4. Black Swan
Black Swan is a film where the director is essentially the main character. The camera in this film is as much of a ballerina as the main characters, and I cannot say the same for any other film I saw this year. Black Swan is a decent into madness, making the viewer constantly question everything. It grips and warps your mind like how Darren Aronofsky only can, or as a friend of mine said, "Black Swan is an epic beast to be reckoned with!" Except this movie to be on my "Top 10 love-making scenes."
3. Toy Story 3
When I heard that Pixar was finally releasing Toy Story 3 eleven years after Toy Story 2, and fifteen after the original, I became a little nervous. After releasing so many quality films, one would think that they would eventually churn out something lousy, after all, its the third movie in the franchise! But Toy Story means something to me, it's one of the first films I ever remember seeing in theaters. Could Pixar recapture the magic of the first two films? Yes, they did.
This is not a film for kids, this is a film for everybody that ever left their parents' house or ever had to say goodbye to a friend. Toy Story isn't about toys, its about the fragility of innocence and the influence of childhood. To quote A House at Pooh Corner (one of my favorite books,)
"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."
"How old shall I be then?"
"Ninety-nine."
Pooh nodded.
"I promise," he said.
2. The Social Network
When Oliver Stone released W. back in October of 2008, he produced a well-acted, well-directed, well-scripted film that completely missed the point of the Bush presidency. As a history major, I can say there is a danger in writing the textbooks too soon. The Social Network is a film that perfectly captures the time period of the Noughties decade, while transcending it for an eternally truthful story about the lust for power and the effect of technology on our lives. This is a film that has a seemingly trivial premise, the origin of Facebook, and turns it into a battle of ideas over what now could be seen as the most powerful innovation in communication and human interaction since the telephone. The technical aspects of this film are about as close to perfect as one can get: the acting, directing, music, editing, cinematography, and, oh-my-gosh, the dialogue. This movie is the anti-Juno; the characters may speak fast, and not like anybody you have ever met, but it sounds so interesting, and surrealistically, natural. This being unlike the Diablo Cody script that's stuffed full of jarring pop-culture references that speak more of the writer than the characters. This is the best film about the 2000s made in the vicinity of the said decade.
1. Inception
Much like The Social Network, Inception focus is on the power of ideas, how they shape us, and how we can shape them. I'll go out and say it, Inception is better than the Dark Knight, and just an amazing film altogether. Its complicated, but unlike say, the films of David Lynch or Lost, which are meant to be surreal and confusing, Inception thrusts the viewer into a world of manipulating dreams, with their own warped, but controllable, logic. It's so hard to find an action movie with this much brains, heart (just watch Leo act; he is officially the man,) and soul. The spiritual essence of Inception is the battle between the outside world of war, instability, and one's own restless subconscious. In an age of increasing isolation and escalating world conflict, I can think of no other Hollywood film that simultaneously entertained me while seriously examining the human condition.
(And I say it's real at the end.)
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