NZ Critics Name Aussie Drama the Film of the Year

Friday 17 December 2010

Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom has topped a list of the best movies of 2010.

New Zealand's premiere movie website Flicks.co.nz has named David Michôd’s debut feature, starring Joel Edgerton and Guy Pearce, as the movie of the year, describing it as “gripping… an engrossing tale of a family’s fall”.

In second place was David Fincher’s stylish retelling of the creation of Facebook, The Social Network, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake.

Kiwi coming-of-age comedy Boy, directed by Taika Waititi, was also a favourite. In addition to its success as New Zealand’s highest-ever grossing film, it was described as “distinctly kiwi, in all the good ways”.

The list, collated by the website’s reviewers, ranges from blockbusters (sci-fi thriller Inception) to arthouse (A Single Man) with two foreign-language films – prison drama A Prophet, from France, and thriller The Secret in their Eyes, from Argentina.

Veteran directors Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski were judged to be as relevant as ever, with both their respective films, Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer making the cut.

Leonardo DiCaprio has the honour of appearing twice, for both his role as a gumshoe detective in Shutter Island and as a dream invader in Inception. Likewise, George Clooney, who was the voice of Mr Fox in Fantastic Mr Fox and a lovelorn traveler in Up in the Air.

It was the year of animation. Wes Anderson’s foray into stop-motion, Fantastic Mr Fox, Pixar’s trilogy-capper Toy Story 3 and Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon were all favourites.

Unique comedies came in the form of comic-book adaptations, with R-rated Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Flicks.co.nz's Top 10 for 2010:

1. Animal Kingdom
2. The Social Network
3. A Prophet
4. Fantastic Mr Fox
5. Toy Story 3
6. Boy
7. Inception
8. Shutter Island
9. The Ghost Writer
10. Winter’s Bone

For the full top 20 and more, visit Flicks.co.nz

ENDS

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