Black Swan and The Town comprise the rest of our top five. As you would expect, our favorite scene from Black Swan is the finale that has already become a popular meme. This is the moment when Natalie Portman overcomes all that is sweet and innocent about…Natalie Portman, allowing the Black Swan to strike against the virtuous White Swan. Kobe Bryant has already made headlines for requesting that a team get his Black Swan on and it’s clear that this phrase will be a part of the collective consciousness from now on. Meanwhile, The Town has a Best Scene selection that will never become part of the zeitgeist, but it is white hot. Several members of the staff at BOP, myself included, are huge fans of heist flicks. The Town has one of the best in recent memory as the film leads with a meticulously planned and executed one then follows with another that demonstrates the perils of improvisation. The end result is a car chase throughout the suburbs of Boston that leaves the viewer breathless.

Dismemberment is the theme of our sixth and seventh selections for Best Scene. In fact, the two scenes almost reflect a before and after situation. 127 Hours requires its protagonist to slice and dice his own arm in order to liberate himself from his circumstance. Director Danny Boyle does not make the grim sequence easy for the viewer, either, focusing on the icky horror of a dull knife slicing attempting to slice through skin and bone. Winter’s Bone is the after in this scenario as a teen female is asked to retrieve certain…parts from a swamp in order to avoid repossession of her home. How this chain of events is set in motion is harrowing enough, but nothing could prepare the viewer for one of the most haunting scenes of the 2000s. You will never look at your loved ones and their various appendages the same way again after watching either of these two films, especially these particular scenes.

Our selections for the rest of the top ten are sequences from Easy A, How to Train Your Dragon and The King’s Speech. Our favorite scene from Easy A is Olive’s faux-deflowering of Brandon, who is gay and wants to be deflowered in an entirely different way. Desperate to avoid the gossip of his sexuality, Brandon makes an odd request of Olive, that she have loud, fake sex with him at a party. This would convince people that he likes the ladies long enough to let him graduate in peace. The results are truly hilarious. How to Train Your Dragon’s best scene is much more poignant. It occurs moments after the climactic battle between the Vikings and the massive dragon that controls his species. The viewer believes that the danger is over and that everyone has come out no worse for wear, but then a heartbreaking reveal shows that Hiccup will always bear a scar from the battle. The beauty of this is that in losing a part of himself, Hiccup’s symbiotic relationship with his pet dragon, Toothless, is now given a physical connection. From that moment forward, when they fly, they will be joined together. And our selection for Best Scene in The King’s Speech is…The King’s Speech. Go figure.

Other scenes from 2010 cinema that we loved that didn’t earn a selection on the list are the cornbread shooting scene and Mattie’s pony negotiations from True Grit, mayhem at spring break from Piranha, the amusement park scene from Despicable Me, Vanko’s Indycar racing debut in Iron Man 2, and Mila Kunis’ theoretical seduction of Natalie Portman in Black Swan. We never said we weren’t perverts.

The Calvins Introduction
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture

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