Top 10 Movies of 2010

Top 10 Movies of 2010

We are continuing our tradition of presenting multiple viewpoints from all of our writers that add up to some sort of hodgepodge representing the best movies of 2010. This year, we've increased the number of writers from 10 to 13. The method is simple: 13 critics vote for their 10 favorite films. Films are assigned points based on their ranking, and -- BAM! We have a list that no one is TOTALLY happy about but sure causes much heated debate, at least among ourselves and hopefully with you as well. Many called 2010 an awful year for movies. We're not going to make such a sweeping, shortsighted statement, but we will say this: As a group, we ended up naming 56 different films on our lists. Does this mean 2010 was a great year? No. It just means that there were great movies if you looked for them. Hopefully, this list will celebrate films that you, too, love, but also introduce you to new titles.
10. 'Sweetgrass'

9. 'Exit Through the Gift Shop'

8. 'Toy Story 3'

7. 'Dogtooth'

6. 'Let Me In'

5. 'Carlos'

4. 'The Ghost Writer'

3. 'Winter's Bone'

2. 'Black Swan'

1. 'The Social Network'

individual top 10 lists

individual top 10 lists
Sean Axmaker 1. Carlos
2. The Social Network
3. Let Me In
4. White Material
5. Red Riding trilogy
6. Winter's Bone
7. Black Swan
8. Wild Grass
9. Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl
10. Sweetgrass
Jim Emerson
1. The Social Network
2. Carlos
3. Sweetgrass
4. Mother
5. Let Me In
6. The Killer Inside Me
7. Winter's Bone
8. Dogtooth
9. The Kids Are All Right
10. The American
Richard T. Jameson
1. The Ghost Writer
2. Let Me In
3. Winter's Bone
4. The Social Network
5. Sweetgrass
6. The Kids Are All Right
7. Hereafter
8. A Prophet
9. Please Give
10. tie: The American / White Material
Don Kaye
1. Black Swan
2. Inception
3. The Social Network
4. A Prophet
5. Monsters
6. Another Year
7. Exit Through the Gift Shop
8. Winter's Bone
9. Animal Kingdom
10. Rabbit Hole
Glenn Kenny
1. Carlos
2. The Social Network
3. Everyone Else
4. Bluebeard
5. Toy Story 3
6. Black Swan
7. Wild Grass
8. Fish Tank
9. Shutter Island
10. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Dave McCoy
1. The Social Network
2. Black Swan
3. Winter's Bone
4. Red Riding trilogy
5. Dogtooth
6. Another Year
7. Splice
8. The Ghost Writer
9. Down Terrace
10. Carlos
Kim Morgan
1. Black Swan
2. The Social Network
3. Somewhere
4. The Ghost Writer
5. Enter the Void
6. Carlos
7. Mother
8. Life During Wartime
9. Unstoppable
10. Jackass 3D
Kat Murphy
1. The Ghost Writer
2. Winter's Bone
3. Let Me In
4. Sweetgrass
5. A Prophet
6. The Social Network
7. Please Give
8. The Kids Are All Right
9. White Material
10. Black Swan
Frank Paiva
1. Exit Through the Gift Shop
2. Mother
3. Dogtooth
4. Black Swan
5. Winnebago Man
6. Last Train Home
7. Endhiran (Robot)
8. Toy Story 3
9. The Social Network
10. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Mary Pols
1. The Social Network
2. Toy Story 3
3. The Kids Are All Right
4. Fish Tank
5. I Am Love
6. Black Swan
7. Please Give
8. Another Year
9. True Grit
10. Rabbit Hole
Bryan Reesman
1. Inception
2. Remember Me
3. Predators
4. Micmacs
5. The Ghost Writer
6. Daybreakers
7. Iron Man 2
8. Green Zone
9. How Do You Know
10. Toy Story 3
James Rocchi
1. Black Swan
2. Dogtooth
3. The Social Network
4. Winter's Bone
5. Exit Through the Gift Shop
6. And Everything Is Going Fine
7. True Grit
8. How to Train Your Dragon
9. Rabbit Hole
10. White Material
Glenn Whipp
1. True Grit
2. Black Swan
3. Another Year
4. Winter's Bone
5. Toy Story 3
6. Last Train Home
7. 127 Hours
8. Cyrus
9. The Ghost Writer
10. Exit Through the Gift Shop

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Hollywood's Stars Real A List

 There are few actors who can open blockbusters around the world and still win Oscar nominations. With awards season just around the corner, we take a look at those who can do both. We looked at every actor and actress who was nominated for an Academy Award in the last five years. We ranked them first by box office earnings for films they starred in over the same period, and second by number of nominations, and then combined the two rankings to come up with a final list.

Johnny Depp

Box office earnings: $4 billion
Oscar nominations: 3
Few stars have had careers like Johnny Depp. The actor, who got his start as a cop on 21 Jump Street, has managed to stay unconventional by taking characters like Captain Jack Sparrow in odd directions. At the same time he's one of the biggest movie stars in the world. On top of that, the Academy loves him.

Meryl Streep

Box office earnings: $1.5 billion
Oscar nominations: 16
In recent years Streep has shown that an older woman can still be a big box office draw. Mamma Mia was a huge hit, earning $610 million at the global box office. Her comedies Julie & Julia and It's Complicated both did well at the box office. Next up for Streep: She'll play Margaret Thatcher in the film Iron Lady.

Robert Downey Jr.

Box office earnings: $2.5 billion
Oscar nominations: 2
At one point in Robert Downey Jr.'s career it looked like he might follow the drug-addled path so many other actors had gone down. But he managed to turn himself around, and he's now one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Downey is slated to play Iron Man for a third time in the 2012 film The Avengers.

Will Smith

Box office earnings: $2 billion
Oscar nominations: 2
Smith is arguably the biggest movie star in the world. He's been out of the spotlight recently while producing The Karate Kid, which starred his son Jaden. But he'll be back in 2012 with Men in Black 3. Smith was nominated once for playing Muhammad Ali and once for The Pursuit of Happyness.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Box office earnings: $1.8 billion
Oscar nominations: 3
With this year's Shutter Island and Inception, DiCaprio is having the best year of his career. He could be looking at a fourth Oscar nomination for the twisty Inception, which earned $824 million at the box office, making it DiCaprio's second-highest-grossing film of all time--after, of course, Titanic.

Brad Pitt

Box office earnings: $1.7 billion
Oscar nominations: 2
Pitt earned his second nomination for 2008's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was also one of his highest-grossing films of all time. Next up for the heartthrob: He'll play Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane in the movie version of Moneyball.

Cate Blanchett

Box office earnings: $1.4 billion
Oscar nominations: 5
Blanchett is an Oscar favorite. She seems to get a nod for almost every film she stars in, but she's only won once, for her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn in the 2004 film The Aviator. Her films also do well at theaters. The recent Robin Hood earned $312 million at the global box office.

Heath Ledger

Box office earnings: $1.4 billion
Oscar nominations: 2
Ledger's work as The Joker in The Dark Knight was the kind of performance that launches young actors to the next level. Sadly, he passed away before the film hit theaters. It earned him a posthumous Oscar, though, and the film brought in $1 billion at the global box office.

Matt Damon

Box office earnings: $1.4 billion
Oscar nominations: 3
Damon's up-and-down career has included hits like the Bourne films and flops like the recent The Informant. He won an Oscar for writing the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, which he also starred in. Next up for Damon: True Grit, which could earn him a fourth nomination.

George Clooney

Box office earnings: $1 billion
Oscar nominations: 5
Clooney used to have a "one-for-them, one-for-me" model of choosing films, working blockbusters like Ocean's Thirteen onto his slate. Now he seems focused only on smaller, artier films. When those are films like Up in the Air, which earned $163 million on an estimated budget of $25 million, he gets rewarded at the Oscars and at the box office.

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