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Top Movies of the 2010s
The end of the year has me in a movie-watching mood and I want to add the best of the best into my queue for the next few weeks. Similar to games of the decades, what are your movies of the decades and why?
There are some great films in this list! I want to mention Upstream Color because I agree that Carruth is magical. This film, and I mean this in the best way, did my head in. I'm a bit surprised it doesn't have the buzz that Primer does.
I saw that one a few years ago and don't remember anything about it. Maybe I was distracted at the time or something, not sure. I love Primer and expected something comparably amazing, but it just didn't stick with me. I should probably try again.
I felt so blessed. I went to the theatre and bumped into a buddy I know from our local indie craft scene. It's the only time I've been at a movie where everybody sat through the credits in silence.
Carruth has had A Topiary on the backburner for years, but it doesn't look like it will ever be made. He did get few of the sketches for large props in Upstream Color, but that's the most we've seen. He was close to making The Modern Ocean, but it was also shelved.
I just don't get it. He did some music for the series, The Girlfriend Experience (created by Amy Seimetz from UC), but that's the most we've seen of him.
yeah, I think Refn was really nailing his aesthetic down. If you haven't already, Too Old to Die Young is a killer series -- and probably the best miniseries of the year.
I'd almost group Drive, Only God Forgives, and Too Old To Die Young as a spiritual trilogy, like Chan Wook-Park's Vengeance trilogy.
Wow, a ton of movies I have never even heard about in this list! Thank you! I like that there are tons of foreign films in here which I never watch. I think I am going to queue up Drive first as its one I see on lists everywhere that I have been searching.
There were so many I wanted to list, but I didn't want to be annoying :)
Check out some of these gems.
Along with Drive, see Only God Forgives, Too Old to Die Young (miniseries), and also The Place Beyond the Pines. Pines isn't the same director, but it's another Gosling film where he totally crushes it. It's got a killer cast and acts as a sprawling anthology (in a sense.)
There's another French movie I'm trying to find, but I totally forgot the name and I don't seem to have it in my spreadsheet. If I find it, I'll hit you up.
edit: my sheet swaps prefixes.
Honorable mentions: Inception (2010), The Big Short (2015).
I was just thinking about The Social Network the other day. The tagline was "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies" (or something to that effect). I remember thinking that was a staggering statement at the time, no other website could claim a userbase like that.
Today, the number is 2.8 billion.
I'm not sure how exactly to frame my thoughts around that figure so I'll just let it speak for itself. The world has changed so incredibly much in ten years. That movie is to Facebook what Pirates of Silicon Valley is to Apple: an interesting look at the beginnings of something that didn't really explode until after the movie was made. You could make a sequel now; it would tell a much different story but probably an even more shocking one.
Also known as Inside Out in English speaking countries.
Woops, thanks for catching that
...I'm a dummy, you'd think after the last error, I'd have checked the others.
I finally watched The Florida Project the other day and loved it. The story, the cast, the cinematography, the pacing, and the editing were all fantastic.
I also loved Wind River. It was teeth-clenchingly tense at times, devastating, beautiful...it was a lot of things!
Hunt for the Wilderpeople made me nostalgic for home, as well as being charming and moving.
Manchester by the Sea left me in pieces. I never want to watch it again, but really want to watch it again. Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams are fantastic.
Logan was a decent film, but I really felt it hit the mark as a conclusion to Wolverine's cinema arc.
Those are a few off the top of my head.
edit: I nearly forgot Mad Max: Fury Road! I've re-watched it a few times now. It kinda feels like a videogame in the way it progresses.
That is, without a doubt, one of the best films in history. I'd bet good money it will be in the next American Film Institute top 100 list.
I don't think Logan comes even close to qualify, though. And I haven't watched Manchester.... I'm not a big fan of heart-wrenching drama.
I actually agree with you on Logan, but it came to mind because I've been with that character for something like 25 years, and it just felt right as a conclusion.
Inception (2010) – Hans Zimmer's music alone makes me keep coming back to this film nine years later.
Excellent choice, it definitely deserves a place on this list.
Great, I was looking for a reason to do a proper list!
Ultimately, it was a strange decade and it didn't really vibe with me. "Serious" hits like the Lobster left me cold and depressed, not getting enough out of them to make up for it. The mainstream was utterly dominated by superhero movies, which I do enjoy but have a hard time making an emotional connection with. I think the most memorable screen experiences this decade were videogames and tv shows for me. That's not to say that a decade of movie making doesn't produce some deeply beautiful, memorable ones, even if it wasn't a great decade.
I went through my IMDB history and it's bizarre how many movies I literally don't remember seeing (even though I recognize them once I watch the trailer). Maybe it's unfair towards older movies, but I made a rule not to pick movies I don't have a vivid memory of (interestingly, there's some 2010 movies where I remember everything and movies I saw last year that feel like I only dreamed seeing them). I had to dig a little to come up with this list, but came up with 25 (this is a bit obsessive and more of a personal movie diary than a sensible comment post but I'll just dump it here, anyway)!
Midsommar (2019) – I think that horror was maybe among the most inventive genres this decade and Midsommar is building on that. I like the idea of a horror movie set almost entirely at daylight.
Parasite (2019) – So this might just be on here because I've seen it so recently but it's a movie full of intense moments and interesting little twists. Also Bong Joon Ho generally had a great decade.
The Favourite (2018) – Fuck The Lobster! If I have to pick a Yorgos Lanthimos movie for this decade (and I begrudgingly have to admit he deserves that), I'll make it The Favourite! At least this has some actual joy in it, even if it's bitter.
Get Out (2017) – Another great horror movie and fantastic debut for Jordan Peele. Proofs that you can do a socially relevant movie without the least bit of pretentiousness.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) – There's way too many decades-late sequels, nowadays. Many of them are horrible but 2049 is amazing, IMO. Do I prefer it over the original? I dare not say.
The Red Turtle (2016) – Beautiful, quiet animated movie.
Room (2015) – Honestly, I'm just putting this here out of protest: The kid should have won an Oscar!
Inside Out (2015) – Just when I had all but written off Pixar, they put out this. There's so many ways a movie like this shouldn't work out but it did! It's this down-to-earth, over-the-moon Pixar whirlwind that puts the studio up there with Ghibli.
Mistress America (2015) – If I had to describe this decade's biggest contribution to comedy movies, I'd say Noah Baumbach. Thank god we no longer need Woody Allen to do quirky NYC comedies.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Another decades late sequel that proves there was nothing special about the 70s or the 80s that makes doing these kinds of movies today impossible. Do I prefer it over the old ones? YOU BET I DO!
Wild Tales (2014) – 6 absolutely wild short stories. Funny, intense and criminally underrated!
What We Do in the Shadows (2014) – The best comedy of the decade and Taika Waititi's well deserved step into stardom. I like how around that time, a bunch of actually good directors took on the Vampire trope and did great things with it (Let the Right One In, Thirst, Only Lovers Left Alive).
The Lego Movie (2014) – How come that one of the most branded movie of the decade isn't a soulless ad but a deeply personal love letter to childhood wonder? Well, because of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Guess what other movie they worked on!
Interstellar (2014) – It's unfair that this one gets looked down upon for essentially trying something hard: A big, serious sci-fi movie on the scale of Odyssey 2001. And it's actually great! The ending is convoluted and suffers from Nolan-massaged logic but just the depiction of black holes (the visuals, the time bending incorporated in the story) make it worth it.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) – Jim Jarmusch doing a Vampire movie turned into one of the best things this decade. Jim Jarmusch doing a zombie movie, sadly, turned into utter crap...
The Great Beauty (2013) – The name is so fitting, this movie celebrates beauty (or rather, the search of it) in such a varied, energetic way. Because of Paolo Sorrentino, I also have The Young Pope and Youth on my watchlist for ages but always keep pushing it "for the right moment".
Her (2013) – Science Fiction done so right. And relevant, too. Please make more movies, Spike Jonze!
The Wind Rises (2013) – A lot of stars have to align for a director to be allowed to spend this production budget on this kind of movie. This is Miyazaki's grand farewell, since he'll never do another movie again, never ever!
It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) – You might know Don Hertzfeldt from his funny shorts like Rejected. This is also funny but also much, much sadder. It is, in fact, my favorite animated movie. Yes, cheekily sitting atop Princess Mononoke. It's the movie that most consistently makes me laugh and cry within the span of one hour. If you feel even mildly intrigued to watch this, PLEASE give it a try! It's worth it, I promise!
Django Unchained (2012) – Picking Tarantino movies for these lists always feels a little "duh" but I actually didn't like his last two. At least Django had an interesting setting.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) – Rom-coms totally don't have to suck. Ryan Gosling makes sure of it.
Drive (2011) – Starring Ryan Gosling, Kavinsky, Desire and College. This decade would sound a lot different without it. Oh, and they also drive around a bit.
The Skin I Live In (2011) – Another haunting, original horror movie making this list. For some reason, it feels like it was made in the 60s.
Melancholia (2011) – This movie dragged me into a deep, bottomless hole but unlike with all the others that tried this decade, I actually enjoyed it!
Black Swan (2010) – One of the few movies whose release/Oscar buzz held up after all these years.
Your list is really fantastic, but I admit I'm curious about your Pixar comment. They've made a couple missteps over the years but for the most part their output has been reliably superb. What in particular do you dislike?
It's mostly 3 movies that stopped their near-flawless streak for me: Cars 2, Brave and Monster's University. After Inside Out, they also had a few disappointing ones (The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, Cars 3).
I generally consider their sequels to be a bit of a waste, as all that creativity is better spent on something new. And they made a lot of them. Other than that, The Good Dinosaur and Brave just didn't click with me. Coco was okay.
I just consider Pixar to be the gold standard for 3D animated family movies. They're still way ahead of the competition. So when I would say that Pixar had a disappointing decade, that's in relation to them being the absolute best in the field.
Thanks for your thoughts! I agree about the Cars series, even the first one was a disappointment compared to Pixar's usual work. It's a merchandising powerhouse though, it's not hard to see why Disney has pushed it as hard as it has. Personally, my family and I love Brave, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, and Coco— all four were well-crafted movies in my opinion and really resonated with us.
I haven't seen Monsters University because it did look like a lackluster sequel, though the original was one of my favorites from Pixar. I'll probably check it out sometime on Disney+. All the Toy Story sequels have been unequivocally much better than I expected. There's no accounting for taste of course, but in my estimation Pixar's still generally knocking it out of the park, quality-wise.
They're a great studio, again this is complaining on a very high level! I also realize that people generally love the Toy Story sequels and they're actually great! Again, I just think that for all the work that goes into those movies and Pixars unique concentration of world class talent, I'd rather see them do entirely new movies. They did so many sequels in the past 10 years. But yea, the Cars franchise apparently just prints money because of the cars-with-eyes merchandise. It's easy to see how doing those is irresistible, for example.
Black Swan, 2010: I hate Ballet. I'm more a Samurai/ Kung Fu guy. Yet I was riveted. 8.0 on IMDB with over 600,000 votes. 8.2 on RT. Highly recommended.
The Accountant, 2016: 7.3 on IMDB. 5.6 on RT. If you like the Boondock Saints, you might like this.
Joker, 2019: An origin story, more original than batman begins. Turns a comic book super villain into a hyper realistic antagonist that you actually find yourself rooting for, but... wait..... isn't he the bad guy? 8.7 on IMDB. 7.2 on RT.
What are your favorite samurai/kung fu movies?
Kung Fu Hustle, The Boondock Saints, Drunken Master, Léon: The Professional, Batman Begins , The Legend, Star Wars: Episode V & Seven Samurai. Plus almost anything Zatoichi.
2017s It was a great success, but the more academic critics did not give it enough attention. Yes, it was a popular and accessible film, and yes, it used jump scares. But it did so with brilliance. Besides, there is no such thing as an inherently inferior artistic device. It is also a compelling and universal coming of age story that will endure the test of time, the best Stephen King adaptation in the horror genre since Kubrick's The Shinning, and the best overall adaptation since 1986s Stand by Me.
And Bill Skarsgård performance as Pennywise deserved an Oscar. Just saying.
Unpopular opinion incoming, but I think this year's Cats movie has the potential to be a cult classic, like The Room, the Rocky Horror Show or Freddy Got Fingered.
It currently stands at 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. It been panned by critics for rushed CGI effects that go beyond the uncanny valley (especially during Rebel Wilson's song where you see human-faced mice and cockroaches dancing around) and for having a nonsensical (lack of) plot, but I saw this a few days ago and genuinely enjoyed it. The user reviews on Metacritic are also somewhat higher than that of Star Wars Episode IX.
Black Nerd Comedy does a very good job at summing up why you should see this movie.
A bit late to the game here, but still have some time before 2019 ends. Lot of already great films listed here, so I tried to not repeat any.
Anomalisa (2015) - Stop motion has never looked so good. One of my favorite reviews of the movie comments about how it has one of the most realistic sex scenes of any movie, and I think that captures how human and awkward the interactions are in real life, which this movie represents so well. Throw in some somber Lost in Translation vibes and it's a good meditative piece.
Before Midnight (2013) - While my least favorite of the Linklater's Beyond trillogy, I wanted to include it since it does a good job of end-capping the trilogy with a very realistic portrayal of love in later years. I loved the trilogy for the conversational style it carries so well (as with most of Linklater's films). Honorable mention with Boyhood (2014) for another ambitious multi-decade project of Linklater's.
Coherence (2013) - A low budget, single-set production, but done so smoothly. It takes a simple concept and unfolds it beautifully, leaving you with oh-so-many questions to ponder. A good mindfuck.
Ex Machina (2015) - Another small cast, but truly engaging. Sci-fi without crazy lazers, and instead a more psychological thriller. Shout out to AI Rising (2018) as a spiritual second take.
Holy Motors (2012) - There's something so ineffable about what this movie captures. It's like life imitating art, or the other way around. A truly surreal dream that had me along for the ride.
Predestination (2012) - As with all time travel movies, there's going to be a plot hole somewhere, but forgiving that aspect, I do like this take on time travel which sets it slightly apart from the rest.
Runaway (2010) - Not your typical entry into a movies list, but I really enjoyed the reprisal of a visual album that seems to have been forgotten since the 80s. Say what you will about Kanye, but this album and movie are top notch in production and I wish we had more artists willing to create an experience like this (like Beyoncé: Lemonade (2016)).
Sorry to Bother You (2018) - Wow. As directorial debut for Boots Riley, I'm extremely excited to see what his next venture is. This movie has such thick social commentary in the middle of a Kafkaesque dystopia on par with Idiocracy. The latter half of the film had me on the edge of my seat and open mouth gaping at times. What a trip.
The Raid: Redemption (2011) - Not that this movie has much of a plot to speak of, but it championed the high-octane adrenaline rush of a movie like Crank, without seeming like it was going for cheap thrills. John Wick has definitely taken a few notes from this movie.
The Square (2017) - Could be hit or miss with people who can't handle Östlund's dry approach, but I thought it was a nice thought piece on the current state of modern art.
The Tragedy of Man (2011) - So, technically a movie from the 80s (and it shows), it was completed in this decade. It's a visually stunning animation that delves into the meaning of life while walking you through human history and mythology. A hidden gem!
This is going to be a heavily-biased response but I haven't seen anyone list it here yet so I'll write it anyway. I don't know how deep my film knowledge really is, I am out of my depth in film convos with my friends, but almost all of them are either working on PhD's in film, working in the film industry, or semi-respected film critics and I just like watching movies and talking about them but I like to think I picked up some stuff via osmosis. Anyway here's my analysis of one of my favorite movies of the decade/all-time:
Knives Out (2019): When I review a film I like to break it down into 3 categories: Was it a good film (how was the writing/acting/editing/production?), what are the intended and unintended messages of the film (and how well does it articulate them), and "did I like it". Knives Out killed it in all three categories for me personally.
Did I like it?: Yes. My favorite genres are comedy and mystery/noir and I thought Knives Out walked the line masterfully. From a purely writing perspective, I enjoyed Knives Out to a degree I don't think I've felt probably since I watched Clue for the first time. I could rave about all the small details that made the movie more funny or enjoyable but I would just be talking for pages about every detail of the movie so I wont. The shortest way I can describe it is the movie kept my attention the full runtime, I never felt like it dragged or the pacing was off, I had a lot of good laughs, I got all the intrigue and suspense and tension I wanted from a mystery movie, and I left feeling more satisfied than nearly any other movie I can think of. From a purely enjoyment standpoint, this movie is probably top 3 movies of all time for me if not higher.
Is it technically good? In my opinion? Yes. I'm not going to dive too deep into everything, but I thought it was well paced, I thought it was really well written, characters all felt very realistic and believable, all their actions felt very realistic and believable and in-character, I thought the soundtrack always added to scenes without being a distraction, I thought the editing was well done, the attention to detail was incredible (see: https://www.polygon.com/2019/12/7/21000539/knives-out-lighting-windows-closeup-glasses-matt-mania-key-grip/), every actor played their parts really well. Again, I don't know that it is on par with some of the greats like The Godfather or GoodFellas, but I would say from a technical perspective its probably the best and most well-rounded I've seen this year and probably in the last couple of years (off the top of my head at least, I'm sure I could come up with a few arguments if I really sat down to think about it.
Message: I'll leave this one as the shortest because I think it is one that's hard to get into without spoilers. I thought all of the major messages in the movie were at least interesting and all very relevant to modern times/politics. I think its really funny and interesting to see Rian Johnson get mostly negative reviews for a Star Wars movie (full disclosure: I really enjoyed TLJ) and then get great reviews for Knives Out when the two have a respectable overlap in messages.
Knives Out is a legitimately great movie. Been feeling everyone who will listen they need to see it. It was probably my movie of the year although Joker is close.
Although I think it is one of those movies, just by it's nature, that won't be as good on a second rewatch as it was on it's first.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've seen it 3 times in theaters and had a good time every time, but I watch Clue about once a year and enjoy that every time and definitely have a higher tolerance for rewatching media (tv/movies/youtube) than most so I am not the best person to base that off of.