Best of the 2010s Lists • Page 5

a list

100. The Big Sick (2017), Michael Showalter

99. Jackass 3D (2010), Jeff Tremaine

98. Cloud Atlas (2012), Tom Twyker, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski

97. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Wes Anderson

96. Chi-Raq (2015), Spike Lee

95. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Barry Jenkins

94. Tokyo Tribe (2014), Sion Sono

93. Baby Driver (2017), Edgar Wright

92. Ex-Machina (2017), Alex Garland

91. Uncut Gems (2019), Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie

90. Shutter Island (2010), Martin Scorsese

89. Drive (2010), Nicolas Winding Refn

88. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2018), Rian Johnson

87. John Wick (2014), Chad Stahelski, David Leitch

86. Mr. Turner (2014), Mike Leigh

85. Let the Sunshine In (2017), Claire Denis

84. Song to Song (2017), Terrence Malick

83. The Babadook (2014), Jennifer Kent

82. Black Panther (2018), Ryan Coogler

81. Hail, Caesar! (2016), Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

80. The Lighthouse (2019), Robert Eggers

79. 12 Years a Slave (2013), Steve McQueen

78. Atlantics (2019), Mati Dip

77. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Edgar Wright

76. The Love Witch (2016), Anna Biller

75. Good Time (2017), Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie

74. Meek's Cutoff (2010), Kelly Reichardt

73. Selma (2014), Ava DuVernay

72. Drinking Buddies (2013), Joe Swanberg

71. An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012), Terence Nance

70. Gravity (2013), Alfonso Cuaron

69. Creed (2015), Ryan Coogler

68. The Farewell (2019), Lulu Wang

67. Personal Shopper (2016), Olivier Assayas

66. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), Christopher McQuarrie

65. Tangerine (2015), Sean Baker

64. A Hidden Life (2019), Terrence Malick

63. Lady Bird (2017), Greta Gerwig

62. Obvious Child (2014), Gillian Robespierre

61. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019), Quentin Tarantino

60. BlacKkKlansman (2018), Spike Lee

59. The Witch (2016), Robert Eggers

58. Never Let Me Go (2010), Mark Romanek

57. Raw (2016), Julia Ducournau

56. The Irishman (2019), Martin Scorsese

55. The Lego Movie (2013), Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

54. Sorry to Bother You (2018), Boots Riley

53. Fruitvale Station (2013), Ryan Coogler

52. Phantom Thread (2017), Paul Thomas Anderson

51. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016), Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer

50. Roma (2018), Alfonso Cuaron

49. The Souvenir (2019), Joanna Hogg

48. Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), Richard Linklater

47. Inside Out (2015), Pete Docter

46. The Nice Guys (2016), Shane Black

45. Marriage Story (2019), Noah Baumbach

44. Swiss Army Man (2016), Daniel Sheinert, Dan Kwan

43. Hereditary (2018), Ari Aster

42. Little Women (2019), Greta Gerwig

41. Museum Hours (2012), Jem Cohen

40. Manchester by the Sea (2016), Kenneth Lonergan

39. The Social Network (2010), David Fincher

38. Cameraperson (2016), Kirsten Johnson

37. Logan Lucky (2017), Steven Soderbergh

36. 21 Jump Street/22 Jump Street (2012, 2014), Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

35. Spring Breakers (2012), Harmony Korine

34. Midsommar (2019), Ari Aster

33. Silence (2016), Martin Scorsese

32. Toni Erdmann (2016), Maren Ade

31. Call Me By Your Name (2017), Luca Guadagnino

30. Elle (2016), Paul Verhoeven

29. Before Midnight (2013), Richard Linklater

28. Somewhere (2010), Sofia Coppola

27. Short Term 12 (2012), Destin Daniel Cretton

26. No Home Movie (2015), Chantal Akerman

25. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), Apichatpong Weerasethakul

24. Frances Ha (2012), Noah Baumbach

23. The Handmaiden (2016), Park Chan-Wook

22. Moneyball (2012), Bennett Miller

21. Carol (2015), Todd Haynes

20. Minding the Gap (2018), Bing Liu

19. Get Out (2017), Jordan Peele

18. Paterson (2016), Jim Jarmusch

17. Parasite (2019), Bong Joon-Ho

16. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

15. Her (2013), Spike Jonze

14. Boyhood (2014), Richard Linklater

13. A Ghost Story (2017), David Lowery

12. Certain Women (2016), Kelly Reichardt

11. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Bob Perischetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

10. Margaret (2011), Kenneth Lonergan

9. The Act of Killing/The Look of Silence (2013/2014), Joshua Oppenheimer

8. Moonlight (2016), Barry Jenkins

7. Holy Motors (2012), Leos Carax

6. Under the Skin (2013), Jonathan Glazer

5. The Master (2012), Paul Thomas Anderson

4. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), George Miller

3. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Martin Scorsese

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

1. Magic Mike XXL (2015), Gregory Jacobs

 

Haven't seen either of those films... the sequel is that good?

 

The first one is good, a slightly dark, human drama about the life of a male stripper in Florida. McCoughaney and Tatum are great. The second shifts tone completely to be a bright road trip comedy that uses male stripping as a metaphor for artistic expression, a deconstruction of masculinity, and empowerment of the female gaze. I adore it.

 

I'm not going to call them the worst of the decade, but my ten least favorite movie experiences this decade were

10. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Jon Watts

9. Life Itself (2018), Dan Fogelman

8. Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), J.J. Abrams

7. Tower Heist (2011), Brett Ratner

6. Jurassic World (2015), Colin Treverrow

5. The Revenant (2015), Alejandro Inarritu

4. Joker (2019), Todd Phillips

3. Wish I Was Here (2014), Zach Braff

2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Marc Webb

1. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), J.J. Abrams

 

Spider-Verse just barely missing your top 10 bums me out.

You listing ASM2 higher/lower on your least favorites list than FFH bums me out even more.

 

Spider-Verse is, alongside of Magic Mike XXL, without a doubt the movie from this decade that makes me happiest when I'm watching. When I'm watching those movies I am so purely content and happy and engaged that it's remarkable. As for Far From Home, I think the MCU had numbed me a little bit whereas going into ASM2 I was like "okay I didn't love the first one but I like Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, let's see what it's got", so when I was disappointed, it hit harder

 

Revised my list and going to let it be. More than any other medium, I struggle with ranking films so these are my favorites of the decade chronologically

https://boxd.it/4gs7y

 

The 100 Best Films of the 2010s
Slant 100 of the 2010s list

 

Every time I think of Wish I Was Here I get mad, between that and dating Florence Zach Braff seems like the worst

 

Just watched Little Women and that should have probably been on my list. ah well.

 

Including a Polanski film? Yikes

 

Came to say the same, so sketchy

 

20. Drive
Directed By: Nicolas Winding Refn



19. The Florida Project
Directed By: Sean Baker



18. Hereditary
Directed By: Ari Aster



17. Blade Runner 2049
Directed By: Denis Villeneuve



16. The Neon Demon
Directed By: Nicolas Winding Refn



15. Certified Copy
Directed By: Abbas Kiarostami



14. Hope
Directed By: Lee Joon-ik



13. The Master
Directed By: Paul Thomas Anderson



12. I Saw the Devil
Directed By: Kim Jee-woon



11. Eighth Grade
Directed By: Bo Burnham



10. Incendies
Directed By: Denis Villeneuve



9. La La Land
Directed By: Damien Chazelle



8. The Raid 2
Directed By: Gareth Evans



7. Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame
Directed By: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo



6. Amour
Directed By: Michael Haneke



5. Marriage Story
Directed By: Noah Baumbach



4. The Lobster
Directed By: Yorgos Lanthimos



3. Before Midnight
Directed By: Richard Linklater



2. Blue Valentine
Directed By: Derek Cianfrance



1. Her
Directed By: Spike Jonze

 

Taking out the ones i haven't seen, this is very close to what my list would be.

 

Wow, you like Ryan Gosling and ScarJo movies

 

I know! I actually never noticed how many ScarJo was in until Marriage Story. Never been a huge fan of her really and she keeps doing dumb shit but she's in a lot of great stuff.

 

As much as I love "Her," it bums me out about the behind the scenes stuff where they had Samantha Morton doing the voice on set with the cast then completely dumped her for ScarJo and never even invited Morton to the premiere. I'm sure it's a practice that's fairly common, but also makes me like it a little less.

 

The only 2010s decade compilation to watch. Fucking beautiful!

 

A continuation.



40. VIOLA
DIRECTED BY: MATIAS PINEIRO

Everyone wants to do Shakespeare for the prestige it brings, but what so many people miss out on are the ways in which he plays with the fleeting passage of emotions. Shakespeare's comedies cut to the heart of the fickle nature of human beings, and it makes sense that a group of actors working on doing their own versions of Shakespeare would deal with the same flights of fancy.



39. PERSONAL SHOPPER
DIRECTED BY: OLIVIER ASSAYAS

People never really get over loss. They become hardened and full of emotional baggage, but they try their best to focus on the future and the present. In a more secular society, concepts of an afterlife are either mocked or ignored, but strangely a lot of these same people tend to believe in things like ghosts and spirits. "No", they say, "I saw one!", and you cannot convince them otherwise. She does not want to seem superstitious or irrational, but sometimes the things we face in life are beyond easy answers.



38. FATHER OF MY CHILDREN
DIRECTED BY: MIA HANSEN-LOVE

What answer is there to suicide? How do you cope as a spouse, a child, or a friend when you begin to blame yourself? Surely you must have been deficient in some way for them to choose to not keep going. It must have been that one argument or that one failing that disappointed them. You find yourself looking for these answers even though the reality is usually much less about the people around you and rather what that person was going through. It serves as a way to reinforce bonds between the people who are still here, as they realize that these people have chosen to live their lives at least partly to be there for their loved ones, even if it can be extremely difficult.



37. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
DIRECTED BY: CELINE SCIAMMA

We want the best in still images that represent us; people take hundreds of pictures of themselves nowadays and curate the best ones for their social media platforms. What are you going to express of yourself in the painting that will determine whether or not you are to be married to a stranger? While the photograph is mostly telling the truth, the portrait is more damning in that it represents what others think of you, which will never be what you see in yourself. Why would anyone want to be immortalized in that way, especially when you do not control the process? The painting is playing a role, like a woman who is being married off to a stranger must play a role. These sacrifices are made, but those who really saw us know when we are playing a part.



36. PHANTOM THREAD
DIRECTED BY: PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON

Never argue with people in charge of your food.



35. TO THE WONDER
DIRECTED BY: TERRENCE MALICK

Malick is known for his Christianity, and many of his films play with the idea of the Fall of Man. When Marina cheats on Neil, it feels as if all of the innocence and love has been sucked from existence, as lovers often see themselves at the center of something that actually does not care about them. The quiet, secular, practical Neil was never going to be a long-term match for such a free-spirited person like Marina, but in our own lives we constantly find ourselves enamored with a person, creating a fuller persona for them, and then trying to get the real person to conform to the standards in which we have laid out. It almost always fails, but we never learn our lesson until we go through it a few times.



34. FIRST REFORMED
DIRECTED BY: PAUL SCHRADER

Criticizing organized religion is like shooting fish in a barrel, but why do they often seem so completely unconcerned with the way people treat the planet? If this is truly God's Kingdom, how will He feel when he sees what we have done with it? No one wants to really have these conversations. Big business is especially reluctant, as any deviation from the norm can be a reduction of profit. The American megachurch is more corporation than house of worship, so naturally they find themselves in opposition to the local pastor who is not producing income in the way they desire.



33. WHITE MATERIAL
DIRECTED BY: CLAIRE DENIS

Discussions of the responsibility for colonialization can be a tough one. When a working-class farmer or mechanic or cashier is told they are the inheritors of privilege, it can seem ridiculous compared to the massive wealth found elsewhere. It was a long time, it was my ancestors, can't we just move on? Of course, it is easy to want to keep the rules of the game when you are winning. You cannot see inequality and oppression the same way at the bottom as you would at the top. When violence erupts, it is portrayed as innocent people being wrongly targeted, but a deeper look into the class struggle reveals how it is often the only answer.



32. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
DIRECTED BY: QUENTIN TARANTINO

Has any other filmmaker done more creatively with the limitations of working on true stories? We had the catharsis of Hitler's grisly death in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, but here it is more personal; instead of the most consequential war in history, it is a grisly murder scene that represented the end of an era. Both the ranch scene and the ending climax are the sort of masterful pace and suspense buildups that Tarantino has been doing for a long time, and even still you have to smile at the audacity of it all.



31. ECCENTRICITIES OF A BLONDE-HAIRED GIRL
DIRECTED BY: MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA

We should go on a few dates before we start writing our wedding vows.

 

A continuation.



30. EVERYONE ELSE
DIRECTED BY: MAREN ADE

When you are young, you are always sort of expecting the relationship to end. You know your flaws and you know your failings, so why should this person you have put on such a high pedestal want to stay with you? Surely there must be something wrong with them or their way of thinking. They are thinking the same thing, and whenever there is a first sign of inconvenience or disappointment, the relationship begins to be tested. To continue it is more about accepting the person and their limitations rather than continue the charade of everyone being on their best behavior.



29. LEVIATHAN
DIRECTED BY: LUCIEN CASTAING-TAYLOR AND VERENA PARAVEL

The last decade saw the agenda documentary, stating a thesis and making its case through film. These Harvard professors have instead made films fully immersing the audience in the difficulties faced by people on the edge of society, whether it is fishermen in LEVIATHAN or sheep herders in SWEETGRASS. There is none of the false drama of a DEADLIEST CATCH, instead showing the way that nature and the human-animal struggle creates the stress and difficulties in our lives, elements that we can only temporarily escape but which threaten us all. It is a beautiful type of poetry.



28. GIRL WALK//ALL DAY
DIRECTED BY: JACOB KRUPNICK

Everyone hates street performers. You are just trying to get to your home or to work only for someone to interrupt your peace with someone making a spectacle of themselves. Why is this so infectious, then? Part guerilla, part planned, the fusion between the mashups of Girl Talk and genuinely impressive interactivity with New Yorkers makes it a relentlessly fun experience, ending within the album's length to keep you wanting more. There is a magic to a young girl, overwhelmed by the boutiques of New York City, dancing along to the instrumentation of Layla overlayed with B.o.B. complaining about haters.



27. THE IMMIGRANT
DIRECTED BY: JAMES GRAY

The immigrant at the heart of the film is not angelic; rumors of prostitution while on the ship run rampant, and it always feels as if she is living with some sort of regret. Her past continually holds her down, leaving her unable to secure aid from her family and being beholden to the pimp that promises her a future. She falls for the brother partly out of his charm but more because he is representative of the American Dream, promising things in the immediate while the pimp stalls out of his own fears of loss. The immigrant quickly recognizes the pitfalls of American life, where showmanship and power allows those who desire to manipulate others succeed. The title makes it clearly that this could be any immigrant, from a Polish woman via Ellis Island or a Mexican man via the border.



26. HOLY MOTORS
DIRECTED BY: LEOS CARAX

You can read it as a film about the many faces of the actor, but you can also read it as a film about the many faces of the modern person. Parent, child, sibling, spouse, friend, employee, co-worker, neighbor, customer, student, teacher, and stranger; which one are you wearing at this moment and how is it different than the last one you wore? How much do these roles intersect, and how much separation is vital for your normalcy to continue? How uncomfortable can it be when your relationship with someone changes and they see some of the more radical changes in your face. Is it wrong to be two-faced, or is it a natural evolution of our roles in a world where anyone can become temporarily hidden within anonymity? Who is the "real" you, if that is really a thing?



25. A VERY MURRAY CHRISTMAS
DIRECTED BY: SOFIA COPPOLA

A film where Murray and Coppola brilliantly invert their persona that came from LOST IN TRANSLATION, it has been described as a Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas. It is deeper than that, though, diving into depression and the ways in which we can escape it fleetingly but it always returns. Coppola has spent about a decade trying to recapture the feel of her best-known film, and here she is able to get to the heart of what she does best, while hiding it with brevity and lightness. It is visually stunning, leaving you in awe when the film goes into Murray's dream to go to its most bombastic Christmas music. It is fun at a time when films have become much too brooding.



24. RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN
DIRECTED BY: HONG SANG-SOO

What if life had a do-over?



23. THE LONELIEST PLANET
DIRECTED BY: JULIA LOKTEV

It sounds a lot nicer to say you would take a bullet for someone than to actually do it.



22. MARGARET
DIRECTED BY: KENNETH LONERGAN

One of the essential parts of learning to cope with tragedy is learning how others expect you to deal with tragedy. The final transition from your teenage years to adulthood is realizing the ways that the people you perceived as moral beacons or pillars of strength are just as confused and manic as everyone else, but with a coat of coping on top of it. All of those people you thought you could rely on are weak, ignorant, and with their own agendas, but only by realizing this can you come to really appreciate who they are and what they are going through. It is what allows you to have a deeper, adult relationship with these people as you leave adolescence behind.



21. GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE
DIRECTED BY: JEAN-LUC GODARD

Godard came to 3D, said everything that needed to be said, and left to play with his dog.

 

A continuation.



20. THE ACT OF KILLING:
DIRECTED BY: JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER

"Local paramilitary leader: We crushed their necks with wood. We hung them. We strangled them with wire. We cut off their heads. We ran them over with cars. We were allowed to do it. And, the proof is we murdered people and were never punished. The people were killed, there's nothing to be done about it. They have to accept it. Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better, but it works: I've never felt guilty, never been depressed, never had nightmare."

This type of confession is the type that society pretends to exist is not true. The evil are often unpunished, and the idea of "evil" does not really mean anything if society does not consider it to be so. Nazism and the reign of Josef Stalin are national embarrassments in their home countries, which makes it easier to grasp their implications. This film shows a more common reality, that those heinous criminals more often than not get away with it.



19. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
DIRECTED BY: JOEL AND ETHAN COEN

To try to be an artist is to allow yourself to be judged deeply. No one really puts all of themselves into taking orders at a restaurant, fixing a transmission, or processing applications; we recognize that these are just tasks done to pay for the life that does define us. Whether you are singing a song, writing a book, or painting on an easel, you are asking an audience, who can be as cruelly dismissive as possible, to find beauty and meaning of your expression of feeling. The iceberg of fame is represented by the handful at the top and the struggling and destitute under the water. It takes talent but it can also be a matter of luck. Llewyn Davis was just a little bit too early, as we see as the young Bob Dylan takes the stage after him.



18. UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES
DIRECTED BY: APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL

No one is ever really gone.



17. POST TENEBRAS LUX
DIRECTED BY: CARLOS REYGADAS

A thinly-veiled autobiography about his success in juxtaposition to rural Mexico, the film features his best cinematography to date, and the further he gets away from conventional narrative film, the more beautiful his disjointed scenes become. Where he once shocked audiences with violence and sexuality, he is pushing the medium in surreal directions, shocking audiences more as the usually more open Cannes crowd booed it. The film's depiction of the devil and a children's nightmare give the film its personal narrative in ways other directors would be too afraid to depict for fear of mockery.



16. CARLOS
DIRECTED BY: OLIVIER ASSAYAS

Terrorism often talks of ideals, but how does concern for the poor or the suffering of victims justify your own violence, more often than not afflicted upon innocent people? Whatever actual softness Carlos the Jackal had for the Palestinian struggle pretty quickly washes away when he is confronted with his first major test, where a true believer would have become a martyr but instead Carlos takes the money in order to continue on as a quasi-celebrity, safe in the knowledge that the Cold War and international division will give him opportunities. As the Cold War ends and the world embraces the international blending into the conglomerate, he finds himself hunted, but at this point it does not even matter; he is not even conducting missions anymore. Rather than become a martyr that others may look to and make pilgrimage to their grave, he becomes a shell of himself rotting in prison.



15. MOONLIGHT
DIRECTED BY: BARRY JENKINS

Homosexuality in film has progressed in large strides since BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, and now we get to see how sexuality and race can intersect in ways that the wealthy white suburbs ignore. Our childhood trauma is different from person to person, but it ultimately shapes us and our adult insecurities and weaknesses. Closure is rarely something that people can achieve, and here we see that it often raises more questions than it does answer questions.



14. THE IRISHMAN
DIRECTED BY: MARTIN SCORSESE

Since GOODFELLAS, it seemed like Martin Scorsese had peaked as a filmmaker. He did not face the same sort of irrelevancy of Francis Ford Coppola, and THE AGE OF INNOCENCE has its adoring fans, but for twenty years it seemed like he was unable to push the medium forward he had done for so long. The decade brought a renewed Scorsese, experimenting with 3D in HUGO, transplanting the style of GOODFELLAS into the corporate world in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, and tackling the limits of faith in SILENCE. Here, though, he makes what could be a final statement, a film about how we only get so many chances and that we will pay for our sins, sooner or later. There is no true nobility in getting old, but if you live a life of meaning and personal connection you can spend those last years with people who love you. You can secure yourself financially and you can put down your opposition, but that loneliness is worse than dying for something much earlier.



13. TAKE SHELTER
DIRECTED BY: JEFF NICHOLS

The definition of sanity exists on a mutual understanding between groups of people; you see the things I see and I hear the things you hear. That is what separates us from the screaming man at an intersection, but he really does sound like he means it. How far are you willing to push something if everyone is starting to doubt you? Is it better to be right and isolated or suffer the fate of everyone else that is comfortable in being wrong? Is winning alone really winning at all?



12. BEFORE MIDNIGHT
DIRECTED BY: RICHARD LINKLATER

Just like Truffaut did not originally expect his Antoine Doinel character to become his alter ego for two decades, Richard Linklater never could have foreseen the path that Jesse and Celine, based loosely on a meeting Linklater had with a young woman, would take. We see part of ourselves in them, their insecurities, their switches between guarded emotions and unrestrained confessions. Because their relationship was based on a peculiar scheduling coincidence, they have never been restrained by the normal process of courting and bonding, but now that they have finally settled together and reached middle age, what happens to the romance based on impulsiveness and passion? It is even harder for them to reconcile this as any other couple dealing with it, as they were able to dismiss compatibility concerns because it was never supposed to be a long-term relationship anyway. Making it work takes tremendous commitment, and we will know soon where they go as they grey and watch their children grow away from them.



11. TONI ERDMANN
DIRECTED BY: MAREN ADE

Just call back your parents. They did raise you.

 

Was trying to remember the name of this movie the other day, lol. Remember very few specifics about this outside of that devil, but the aesthetic has really stuck w/ me over the years. Such a gorgeously shot film.

 

Reygadas is so good, I feel like I saw a lot more people take notice or warm up to him with Our Time. I watched Japon this year when Criterion released their edition and it’s such a stunning film. I think Silent Light is probably still his masterpiece but I’m long overdue for a rewatch.