The Social Network (2010) ***

The epic tale of the founding of Facebook by Harvard undergrad Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). Aaron Sorkin's incredibly witty screenplay drips with clever one-liners and killer repartees. Best lines: "Do you think I deserve your full attention? (...) You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. Did I adequately answer your condescending question?", "Sorry, my Prada is at the cleaners, along with my hoodie and my 'fuck you' flip-flops, you pretentious douche bag!", "We lived in farms, then we lived in cities, and now we're gonna live on the internet!", "I think we should just be friends (...) I don't want friends (...) I was being polite, I had no intention of being friends with you" and "As for the charges, I believe I deserve some recognition from this board (...) I'm sorry? (...) Yes (...) I don't understand (...) Which part?". Director David Fincher ("Se7en", "Fight Club") has taken a potentially unfilmmable story and turned it into a fast-paced, exciting and instinctively perceptive film. Justin Timerlake is particularly impressive as Napster's co-founder Sean Parker.

La Tête en friche (2010) ***

Profoundly moving French film about an unusual friendship between an uneducated and simple-minded worker (Gérard Depardieu) and an erudite old lady from a nursing home. A simple tale about human decency. Surprisingly funny and very touching.

Portraits In A Sea Of Lies (2010) ***

Tragic drama from Colombia, about a young girl whose entire family was killed by paramilitary thugs.  Spanish title: "Retratos en un mar de mentiras".

Iron Man 2 (2010) ***

The best of all "Iron Man" films.

Never Let Me Go (2010) ***

Strange little film about children raised to be donors of their body parts. With Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Charlotte Rampling and Sally Hawkins.

Piranha 3D (2010) ***

Love And Other Drugs (2010) ***

Des hommes et des dieux (2010) ***

Powerful film about a group of Christian monks kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in Algeria in 1996. Based on a true story.

Unstoppable (2010) ***

Well-made action film about a runaway train.

Gasland (2010) ***

Scary documentary about the dangers of fracking in natural gas industry.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) ***

The seventh (and penultimate) instalment of the Harry Potter saga. Way better than "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" (2005), about as good as "Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone" (2001), "Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix" (2007) and "Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince" (2009), but much weaker than "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" (2002) or "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" (2004). It's also the sexiest episode to date, with a blurry, but steamy love scene involving Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson.

Crime d'amour (2010) ***

Alain Corneau's tense drama about hatred, murder and manipulation.

Somewhere (2010) ***

Red White And Blue (2010) ***

Inside Job (2010) ***

Very informative (and suprisingly even-handed) documentary about the global financial crisis of 2008. While told from a leftist perspective, it spares neither Clinton nor Obama, blaming them alongside Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush as equally responsible for this calamity (in Clinton's case) or as continuing with the same failed policies (in Obama's case).

Machete (2010) ***

The Kids Are All Right (2010) ***

Hors la loi (2010) ***

A film that perfectly captures the real difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter. There is none. A freedom fighter is a terrorist who wins the war. A terrorist is a freedom fighter who looses the war. In this film, bloodthirsty and psychopathic terrorists win the independance of their country and can be celebrated as heroes.

Restrepo (2010) ***

Impressive documentary about the war in Afghanistan.

Tangled (2010) ***

Disney animated film about a princess with very long hair held captive in a tall tower.

Inception (2010) ***

Quite a rarity - an intelligent Hollywood blockbuster. The plot is pratically impossible to resume in any coherent way and it certainly wouldn't help to sell the film by revealing that all its characters spend most all their time sleeping. Suffice to say that it vaguely resembles "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind", except that there is a lot more action. The story is incredibly complex, but amazingly coherent, and there is a great cliffhanger ending that can be interpreted in various way - in my opinion, the top won't stop spinning because the daughters didn't age.

In A Better World (2010) ***

Danish drama about violence.

Salt (2010) ***

Terrific spy thriller in the "No Way Out" mode. Not surprisingly, there are plenty of exciting chases and huge explosions. More surprisingly, there is also a clever script and an involving story. Angelina Jolie is in fine form as a sexy CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy, but famous Polish actor Daniel Olbrychski actually steals the movie from her with his amazing portrayal of a creepy Russian defector.

True Grit (2010) ***

A faithful remake of the 1969 John Wayne classic.

The Fighter (2010) ***

A great story about complex characters. Not really a boxing movie, but rather a white working-class family saga about loyalty, courage, love and ambition.

Dirty Girl (2010) ***

Juno Temple gives a delicious performance in this touching drama about parenthood and love.

The King's Speech (2010) ***

At heart, this is a fairy-tale - a story about a shy young prince helped by a wise wizard to break an evil spell and lead his nation to a glorious victory - except that it's actually based on a true story of King George VI (Queen Elizabeth's father) overcoming a crippling stammer with the help an eccentric Australian speech therapist. One of many installements of the "British Royal Family" saga, chronologically located after "The Madness Of King George", "The Young Victoria" and "Mrs Brown", and just before "The Queen". Part "My Fair Lady" and part "Rocky", the film is most remarkable for its performances: Geoffrey Rush chews the scenery as a real-life Henry Higgins, Colin Firth is amazing as King George VI, Timothy Spall steals every scene he's in as Winston Churchill, Guy Pearce is a flawless King Edward VIII and Michael Gambon is scarily effective as King George V.

Another Year (2010) ***

Another fine film from Mike Leigh.

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010) ***

Typical Woody Allen comedy, set in London. Best one-liner: Gemma Jones declaring that dead women "are often the stiffest competition".

The American (2010) ***

Arthur et la Guerre des deux mondes (2010) ***

The third part in the series.

Shutter Island (2010) ***

How To Train Your Dragon (2010) ***

Entertaining animated film about brave Vikings fighting fearsome dragons.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time (2010) ***

Very entertaining action movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a Persian prince falsely accused to killing his father, Gemma Arterton as a sexy princess ravished by Persian invaders, Ben Kingsley as a fearsome villain, and, best of all, Alfred Molina as an "Oriental tea party" sheik bitching about high taxes and big government spending. Fast-paced, non-stop action, with magnificent scenery and interesting plot. Hollywood spectacle at its best.

Incendies (2010) ***

Powerful story about the tragic history of Lebanon.

La Dernière fugue (2010) ***

Excellent family drama about love and death.

The Trotsky (2010) ***

Imagine the hero of "Rushmore" (a rich preppie forced to enroll in a public school) who claims to be the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky, organizing strikes in his father's factory and trying to make his fellow students rise in revolt against their teachers. The film would have probably been even funnier if the students didn't actually have any valid reasons to revolt. As is, it starts by making vicious fun of its delusional protagonist, but ends up taking his discredited political views quite seriously.

Cabotins (2010) ***

Amusing comedy about retired vaudeville comedians trying to put on a last show. Nostalgic and sweet, the film is a tribute of sorts to famous Quebec comedian Gilles Latulippe (who has a brief cameo as a taxi driver).