The Social Network is the best-reviewed movie of 2010
| 2010 | The Social Network 95 |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker 94 |
| 2008 | 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 97 |
| 2007 | Ratatouille 96 |
| 2006 | Pan's Labyrinth 98 |
For the first time since 2007, a wide-release movie -- one that has played nationwide on hundreds of screens, rather than an independent, foreign, or "arthouse" film -- has captured the title of best-reviewed movie of the year. The Social Network 95, David Fincher's chronicle of the founding of Facebook, is also just the fourth movie since 2000 to achieve a Metascore of 95 or higher.
That high level of acclaim is also manifesting itself on the awards circuit, where The Social Network is dominating the awards and nominations on its way to scoring what is sure to be a large number of Oscar nominations later this month. Unsurprisingly, the film is also turning up on more critics' year-end top 10 lists than any other 2010 release.
However, what was a good year for The Social Network wasn't necessarily a good year for Hollywood as a whole, at least by one measure. In 2010, just 30 films met or exceeded the 81 Metascore threshold that indicates "universal acclaim" from critics. That is well below 2009's total of 37 highly-acclaimed films, and you have to go back to 2006 to find a year with fewer great movies. On the bright side, only three 2010 releases were awful enough to drop below a Metascore of 20; compare that figure with nine terrible films in 2009 and 12 the year before that.
Overall, 45% of 2010 films received positive reviews from critics, a hair shy of the previous year's mark of 46% and a few percentage points short of the decade's best mark, 49%, set in 2007. Yet the average Metascore for all 2010 films ticked up from the year before, from 56.4 to 57.2. If we consider only those films that received a wide release, 26% received positive reviews (the same figure as in 2009), and the average Metascore of all wide release films was 50.2.
Over the next few pages, we'll explore the best and worst wide releases and limited releases of 2010. First, let's look at some of the best overall movies of the year in various categories.
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| The Kids Are All Right | Please Give | Greenberg | Cyrus | Easy A | |||||
| Critics: | 86 | Critics: | 78 | Critics: | 76 | Critics: | 74 | Critics: | 72 |
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| The Social Network | Winter's Bone | The King's Speech | Animal Kingdom | 127 Hours | |||||
| Critics: | 95 | Critics: | 90 | Critics: | 88 | Critics: | 83 | Critics: | 82 |
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| Inside Job | A Film Unfinished | 45365 | The Tillman Story | Last Train Home | |||||
| Critics: | 88 | Critics: | 88 | Critics: | 88 | Critics: | 86 | Critics: | 86 |
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| Carlos | A Prophet | Lebanon | Vincere | Mademoiselle Chambon | |||||
| Critics: | 94 | Critics: | 90 | Critics: | 85 | Critics: | 85 | Critics: | 83 |
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| Toy Story 3 | The Secret of Kells | The Illusionist | How to Train Your Dragon | Despicable Me | |||||
| Critics: | 92 | Critics: | 81 | Critics: | 81 | Critics: | 74 | Critics: | 72 |
| Category | Best-Reviewed Film in Category | Metascore |
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| Overall | The Social Network | 95 |
| Winter Release | A Prophet | 90 |
| Winter Wide Release | The Ghost Writer | 77 |
| Spring Release | (tie) Exit Through the Gift Shop and Vincere | 85 |
| Spring Wide Release | Oceans | 75 |
| Summer Release | Toy Story 3 | 92 |
| Summer Wide Release | Toy Story 3 | 92 |
| Fall Release | The Social Network | 95 |
| Fall Wide Release | The Social Network | 95 |
| Holiday Release | The King's Speech | 88 |
| Holiday Wide Release | The King's Speech | 88 |
| Blockbuster (>$100 million box office) | Toy Story 3 | 92 |
| Action-Adventure | Inception | 74 |
| Family/Kids (Live Action) | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I | 65 |
| Fantasy | Bluebeard | 73 |
| Horror | Let Me In | 79 |
| Musical | Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench | 84 |
| Sci-Fi | Inception | 74 |
| Western | True Grit | 80 |
On the next page, we take a deeper look at the past year's biggest films.
Inception. Where's Chris Nolans best director nomination? Damn you oscars!
