Every year about this time, we critics torture ourselves (no, really, it’s quite difficult) with the impossible task of objectively categorizing works of art. Choosing the finest films of the year is an odd and ultimately unfulfilling exercise, one that invites constant second-guessing and nearly always devolves into more of a favorites list than an accurate representation of the year’s best motion pictures.

At least that is what we tell you to give ourselves some creative cover.

This list, more than any I have ever devised, is clearly, obviously, glaringly nothing more than a fiercely personal collection of those films that made me the most blissfully happy over the past 365 days. Never have I been more self-conscious of my choices; never have I been more sure. The list favors transport over perfection — these films will not let me go. There are technically better films to be sure, but they are not the ones I keep coming back to, time and again. Without further ado, these are 2010’s guilty pleasures:

1. “The Social Network”

Do not make the mistake of assuming “The Social Network” has anything to do with Facebook. Facebook is merely the vehicle through which “The Social Network” shows you the genesis of a modern Rockefeller, Carnegie or Vanderbilt. In the 21st century, information is the new oil, the new steel. What hasn’t changed is the mentality of the tycoon. The film uses a springboard many see as nothing more than a time-wasting distraction to tell a Titanic story of American hubris and alienation. Claiming “The Social Network” is about nothing more than modern communication techniques is like saying “Citizen Kane” was nothing more than a commentary on the newspaper industry.

2. “The Secret in their Eyes”

How often do you see a movie about which you have not a single complaint, about which you cannot find a single fault, about which you have nothing but phosphorescent praise? “The Secret in Their Eyes” is such a movie. It is that most odd of films — a noirish romantic thriller, a study in obsession. And yet, as the final reel spins, we realize we have been led astray; the film is not about a decades-old murder mystery, but a decades-old love affair. “The Secret in Their Eyes” is ultimately a sophisticated and ephemeral examination of bittersweet memory, a musing on the past, on choices made and opportunities missed.

3. “Inception”

“Inception,” a film about corporate espionage that takes place in the human subconscious, was likely one of the most astonishing things you saw all year. Chances are you walked out of the theater shell-shocked with the giddy realization that you’d just witnessed something intellectually breathtaking and truly original. “Inception” is the very best sort of science fiction — deliriously creative, bracingly inventive and audaciously ambitious. For once, it cannot be said that a film suffers from a failure of imagination. The fierce creativity necessary to pull off a film of this magnitude is rarely given wings, much less in a Hollywood studio blockbuster.

4. “Tron: Legacy”

Pure, unblemished spectacle, “Tron: Legacy” is cinematic escapism at its most thrilling and satisfying. The film conjures a world at once intimately recognizable yet breathtakingly new — an immersive cybernetic universe of glossy contours, vehicles that race on ribbons of light and muscular bodies poured into fetishistic latex bodysuits. Powered by a gut-throbbing score by electronic dance duo Daft Punk, it’s as if we were seeing this incandescently imaginative, gloriously self-indulgent world for the very first time. And it is awesome.

5. “How to Train Your Dragon”

“How to Train Your Dragon,” the story of an unlikely friendship between a boy and a mythical beast, is not simply a stupendous children’s film, it is every bit as dramatically engaging as any live-action film for adults. It combines a towering sense of adventure and an indubitable jubilation so rare in modern cinema. The film is chock-full of blissfully thrilling scenes, including airborne sequences that are at least as good as, if not better than. those captured in “Avatar.” “How to Train Your Dragon” is a more primal, more visceral experience than its more intellectual Pixar cousins, but it is no less magical. The film is, quite simply, a joy.

6. “I  Am Love”

The Italian film “I Am Love” is easily one of the most sensual films I have ever seen. It is ravishing, an operatic melodrama of stunning beauty and luxuriant texture. It is a thing elemental, a piece of art that works as pure, unadulterated hedonism, electrifying the senses with incandescent fire. It is a film out of time, donning the semblance of modernity but hiding beneath those drab garments is a musculature evocative of Visconti and classical European dramas of yesteryear. Director Luca Guadagnino’s exquisite attention to detail, luminous cinematography and ability to meld past and present cinematic sensibilities rewards his brazen and operatic poetry in this story of a woman combating repression with forbidden desire. Guadagnino finds the ideal soulmate in John Adams, whose bombastic operas are mined for their minimalist, atonal accompaniment.

7. “127 Hours”

“127 Hours” is about nothing less than the ferocious indomitability of the human spirit. The true story of Aron Ralston’s five-day captivity in a box canyon is an ideal story for Danny Boyle because the director excels at putting characters in situations from which escape seems impossible. And then, seemingly at the last possible second, Boyle injects hope — precious, unexpected, astonishing hope. Boyle’s task here is doubly difficult — he must eventually divulge an uncomfortably graphic climax while also keeping us interested in sticking around to watch just one actor on a claustrophobic stage (much of the credit belongs to James Franco). Boyle avoids the impending monotony by switching to interior mode, maintaining the film’s energy by living vicariously through Aron’s memory and imagination. “127 Hours” is one of the great survival stories — about ecstasy rather than agony, about triumph instead of defeat.

8. “Tangled”

“Tangled,” the retelling of “Rapunzel,” is as good as anything Disney has ever done and is easily its best traditional animated feature since “The Lion King.” Though crafted with the same computer-generated magic used to create Pixar’s gems, “Tangled” nonetheless maintains a very traditional, hand-drawn, almost painterly feel. The film is old-fashioned — unrepentantly sentimental and unashamedly sincere. Recent fairy tale fare has centered not on the earnestness of the genre, but on the irony, gleefully deconstructing long-established and time-honored tales to serve as little more than surrogates for satire, sarcasm and, at times, unabashed mockery. But “Tangled” comes from a place unaccustomed to artificiality. “Tangled” is an unapologetic fairy tale, and I loved every second of it.

9. “The King’s Speech”

“The King’s Speech” is a beautifully crafted, sturdily constructed, sublimely written story shimmering with robust humanity and impish wit. Director Tom Hooper and screenwriter David Seidler have made a simply marvelous film, dripping with lavish settings, sumptuous cinematography, clever montages and a richly rewarding script. This is “My Fair Lady” without the songs. Colin Firth, who should have won a Best Actor Oscar last year for “A Single Man,” will very likely claim the prize this year. He is magnificent as the beleaguered English sovereign, King George VI, every inch a modern king, yet equally hobbled by a disability seemingly beyond his outsized power to vanquish. Because Geoffrey Rush’s therapist/confidant can access the wounded man beneath the imperious crown, he succeeds where others have so often failed.

10. “The Ghost Writer”

Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” was the first great film of 2010, a spare, unpretentious thriller with a snappy script and precise, intimate cinematography — a prescient, deliriously entertaining story strained through the cinematic vocabulary of Alfred Hitchcock. Tonally reminiscent of Polanski’s own “MacBeth,” the director bathes his audience in gut-wringing tension, though it is a gambit he rarely consummates — when he does make good on the set-up, the payoff is that much more unsettling. The film, about the dirty secrets a ghostwriter to a politician uncovers, operates as a paranoid, 1970s thriller. But, while it tosses out a few political jabs, it is ultimately more interested in embalming its audience in foreboding. The last five minutes are as good as anything you’ve ever seen.

The next ten: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Shutter Island,” “True Grit,” “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” “Easy A,” “Toy Story 3,” “The Tillman Story,” “Animal Kingdom,” “Black Swan,” and “The Kids Are All Right.”

John Rosholt III, seen climbing in this undated family photo, had two passions — rock climbing and poker. He disappeared while on a trip that began five years ago this week. His remains were finally located in November on a rock ledge outside of Las Vegas. Photo by COURTESY THE ROSHOLT FAMILY

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