It was an odd year to say the least, fellow moviegoers. While 2008 seemed to be encompassed largely by the big drama or the critical darling, this year was a leap ahead for family films and comedies, some of which took their respective genres to entirely new levels. Not that I’m complaining; I love a year in which the key emotion is laughter. So, my picks for the best films of the past year:



10. Zombieland

In the age of the Twihard, I must admit to being a little sick of supernatural cinema. I never thought the day would come, but I would be perfectly happy if 2010 went by without a single movie monster in my sights (I won’t get my wish, but I digress.). Still, salvation was at hand thanks to this awesome horror comedy by screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Woody Harrelson is at his ballsy best, and the laughs and guts fly in equal proportion. What’s not to love?



9. Up in the Air

George Clooney is traveling across the country, getting paid large sums of money to fire people so their bosses won’t have to and obsessing over how many frequent flyer miles he can get. Director Jason Reitman (“Juno”) takes flight into the realm of the true auteur with a cinematic poem for the age of unemployment that is all at once heartbreaking, hilarious and even hopeful.



8. Inglourious Basterds

Cinema junkies can rejoice at this, the triumphant return of writer director Quentin Tarantino, who rewrites history with a tale of Jewish soldiers (led by a stellar Brad Pitt) slaughtering Nazis behind the lines in World War II France. Throw in some of Q.T.’s best camerawork yet, as well as a chilling and charming performance by German actor Christoph Waltz (I’m smelling Oscar), and you’ve got one of the best war films in years.



7. Star Trek

J. J. Abrams boldly reinvents one of the world’s most popular sci-fi universes with this high octane take on the beginnings of Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew. An all-star cast and dynamite special effects combine to keep you on the edge of your seat, and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman deliver plenty of snappy, homage-laden dialogue. And of course, Leonard Nimoy’s appearance seals the deal. Yes, I know, it’s an action movie. It’s also brilliant.



6. The Hangover

I always make a point of including the funniest film of the year on this list, and “The Hangover” won by a landslide in ’09. This raucous, raunchy and at times just plain wrong buddy comedy will go down in history as one of the most laugh-laden flicks in the history of the movies. A cast of madcaps, including the film launch of comedian Zach Galifianakis, turns in a fistful of wonderfully hilarious performances, and director Todd Phillips makes certain you leave with more than a few images you’d rather not want stuck in your head.



5. Coraline

Director Henry Selick once again proves his mastery of stop motion filmmaking with this beautifully evocative dark tale of a girl lured into a mirror world where everything is too good to be true. Dakota Fanning is wonderful as the voice of the title character, and Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s original novel is spot on. With this flick, spooky films for kids have officially been revived.



4. Up

I’ve been preaching for years about how amazing Pixar is, and I won’t stop now. In their most emotionally complex release since “Finding Nemo,” the CGI wizards tell the tale of a widower seeking to fulfill his wife’s lifelong dream of traveling to South America by floating his house away on a mammoth bunch of balloons. Like every Pixar film, it’s funny, touching, detailed and beautiful. Also, there’s a talking dog.



3. (500) Days of Summer

Unmitigated sap that I am, I was just fine with romantic comedies the way they were, but I was even happier with this quirky and hysterical film from director Marc Webb. Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a greeting card writer looking for the one. Summer (Zooey Deschanel), the new girl in his office, may be it. This nonlinear tale exploring their 500-day relationship features everything from a dirty word game to a very odd trip to Ikea, all laden with a wisdom that elevates the film far and above any other love story this year.



2. Where the Wild Things Are

I’m still puzzled when I hear people talk about how much they didn’t like this adaptation of the beloved book by director Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers. What’s not to like? It was easily the strangest film of the year, one of the most visually stunning, and delivers outstanding performances from some of the finest actors alive. But what’s more, it’s honest about being a child, which I can’t say about most films. Yes, the wild things look like demented, overgrown Muppets, but what’s so wrong with that?



1. Away We Go

I didn’t choose this film for its scope, or its effects, or its high drama. I chose this film because, quite simply, I fell in love with it; every part, from Sam Mendes’s poetic direction to Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida’s uplifting screenplay to the tear-jerkingly genuine performances by Jon Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. It’s nothing too complex: just two people out on a search for what they need who end up finding that all they really need is each other, but it’s a film that will make you feel alive like nothing else this year, and will make you love the person sitting next to you even more than you did when the flick started, and that is definitely a movie worth celebrating.