By Brian Saur
There were a lot of films that stood out to filmgoers in 2010—things like INCEPTION, THE KING'S SPEECH, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, BLACK SWAN and 127 HOURS were critical and commercial successes. But as with any year you examine, there were also some very solid and entertaining movies that I feel like we aren't talking about or enjoying enough now, ten years on from their release. Here are a few that stand out to me. Some of them I saw back in 2010, and others I have caught up with in the interim...
HOW DO YOU KNOW (Directed by James L. Brooks)
I'm starting off with a film I only saw for the first time this year. I have to admit that I fell victim to its poor critical and financial returns back in 2010 and didn't allow my fandom for James L. Brooks as a filmmaker to get me to see it until recently. I gotta say, I enjoyed this one quite a bit. My low expectations may have helped with that, of course, but it is a good movie in my mind.
It really has all the hallmarks of Brooks' past work in that it contains complicated, believable characters struggling through some kind of personal crisis whilst finding others to connect with. The films stars Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Owen Wilson as its headliners, and all three are very good here. Reese plays a softball player who early on in the movie finds out she has been cut from Team USA, which she was certain she would be a part of. Paul Rudd is a kind of regular guy who finds himself under fire in the press and the subject of a federal investigation into some underhanded dealings with the company he runs (owned by his father, played by Jack Nicholson). Rudd's character is blindsided by the charges and soon realizes that the they actually originate with his dad and that he's become the fall guy. Owen Wilson's character is a major league baseball pitcher and lady's man who's had an on again off again "friends with benefits" type relationship with Reese Witherspoon’s character. When Rudd and Witherspoon first meet, it doesn't go well and she finds herself looking to Owen Wilson for a more serious commitment (which he may not be capable of).
As things progress, these characters in flux are forced to do a lot of soul searching and end up finding some common ground with each other, though not always in the ways you might expect. That's one thing I like about Brooks films. They are so character-driven that they tend to bounce outside of our expectations of traditional genre fare and are quite observational in the moments and details we get to see in them.
THE CRAZIES (Directed by Breck Eisner)
I hadn't seen THE CRAZIES since it came out and let me tell you: it was quite a powerful rewatch this year at the very beginning of the lockdown which we are all still dealing with. It's ostensibly a remake of a George A. Romero film from 1973 about a small rural community that finds itself suddenly quarantined after a mysterious rash of violent outbreaks and strange behavior from some locals. The attacks are unexpected and completely uncharacteristic of the people committing them, and it takes the local law enforcement folks (led by a sheriff played by Timothy Olyphant) a while to figure out what’s happening and what may or may not be causing it. Soon, there is a military presence on the scene to help contain the problem.
Things kind of spin out from there, but suffice to say that there is an element of contagious spread involved here and it was very hard to not think at least a little bit about the situation we are in now in 2020. There's lots of great suspense here and I feel like the film is quite well made and may even best the original version (which I like quite a bit).
WINNEBAGO MAN (Directed by Ben Steinbauer)
This is one of those fascinating and funny documentaries that sticks with you. I think it originally played SXSW in 2009, but as far as I can tell, did not get officially released until 2010. I must admit that I haven't seen it in a while, but it is one of those docs that has a certain cult appeal—along the lines of AMERICAN MOVIE or VERNON, FLORIDA.
Basically, it's about a man named Jack Rebney, who became something of a viral internet sensation when an old tape of explicit language-filled outtakes from some Winnebago commercials he had done twenty years prior surfaced online and amused the heck out of many many people. Director Ben Steinbauer was fascinated by Rebney and eventually tracked him down to do this film about him to see what he recalls about the outtakes and where he is in his life now. He is a true character and this documentary is a great watch.
IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY (Directed by Anna Bowden and Ryan Fleck)
This is another one that took me a while to finally catch up with—I think I saw it in 2019 if I recall, but it is most definitely underrated for what it is. The directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (who recently directed CAPTAIN MARVEL) scored a big critical hit back in 2006 with their film HALF NELSON—starring a then relatively unknown actor named Ryan Gosling as an inner city junior high school teacher with a drug problem. That film got them some attention and they went on to make SUGAR (2008), a story about a Dominican baseball player, and then followed it up with some work on the HBO show IN TREATMENT. After that, they did IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY, which focuses on a teenager (Keir Gilchrist from the ATYPICAL TV series) who checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward after contemplating suicide at the film's open. The story is based on a 2006 novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini.
It's definitely what you'd probably call a "dramedy" in the traditional sense as it has moments of levity, but overall is dealing with some pretty heavy subject matter. It's well acted by Gilchrist who is supported by an amazing ensemble including Zach Galifianakis (the year after the breakout success of THE HANGOVER), Emma Roberts, Viola Davis, Jim Gaffigan, Lauren Graham, and Jeremy Davies (among others). It's really quite touching ultimately but has moments of great humor that make the harder dramatic stuff easier to cope with. Definitely something of a sleeper as it never got much attention at the time, but is worth your time.
KNIGHT AND DAY (Directed by James Mangold)
KNIGHT AND DAY intrigues me for several reasons. First, it was directed by James Mangold—who I've been a fan of since his wonderful debut film HEAVY with Liv Tyler and Pruit Taylor Vince way back in 1995. He's obviously proved himself to be quite the craftsman and Hollywood professional scoring a hit most recently with FORD V. FERRARI last year and LOGAN in 2017. Though the movie stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz (their second film together after VANILLA SKY) and did a decent turn at the box office (if with mixed reviews), I think it has been forgotten a bit in the shuffle of Cruise's action films since, mainly overshadowed by the continuing MISSION IMPOSSIBLE franchise.
It's quite a blast, though, and strikes a fun, darkly comic tone from the beginning as Cruise plays a seemingly insane rogue C.I.A. agent being pursued in a hostile fashion by the agency. It's the classic NORTH BY NORTHWEST model, with an unsuspecting civilian being swept up into the lunacy of espionage and the shenanigans that go with it. I think Cruise and Diaz are solid together and the film has both great action and comedy—which is tricky to pull off well. Definitely an under-appreciated outing at present.
UNSTOPPABLE (Directed by Tony Scott)
The final film to be directed by the great Tony Scott, UNSTOPPABLE is certainly not an unknown quantity, but I still feel as though it kind of came and went with little fanfare ten years ago. It is of course difficult for a film headlined by Denzel Washington and Chris Pine to be completely forgotten, but considering how entertaining, suspenseful, and emotional it is, I think it deserves more love. In 2019, it got something of a boost when director Quentin Tarantino appeared on "The Rewatchables" Podcast—choosing it as a favorite of his from the past decade. Definitely give that a listen as it will sell you much more than I ever could. That said, consider a few things about the film.
First, it is based on true incidents. As with a lot of Hollywood-zed versions of real life events, the script for UNSTOPPABLE is an incredibly heightened version of the story that inspired it, but it's still a great setup. Through some kind of goofy negligence, a mixed-freight train is set into motion without a driver and eventually picks up enough speed to cause a whole lot of trouble. It's pretty straight forward, but incredibly well executed by Tony Scott and contains a downright sturdy cast beyond Denzel and Chris Pine: the likes of Rosario Dawson, Kevin Corrigan, Kevin Dunn, Ethan Suplee, and T.J. Miller just to name a few.
I took my son to see this back in 2010, and I got choked up at the end. A testament to the great Tony Scott filmmaking and performances, when I revisited it recently, the same thing happened all over again. Such a solid, thrilling piece of Hollywood entertainment and not a bad final production for a legend of a director.
Brian Saur is a podcaster and blogger from Los Angeles that specializes in cult and classic films. He is co-host of the Pure Cinema Podcast and also produces and hosts another show called Just the Discs, which focuses on Blu-rays. He has run the Rupert Pupkin Speaks website since its inception in 2009 and continues to highlight obscure cinematic gems there on a regular basis. Follow him on Twitter (@bobfreelander, @justthediscspod, @purecinemapod), Facebook, or Instagram for more film recommendations.