2010 in Movies: The Year's Best Movies

Here’s my list of the best films of 2010: 1)  Winter’s Bone; 2) Toy Story 33) The Social Network; 4) The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos); 5) Rabbit Hole; 6) Black Swan; 7) A Prophet (Un Prophete); 8 ) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; 9) Mademoiselle Chambon; 10) (tie) Ajami and Inception.

(Note:  I’m saving room for some films that I haven’t yet seen, especially Mike Leigh’s Another Year.)

Continuing with my list of 2010’s best films: The Tillman Story, True Grit, The King’s Speech, The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER), Inside Job, Fish Tank, The Ghost Writer, Carlos, Fair Game, Hereafter, The Fighter, Solitary Man, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work and Sweetgrass.

You can watch the trailers and see my comments on all these films at Best Movies of 2010.

(Further Note:  The Secrets in their Eyes, A Prophet and Ajami were nominated for the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but were widely released in the US in 2010.)

Updated Movies to See Right Now

Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Inception

I recommend the summer’s one high quality blockbuster, Inception.  If you have followed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, you will want to continue the trilogy with The Girl Who Played With Fire.  The indie dramedy The Kids Are All Right is enjoyable, too.  One of the year’s best, Toy Story 3,  is still playing.  For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

My DVD of the week is one of 2010’s best:  A Prophet (Un Prophete).   For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven

Movies on TV include The Set-Up and Leave Her to Heaven, coming up on TCM.

10 Best Prison Movies

So how does A Prophet stack up against other films in that time honored genre – the Prison Movie? Can a French film rank high among the Alcatraz, Sing Sing and Folsom fare?

My top ten includes familiar themes – the fact-based stories, the great escape attempts, the characters who resist the oppressive authority and those who work the system to become crime bosses.  Plus Death Row.  My list includes American penitentiaries, British, French and Turkish prisons, enemy POW camps and Southern chain gangs.  But some of the best known prison movies do NOT make the cut.

Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and William Forsythe in a very under rated prison movie

See my list of 10 Best Prison Movies.

DVD of the Week: A Prophet

This week’s DVD of the Week is a film from earlier this year:  A Prophet (Un Prophete).  It is the story of a young French-Arab from his first terrifying day in prison to his release.  Once he starts to adjust to his role in the prison as the toady of a Corsican crime boss, no one else in the movie knows what he is really thinking.  It evokes the DeNiro scenes in The Godfather: Part II, except set with gritty realism in contemporary France. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.  One of my Best Movies of 2010 – So Far and pretty high on my list of 10 Best Prison Movies.

Check out my other recent DVD recommendations at DVDs of the Week.