Year by year: My faves of the 2010s

Will the 2010s be the last hurrah for the full-fledged movie theater-going experience? Streaming and home devices were certainly changing habits before COVID decimated theaters. There is some reason for optimism, thankfully. At any rate, this decade was an eclectic one…

2010:

10. Four Lions, director: Chris Morris
9. The Fighter, director: David O. Russell
8. Let Me In, director: Matt Reeves
7. How to Train Your Dragon, director: Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois
6. The Ghost Writer, director: Roman Polanski
5. Shutter Island, director: Martin Scorsese
4. Inception, director: Christopher Nolan
3. Exit Through the Gift Shop, director: Banksy
2. Toy Story 3, director: Lee Unkrich
1. The Social Network, director: David Fincher

In this barbed biopic, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg as an exposed nerve of insecurities and resentments, is the creep to end all creeps — and this is before the world knew just how much of one Zuckerberg truly is. The Social Network connects some tremendous talents that don’t seem like they would align. David Fincher brings an austere darkness to Aaron Sorkin’s acerbic, crackling dialogue. In addition to Eisenberg’s lead turn, Andrew Garfield and Armie Hammer give smart breakthrough performances. The core irony here, of course, is that a social phenomenon ostensibly celebrating friends and communication would be the invention of a nearly friendless misanthrope.

2011:

10. Bridesmaids, director: Paul Feig
9. Moneyball, director: Bennett Miller
8. Contagion, director: Steven Soderbergh
7. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, director: Rupert Wyatt
6. A Separation, director: Asghar Farhadi
5. Bernie, director: Richard Linklater
4. Margaret, director: Kenneth Lonergan
3. Drive, director: Nicolas Winding Refn
2. Hugo, director: Martin Scorsese
1. The Tree of Life, director: Terrence Malick

Terrence Malick decided his first film in six years (after The New World) should tackle nothing less than the meaning of life. Loosely inspired by his own childhood in Waco, Texas, The Tree or Life is a coming-of-age saga that explores the interconnectedness of humanity. Roger Ebert wrote that it “is bounded by two immensities, one of space and time, and the other of spirituality … suggesting the birth and expansion of the universe, the appearance of life on a microscopic level and the evolution of species. This process leads to the present moment, and to all of us.” Got that? Malick’a existential journey swings for the fences in a way too few artists ever attempt. The result is audacious, perplexing and emotionally resonant.

2012:

10. The Central Park Five, director: Sarah Burns, Ken Burns & David McMahon
9. Looper, director: Rian Johnson
8. Django Unchained, director: Quentin Tarantino
7. Stories We Tell, director: Sarah Polley
6. Searching for Sugar Man, director: Malik Bendjelloul
5. Lincoln, director: Steven Spielberg
4. The Hunt, director: Thomas Vintenberg
3. The Act of Killing, director: Joshua Oppenheimer
2. The Master, director: Paul Thomas Anderson
1. Moonrise Kingdom, director: Wes Anderson

Moonrise Kingdom is Wes Anderson at the height of his charm, teeming with the meticulous production design and compositions that are either gorgeous or airless, depending on your proclivity for such things. The cast is fittingly idiosyncratic. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are delightful as seemingly mismatched love-struck preteens; few films capture the exuberance, earnestness, and awkwardness of adolescent obsession. A slew of Anderson regulars — particularly Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Bruce Willis — are memorable in smaller roles. While Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums dealt with the quest for family and the melancholia of lost youth, these themes find their most poignant realization in Moonrise Kingdom, and with such a nimble touch as to be almost magical.

2013:

10. Pacific Rim, director: Guillermo del Toro
9. Snowpiercer, director: Bong Joon-ho
8. Locke, director: Steven Knight
7. The Lunch Box, director: Ritesh Batra
6. Like Father, Like Son, director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
5. 12 Years a Slave, director: Steve McQueen
3. Prisoners, director: Denis Villeneuve
2. Gravity, director: Alfonso Cuarón
4. Her, director: Spike Jonze
1. Inside Llewyn Davis, director: Joel Coen

Inside Llewyn Davis is a shaggy, largely episodic tale of a self-absorbed folk impresario (loosely based on Dave Van Ronk) couch surfing through Greenwich Village in the early Sixties. It boasts the tropes peculiar to brothers Joel and Ethan Coen: a brittle, self-destructive protagonist; unpleasant side characters; and an unmistakably misanthropic bent. Give yourself over, though, and its oddball sensibility, period detail and array of folk music are captivating. Oscar Isaac delivers a breakout performance as the titular character, with Carey Mulligan sensational as a friend’s wife with whom he’s having an affair. That said, 2013 is a near toss-up; few movies in recent memory seem as prescient and profound as Her.

2014:

10. Two Days, One Night, director: Luc Dardenne & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
9. Inherent Vice, director: Paul Thomas Anderson
8. Nightcrawler, director: Dan Gilroy
7. The Lego Movie, director: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
6. Love & Mercy, director: Bill Pohlad
5. Selma, director: Ana DuVernay
4. Guardians of the Galaxy, director: James Gunn
3. Force Majeure, director: Ruben Östlund
2. Boyhood, director: Richard Linklater
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel, director: Wes Anderson

The Grand Budapest Hotel is another essential Wes Anderson. As with all his films, every detail – and some might contend that Anderson pictures are nothing but detail – seemingly bears his imprimatur. Set in the mythical Eastern European country of Zubrowka, the narrative unfolds as a sort of matryoshka doll. Ralph Fiennes is Gustave H., concierge of the storied Grand Budapest Hotel during its 1930s heyday,, who becomes ensnared in a complicated plot involving a hit man, a prison break and looming fascism. The Grand Budapest Hotel boasts the trappings of Anderson, from elaborate camerawork and impeccable production values to scads of movie-geek references. But the anchor is Fiennes, indelible as Gustave. The star-studded ensemble includes Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Saoirse Ronan, but it is Fiennes’ mix of grandiloquence and vulgarity is never less than brilliant.

2015:

10. Going Clean: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, director: Alex Gibney
9. The Big Short, director: Adam McKay
8. Bridge of Spies, director: Steven Spielberg
7. The Diary of a Teenage Girl, director: Marielle Heller
6. The Witch, director: Robert Eggers
5. The Lobster, director: Yorgos Lanthimos
4. Anomalisa, director: Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson
3. Carol, director: Todd Haynes
2. Mad Max: Fury Road, director: George Miller
1. Spotlight, director: Tom McCarthy

Now that post-COVID telework and the slow death of newspapers are making journalism movies a thing of the past, let’s celebrate the last great exemplar of the genre. Best Picture Oscar–winner Spotlight tells the real-life story of how four Boston Globe investigative reporters uncovered the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal. Tom McCarthy’s newspaper procedural is no-frills, straightforward and riveting. An ensemble cast that includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams does justice to McCarthy and Josh Singer’s taut script.

2016:

10. Hunt for the Wilderpeople, director: Taika Waititi
9. Hail, Caesar!, director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
8. Sing Street, director: John Carney
7. Hell or High Water, director: David Mackenzie
6. The Handmaiden, director: Park Chan-wook
5. Moonlight, director: Barry Jenkins
4. I Am Not Your Negro, director: Raoul Peck
3. La La Land, director: Damien Chazelle
2. Tower, director: Keith Maitland
1. O.J.: Made in America, director: Ezra Edelman

OK, so maybe this one is a bit of a cheat, since the multipart documentary series only played on a handful of movie screens. But, hey — my list, my rules. Ezra Edelman’s O.J.: Made in America is about the O.J. Simpson case, yes, but the true-crime sideshow is a workable springboard to examine American race relations and the nation’s complicated relationship with celebrity and sports. Clocking in a little north of 8 hours, it is staggeringly comprehensive and never dull. The New York Times’ A.O. Scott correctly observed that the docu “has the grandeur and authority of the best long-form nonfiction.”

2017:

10. The Shape of Water, director: Guillermo del Toro
9. Call Me by Your Name, director: Luca Guadagnino
8. Hostiles, director: Scott Cooper
7. Thor: Ragnarok, director: Taika Waititi
6. Okja, director: Bong Joon-ho
5. Good Time, director: Josh Sadie & Benny Safdie
4. Phantom Thread, director: Paul Thomas Anderson
3. The Florida Project, director: Sean Baker
2. Dunkirk, director: Christopher Nolan
1. Get Out, director: Jordan Peele

As auspicious debuts go, Jordan Peele’s comic horror show is up there with the greats. The setup of Get Out is familiar enough – a young white woman (Allison Williams) brings home her Black boyfriend (Daniel Kaluuya) to meet her parents, What unfolds, however, is less Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and more Rosemary’s Baby. In this lacerating, paranoid and scary-as-hell satire of race relations in post-Obama America, no one gets out unscathed. “Part of what makes Get Out both exciting and genuinely unsettling is how real life keeps asserting itself, scene after scene,” wrote Manhola Dargis in The New York Times. “Our monsters, Mr. Peele reminds us, are at times as familiar as the neighborhood watch; one person’s fiction, after all, is another’s true-life horror story.” It’s a smart observation..

2018:

10. Leave No Trace, director: Debra Granik
9. Mission: Impossible—Fallout, director: Christopher McQuarrie
8. If Beale Street Could Talk, director: Barry Jenkins
7. Annihilation, director: Alex Garland
6. Minding the Gap, director: Bing Liu
5. First Reformed, director: Paul Schrader
4. Sorry to Bother You, director: Boots Riley
3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman
2. Eighth Grade, director: Bo Burnham
1. Shoplifters, director: Hirokazu Kore-ida

Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of the great humanists in contemporary cinema. He examines the complexities of relationships with sensitivity but eschewing sentimentality, a rare artist who can tap into the rhythms of everyday life without boring his audience in the process. Shoplifters takes its time telling the story of a ragtag family of thieves who adopt (or is it abduct?) a neglected 5-year-old girl. Revelations emerge slowly, but when they do, they pack a wallop. By focusing on Japanese who live on the margins of society, Shoplifters offers a window not typically afforded to Western moviegoers. Kore-eda’s cast is tremendous, particularly Sakura Andô and Lily Franky as the mom and dad of the makeshift clan.

2019:

10. Little Women, director: Greta Gerwig
9. Midsommar, director: Ari Aster
8. The Nightingale, director: Jennifer Kent
7. Jojo Rabbit, director: Taika Waititi
6. 1917, director: Sam Mendes
5. Knives Out, director: Rian Johnson
4. The Irishman, director: Martin Scorsese
3. Uncut Gems, director: Josh Sadie & Benny Safdie
2. Parasite, director: Bong Joon-ho
1. Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, director: Quentin Tarantino

Revisionist history has never been so enthralling as this nostalgia-drenched revenge-o-matic involving fading movie star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), wife-killing stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and … the Manson Family. Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to Hollywood is loaded with extraordinary set pieces, exquisitely crafted period detail and propulsive Sixties rock. The performances are uniformly outstanding. This is a movie for cinephiles to soak in. There is so much I love here — Rick’s ego-bruising meeting with Al Pacino’s straight-talking producer, Rick’s every scene with Julia Butters’ precocious child actor, Cliff’s adventure with a Manson hippie chick, Sharon watching herself on screen in a Westwood movie theater, and — of course — that deliriously cathartic climax. If I could pull a Purple Rose of Cairo hat trick and climb into any movie, it would be Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.