By James David Patrick
I like to look beyond the major, oft-celebrated offerings as the true measure of an individual year. There’s always a slate of critically-acclaimed Oscar bait and hugely successful box office darlings that remain broadly representative of any given year. You might rankle upon remembering that The King’s Speech won the Best Picture Oscar or that Tim Burton’s visually stunning but vapid Alice in Wonderland made $334 million domestically.
The good news is that we won’t be talking about any Best Picture nominees or Top 10 Box Office blockbusters. (In fact the highest grossing film on this list — Shutter Island — slots in at #17 for the year.) That lops off some favorites like Inception, True Grit, Black Swan, Toy Story 3, Tangled and The Social Network – and it goes without saying that if you haven’t seen those movies, you could start your 2010 retrospective by fixing some of that oversight. As I looked at the list of titles lurking down below the supposed A-list, 2010 offered a wide variety of content and creativity that largely went unwatched. Hopefully, the following list helps sway your opinion on an individual year that remains largely anonymous.
The American (Anton Corbijn, 2010)
Critics complain that “nothing happens” in this spy movie starring George Clooney as Jack, an assassin dispatched to a remote Italian village to await further orders. In many ways this is the inverse companion film to Richard Shepard’s The Matador. The American, curiously enough, feels very European. Jack drinks coffee, works out, reads the paper and enjoys the beautiful scenery as a slow-burning background tension ramps up to a crescendo. My counter argument to anyone who says “nothing happens” in The American? “Everything” happens – it’s just all in the details.
The Trip (Michael Winterbottom, 2010)
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play amplified versions of themselves in this theatrical edit of their TV series of the same name. Steve Coogan’s been asked to tour the country’s finest restaurants and after his girlfriend backs out he invites Rob Brydon along for the ride. The improvised antics of the two comedians become the playground for honest confessions of melancholy and middle-aged ennui. The Trip will always be known for dueling Michael Caine impersonations, but the heart of the film is the shared Bond between these characters.
Morning Glory (Roger Michell, 2010)
Morning Glory can’t help but look the part of puffery, but like an old screwball comedy the narrative’s just there to give our gifted performers something to talk about. I’d been aware of Rachel McAdams before this film, but she became a star with this effervescent performance as a beleaguered young television producer trying to resurrect a morning news show by managing the egos of her two warring anchors played by Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton. The nimble script by Aline Brosh McKenna sidesteps saccharine pitfalls in favor of character.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (Eli Craig, 2010)
I’ve shared this film with horror fans and non-horror fans and everyone walks away laughing. Riffing on horror stereotypes (in more entertaining ways than the likeminded Cabin in the Woods), Director Eli Craig and screenwriter Morgan Jurgenson have made a wonderfully meta-horror comedy with hillbilly protagonists who are just trying to survive a pack of paranoid college kids who’ve labeled them serial killers. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine are just two good-natured backwoods locals who’ve stumbled into a Murphy’s Law type situation where “innocents” keep getting knocked off in a series of gruesome accidents. Tucker and Dale deftly inverts the predator and prey relationship with layers of irony and visual riffs on the woods-set subgenre of horror films.
MacGruber (Jorma Taccone, 2010)
Written off as another dim Saturday Night Live sketch extended 88-minutes beyond its utility, MacGruber sends up the action machismo of 1980’s television and ends up being a smarter film than anyone might have expected. MacGruber (Will Forte) is brought back into action to stop the devious Deiter Van Cunth (Val Kilmer). Don’t get me wrong – it’s still full of bumbling idiocy, but it exists on the same frequency as Austin Powers. Effective parodies, pure entertainment.
Unstoppable (Tony Scott, 2010)
Clocking in an economic 98-minutes, Tony Scott’s final action spectacle unfortunately didn’t even register at the box office. Explosions, collisions, practical stunt-work, train fetishization, and Denzel on Chris Pine action. Unstoppable lacks terrorists or gunmen or overt violence of any kind. It’s just a train that got away and the two guys that helped tame it. Tony Scott left this world too soon, but he gifted us a filmography littered with ultimate popcorn movies for us to enjoy.
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010)
The even more depressing companion to the The Big Short (2015). Charles Ferguson’s documentary sets forth a compelling statement about the hows and the whys of the 2008 financial crisis and never talks down to its audience. Some might be turned away because of Ferguson’s use of jargon and industry references, but if you stick with it you’ll be rewarded with insight into the relationships that brought the largest financial corporations to their knees. Unfortunately, however, Morgot Robbie does not appear in a bathtub to help explain footnotes.
Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)
An unconventional portrait of global phenomenon / graffiti artist Banksy. In as much as it’s impossible to tell the film’s fiction from reality, Exit Through the Gift Shop becomes an answer to the question: “What is art?” It’s response: “Does it matter?” Banksy’s film feels spontaneous and free from convention in ways that documentaries aren’t generally allowed to be. Detailing too much would spoil that spontaneity. Indulge the film’s eccentricities and you’ll be amply rewarded.
Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010)
The next time that someone launches into that tired “Martin Scorsese has been making the same gangster movie over and over again” argument, you’ll have to counter with this gothic head trip. Shutter Island blends film noir, Hitchcockian suspense and some stylistic sensibilities ported over from Italian horror maestros Dario Argento and Mario Bava. Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance shakes you, and Martin Scorsese (and his cinematographer Robert Richardson) will render you a changed human by the end of this underappreciated entry in the director’s varied filmography.
Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos, 2010)
And speaking of head-trip movies, allow me to introduce you to Panos Cosmatos’ mesmerizing, experimental, science fiction nightmare. Cosmatos (who last directed 2018’s Mandy) is at once off-putting and an aesthetic mad genius. The story concerns a girl who is being held captive by a doctor who wants to discover the truth about inner peace. In as much as there is a story, it’s overwhelmed by a pastiche of 70’s and 80’s retro-futuristic visuals, a pulsing synth soundtrack, and hypnotic pacing. Beyond the Black Rainbow isn’t so much a movie as it is a sensory experience you’ll never forget.
James David Patrick is a Pittsburgh-based writer with a movie-watching problem. He has a degree in Film Studies from Emory University that gives him license to discuss Russian Shakespeare adaptations at cocktail parties. You’ll find him crate diving at local record shops. James blogs about movies, music and 80’s nostalgia at www.thirtyhertzrumble.com. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.