Early line on best of 2010

Several critics’ polls have already declared rankings for the year.  I won’t be finalizing my choices till I see a number of more recent releases, but I’ve already seen 8 out of the top 10 in the Film Comment poll, and certainly find areas of agreement [click on film title to access my review].  They have Carlos at #1 and The Social Network at #2, and I could go with that, or in reverse order as they appeared in the indieWire poll, which conforms to the Metacritic averages of 95 for the Fincher and 93 for the Assayas.  So far I’ll go with indieWire’s choice at #3, Winter’s Bone (FC #6, MC-90.)  Polanski’s The Ghost Writer gets just a bit more love than I give it at FC #4 and iW #7 (MC-77).  I think FC has A Prophet right at #5 (MC-90).  And I join the acclaim for Everyone Else with FC at #9 and iW at #5. On the indieWire list, I Am Love comes in at #9 (FC #22), and I am inclined to agree with that.   

For the rest of Film Comment’s top ten, I look forward to seeing Claire Denis’ White Material (#3), and was disappointed to miss Charles Ferguson’s acclaimed documentary Inside Job (#7) when it showed at Images last month but eagerly anticipate the dvd.  Wild Grass (#8) I wish I hadn’t seen, and Greenberg (#10) I barely remember seeing.  Look for me to be filling in the rest of the top films of 2010 from various lists over the next few months, before making final pronouncement on my own choices.