2010 Movie Achievement Awards including the Best Performances of the Year

I now present you with my 2010 Movie Achievement Awards. These awards are presented in random categories giving credit to films and people for random things. I'll let the Oscars do their thing and I'll do mine. But I'll start out with a classier award and name the best acting performances of the year. I chose 17 and ranked them all. After that list, I've awarded nine more awards.

17. Noomi Rapace in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Rapace plays Lizbeth Salander, as captivating a character I've seen in years, in the first of author Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy adaptations.

16. Paul Giamatti in Barney's Version

Giamatti is still super underrated. He plays Barney who marries three different women in record timing. He is his own worst enemy. He is accused of murder and he's on the verge of ruining his marriage to his third wife who is easily the best thing that has happened to him.

15. Javier Bardem in Biutiful

Bardem is such a gifted actor. He has the power to manipulate his facial features to display any emotion with conviction. Biutiful might have been utterly lifeless without him.

14. James Franco in 127 Hours

For the majority of the movie, Franco is on screen alone. It takes a masterful actor to pull off a feat like that. It looks like Franco is going to be one of the best of his generation.

13. Melissa Leo in The Fighter

Leo is a hard-working veteran, and she's finally getting noticed. She received her second Oscar nomination in three years, and as of right now, she's probably the favorite to win.

12. Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit

At 13 years old at the time of filming, Steinfeld plays the tough and quick-thinking Mattie Ross. With a monster cast including Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, Steinfeld definitely holds her own.

11. Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech

Rush plays Lionel Logue who was King Edward VI's speech therapist. Rush plays Logue as a man that commands attention, in a quiet fashion. He seems so confident that Edward, though reluctant at first, agrees to trust Logue and they form a quick and comfortable friendship. It's always a treat to watch Rush at work.

10. Andrew Garfield in The Social Network

Garfield is the stand-out performance in a very well-acted movie. He plays Eduardo Saverin who was Mark Zuckerberg's right-hand man while creating Facebook. Eduardo, like several others, sued Zuckerberg because he felt he was betrayed and didn't get as much money as he should have. Garfield builds Eduardo to come across as a reliable and loyal friend, one who would never betray people he cares about. Now whether the real Eduardo was like that, I don't know, but Garfield plays the part well.

9. Jeff Bridges in True Grit

The role of Rooster Cogburn was first portrayed famously by John Wayne in 1969. Bridges had the extremely difficult task of staying true to the character without just imitating Wayne. Well his Cogburn definitely doesn't seem reminiscent of Wayne's, it actually doesn't seem reminiscent of Bridges either. Cogburn is a cranky, but efficient U.S. Marshall, who is hired by a young girl (Hailee Steinfeld) to find her father's killer. Bridges defines his take on Cogburn and plays him consistently throughout the film.

8. Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone

Lawrence plays Ree, a tough-as-nails 17-year-old from the Ozarks, who has to find her drug-dealing father, who's gone missing, or prove he's dead to the local police or her and her family will lose their house. With her father gone, Ree is now in charge and she takes on the responsibility with ease. Lawrence gives Ree a lot of life and we believe that she'll be able to accept her father's death if it means the rest of her family will be safe. At, 20 she's one of the youngest actresses ever to be nominated for a leading role Oscar.

7. Jeremy Renner in The Town

Renner is really the only reason to see The Town. He plays James Coughlin, a bank robber in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. James is that member every group of movie criminals has that is probably the most gifted, but could potentially do something to get everybody caught. Renner defines James' personality as a guy who doesn't just rob banks for money, but robs them because he likes doing it. He doesn't even seem that scared of going to jail.

6. Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine

Williams, along with costar Ryan Gosling, play a married couple whose relationship is unraveling. There's no defined reason this is happening, but they attempt to help it by taking a weekend trip together. They know it's worth saving because they were once crazy in love with each other. Williams' character is obviously sad that she doesn't feel for her husband what she once did. Williams plays the part very realistically and we can see her wanting it to work, but we know there's a chance she doesn't think it's possible.

5. Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine

Williams' costar was just as good, maybe a little better. I'm quickly becoming a big fan of Gosling's. He's got great presence on film, and in Blue Valentine he gives a truly authentic performance. He plays a husband and father who deals with everyday problems, including a dog that ran away from home and a marriage slowly crumbling. But we get the back story too and we observe how he and his wife (Michelle Williams) first meet and fall in love. Those scenes are some of the sweetest and most romantic I've ever seen. Gosling got robbed on Oscar morning.

4. Colin Firth in The King's Speech

I was rooting for Firth to win the Oscar last year for A Single Man, but luckily he churned out another brilliant performance this year. He plays Edward VI, whose path to the throne gets shorter and shorter as he battles a speech impediment. The scenes where he struggles to get through sentences are agonizing to watch because Firth allows us to feel his character's desperation to improve.

3. Lesley Manville in Another Year

As the movie begins, Manville's Mary is a supporting character. But slowly she turns into the most important and moving character in the movie. By the end she's, no doubt, the lead. Mary is a character so realistic, we all probably know someone like her. I was really disappointed to find out she wasn't nominated for an Oscar.

2. Christian Bale in The Fighter

Bale had a lot of people up in arms about his Batman voice in The Dark Knight. Well I think it's safe to say he's redeemed himself. He is barely recognizable as Dicky Eklund, Micky Ward's brother and trainer. He lost a lot of weight for the part, as he's been known to do in the past, and truly becomes Dicky. There's a brief scene at the end when we meet the real Dicky and we realize how perfect Bale was.

1. Natalie Portman in Black Swan

Portman has already proven herself as a superb actress, but she is incredible in Black Swan. Her character, Nina Sayers, is a fragile ballet dancer who is in the midst of two battles that are consuming her life. One battle is with her fellow dancers who are also auditioning for Swan Lake. The focus being the relaxed and laid-back Lily (Mila Kunis) who Nina wishes she could be more like. The other battle is one within herself. Portman plays Nina as a girl who wants to be a perfect dancer which is slowly causing her to lose her mind. I think it's absolutely the best performance of the year and I hope Portman wins her first Oscar for it.

Now on to some random achievement awards.

Best Achievement by Siblings

The Mara sisters - Rooney and Kate Mara are young actresses that are on the cusp of making it big. And, as it turns out, they both had parts in Best Picture nominees this year. Kate was in 127 Hours and Rooney played Mark Zuckerberg's ex-girlfriend in The Social Network.

Most Jaw-dropping Ending

Buried

In a movie about a man being buried alive, there's really only one of two ways it can end. But with the right setup and tension, any ending can knock you out. I was absolutely stunned.

Worst Movie of the Year

Country Strong

Now, I'm not a fan of making negative lists, so I wouldn't feel comfortable making a list of worst movies of the year, but I have no problem naming one. Country Strong is absolutely dreadful. And I think whether you like country music or not is completely irrelevant. It's an awful movie any way you slice it.

The "Good Movie that Sounds Horrible When You Read its Synopsis" Award
Never Let Me Go

It is a very good film, but when I read the back of the DVD cover, I thought I was in for a suck fest. Tell me if you agree.

"Sheltered teens Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley), and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) all grew up at a remote English boarding school, and now they're hungry to explore the real world. Their dreams of freedom are soon stifled, however, upon learning that they are nothing more than clones created specifically for organ harvesting." Read the bold line again. I know right? Doesn't that sound ridiculous? But, trust me, it's not. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Best Achievement in Music

Daft Punk for Tron: Legacy
The Tron sequel would have been completely disappointing if not for Daft Punk's excellent score. If you don't want to see the movie, just get the soundtrack and blast it. That'll be enough.

Most Unexpected Performance by a Legendary Actor
Robert DeNiro in Machete

Playing a corrupt Texas senator who at one point films himself shooting illegal immigrants, DeNiro is true to form. You can't accuse DeNiro of ever taking a scene off. He's good in everything.

Best Looking Movie

Shutter Island

I knew this film was helmed by the great Martin Scorsese, but I still didn't expect Shutter Island to be as attractive as it is. There are great, gloomy shots of the island as well as bright colorful shots in flashbacks and dream-like sequences. I, unfortunately, didn't see it in the theater, but I can imagine how much better it would be.

Most Violent Movie

Kick-Ass

Whoa. To say I wasn't expecting that much violence would be a major understatement. The violence didn't turn me off, but it was noticeably gruesome at parts. Not to mention a large amount of the killing in the movie comes from the hands of an 11-year old girl.

The "Who Needs Words to be Funny" Award

Maximus the Horse and Pascal the Chameleon in Tangled

The two most entertaining characters in Tangled don't say a word. In most Disney movies, animals can talk, but in Tangled words aren't necessary for these two. They load the screen with sight gags that would make Charlie Chaplin and Harpo Marx proud.

That's it for the 2010 Achievement Awards. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my favorite movies of the year and my final Oscar predictions before the ceremony on Sunday.

The picture at the very top of the page is of Christian Bale in The Fighter.