My 10 Favorite Movie Scenes of the Year

An imperfect film - or even a straight-up bad film - can still have one scene, one exciting moment. Conversely, a great film can be so consistently artful or funny or moving that no one scene sticks out as a highlight. My favorite movie scenes this year came from films both great and disappointing; the scenes themselves, however, created an indelible and unforgettable moment and, if a filmmaker (or a performer) can capture you in some theatrical magic for a full scene, I think it's definitely worth noting.

SUPER 8 "Train Wreck"
JJ Abrams' blatantly Speilbergian family sci-fi adventure had a lot of great moments of both suspense and tenderness. The most electric moment, however, came when a pick-up truck purposely jumps onto the train tracks; the ensuing crash is spectacular to behold. With our lovable, moppet-heroes narrowly fleeing the danger, there was emotional heft. But with the disorienting darkness and eerie gleam of the train, the audience was thrust into the motion of the chaos and destruction. It was a grand, thrilling set piece that the rest of the film couldn't quite catch up to.

DRIVE "First Chase"
I didn't really enjoy Drive, so I'm expecting people to yell and throw rocks at me later when they read this. (Ow. Ow! Stop it, Prell!) But I will happily bang the drum for the opening car chase, a sparse and breathless series of maneuvers through downtown LA. It sets up the character's talents - and, to some degree, his world - in an almost real-time sequence that wisely uses ambient noise and sound effects to create tension. It also ends with a moment of surprise wit, giving us a connection to Driver and a sneak peak into the way the cogs and gears turn inside his head.

THE TRIP "Too Dead to Hear It"
If you don't like Steve Coogan, you won't enjoy The Trip, since it's mostly two hours of Steve Coogan playing Steve Coogan while talking about Steve Coogan. In the film, he visits a series of restaurants across the north of Britain for a magazine article; his friend, Rob Bryden, tags along. While visiting the remains of an abbey, Bryden (half-jokingly) asks Coogan to deliver the eulogy he would give at Bryden's funeral. Coogan's ensuing eulogy is... well, mean. Kind of. As Coogan tries to reduce his friend's life to a series of meaningless ventures, he accidentally captures the spirit of Rob's warmth and humor. In the process, Coogan articulates - only with his face - the large, empty gaps in his own life.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS "Prove His Mettle"
In terms of this summer's Marvel movies, I'd put this below Thor (purposefully silly and exciting) and above Captain America (the year's most boring, out-of-place villain), but First Class had the most masterful casting: Michael Fassbender as vengeful Magneto and James McAvoy as cautious idealist Professor X. These two actors played off each other wonderfully throughout, but near the film's midpoint, they get a rare, quiet moment to delve into their talents... and their powerful back stories. As X challenges 'Neto to move a giant, far-off satellite dish, the challenge is less about what he can do and more about how it feels to never stop fighting.

YOUNG ADULT "Drink Before You Speak"
When Charlize Theron's broken and unstable Mavis Gary returns home to Mercury, MN, the first old acquaintance she encounters is Patton Oswalt's Matt Freehauf. He's a smart but cynical sad-sack and over the course of several drinks, the two of them fall into an unlikely but transfixing rhythm. As they trade insults and recall injuries, they beat each other up emotionally. Ironically, this may be the only healthy thing these two characters do the entire film. The action eventually moves outside the bar, where Mavis reveals her true intentions and the confession bonds them together. It's the birth of a fantastic and unexpected screen team.

HUGO "Film on Film"
I'm overly critical of montages, just because I think, in general, they can be lazy and extraneous. But Hugo had three montages and they were all excellent and necessary. Each one hit me right in the heart, but the montage about film's origins - from Melies' magician past to his discovery of the Lumiere brothers' "Train Coming Into the Station" to the advent of shorts and silent features - was, unlike most montages, more than a series of moments and information. It was a soulful tale about a new medium finding its way into the hands - and minds - of excited young artists. In one montage, the endless possibilities of "dreams on screens" came thrillingly alive. It also managed to take Hugo's modern audience and put it in the position of the innocent eyes that witnessed the spectacular, wondrous birth of "movies."

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES "Gorilla Warriors"
I feel cheap picking an action scene - an action sequence, really - in what was a shockingly thoughtful, character-driven film with several brilliant wordless moments. But the scene I find most memorable is the "Ape Escape," a crazy and destructive prison break that pits a bunch of angry monkeys against a bunch of confused cops (and evil corporate businesspeople). The climax on the Golden Gate Bridge was, I'll admit, exhilarating; it was an explosive ballet of primate-on-man violence involving helicopters, several cars, and, best of all, apes on horses(!). I was leaning forward in my seat the whole time, feeling like a soldier in the onscreen war. This very smart film had given me two acts to invest in the plight of its Simian protagonist; now it was offering me the grand set piece the protagonist deserved.

THE ARTIST "Have This Dance"
The Artist's conceit - that it's a silent movie about the advent of "talkies" - is a clever premise that could easily swallow up the film itself. Luckily, the actors commit to giving performances that balance 1920s-style showiness with the kind of subtleties that a modern audience needs for the characters to feel authentic. This is highlighted when George and Peppy, working on a film together for the first time, perform several takes of a pass-your-partner ballroom dance. As George continually ruins the take, the chemistry comes alive and, in many ways, makes the characters into who they become. It shows how much romance is expressed simply in the eyes.

50/50 "Auto Therapy"
The most under-appreciated onscreen chemistry this year belonged to Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anna Kendrick (aka "Anna Kendrick, national treasure"). As a cancer patient and his exasperated, newbie counselor, the two actors beautifully played off each other's mounting vulnerabilities. When Kendrick's Katherine offers Gordon-Levitt's Adam a ride home, the two slowly get comfortable in the car, their first time together outside of her messy office. They ease into the conversation and, when he makes her pull over so he can throw out her trash, it doesn't feel like a "cute" romcom moment. There are no over-the-top laughs from her or cocky-but-charming quips from him. Rather, it's refreshingly honest and human, and - unlike anything Kate Hudson's done in ten years - it makes you deeply invested in the central couple.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL "You Say Dubai, I Say Oh No"
The fourth M:I is a feat in choreography. Truly. Tom Cruise, as a looser, fiercer Ethan Hunt this time around, has maybe ten lines in the movie. But he is a physical presence in a way that leading men rarely get to be these days. His "spy moves" are never more on display than in a sky-high, on-the-edge scene that places him on the outside of the world's tallest building, 103 floors up. It's swift but nerve-wrecking, Brad Bird's camera swirling from high-to-low, making you feel every unit of gravity that's pulling at Ethan. And the final forehead-smacking move? My hand instinctively went to my own forehead. I've never done a single thing Ethan Hunt has done, but I feel his pain.