my top 25 films of the 2010s
While beginning to think about my 2019 in film piece (forthcoming) I started considering my favourite films of the decade, what moved me, what stuck with me, and so on. Naturally, that evolved, at no slow pace, into my writing them out and deciding to do an entirely seperate piece on them (that’s what you’re reading now, in case you hadn’t realised).
This list is ranked, but only because ranking will lead to:
- Controversy
- People saying “hmm, you ranked That film There? Curious… but compelling”
Shoutout to these runner ups: Marriage Story, La La Land (you thought I was gonna rank it in here — ha!) Weekend, Ad Astra, Uncut Gems, Parasite, The Farewell, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, American Honey, Tangled (lmao?), Your Name and Skyfall.
This is totally subjective but also I’m 100% correct.
25. The Beach Bum
I like to imagine it’s a beat for beat remake of that time Matthew McConaughey was arrested for getting high and naked and playing bongos on his front lawn.
24. Sing Street
23. Short Term 12
The acting showcase of the decade. Every performance is perfect.
22. The Florida Project
Willem Defriend :’)
21. Mission Impossible - Fallout
Nothing more or less than the most tense I’ve ever been watching a film
20. Cold War
19. Clouds of Sils Maria
Birdman but good.
18. Call Me By Your Name
Simply peachy :)
17. Phantom Thread
First time I watched Phantom Thread I thought it was a very good, serious, prestige film. Now when watch Phantom Thread and think it’s a comedy. This bitch force feeds him poison mushrooms cause he’s too pernickety. It gives him diarrhoea and makes him hallucinate his dead mum… but he’s actually turned on by it so he lets her keep doing it? BITCH!
16. First Reformed
Fucked up! Salvation? Let’s go!
15. It’s Such A Beautiful Day
14. Midnight Special
Sicko mode Stranger Things.
13. The Grand Budapest Hotel
This shot of Saoirse Ronan. Filmé.
14. Little Women
My favourite ending of a film all decade — probably. It just makes me feel like I’m dancing on air.
11. How To Train Your Dragon
I know Certain People will be mad if I don’t say this so: ‘Test Drive’ is obviously the best piece of soundtrack written all decade.
10. Inception
This get’s exponentially sillier every single time I rewatch it but damn if it also isn’t just the most tantalising shit.
9. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
“My name is Luke Skywalker and I like drinking that sweet sweet alien titty juice, yum yum slurp it up.”
8. The Social Network
Throwback to that one time I watched this in 2017 with a bunch of friends and after it finished one of them, without any perceivable introspection about what we had just watches, said “I don’t think I would want be friends with Mark Zuckerberg.”
7. Shoplifters
Of the many, MANY, films about class inequality from the 2010s, this is the best. There’s beauty watching this disparate found-family come together, and while the care they show each other is real, and they feel like home to one another, you can’t escape the knowledge that it’s all built on sand.
6. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Look I can’t really talk about this film without, like, losing my mind, all I’ll say is right after watching this I listened to FKA twig’s 2019 masterpiece album MAGDALENE and, uh, if I can leave you with a piece of advice it would be: do not do that.
5. The Lost City of Z
Mystifying. It floors me every time. I always believe I can handle what it’s going to throw my way, but come that last fifteen minutes I find myself putty in James Gray’s hands. The term “tour de force” is thrown around too often but here it feels truly apt. Massive on a scale you don’t see outside of superhero movies these days, but achingly human. If I tell you Tom Holland is in this will you watch it? Oh please do.
4. 20th Century Women
The reason i incessantly use HUJI is because I want to capture the nostalgic tactility this film has (I’ve failed thus far). It grows with every rewatch, I don’t think any movie this decade has captured what it is like to just live like this one. Maybe the best use of a Talking Heads song in a film? Maybe the best use of any song in a film? Definitely the best use of Annette Bening in a film, that’s for sure.
3. The Wind Rises
The older I get, and the more the world falls apart, the more this becomes the most relevant film I have ever watched. Maybe it’s just because I too am a creative trying to decide on how to best utilise their form as a tool for socio-political change in a world that is less receptive to it than ever, but damn. Saying Miyazaki snapped feels reductive but Miyazaki really did snap on this one.
2. Paddington 2
I would love to wax lyrical, but i fear if i talk about this again my friends will actually murder me!
1. Cloud Altas
I wish I had the words to talk about this adequately, but honestly that’s feels pretty much impossible right now. Absurdly ambitious (every world feels lived in and detailed) and absurdly optimistic (maybe one good action really can change the world) and absurdly difficult to convince anyone to watch this once you start to explain the plot (“It takes place over 300 years and actors play reincarnations of themselves” is a terrible elevator pitch, lol). The best film of the decade and one of my favourite films ever, made. Maybe my favourite ever, who’s to say.
