2019 marks the end of a fantastic decade of cinema, and there are simply too many great films that have come out since 2010 to contain to a list of just 10 or 20 or even 50. So enjoy the first installment of my list of the Best 100 Films of the 2010’s!
DISCLAIMER: This is my list and my list alone. It’s subjective and will not be the same as everyone else’s list. This is definitely not an objective ranking of the most well-made films of the decade, or the most well-received, but rather the 100 films that most made me feel something. I value resonance above all else, so if a movie is able to make me think and stay on my mind after watching, it deserves a higher spot than a masterpiece I didn’t connect with as much.
Part 1 (100-76) | Part 2 (75-51) | Part 3 (50-26) | Part 4 (25-1)
Honorable Mentions: Spring Breakers (2012), Enter the Void (2010), The Irishman (2019), Captain Fantastic (2016), Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013)
Lots of worthy films from the past decade, but only 100 can make it in! As it so happens, 100 seems to be right around the cut-off for films I really, truly connected with and enjoyed, so these are the films that fall just outside that qualification for me. That isn’t to say they are undeserving in their own right, and if they appear on your personal Best of the Decade list, I don’t blame you! They are all expertly-made films that ought to be seen by everybody.
100. The Martian (Ridley Scott, 2015)
The finest celebration of science this decade has seen in film. Matt Damon’s stranded-astronaut performance is the best he’s given all decade, and for a film that could’ve been oppressively bleak and desperate, he brings a surprising amount of humor and initiative to the role. The script is surprisingly faithful to the novel it’s based on, which is especially impressive to see given how dry and procedural the events of the story are. It’s a testament to great writing (from Drew Goddard, who appears elsewhere on my list) that it is still a fascinating ride while hampered by pragmatism. There are a few questionable casting choices (Kristen Wiig and Donald Glover are particularly weak), but otherwise this is a fun and gripping journey across the board.
99. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
Get Out is expertly crafted, with each frame specifically designed for maximum impact and a multi-layered script that embeds profound social commentary in its seemingly-simple plot. It doesn’t make sense that a rookie director can show such mastery so soon into his career, and Jordan Peele has earned every accolade and good notice he’s received thus far and then some. This is perhaps the film with the best chance of enduring far beyond this decade and being remembered as a cinema classic. The Sunken Place is such a perfect metaphor that has already spawned academic disciplines and spurned real discussion in the community, which is rare for an indie film to accomplish in today’s social media era. I just wish this film was scarier, because to me it doesn’t quite live up to the horror genre tag with enough audience thrills. But as a pure statement film, it remains a stunner and a trailblazer.
98. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Many argue to this day that this was the deserving Best Picture winner of 2014 and one of the finer films of the past half-century, and while I’d contend with both of those arguments, this is still a special experience and a phenomenal feat of filmmaking. While the prolonged filming period is seen as a gimmick, it is an immersive technique that helps to sell the film’s themes of growing up and coming into one’s own as an adult. For a film that was basically written as it went along, it’s remarkably consistent and well-paced with compelling themes and throughlines linking the disparate timelines. For all of this film’s warts, it is truly one of a kind and worthy of praise for the sheer ambition that is unmatched in cinema to-date. We’ll have to wait until 2040 to see anything like it again, when Linklater completes his rumored 20-year project with Beanie Feldstein!
97. Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018)
Hereditary didn’t even make my initial Best of 2018 list, but it has stuck with me way more than I thought it would. I don’t typically like horror films, and I really dislike movies that emotionally manipulate me, but this film hit all the right notes to get under my skin. Can I blame Ari Aster for wanting to unsettle and disturb me? It’s emotional terrorism, plain and simple, and this film emotionally drained me like few others ever have, which I have to give it begrudging props for. Additionally, Toni Collette is one of the biggest acting snubs of the decade; her performance is burned on my brain and randomly pops up in my memory now and then. If this film was a bit tighter and got to the point a little quicker, it might have become an all-time classic. Hell, it still might!
96. Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010)
Villeneuve has had a great decade, and he kicked it off with this fantastic exploration of cultural memory and pride in an unspecified Middle Eastern nation (most likely Lebanon). The film tackles uncomfortable topics for the descendants of an era of war and turmoil, with old sins brought to bear and regret for the past confronted head-on. It does not allow the mistakes of the past to lie forgotten; they are dredged up and put on display so that the children and grandchildren of those responsible will know and understand why history cannot repeat itself. All of this is expressed through a well-constructed mystery story that very nearly reached perfection (if not for a couple questionable choices towards the very end), but it is nonetheless a powerful ride and an important one for an ethnic group with such a horrific past.
95. Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2018)
2018 was the year of black-and-white foreign films with stunning cinematography, because both this and Roma (appearing later on this list) are utterly spellbinding at every frame. Here, director Pawel Pawlikowski gives us an intimate and personal tale with the epic globetrotting scope of a war film. Set in postwar Eastern Europe against the backdrop of ruined landscapes and cities just beginning the rebuilding process, the romance between the two leads is infectious and the obstacles between them frustrating and yet understandable. In spite of insurmountable odds against the success of their courtship, we root for them anyway, the hallmark of a good romance story. The film’s only flaw is that it is a mere 90 minutes long…an impressive show of restraint for sure, but I could have spent another hour in this world getting to know the characters and not minded one bit.
94. American Animals (Bart Layton, 2018)
The crime thriller genre is one of my favorites when done correctly, and this one exceeded expectations. The true story about four college kids who attempted to steal valuable art from their school library manages to take four privileged, bored, well-off kids and make them relatable and sympathetic, even if we disagree with their actions throughout the film. It features real-life interviews with the actual perpetrators of the crime, and explores the unreliable narrator to juggle the disparate points of view when it comes to recounting the story. Once the action picks up, it’s a white-knuckle ride that doesn’t relent until the very end. That alone earns it a spot on my list, and the strong character work bumps it up a few spots for making me care about the central cast. If only MoviePass hadn’t bungled the release of this film (as they did most aspects of their business in 2018)…then maybe more people would have seen this hidden gem!
93. Sing Street (John Carney, 2016)
Even as someone normally immune to sappy teen rom-coms and musical-fantasies, this movie totally won me over. A simple tale about an awkward high schooler who starts a band and breaks out of his shell to win over the girl somehow feels entirely fresh and unique. For a story you think you’ve heard a dozen times before, the script takes surprising twists and turns so that you never feel ahead of the plot. The musical sequences are fabulous and catchy as hell; I found myself bopping my head along to the beat multiple times. I’m glad it didn’t stoop to the basic “good guy gets the girl” trope at the end; the film understands that life is messier than that and treats its young lovebirds with respect. I’m thoroughly impressed in spite of myself…a complete charmer through and through!
92. Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
I typically hate movies like this, that take an agonizing and uncomfortable subject matter and put it on full display for our “enjoyment”. However, the filmmaking mastery on display from Michael Haneke is impossible to ignore, and I was riveted at every turn thanks to his brilliant decision-making. He chooses to present the story of this couple in its rawest form: no music, no flashy visuals, no distractions. We are forced to sit with them and their struggles from beginning to end, with no reprieve, so that we fully understand the agony that this disease brings them and yearn for peace with every fiber of our being. It’s yet another fantastic example of characterizing people who do horrible things in a way that we sympathize with them, and I feel these characters could have done much worse in this film and still been excused due to their horrific circumstances. I won’t be watching this film ever again, but I respect the craft and will be haunted by it for decades to come.
91. Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013)
For my money, this is one of the greatest achievements of cinematography in the history of film. To actually construct outer space and the Earth from scratch seems impossible even six years later, and it makes sense why it took seven years for Alfonso Cuarón & co. to make the film due to the technical complications involved. I had the pleasure of seeing the film in IMAX upon release, which was truly a religious experience that I haven’t had the likes of since. The story and character work is pretty meh, which prevents this from rising on my list any further, but as far as technical mastery and in-theater thrills, this film stands alone as far as I’m concerned.
90. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015)
Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan burst onto the scene with this little number in 2015, and so too does he burst onto this list for the first time (but certainly not the last). This is one of those projects where the stars simply aligned for both cast and crew: a phenomenal camera team (director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins) and stellar cast (Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin and others) join the strong script to add up to quite the immersive experience. The Mexican border drama is a thrill ride from beginning to end, even when there isn’t explosive action happening (which definitely does at times), thanks to fantastic tension-building and compelling characters that carry the themes perfectly. Even if the sequel was an abomination, this was definitely an entertaining ride that took an even-handed approach to the border crisis – an approach you don’t see all too often in Hollywood.
89. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma, 2019)
The 2010’s had a bevy of excellent LGBT romance-dramas, and Sciamma’s mesmerizing look at a 19th-century affair feels like a logical conclusion to all of them. It contains similar story beats and thematic content as all those that came before it, but it treats its subjects with a tenderness they deserve (and which many male filmmakers before failed to). Femininity is explored in earnest: not as a weakness, but as something to be celebrated and projected to the world. Subtext drives the narrative forward, as our two leads are conditioned to hide their true feelings and leave desires unspoken. It’s a story of breaking free of societal norms and expressing oneself honestly – lest we live our whole lives without saying what needs to be said.
88. What We Do in the Shadows (Taika Waititi, 2014)
What a great decade Taika Waititi has had! From his humble beginnings in New Zealand, he has since broken out into commercial (Thor: Ragnarok) and critical (Jojo Rabbit) success stateside. But this little mockumentary-style comedy following a group of vampires has stuck with me more than many of his more well-regarded features. It brilliantly deconstructs horror tropes for humorous purposes, with a lovable cast of characters and endlessly-witty sequences making full use of the potential in both the horror and documentary genres. Despite such a simple premise, the execution is flawless and makes this a surprisingly-memorable watch that I’m always willing to recommend to people, even my non-film-loving friends.
87. Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2016)
Scorsese is no stranger to exploring religion in his films throughout his long career. But this might just be the most poignant and affecting work he’s made to that end: an immersive, deeply impactful tale of two 17th-century missionaries travelling covertly through closed-border Japan in search of their missing mentor. It’s an extremely heavy film that spares no hardship; everything that can go wrong DOES go wrong for our protagonists. Through it all we yearn for their faith to persist, even if everything they come across flies in the face of the grace and goodness they believe about the world. Scorsese intends to break these characters down and examine their baser selves, to see if religion is truly as ingrained and essential as we claim it to be. It’s a bit overlong and heavy-handed at times, but when it works, it works just as well as any Scorsese classic, if not better.
86. Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013)
Payne is no stranger to the road trip movie, but rather than explore the foibles of young (ish) love as he does in Sideways, here he takes us on a journey through America’s aging, forgotten heartland. It’s a simple story on its surface of an elderly man and his son on a wild goose chase, but it speaks volumes about generational inheritance and the desire to impart something on to our offspring. And it does so against the backdrop of a dying region of the country, a segment of the population largely passed over and forgotten…stripped of its pride and heritage. It’s a story of a man reclaiming his sense of self, and his son rediscovering the importance of respect for the agency and desires of others. It’s also effortlessly hilarious when it wants to be, taking what could have been a real downer of a film and making it heartwarming in all the right ways.
85. A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick, 2019)
Terrence Malick is a director I find often works best with an established plot to follow, as he’s made a few stinkers this decade with plots that don’t really go anywhere. This biopic about an Austrian conscientious objector during WWII is a heartbreaking meditation on human beings’ responsibility to act in good conscience in times of oppressive evil. This man was a goddamn saint, and it begs the question of what society would look like if everybody acted the way he did in the face of tyranny. Perhaps wishful thinking, but nevertheless a powerful examination of a man who lived life as honestly as possible and faced the ultimate consequence – but became immortalized for it.
84. Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015)
I’m not big on animation or children’s films, and despite seeing this film appear on several Best of the Decade lists, I remained skeptical going into my first watch a few months ago. Boy, was I wrong! This is easily one of the most mature and inventive films Pixar has ever made…endlessly creative with fresh sequences that feel both familiar and wholly unique to the premise. It’s an incredibly emotional and affecting journey with a nuanced perspective on growing up not often seen in children’s films. It teaches kids – no, teaches us ALL – that it’s okay to be sad, which is sometimes better than feeling nothing at all. Couple that with clever, consistent humor and some brilliant sequences unique to the concept and this is a special film.
83. First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2018)
Even though Paul Schrader deserved it over four decades ago, his first Oscar nomination for this little number was well-deserved. This chilling tale of a pastor for a historical church is a stunning indictment of public apathy towards environmental changes and the monolithic corporations that have free reign to destroy the planet while lining their pockets. Schrader is no stranger to the man-in-crisis story, but I loved this spin on it updated for the modern-day, posing the question of what moral responsibility one has to speak up and instigate change when social pressures attempt to prevent this at all costs. I initially bashed the film’s ending as being too de-synched with the prior two-thirds of the film (which are superb), and while I still have reservations, I now understand what he was going for and find it a serviceable and entertaining conclusion nonetheless – enough for the film to make the list, even if it could have been much higher.
82. Wildlife (Paul Dano, 2018)
The more I think about Paul Dano’s elegiac family drama (and directorial debut!), the more I fall in love with it. It’s not the first or the last film to deal with divorce and its impact on kids, but I haven’t seen it done quite this way before: through the eyes of the son, where we are invited to share in his biases and cognitive dissonances about their characters. Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan are cast perfectly here, as their pleasant demeanor and audience-friendly role selection juxtaposes with their characters’ monstrous behavior here, throwing us for a loop just as much as their son when it rears its ugly head. The film is a slow burn for sure, but one well worth the wait, with fascinating insight into parenthood and responsibility as a family crumbles before our eyes. Does the need to provide strong role models and a supportive environment for one’s offspring offset the unhappiness of continuing the charade of a failed marriage? Again, not new concepts in film, but done so beautifully here.
81. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
The first but certainly not the last appearance by Joaquin Phoenix on this list! Her has ended up being prophetic in the way it depicts how humans have naturally receded from one another in the face of emerging technology and found it more and more difficult to connect to others. Theodore is a man who doesn’t know exactly what he wants in a life partner, only that he wants one, a universal struggle that is especially felt in the 21st century. His relationship with his AI, voiced beautifully by Scarlett Johansson, is so much more than “man dates his Amazon Echo” (another instance of the film being ahead of its time), presenting a fascinating character study of a man on the verge of implosion but fighting for normalcy in a strange time. The only reason this film isn’t higher on the list is that I felt the ending comes too suddenly and is rather toothless in its ambition, but I still loved the world- and character-building on display that will likely be remembered decades from now just for its sheer accuracy in how the world is shaping up in its wake.
80. Museo (Alonso Ruizpalacios, 2018)
I’m willing to bet this is the film on my list seen by the least people. It was distributed by YouTube Premium and came out in Mexico the same year as Roma, ensuring that basically nobody would discover this one. But I adored this film, a clever pseudo-heist thriller that raises interesting questions about cultural appropriation and marginalization of historically-oppressed peoples. The unreliable narrator angle was a fascinating tool to highlight the fact that we simply don’t know everything that happened behind-the-scenes in this true story, and uses the medium of film and storytelling to question what we as an audience values more: hyperrealism or entertainment value. Of all the films on this list, this is the one I would implore people to seek out the most if they have never seen it before.
79. Senna (Asif Kapadia, 2010)
The first of only two documentaries on my list. When the genre is done right, it is able to entertain the audience on a visceral level as well as an informative one, and this Formula One biopic is a wild ride from beginning to end. I don’t consider myself a fan of F1 in the slightest, but I was riveted by the way this film interweaves its storytelling with race footage designed to show off the skill and cunning of our subject, Brazilian phenom Ayrton Senna. And this was a man with a heart of gold, using his fame and fortune to give back to his community and empower his home country on the national stage. His tragic end is foreshadowed brilliantly towards the conclusion of the film, to the point that I almost felt like it was staged or scripted how well it all fit together. A good man who left us far too soon, who I never would have heard about if not for this wonderful celebration of his life.
78. The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2011)
Now this is satire done right! I’m a big fan of Drew Goddard as a writer, and here he co-writes and directs (in his debut) this horror flick that is able to both deliver the thrills and chills that the genre promises while also poking fun at the genre from afar. That’s a tough dichotomy to pull off, but he nails it. As someone who is a bit queasy about horror, I appreciated the way this film balances its scares with meta-humor and distant reverence for the mechanics of the genre while also indulging in them itself. It is able to escape the formulaic label by poking fun at the formulaic nature of horror films as a whole, which doesn’t always work but here manages to operate on both levels just fine. It probably wouldn’t have worked if the humor and writing weren’t such fire, but it’s Drew Goddard, so of course they are!
77. The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig, 2016)
I knew from the opening line of the movie (“Here is why I’m going to kill myself.”) that I was in good hands for a darkly comedic spin on the classic coming-of-age high school tale. Our protagonist (played by the fabulous Hailee Steinfeld) is not your typical high school girl hero – she’s foul-mouthed, unstylish, and unafraid to speak her mind. And her teacher/mentor, the equally-hilarious Woody Harrelson, is no perfect peach himself – he’s just as foul-mouthed and blunt when speaking to this girl, saying things that would surely get him fired if overheard but bounce perfectly off of her personality. I loved every scene of theirs together, and individually they also have some great moments that set this apart from the typical high school melodrama fare.
76. Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010)
Yet another in a long series of successful adaptations of Dennis Lehane novels (following Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone), and a rousing good mystery yarn. I spent a good amount of time this year catching up on Martin Scorsese’s filmography, and I was not that enthralled by his earlier stuff (even his most acclaimed films). I find he is at his best when working with a focused narrative, and the mystery genre is a great place for him to focus his attention. I was drawn into this film’s web and enjoyed the ride it took me on, even if I didn’t feel like it left me with anything important to say. Obviously DiCaprio is a highlight as the tortured protagonist haunted by his past, while there is a lot of clever foreshadowing that is worth a second watch just to pick up on. Not a perfect film by any means, but it hits all the right notes to be memorable even nearly ten years gone.
Check out Parts 2, 3 & 4 of my list below!
-Austin Daniel
All image rights belong to their respective distributors.
Part 1 (100-76) | Part 2 (75-51) | Part 3 (50-26) | Part 4 (25-1)
Scriptophile 