My Year at the Movies 2010

I know. I know. We're nearly two weeks into the New Year, and I'm just now getting around to talking about last year's movies. Sorry. It's been busy. Work. Sleep. Repeat.

In spite of my work schedule the back half of 2010, though, I somehow managed to see more movies on the big screen than ever before, squeaking past my previous record by one. (True Grit, which I saw Christmas Eve, did the trick.)

Rather than going through all 32 movies, though, I'll just give you the highlights (and, where appropriate, the lowlights).

The best movie I saw last year:Inception. I know some people think this movie is overly, needlessly, hopelessly convoluted and complicated. (Chicago Reader critic J.R. Jones started off his review by asking, "Does this thing come with a manual?") I didn't. I actually found its complexity compelling. It forced me to pay attention to what was happening on the various levels of dreamscape woven through exhilarating action sequences. A thinking-person's action film? Apparently, such exists.

The worst movie I saw last year:Jonah Hex. This was such a missed opportunity. Had the DC Comics character been adapted to the big screen as a straightforward western, which there seems to be a market for, given the success of True Grit (which also stars Josh Brolin), it might have succeeded. Instead, the character was transformed into a supernatural being with an insanely hot girlfriend (Megan Fox) and given more gimmicks than James Bond. Also? The film as released didn't even look finished. You can see my full review here.

The most underrated movie I saw last year:Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Michael Cera is badly miscast as the title character--his low-key acting style doesn't work in scenes that require declarations of love and/or cartoony action--but Edgar Wright's visual sense is so dazzling and witty and fun that I fargive the film Cera's underwhelming performance and happily went along for the ride. It still tanked at the box office, but seems to be doing well on home video, just like I thought it would. Nice to be right every once in a while.

The most overrated movie I saw last year:Black Swan. I can think of many more pleasant, fulfilling ways to spend an afternoon than watching Natalie Portman rapidly go self-destructively insane. There's no denying the intensity of Portman's performance--she's sure to be nominated for an Oscar and has a strong possibility of winning--but writer/director Darren Aronofsky tips his hand so early and obviously that I knew where this film was going within the first five minutes. That doesn't make Black Swan a bad movie--just a resolutely unpleasant one for me.

The movie I was most happy to see last year:The Complete Metropolis. When Fritz Lang's silent sci-fi masterpiece was last restored early in the 2000s, that was supposed to be the end of the matter, the best that film historians and restoration experts could do, even though 20% of the movie's original running time was still missing--and, it was presumed, always would be. Then, something happened: a 16mm safety print of a badly battered but more-or-less-complete print of the original cut of Metropolis had been discovered in Buenos Aires. The rediscovered footage is in rough shape--scratched, dirty and deteriorated--but it nonetheless fills the gaps in plot and character development that have existed for 80-plus years. It was something I--and damn near every other classic cinema fan in the world--thought I'd never see. Yet, there I was in the fabulous Music Box Theatre with JB and Scooter (oh yeah, and the Evil Bunny), witnessing the seemingly impossible.

And now, here we are in 2011. What's my plan for this year? Pretty much the same as it is every year--catch more movies than I did the year before. Only this year, I'll try to get more screenings in before the last quarter of the year, when my work schedule shifts from "challenging" to "insane."