Paul

UNIVERSAL PICTURES
From left, Simon Pegg, Kristen Wiig, Nick Frost and Paul the alien (voice of Seth Rogen) are shown in a scene from the film "Paul."

Watching their movies, especially the ones they make together, you get the sense that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost would be lined up to see them on opening night if they were not the stars.

"Paul," like "Shaun of the Dead" (2004) and "Hot Fuzz" (2007) before it, is filled lovingly with references to other films and pop culture—science fiction and general movie geekdom in this case. It gently pokes fun but never openly mocks its protagonists, sci-fi nuts Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost), playing like a love letter more than anything else.

Pegg and Frost wrote the screenplay together, and when the movie opens with Graeme and Clive attending that hub of geek activity, Comic-Con International in San Diego, you easily can imagine the two actors doing the very same thing.

Rango

PARAMOUNT PICTURES, INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC
Spoons (voice of Alex Manugian), left, and Rango (voice of Johnny Depp) are shown in a scene from the animated feature "Rango."

"Rango" boasts sparkling computer animation rivaling the output of Pixar; its characters include talking lizards, toads, an armadillo, a turtle and various other rodents, bugs and desert animals; and international movie star Johnny Depp headlines its voice cast.

Now here's the thing Paramount Pictures doesn't want you to know: It's not a kids' movie.

Though the littlest ones might be scared by the intensity of the action (which includes a handful of character deaths), there probably is enough excitement and comedy to keep most children entertained. But "Rango" is a full-blown Western, one of the best of the past 20 years, and younger viewers won't recognize its references to other movies (which are wide-ranging enough to include the expected Westerns and other classics, such as "Apocalypse Now," "Chinatown" and "Star Wars") and its near-giddy celebration of genre conventions. They won't know what to make of its hero's existential pondering—"Who am I?" he asks himself several times.

Cedar Rapids

FOX SEARCHLIGHT, ZADE ROSENTHAL
Anne Heche, left, and Ed Helms are shown in a scene from "Cedar Rapids."

"Cedar Rapids" is the rare movie that feels too short.

After a vastly entertaining 87 minutes, most of it in the title city at an annual convention of insurance salesmen, I wanted to spend more time with these characters—idealistic Tim Lippe (Ed Helms), who has never left his hometown of Brown City, Wis., and is positively giddy over his affair with his former junior high teacher (Sigourney Weaver); crude but surprisingly kind-hearted Dean "Deansy" Ziegler (John C. Reilly); friendly, supportive Ronald "Ronimal" Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr.); and Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche), who uses her weekend in Cedar Rapids as a yearly vacation from all aspects of her daily life.

Helms, known to fans of "The Office" and "The Hangover," takes on his first big-screen leading role with ease. He makes Tim so darn good-natured and likeable that you can't help but root for the guy.

All the characters begin as specific stereotypes, but in short order, Phil Johnston's script allows the actors to develop them into living, breathing people.

The Roommate/The Rite/No Strings Attached/The Green Hornet

PARAMOUNT PICTURES, DALE ROBINETTE
Natalie Portman, left, and Ashton Kutcher are shown in a scene from "No Strings Attached."

January and February of this year are living up to their hard-won reputation as a cinematic wasteland. With Oscar bait still going strong in theaters and bad weather frequently keeping many moviegoers at home, the studios use these two months almost exclusively to unload pictures they know will have little to no chance of succeeding at any other time of year.

That's how we get drivel like "The Roommate" finishing atop the box office over its opening weekend.

Directed by Christian E. Christiansen without a hint of subtlety or any mind toward building suspense, "The Roommate" features Leighton Meester (of TV's "Gossip Girl") as Rebecca, an off-her-meds college freshman who obsesses, "Single White Female"-style, over her new roommate, Sara (Minka Kelly of TV's "Friday Night Lights" and "Parenthood"). Don't waste your time about what has made Rebecca this way; no one who made the movie gave it a second thought either.

The King's Speech

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY, LAURIE SPARHAM
Colin Firth, left, and Helena Bonham Carter are shown in a scene from "The King's Speech."

"The King's Speech" tells the story of a monarch left virtually impotent by democracy and, even more so, his own insecurities.

"If I am king, where is my power?" asks King George VI of Britain (Colin Firth). "Can I declare war? Form a government? Levy a tax? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority because (the people) think that when I speak, I speak for them. But I can't speak, because I have no voice."

When we meet the king in 1925, he is Prince Albert, "Bertie" to those close to him, the Duke of York, and he is about to speak at the closing of the 1925 Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium. What comes out, though, hardly could be called a speech, plagued as it is by Bertie's uncontrollable stammer.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

MUSIC BOX FILMS
Annika Hallin, left, and Noomi Rapace are shown in a scene from "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."

Late in "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," Noomi Rapace, as Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant, misfit computer hacker recently recovered from taking a bullet to the brain, wrongly accused of three murders and abused throughout her life by officials within the Swedish government, cracks just a hint of a smile. There is nothing that speaks more to the greatness of Rapace's performance than the fact that this small moment, one that might go unnoticed by some viewers, serves as an emotional release for not just this film but the entire "Millennium" trilogy.

A young woman hardened by the hand life dealt her, Salander has gone to great lengths to guard not just the secrets of her past but the emotions of her day-to-day life. Her distrust extends beyond authority figures to include virtually everyone she meets. She doesn't have friends so much as a handful of people whose presence she can tolerate—but only in small doses and on her terms. She has been a victim, and more than anything, she wants those who prey on others—specifically, men who commit acts of violence toward women—to know what it means to be victimized.

The best of 2010

WARNER BROS. PICTURES/STEPHEN VAUGHAN
From left, Dileep Rao, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Leonard DiCaprio, Ellen Page and Ken Watanabe are shown in a scene from "Inception."

Writing about the movies today, it's easy to focus on the negative. But where's the fun in that?

As much as people like to complain, 2010's release schedule included several wonderful films. In fact, so many were so good that I cannot single out one as the best picture of the year.

Maybe I'm taking the easy way out, but how do you make comparisons between a survival story that largely features one actor in one location; a psychological horror movie about ballet; a film based in dreams that ultimately has four action movies spinning simultaneously; a digital-age "Citizen Kane"; and a classic Western?

The next tier was nearly as solid: a Swedish import heralding the arrival of a major new star; one of the most entertaining comic book adaptations to date; an incredibly well-acted period piece; a mindbending thriller from one of our master filmmakers; and a taut crime drama.

So here they are, my picks for the best movie of 2010, in alphabetical order.

True Grit

PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Jeff Bridges, left, and Hailee Steinfeld are shown in a scene from "True Grit."

Whenever I watch a film by Joel and Ethan Coen, I am reminded of what Joss Whedon (creator of the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly," among others) often says of his philosophy toward writing. Paraphrasing, he says every character must have something to say and a reason to be there, and it is important that the audience understands the perspective of each character.

Whether they have ever stated it outright or not, the same goals drive the Coen brothers. There are no insignificant characters in their latest picture, "True Grit," and everyone who appears adds something to the movie, even if they wander through only one scene before moving on.

The Coens' movie is not so much a remake of the 1969 John Wayne film, for which the Duke won his only Oscar, as it is a new adaptation of the 1968 novel by Charles Portis. So even though the story is an older one and known to many, "True Grit" 2010 is readily recognizable as the Coens' work, incorporating their signature quirky characters and humor against the backdrop of a classic Western. It's even something of a crowd-pleaser, a first for the idiosyncratic brothers.

Black Swan

FOX SEARCHLIGHT, NIKO TAVERNISE
Natalie Portman is shown in a scene from "Black Swan."

What a devious trick Darren Aronofsky pulls off with "Black Swan."

The film takes place in the world of a professional New York City ballet company, so you might expect something sophisticated, classy, intellectual. It begins by presenting the action in a cinema verite style, following dancer Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) with a handheld camera, showing us the nitty gritty of ballet—the bitter backstage rivalries, the hours of arduous practice, the bruised, bloody toes.

That's not to say "Black Swan" is not sophisticated, classy and intellectual, and does not show us the world of ballet from the inside out—it is and it does. The trick occurs after the first act, when the movie shifts from the documentary feel of Aronofsky's last feature, "The Wrestler" (2008), to a twisted psychological drama bordering on horror, its story mirroring that of "Swan Lake," the venerable ballet at the heart of the action.

The Fighter

PARAMOUNT PICTURES, JOJO WHILDREN
Christian Bale, and Mark Wahlberg, right, are shown in a scene from "The Fighter."

Who is the title character of "The Fighter"?

The obvious answer is Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), a struggling welterweight boxer from the working-class town of Lowell, Mass. Not even a has-been, Micky is a never-was, north of 30 years old and viewed as a stepping stone for up-and-coming boxers. After a particularly bad fight against an opponent who outweighs him by 20 pounds, his heart just isn't in it anymore. Maybe it's time to give it up, move on with his life, settle down.

The title just as easily could refer to Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), Micky's half-brother and trainer, a former boxer himself whose shining moment was going the distance but losing a late-'70s bout with Sugar Ray Leonard. Even with a debilitating crack cocaine addiction and multiple stints in jail, Dicky is affectionately known as "the pride of Lowell" by its inhabitants. An HBO camera crew follows him, but the movie they're making is not, as Dicky claims, about his attempt at an in-ring comeback.