I don’t go to the movies, and haven’t seen any of this year’s Oscar front-runners, other than Winter’s Bone. I can’t even remember ten new films that I’ve seen this year—it’s been busy, and new TV tends to be better than new film lately.  I’ve been occupied.

Therefore, I’m skipping the “Ten Best of The Year” list and giving you the ten best movie-watching experiences I’ve had in 2010.  They are, in many cases, not masterpiece-level films—but at the end of the day, you’re the one that decides what a masterpiece is, and a critic’s job is just to tell you what he/she likes.  Or doesn’t.

Here’s what I liked:

1. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Edgar Wright’s geek chic wet dream is a valentine to everything that I am.

It is a valentine to rock.  Nigel Godrich scored and produced the musical-esque soundtrack, which contains phenomenal contributions from Beck, Metric,and Broken Social Scene.

It is a valentine to video games.  The ninja variation on Dance Dance Revolution is the kind of movie video game you wish was real.  Street Fighter and Super Mario references abound.

It is a valentine to love–and a particularly well-handled one at that.  The screenplay is rich, rewarding, and hilarious.

The film also produced my favorite song of the year:

2 – Winter’s Bone

Much critical  love has been lathered on this backwoods Missouri, neo-noir masterpiece… and for good reason.  Just about everything is perfect in this beautiful, haunting, and deeply human detective story.  If John Hawkes doesn’t get the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, then there’s no justice in this world.

3 – Up

I’m a sap, and this is the best sappy movie since To Kill A Mockingbird. It is also Pixar’s masterpiece to date.  With an outlandish  plot that invokes the hallucinogenic early Disney shorts, Up is a film that never fails to delight.  And it’s got the funniest variation on the ‘talking dog’ cliché that I’ve ever seen.

4 – A Man for All Seasons

This film had been in my Netflix streaming queue for two years.  I clicked on it by accident one night, then spent the next two days fighting a crappy Internet connection just to finish it.

A Man for All Seasons instantly took its place among my top ten best screenplays ever written,  among eloquent masterpieces like Network, Wit, and Patton.  Paul Scofield’s Sir Thomas More is one of the most complete characters ever fit into a two hour film.  It is a must-see.

5 – Vengeance

Johnnie To’s films symbolize everything that is right about Asian film.  They are without restraint. They are visceral.   They are  beautiful.  They are extremely offbeat.

This quirky, extremely uneven,  maniacally creative Chinese gangster action revenge bonanza is about… some guy who wants revenge, and shoots a lot of people for it.  There’s nothing original about the plot.  But To’s technical virtuosity (the cinematography is as stunning as Blade Runner at times) and completely whack sense of humor make him a highly distinct voice in world cinema.  He is today’s Sergio Leone.

6 – Star Trek

You’ve seen it.  I told you I’m a geek, so you know why I like it.  Done.

7 – Barry Lyndon

I finally got around to rewatching Kubrick’s underrated masterwork early this year.  It is a film that is, initially, quite off-putting.  It’s the epoch of long, British costume dramas.  Asking you to see the film twice may, at first, seem like a curse—especially given the film’s three hour length.  But it’s worth it.  This is Kubrick’s greatest film.

8 – The Hurt Locker

Like A Man for All Seasons, The Hurt Locker lays out one of the most complete characters in all of film: Sergeant First Class William James, a fearless bomb technician who can’t get his head out of his job.  Easily the most well-written action film ever made, and a film that delivers on all fronts.

9 – The Thin Blue Line

Imagine my surprise that Errol Morris’s decades-old documentary is just as fresh, full of technique, and thought-inspiring as it was when it was released in 1988.  Morris’s hypnotic film  investigates a late 70s roadside Texas murder.  Even when the mystery is finally solved, we’re full of questions, wondering if the American justice system works the way that it should.

10 – The Thin Red Line

Yeah, I know.  It’s a coincidence.

Terrence Malick’s 1998 WW2 drama is the odd-film-out when it comes to war movies.  It is an introspective, engrossing, and downright weird take on war.  It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but even its many flaws (especially its distracting cameos) serve only to make the film more fascinating.