The Top 20 films of 2010

Hello to you all my peeps.

I know it's been a while but, this boy has been busy recuperating from knee surgery, putting on some theatrical experiences and shooting short films. But I come to you now, ready and armed to give you my top 20 of 2010. This is a first for me. So I am truly breaking the cherry. The only rule for this list is that the film had to be released IN AUSTRALIA during 2010.

So with out further adieu, enjoy. I'm sure the arguments can begin, straight off the bat.

Marty Williams's Top 20 in 2010.

1) Animal Kingdom

2) Inception

3) The Social Network

4)Toy Story 3

5) Kick Ass

6) The Town

7) Shutter Island

8) Blue Valentine

9) Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

10) The Other Guys

11) The Hurt Locker

12) Fantastic Mr Fox

13) Easy A

14) Winter's Bone

15) The Kings Speech

16) How to Train Your Dragon

17) The American

18) Fair Game

19) Let Me In

20) Monsters

Inception by Christopher Nolan

To all my peeps do not watch or read anything to do with this film, instead go to it and experience it a new for yourself.

It is astonishing. And I can't wait to watch it again. Tune in again in about two to three weeks once you have seen it and I have been able to ingest it a couple more times.

This film is the real deal.

Knight And Day

I don't know what to say about this film, apart from the fact that it is luke warm at best.

Directed by James Mangold who brought me one of my favourite films of all time in Copland, a film that had depth and character and life.

Now sure Knight and Day is meant to be breezy, so depth can be left at the door but it sure as shit is meant to have some character to it and definetly should have some life and it had nothing of either.

Now, I'm ready to admit that I'm a huge fan of the Cruiser, I think his choice of film has been brilliant up until recenlty where it seems to be he's choosing projects now on what will keep him number one instead of focusing on the character and the story. I mean thi sis the guy from Risky Business, Who was brilliant in Rain Man, remarkable in BOrn on the 4th of july and astonishing in Magnolia and lets not forget transformative in Tropic THunder. He really is a character actor stuck with leading man parts. But he seems to be just seeking out the leading man stuff and forgetting about anything else. But to be honest he is the one saving grace in this film, he has just enough quick remarks that make you chuckle to make the film bearable.

As for everyone else in the film they all seem to be mildly switched on.

To be honest was I expecting much from this film? Not really? But with the talent on display I really should have got a whole lot more.

Watch it for the first 40 minutes the rest is all just a bit.... bleh.

Peace out.

Get Him To The Greek

I thought I was going to really love this film but ended up walking out of it frustrated as all fuck.

I didn't love nearly as much as I should and didn't care about the characters at all. Not to mention there are so many superflous scenes at the back of the film that I just wanted to rip the chair from under me.

Russel Brand, Jonah Hill and P Diddy all are wonderful in a number of their scenes but this was really a film where the premise was so rich of possibility and not much of it was seen.

Wait till the DVD where they will release most deifnetly an uncut version of the film which no doubt will be longer and maybe a hint funnier.

Predators

I was treated to an adanved screening of Predators.

Now as a fan boy of the classic 1980's film with Arnie in it and with Robert Rodriguez at the producers helm I thought some sort of miracle was going to be bestowed on me.

I was mistaken, while the opening throws us right into the action free falling through the sky and is really quite spectacular, the film is weighed down by too many scenes trying to explain why they are all there and who all these people are, it made me fall asleep.

By the time I woke up a few of the people were dead, I won't say who and my guess at what was going to happen at the end had come true. Sure there are some cool blood letting moments but I really was expecting more. Lets hope Stallone doesn't let me down with The Expendables.

2001 by Stanley Kubrick

Just last week I was able to watch 2001 on the big screen for the second time in my life.

And all I can say about this film that has already be seen is that it is MEZMERISING AND BRILLIANT!

I have watched upwards of fifteen times but I am still scared by this film and left in wide eyed wonderment by the end.

The Chauvel really pumped up the sound on the night and it made me rattle in my chair when all the wonderful music kicked.

All who haven't seen, MUST, MUST, MUST see this film.

Thank you chauvel and thank you to Kubrick for leaving a lasting legacy of filmaking that is truly in the realm of art.

Eclipse By David Slade

Eclipse the third film in the franchise is as boring as the last and there isn't nearly as much care put into the film as there was with the first one.

Really I kind of had high hopes for this film they had cool director, David Slade who directed the wonderful Hard Candy and the pulp film 30 Days of Night. So I was hoping they were going for a real horror tone but no, nothing like.

Just a whole bunch of cop outs. People who say this is the best of the lot are kidding themselves. It really does seem that people are fooled by the bigger special effects budget. Even though Jacobs werewolf is never the same size.

Don't bother my peeps. Don't bother.

Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni

A couple of weeks ago now I had the great pleasure to watch Antonioni's classic Blow Up. And since then I haven't stopped thinking about it.

Again it was shown at the Chauvel, so thank you for that.

Now the film itself when I think about it, isn't great, it has a lot of superflous stuff in it that just makes you wonder why you would put it in the film. But the core dilemma of David Hemming's photographer who stumbles onto shooting a murder, is sublime. The sequence where he goes about blowing up his photo's to search for clues is mezmerising. This is what cinema of today is missing. Suspense through story not by tricks or music. The film's dilemma was later remade into one of my favourite films Blow Out with Travolta and directed by De Palma.

Do yourself a favour and try and see both these films and go back to find a time when cinema was worth something to the people making it other than trying to buy themselves a big house.

Thank chauvel for showing these great films and thank you Michelangelo Antonioni for making them.

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 is all that it promises to be and a whole lot more. But whatever you do, don't bother with the 3D version, it adds nothing to this wonderful heartfelt experience that I can't wait to watch again hopefully with my nephews.

I don't know what else to say about the film, because it won't really matter. But I was utterly surprised by it.

Thank you to Pixar for giving us a trilogy of child films that doesn't talk down to children and allows them to feel and to think and not just be numb.

Mother & Child by Rodrigo Garcia

Mother and Child is the new film by Rodrigo Garcia. It is a film about three women and the choices they make about motherhood.

Watch this film for the magnificent perfomances from all of its leads. Annette Benning is sensational. Naomi Watts is unstoppable at the moment, she can't seem to do a bad perfoamance. And Kerry Washingston is magnificent. The biggest surprise in the acting department is Sam Jackson. Not because he's ever been bad but because you have never seen him quite like this.

Do yourself a favour and go and support independent cinema and to watch a film about women that seems to want to show them as alive and not some caricatures like Sex and the city.

Jaws By Steven Spielberg

I had the chance the other week to watch Jaws up on the big screen for the first time in my life.

While some of the shark shots have dated the film itself sill holds up and still scares the bejesus out of you. It had people jumping from their seats still.

I love every moment of this film.

I saw it at the Chauvel Cinema who on friday nights are running a different classic.

Do yourself a favour and go and see these films and you will realise how the art of storytelling through film has gone downhill since the grand days of the 70s.

Thank you to all those involved with these retrospective screenings at the Chauvel and also to Senor Spielbergo.

The A-Team by Joe Carnahan

So the TV show that I thought would never get made into a film has finally been released. The A-Team. It was a long running joke with my friends that if we ever got carte blanche to make a film we would do the A-team. Well seems like someone thought that was a good idea.

What I was hoping for from this film was my guilty pleasure film for 2010 and for the first hour or so I got that. But then I just got plain bored.

There is nothing essentially wrong with the film itself, i'm just left wondering, why bother?

All the boys look like they are having a great time in the film. With Bradley Cooper and Patrick Wilson my favourites. They both relish being pricks, but pricks you wish you were. While everyone else gives their ample support. Liam Neeson holds the team together with a great deal of gravitas. Sharlto Copley is allowed to go nuts and does so fantastically. His Braveheart scene had me in stitches. And Quintin Jackson as Mr. T inverts the tough guy role to hilarious effect. Although Jessica Biel is a somewhat pointless love interest, but whatever that's not the point of the film. And if that's not the point, why bother with the love story? Because that's the convention, which is kind of funny considering the film itself seems like it is trying to break convention. So what is the point of the film? There isn't one.

And this is coming from Joe Carnahan who burst onto the scene with the fantastic Narc. That had such a rich story about the corruption I society has fallen into. But here he is along from the brilliance of that film. A long way.

Outlandish is the game here. And outlandish is what you get. Some of the action sequences are so chaotic, so over the top, it really just feels like a movie version of a video game. And there's the problem with the film and with where hollywood is heading. Everything is geared towards an audience that just don't care what they want to watch, they just don't want to think. Since when was thinking such a bad thing to do.

Haven't seen anything this week so here's a repost for Animal Kingdom out this weekend..

To all my peeps listen up. Instead of wasting two and half hours of your time this weekend with a shitty overblown overtly racist film like Sex and the city 2 why not spend that time on an extraordinary new australian film called Animal Kingdom. I know that's what I'll be doing for the second time.

I was lucky enough last night to see an advanced screening of the new Australian crime film,Animal Kingdom. And I tell you people this film is something else. Finally there is an Australian film this year that will hold its own against any other film out there and does not need to be reviewed in a sunnier light just because it is Australian. I mean the film has already won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival and it wholly deserves it.

Firstly let me tell you a little bit about the film maker, David Michod. Michod is part of Blue Tongue Films which is a company based in Australia that is really putting out some top notch Australian work both as features and short films. Also apart of Blue Tongue are the Edgerton Brothers who brought as The Square and Luke Doolan who also edits Animal Kingdom and was recently nominated for an academy award in the short film section. Michod was responsible for two short films Crossbow and Spider that played well at festivals globally and has also co-written the American independent film Hesher that stars Joseph Gordon Levitt and also played at Sundance.

Animal Kingdom is one of those rare films that had me constantly surprised and jolted me from my seat on more than three occasions. The film is about and delves deeply inside a crime family that live in melbourne, so comparisons to other crime films, gangster films and thriller's will abound but to me this film reminded me more of Paul Thomas Anderson's sublime first film Sydney(Hard Eight). Where most recent crime films and television have fallen down (especially in Australia) is that they forget about the heart and life that these people would be lead. Well Animal Kingdom has this in spades, each character is so well wrought, so full of life that it makes it hard for you to look away and this has everything to do with Michod's deft touch at characterisation in his script of even the smallest characters.

Michod is also aided by an outstanding performances by everyone involved. Just on paper this is such a strong cast. You've got Guy Pearce as Leckie, a strong police officer that believes in the law. Joel Edgerton as one of the cody brothers and lending some great comic relief. Jackie Weaver, the matriach of the family and all too oedipal that it had a couple in front of me squiriming in their seats. And Ben Mendelsohn the glue that binds and shatters them. With that on display you would be forgiven if the other characters weren't as well formed but here you are given treats by everyone. Luke Ford so over come by Mendelsohn's Pope that he doesn't know what to do with himself is outstanding. Sullivan Stapleton nails the frenetic energy of Craig masterfully well. Mirrah Foulkes as Edgerton wife lets you in on the pressures outsiders of the family are under. Dan Wylie's slippery lawyer is all too real. And James Frecheville in his first screen role is a revelation. The film I think however belongs to Mendelsohn. His character of Pope is electrifying, you never quite know what is going on with him and this makes him that much scarier.

To say too much about the story is too give away the twist and turns of this film that had me wondering the whole time where too next. And I mean that in a good way. I think they should apply the 'Psycho' rule to this film and not allow people into the film after twenty minutes.

Now your probably thinking come on give me the negatives but I really can't think of one. Oh wait yes I can. I have to wait another three weeks before I can watch this film again because I will watch it again and I hope to see you there.

Michod has given us one of the best Australian films since, I think, Chopper and I can't wait to see what he does next. And anyone who thought Underbelly the TV show nailed Australian crime are sorely mistaken. Animal Kingdom is what it's about, sure there aren't any tits on display, but instead you get a film, a drama that doesn't pander for the easy answer.

Mark June 3rd in your diary and do yourself a favour and go see this film, your time will not be wasted.

Thank you David Michod and too all those involved with this film.

Harry Brown by Daniel Barber

Michael Caine is Harry Brown.

Harry Brown is a very, very grim film. The subject matter, that way it's shot, the performances. Everything about this film is dark, gritty and takes itself very seriously.

It talks of the problems that have engulfed our youth. Drugs, guns, sex, violence, poverty and no real place to call a home. Something I commend the film highly for doing so. The problem is that the film is just revenge fantasy, that feels like it has tagged a social problem on to make it seem not so gratuitous and heavy handed. Of which it has both in ample measure. It is Gran Torino but for the brits but with out the sense of humour.

Michael Caine is mezmerising as the titular role but that's about all that I can say to recommend about this film.

The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke

The White Ribbon is one of those rare films, where so much of the story is told through the images you are seeing, even with the use of voiceover.

It really is an astounding film, that will haunt you for days to come. No wonder it won the Golden Palm at last years Cannes film festival.

The first half is a little laboured (but I don't know whether it was the film or because I was soaking wet from the rain I had to fight through to get to the cinema and was freezing my arse of for the first half) and certainly takes it's time. But the second half really hits you in the gut.

Directed by Michael Haneke with wonderful restraint. He really allows the audience to find these characters and place their own sort of judgement on them. The film was shot in colour and transferred into beautiful black and white and you could never tell.

This really is a special film that was lucky not to pick up the Best Oscar for Foreign Film but lost out to The Secret In Their Eyes which will be released in the next few weeks. Which I am also looking forward to.

To all those who read this you should really go and see The White Ribbon. It gives a compelling insight into the people that would be responsible for World War II. This is a war film but one like you have never seen.

Thank you to Michael Haneke for giving us a truly unique perspective into something that I thought I knew all there was to know.

The Last Station by Michael Hoffman

'All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.' Leo Tolstoy.

Is the tag line and major theme for the film and sums up how I feel about the film itself.

The Last Station is an absolute delight. Written and directed by Michael Hoffman who was responsible for the directing duties on the classic Soapdish and also wrote and directed the film version of A Midsummer Nights Dream again shows us that wit and heart can belong together in a faithful marriage.

The Last Station tells the story of the last months of Leo Tolstoy life. The writer of 'War and Peace' and probably the worlds first paparazzi hounded writer.

The banter between characters in the first two thirds of the film is a joy to behold and you could tell the actors were loving it as well. It reminded me of the best sort of Aaron Sorkin script on The West Wing, flipping from humour to angst to love all in a manner of minutes. Each character runs a gamut of emotions and all of the actors do it with such finesse, such love that you wonder why more films like this don't get made.

Each of the performances; from Oscar nominees Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer (their scene when they are both trying to out chicken the other is an absolute standout); to James McAvoy's innocent writer who opens up to the notion of what true love really is; to Paul Giamatti's heartless Tolstoyan who is given a great reprieve and in a lesser actors hands would have been one dimensional but Giamatti doesn't succumb to that; are all first rate.

It's greatest accomplishment is the insight it gives us into one of the seminal literary figures of our time and does it in absorbing and whimsical manner.

My one problem with the film is that the last reel looses the rhythm's of earlier in the film and instead steaming to a wonderful conclusion it jerks its way there. That is not to say that the ending is bad it just lacks the finesse of earlier but will still make you wonder at the joy of love.

Thank you to all who were involved with this film.

Robin Hood by Ridley Scott

Oh, Ridley, Ridley, Ridley. What is going on? You are one of my favourite directors but what have you done for me lately. Matchstick Men and Gladiator I loved, everything else has left me pissing in the wind.

And the same can be said of Robin Hood. It is a mess of a film, giving us an origin story of a figure no one wants to know the origin of. We want the Sherriff of Nottingham, Maid Marion and the Merry Men. Here we get bits and bobs of all but nothing conclusive of any of them.

The biggest problem is that, you have such a high calibre actress like Cate Blanchett in role that shouldn't really come into the story until Robin enters Nottingham but they try and give a little bit more screen time and it weakens the film.

Russell Crowe is ever reliable and no one else could play this version of Robin. And all the other performances are solid. But I was just left wondering what was it all for?

And I am still wondering? It made me think of Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, and I will admit here in print that I love Prince Of Thieves. I mean it had Kevin Fucking Costner for one. Alan Rickman playing bad like no one else can. Morgan Freeman before he was THE Morgan Freeman and of course you had Bryan Adams singing his heart out with a song that stayed at number for about a zillion years.

Scott's Robin Hood, isn't about fun, its about being serious, it's about being real, it's about being epic. And in a way it gets there. But I much prefer the other partnerships of Scott and Crowe. The only reason I found to go to this film is is to watch one of the greatest actors and actresses of our time play off one another and that is where the film is brilliant. Everything else, all that comes to mind is 'Meh'.

44 Inch Chest by Malcom Venville

44 Inch Chest is the new film from the the writers of the mesmerising Sexy Beast, Louis Mellis and David Scinto. Chest however isn't on the same level as Sexy Beast.

To get it out of the way, is the film misogynist. Hugely so. Did I still enjoy myself. Yes, I did, to a certain extent. What does this make me? I don't know.

That being said, I think this would have worked wonders on the stage and I hope someone realises this and does put it up on stage because I think it would make tantalizing theatre.

All the performances are first rate. Ian McShane and John Hurt being the standouts and it was interesting seeing Ray Winstone trying to invert his hard bastard status.

Some of the writing especially the rhythms that are found between the five male leads and are fantastic to listen to. Especially one segment where they are all trying to out do each other with pay outs to the kidnapped man. I couldn't stop laughing at this point and everyone was saying it with relish.

Go to this film if you want to see the cream of English Acting and if you want to see some good ballsy dialogue that doesn't shy away from it's own dastardliness.

Animal Kingdom by David Michod

I was lucky enough last night to see an advanced screening of the new Australian crime film, Animal Kingdom. And I tell you people this film is something else. Finally there is an Australian film this year that will hold its own against any other film out there and does not need to be reviewed in a sunnier light just because it is Australian. I mean the film has already won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival and it wholly deserves it.

Firstly let me tell you a little bit about the film maker, David Michod. Michod is part of Blue Tongue Films which is a company based in Australia that is really putting out some top notch Australian work both as features and short films. Also apart of Blue Tongue are the Edgerton Brothers who brought as The Square and Luke Doolan who also edits Animal Kingdom and was recently nominated for an academy award in the short film section. Michod was responsible for two short films Crossbow and Spider that played well at festivals globally and has also co-written the American independent film Hesher that stars Joseph Gordon Levitt and also played at Sundance.

Animal Kingdom is one of those rare films that had me constantly surprised and jolted me from my seat on more than three occasions. The film is about and delves deeply inside a crime family that live in melbourne, so comparisons to other crime films, gangster films and thriller's will abound but to me this film reminded me more of Paul Thomas Anderson's sublime first film Sydney(Hard Eight). Where most recent crime films and television have fallen down (especially in Australia) is that they forget about the heart and life that these people would be lead. Well Animal Kingdom has this in spades, each character is so well wrought, so full of life that it makes it hard for you to look away and this has everything to do with Michod's deft touch at characterisation in his script of even the smallest characters.

Michod is also aided by an outstanding performances by everyone involved. Just on paper this is such a strong cast. You've got Guy Pearce as Leckie, a strong police officer that believes in the law. Joel Edgerton as one of the cody brothers and lending some great comic relief. Jackie Weaver, the matriach of the family and all too oedipal that it had a couple in front of me squiriming in their seats. And Ben Mendelsohn the glue that binds and shatters them. With that on display you would be forgiven if the other characters weren't as well formed but here you are given treats by everyone. Luke Ford so over come by Mendelsohn's Pope that he doesn't know what to do with himself is outstanding. Sullivan Stapleton nails the frenetic energy of Craig masterfully well. Mirrah Foulkes as Edgerton wife lets you in on the pressures outsiders of the family are under. Dan Wylie's slippery lawyer is all too real. And James Frecheville in his first screen role is a revelation. The film I think however belongs to Mendelsohn. His character of Pope is electrifying, you never quite know what is going on with him and this makes him that much scarier.

To say too much about the story is too give away the twist and turns of this film that had me wondering the whole time where too next. And I mean that in a good way. I think they should apply the 'Psycho' rule to this film and not allow people into the film after twenty minutes.

Now your probably thinking come on give me the negatives but I really can't think of one. Oh wait yes I can. I have to wait another three weeks before I can watch this film again because I will watch it again and I hope to see you there.

Michod has given us one of the best Australian films since, I think, Chopper and I can't wait to see what he does next. And anyone who thought Underbelly the TV show nailed Australian crime are sorely mistaken. Animal Kingdom is what it's about, sure there aren't any tits on display, but instead you get a film, a drama that doesn't pander for the easy answer.

Mark June 3rd in your diary and do yourself a favour and go see this film, your time will not be wasted.

Thank you David Michod and too all those involved with this film.

The Burning Plain by Guillermo Arriaga

The Burning Plain is the debut feature from the astonishing writer Guillermo Arriaga.

Arriaga was formerly responsible for such spellbinding films like Babel, 21 Grams, Ameros Perros and The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada. Each of these films I was absolutely enthralled by and they would often make my top ten lists of that year. The films are thought provoking yet passionately engaged.

The Burning Plain is not in the same league as Arriaga other work but is still some of the most challenging work you will see. For the mere fact that it deals with two great female characters with such depth and honesty that is rarely seen today in cinema. BOth Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger give beautifully nuanced work. I was particularly moved by one scene in particular with Basinger who is so over come with passion for the first time in a long time that her body turns into a quivering mess. It is both heartbreaking and life affirming at the same time.

The film follows a similar path to Arriaga's other screenplays in that it opens with an incident that will effect the lives of others and then shoots off and investigates all of these lives whether they be before the event or after. The problem I had was that I got to the ending before the Arriaga, that is not to say there is a twist it's just that the last 10 to 15 minutes of the film goes about trying to tie things up, not neatly but connectedly and I either knew or didn't know. So it led to a prolonged ending that really spoilt the rest of the film for me. Which is a shame because the film is beautiful.

But as drama's go, there will be very few and far between that will be as rewarding as The Burning Plain this year. Not to mention very few films will give the audience so much credit and not pander for the easy option.

Thank you to all of those people involved for making smart and challengin drama in a fresh way.