The Town (2010)

Directed By: Ben Affleck

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, & Blake Lively

MPAA Rating: R

My Rating: 9 / 10

Ben Affleck's The Town has all of the ingredients to make a perfect thriller...but, as we've seen so many times before, great ingredients do not necessarily make a great product, if they are not combined in just the right way. Fortunately, Affleck proves that his feature film directing debut, Gone Baby Gone, was no fluke. He really has a firm understanding of how to locate all of the right elements for a film and then assemble them into a truly wonderful finished product. The Town is brilliantly exciting, pulse-pounding from the very first moment to the end. But, being an ultimate cinematic anomaly, it is also a thoughtful character study, drawing a handful of interrelated people into a tangled narrative that meticulously exposes the various parts of who they are as individuals. Affleck expertly merges these two worlds into an altogether great bank robbery thriller that fully verifies him as a powerful writer and director.

Dorian Gray (2010)

Directed By: Oliver Parker

Starring: Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, Rebecca Hall, Ben Chaplin, & Rachel Hurd-Wood

MPAA Rating: R

My Rating: 9 / 10

I'm going to make a rather bold claim to start off what is sure to be a rather glowing review. This claim might be bold, but I believe it to be quite true. Dorian Gray is the most underappreciated film of the year...not "one of the" or "perhaps the," but "the" as in the only one. Sitting at a respectable, but insignificant 6.3 rating on the IMDb and sporting a paltry 44% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it would seem to the casual observer that Dorian Gray is an undeniably dud, a cinematic turkey, if you will. But, those observations would by wholly inaccurate. In fact, Dorian Gray is not just the most underappreciated films of the year; it is, quite simply, one of the best. I cannot tell you why I seem to be lone defender of this film, when so many others have disregarded it. I found myself swept away by its visuals, enamored by its performances (particularly a very sympathetic Ben Barnes in the title role, as well as a perfectly devilish Colin Firth), and fully engaged in its story. All of this coming from someone who thinks that Oscar Wilde practically walked on water. Indeed, Dorian Gray does not remain 100% loyal to its source material, but it captures the spirit of the text, an achievement that so many other filmmakers have failed to obtain.