The Top 100 Films of the 2010s - 100-91

Just a few short words before I get started counting down the top 100 films of the last 10 years. First of all, I’ve seen over 2,500 films from this era – which is a lot, but not nearly close to everything – although I do like to think I’ve seen everything that I could see that has garnered massive critical response. So, just making this list at all means I think the film in question is great – approximately in the top 4% of films that I have seen in this decade – or a little less than one film on average every month this decade. Third – no one’s list with such a wide parameter of everything over the course of a decade is, or should be, the same. There’s no right or wrong here. I’m sure some of my choices below will be mystifying to anyone reading – as will some of my omissions. So be it. Third, I’ve worked long and hard on this – starting making the list early in 2019, adding the films from 2019 at the end, and revising and writing the whole time. It was at times a long and tiring process – but also a rewarding one.

 

So over the next 10 weekdays, I’ll count down 10 films per day, eventually arriving at the best film of the decade. If you’ve been paying attention to this blog over the years, I doubt it will be a surprise – but who knows? I do hope there are other surprises along the way.

 

100. Paddington 2 (Paul King, 2018)

There was no more of a big hearted film this decade that Paul King’s absolutely delightful Paddington 2. Paul King’s sequel to his wonderful original does everything even better the second time around. It’s a movie lover’s dream – references to three of the greats of silent cinema – Lloyd, Chaplin, Keaton – a style that is reminiscent of Wes Anderson, but with more warmth and heart. The best performance of Hugh Grant’s career – channeling Alec Guinness a little bit, but still wholly original. And really just a big hearted, lovely film about the importance of being nice and having a positive attitude. Paddington 2 came out at a very dark time for people – with Trump and Brexit, and other horrors – and was the perfect antidote to all of that. For what it is, this film is just about perfect.

 

99. Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011)

Martin Scorsese makes a children’s film? Yes, he did, and the result was wonderful. Scorsese’ film, based on the wonderful graphic novel by Brian Selznick – takes place in 1931 Paris. The young main character – an orphan living in the walls of the train station – meets and befriends a toymaker, who turns out to be film pioneer Georges Meiles. Scorsese is not a natural at making children’s entertainment – and this film may be a little too long for kids, which is probably why it wasn’t quite a box office success at the time. But it’s a beautiful film – Scorsese toying with 3-D and digital photography wonderfully – and just a magical film about the power of cinema. It may not be among the very best films of Scorsese’s career – but that’s a testament to his career, not a detriment to this film.

 

98. True Grit (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2010)

Not so much a remake of the not all that good 1969 film that won John Wayne his one and only Oscar (for a performance nowhere near as good as his best work) – as the Coens adapting a book written by Charles Portis that almost seems to be custom written to become a Coen film. Jeff Bridges is great as Rooster Cogburn – stepping into a role that Wayne turned into a stereotypical hero, and instead making him a rambling pile of dirty laundry. Matt Damon is quietly great as a kind of partner/antagonist as well. But the film belongs to young Hailee Steinfeld – with a spine made of steel as Western heroine Mattie Ross, whose story is actually far more tragic than you realize. And all of that is wrapped into an entertaining Western package. This was a box office hit and an Oscar nominee at the time, but seems to have faded from some’s memories – and it shouldn’t have. It’s great.

 

97. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti & Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman, 2018)

In a decade define by superhero films in the popular culture, the brilliant animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best film that the genre saw in these 10 years (yeah, it’s the best superhero film, and still ranked this low on my top 100 – that should tell you something). The film is brilliantly inventive in terms of its animation, recreating the look and feel of a comic book, while also feeling entirely like its own thing. Its diverse cast helps a lot – it’s not the same old story we have seen we have seen before. The film is also surprisingly emotional and even touching, while still being one of the most entertaining films of the decade. A truly special, animated film that shows just what the superhero genre can do if done right.

 

96. Mission Impossible: Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie, 2018)

The Mission Impossible series really kicked into high gear this decade with Ghost Protocol in 2011, Rogue Nation in 2015 and best of all, Fallout in 2018 – which is the best of the series, and one of the best pure action movies of the decade. In the film, Tom Cruise goes completely insane with the level of stunts he is willing to attempt and pull off, and just when you think one action sequence cannot be topped, they go ahead and do just that. The film is long at two-and-a-half hours, but who cares, it’s an absolute blast from beginning to end – the purest distillation of what makes Tom Cruise a movie star and what makes this series so special. I never would have guessed that McQuarrie would become one of the best action filmmakers in the world, but here we are.

 

95. Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, 2014)

I’m not sure why Bennett Miller takes so long between projects – 6 years between Capote and Moneyball, three years between that and this, and he has yet to make another one since. But while I may in the minority, I think Foxcatcher is his best film to date – a dark tale of violent obsession. Steve Carrell is in fine form (and received an Oscar nomination) for playing the mentally ill rich heir who uses his money to control the US wrestling team and get them to do whatever he wants on his property. The main object of his attention is a pair of brothers – Mark Ruffalo, an Olympic champion, who really tries to play peacemaker, and Channing Tatum, who falls under Carrell’s spell. Again, minority opinion here, but it is Tatum’s quiet, brooding performance. This isn’t an easy film to watch – it is dark and oppressive – and brilliantly handled by Miller and all involved.

 

94. Animal Kingdom (David Michod, 2010)

This Australian crime drama came out of nowhere, and completely blew me away back in 2010 – when I walked into the theater completely cold, and walked out a fan of director David Michod and his entire cast. The film is about a 17-year-old kid from a low rent crime family, who has to navigate his various relatives – parents, grandparents, uncles – all of whom preach family loyalty, but will shoot you in the back of the head if it benefits them. The standout discoveries in the cast were the great Ben Mendelsohn – as the most violent and crazy of the unless, and Jackie Weaver (who got an Oscar nomination – a major accomplishment, since the film was barely released) – as the icy matriarch of the family. Michod made two films since – the underrated The Rover, and the very bad War Machine – but he hasn’t quite followed through on the promise of this film quite yet. Still, this one is a winner.

 

93. Sunset (Lazlo Nemes, 2019)

Sunset didn’t garner the type of attention that Lazlo Nemes’ debut film Son of Saul did – but it really should have. Whereas the immediate power of Saul is undeniable, what Nemes does in Sunset is perhaps even more impressive – applying his trademark style – the tracking camera work, often focused directly at the lead’s face as chaos rains down around them – to a more enigmatic character, and a more ambiguous story. Set in Hungary, on the eve of WWI, the film focuses on a young woman returning to the hat store once owned by her family – right as things start to fall apart all around them. The film is a brilliant descent into chaos (not just once, but twice) – and ends with a haunting final shot. There is no doubt that Son of Saul’s impact is more immediate – but I wonder if this one isn’t a little trickier to pull off.

 

92. The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)

When I think back to all the films this past decade, The Guest is the one film I just cannot figure out why it wasn’t an enormous hit. Seriously, Adam Wingard’s film starring Dan Stevens as a soldier who introduces himself to a grieving family – claiming to be a friend of their Killed in Action Son – and then drawing closer to them only to reveal his true colors, is a John Carpenter inspired blast of a film. Stevens has never been better (he still gets a ton of affection from me, even if I have to admit he hasn’t come close to the magic of this performance again) and this is steamy, exciting, balls to the wall entertainment – trashy fun maybe, but done at such a high level that if you don’t absolutely love it, I question your taste in everything. I’m still waiting for the cult this film so richly deserves to form here.

 

91. mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017)

Darren Aronofsky’s mad mother is a pure delight of a film – partly because it was a big studio movie that seemed to be designed to piss people off. Aronofsky’s biblical allegory (or global warming allegory, or whatever kind of allegory you want) is a cinematic tour-de-force. Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem played a married couple – him a famous author, she his wife, who have people keep showing up at their new house, under renovation, and just will not leave. It’s a horror film, a dark comedy and everything else under the sun. Aronofsky’s film could probably be described as pretentious – and dismissed as such – but you’d be missing a strange, wild, crazy film that pushes thing to a brilliant extreme.