Let’s begin with No.10

10. The Secret in Their Eyes

 When I recommended this movie to others after watching it in this February, I was careful about not saying anything about a certain sequence. According to Wikipedia, it took two years for preparation and took another 9 months of editing process after three days of shooting to make this marvelous scene.

 And it is a heartfelt melodrama which also works well as an investigation drama with historical/political aspects. “The Secret of Their Eyes”, the Oscar winner for Best Foreign film in this year, shows a man and a woman in your typical office romance, and gives them a horrible case they will never forget. After 25 years, that case still haunts them, and Benjamin Esposito(Ricardo Darin) decides to write the novel based on that case. He meets Irene Hastings(Soledad Villamil) again, and we see what happened between them in the past along with the investigation process.

 Besides that stunning sequence, there are many good moments in this compelling mystery drama directed by Juan José Campanella. There is a clever deduction based on human weakness, and then we have a tense interrogation not far from TV series like “Law & Order”(Actually, Campanella directed several episodes in “Law & Order: SVU”) In addition, there is a very good chemistry between Darin and Villamil. While they’re walking together, they care about each other. But they don’t see their mutual feeling while it is transparent to the others – maybe because it is in their eyes, I think.

9. Mary and Max

 It is too bad this small but moving animation goes directly to the DVD market. “Mary and Max” is another delightful treat recommended to me(Thank you, Ali Arikan), and I’m going to recommend others in South Korea because it is fortunately “unofficially” available there.

 This clay-animation, directed by Adam Elliot who won Best short animation Oscar for “Harvie Krumpet”, is about the bittersweet friendship between two lonely people separated by a long distance. Mary(Bethany Whitmore, then Toni Collette later) is a young, shy girl in Australia. On one day, she picks a name and an address from New York telephone book and send her letter with a chocolate bar to that address. The receiver is Max(Philip Seymour Hoffman with unrecognizable voice), a middle-aged overweight reclusive living in a small apartment in New York.

 How their relationship develops after that is not always sweet, but the movie never loses its charm and humor even at the darkest hour. Not only from the relationship between Max and Mary, it finds the laughs also from funny supporting characters surrounding them. There are misunderstandings and heartbreaks in the story, and then there are also warm, moving moments from this unlikely friendship. This is my best animation of this year.

8. The Kids Are All Right

 “The Kids Are All Right” is quite conventional inside in contrast to what it seems on the surface. We see a unconventional family at the beginning, but we begin to see the dynamics within this family is not so different from the one within conventional families. The family has problems familiar to us, the drama of conflicts and hurts is unfolded in a way we expected. However, It is not just conventionally unconventional; it is also emotionally honest story with lots of heart.

 Nick(Annette Bening) and Jules(Julianne Moore) has been a happy lesbian couple for more than twenty years. As the title suggests, their teenager kids are all right – nearly all right, at least. Both Nick and Jules were pregnant by same donated sperms and gave birth to their kids, respectively, and the kids want to know about their biological father. That is how Paul(Mark Ruffalo) comes into their life, a man who has been enjoying the life of a single man free of any commitment and responsibility.

 The story and its premise are unusual, but the movie shares familiar territories with other family comedy/dramas. Because of the appearance of an unexpected stranger, the problems in the family hibernating in the ennui of happy family life begin to emerge from the inside. Not surprisingly, they stir several feelings including anxiety, confusion, and discontent. The movie deftly moves from one spot to another spot with the rhythm of real world until it arrives at open ending, and there are many emotionally honest, and sometimes funny, moments thanks to the performances from its excellent ensemble, In the end, as the Korean title suggests, everybody is all right – including us.

7. Animal Kingdom

 To me, “Animal Kingdom” directed by David Michôd is the most surprising addition to my Top 10 list. After reading the recommendation written by my friend Omar P.L. Moore, I searched for the movie and found it and was absorbed into this quiet but tense crime drama from Australia. As a very good drama, it has the good characters we come to know, it has the settings for them, and it calmly watch them for observing which direction they will be rolled into once the plot is ignited.

 The main character of this sad tale is Joshua(James Frecheville), a distant young boy who had lived with his junkie mother in Melbourne. He is so detached that he just sit near his mom while she dies due to overdose. His aimless detachment continues while he begins to live with her family members, who are notorious for their criminal activities. Soon, the conflict between them and the police causes irreversible incident, and that eventually puts Joshua into the crucial point in his life.

 Based on his screenplay, the director David Michôd builds the tension in the languid daily lifes of the characters. The characters are so clearly defined that we don’t need any explanation for the last shot. We know everything we need to know, and that’s all. Michôd has very good actors for his movie, and Jacki Weaver gives a impressive performance as a matriarch of this criminal family. How she justifies her decision chillingly reveals her terrible survival instinct and twisted mother love behind that campy facade a la Bette Davis in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

6. I Am Love

 “I am Love” is excellent for it has not only another stunning performance from Tilda Swinton but also delicate style and atmosphere to carry its quietly heated melodrama. Swinton is Emma Recchi, whose husband recently takes charge of the family business, a big clothes company with respectable past, when the story starts with the family Christmas gathering.

 Emma is a Russian wife who moved to Italy from Russia many years go. Thanks to Swinton’s flawlessly natural accent, it is apparent that she is an outsider, but she is an outsider accepted and loved by the family members. She and her husband have children, and one of them will probably succeed his father’s position. And, above all, she is comfortable with her position.

 However, something unexpected happens. Through her son’s friend and his profession, she finds the passion having slept in her heart. That gives us one of the best sequences of the movie. She does not say anything, but the director Luca Guadagnino masterfully conveys to us that electrifying feeling spurting from her heart. The passionate affair begins, and there will be inevitable tragic consequence, but who can control what the heart wants? With the overblown score by John Adams, which makes interesting contrast with calm surface, it was a pleasure to watch this movie.