and gay shit. Daybreakers was good for the tail end of a double feature... a fun sci-fi adventure, really. The Killer Inside Me wasn't good or easy to follow... sexy at times, but really disjointing and uninteresting for the rest. Splice was fun... not as terrible as Natali's Cypher or Nothing. Terribly Happy was Scandinavian, but it kind of confusing and not all too thrilling. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps was a great idea on paper, but it's premise morphed into a half-baked love story... and Gekko was relegated to bit-part status. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has lots of room for improvement... it's not as thrilling as it should be, and the script and story are extremely elementary. I think there's someone on that... The Karate Kid resisted rampant product placement, for which I give it props (AHUHGCTHtheblindsideHUHGHTCH). It was fun to watch, and it didn't drag on. Dogtooth... shocked that it got Greece's foreign film submission slot; but it's really not as deliciously deranged as it looks. Life During Wartime was a minor Solondz effort... not maddeningly awful, but not good. Youth In Revolt was really funny and enjoyable to watch... but I don't remember a THING. Props to Fred Willard and Ray Liotta for great bit roles. Winter's Bone... to quote a colleague, it's a slightly elevated B-movie about, well, nothing when it actually comes to a close. How To Train Your Dragon will leave in awe... you just had an amazing non-Pixar animation experience! But you won't remember it. Mother is a great entry into Bong-Joon Ho's filmography... funny at times and thrilling at others. The Other Guys is funny and very quotable... but the strained plot drags on way too long. Easy A... loved it! Funny and relevant. The King's Speech is supposedly the best picture in the land... I don't have one bad thing to say about it, but I didn't leave the theater amped up on the royal British spirit. 127 Hours... any movie that starts with a cut-away shot montage of all of America's favorite fast-food joints as an exercise in illustrating 'America' deserves no credit. But, it gets kind of exciting, and it never dragged. Date Night was fun! Probably the best ensemble cast of the year. The Square was a wannabe Animal Kingdom, but it was thrilling enough to seek out and memorable enough...

Better Than Good

Fair Game

A great showcase for the potent combo of Penn and Watts... strangely, it made me the most patriotic I've ever felt leaving a movie.

And Everything Is Going Fine

A perfect tribute to Spalding Gray... what better way then to have an 88-minute montage of his monologue's? Well, some interviews, maybe. But it was okay...

Kick-Ass

This dropped a bit, but still hangs in my mind as a hella, balls-to-the-wall awesome cinematic experience.

The American

Very basic story, very un-basic cinematography and supporting performances... Clooney's as gruff as ever.

True Grit

Disappointing un-Coen... not as funny or thrilling as everyone's making it out to be. I think the brothers really sold out for this one...

Cyrus

Not too original and not too memorable, but Cyrus was a lovable diamond in the rough.

The Kids Are All Right

Great performances and a solid script, but it didn't have a purpose or a message, and the final scene gets my '500 Days of Summer' Award for 'you just ruined the whole movie the final line.'

Please Give

Total beauty of film I just randomly watched... this has a great message and a great cast. Awesome dialogue, too.

Greenberg

Ben Stiller's best role in years... loved a lot about this, and a lot about what it was trying to prove.

Fish Tank

The sexiest film of the year... I loved everybody's performances, and was really blown away by how everything played out.

20 Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Some fucking random... a top 20 spot just for shits and gigs. Pure Scandinavian entertainment.

19 Enter The Void

This started out very high on my list, but then I realized it was almost three hours long and featured about an hour of people fucking with neon light coming out of their genitals... if I could have watched a movie exactly like the first 30 minutes, it would have been a masterpiece. Paz de la Huerta's performance definitely ranks as my least favorite female performance of the year.

18 Inside Job

Absolutely fascinating tale about how the 2008 financial crisis went down... especially for someone who didn't know dick about it walking in.

17 Toy Story 3

This also started high on my list, but dropped down after I realized how much of rehash it was... some touching moments and lots of tears, but the gimmicks really bring it down to 'oh, it's still a kids movie' territory (like Spanish Buzz). Really loved how it was all tied up, though.

16 Casino Jack And The United States Of Money

Just as WTF as Gibney's Enron doc... it plays out like a narrative because of how absurb it is. But, one must remember that there was someone out there named Jack Abramoff, and he did things like naming a surfing instructor as CEO of an international trade organization... must be seen to be believed.

15 Rabbit Hole

Good amount of tears for this one... based on a stage play, 'Hole' plays up one of the most devastating things that can happen to a marriage. Loved how this progressed and how it was wrapped up...

14 Exit Through The Gift Shop

I thought this was going to be some hipster-douche story of how art is gone forever and how we need to find it again... instead it IS about the loss of 'art' told by artists themselves. I literally can't explain what the hell this is about, but cannot strain enough that you MUST MUST see it.

13 Shutter Island

Absolutely stunning that this held up after being shoved off to a February death slot last year... features (easily) some of the best cinematography, best performances, and one of the best adapted screenplays of 2010. For a film that's literally 95% exposition, it's thrilling. Definitely 'major' Scorsese.

12 Let Me In

Matt Reeve's sophomore effort (Cloverfield being the first) was a ripe, perfect tribute to Tomas Alfredson's 2008 classic... probably 2010's second best love story. Can't wait to see where Smit-McPhee and Moretz go from here; they've got some talent.

11 Catfish

The quintessential Facebook movie of the year (and, yes, I've thought about that statement). You will not be able to figure where it's going, and it will touch you, believe it or not.

---


Top 10

10

Mother And Child


Naomi Watts and Sam Jackson sex scene? Pretty much the first word I heard of this, but I knew Rodrigo Garcia would deliver a touching and tear-filled tale of women in trouble. Loved the hell out of this film, and cried more than I did watching any other film this year. Annette Benning gives the best female performance of the year...

9

The Town


I'm probably your biggest fan of Affleck's directing debut, Gone Baby Gone. Couldn't wait this, and it wholly delivered. I will never get sick of Boston-based crime movies, especially ones with believable accents and performances and thrilling plots. Nothing bad I can say about this, and that's saying a lot.

8

The Fighter


Originally gestated by Darren Aronofsky, this was a labor of love for Wahlberg, who started bulking up for this 6 years ago. I remember watching High On Crack Street: Lost Lives In Lowell back in middle school, and being blow away by how real it was. Seeing the other side of the coin (Dickie thinking the film was about his comeback) was heartbreaking. Loved the way this was filmed; it could have been very basic, but Russell turned this into an art film, with year-stealing performances from Bale and Leo.

7

The Ghost Writer


Had absolutely no expectations for this film... but I trusted Roman Polanski's reputation and checked it out... and I loved it. I've never a Polanski film as thrilling as this. Such a simple premise, but it's got impeccable execution and great performances on it's side. Aside from an absolutely maddeningly piss-poor bit of BMW product placement, it was great. Did you Nic Cage was original supposed to play McGregor's role? Ughhh.

6

Animal Kingdom


David Michod's directorial debut is amazing... the best movie about lives of crime since Heat (seriously). Featuring my favorite supporting male role of the year (Ben Mendelsohn as Pope) and another one of my favorites in the brand-new James Frecheville... the Oscar's had it wrong; Jacki Weaver was okay, but the men in this complex Australian crime family steal the show. So many great shots, so many great twists, and a lot of pent-up emotion.

5

Biutiful


Well, it's beautiful... Inarittu's first Spanish-language feature after Amores Perros isn't as fleshed out and well-organized as 21 Grams or Babel, but it's heart-wrenching and inter-weaving as ever. Death and existentialism is pretty much my favorite topic for a film, and this explores it so magically and adeptly.

4

Black Swan


It had all the right stuff from the start… Natalie Portman in the lead role, Darren Aronofsky writing and in the director’s chair, and a lot of pent-up demand from the public to see what he could craft from the world of high-stakes ballet; and it delivers. The film began its life rolled in with Aronofsky’s previous feature The Wrestler… that movie would have seen Randy the Ram (Mickey Rourke) fall in love with a beautiful ballerina. A ballet movie sounds stupid on paper, but I thought the same thing about wrestling when I saw The Wrestler... it's awesome.

3

Blue Valentine


It really hit the spot... it's an emotionally-draining, infuriatingly honest story of falling in and out of love... Derek Cianfrance is definitely a director to watch out for, and I didn't love a single male performance this year more than Ryan Gosling's.

2

Inception


A film written by Christopher Nolan in his teenage years, and also his first original work since 1998's Following (both feature a character named Dom Cobb in the lead role). Given free-reign after the widespread acclaim The Dark Knight received, Nolan churned out one of the most fascinating and thrilling sci-fi films of the last decade (sci-fi, right? Whatever). 

1

The Social Network


A damn shame that David Fincher did not take home an Oscar for this... but 20 years down the line, when he does, we'll all be like 'finally, David Fincher got an Oscar,' and it will be much more satisfying... think of this as his Taxi Driver or Raging Bull.  He's my favorite living director, and I can say with confidence that this is his most fully fleshed-out film; not his best, but probably the one he's put the most effort into. Believe what they say about watching it a second time, too... it gets great. So perfectly edited, such a perfect and well-timed ending, and such a timeless message: on your road to fortune, you will lose friends. 


---


All in all...
Not a very stand-out year by any means, though we did get treated to the likes of Fincher, Aronofsky, Nolan, Polanski, Scorsese, the Coens, and a lot of promising newcomers... 2011 going to be a hell of a year with Malick returning with The Tree of Life, Fincher's Dragon Tattoo, 2 Soderbergh features, more Scorsese (in 3D), sci-fi from von Trier, some much needed period romance from David Cronenberg, and a great batch of promising Sundance titles. Let's hope it's a great one...

Voicemail Mix #3

Best Day For Trailers Ever

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger


Jack Goes Boating


The Social Network


Machete

More Machete Videos

I'm Coming With You: The 25 Best Episodes Of LOST

Lost is almost over, and I thought it best to pay tribute to THE best television series of all time by looking back at some of the best hits. Let's take a look...

The almost theres...

25. Par Avion

24. All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

23. Dave
22. ?

21. Maternity Leave

20. The Shape Of Things To Come

19. Eggtown

18. LaFleur
17. Ab Aeterno

16. LA X: Parts 1 and 2

15. The Incident: Parts 1 and 2

14. Beginning Of The End

13. Lighthouse

12. The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham

11. Happily Ever After

The top ten...

10.
The Other 48 Days

Definitely the winner for most time covered in one episode... a great way to develop and integrate new characters into the show, '48' starts just like the Pilot did, and progresses similarly, except there's a lot more death and intrigue. The episode achieves what the entire first season did in 42 minutes. And then, it all ends in a devastating collision of factions.

9.
Exposé

I had to get this into the top ten... nothing that happens in the entire episode affects anything at all that occurs later in the season (except Miles steals Nikki and Paulo's diamonds, which they don't even really show). It was just a great way for the writers to break loose and create a great self-contained story that rocked, and I really liked it. Not sure if the line is even in this episode, but Nikki and Paulo watch Boone and Shannon yelling at the airport, and Paulo says "I hope we don't end up like them." In the end, they end up EXACTLY like them; buried on the island in the same grave.


8.
The Constant

I consider The Constant one of the only episodes of the series that had the potential to be its own movie... the self-contained storyline in which Desmond has to connect to his past self was so outside of everything else happening that season, and still hasn't really been connected to everything. Really great episode amid a meh season.

7.

There's No Place Like Home: Parts 2 and 3

Here we see a continuation of the Looking Glass flashforward scene, which was probably the best part of this episode too. We also get to see who was in the casket. The reveal of the donkey wheel and the island moving where interesting moments, and real game changers. I was expecting a little more in the end.

6.

Man Of Science, Man Of Faith

After a season of what is that and what is this and who is that guy, we get a big reveal and see what is in 'the hatch,' which took the series in an ENTIRELY new direction and really changed up the whole 'desert island' aspect. Here, the series also sets up the main science and faith dichotomy between Jack and Locke (and whole factions on the island) that is still a running theme in the series.

5.
Exodus: Parts 1 and 2

The landmark first season comes to a close with a very frustrating cliffhanger... but the season 2 opener is a great consolation. Everybody splits up and goes on their own little adventure, Kate wants to come with you, people blow up, and people yell. It was exactly was season 1 needed to come to a close.




4.
A Tale Of Two Cities

The opening scene is really all the needs to be discussed. Here we see a new character in what we assume is a flashback baking muffins, doing woman stuff, having a book club meeting, blah blah. But it's entrancing because we want to know who she is and why this stuff is so frigging important. Then, an earthquake! Then... oh god they're on the island! So great. I honestly didn't even care or remember what happened in the rest of the episode.

3.

Live Together, Die Alone: Parts 1 and 2

Aside from maybe Jack, Desmond's flashbacks are ace, and having this whole two-part episode dedicated to him (and have most of it happen on-island), it was truly a treat (especially at a time when we nothing about Desmond). We learn all about the Swan and why pushing the button is so important, and then, it's gone.

2.
Pilot: Parts 1 and 2

You can't give much praise to everything else without looking to where it all started. This episode is possibly the best pilot episode of any series. Originally inspired by 'Castaway,' and put into production by ABC executive Lloyd Braun, LOST almost never was. Braun was fired because the production of the episode was too expensive and the high-concept series was thought to never catch on. 7 years later, while not as popular as it once was, LOST can be considered on the biggest television success stories ever. The pilot episode sets up a mystery that one could never have imagined could blossom to what it is today. I've watched it at least six times.

1.

Through The Looking Glass: Parts 1 and 2

Without a doubt, 'Looking Glass' takes the cake. Jack-centric episodes are always some of the best, and to have the whole two-hour finale dedicated to him was beautiful. On Island, Charlie and Desmond finally decide to follow the wire into the ocean, and find the titular Looking Glass DHARMA station, and big reveal for DHARMA station fans. Inside, Naomi and Greta are taking blind orders from Ben, and eat it almost immediately. Then, Charlie, after a season of near-deaths, realizes he needs to kill himself to end the nightmare. Desmond doesn't agree, and misses webcam-ing with Penny. At camp, the others invade. Hurley runs one over one in his van, Sayid snaps one of their necks WITH HIS LEGS, and Sawyer kills Tom in what is possibly THE best LOST sequence of the series. For the flashback, we see Jack in a bad way. He freaks out about his father (also one of the best sequences ever), tries to kill himself, visits a casket, and keeps trying to call this woman. Then we have the scene that LITERALLY changes the entire series. We see Kate, whom Jack has never met off-island, revealing the fact that the whole flashback has occurred post-island (introducing the flashforward). In THE best scene of the series (I'm certain this time), Jack pleads with Kate to go back, and she doesn't want to. I remember not moving for minutes after this episode. 

20 Films You Should See This Year (And More)

Lots of Films You Should See:

And Everything Is Going Fine 

(Steven Soderbergh, TBA)

The Spalding Gray documentary

Black Water Transit

(Tony Kate, TBA)

The only thing he's made since American History X

Brooklyn's Finest

(Antoine Fuqua, March 5th)

Buried

(Rodrigo Cortes, Sundance)

Ryan Reynolds buried alive for 90 minutes

Cemetery Junction

(Ricky Gervais, TBA)

Chloe

(Atom Egoyan, March 26th)

Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, and Amanda Seyfried

Cyrus

(Duplass Brother, Sundance)

John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill & Marisa Tomei

Date Night

(Shawn Levy, April 9th)

Tina Fey & Steve Carrell

Dawn Of War

(Tarsem Singh, TBA)

Haven't heard much about this, but I guess it's filming

Defendor

(Peter Stebbings, TBA)

Woody Harrelson as a fake superhero

Dinner For Schmucks

(Jay Roach, July 23rd)

Steve Carrell

Dogtooth

(Giorgos Lanthimos, TBA)

A brutal Greek film about child captivity

Due Date

(Todd Phillips, November 5th)

Robert Downey Jr. & Zach Galifinakis

Edge Of Darkness

(Martin Campbell, January 29th)

Mel Gibson in Taken 2, from the director of Casino Royale

Fair Game

(Doug Liman, TBA)

Sean Penn & Naomi Watts together again

Get Him To The Greek

(Nicholas Stoller, June 11th)

Get Low

(Aaron Schneider, TBA)

Sony Classics has it, but when they'll show it is the question. Robert Duvall plays a old-south carmudegeon who plans his own funeral

Greenberg

(Noah Baumbach, March 26th)

Ben Stiller

Hot Tub Time Machine

(Steve Pink, February 26th)

The red-band trailer is worth a look-see

I Love You, Philip Morris

(John Requa, March 26th)

Jim Carrey & Ewan Macgregor as a gay couple who met in jail

I'm With Cancer

(Jonathan Levine, TBA)

Probably won't be out this year, but features Seth Rogen, James McAvoy, and Anna Kendrick. Oh, and it's Jonathan "The Wackness" Levine.

Iron Man 2

(Jon Favreau, May 7th)

Kick-Ass

(Matthew Vaughn, April 16th)

Watch the red-band trailer

Leaves Of Grass

(Tim Blake Nelson, TBA)

Edward Norton as twins

Lebanon

(Samuel Maoz, TBA)

A foreign war film told entirely from the perspective of soldiers in a tank, I think.

Metropia

(Tarik Saleh, TBA)

Sort of a motion-capture type-deal with Vincent Gallo. Deals with some sort of corporate dystopia.

Mr. Nobody

(Jaco van Dormael, TBA)

Jared Leto plays the same person in three different fractures of his own life

My Suicide

(David Lee Miller, February 1st (DVD))

Caught my eye; I think it did Sundance last year. Features a student who wants to film his own suicide as his final project in film class.

Never Let Me Go

(Mark Romanek, TBA)

Romanek hasn't done dick since One Hour Photo, so this is welcome. General consensus is that it's some sort of The Island with British boarding students. I picked up the book, and couldn't get into it.

Ondine

(Neil Jordan, TBA)

Just picked up by Magnolia. Colin Farrell catches a mermaid in his fishing net.

Paul

(Greg Mottola, TBA)

Simon Pegg and others; sci-fi comedy

Please Give

(Nicole Holofcener, TBA)

Oliver Platt and Catherine Keener play New Yorkers waiting for their neighbor to die so they can super-size their apartment

Red Riding: 1974

Red Riding: 1980

Red Riding: 1983

(Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker, February 5th)

IFC is bringing this British miniseries to screens. It's three films about the search for a serial killer.

Remember Me

(Allen Coulter, March 12th)

Jenny "Rachel Getting Married" Lumet wrote it

Repo Men

(Miguel Sapochnik, April 2nd)

Red-band trailer looked cool

Terribly Happy

(Henrik Ruben Genz, February 5th)

Norwegian (I think) film about a town gone crazy and a rogue cop gone to check it out

The Company Men

(John Wells, Sundance)

Corporate downsizing. Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Affleck, more cool people

The Green Hornet

(Michel Gondry, December 22nd)

Christoph Waltz!

The Rum Diary

(Bruce Robinson, TBA)

Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson again, kind of

The Runaways

(Floria Sigismondi, March 19th)

Michael Shannon, Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning

The Tempest

(Julie Taymor, TBA)

Across The Universe director Taymor switches Prospero to Prospera (played by Helen Mirren) in this Shakespeare reimagining

Tron: Legacy

(Joseph Kosinski, December 17th)

The original sucked, but the teaser trailer will blow you away

Welcome to the Rileys

(Jake Scott, Sundance)

James Galdolfini, Kristen Stewart, Melissa Leo

You Don't Know Jack

(Barry Levinson, TBA)

Al Pacino plays Jack Kevorkian; it's airing on HBO

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

(Woody Allen, TBA)

The next Woody Allen

The Big 20:

The Tree Of Life

dir. Terrence Malick

Release: TBA, Apparition

I've personally never gotten through a Malick film, but this sounds extraordinary; the eldest son of a 1950s family witnesses a loss of innocene. The simplicity of that description drives me wild with anticipation. And Brad Pitt and Sean Penn are in it.

Blue Valentine

dir. Derek Cianfrance

Release: Sundance / TBA 

The film centers on a contempo married couple, charting their evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods. PERIOD.

The Fighter

dir. David O. Russell

Release: TBA

Russell took over from Darren Aronofsky so he could direct Black Swan. Looks good, with Wahlberg, Bale, and Amy Adams.

Mother And Child

dir. Rodrigo Garcia

Release: May 7th, Sony Pictures Classics

Just got picked up. I love Garcia's work, and anything with strong female characters (like Watts and Annette Benning) is fine with me. This had Oscar buzz out of some of the festivals, but never got picked up.

Let Me In

dir. Matt Reeves

Release: October 1st, Overture

The much-chagrined remake of Tomas Alfredson's amazing 2008 film Let The Right One In, directed this time by Cloverfield's Matt Reeves. We've got the kid from The Road, Hit Girl from Kick-Ass and Richard Jenkins (google him!). I'm exciting to see an 'American' spin on the story, even if it does suck. One of three films on this list to come out October 1st, too.

Hesher

dir. Spencer Susser

Release: Sundance / TBA

An anarchist (Leavitt) moves in a with a grieving family in LA. Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson round out the cast. 'Twill be excellent.

Splice

dir. Vincenzo Natali

Release: Sundance / TBA

This has been in the can for a while; I'm a mild of Natali's Cube, but this looks off-the-charts creepy and watchable; Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody are a scientist couple who screw with human DNA.

Wall Street 2

dir. Oliver Stone

Release: April 23rd, 20th Century Fox

Well, it's coming, and it actually looks not half bad.

Your Highness

dir. David Gordon Green

Release: October 1st, Universal

Franco, McBride, Portman, Deschanel, and superb director D.G. Green join forces for a medival stoner comedy.

Knockout

dir. Steven Soderbergh

Release: TBA, Lionsgate

Soderbergh signed some boxing chick to a James Bond-style spy movie. I'm a fan of Soderbergh's little projects, but with a ballooning cast and studio interference from Lionsgate, this could suck, but I'm still wildly excited.

The Beaver

dir. Jodie Foster

Release: TBA, Summit

Just look at the picture.

Jack Goes Boating

dir. Philip Seymour Hoffman

Release: TBA, Overture

This is the reason PSH was wearing that creepy hat at the Oscars that year. We've got Amy Ryan playing love interest to PSH's stoner limo driver character. With this and Let Me In, Overture could be becoming a little Oscar-hopeful studio this fall.

Life During Wartime

dir. Todd Solondz

Release: TBA

This didn't exactly light up the festivals last year, and it hasn't been picked up since. Only hardcore Todd Solondz fans like myself (okay, I liked Happiness and that's it) are excited. And yes, that is Paul "Pee-Wee" Ruebens.

The Town

dir. Ben Affleck

Release: September 10th, Warner Bros.

Ever since Gone Baby Gone, I've been very excited to see what Affleck would do next. The Town features Jon Hamm as a FBI agent who falls for a crook, or something. Either way, I'm very excited for this Boston-based thriller (?).

Toy Story 3

dir. Lee Unkrich

Release: June 18th, Disney

Let's hope it's a good button to a classic series that we've all grown up with. Please don't screw this up, Pixar. But, they never screw up.

Biutiful

dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu

Release: TBA, Focus Features

First announced for release in 2009, Focus hasn't said a peep about it since. Doesn't mean I'm not still looking forward to it. Javier Bardem stars as a man who confronts a childhood friend, who is now a cop. That's all we've got.

Shutter Island

dir. Martin Scorsese

Release: February 19th, Paramount

This topped my 'Most Anticapted of 2009' list, so it's a little disappointing, yet hopeful, that it's on this years list as well. There's little to say; it still looks awesome.

The Social Network

dir. David Fincher

Release: October 1st, Sony

When it was first announced that Fincher was directed a Facebook movie, I groaned as did most of the general public. Since then, I've begun to read the book (The Accidental Billionaires), which is excellent, and a solid cast (Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield) has come together. I have absolutely faith that this could be a superb tale from the master himself. October 1st is going to be a busy day.

True Grit

dir. Joel & Ethan Coen

Release: December 25th, Paramount

Today (1/19/10), Paramount announced a Christmas Day release date for the Coens next. Four projects in four years? A Coen fan's dream, sure, but ever since these cats won Best Picture, there's no stopping their drive to churn out some films. I can't complain. So, we've got Brolin, Damon, and (hopefully) Oscar winner Bridges headlining this remake of the classic John Wayne western. We'll take it.

Inception

dir. Christopher Nolan

Release: July 16th, Warner Bros.

The first teaser trailer for this debuted, surprisingly, during Inglourious Basterds. Before then, fans speculated that this project was indeed "Batman 3," but now, fans have moved on and embraced this film as something entirely different. With similar 'in the dark' marketing as The Dark Knight, we know little about Nolan's secretive project, which makes it all the more enthralling. An all-star cast headlines this psychological thriller. It will be intense and could even get that Best Picture nod that the knight never got. Fingers crossed that this will be the best movie of the year.