For a year that started off slow and kept going slowly during the summer, 2010 really ratcheted up its game as soon as August rolled around. A boring year became an exciting one as picture after picture from the best directors working started pouring out. Just about all of my favorite directors put a picture out this year and they were all very, very good. It was a lackluster year for blockbusters but a terrific year for films that mean something more.  This list is my 10 favorites and honestly I could have probably done a top 20. There are some films it was painful to exclude here but this is how it shook down for me. As always, I would love to see comments, debate and your best of lists in the comments.

10. The Other Guys

As pure comedy goes, the Other Guys is the best of the year hands down. We were given another cop comedy in the form of Cop Out this year but as much as I like Kevin Smith, that wasn’t fit to smell the Other Guys shit. From director Adam McKay, the Other Guys continues the director’s pedigree of hilarious comedies. Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step-Brothers are daunting company to keep but the Other Guys does so with confidence. With terrific and hilarious performances from Will Ferrel, Mark Wahlberg and Michael Keaton, the Other Guys is great and surprised a lot of people expecting something less than.

09. Shutter Island

Based on the terrific novel by Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island is a wonderful mindbending thriller directed by Martin Scorsese. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, the film hits all the right notes in delivering intense psychological drama and growing paranoia. The visuals on display are both beautiful and creative and really sell the progression into psychological disturbance. Debuting early in the year and lost in the shuffle of exceptional films, Shutter Island isn’t getting talked about much and that is a goddamn crime. It was a great film with superior acting and direction and should absolutely not be missed.

08. The Kids are All Right

This film about a pair of adopted kids of a lesbian couple who reunite with their biological dad has some familiar turns and some cliches but succeeds on the strength of compelling writing and performances that seem so natural and off the cuff that you forget you are watching a scripted film. It is also very funny at times which defuses some of the awkwardness in the dramatic moments. Some people have been bothered by some of the events of the film but I think all of its moments are well earned and make sense in the context of the characters and the world they inhabit. At bottom, more than anything else, these characters feel like real people and that gives the film life and makes it very compelling.

07. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World is one of the most successful adaptations of any source material ever. Not successful commercially because people are dicks but in terms of doing what it set out to do and achieving tremendous quality it might be the most successful film ever. While it holds some emotional sting for me now due to certain events in my life, the film is fun, kinetic and unabashedly cool. It really helps if you are into video games but even if not the film is fast paced and unique in its presentation such that it shouldn’t be missed as long as you don’t have a stick in your ass. The performances rock across the board and every aspect drips quality. Edgar Wright is a great director and has turned in great movie after great movie but Scott Pilgrim may be his crowning achievement to date such is the quality and fun. It has a painful place in my heart so much that watching it sometimes makes me cry but  I still watch it over and over again and that should tell you how great it is.

06. Inception

A geek favorite long before release, Inception is the latest film from master director Christopher Nolan. A trippy and convoluted journey through the nature of dreams and reality, Inception has inspired much post film discussion and earned some backlash from those hipsters who feel the constant need to be outside the mainstream so much that they have to hate on things a lot of people love, which really shows how great it is. It may not be as deep as some people make it out to be but healthy discussion of the ending is warranted and amps up the fun of the thing. When you add in Nolan’s arresting visuals and a great performances from everyone involved you have a great piece of film that gets back to what epic filmmaking is all about. Nolan is a master and proves once again that the Dark Knight wasn’t a fluke but rather just another one of Nolan’s great films. This makes sense given that, to date,  all of his films are great. Inception is no exception.

05. The Town

The second directing effort by Ben Affleck gives us exactly the sort of heist movie I have been waiting for: One in which the robbers are REALLY good at what they do and so are the FBI agents chasing them. The robbers don’t make rookie mistakes that burn them (which is amazing since Affleck’s character dates one of his bank robbery victims) they just have a legit badass on their tail. Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Rebbecca Hall and Jon Hamm all turn in excellent performances that make the material really pop and feel as urgent as necessary. Affleck shows a sure hand behind the camera and again gives us a gritty and compelling crime drama set in Boston. His acting career took a hit but if it led to him directing films like this then maybe the whole J-Lo debacle wasn’t such a bad thing for him after all. The movie is dark and sometimes sad but it is always compelling and well made.

04. The Fighter

A great example of a talented director and a talented cast elevating a standard and well worn story, the Fighter is one of the best sports movies ever. It stands up to great company with Rocky and Raging Bull as a truly great boxing movie that does its work smoothly and with expert precision. Based on a true story, the characters are fully fleshed out and fully realized in a surprisingly intimate way and spectacle never gets in the way of the very real human drama playing out on screen. Christian Bale is particularly noteworthy for a very strong performance as Dicky Eklund, a washed up boxer struggling to beat crack addiction and  its crippling effect on his family. And that is essentially the B story. The Fighter is like a clinic on how to make this sort of movie and in any other year would have come out on top.

03. True Grit

There is still a lot of debate over this remake of the 1969 John Wayne classic. There are a lot of people who think it was a travesty to remake the film and who cannot accept this new version over the original but for my money the Coen Brother’s version is head and shoulders better. Hewing much more closely to the original Charles Portis Novel, this new version presents the story in a much grittier and more realistic way and brings a lot more of the humor to the surface. The performances are spot on for the tone of the film and help to distance this from the classic John Wayne vehicle. Despite sharing the same source material, this version is much different and should absolutely not be dismissed as a shoddy knock off. The visuals in the film are breathtaking and the pacing is perfect. The underlying themes are much more important here as well and the movie is that much better for it. It also has plenty to offer for repeat viewings and is one I will watch many more times.

02. The Social Network

There are a lot of people who refused to see this movie because of their intense and abiding hatred of Facebook, which is interesting as the primary reason I know this is because they posted it on a Facebook status update. Those people, and anyone who made the jokes about it being ‘Facebook: the Movie’ are frankly idiots. The film, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by the great David Fincher, provides a compelling and often hilarious account of the creation of Facebook and leaves all the warts and ugliness intact. This is not a puff promotional piece for Mark Zuckerberg but rather an unflinching look at rampant douchebaggery and betrayal. The performances across the board are great and some traipse into Oscar worthy territory. Everything about this movie works and works well from the score to the script to the directing to the acting and nothing falters. The pacing clips the film along without feeling rushed and this would surely be the best of the year if Black Swan didn’t exist.

01. Black Swan

Black Swan is a film about the obsession with perfection that achieves perfection itself. There is not a single missed note here and every scene and every performance is the best it could possibly be. This sounds bold but every moment is visually and emotionally arresting and the film has layer upon layer of worthwhile content for the viewer to digest. The themes are deep and intertwined and when you leave the theater you feel like you have really seen something amazing. The technical skill here from Darren Aronofsky is in a class all its own and the effects and camera work makes for a truly horrifying and disturbing experience. Natalie Portman turns in a performance that needs to win an Oscar and the rest of the cast shines even under her heavy shadow. The dance sequences are tight and well shot and serve to advance the story as much as to be beautiful. Hands down the best movie of the year and the best of many other years as well. There is a crowded class of great films this year but Black Swan is at the top. It was perfect.