#this is objectively hilarious katniss everdeen is an icon even in the mcu

[curdinway-blog]

Top 102 Movies of the 2010’s, According to a Crackpot

I’ve decided to try the impossible.

The seed for this idea came from Polygon.  The site ran an article by which various staff members ranked their top ten movies for the decade.  Naturally, that got me thinking about MY top ten films for the decade.  Then I realized I hadn’t seen most Oscar winners, let alone enough movies to qualify to make a list.  Then I realized I would have much, MUCH more than ten movies in my list.

Thus, I embarked on a madman’s dream.  It involved crunching movie after movie after movie, then trying to hopelessly rank it on my list if I thought it was good enough.  I missed my own deadline of New Year’s.  Now, I am releasing this on my next deadline: The Oscars.  Literally now, when they are already underway.

I hope you will read this list with some forgiveness in your hearts.  Biting off more than you can chew doesn’t describe it.  There are a whole host of movies I wanted to see before I made this list I haven’t gotten to and probably never will.   There are many movies on this list I saw close to a decade ago and am trying to place in a ranking against pieces I just saw a few days ago.  Oh, and I’m comparing across genres and types.  What I’m trying to say is, this list is probably going to suck in a lot of ways.

With that being said, I really did try to rank the following to the very best of my ability.  I racked my brains, racked them, and racked them again. Ultimately, I made my decisions from a whole host of criteria, ranging from everything from pacing, to various aspects of entertainment value, to complexity/themes, to cinematography.  I tried to be objective as much as possible, but I also think that how much you like a movie should be considered a piece of criteria as well. After all, that’s primarily why we go to the movies; we want to have a good time.  As such, expect to see a lot of science-fiction and animation of this list. In my defense, it was a great decade for each.

And now…without further ado…let me introduce…The Top 102 Films of the 2010’s, According to a Crackpot!

  102. Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow

Starship Troopers meets Groundhog Day, Live Die Repeat is a well-executed mecha-battle movie with a wrinkle of time-travel tossed in for good measure.

 101. Wreck-It Ralph: Ralph Breaks the Internet

It may not be as good as the original, but Wreck-It Ralph 2 makes the grade with some cunning swipes at internet culture, the world’s best worst Disney Princess song, and bittersweet revelations about what it means to be a true friend.

 100. Mirai

Few films truly approach their story from a child’s perspective; but in tone, structuring, and imagination, Mirai lets us see again through young eyes.  Director Mamoru Hosoda uses time travel as a vehicle for exploration of deeply personal familial relationships, and how they shape us into the people we become.

 99. The Last Gold

The Last Gold is an unheralded little gem about a quartet of female US Olympic swimmers who found themselves competing in an impossibly frustrating and unfair situation; the 1976 Olympics.  As East German swimmers swept podium after podium (with the aid of a systematic doping program), the US Women’s team faced intense public criticism, especially phenom Shirley Babashoff, who could have been the female Mark Spitz if not for the rampant cheating going on.  Largely forgotten and regarded as a disappointment by the American public, The Last Gold illustrates the team as one worth remembering and dignifying; in particular, for their final, desperate effort at gold in the 4 x 100 m freestyle relay.

 98. Mad Max: Fury Road

Pretty much nonstop surreal nutty action, Mad Max surely has some of the most creative and tricky stunts done in the past decade.

 97. The Amazing Spiderman

Utterly forgotten in the wake of its more successful follow-ups (and predecessors, for that matter), The Amazing Spiderman is nonetheless a solid reboot of some well-worn material. The concept behind Spidey’s origin is well-thought out and original, and ties directly to an interesting villain who is more the victim of his own genius than the archetype evil megalomaniac.

 96. Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange marks itself as unique among the various Marvel offerings by pondering nothing less than the meaning of life… and overloading us with psychedelic, Inception-esque imagery.

 95. Concussion

Featuring a terrific and vocally unrecognizable Will Smith, Concussion asks not only some difficult questions about the country’s (and my own) favorite sport, but also some difficult questions about what it means to be an American.

 94. The Big Sick

I’m not a big rom-com guy, but The Big Sick won me over by creating romantic tensions from realistic scenarios; in particular, the difficulties that arise from differences in race and religion.  The film’s awkward sense of humor is well-incorporated, making this a funny movie as well as an intelligent one.

 93. Bridesmaids

A funny movie about friendships and change (anchored by an excellently tragicomic Kristen Wiig), Bridesmaids showed the Judd Apatow formula could work on equal terms for the female sex.

 92. 50/50

50/50 tackled the cancer movie with an unusual slant of good humor, and chased it down with heartfelt drama and good performances.

 91. Hanna

In which a supergirl Saoirse Ronan (pre-fame and accolades) is honed into an assassin by her father so that she can kill a wicked, hammy CIA operative Cate Blanchett before the agency gets to her first.  If you ever wanted to see a small girl beating thugs to death with her bare fists in the style of Jason Bourne, this one’s for you.  Loads of fun, totally bananas, and dripping with cool.

 90. Hunger Games

More or less a faithful adaptation of a literary bestseller, Hunger Games nonetheless deserves credit for doing the job right.  The cinematics and ideas here are very nice for a teen blockbuster, and Jennifer Lawrence rightfully turned into a star for BEING Katniss Everdeen.

 89. What We Do in the Shadows

Quirky, subversive, hilarious, and utterly “New Zealand”, What We Do in the Shadows made vampires and werewolves funny again…in a good way.

 88. Icarus

An accidental documentary seemingly spurred on by fate, Icarus is about the creep of misinformation and deception into every aspect of our lives, even sports, by the unscrupulous and powerful.

 87. Prometheus

A film I absolutely adored the first time around, but toned down my enthusiasm for with a more critical eye to detail.  Nevertheless, Prometheus should be appreciated for its immense scale of ambition and huge open-ended philosophical questions; it should also be appreciated for throwing a veritable kitchen sink of full of campy horrors at its viewers, including a crazy autosurgery scene.

 86. 10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane flies high on its simplicity.  Three main actors, one small doomsday shelter, and loads of palm-sweating, stomach-clenching, double-guessing suspense.  John Goodman, you so craaaaazy.

 85. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Give J.K. Rowling credit for not making this a cynical cash grab; the writing in Fantastic Beasts is actually delightful.  There is a strong balance here between the sweet magical whimsy going on and some dark, brooding commentaries on American society.  A strong cast of endearing characters rounds out a very robust entry in the Harry Potter series.

 84. How to Train Your Dragon II

A very good sequel to a classic, HTTYD II still provides the acrobatic, dragon-flying goods, even as it steers us into a troubling, thought-provoking battle between might and right, fixed circumstances and free will.

 83. The Big Short

While Inside Job will always remain the definitive work on the maddening 2008 financial collapse, The Big Short is a strong effort featuring intimate inside perspectives of the actual people who did the dynamiting.  A slick sense of humor and a celebrity all-star team intent on ripping Wall Street a new one makes this film a winner.

 82. Captain America: Civil War

Cap: Civil War is noteworthy in that it makes civilian collateral damage the primary fulcrum and conflict of a superhero movie.  It is also a bit of a “mini-Avengers” that successfully incorporates some slam dunk additions to the team; then pits them against each other.

 81. Get Out

One of the decade’s cleverest and most ambitious horror flicks, Get Out shows how the sum of a million little microaggressions equates to something very ugly indeed.

 80. The Hateful Eight

A slow-burner as far as Tarantino films go, The Hateful Eight is an interesting social play interspersed with exaggerated violence and profanity; a commentary on how our nation was forged in the fires of overcoming racial and societal differences.

 79. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Catching Fire does what all good sequels aim to do; take the appealing constructs of the original film and pump them up on steroids.  Everything the Hunger Games did, Catching Fire does bigger, badder, and better.

 78. Big Hero 6

A weeaboo’s dream, a great superhero flick, and a gentle meditation upon loss and healthy grieving, Big Hero 6 is a very entertaining film with a big heart and a wonderfully plush-looking buddy robot.

 77. Mary and the Witch’s Flower

Mary and the Witch’s Flower is a Studio Ghibli flick, helmed by Studio Ghibli animators…under a non- Ghibli studio.  Here are all the familiar beats we love as viewers; the weird, wonderful setting (a school of sorcery for talented children), abuses on the natural world wrought by technology and ambition, and a delightfully ordinary red-headed girl who must think on her feet and grow if she is to survive.  Harry Potter crossed with Miyazaki…who could ever resist that?

 76. Avengers: Infinity War

The key to Infinity War’s successes is Thanos.  The Mad Titan had been waiting in the shadows for most of MCU’s run during the past decade; in Infinity War, we finally see him in the formidable flesh.  At once terrifying and tragic, Thanos is the most iconic villain of the 2010’s; a villain finally worth pitting an entire squad of heroes against, and perhaps, more than a match for all of them.  The film’s shocking ending and willingness to go to darker places makes this movie MCU’s The Empire Strikes Back.

 75. Alien: Covenant

Man, did Covenant get a bad rap.  Audience members branded its characters stupid, its monsters unscary, and its premise a letdown from Prometheus.  They were wrong on every count.  The characters of Covenant act as normal explorers should; not as we, in all of our omniscient wisdom, should advise them to.  The monsters are absolutely bloodcurdling; truly nasty, unrelenting creatures which are content to flay their victims alive if they cannot kill them outright.  And the story did not answer many of Prometheus’s big questions because it was simply better and more interesting than that.  I posit the reason Covenant was such a flop is not any failure on its part, but rather a failure of audiences’ openmindedness and tolerance for the macabre.  Alien: Covenant is the best Alien movie since at least Aliens; a pitch-black, bordering on nihilistic tale of bad things happening to good people.  It is also a successful conglomeration of the various qualities of Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus, and a fascinating cross-examination of an android who is too human for his own (or anybody’s) good.

 74. The Shape of Water

Amélie meets The Swamp Thing, The Shape of Water is an odd, intriguing romantic Cold War thriller that celebrates those members of society who are ostracized, marginalized, or cast aside.

 73. ParaNorman

Funny, scary, and important, Paranorman is a spooky, kid-friendly take on tolerance and the price of ignorance.

 72. Gasland

By all practical accounts, Gasland is horrifying.  This is a film that shows the surreal consequences of free-for-all fracking; water that can be set on fire, air pollution that exceeds 100x the safe limit for some toxins around fracking wells, and literal poisoning of wildlife and residents via breathing, drinking, and skin absorption.  While all of this content would make for a great documentary, it is banjo-pickin’, easy-going filmmaker Josh Fox who makes this film even better. His heartfelt personal accounts and willingness to stand aside and let the victims speak for themselves gives this documentary a warmth and decency usually missing from such explosive exposés.

 71. Wreck-It Ralph

A hilarious mash-up of video games and memorable arcade characters, Wreck-It Ralph manages to stay clever, hip, and inventive the whole way, even as it plays expertly off audience nostalgia.

 70. Green Book

Thanks in large part to its pair of terrific leads, Green Book manages to be an uproariously entertaining road trip buddy movie; even as it brings to light the racial problems which existed (and continue to exist) in America.

 69. Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Possibly the most Millennial film ever made, Scott Pilgrim is a busy, delicious barrage of video games, garage bands, pop culture references, and comics.  Intricately detailed and gut-bustingly funny, Scott Pilgrim’s supply of visual gags and uber-referential one-liners is practically (turns 8 sideways on fridge) infinite.

 68. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Winter Soldier is high-tier MCU.  The electric superhero proceedings benefit from a deliciously twisty plot, and a surprising injection of sharp political commentary.

 67. Dunkirk

One of the most viscerally intense PG-13 movies ever, Christopher Nolan’s war epic is a nightmarish tour-de-force that places viewers directly in enemy crosshairs.  In typical Nolanian fashion, however, this is also high-brow, intellectually stimulating fare.  There is not only the logistical puzzle at play of how to successfully evacuate 300,000 plus English soldiers from the French coast; Dunkirk understands warfare as a product of two extreme and opposite polarities of human nature. War cannot be waged without nasty, selfish streaks of human survival, as there will simply be no one left to fight it; neither can it be won without remarkable acts of courage and willing sacrifice.

 66. Blackfish

Deeply troubling and disturbing, Blackfish shows what happens when you take the most intelligent and sensitive animals in the world besides us and confine them in a bathtub for their entire lives.  A stirring call for respect for nature, and a long-running tally of SeaWorld’s sins, Blackfish is a must-see documentary.

 65. Contagion

Contagion is one of the decade’s scariest films.  After all, murdering mask-wearing lunatics and supernatural bumps in the night can be discounted as a trick behind the camera; but the boogeyman in Contagion almost assuredly exists, a nuke buried somewhere in the bosom of Mother Nature.  If we blunder into it, God help us all.  The film’s chilly, distant demeanor and scientific accuracy (Contagion gets bonus points for being the most scientifically accurate movie of all time) makes its depiction of a modern plague frighteningly plausible; its fixations on points of transfer are enough to convince anyone to wash their hands twice.  

 64. How to Train Your Dragon

One of the best movies to ever exit out the Dreamworks pipeline, HTTYD is an excellent parable about hate and jingoism, wrapped up in an exhilarating thrill ride that made us all want a Toothless of our own.

 63. Restrepo

Restrepo is such a hard film to gauge.  It doesn’t take aim at politics, or delve too deeply into the lives of its subjects; American soldiers in the Korangal Valley, Afghanistan.  Restrepo is content to simply put us in their boots.  Never has combat been so realistically brought to the American doorstep.  In Restrepo, one can see the terror of death, the adrenaline hit of downing an enemy, the tomfoolery of kids messing around with one another in between bouts of fighting for their lives.  This is the pure essence of modern war; in its DNA, one can see what so many directors of fiction have been trying to recapture in their work.  Restrepo is a remarkable and dangerous accomplishment; an accomplishment that would eventually cost co-director Tim Hetherington his life while shooting a subsequent film in Libya.

 62. Abominable

Dreamworks has been a rather lackluster studio in comparison to the rest of the industry.  With that being said, it is more than capable of making great movies; and Abominable is right up there with the best the studio has ever made.  This gorgeously made Asian-flavored film explores China as a meeting grounds of various philosophies; wealth and privilege versus working class, urban versus agrarian, East versus West, and how exploitation and cultural diffusion have reshaped life there.  It is also simply a wonderful tale of an introverted girl who must travel to the Himalayas to deliver a magical yeti back to nature; and how that journey unlocks her ability to grieve and connect with others.

 61. Winter’s Bone

Winter’s Bone is the movie that announced to the world that this Jennifer Lawrence person could act, I tell you h’what.  This menacing coming-of-age journey through the Ozark drugscape shows the importance of family in such poor, isolated communities as something more than a cliché of hillbilly pride; it is actually a means to survival and redemption.

 60. The Boy and the Beast

The Boy and the Beast can certainly be appreciated simply as a fantastical, colorful training/battle movie about an orphaned human boy and his cantankerous bear master.  But it is as it dives deep into the complexity of the male mind that the film fascinates thematically and generates stirring emotional resonance.  In particular, the film has something to say about the anger that can spur young men to violence, and the stabilizing force a mature male presence can have (but does not always have) on that anger.  The benefits of fatherhood extend to father-figures as well, who become more emotionally aware and sensitive, and gain deeper meaning and fulfillment in their lives. Hosoda is truly one of the best directors working in animation today, and The Boy in the Beast is typically intelligent, thematically dense work from him.

 59. The King’s Speech

A feel-good film done with classical style, The King’s Speech is an elegant, touching tale of friendship that will surely play well among lovers of The Royal Family.

 58. The Artist

Thanks to rich visual storytelling and fantastic performances, this pre-talkie throwback hardly needs words to delight.

 57. The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Isao Takahata’s final film The Tale of Princess Kaguya feels like a beautiful pastel picture book brought to life.  At once a fable of ruinous greed, classism, and sexism, it is also a haunting soliloquy of love, nature, freedom, beauty, and death…all that makes life precious.

 56. Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo and the Two Strings makes me mad.  Not because it is a bad film; far from it.  I am angry because Kubo had everything going for it.  It had big-name actors, it had effects which pushed stop-motion to its limits, it had a big marketing push in theaters to push viewership, it had great critical reviews.  It was supposed to be Studio Laika’s crown jewel; the film that would win big at the box office and thrust the studio of perennial indie hits like Coraline and Paranorman into well-deserved limelight.  And it was good.  Like, really good!

Unfortunately, Kubo and the Two Strings flopped at the box office, for reasons I cannot imagine nor articulate in polite company.  But it will get its due here; Kubo is a stop-motion masterpiece with rich, resonant themes and ground-breaking visual effects.  It also has a rendition of “My Guitar Gently Weeps” on a Japanese samisen. So go see the damn thing.

 55. The Wind Rises

We might be getting another Miyazaki film after all, but The Wind Rises was a fantastic send-off piece for anime’s most legendary director.  This is a truly complex, mature film about the relation of beauty and art to woe and suffering, and a critical examination of the tunnel vision that often grips great artists.

 54. Knives Out

A classic whodunit tweaked for the modern era, Knives Out balances its twisty mystery proceedings with some well-timed black humor and more than a few pokes at the wealthy elite.

 53. Inside Job

A carefully researched and scathingly delivered incrimination of the greed that ruined a nation, Inside Job is one of the best documentaries of the era.

 52. Hugo

A wondrous, Dickensian-tale of an orphan who lives in a Paris train station and discovers the secret of a mysterious automaton, Hugo is an intelligent, sensitive family picture and a touching love letter to early cinema.

 51. Moonlight

Being different is hard, as I can say from firsthand experience.  While I can hardly imagine what it is to be African-American or gay, let alone both at once, Moonlight offers some glimpse into that difficult reality.  The film’s touching love story is a journey of self-acceptance and courage that is well worth seeing.  

 50. Tangled

Tangled was Disney’s announcement to the rest of the field that it was back, baby.  After a period of shaky and poorly thought-out 3-D projects in the early 2000’s, Disney took a long, hard look at itself and identified what it did best, then brought out the best of those qualities in its witty, triumphant take on Rapunzel.  Here are the songs, guffaws, villains, and magic we all love as fans, delivered perfectly into the next dimension.

 49. Source Code

Groundhog Day via sci-fi thriller, Source Code is a clever, action-packed take on time travel, but also an emotionally investing take on what it means to live each day-and life-to the fullest.

 48. Toy Story 4

Rarely has a sequel piece ever seemed as risky as Toy Story 4.  The studio had its closing piece in Toy Story 3; a film I thought was respectable but not particularly interesting.  But rather than let sleeping dogs lie, Pixar opted to throw that ending in the garbage…and pulled something far more bizarre and wonderful from the trash.  Toy Story 4 is a wacky, existential riff that acknowledges the importance of family and responsibility in our lives, while simultaneously declaring that it is okay to value ourselves outside those traditional parameters.

 47. Arrival

Arrival is hard science-fiction done exceedingly right.  Depicting an extraterrestrial visitation across the globe, Arrival seems truly tangible in a way most alien films do not, down to the very form of its decidedly non-humanoid creatures.  In vein of Contact or Interstellar, Arrival picks the brain and heartstrings with equal acumen, making it a lasting and valuable commodity to anyone’s sci-fi library.

 46. Spiderman: Homecoming

Spiderman: Homecoming is the geekiest of Spiderpieces.  This is the Spiderman where Spiderman is Go-Pro-ing himself before a big battle, or joining a quiz bowl team, or building a Lego Death Star with his nerdy confidante, complete with miniature Lego Palpatine.  Light, refreshing, and utterly hilarious, Homecoming gets a lot of mileage out of Tom Holland’s awesome portrayal, and tells a simple, uncomplicated story that doesn’t impede the shenanigans.

 45. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2

Audiences were expecting a fireworks show for Deathly Hallows: Part II, and boy did they get one. A terrifically exciting heist sequence and a grand final battle made this the most epic and exciting entry in the Harry Potter canon.  The culmination of carefully laid character arcs and sentimental links back to the series’ early days had fans smiling through their tears and punching their tickets to Platform 9 ¾ again and again.  A splendidly satisfying sendoff.

 44. Skyfall

Apparently, you can teach an old dog new tricks.  Skyfall brought Bond into the new decade in style, modernizing and sharpening all its facets while remaining, yes, Bond.  James Bond.

 43. Argo

Argo is a rock-solid retelling of a tense CIA extraction op, hitched to the allure and wonder of good old-fashioned movie making.  

 42. Free Solo

Free Solo is a marvelous documentary, and I mean that quite literally.  Marvel at the jaw-dropping heights depicted, marvel at the logistical challenges of filming a free climber without killing or distracting them (which would mean the same thing).  But most of all, marvel at the huge cojones of subject Alex Honnold, as he attempts to climb the world’s largest rock wall; without the life-saving grace of a rope. As a thrill act, Free Solo is visceral and terrifying.  But as a character study, it is equally fascinating.  The same things which make Honnold such a one in a billion talent are the same things which cripple him emotionally and socially.  Watching Honnold slowly start to conquer these own personal obstacles-even as he prepares for the physical obstacle of his life-is a truly satisfying experience.

 41. The Lego Movie

Endlessly imaginative and hilariously subversive, The Lego Movie is not only a worthy standard-bearer of its iconic toy brand, but also a glorious celebration of creativity and free expression.

 40. Snowpiercer

I’m gonna describe Snowpiercer using single word describers.  Okay?  Hilarious. Bloody.  Ambitious.  Tragic. Exhilarating.  Revolutionary.  F***ing insane.  Okay, that last one was two words.  How about amazing?  Yeah. Amazing works.  This dystopian satirical piece is a mad thrill ride on a runaway train through an environmentally wrecked world, and it is one of the craziest things I’ve ever loved in my life.

 39. Moneyball

This movie is a sports genre gamechanger about a sports genre gamechanger; that is, the “Moneyball” strategy that forever changed the world of baseball evaluation.  Watched purely on the terms of its baseball X’s and O’s, Moneyball succeeds.  However, it is the tale of lovable loser Billy Beane, and the film’s assertion that winning comes second to loving yourself, that really turns this hit into a home run.

 38. The Social Network

As eccentric and brilliant as its central genius, The Social Network depicts the synthesis of Facebook as an unflattering mirror for the site itself; that it is often driven by negative emotions of inadequacy, jealousy, and loneliness, and serves as a proxy for the real social interactions we require for fulfillment and happiness.  Slickly edited, funny, and smart, this is one of the most iconic and generational films of the decade.

 37. Gravity

The opening few minutes of Gravity is one of the most intense movie scenes not only of this decade, but of all time.  From there, the tension just barely relents.  Suspenseful and tightly-spun as a space survival story, Gravity is also a technical marvel which redefined zero-G cinema forever; and made us eternally thankful we are safely on the ground.

 36. Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a ground-level view of poverty and climate change in the Mississippi River Delta region, seen through the eyes of a child.  Quvenzhané Wallis brings her role to life with an incredible child performance, and lends this work a sense of deep intimacy and emotional resonance, even as it grasps at themes which are national to global in scale.

 35. Incredibles 2

Incredibles 2 is one of Pixar’s best ever sequels.  Here are the same witty, relatable family dynamics we fell in love with in Incredibles 1; but the superhero shenanigans have been one-upped and then some.  In fact, Incredibles 2 has the best action sequences I have ever seen in a 3-D animated film.  Add in a smart ideological battle between the current age’s (perhaps correct) cold cynicism and yesterday’s quixotic beliefs, and you have one of the best superhero movies ever, as well as a film that arguably beats out its OG.

 34. Guardians of the Galaxy

I admit that from the film’s opening credits, where Chris Pratt canters across an alien planet to “Come and Get Your Love” and utilizes a scurrying lizard creature as his own personal microphone, that I was sold on Guardians of the Galaxy.  This is one of those rare works like Shrek or Princess Bride that simultaneously skewers and elevates its genre; in this case, the old-timey B-movie science-fiction flick.  A riotously funny movie that just doesn’t give a (expletive), Guardians of the Galaxy is also surprisingly poignant when it chooses to draw its eclectic bunch of outlaws into an impromptu family.  This is absolutely one of the best films in the MCU.

 33. Coco

A gorgeous, vibrant love letter to Mexico full of zesty music, Coco has some big things to say about art and its link to memory, and how exploitation can tarnish its beauty. Pixar has once again illustrated a remarkable ability to craft a world utterly original and believable in its own rich details and machinations; a world which sets a grand stage for its intimate story.  It has also once again illustrated an ability to make us all cry our eyes out.  Curse you, Pixar!

 32. Her

The film that made a romance between an artificial intelligence and Joaquin Phoenix work somehow, Her is a thoughtful and sensitive film that expands our definition of love to encompass all levels of intimacy and circumstance.  It is also, to my knowledge, the most gentle and hopeful AI movie ever made, and it deserves commendation for that.

 31. Spotlight

Spotlight is a black hole. This film about the Boston Globe’s reporting on the Catholic Church’s coverup of child molestations by priests starts off slowly, then sucks you in more and more, gathering its mass until you are crushed under all the weight of deception, apathy, pain, and despair.  I suppose this is also a strong allegory for the value of reporting or something like that, but frankly, I was too upset for most of the film’s duration to notice.  As a lifelong Catholic, Spotlight made me feel utterly betrayed and angry; not only at the Church, but also at myself for sleeping at the wheel. This simply cannot happen again.

 30. Citizenfour

Citizenfour qualifies as arguably the most important film of the decade.  Laura Poitras’s documentary on government informant Edward Snowden is an intellectual horror flick; full of deserved paranoia, stunning overreaches of executive power, and spooky mirrors to the Orwellian nightmare of 1984. Citizenfour reveals how the alluring promise of the internet has betrayed us, and provided a means to the exponential surveillance of everyone in our supposedly free Western society.

 29. Marvel’s The Avengers

Avengers seemed like a fantasy project when it was announced.  How could anybody hope to make a movie about not one superhero, not two superheroes, but a whole team of them, without sacrificing narrative coherence, without losing sight of the big personalities at play?  Joss Whedon proved such an all-star game could be possible, and somehow, work synergistically.  This is one of the biggest popcorn movies ever, and it changed the expectations for superhero flicks towards bigger, grander, better. The success of Avengers also established MCU as the defining franchise of the 2010’s; and perhaps, beyond.

 28. Inception

Inception’s script took Christopher Nolan 10 years to tweak, and watching the film you can believe it. This is a 3-D maze of a caper/heist movie, in which dreams form the substance of worlds stacked atop one another. It is a devilishly tricky exercise, but one that is done with the greatest precision and execution. Featuring impressive and trippy set-pieces, one of the generation’s best femme fatales, massively cerebral ideas, eerie atmosphere, and an insidious sense of ambiguity, Inception kept me awake for quite some time after I watched it at two in the morning.

 27. Room

Focusing on a kidnapped mother and her young son Jack, who has only known captivity, Room could have been a very dark movie.  Instead, it chooses to tack a different route; how do we survive trauma, both its initial effects and its aftermath, and triumph over it?  

The film is sold by Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay.  Larson deservingly won an Oscar for her role;  Tremblay’s performance is the best child performance I have ever seen.  Together, they create a mother-son relationship that is utterly real and compelling.  The film is also noteworthy for its camerawork, which is used very effectively to suggest changes in Jack’s worldview as he grows older.

 26. Django Unchained

Brash, bold, and unapologetic, Django Unchained is a gloriously socially-conscious revenge fantasy. Featuring buckets of blood and Wild West shoot ‘em up gunfights against Klansmen and slave-holders, the film charts the course of a former slave on his way to rescue his sweetheart from the clutches of a diabolical slave owner.  

 25. Lincoln

Thanks to yet another star turn from acting legend Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln is a witty and warm biopic of one of our greatest presidents.  It is also a glimmer of encouragement during the political gridlock and dysfunction of the early 2010’s.  Rather than proving democracy does not work, Lincoln seems to argue, such issues are actually a sign of a functioning and healthy democracy.  Our ability to disagree strongly with one another and come to imperfect compromises in order to solve our problems is our country’s greatest legacy.  It was also the means to the passing of our noblest and most overdue piece of legislation: The 13th Amendment.

24. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Won’t You Be My Neighbor is, for me, the best documentary of the decade.  Focusing on the extraordinary Mr. Fred Rogers, the film does a great job of humanizing Mr. Rogers; revealing his insecurities, relentless drive, and sly sense of humor (often through dream-like Daniel Tiger animated sequences) while demonstrating that yes, he really was that good of a person.  As it progresses, the film grows increasingly melancholic and encompassing.  The qualities Mr. Rogers stood for-namely, understanding, love, honesty, and respect-seem sorely lacking in today’s society.  Even more distressingly, it would seem the saintly Rogers was beginning to have his own doubts about his life’s work as the cruelty and hate of the 21st century emerged in full on 9/11.  Won’t You Be My Neighbor expresses human goodness as something fragile which must be fostered and prioritized by all of us if Mr. Rogers’ message is to mean something in our modern world.

 23. Moana

Moana’s audiovisuals are off the charts amazing.  The lush tropical landscapes and utterly lifelike oceans make this the most graphically impressive 3-D animated work I’ve ever seen.  The soundtrack, partially composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, stands as one of Disney’s best all time.  But it is Moana herself, the titular princess, who stands as the film’s greatest game-changer.  Realistically proportional, of Pacific Islander descent, and strong enough to carry a story without a love interest, Moana is a refreshingly modern character utterly in command of her own destiny.  Add in a rich story steeped in Polynesian culture and veined with environmental undertones, and you get the new high bar for the Disney Princess Movie.

 22. The Breadwinner

The Breadwinner is a testament that must be heard.  Adapted by Cartoon Saloon from Deborah Ellis’s excellent book of the same name, the movie is a street-level account of Parvana, a young girl who goes undercover as a boy to feed her family in Taliban-era Afghanistan.  The conditions portrayed are nearly unimaginable; imagine being a prisoner in your own home, only let out for reprieve under the supervision of a male guardian.  Such was the reality of thousands of women and girls in Kabul as late as 2001.  Cartoon Saloon drenches this film in a constant, lingering fear; at the same time, normalcy is depicted and triumphed. Siblings still squabble.  Clothes are still washed, meals are still cooked and eaten, water is still fetched.  Stories are still told.  The Breadwinner is not just Parvana’s tale; it is the voice of the thousands who live in war-torn or oppressive societies worldwide, and yet still make their own brand of normalcy, still form expression and find joy.  Their daily survival is an inspiration to us all; their story is to glimpse the resiliency and spark of the human spirit.

 21. A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place is one of the most auspicious debuts I can remember.  First time director John Krasinki makes his creature feature a masterwork of tension and clever sound editing, and crafts an indelible world where so much as a pin dropping puts everyone on pins and needles.

 20. Inside Out

Pixar’s peek inside a child’s mind is a work of the utmost intelligence and sensitivity.  Intuitive enough for even the youngest viewers to understand, yet nuanced enough to describe the transition of a human consciousness from child to adult with painful clarity, Inside Out is one of the studio’s very best features, and a strong defense of mental health and self-expression.

 19. Your Name

For so long, director Makoto Shinkai was an exercise in frustration.  5 Centimeters Per Second was gorgeous.  Garden of Words was the most visually stunning 2-D animation I had ever seen.  And yet the writing was pedantic.  The plot was tepid, the characters flat.  I would watch these films, eye candy at its most pure and non-nutritional, and seethe that they were not better, that all that glorious potential was yet unrealized. And yet, I never stopped believing in the potential of Makoto Shinkai.  One day, I reasoned, this guy was going to piece a story together with some semblance of care as he did his illustrations, and on that day something special would be born.

I saw Your Name just a short time ago.  Of course it’s jaw-droppingly beautiful, that goes without saying.  But here’s what else it is, folks: it’s funny.  It’s heartwrenching.  It’s suspenseful.  It’s got plot twists.  It’s got a story.  And not just a good story, but a GREAT one.  

I imagine watching this movie must be like watching your kid graduate high school.  You forget all the mouthing off and dirty socks left all over the place and that fender bender with your new car, and just soak in the glow of that special moment you always believed would come.  You couldn’t be happier.  You couldn’t be prouder.  And you know this is the beginning of something truly wonderful.

Congratulations, Mr. Shinkai.  You did it, man.

 18. Interstellar

The knock on Christopher Nolan was always that he had the heart of a robot and didn’t have strong female characters.  Debate whether that is true of his other films, if you must; but not this one, because Interstellar is possibly the biggest tear-jerker in sci-fi history, and Jessica Chastain’s Murph is a bitter, brilliant centerpiece to it all. Interstellar stands tall as one of the best science-fiction films of the decade.  It has strong, ambitious science wrapped in glorious visual effects, and is very quietly a solid piece of Americana, lovingly arrayed amidst America’s cornfields and dusty roads in a tribute to The Great Depression.  Most of all, however, Interstellar is a wondrous joining of heart and intellect, a working theoretical thought experiment that demonstrates love is a force greater than gravity, space, time, or any other cosmic entity the universe may foist upon us.

 17. The Force Awakens

While it is not number one on my list, perhaps no film brought me greater joy this decade than watching The Force Awakens during its Thursday night premiere.  It was nothing less than the very Star Wars movie I had hoped and dreamed for as a kid.  As a massively entertaining blockbuster surpassing huge expectations, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is terrific.  As a perfect passing of torch from beloved old to promising new, it is an utter triumph.

 16. Rogue One

Okay, is my bias showing yet?

Perhaps this is a bit steep for some people, but heck, when you are dealing with the second-best movie in one of Hollywood’s most beloved franchises, you have to give props where props are due.  Rogue One is such a gamechanger for Star Wars.  Its gritty, pulpy sense of realism seems peeled straight from a Star Wars comic book; its characters immediately strike as memorable, particularly K-2SO, who is like C-3PO if C-3PO got sent to prison and came back jacked.  Rogue One also is important for its many departures from tradition.  Many of the innovations credited to Episode VIII were done first-and done better-in this film.  Rogue One is not afraid to show the rebellion in terms of moral gray; a shocking act shortly after the film’s opening establishes this and destroys the previous model of basic black and white good vs. evil.  If Luke, Leia, and Han got to play the part of hero in A New Hope, then it was because there were elements in the Rebellion doing the dirty and morally-questionable grunt work shown here; Rogue One shows how the war was won.

Rogue One also introduces a few other themes riffed heavily by Episode VIII, including the idea that the Rebellion/Resistance is not a neat, idealistic counter to oppression but an uneasy conglomerate ravaged by internal conflict, and that force-sensitive people are not necessarily the product of hereditary chains of Jedi and Sith, but often sporadic and independent products of the Force.  It is, on top of what it initiated, simply a well-paced and superbly-crafted piece of space opera.  Rogue One has the best romance (besides Han and Leia) in Star Wars history, has hands-down THE BEST Vader scene ever filmed and another that is a classic in its own right, and has one heck of a villain in Director Krennic. Krennic is one of those mid-level bureaucrats that must have always existed for the Empire but which never received such deserved attention before; his position of weakness, coupled with burning ambition, makes him a hilariously pathetic figure, one you might begin to feel bad for were he not such a nasty piece of work.  Even the soundtrack is great.  Rogue One is a war film, and Michael Giacchino of Medal of Honor fame makes this sound like a war film, even though it also sounds very much like Star Wars. Ultimately, that’s what Rogue One is. It is a Star Wars film that manages to be a war film and everything else it wants to be terrifically well.  To hell with it.  I’m putting it this high.  If you have a problem with Rogue One being the #16 movie on my list, you can go kiss a wampa’s backside.

 15. Roma

Like its protagonist-a nanny to a wealthy family in 1970’s era Mexico-Roma is a film of marvelous patience and understated strength.  Alfonso Cuarón’s otherworldly composition and autobiographical authenticity makes this movie a deeply complex take on class and gender, as well as a heartbreaking meditation on what it means to love and be part of a family.

 14. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

Spiderverse was such a brilliant reimagination of what the superhero genre could be.  Not only did it break convention by featuring an African-Hispanic-American kid as its protagonist; it prismed a classic Marvel character in danger of going stale into a delightful and zany spectrum.  At once funny as hell and a poignant portrait of growing up as a minority in America, Spiderverse isn’t just the great animated Spiderman movie that nobody saw coming; it’s one of the best superhero movies ever made.

 13. Baby Driver

Baby Driver is the coolest movie of the decade.  The film centers around Baby, a gentle young getaway driver locked up in bad deals with bad hombres, motoring through traffic and criminal plots in an attempt to just get out and get his girl; but it is so much more than that.  This is Tarantino, juiced up on Bullitt, playing in time to a nonstop eclectic jukebox.  The dialogue is sharp and hilarious, the characters are all immediately memorable and lovable (even the baddies), and it should go without saying that the car chases are PHENOMENAL.  This is entertainment on nitrous oxide.

 12. Lady Bird

I did not go into Lady Bird expecting great things.  Lady Bird is a family drama.  I, for the record, do not like family dramas.  But I liked this one.  I liked this one a heck of a lot.

Lady Bird is told with so much humor and honesty about the mistakes we make as kids and parents.  Struggles for independence and control, respectively, fuel furious arguments and alienation during the difficult period of adolescence.  It is not until later that we gain the wisdom to understand why we fought and gain a richer understanding and appreciation of one another’s feelings.  In Lady Bird, there is a key revelation regarding the girl and her mother that seems to unfold at the film’s close.  It is a profound and emotionally resonant moment that brings the film around to a highly satisfying conclusion.

This movie is also one of the first “time capsule” pieces on the early 2000’s.  As we grow older, I would expect more of these films to emerge, but as of right now Lady Bird is the only one that comes to mind.  The film absolutely nails the sense of growing up in a troubled time; the Iraq War blares constantly on the news, full-time employment becomes a tenuous prospect no matter how qualified you are, and gay rights are still something very much in infancy.  Lady Bird plays out its teenage struggles against this backdrop, showing how such crises were navigated, albeit painfully sometimes, and overcome.  Few films have been so well-rounded, nuanced, and well-crafted this decade.

 11. Song of the Sea

If you are unaware of the name Tomm Moore, it may be time to become acquainted, as the guy has been killing animation since he first stepped onto the scene with Secret of Kells in 2009. It is no exaggeration to call him the Irish Miyazaki; and Song of the Sea his Spirited Away.  Like that film, there is a deeply human story to be told, but it is all dressed up in fantastical trappings.  In Spirited Away, a girl struggling to grow up found herself working in a spirit bathhouse.  Song of the Sea uses Irish mythology as a gateway to understand the deep and complicated love between siblings, and the necessity of expressing and sharing loss.

This is one of the most beautiful animated pictures this decade.  Were the framed stills not hundreds of dollars on Cartoon Saloon’s website (yes, I’ve looked at them), I would probably own at least a few by now. The animation style is so distinctive and innately appealing, with gentle watercolors that soothe and invite the mind. The Celtic musical arrangements are similarly intricate, wonderful, and soothing.  Together, story, art, and music come together, and work some deep and affecting magic on the soul.  Song of the Sea should be regarded as one of the best animated films this decade.    

 10. Sicario

Sicario is an utterly bleak, magnificent film that truly depicts the drug war as it is; a chaotic maelstrom of murder, torture, and corruption, spinning and spinning with no end in sight.  In such a storm, there is no moral high ground to claim, let alone hold.  There is only power to control which direction the storm is heading next, whom it will chew up and devour in its path.  And as for the powerless, the best they can hope for is to stay out of its way.  Sicario is a sharp critique of American drug policy and a stark glimpse into the grim reality of cartels, packaged perfectly as an ultra-violent thriller.

 9. Looper

It is hard to do a time travel story well.  Managing plot threads makes plots a nightmare; it is a difficult juggling act merely to keep one’s head above water.  That is what makes Looper so special.  It is not only a cool-looking, cyberpunk-flavored noir that manages its logic very well; it also features great characters, and larger overarching themes of fate and redemption it advances via those same logistical acrobatics.  Looper blew my mind the first time I saw it.  It is easily one of the best time travel stories ever, and a sci-fi classic to boot.

 8. Blade Runner 2049

It is going to ruffle some feathers to say this, but I think Blade Runner 2049 is even better than the original Blade Runner.  While Ridley Scott’s dark, smoggy Los Angeles will always be iconic, Blade Runner 2049 had Roger Deakins behind the camera, and he took us to sections of our nightmarish future we had never been before.  Patterns of solar farms set up outside of town to feed swathes of humanity.  A post-apocalyptic landfill outside of town for the city’s forsaken.  Best of all, a neon-orange radioactive Las Vegas.  That seems to be the common theme of 2049.  It has taken all the best features of Ridley’s classic and expanded them while trimming down the less successful elements.  The defining theme of Blade Runner-what makes us human-is here expounded upon and taken to even deeper levels.  And the film’s beautiful ending brings the franchise to a truly satisfying conclusion.

 7. Zootopia

Zootopia feels like Disney’s final evolution.  The cute critters from its primordial past have fully anthropomorphized, to the point that they must contend with some of the same societal ills as us; chief among them prejudice.  Visually gorgeous, full of top-notch tongue-in-cheek gags, and the slickest, most concise cartoon buddy cop riff since at least Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Zootopia counts as one of the most finely crafted animated features I’ve ever seen.  Its timely message, coupled with its fantastic quality and outreach potential to the young, makes it one of those rare movies that can change the world.

 6. Ex Machina

Ex Machina is one of the most finely-tuned and lean films science-fiction has to offer.  In the age of growing research into artificial intelligence, it is also vastly important.  Many films have explored the issues associated with artificial intelligence, but few have so fully delved into the ethical quagmires which might arise.  Creating new minds means accepting responsibility for the lives of welfare of other beings.  Are we prepared to do such a thing?  We, who are constantly waging war and victimizing one another?  Also, if we are so morally limited, how can we avoid passing on negative traits to our digital children, who will be vastly more powerful and intelligent than us?  What if they think differently than us?  The possibility of misunderstandings would be catastrophic for both parties.

Ex Machina explores all of these issues with deep intelligence and building tension.  This film is one of those beautifully ambiguous works I love so much that require you to pay attention and come to your own conclusions.  The primary question in the film asked of the characters is the same one the film asks you: is Ava, the artificial intelligence in question, essentially human?  For me, the question was left unanswered until the final, remarkable, tragic shot.  

 5. The Revenant

Bloody as hell and absolutely gorgeous, The Revenant is a deep plunge into our primal hearts, into the remarkable human invention of identity.  At the most fundamental level, we are all the same species; we share the same roots, the same trunk.  Yet by means of our human experiences, our courses of life and interactions with other humans, we draw deep fundamental lines between one another.  These lines are powerful things.  They are what we see ourselves as.  We draw lines of genetic heritage; lines of cultures born into, or adopted.  Lines brand certain people as friends, while others remain strange or alien.  Sometimes, lines can even define people as something hostile; a new species which may destroy us if it is not destroyed in turn. And there are lines which describe the people we call our families; those whom we love and protect at the most fundamental level of our being.

The Revenant draws attention to the lines we draw as human beings; how they are as deeply ingrained to us as breathing or bleeding, for better, and for worse.  Aided by director Alejandro Iñárritu’s magnificent direction, and anchored by Leonardo DiCaprio, who has never been better in his storied career, The Revenant is a deep, uncompromising gaze into our personal and national Heart of Darkness.

 4. Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty became the unfortunate victim of warring politics.  Right-wingers decried the portrayal of torture in the movie, while leftists criticized the movie’s account of torture supposedly supplying the correct information (Director Kathryn Bigelow acknowledged to Stephen Colbert her lead, being from the CIA, might be untrustworthy on that particular facet but she was operating with accuracy to her source).  That is all a shame, because such criticism misses the point of the movie entirely.  Zero Dark Thirty is made in the spirit of true and utter neutrality.  There is no political axe to grind.  There is no glorification in the act of Bin Laden’s death; in fact, the face of America’s most notorious terrorist is never shown. Zero Dark Thirty is a work of national recollection.  It begins with a deeply painful call to authorities on 9/11, and does not end until Bin Laden’s assassination over 9 years later.  In between, there is torture, bombings, false leads and frustrations, hours upon hours of poring over data and entries, and finally, that fateful, dangerous foray into Pakistan.  We are reintroduced to each of our own actions through the eyes of Maya, the CIA agent who supposedly made the case that it was in fact Bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad.  At the end of Zero Dark Thirty, the movie adds up that long tally of what we sacrificed in order to defeat our greatest enemy and posits a simple question: was it worth it? Each will have their own answer to that difficult and important question.  This is one of those rare films that forces us to review our path as a nation, examine what we did right and what we did wrong, and adjust our trajectory accordingly. Zero Dark Thirty is an essential American masterpiece, crafted by a true and powerful auteur at the top of her game.

 3. The Raid 2: Berandal

The Raid: Redemption was a revelation in what could be attempted in a martial arts movie.  Its creators decided that wasn’t enough and upped the ante. What ensued was the madness of Berandal.

The stuntwork of Berandal has to be seen to be believed.  Some participants were knocked out cold; it is amazing nobody was killed.  It is doubtful something like this will ever (or should ever) be attempted again, so we may as well enjoy it.  There are car chases, assassins affectionately known as “Bat Boy” and “Hammer Girl”, simply loads and loads of fantastic martial arts combat, and more.  But in between all this ruckus, there is a compelling gangster story to be told, populated with fascinating characters.  A son looking to take over and dangerously expand his father’s influence; a creepy rival leader who cheerfully pulls out razors for throat-slitting; a sad, old-timer assassin who confesses to his daughter that killing was the only way to provide for her; an informant, caught in the middle of the maelstrom and sweating out the possibility that he will be discovered and never make it back to his young family; and of course, Hammer Girl.  She’s my favorite.  

In The Raid: Redemption, character Mad Dog talked about the pulse.  Berandal is that pulse, fully transposed into brutal, symbolic symphony, in which the façade of civilization and negotiations between thugs break down into savage, unbridled violence.  This is the best action movie ever, and the Indonesian Godfather, all rolled into one.

 2. Avengers: Endgame

No list of top films of the decade would be complete without Avengers: Endgame.  It’s the biggest blockbuster in history; and for once, that title is deserved.  Nothing like it had ever been attempted before; indeed, it may be hard to do ever again.  Facing 1 in 14 million odds, the Russo brothers pulled off a miracle, wasting not a moment in a three hour movie that never feels long and completing the arcs of over a dozen beloved characters, en route to a final and wholly satisfying conclusion to the most ambitious film project ever attempted.  If that wasn’t enough, there are more than enough in-jokes, clever riffs on past movies, and sensational action pieces to please even the most critical fan.  Avengers: Endgame is the closest to pure catharsis you can feel, and without a doubt the best superhero movie ever made.  I confess that I moved it back and forth between #1 and #2 on my list at least a few times; ultimately I left it at #2, with the compromise that even if it cannot be called the best movie of the decade, it will forever be known as THE film of the decade.  

 1. Wolf Children

Wolf Children is one of those movies you come across that can only be described as magical.  As a simple tale of motherhood, it succeeds. As a complex allegory for race and adolescence, it works equally well.  It can be shown to the young.  It can be shown to the old.  It can be shown to all in between.  It is sublimely beautiful, patient, and paced.  It is excellently scored.  It has some of the most fully-realized characters ever depicted in animation.  It is warm.  It is gentle.  It is funny. It is sad.  It is life; in all its unpredictability, twists and turns, and wonder.

But I think the reason I truly love Wolf Children is because it engages with the two most difficult and important aspects of being a good, healthy, happy human; how do I love others, and how do I love myself?  Wolf Children shows us a truly rapturous example.  For being the most beautiful movie, both inside and out, I have seen this past decade, and for a whole host of other reasons, Wolf Children deserves to top this list.  Truly, it is Alpha Wolf.