Third place goes to True Grit, the Coen brothers’ western that brought Rooster Cogburn into the 21st century. Rather than remake the movie that won John Wayne an Oscar for Best Actor, the Coens instead went more strictly to the source material, a novel by Charles Portis. The result is a movie that explores vengeance and culpability, and possibly the most accessible film the brothers have ever made. What is particularly remarkable about True Grit is the fact that it has a true old-time feel – the music is based on old time hymns, and the dialogue is such that it feels as though we’ve been transported back to the late 1800s, when men with hats rode horses to preserve the law and to mete out justice. All of the performers in the film are outstanding, from newcomer Hailee Steinfeld (whose diction is head-turning) to veteran Jeff Bridges, who remakes Rooster Cogburn in an image that is an amalgam of every crusty old coot you’ve ever seen in a movie of this genre. What’s best about True Grit is that it surpasses expectations – not only is it lushly filmed, it’s also funny in surprising ways. Like Inception, True Grit received two first place votes. It showed up on 17 ballots.

Just three points behind True Grit in fourth place is Black Swan, a movie that made us say, “Holy crap! Ballet is awesome!” Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but a lot of us were thoroughly impacted by the Darren Aronofsky mind-bending thriller. Of course, pigeonholing the film into a genre feels almost criminal – trying to constrain the movie by defining it seems wrong, somehow. Black Swan is different things to different people. Some see it as a horror film. Others find it to be a taut psychological character study. No matter what the film may be to you, we can all agree that it’s a tour de force performance by Natalie Portman, with elements of suspense and trepidation that will keep audiences white-knuckled throughout. Black Swan actually received four first place votes, but appeared on 12 ballots only. Obviously, it had a strong groundswell of support from a smaller number of devotees.

We’ve been accused of being marks for Pixar. For the past two years, a Pixar film has won best picture in the Calvin Awards, with Up taking last year’s award and WALL-E preceding it. For that reason, readers of this site might have just assumed that Toy Story 3 would come on the scene and take the trophy for Pixar once again, and it did in fact receive five first place votes. However, it didn’t quite have the same support as its predecessors, as there were some among us who found the film to be a retread of some of the storylines in the first two films. Even so, 12 of us loved the movie enough to place it in our top ten, and it was just a few points behind Black Swan. I dare anyone who watches the scene with Andy, Bonnie and the toys to not cry. Although we might not feel Toy Story 3 has the strength of Up or WALL-E, it’s still yet another Pixar experience that delivers on every level.

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