Neil Upton's Top 10 Films of 2010
Matt here...
Neil Upton is the latest writer to have boarded Obsessed With Film this year but has already made a significant impact helping me out with the daily grind of movie news reporting, something which is getting tougher and tougher for me to provide as the site expands and my duties elsewhere in the running of this thing stack up.
His Top Ten of 2010 is below, and somewhat surprisingly - I think he's the only OWF-er who couldn't find room for The Social Network;
10. Shutter Island
Leonardo DiCaprio is fantastic as the rat in a maze in this beautifully filmed Gothic chiller from Martin Scorsese. I've had an irrational dislike of Leo in most of his work this last decade, always thinking of him as a boy playing men but this film marks the point where I started to take him seriously as a mature and an increasingly skilled actor. Glad to see Shutter Island finds a place on most the OWF writers lists despite it's very early in the year release. 9. The Ghost
Roman Polanski's best for some years. Ewan McGregor agrees to ghost write Pierce Brosnan's ex-British Prime Minister's memoirs, moves in with him, and starts to uncover his dark secret's and boffs his wife (Olivia Williams) to boot. All this is played out at a languid pace, yet it has a sense of escalating tension that is becoming rarer to find in modern thrillers. 8. Rec 2
Perhaps a strange choice to some, but the follow up to Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero's 2007 shocker is tremendously nasty fun. It's what Aliens is to Alien, sending in the heavy artillery to tackle the outbreak, upping the ante, deepening the mythology hinted at in the first and in many parts, scaring the shit out of me. Lovely stuff. 7. How To Train Your Dragon
Heartwarming, full of superbly developed characters and rip roaring set pieces. I was mightily surprised to find how invested in the story of Hiccup and his dragon friend Toothless I was. By far the best Dreamworks animation film to date. 6. Inception
Christopher Nolan lets loose with his original concept and uses his post-Dark Knight creative freedom to craft a precision engine of a movie that works on several levels, literally. Featuring a great ensemble cast (Tom Hardy being a standout) and fantastic action, it's that rarest of things, a summer blockbuster that doesn't treat its audience like a drooling simpleton. Though how we drooled at what he presented us... 5. The Hole
Possibly unfairly dismissed as a strictly kids film on release, Joe Dante's The Hole was scarier than any other mainstream horror this year (that clown puppet, cripes). When the three lead children, charmingly, not irritatingly played by Chris Massoglia, Haley Bennett and Nathan Gamble were sitting at the bottom of the basement stairs armed with paintball guns and improvised armour guarding the titular hole, I felt like a kid again. Joe Dante's movie has this innate 80s vibe and warmth that radiates from it which makes it stand out as authentic, as opposed to the spate of 80s aesthetic horrors and remakes that have been shat out by Hollywood and the independents over the past few years. Plus, its got Bruce Dern in it too! 4. Kick Ass
Fantastically violent, morally reprehensible, it's oh so wrong but for all the right reasons and not nearly as successful in theatres as it deserved. Gleefull, over the top, unapologetic fun. Hope we get the sequel. 3. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Released in the U.K. this year and featuring an off the wall performance from Nicolas Cage, drugs, iguanas and dancing souls! Werner Herzog and Nic Cage come together and seem so perfect a match it makes me wonder why they didn't find each other sooner but let's hope they do again in the future... 
2.Four Lions
This film didn't really offend the masses as I or probably the filmmakers expected it to. Sure there were a few dissenting voices, mostly from the Daily Mail reading contingent but no big stink. The fact that it didnt, I feel, is a testament to the fine writing and superbly measured performances by our Dads Army of would be martyrs. Painfully funny, heartbreaking and endlessly quotable. Chris Morris knocks it out of the park on this and has set himself quite a benchmark. 1. A Prophet
Tahar Rahim makes an explosive debut performance as naive French Algerian kid Malik, on his first stretch in the the big house. He's forced to choose allegiance with the Corsican mob or the North Africans and begins learning from the big boys and rising through the ranks. This is simply one of the best prison/crime flicks of all time, regardless of country. Classic Movie Unseen Until This Year
Night of the Hunter (1955)
I don't know how this one escaped me for so long however it was on tv a couple of months back and I decided to drop everything and finally sit down and watch this classic, directed by actor Charles Laughton. For those unaware Night of the Hunter follows bogus preacher Harry Powell, played by Robert Mitchum as he ingratiates his way into the lives of his dead fellow convicts wife (Lillian Gish) and her two children to try and find the whereabouts of his stash. Of course at the time and with these simple rural folk, he, as a preacher is trusted implicitly, but the children sense something different and the film plays out like a childrens nightmare as we follow the kids in their escape from this boogeyman after he kills their mother. This is a beautiful looking picture, with some of the finest black and white cinematography I have ever seen (the river scene being a standout). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5AKK_om1VU Of course Mitchum's performance as Harry Powell is epic. He truly is one of the most despicable characters ever to be put to film and Mitchum plays him with with such menace, head and shoulders above more recent screen psychos. It's odd to see such dark subject matter in a Hollywood film of the 50's and it's expertly handled by actor Laughton, who never directed another movie. Criterion recently put out a Blu-ray transfer which you can ship into the U.K. from Axel Music at £25.16... can't think of a better way to spend your Christmas money.