Inception

I thought about writing a review for Inception, but I'm not really sure I can write anything cohesive or anything that hasn't been said already. Here is what I DO know:

1. Christopher Nolan is my favorite director. When I saw Memento in 2000 as a little naive 13 year old who scarcely had scratched the surface of amazing cinema, I distinctly remember sitting on my floor in my room alone after midnight watching the credits roll, waiting for my brains to unscramble. It definitely affected my career path. His approach to storytelling along with his innovation in how he tells stories (without being gimmicky) is unmatched. I look forward to seeing the 1 or 2 other Nolan films I've missed.
2. This film's story is brilliant. It moves quickly, it doesn't give you unnecessary information, it has the right amount of mystery, it has emotional payoff, and the story itself is completely new and familiar at the same time. The concept of going into a person's subconscious is old and new. 
3. The visual effects were amazing. I won't go into specifics, but you can tell that Nolan takes great care to do a lot of stuff in camera, and the seam between real and vfx is blurred so greatly, you can't even tell what's real.
4. The music was perfect. It accompanied the pace and story so well, you almost didn't notice it. It pushed you deeper into the movie. The movie also had the right amount of silence, which is really important.
5. I found myself wondering how this movie could end in a satisfying way. Often science fiction stories have a difficult time ending in a way that isn't contrived or cheesy. Of course Inception found a way to have the entire theater on the edge of their seats until the last cut to black, and then have everyone scream at the credits.

Toy Story 3 was so excellent, but Inception has definitely unseated it as my favorite film of 2010 so far. I don't think any films will unseat Inception, because it's pretty much the exact kind of movie that I absolutely love so much that I want to hunt Christopher Nolan down and give him a bear hug.