Roger Ebert's List: Top 10 Movies of 2010

Yes, it's that time of year once again.  With Christmas less than a week away and the end of the year right around the corner, it's time to reflect on the year that was in film. Our Get the Big Picture lists will be up soon, but in the mean time, a few critics have already released their Best Ofs.

Last week Roger Ebert, Pulitzer Prize winning film critic and former host of At the Movies, released his annual Top 10 films of the year list.  Hit the jump to check out his choices.

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The Triumphant Return of 'At the Movies'

The show that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel started in 1975 as "Opening Soon at a Theather Near You" and, in its most recent (and recently-canceled) incarnation, was called "At the Movies" featuring A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, is set to return to public television. Roger Ebert announced yesterday on his blog that the show will be returning in January of 2011.

The new show will also include the return of the beloved, trademarked, and much-disputed Thumbs(tm) Up(tm) and Thumbs(tm) Down(tm) ratings. The Thumbs(tm) will be given out primarily by Christy Lemire of the Associated Press and Elvis Mitchel of National Public Radio.

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Au Revoir, 'At the Movies'

After a quarter-century on the air, one which holistically altered the way we look at and talk about film, At the Movies is closing the balcony. The show dates back much further, of course, about 35 years with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel hosting Sneak Previews, but after two rounds of hosts in only about two years, Buena Vista Television has said enough's enough.

Ebert wrote extensively about the past and, yes, even the future of At the Movies on his blog:

"At the Movies was one of the last survivors of half-hour syndication. It didn't fail so much as have its format shot out from beneath it. Don't blame Disney. Don't blame Tony Scott and Michael Phillips, the final co-hosts, critics I admire who still have five months left on the air. Don't blame Ben Mankiewicz. Don't blame my pal Richard Roeper, who didn't fancy following the show in a "new direction." Don't blame the cancer that forced me off the show. Don't even blame Ben Lyons. He was the victim of a mistaken hiring decision.

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Roger Ebert's Top Ten Films of the Decade

Roger Ebert wastes no time telling you about his pick for the greatest movie of the past ten years. Synecdoche, New York is the best film of the decade, Ebert says matter-of-factly. "It intends no less than to evoke the strategies we use to live our lives." Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut from 2008 is a bold choice, although I think quite a few critics have at least considered it for a place on their top ten.

The rest of Ebert's list is no less unexpected. Perhaps only two of the films - Almost Famous and The Hurt Locker - have been thrown into other best-of-the-decade lists that I've seen, and even as great as The Hurt Locker is, that pick may only seem justifiable a few years from now, after Kathryn Bigelow's film has a chance to live in our memories a while. In addition to his top ten, which get a considerable amount of his attention, Ebert lists ten other movies from the past decade that deserve special recognition, and some of those even seem to come out of the blue. "In choosing the list," he writes, "I decided to bypass films that may have qualified for their historical, artistic, popular or 'objective' importance. No lists have deep significance, but even less lists composed to satisfy an imaginary jury of fellow critics." "My jury resides within. I know how I feel."

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Roger Ebert's Top Films of 2009

We're all entitled to our own opinions, and here are Roger Ebert's. He has 20 films on his Best of 2009 countdown, ten he calls "mainstream" films and ten that are "independent." Seven of Ebert's top ten mainstreamers are in the Oscar hunt in the major categories, and another one could wind up the Best Foreign Language Film winner. Makes me wonder why it's in the mainstream category, but whatever.

So that leaves two movies that would be unexpected at best. And, curiously, both star Nic Cage. And, curiously, Ebert may have really overestimated them. Here are his top ten "mainstream" films of the year, in alphabetical order:

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