Top 15 Films of 2010

RED One Digital Camera; what many of this years most acclaimed films were shot on, including The Social Network

In 2010 we witnessed numerous natural disasters across the world; from Chile and Haiti to the Gulf of Mexico and Pakistan people suffered in numbers that are difficult to fathom. That wasn't the only sort of suffering though, the world's financial troubles only seemed to deepen. Greece and Ireland both needed to be bailed out and numerous other countries were brought to the brink. Amid all of this turmoil and angst, in the face of an uncertain future, movies continued to be made. And it is in terms of all that is happening globally that this year's films are best analyzed.

In the 30's we reacted to the Great Depression with stories that all but ignored it. People wanted escapism on the sort of scale that they could only get at the movies. This time around (and maybe this says something about the scale of this crisis compared to that one) our greatest films tackle our problems head on. Small regional films like Winter's Bone, about a young girl who must do the unspeakable to protect her family, resonate far more than as isolated tales of woe and were more widely seen than they would have been even 5 years ago. Two other surprise box office successes in The Town and True Grit also tackled characters who were down and out, financially and otherwise. They are genre films tailored to our times, made with care and skill.