My 10 favorite movies of 2010 posted far too late for anyone to care

Jennifer Lawrence (above) starred in my favorite movie of 2010, "Winter's Bone," a film that reminds us that the reason we don't go into the woods uninvited isn't the monsters, but the people.

Sometime in early January a co-worker asked me for a list of my favorite movies for 2010. I hadn't thought about it much at the time. I planned to answer with a blog post. Then I got lazy. Then I started watching "The Big Lebowski"  over and over again. Here we are in the middle of March and I haven’t answered. I am absolutely worthless without deadlines. Many, especially my editors, would argue I’m not much good then, either. Ah well.

Anyway, here are my 2010 picks, each in about 140 characters.

1. Winter’s Bone makes you feel like a stranger in your homeland in a tale of a girl’s struggle to save her family home in the dirt poor Ozarks.

2. Get Low stars Bill Murray and Robert Duvall. If that is not enough of a recommendation, than I'll add it's very funny, warm and touching.

3. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan are painfully shy people make one another better in Jack Goes Boating, a small, lovely romantic story.

4. The Dude outdoes the Duke in True Grit, which is almost as much fun to listen to as it is to watch. Contraction-free dialogue is captivating.

5. The Other Guys is a supposed to be a send-up of buddy cop movies, but it’s really the best buddy cop movie since Lethal Weapon.

6. The Town proves Ben Affleck has a lot more to contribute to movies than being a punchline and Jon Hamm is more than the maddest of Mad Men.

7. The Social Network is really about the increasing disconnection of people from their humanity despite technology designed to do the opposite.

8. Inception feels like walking in an MC Escher drawing while in the middle of a heist being chased by spies and trying to fix a relationship.

9. Salt is a great action movie. Angelina Jolie stomps adversaries in sequences worthy of the Bourne films but becomes a hero we root for.

10. Toy Story 3. Woody. Buzz. Rex. The Potato Heads. Barbie. Ken. Pixar. Adventure. High jinks. Coming of age. All heart. Aw, hell. Just see it.

Movie Review: "The Town"

5. "The Town", based on the novel by Chuck Hogan, is a terrific, taunt thriller that proves Ben Affleck has a lot more to contribute to movies than being a punchline ("Gigli" notwithstanding) and Jon Hamm is far more than the maddest of "Mad Men," Don Draper.

4. Doug MacRay (Affleck), a native of Boston's  Charlestown neighborhood the alleged bank robber capital of the world, falls in love with Claire (Rebecca Hall) the manager of a bank he and his psychotic pal (Jeremy Renner) knock over to open the film.

3. MacRay and his crew come into the cross hairs of FBI Agent Adam Frawley (Hamm), who is more disheveled than Hamm's signature Don Draper, but no less intense, confident and capable.

2. "The Town" brings plenty of breakneck action sequences — including the best-filmed close-quarters urban car chase I've ever seen — and director Affleck coaxes believable, smart and edgy performances out of Pete Posthlethwaite (as a creepy gangster flourist). Hamm, Hall, Renner  and perhaps especially himself.

1. Maybe the most interesting thing about the town is that you don't have to pick a side: Both MacRay and Frawley are equally likable and relatable in their own way and the strength of the film is not the inevitable collision between their characters but the chase in between.

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"The Town"
Run time: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Rated R‎‎ 
Director: Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively and Pete Postlethwaite
Finney's Flicks Grade: A