The last year has seen some fantastic movies hitting our screens, from Inception to Winter’s Bone – and now that 2010 is almost over it’s time to cast our eyes back over the best films of the last twelve months. CultureMob has covered many of 2010′s best movie releases, but here are some of the very biggest and best from our film vaults. We present to you the CultureMob Guide to the Must-See Movies of 2010… they may not all be Oscar winners, but here are 10 films that we’ll be remembering from 2010.

Inception.
Not the best movie of the year – not even Nolan’s best – but a true cinematic headrush nonetheless. Probably the most memorable film of 2010, even if we’re not entirely sure what it means.

Inception: Like a Surrealist Painting
Inception is a beautiful movie.  I don’t mean that it’s visually pretty, but that it’s got some astounding visuals and layers of meaning, much like the best paintings do.  If you were to freeze certain frames you’d have some images that are magical along the lines of some of the best surreal painters.  Rene Magritte’s paintings work along the same lines that the film does; both construct images that are rendered realistically but are impossible physical situations. Read more…

Inception Is A Complete Movie Experience
Prepare for a single, continuous WTF moment that lasts 148-minutes when you watch Christopher Nolan’s, Inception. Inception pretty much has everything you could ask for in a solid, entertaining movie: dynamic characters, clever dialogue, jaw-dropping visuals, arm-rest gripping action scenes, and a blessedly original story and concept. Read more..

Inception: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Christopher Nolan is no stranger to pressure. The man seems to thrive when the stakes are at their absolute highest, which they often are when he is involved. Batman Begins saw him face the challenge of reviving a moribund franchise from Joel Shumacher hell and providing an interesting origin story for the beloved hero. He delivered. Read more…

Leonardo DiCaprio on Inception: Christopher Nolan helped me understand his dream world
Known for his meticulous attention to detail when doing research for a movie role, actor Leonardo DiCaprio admits he was at a loss when it came to preparing for the part of Dom Cobb in director Chris Nolan’s latest film, Inception. Read more…

The Social Network.
David Fincher lifts the lid on Facebook founders, and makes one of the most culturally relevant movies of the year in the process. Like.

The Social Network: David Fincher’s powerful exploration of Mark Zuckerberg
Many have referred to modern youth as being the “Facebook Generation”.  That is saying that Social Networking will completely change the way that people interact in the future.  My only criticism of this estimation is to say that Social Networking already has completely changed the way we interact with one another.  All types of different websites allow for people to display their lives in hopes of meeting other people around the world.  The birth of this idea is the focus of the new David Fincher film “The Social Network”. Read more…

How Facebook Changed My Life: In Support of ‘The Social Network’
“The Social Network” is a movie about the behind-the-scenes drama of Facebook, including love interests and accusations of idea-stealing. Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) invented Facebook as a Harvard student, creating an interactive social networking phenomenon. I feel that I owe much of my personal success to Zuckerberg’s product—and here’s why. Read more…

Black Swan.
Darren Aronofsky’s dark vision of an obsessive and disturbed ballet dancer took us to places that others wouldn’t dare.

Does Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’ have a shot at this year’s Oscars?
In an ideal world, this is a movie that would sweep the awards. Aronofsky proves yet again that he’s one of the most visually exciting directors at work today, in a thrilling and disturbing tale of professional rivalry and obsession set behind the closed curtains of the New York ballet scene. Black Swan never relents in its artistic integrity and focus, and yet it never turns into a dry exercise in cinematic artistry – in fact, it’s probably the most thrilling movie you’ll see this year. Read more…

127 hours.
Danny Boyle returns with his second consecutive slice of Oscar-bait.

“127 Hours” is Aron Ralston’s Inspiring True Story of Man vs. Nature
Aron Ralston is a mountain climber, control freak, and a hardcore adrenaline junkie. But there’s a horrible accident with Ralston’s name on it waiting for him. In 127 Hours (based on Ralston’s memoir, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”), it’s the true story of what happens to Ralston when a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah for the next five days. Of course, other than a few random tourists who were vacationing on Pluto at the time, everybody else knows what Ralston had to do. Read more…

Winter’s Bone.
Ozarks-set crime drama gives us gritty realism laced with plenty of thrills.

Winter’s Bone: America’s Film Redemption
Winter’s Bone tells the story of impoverished 17-year old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) who is responsible for taking care or her younger brother and sister as well as her catatonic mother in their small Missouri home.  Her father is a Meth-cooker who puts their house up as bail when he gets arrested, then promptly disappears.  Ree is forced to venture into the underground networks of her Ozark community to find her father if her family is going to have any chance of surviving. Read more…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
More Harry Potter on our screens – what’s not to like? Enjoy it while it lasts…

Can “Harry Potter 7″ Break the Oscar Barrier?
In the last nine years, the “Harry Potter” film series has broken box office records while also being critically acclaimed. While not as fulfilling and satisfying as the books (few book-to-film adaptations are), the movies were fun, well-acted and exciting. And they got progressively better, which is pretty rare for a franchise this long. Read more…

Let Me In.
That true rarity – a remake that’s (almost) as good as the original. Horror fans will be debating this one for years.

Top Six Reasons To See LET ME IN This Week
I cannot, in all good conscience, consider film remakes to be sacrilegious.  Simply put, there have been too many good ones. It’s easy to demonize them; when done wrong, remakes represent the worst indulgence in all cinematic language: to replicate success.  Take what worked once (what made money) and do it again.  The fewer changes, the better. Read more…

“Let Me In” and Other Remakes That Surpass the Original
The main reason why I prefer the remake to the original is that all the emotions are heightened. The relationship between Abby and Owen is more tragic than Eli and Oskar’s. The suspense is almost unbearable. You really feel the emotions played on the screen unlike in the original which keeps you at a distance. Read more…

The Town.
See the ensemble cast of the year in Ben Affleck’s Boston-set heist drama.

Good Will Robbing: Ben Affleck Brings Us To “The Town”
The Bank Robbery film has been done before, many times.  “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Point Break”, “The Inside Man”, and the epitomal “Heat”.  It has become a sort of sub-genre of Crime films and explores some very interesting characters.  Exploring the psyche of men who meticulously plan out a 3 minute highly intense crime and have to trust other members of their team to get them through the heist. Read more…

Review: Ben Affleck’s ‘The Town’
Four men in skeleton masks rush in, properly armed, efficiently menacing, and executing their roles with textbook precision. This blaze of anxiety is the first scene that consumes the screen in Ben Affleck’s second directorial effort, The Town. Viewers already know what the four men are all about, and what their intentions are, through the very first heist scene. Same goes for the film itself: the plot is predictable. Read more…

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
A woefully ignored slice of quirky comic book action that deserves to become a cult classic. Start the comeback now.

Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
First off, let’s get the Scott Pilgrim plot out of the way. Guy (Michael Cera) dates girl (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).  Guy fights her ex-boyfriends.  Credits roll.  That being said, however, this is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  Or, rather, this is the most fun I’ve had at the movies this year.  Is that the same thing?  Not important, let’s get to the good stuff. Read more…

‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ – Everything ‘Kick-Ass’ Should Have Been
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” opened this week. The film lives up to its promotional efforts (they called it ‘epic’) and shows the true potential of lighthearted comic book movies. While “Pilgrim” shares many successful stylistic advances and achievements with predecessor “Kick-Ass,” it pulled off the comic-to-movie transition with more style. Read more…

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Review
Edgar Wright, the British director responsible for Shaun of the Dead, was clearly inspired by the youth of this generation and their codependent relationship with video games for his new movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World. Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) is a lazy 22 year old who plays bass for a fame-seeking neo punk band named Sex Bomb-omb ( a reference to Super Mario Brothers). Read more…

Due Date.
Robert Downey Jr. meets Jack Galifianakis. Hilarity ensues.

Due Date with Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis is Comic Bliss
Due Date is the latest comedy from the producer of The Hangover and Old School is the same rude sometimes-shocking comedy that we’ve come to expect from Todd Phillips. Peter Highman, played by Robert Downey Jr., can be described as nothing other than a poor suffering bastard in this movie. He’s just an expectant father trying to get across the country in time for the birth of his child. However, he finds himself tangled up with an overly friendly “actor” by the name of Ethan Tremblay, played by Zach Galifianakis, and his little dog, who happens to have the same destination. Read more…