I just complete my New Year’s Resolution: Watch more films ( in a movie theater) than the year before. Well Conviction was the number 101 movie of the year. So I decide to post an special post listing the top 10 of the year so far.
10. Holy Rollers
Sam Gold is a Hasidic Jew in his late teens who lives with his family in Brooklyn. Sam’s father, Mendel, runs a fabric store and Sam helps out when he isn’t busy with his rabbinical studies. But Mendel isn’t an especially good businessman, a fact that’s become very obvious to Sam, and his uncertain financial future has caused his fiancée’s parents to call off the couple’s upcoming wedding. Sam is also suffering from jealousy his neighbor, Leon, who seems to have better luck in life. When Leon’s older brother, Yosef, offers Sam some good-paying part-time work, he’s more than interested. Sam is instructed to fly to Amsterdam, pick up a parcel, and bring it back; it’s not until he comes home to New York that it dawns on Sam that he’s transporting drugs. One of the most amazing facts is that all is true.
9. Shutter Island
U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule go to Shutter Island on a ferry boat to the home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient, Rachel Solando. At Rachel’s room, Teddy discover a hint that points to a 67th patient, when there are allegedly only 66. Teddy also reveals to Chuck that he is there to avenge the death of his wife Dolores, who was murdered two years prior by one of the inmates, Andrew Laeddis.
Teddy also discovers an ex-psychiatrist, who says she is the real Rachel Solando, hiding in sea caves. She explains that he has no friends on the island and is himself a prisoner. She warns him to be careful that food, medication, even cigarettes he has taken have been laced with psychotropic drugs. Upon returning to the hospital, Teddy cannot find Chuck and is told he had no partner. He escapes and makes his way to the lighthouse to rescue Chuck where he believes the experiments take place. He reaches the top of the lighthouse and finds only hospital administrator Dr. Cawley seated at a desk. Cawley tells Teddy that he is Andrew Laeddis (an anagram of Edward Daniels) and that he murdered his wife two years ago after she murdered their three children. The man he thinks is Chuck is his psychiatrist, Dr Sheehan.
8. City Island
Set in a quaint fishing community on the outskirts of New York City, City Island is a hilarious and touching tale about a family whose comfortable co-existence is upended by surprising revelations of past secrets and present day lies. Vince Rizzo is a lifelong resident of the tiny, tradition-steeped Bronx enclave of City Island. A family man who makes his living as a corrections officer, Vince longs to become an actor. Ashamed to admit his aspirations to his family, Vince would rather let his fiery wife Joyce believe his weekly poker games are a cover for an extramarital affair than admit he’s secretly taking acting classes in Manhattan.At the same time he brings home ex-con to live with them at the same time that his daughter who they believe is college and had quit to became a strip dancer came to visit. A perfect storm of deception, half truths and confusion makes Vince and his family members realize that the truth may not set them free, but it is easier to keep track of than all their well-intentioned white lies.
7. From Paris with love 
A personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reese has an enviable life in Paris and a beautiful French girlfriend, but his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. Reese wants to become a higher level agent with more responsibilities. As the result of a shortage of agents in France, he is assigned partner to special agent Charlie Wax.
Reese’s first test is to have Wax released from airport detention by the French Customs when Wax does not want to surrender the cans of his favorite energy drink. Wax explains that he has been sent to Paris to investigate a drug ring, as the result of an overdose of a niece of the Secretary of Defense.Later, Wax reveals that there was no overdose – their goal is to trace the money back to a circle of Pakistani terrorists. Wax and Reese learn that the terrorists plan to infiltrate the Embassy with explosives.
6. The Tilman Story
I already said enough about this movie, please check my post: My weekend in films: The Tilman Story
5. The Runaways 
The movie is a sugar coated version of the autobiographical book of Cherrie Currie “Neon Angel”. The movie narrated the road took by Joan Jett to created the Runaways and the one Cherrie Currie choose to get there and after. The movie goes from creating their style to the Japanese tour when they lost 2 of the original members of the band. And at the end we can even see a gleam of Joan Jett of the 80’s. The movie is great only with one big problem for me: Dakota Fanning, she might have the look but never the voice of Cherrie Currie.
4. Inception
Everybody saw this one. Dominic and Arthur are on an corporate espionage mission within the mind of a powerful Japanese businessman Saito through his dreams. The mission fails but Saito reveals that he is in fact auditioning the team to perform the act of inception as a trade to get Dominic what he wants.
The target is Robert Fischer, the objective is to convince Fischer to break up his father’s empire. Cobb recruits Eames, a forger who can change appearance inside dreams, Yusuf , a sedative chemist, and Ariadne, a student whom he and Arthur train as an architect to design dream worlds. The team share the flight with Robert Fischer and drug him. They enter the dream and kidnap Fischer. There they come under attack by Fischer’s subconscious projections, they have to be careful because due to the strength of the sedatives and multiple dream layers, death will result in the person going into limbo, a world of unconstructed dream space, for a seemingly indefinite time.
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
An hilarious movie created with the most marvelous collage of pop culture I’ve ever seen. The movie is based in tehh comic book series by Brian Lee O’Malley even when their discrepancies I love it.
Scott Pilgrim, the bass guitarist for the band “Sex Bob-omb”, begins dating high schoolerKnives Chau. He later meets a mysterious American girl named Ramona Flowers and falls in love with her, losing interest in Knives. Scott is attacked by Matthew Patel, who introduces himself as the first of Ramona’s evil exes. Scott defeats Patel and learns from Ramona that, in order for them to date, he must defeat all seven of her evil exes, who have joined forces to destroy Scott and control Ramona’s love life.
After learning that popular actor and skateboarder Lucas Lee, the second evil ex, is coming to Toronto to film a movie, Scott is forced to break up with Knives, who is devastated and becomes obsessed with winning him back from Ramona. Scott successfully defeats Lee by tricking him into performing a dangerous skateboard stunt. He later encounters the third evil ex, Todd Ingram, who is currently dating Scott’s ex-girlfriend Envy Adams. Todd initially overpowers Scott using his psychic veganabilities, but is stripped of his powers by the Vegan Police.
Scott begins to grow upset with Ramona over her dating history by the defeat of the fourth evil ex Roxy Richter , causing their relationship to falter. Sex Bob-omb faces off against the fifth and six evil exes, twin Katayanagi brothers, earning Scott an extra life upon the twins’ defeat. Scott challenges Gideon (last evil ex) to a fight, where Scott professes his love for Ramona and gains the “Power of Love” sword which he uses to fight Gideon.
2. Toy Story 3
I cried with this one, and is definitely one of the best movies of Pixar. Andy has outgrown his old toys and is preparing to go to college. He decides to take Woody with him and packs the other toys intending to store them in the attic, but mistakenly are donated to Sunnyside Daycare. As the only toy who saw what really happened, Woody tries to clear up the misunderstanding, but they are driven to Sunnyside before he can. The toys receive a warm welcome from the toys at Sunnyside, led by Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear. Woody tries to convince the others to return to Andy, but they decide they are happier at Sunnyside, so he leaves without them. Lotso assigned them to the younger kids. Lotso reset Buzz to his original, deluded space ranger self.
As he escapes Sunnyside, Woody is found and taken in by Bonnie, a girl from the daycare. Woody learns from Bonnie’s toys that Sunnyside is a toy prison run with an iron fist by Lotso, who became ruthless and unempathic towards kids. At the daycare, the others discover that Andy is looking for them when Mrs. Potato Head sees him through her missing eye, which was lost in Andy’s room. The toys try to leave but are imprisoned by Lotso and his henchmen, including the reset Buzz. Upon his return to Sunnyside, Woody meets the Chatter Telephone, who informs Woody of the security measures that Lotso has put in place, the key to which is the monkey who has access to all the security cameras. He then reveals that he has not fallen to Lotso because they never ‘broke’ him. Woody then joins his friends to help them escape. In the process, they accidentally reset Buzz to his Spanish mode during the escape, though he returns to their side. The toys use a garbage chute to reach a bin outside the daycare, but Lotso and his henchmen catch them. Lotso then brings the Chatter Telephone who tells them that they finally ‘broke’ him. Woody and his friends convince the henchmen and Lotso’s right-hand toy Big Baby of Lotso’s treachery, so they throw Lotso into the bin. However, Lotso pulls Woody into the bin just before a garbage truck arrives, forcing the others to rescue him, with Buzz returning to normal in the process.
The truck takes the toys to a waste plant where they are forced onto a conveyor belt for disposal. Woody helps Lotso and the others escape a shredder, but Lotso leaves them to slide into an incinerator, and as they approach the flames, the toys silently accept their impending end as a family. But before the incinerator can melt them, the toys are rescued by a giantclaw crane operated by the squeeze toy aliens.
1. The social network
Definitely the movie of the year (so far). This movie is a real master piece have great direction, flawless script and really emotional performances. The movie not only talk to use to the creation of the biggest social experiment in the human history but also makes wonder in the true nature of the man behind it. I will like to write down the plot for you to read but I know one of my readers haven’t seen yet for the late release in Latin America so I will do it in the ultimate 2010 list. BTW. If The social network was already release in your area and you haven’t seen it, you are missing a truly master pieces.
Coco's Film List 