2010 could live forever as the best year for movie releases in my lifetime. As I write this today (April 22, 2023), I, sadly but more confidently, feel like the years when we have two to three dozen quality movies are forever gone. With the advent of streaming television shows and series and an established vast array of cable programming, the cinematic single-viewing experience may be left to blockbuster-type movies. There have been no better examples than 2020, which I had discussed in previous reviews was the worst year of film in my lifetime, only for that argument to be surpassed by the 2021 cumulative list of below-average movies. 2021 is the first year when none of the Best Picture nominees will be in my end-of-year top ten list. Rewatching a film like The Social Network, despite receiving a 100% review, was just my fourth favorite movie of 2010. This would have been my favorite movie in many other years. Still, with The Town (my second favorite movie of all time) and the incredible Blue Valentine and Shutter Island, even a perfect film finished outside my top three.
Category Archives: Top 10 Movie of 2010
The Town (2010)
Ben Affleck’s (Gone Baby Gone, Live By Night) The Town was my favorite movie a few years ago. The Revenant has since replaced it, while The Shawshank Redemption will constantly vie for a top spot, but it’ll be a long time before The Town falls out of my Top 10. I’ve watched it three times (once in the theater), and I’ve enjoyed it just a little less with each viewing while appreciating it a little more with those watches. The Town also contains one of my all-time favorite scenes, the finale in Fenway Park depths.
Shutter Island (2010)
Without a doubt, Martin Scorsese’s (The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed) was one of my life’s most incredible theater movie experiences. I had been super excited for the movie since seeing its first preview six months or more before it came out. There was so much hype associated with the film that I was certain it couldn’t live up to the expectations. However, it not only met expectations but also surpassed them. This movie is a complete masterpiece and has only been dampened by the fact that the second viewing (an essential viewing for all film fans) wasn’t as awesome as I thought it would be. I thought I would gain some insight into knowing things about the movie I didn’t realize during my first viewing. Rather than capitalizing on this new knowledge, I found the second viewing rather dull. The excitement of seeing this film for the first time was what made it so great. This movie is also a much better view in the theater than at home, regardless of how big your home television might be. It’s a movie that needed to be seen in a dark theater full of other people viewing the film for the first time.
Continue reading Shutter Island (2010)
Blue Valentine (2010)
Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine did nothing but further enhance my opinion that 2010 has been the best year for movie releases in my lifetime. Blue Valentine was one of the few movies of 2010 that I did not see in the theatre, and I can only imagine the impact it would have had on me had I seen it on the big screen. It is a raw, emotional antithesis of the ideal life. As the movie ends, you will be grateful that what you have just seen does not parallel your life and hope it never will.
The Fighter (2010)
The Fighter is a true story about Mickey Ward, an American former professional boxer that stars Mark Wahlberg (The Perfect Storm, The Departed) and Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises, American Psycho). Dickie Eklund, Mickey’s older brother of nine years, taught his younger sibling everything he knew about the sport. The film is directed by David O’Russell, who has to his credits two other movies starring Mark Wahlberg (I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings). The backdrop for the film is the streets of Lowell, Massachusetts, a blue-collar, rundown town where everybody is interested in everyone else’s business, and addiction is rampant.