There is no such thing as a correct Best Of List. Oftentimes we strive for that nonexistent perfection when writing them, attempting to create the version of that list that will speak to a collective sentiment, the version most agreeable to those familiar with the subject.
While appealing to as wide a readership as possible with these lists is entirely understandable, collections like these – especially those regarding art – tend to skew towards homogeneity. It’s not that they’re insincere – you’d be hard-pressed to find a critic who doesn’t genuinely believe that Parasite is one of the best movies of 2019 (it is). But the effort to create year-end lists that appeal to a wide variety of, let’s say, moviegoers, tends to assume a universal experience with moviegoing. And, when these lists are covering an entire decade, the pressure doubles down as the writer attempts to create something that speaks to a span of time that defines generations.
This is not going to be one of those lists. The 2010s were, for me, the first decade during which I was fully a follower of film from beginning to end. I came of age as a movie fan in the 00s, but not soon enough to fully appreciate what that decade in film had to offer before 2006 or so. But I’ve been going to the movies, thinking about movies, and became a person who professionally has opinions about movies during the 2010s.
What I have to offer here is by no means definitive. Art is subjective by nature and while there are a couple of entries on this list that are mainstays on Best of the 2010s lists across the internet, I’d rather offer something more reflective of my experiences at the movies in the 2010s than rehash the same list you can find on a dozen other websites. Some of these picks are personal while others I see as being vital to or reflective of the path that cinema took over the last ten years. All are movies I genuinely love and find myself revisiting often.
With that in mind, it’s also pertinent to note that these are presented in no particular order, save for the final entry which is my favorite movie of the decade.
The Social Network (2010)
The 2010s opened with an omen in the form of David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s masterful take on the origins of Facebook. While the obvious point to make is the extent to which the rot at the core of Facebook’s genesis soon became external, manifesting itself in the form of a litany of scandals that went on to define our relationship with the internet and permanently poison social media beyond repair, the film also ushered in a decade of “nerds” being the dominant force behind commerce, pop culture, and cultural discourse at large, the results of which are hard to be optimistic about. We can’t say The Social Network didn’t warn us.
Creed (2015)
It merits a spot on the list due to being the most rewatchable movie of the decade alone, but Ryan Coogler’s Rocky sequel/revamp is also the rare IP success story of its time. In an era largely defined by rebooting IP a la Bad Boys, Ghostbusters, and Men in Black (just to name a few), these films rarely actually work artistically or financially. Making yet another sequel to Rocky, a franchise whose legacy is already tarnished by the diminishing returns brought on by its sequels, should not have worked.
But by letting a young auteur take free reign over the story, Creed breathed fresh life into a dormant franchise while never paying any mind to setting up sequels or spinoffs. Instead, it focuses on an intimate character study that pays off in dividends during its chill-inducing final training montage. Film is at its best when it makes us feel alive, and if you don’t feel alive when watching Adonis Creed, surrounded by dirtbikes and ATVs, furiously sprint through the streets of Philly, you’d best check your pulse.
The Nice Guys (2016)
Note for note the single funniest movie of the decade but also a poignant meditation on friendship, isolation, and depression. Ryan Gosling attempting to hold open the door to a bathroom stall while also keeping a gun trained on Russell Crowe is elite physical comedy. Career-best work on all fronts and will have you seriously considering whether or not you can pull off a mustache and/or sideburns.
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Why not just talk about the two Shane Black movies on the list back to back? The Marvel Cinematic (Scorsese might beg to differ) Universe is undeniably the defining event of film in the 2010s. No movies made more money or buzz over the last ten years and the state of the industry today is a direct result of this franchise.
However, installments in this franchise have gradually become more and more homogenized over the years and it’s increasingly rare to see a director impose a strong visual, narrative, or thematic style on the film they helm. The Black Panthers and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.s of this world are becoming increasingly rare.
That’s why Iron Man 3 remains so special in a post-Endgame world. Upon its original release, it felt like the first film in the then-young MCU to retain the vision of its auteur. From its Christmastime setting to its explicitly political narrative about a war profiteer who weaponizes mass media in order to create a fake terrorist to take responsibility for accidents caused by his technology, every minute of the film feels like a Shane Black movie. Years after its original release you can’t help but feel that Black is getting away with something while watching it. If superhero movies are to continue to thrive creatively in the 2020s, more Iron Man 3s will be necessary.
Fast Five / The Raid: Redemption / John Wick: Chapter 2
These films tell the story of action cinema in the 2010s and as such, it feels wrong to exclude any of the three or put them on the list separately. They are, in their way, pieces of a whole. Fast Five not only revived the Fast & Furious franchise, but established it as the dominant action movie franchise of the 2010s. It created The Rock as we know him today and remains the best American action movie of the decade – which is not to say that it’s necessarily better than The Raid: Redemption or John Wick: Chapter 2 so much as it perfectly encapsulates what an American action movie is.
The Raid: Redemption changed modern perceptions of what an action movie can be, not so much in the realm of narrative (there’s hardly one at all) or special effects as the perception of what filmed action can look like. The team of otherworldly martial arts talents behind the movie created visceral, painful murder ballet and Hollywood has been trying to catch up ever since.
While Fast & Furious remains the dominant box office force, the John Wick films seem to represent the artistic apex of action in the decade. What started out a seemingly-simple revenge movie about an ex-hitman taking out the men who stole his car and killed his dog has become a complex series about the way that living in a society built on a system of capitalism slowly takes its toll, trapping people in webs of debt until escape is an impossibility.
It’s a real toss-up between all three installments for the title of the best of the franchise but Chapter Two remains notable not only for the extent to which the craft behind the camera elevates from the first installment, but for being one of the great sequels of all time. It does everything sequels are supposed to do – expand the world, continue the story in a satisfying fashion, up the stakes, etc. – perfectly and ends with the best movie cliffhanger of the decade.
When the heroes of the MCU faded away in Avengers: Infinity War, we knew they’d be back. It was simply a question of how. But the sight of John Wick, freshly dubbed excommunicado and with a multi-million dollar hit on his head, running through Central Park into a world that no longer contains safe haven left audience members completely unsure of what the future had in store for the Baba Yaga.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
To paraphrase a great quote, writing about Mad Max: Fury Road is like dancing about architecture. The film is a shot of adrenaline lit aflame and injected directly into the jugular committed to celluloid and projected onto a screen. There is nothing like this movie and there never will be again. You cannot trap the divine in a paragraph. You can only experience it for yourself, and if you’ve managed to go four years without seeing George Miller’s masterpiece for yourself, close your browser and remedy that immediately.
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
For a certain kind of person, there are nights you spend in empty diners or crowded restaurants or the diviest of bars with your friends talking about movies and music and your shared passions, and on those nights after a few stiff drinks, beers, or maybe cups of coffee, you may find yourself asking or being asked what you would do if you were handed the keys to a story you love and permitted to do whatever you want with those characters and that world.
Watching Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi feels like having that conversation with Rian Johnson. It, even more so than Iron Man 3, feels like a filmmaker getting away with something they shouldn’t. It feels like Johnson injected everything he has to say not only about Star Wars, but about life, death, failure, passion, love, and hope into a single film. It is a breathless masterpiece, the sendoff Carrie Fisher deserves, the career high for most everyone involved, and will outlive anyone who spent the last two years harassing Kelly Marie Tran on Instagram.
Whiplash (2014)
The greatest acting showcase of the decade and the film that allowed J.K. Simmons, truly one of the great screen talents of the 21st century, to secure a long-deserved Oscar. It is an excruciating film for anyone who has been pushed by a professor, peer, or mentor, and captures the agony and the ecstasy of artistry in a fashion that will leave even those who have never touched a drumstick with spiked blood pressure.
Hell or High Water (2015)
The 2010s saw the dawn of the Chris Wars as Chris Evans, Chris Pine, Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Pratt broke out as the four can’t-miss leading men of the decade. We can argue for days over who has the nicest hair, or most shredded abs, or even who’s been in better movies but over the last ten years, none of them have pushed themselves or allowed their career to go down as many delightfully odd turns and tangents as Pine.
His coup de gras play at the title of Uber-Chris came in 2015’s Hell or High Water, a modern anti-capitalist Western about bank robbers, and Comanches, and oil, and health insurance. While Ben Foster steals the show as his certifiably nutzo brother and Jeff Bridges does his Jeff Bridges thing as well as ever, it’s Pine who anchors the movie in a conflicted and empathetic performance that cements his victory in the Great Chris Wars of the 2010s. May 2020 bring even more delightfully off-kilter career choices for the man.
Warrior (2011)
We all respond to art subjectively and, from my humble and extremely subjective point of view, Gavin O’Connor’s 2011 drama about two estranged brothers who find themselves facing off in a mixed martial arts (MMA) tournament transcends its potentially bro-y trappings and becomes something that hit me like a punch to the gut when I first saw it.
Its placement early on in the decade means I’ve had time to sit with it and revisit it frequently as I’ve grown and as the world around me has shifted. It’s impossible to describe Warrior without delving into the personal so I will leave it at this: my family today is not what it was nearly ten years ago and as it has gone through its ups and downs, this story about estranged siblings and a distant father looking to make right has never failed to make me bawl my eyes out as its final scene plays out. Something this intimate, this recognizably human is a rare thing.
Its leads (Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, and Nick Nolte) are not performing so much as creating something authentic in every shot, with Hardy, in particular, doing the best work of his career. The fights are brutal, but none so much as the smaller moments, the confrontations, and quiet sobs, and hesitant phone calls.
Warrior is a movie about broken people looking to the people who broke them for answers and apologies, often not considering the ones that they owe. It won’t be at the top of any other best of the decade list. But it is at the top of mine as it is the movie through which I have felt the most seen and the most understood over the last ten years.
More on Geek.com:
- These Are the Top 20 Indie Games of the Decade
- The Weirdest and Most Popular Memes of the Decade
- The Best Shows We Binge-Watched This Decade
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