Top 10 lists are a universally reviled form of critical expression for a reason: they force the thoughtful fluidity and artfulness of criticism into the confines of ascending order. It’s an exercise as banal as arranging a class of elementary school students by height. Countless stratagems exist that allow list-makers to ease the blow of their pointless task, though the successful approach for me has always been simple irony. See my inclusion of Tron: Legacy in last year’s top 10 list, or 2012 the year before that: two really bad movies meant to serve as a middle-finger to the very existence of year-end top 10 lists.

This year, I approached the list differently. I still don’t think of it as a serious critical process. I think of it as an impression. These are the first films I remembered when I thought about the experiences I had in movie theaters this year. Any picture I couldn’t remember on my own wouldn’t deserve a place below. In fact, I’m glad to have forgotten about the films I saw in 2011 that I can’t remember. They were the high school acquaintances of my movie-going experience. Their only suitable future purpose can be to serve as obscure punchlines.

Here are the films on my top 10 list, with a few words speaking to their inclusion:

Mysteries of Lisbon – Of all the enormous, dramatic film experiences offered in 2011, Mysteries of Lisbon was the grandest.

Sleepless Nights Stories –  Jonas Mekas’ new film is a moving collection of tales caught on video. The diary film is a quintessential homegrown American cinematic form, here it is at its finest.

The Turin Horse – Another monumental, apocalyptic, and beautiful vision from Béla Tarr. I am convinced this film explains the existence of the word heavy.

Melancholia – The last 5 minutes.

The Future – A lot of the time, people see what they want to see in movies. I’m hardly immune to this, in fact, I frequently sink into cushy red seats already formulating the best way to express my hate for the movie I’m about to see. The Future shattered my jaded predictions: where I had expected something unbearably adorable, I found a complicated and profound reflection on the properties of movies themselves. I heard an interview with Miranda July where she said The Future was about a couple struggling with changes in their perception of space and time. I don’t see anything twee about that.

Meek’s Cutoff – A quiet western with mythic and historical resonance.

Contagion – A lot of sleek, studio thrillers came out in 2011. Soderbergh’s vision was the most precise, haunting, and daring.

Hugo – I have always admired Martin Scorsese’s efforts to fund the protection of endangered films and promote the history of cinema. There are kids movies about every imaginable historical circumstance that turns them into fantastical, ridiculous tearjerkers. But when the subject is something already fantastic, like the films and legacy of Georges Méliès, the end result doesn’t seem nearly as sinister, say, Schindler’s List.

Le Havre & Bridesmaids – I laughed a lot at these movies.

Yeah, we know.  We’re late with the list again. But 2011 had a remarkable run in cinema, and this year’s list truly runs through nearly the entire spectrum.

Something to keep in mind:  none of the individual lists are the same. Films listed as number one by some people weren’t even seen by others. But, indeed, this is part of the film going experience and part of why the list is formulated as it has been. This is a snapshot, a look inside what different people are interested in, and what they thought of what they have viewed.

Below you’ll find the official Company list, followed by all the individual lists, and the scoring and explanation of how the list was created.

1.  Beginners

2.  Melancholia 

3.  Tree of Life 

4.  Midnight in Paris 

5.  Hugo

6.  Meek’s Cutoff

7.  Weekend

8.  Moneyball

9.  Bill Cunningham New York

10.  Drive

*          *          *

Giampaolo
Mysteries of Lisbon
Sleepless Nights Stories
The Turin Horse
Melancholia
The Future
Meek’s Cutoff
Contagion
Hugo
Le Havre
Bridesmaids

Jake
Tree of Life
Melancholia
Moneyball
Poetry
Le Quattro Volte
Hugo
Weekend
The Descendants
The Arbor
Take Shelter

M. Pitkoff
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Too Big to Fail
The Trip
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
The Love We Make
Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
The Black Power Mixtape (1967-1975)
Moneyball
Zookeeper

Liz
Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
Sleeping Beauty
Tree of Life
Beginners
Weekend
Heartbeats
Page One
Bill Cunningham New York
Bridesmaids
Conan O’Brien: Don’t Stop

Brian
Le Quattro Volte
Beginners
Tree of Life
Shame
Midnight in Paris
The Trip
I Saw the Devil
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Moneyball

M. Paley
Beginners
Melancholia
Drive
Meek’s Cutoff
Into the Abyss
Tree of Life
Poetry
Weekend
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
The Artist

Adam
Beginners
Drive
Tree of Life
Melancholia
Shame
Midnight in Paris
Bill Cunningham New York
The Artist
Meek’s Cutoff
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Peter
The Ides of March
Win/Win
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Midnight in Paris
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Bill Cunningham New York
Melancholia
Super 8
Bad Teacher
X-Men: First Class

The list was created through a compilation of frequency and then weighted through adding their rankings and dividing the sum by the frequency. The films in four lists or more have their averages equally weighted with one another.

Beginners – 4  ( 1, 1, 2, 4 ) // 2

Melancholia – 4  ( 2, 2, 4, 4 ) // 3

Tree of Life – 5  ( 1, 3, 3, 3, 6 ) // 3.2

Midnight in Paris – 4  ( 2, 4, 5, 6)  // 4.25

Hugo – 3  ( 1, 6, 8 ) // 5

Meek’s Cutoff – 3  ( 4, 6, 9 ) // 6.3

Weekend – 3  ( 5, 7, 8 ) // 6.6

Bill Cunningham New York – 3  ( 6, 7, 8 ) // 7

Moneyball – 3  ( 3, 9, 10 ) // 7.3

Drive – 2  ( 2, 3 ) // 2.5

Le Quattro Volte – 2  ( 1, 5 ) // 3

Beats Rhymes & Life : The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest – 2  ( 1, 7 ) // 4

Shame – 2  ( 4, 5 ) // 4.5

The Trip – 2  ( 4, 6 ) // 5

Poetry – 2  ( 4, 7 ) // 5.5

The Artist – 2  ( 8, 10 ) // 9

Bridesmaids – 2  ( 9, 10 ) // 9.5

Rook (Nicholas Garcia) relaxing by his bicycle.

The last few months have seen a remarkable change in me, as a steadfast commitment to my Boston way of life has given way to a rootlessness that has taken me across the country three times, the endless motion powering a thorough examination – and a rapid (westward?) expansion – of self. I mostly feel fractured, exhausted, and underwater – but I’m certain that the struggle will yield a real, sharp clarity in the months to come.

Luckily, when I do surface, I have two lovely travelogues to read.

The Long Haul maps my dear friend Nicholas Garcia’s thirty-two hundred mile cycling journey from Vermont to California. Nick is a lovely, vivid writer, and there’s something particularly refreshing about his journaling style – especially since he’s often updating from his phone, which forces his writing into the tightest of prose – it’s simple, unadorned, but lucid, generous, and crackling with wit.

Speaking of wit: Going Hollywood is our friend (and frequent STE collaborator) Adam Goldman’s document of his trip Westward as he stops in ten of America’s Hollywoods (currently he’s in Hollywood, Florida, having just left Hollywood, South Carolina, having previous hit the one in Maryland and both in Pennsylvania – get it?) on his way to the fabled Hollywood, California. Along the way he’s creating a long-form audio documentary (think This American Life) chronicling his trip and interviewing people about the experience of living in the other Hollywoods. A marvelous project, Adam’s blog is less useful as a travel document than as an excuse to read his writing (and, for a few posts, that of The Busy Signal and Skin Horse Theater’s Brian Dorsam), which is sparkling, consistently hilarious and impossibly charming.

I find that, right after checking the headlines (and the movie section) of my NYTimes app, I move straight to Going Hollywood and The Long Haul whenever I have a moment to breathe and a want to engage with the world. If I were you, gentle reader, I’d start both blogs at the very beginning – you’ll be surprised how quickly and inexorably you’re drawn in to the climb with Rook and Bonesy (as Nick and Jessa call themselves), and how curious and alive the country seems through Adam’s eyes.

For me, their journeys (a bit more straightforward, at least geographically, than mine) are reassuringly measurable, covering actual, physical terrain, and both clear and promising in their unfolding. I highly recommend them both – especially for anyone in the midst of a personal journey right now. Which is all of us, hopefully.

Three pint-sized reviews after spending a day at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge.

Midnight in Paris, dir. Woody Allen (2011)

I love being pleasantly surprised at 11 in the morning. All in all it had the familiar musk of many Allen films – an ensemble cast of characters oversimplified to the point of absurdity buzz around the shruggish and incredulous New Yorker that Allen unabashedly bases on himself. But Owen Wilson, the actor charged with wearing Mr. Allen’s tweed coat (and his rambling speech patterns), pulls it off relatively well. He stumbles through the magical film with wide eyes and wet lips, never abandoning doubt, and never even entertaining the idea that he may very well be insane. It’s a fun watch, with an all-star cast playing the best-of historical art figures, but there isn’t much hiding underneath the surface.

(The ending, in particular, left me with a strange taste in my mouth. Owen Wilson, who plays a character in his early thirties, ends up meeting a french girl (I’d say no older than 17) at a flea market. At the end of the film, they bump into each other on a bridge, and he “walks her home.” Jeepers creepers, Ms. Previn much?)

The Tree of Life, dir. Terrence Malick (2011)

Giampaolo’s review asks the most important question of this film: Is Bigger Better? I’d even stretch it a little further: How Big is Too Big? This film is. It’s too big. The first 20 minutes are some of the most inspired, emotional and thoughtful filmmaking I have ever seen. Bravo multiplied by a billion, but I don’t give a shit about these dinosaurs. Thank god, now we’re back to the brothers romping around in the unsettling suburbia. But then, the conclusion over inflates itself. First thing that struck home – the ending felt as though it was ripped directly Fellini’s 8 1/2. Not okay with me. And then it takes another 20 minutes for the mother to release her son to the circle of life. I never thought I’d say this about a Malick film, but it’s missing ambiguity. In the theater, I found my own perfect conclusion: Sean Penn walks through the door and the dress rustles in the wind. If that was the ending, I’d have walked out shocked and breathless (but still be like WTF Dinosaurs?)

The Trip, dir. Michael Winterbottom (2011)

What a British film. Two Brit comedians go on a reluctant road trip and snipe away quips at each other to no end. However, among the crackle and pop of dry humor there sprout up the most beautiful moments that are so clearly improvised. For 10-minutes we watch them compare impressions, determine how many octaves they can sing or riff off of war drama cliches. At parts, it is truly hilarious, but I found myself exhausted and offended on their behalves by the end. The constant one-upmanship took a lot to put up with; but it also sheds light on the (depicted) lonely life of Steve Coogan. Mr. Coogan lashes out constantly, beating up on the dopey and wiry Rob Brydon. Mr. Winterbottom strives for some emotional significance towards the end, but I wasn’t feeling much sympathy.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing research for an upcoming music video project. The artist I’m working with has instrumentals reminiscent of audio production from the 1980s, so I’m looking to draw creatively from the visual techniques and narrative forms of that era. During my “research” I’ve come across some absolutely amazing stuff. For your viewing pleasure, I’ve placed a few gems below. Enjoy!

The Fat Boys – Are You Ready For Freddy?

Prince Markie Dee, Kool Rock-Ski, The Human Beat Box, and Uncle Frederick. Cross-Promotion at its finest.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson

Influenced by Coming to America, which was released a year earlier. Also, a star-studded cast including, Mike Tyson, Don King, and Alfonso Ribeiro a.k.a. Carlton Banks.

Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock – It Takes Two

Rob Base having the time of his life. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen someone that giddy in my entire life… I envy him. (At the end we see E-Z Rock perform the first ever Dougie.)

Bonnaroo just celebrated its 10th anniversary and I was fortunate enough to be there. Between the delicious Spicy Pie Pizzas, Sweet Water IPAs and the unforgettable Arepas, I caught a couple shows. Here’s who left an impression.

Uncle Skeleton

These guys were my first show at Bonnaroo. I didn’t plan on seeing them, nor did I have any idea what they were, but when I heard the first few groovy measures of “Crosseyed and Painless” by Talking Heads I bolted through the crowd to find this 10+ member band rocking the crap out of one of David Byrne’s greatest songs. Yes, I changed my shape.

I stuck around for the rest of the show and these guys have some real talent. From their driving rhythms and liquid string section to their  surprise synthesizers and frantic vocals, Uncle Skeleton never ceased to satisfy.

Beats Antique

This California group has come up a bunch on my downtempo Pandora, so I wasn’t totally sure I’d be able to stay awake for their 2am-4am time slot. I stumbled into the tent not to a relaxed and phazed-out crowd, but to a writhing and dusty club with bass up to your neck. With dancers playing huge percussion and a live drum kit with violin (plus freaky animal masks!), Beats Antique doled out some of the most inspired hard dance tracks I’ve heard in a long time. Their sound is just a bit more organic than the ripping synth lines of Bassnectar, a bit more individual than Girl Talk’s frenetic Cliffs Notes of Pop but just hard enough to still make you feel dirty.

Iron & Wine

Sam Beam covers a wide spread of his songs with an eleven-piece fusion group. Unforgettable concert ensues. Here’s just a taste.

Junip

Jose Gonzales’ newest venture is a 5-piece ambient acoustic-electric gem. What surprised me is how closely they resemble a jam band, but I never found myself bored at the show. Their rhythms are often plodding, but their instrumentation is always expanding the sound-scape and enveloping you in a warm blanket of smooth and spacey sounds. I felt like I had stumbled into a practice room with some cool dudes and a lot of great instruments; the sound they foster together is casual but controlled, letting you into a groove but then exploring a 10-minute drone solo on Mr. Gonzales’ KAOSSILATOR. I dug it. A lot.

The Decemberists

If you’re looking for honest stage presence, look no further than these vintage vest-wearers from the North West. Colin Maloy was full of pomp and vocabulary, and I couldn’t help but laugh at his banter. Plus, he openly challenged Bela Fleck to a pick-off and they delivered a 5-minute solo of random notes, most of which he missed. It’s all in good fun, understand, because of course The Decemberists can’t shred. To drag it out in front of 30,000 people, however, takes balls the size of Saturn, and I respect that.

Arcade Fire

Holy extraordinary energy, Batman! This was an excellent live show. Each member on stage exuded as much passion and electricity as the leading man, Win Butler – who is sporting a new haircut (think sexy-Hitler). With so many people thrashing about on stage generating the pop-wash of sound that is Arcade Fire, its impossible not to connect. Hell yes it overwhelmed me. Hell yes I’ll see them again.

Ratatat

I love these guys for about 2 minutes per song, but their live show was truly the low point of the festival. Ratatat is very careful to preform each sprawling section of each song, some of which even last upwards of 6 minutes. As groovy as their music is, you’re lying if you say you don’t skip to the next track after 2 minutes. Well you just can’t do that at a live show. Snore.

Below, the transcript of messages sent from Rep. Weiner’s iPhone 4G to an Unknown Female.

Note: The “autocorrect” feature of Rep. Weiner’s iPhone appears to have been enabled throughout the following exchange.

 
2004 Euriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay Buttery, bright, citrus zest on the finish, strong notes of this glass has a chip in it I think.

2006 Susana Bobo Crios Rose Crisp, low acidity, strawberries and blueberries, these are the glasses my brother and his wife gave me for my birthday, aren’t they? Well, that explains it.

2006 Muntes Limited Edition Sauvignon Blanc Bone-dry, grassy, delicate, not as delicate as cheap glasses, but I guess when Mom and Dad still support you at 35 that’s what you can afford, and yes I know about that check, hints of corn and peaches.

2006 Argile Brut Light, short finish, would make a great Mimosa, solid sparkling from up and coming vineyard in Oregon, which would be a great place for him, because in Portland you can show up at a fancy restaurant wearing nothing but chest hair and that’s considered okay.

2008 Peter Lohmann Eden Valley Riesling Were we even raised in the same household? You’d think our parents kept him in the yard or something. This wine is awful.

Cedar Rapids

With a screenplay near the top of 2009′s blacklist (a list compiling the most liked unproduced screenplays in Hollywood) and produced by the ever-gifted Alexander Payne, Cedar Rapids is likely to be one of those few indie comedies actually worth getting off the couch for. Ed Helms plays a sheltered insurance salesman tasked with representing his company at a major convention in – you guessed it – Cedar Rapids, IA. John C. Reilly plays a convention veteran who breaks open Helm’s shell. It’s a simple set-up for a movie that we can only hope will transcend the “Midwest is dumb” cliché. (Feb. 11)

Meek’s Cutoff

For the past year and a half, we’ve been closely monitoring this film due to the fact that half of us had its director Kelly Reichardt as a teacher. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival last fall to some very positive reviews, Meek’s Cutoff (which is named after a trail in Oregon and not after the consequences of an amputation) is Reichardt’s most elaborate and expensive movie yet. Called a “horror movie in slow-motion” and presented in a nearly square 1.33 aspect ratio, the Western finally sees U.S. distribution later this spring. We’ll all be there, and we won’t be the only ones. (Apr. 8 )

Paul

Director Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland) is two for two, as are the English writer-stars Simon Pegg & Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). The supporting cast is fully packed with some of the best comic actors from television in the last decade (Jane Lynch, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Jeffrey Tambor). Only potential problem? It’s about a talking alien stoner. (Apr. 15)

Super 8

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one who thought Cloverfield was great. Going in expecting nothing special, I was gripped by how personal the horror felt presented from the POV of a doofus’ camcorder. I forgave the shakiness, the holes in the plot, the lesser developed characters. J.J. Abrams originally conceived Super 8 as a prequel of sorts to Cloverfield and the film looks to be similar in tone and style, which is welcome news to me, but the director resists giving much away ahead of time, saying “I don’t know about you, but I feel I get so over informed that by the time a movie’s released, I don’t care. I’ve seen it.” (Jun. 10)

The Future

Miranda July’s second feature is a sci-fi-ish relationship drama narrated by a cat. She might be the only filmmaker who can pull that off, considering, in Me and You and Everyone We Know, she made a 4 year old’s engagement in cybersex seem endearing. (TBA)

A Dangerous Method

Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung. Viggo Mortenson as Sigmund Freud. David Cronenberg. Enough said. (TBA)

The Descendants

After a mysterious Terrence Malick-long absence from cinema, Nebraska’s Alexander Payne returns with his first film in 7 years, which stars George Clooney as a Hawaiian attorney who takes his children on a road trip to seek out his wife’s lover after she is killed in an boating accident. Speaking about his earlier films – some of the most incisive American social comedies from the last couple decades (Sideways, About Schmidt, Election) – Payne has repeatedly expressed his desire to make a ‘great film like La Dolca Vita,’ believing his previous films were merely good. Road trips, infidelity and death are not unfamiliar territory for Payne, so it’ll be interesting to see how he rises to his own ambitious standard, if he does. (TBA)

Young Adult

Can lightening strike twice for Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman? In this follow-up to Juno, Charlize Theron stars as a divorced young adult novelist who returns to her hometown to stalk an old flame, who is now married. Sounds great, but then again, this fall I kept seeing YA’s film runner (the person tasked with carrying rolls of shot film to the film lab) repeatedly dropping boxes of film, which is more than a little discouraging. (TBA)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Let Me In and now THIS? Is it that we think the Swedes can’t direct movies? Or is it that American audiences don’t feel like reading subtitles? I guess I’m as guilty as the next guy: I didn’t see any of the Millennium films but will probably show up to this version, directed by David Fincher. (Dec. 21)

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked

Just kidding. (Dec 25)

War Horse

Out of Spielberg’s TWO planned December releases, I’m (maybe ignorantly) inclined to only include this one because it doesn’t have “unicorn” in the title. The big titan of American cinema has been failing critically with blockbusters recently, so his choosing to direct a small historical film populated with mostly unknowns is a smart change of pace, even if the film does revolve around horses. (Dec. 28)

Ten other films to look out for: Set Me Free (Dardenne Bros.), The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick), Love (Michael Haneke), Harry Potter 7, pt. 2, The Ides of March (George Clooney), Hugo Cabret (Martin Scorscese), The Beaver (Jodie Foster), Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold), The Sitter (David Gordon Green), Cars 2 and The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr).

Another year passed, another crop of films come and gone.

We publish our list now, at the cusp of 2011, because we needed an extra ten days or so to collect our thoughts — and to steal the time and search under the sofa cushions for the extra money to see every possible movie.

The first list you see is the official Company list. Farther down you’ll see all of our individual lists, a special list from Paul, and an explanation of how the Company list was computed.

1. The Social Network

2. Toy Story 3

3. Exit Through The Gift Shop

4. Black Swan

5. Carlos

6. The Fighter

7. A Prophet

8. True Grit

9. Winter’s Bone

10. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Jake
The Social Network
Carlos
Fish Tank
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Toy Story 3
The Kids Are All Right
A Prophet
Greenberg
The King’s Speech
The Fighter

Giampaolo
Winter’s Bone
The Fighter
Dogtooth
White Material
Henri George Cluzot’s Inferno
True Grit
The Strange Case of Angelica
Carlos
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
A Prophet
Tron: Legacy
The Social Network

Matt
I Am Love
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Black Swan
Toy Story 3
I Love You Philip Morris
I’m Still Here
Runaway
The Social Network
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
True Grit

Brian
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
127 Hours
The Fighter
The Tillman Story
Somewhere
Hot Tub Time Machine
True Grit

Adam
The Social Network
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Winter’s Bone
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
Carlos
Animal Kingdom
Toy Story 3
A Prophet

Peter
The Social Network
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Black Swan
Easy A
Kick-Ass
Inception
The Girl on the Train
Youth in Revolt
Babies

Our resident scientist, Paul Liebesny, declined to create a top-ten list for films. Instead, elbow deep in HIV/AIDS research (literally), he delivered this letter to us:

Sadly, I don’t think I saw 10 films in theaters this year. Not even close.

Q: What was I doing with my life?

A:  As an alternative, here’s a top ten list of 2010 scientific articles I read in the field of immunology. It’s worth pointing out that article 2 is completely readable by anyone interested, and article 1 is challenging but probably readable; they are perspectives on the state of the field, not research papers full of scientific jargon.

Sharing!: I obviously have access to whatever films I should watch, but you all are deprived of the wonders of scientific articles, unless you still have the capability to access them through a school library, or you have a secret private subscription to journals like Nature or The Journal of Immunology that I’m unaware of (Brian Barth I’m looking at you). So I’m attaching articles 1 & 2 to this email for your edification. #2 is only two pages, so, nut up and read it.

1. “Immunology and the elusive AIDS vaccine,” by Herbert Virgin & Bruce Walker, Nature.

2. “Accelerating HIV vaccine development,” by Wayne C. Koff, Nature.

3. “Recombination-induced tag exchange track old and new proteins,” by Kitty Verzijlbergen et. al., PNAS.

4. “MHC-I-restricted HIV epitope processing, immune control and immunogen design,” by Sylvie LeGall, HIV Therapy.

5. “Thymoproteasome Shapes Immunocompetent Repertoire of CD8+ T Cells,” by Nitta et. al., Immunity.

6. “Preclinical studies of an MVA-based HIV candidate vaccine: antigen presentation and antiviral effect,” by Brandler et al, Journal of Virology.

7. “Rational design based synthetic polyepitope DNA vaccine for eliciting HIV-specific CD*+ T cell responses,” by Bazhan et. al., Molecular Immunology.

8. “Single residue within the antigen translocation complex TAP controls the epitope repertoire by stabilizing a receptive conformation,” by Baldauf et. al., PNAS

9. “HIV-1 Replication through hHR23A-Mediated Interaction of Vpr with 26S Proteasome,” by Li et. al. PLoS One.

10. “Soluble HIV Tat Protein Removes the IL-7 Receptor a-Chain from the Surface of Resting CD8 T Cells and Targets It for Degradation,” by Faller et. al., The Journal of Immunology.

Finally, here’s the breakdown and ranking of averages that created the list; movies were first compiled by number of mentions, then position on the lists.

The Social Network -6 ( 1, 1, 1, 1, 8, 9 ) // 3.5

Toy Story 3 – 4 ( 9, 2, 5, 4 ) // 5

Exit Through the Gift Shop – 3 ( 2, 2, 4 ) // 2.7

Black Swan – 3 ( 4, 4, 3 ) // 3.7

Carlos – 3 ( 7, 2, 6 ) // 5

The Fighter – 3 ( 6, 10, 2 ) // 6

A Prophet – 3 ( 10, 7, 8 ) // 8.4

True Grit – 3 ( 10, 10, 6 ) // 8.7

Winter’s Bone – 2 ( 3, 1 ) // 2

Scott Pilgrim – 2 ( 2, 4 ) // 3

Here’s to a New Year.