NO its} this year’s best tv DANA EDELSON/NBC UNIVERSAL
2010GOLDENGIRL: Betty White’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live” was a highlight of the year.
BY HANK STUEVER STEPHEN VAUGHAN/WARNER BROS PICTURES AMBITIOUSHEADTRIP: JosephGordon-Levitt, in background, is among the stars of “Inception,” which gets points for its smarts and vision. movies BY ANN HORNADAY There are great years in movies and
bad years in movies, and by all accounts 2010 has been . . . pretty good. As often happens when looking at the
films that opened over the past several months, it wasn’t difficult to come up with a list of the 10 best. If anything, in a year that included such standouts as “Rabbit Hole,” “True Grit,” “The King’s Speech,” “Black Swan,” “Get Low,” “The Fighter” and “Toy Story 3,” it was difficult choosing what to leave off. These aremy 10 best films of 2010: “The Social Network” This sharply
written, subtly directed movie featured a lead performance as commanding as it was recessive from Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, a suitably ambiguous hero for an era when privacy, notions of personal vs. public space and relationships themselves have undergone radical re-thinking. “127 Hours” Danny Boyle’s portrait of
real-life adventurer Aron Ralston im- bued his inspiring story of survival with verve, excitement and profound human- ism, anchored by a breakout lead perfor- mance from James Franco. “The Tillman Story” Amir Bar-Lev’s
exquisitely crafted documentary about former NFL player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman not only put his story into crucial context, but also offered a provoc- ative meditation on myth, propaganda and our abiding need for narrative neat- ness. “I Am Love” Tilda Swinton starred in
one of the most polarizing movies of the year, a mesmerizing throwback to the melodramas of Douglas Sirk and lush historical tableaux of Luchino Visconti in which sensual pleasures drenched al- most every scene. “Please Give” The neuroses of real-es-
tate obsessed Manhattanites ricocheted with tone-perfect angst in Nicole Ho- lofcener’s comedy of contemporary man- ners, by turns a wry and wistful observa- tion of the implications of loveandfamily and neighbors and stuff. “Inception” This ambitious head trip
of a movie earned extra points for not being part of a franchise, based on a comic book or adapted from a play. Instead, writer-director Chris Nolan made that rarity in Hollywood: an origi- nal movie, in this case realized with vision and smarts. “No One Knows About Persian Cats”
Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi gave viewers a vital, progressive view of mod- ern-day Tehran in this fact-based pica- resque through the city’s raucous, diverse underground music scene. “The Kids Are All Right” Like the
equally heart-rending “Toy Story 3,” this funny family drama (or wrenching fami- ly comedy) centered on that bittersweet moment when that first kid leaves home for college; the fact that the parents letting go were two mothers was almost incidental, leaving audiences with a fa- miliar, cheerful shrug: This is what fami- ly looks like. “The GhostWriter” This sleek, stylish
political thriller of the old school from Roman Polanski starred Pierce Brosnan as an uncannily Tony Blair-like former British prime minister and created the ethereal world of the super-powerful with hushed, velvety verisimilitude. “Fair Game” Doug Liman’s concen-
trated, well-calibrated revisiting of the story of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson avoided ax-grinding in favor of a taut drama that reminded viewers that even the most cynically stage-managed political theater possesses unseen hu- man stakes.
hornadaya@washpost.com WILEY FOSTER/PUBLIC EDUCATION PICTURES DOCUMENTARY: “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ” proved to be absorbing. More great movie moments
Here are some titles that just missed making the “Best of” list but featured notable performances, directorial flourishes or cinematic values that deserve a shout-out (not to mention priority onNetflix queues). “Tiny Furniture” and “Fish Tank” These intimate, closely observed domestic dramas dealt with the volatile dynamic between mothers and daughters, with wildly different tones but similarly sharp observational skills. Writer-directors Lena Dunham (“Tiny Furniture”) and Andrea Arnold (“Fish Tank”) delivered naturalistic, unsparing portraits of attach- ment and separation at their most messed-up and relate-able. “Budrus,” “Catfish,” “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” “Inside Job,”
“Client 9,” “A Film Unfinished,” “Marwencol,” “GasLand,” “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ” These absorbing, provocative, in some cases confounding documentaries proved that nonfiction films can still be counted on for storytelling at its most sophisticated and engaging. “The Fighter”Even if you don’t think you like boxing movies, see this one
for Christian Bale’s breathtaking performance as Dicky Eklund, the Massachusetts welterweight once known as “The Pride of Lowell” who trains his half-brother MickyWard in between crack binges. (Speaking of documentaries, see Frederick Wiseman’s entrancing “Boxing Gym” before- hand to get a 360-degree viewof this deceptively graceful sport.) “A Prophet,” “The Secret in Their Eyes,” “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Technically, these were all 2009 movies, but they opened in Washington this year. If you missed them in theaters, catch them now. They’re eminently worthy ofmy ideal Top 10 list—the one that includes 20 films. “Get Low” This understated period piece, based on the true legend of a
man who threw his own funeral so he could hear his neighbors talk about him, featured something unbelievable: Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek appearing together for the first time on screen. The results were funny, touching, incandescent. “We had a go,” Duvall’s Felix Bush says at one point about Spacek’s character. They sure did.
—Ann Hornaday Your personal enjoyment of the
year in television depended entirely on how much you love Betty White. But it wasn’t all octogenarian, all the time. Here, along with White’s much ballyhooed “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig, are some shows, mo- ments and other TV or laptop screen- centric vibes from 2010 that turned me on. “Louie.” FX has becomemy favor-
ite network, thanks to consistently good shows such as “Sons of Anar- chy,” “Justified” and “Terriers,” which, sad to say, has been prema- turely offed after its great first season. But really I come to praise “Louie,”
the dark and insanely (and profanely) funny comedy starring Louis CK. Watching Louie bumble through awkward situations is more uncom- fortable than a barrel of LarryDavids —and smarter, too. “Treme.”David Simon and compa-
ny may have lost a lot of “Wire” fans with this HBO series about post-Ka- trina New Orleans. Good riddance, perhaps, and time to move on. “Treme” was a tough fit (is it a show about music? civic rage? chronic dys- function?) and yes, after a fantastic first fewepisodes,itdid starttodrag. (Mardi Gras felt like a chore.) But the finale, thanks to standout perfor- mances fromMelissaLeo andKhandi Alexander, made for a beautifully elegiac payoff. The BP spillcam. The sight of all
that oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico was more frightening and more relentless than all the zombies seen in AMC’s oddly stultifying hit series “The Walking Dead” (which turned out to not have enough zom- bies for the discerning horror fan). For several weeks this spring and
summer, I found myself returning to the live, underwater feed of the envi- ronmental disaster. Spillcam seemed to symbolize so much about our world now: the end of responsibility, the lack of oversight, the feeling of apocalyptic doom. “Work of Art.” Bravo’s soul may
belong to the devil (pernicious “Housewives” clones!) but I do hope they bringbackanother season of this reality competition, in which visual artists of varying potential and talent compete in the manner of “Project Runway” and “Top Chef.” It turns out that watching people make art is much more intriguing than watching them sewor cook. And the results are far more subjective, giving the viewer a lot more to think about. Betty White hosts “SNL.” Face-
book users demanded it, Lorne Mi- chaels acquiesced, and 88-year-old Betty ruled the land.We all expected the show would treat her gently and use her in a few sketches, but as it happened, she worked harder at it than any other host all season. This seemed to cheer up the national mood immensely, if briefly. The “Lost” island was purgatory,
4. Beach House, “Teen Dream” On its third album, the Baltimore indie duo aimed to capture the giddiness of
teenagerdom.No dice. Instead, “Teen Dream” dazzled with vintage magic— like an old slab of FleetwoodMac vinyl evaporating into an inky mist.
5. Best Coast, “Crazy for You” Other bands tried to create this year’s Great Rock Album by penning opuses on suburban ennui and the CivilWar. Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino did it by singing about weed, TV, her crushes and her cat.
after all! Oh yes, it was. We were right all
EVY MAGES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST HEARDIT HERE: JanelleMonae appeared at the Black Cat inMarch. The thrill of three live acts TheInternethasn’
tkilledthealbum.Notyet.Butithascreatedanewclassof
pop polyglots whose expanding visions have been tough to squeeze into the traditional album format. Three of the most thrilling live acts I sawthis year were all children of the digital age touring in support of concept albums that couldn’t quite bottle the life-affirming lightning of their respective live shows. Shooter Jennings at State Theatre The son of the late, great Waylon
Jenningsdelights inbuckingthe expectations of theNashville cognoscenti—
anddoesheever.At the State, his unprecedentedmeldoffreedomrock,glam rock and prog rock raged with a mutant brilliance that his new disc, “Black Ribbons,” only hints at. Janelle Monae at Black Cat,DARConstitution Hall and 9:30 Club Each
9. Choc Quib Town, “Oro” This group hails from Colombia’s Pacific coast, but Choc Quib Town’s charismatic twist on American hip-hop pushed the trio onto the margins of our global dance floor.
10. Randy Houser, “They Call Me Cadillac” Big mouth, big voice, big old chip on his shoulder—everything felt super-sized on the country singer’s sophomore disc, especially “Whistlin’ Dixie,” his chest-puffing entry in the Southern rock canon.
of this Atlanta upstart’s local appearances in 2010 were retro-futuristic thrill rides, blurring the lines between P-Funk and Pink Floyd, OutKast and Motown, with an abandon that was tough to find on her debut effort “ArchAndroid.” Titus Andronicus at the SXSW Music Festival Why listen to “The
Monitor,” this sweatyNewJerseypunkquintet’sbrainy conceptalbumabout the CivilWar,onyourstereowhenyoucanseethemreenact itonstageamida churning mass of bodieswhoshout along with every word?
—Chris Richards
along. Telling you, it was. Was too . . .
stueverh@washpost.com
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010
E
BARBARA NITKE/BRAVO
GREAT EXHIBITION: Bravo’s “Work of Art” reality competition was intriguing.
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