Best Films of the Decade- 2010s

Hey everyone, I used to write best-of year-end lists but fell out of the habit. With the ending of the decade, I had a sudden burst of inspiration and wanted to create the ultimate list of the best films of the 2010s. Hope you enjoy!

A couple notes: I tried to stick to just 10 films, but found I could not. Since no one is grading me, I decided to cheat and combine multiple films into groups where necessary.

And, I’m not doing the worst films of the decade. Other people are writing those lists; no need for me to jump on that bandwagon.

10. Pixar Films

The animation studio of the golden goose took a few tumbles this decade (Cars 2 being the worst of their sins), but the studio did put out two masterpieces: Toy Story 3, the heart-breaking conclusion (or so we thought) that sent our heroes on their greatest adventure yet; and Inside Out, an examination into an adolescent girl’s emotions that turned a fun romp through an animated brain into an existential study in losing one’s innocence. Both films were powerful enough to make adults cry, while staying intelligent and funny enough to entertain their target audience of children.

Other strong showings from the studio this decade include Brave, Cars 3, and Coco.

9. Get Out and A Quiet Place

This decade brought the debuts of two new voices in the horror genre, and from surprising sources: Jordan Peele’s Get Out, a Twilight Zone-esque metaphor for race relations in America, and John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, that took a bold idea (a horror film with no dialogue!) and turned it into a believably scary post-apocalyptic tale of a struggling family. Get Out’s strengths lie in it subverting clichés- no white savior, the fast-talking best friend/comic relief is actually right all along- and somehow making the film funny as well. Even if some of the laughs are nervous. And A Quiet Place was a strong showcase for its star, Krasinski’s real-life wife Emily Blunt, a pregnant/terrified mom comfortable with sign language, allowing her to survive in this silent world.

8. Gravity

“Sandra Bullock in space” isn’t a great pitch for a movie, but Alfonso Cuarón’s science-fact thriller was something new: utilizing long takes and immersive special effects, and never letting up from the suspense, the audience is made to feel like we’re floating in the void with our heroine. Not just the most visually spectacular movie of the decade (save for maybe one or two films further up this list), but one hell of a roller coaster ride.

7. Skyfall

This decade brought the best James Bond movie ever made. Yeah, I’m confident saying that.

Daniel Craig’s third outing (and the franchise’s 23^rd) opens with him getting shot through the shoulder and left for dead. Physically, he’s not the same after that. But his difficulties don’t stop there. His beloved M has been fired and is being replaced by a bureaucrat. The new bad guy is high-tech and is playing a game where he’s several steps ahead of everyone else. And, all this combined with a plot that forces Bond to return to his childhood home is the perfect metaphor for facing one’s mortality. Even though he’s at his worst, 007 has never been better.

6. Spotlight

In an era of fake news and the government’s insistence that the media cannot be trusted, we really needed a movie like Spotlight, about an investigative journalism team committed to telling the truth, telling it right, and getting justice for victims abused by people in positions of power. The real-life story can be hard to watch at times, as it describes Catholic priests molesting children, but that just emphasizes the tough, thankless job that these people have, and why it was so necessary that they keep digging for the truth.

5. The Social Network

Ten years ago, something described as “the Facebook movie” wouldn’t have been considered to be anything worth watching. So it was truly staggering to see the movie that resulted, a high-art, high-entertainment, true-life story of young geniuses, greed, and betrayal. The collaboration of David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin, two geniuses with very different backgrounds, proved to be the masterstroke that elevated the movie to the next level. Legal depositions have never been so engrossing.

4. Boyhood

My vote for the most underrated movie of the decade. Richard Linklater made a small, quiet movie about a boy moving through childhood, but in a way that has never been done before. He used the same cast and filmed for over 12 years! Deeply moving performances from Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke help paint the picture, as there is very little story or plot here. It’s more like a memory-play: the most defining few moments from each year, age 6 to 18. By the end, you feel like you’ve grown up with this boy, that he’s your friend. And that even an average person’s normal life is a story worth telling.

3. The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny the impact Marvel Studios has had on pop culture over the last decade. The studio, now owned by Disney, churned out an astonishing 21 movies this decade (!), all superhero movies taking place in one shared universe, and most of them were actually pretty good. Some even turned out to be great.

In 2012, a movie like The Avengers seemed impossible. Four different superheroes from different franchises coming together in a cross-over movie to save the world? And they were B-level heroes, not the usual box-office draws like Spider-Man or the X-Men. But Joss Whedon managed to bring them together in a way that accentuated their differences for comedy, and used the natural tension between them for drama. This is one of the best superhero movies ever made.

Iron Man 3 took the bold move of giving its swaggering hero PTSD. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was an homage to political thrillers of the ‘70s, and brought a new level of paranoia to its super-straight-edge hero. Guardians of the Galaxy was a giddy adrenaline rush of fast humor, weird characters, and exciting action that shouldn’t have worked (A talking raccoon? A walking tree?), but somehow did. Captain America: Civil War drove a wedge between our group of heroes, and eerily predicted America’s own real-life political divides, as the movie was released a few months before the 2016 election. Thor: Ragnarok brought the fun and threw everything at the wall, including the kitchen sink.

And then there’s Black Panther. What started as Marvel’s token black superhero became a sensation, a socially-conscious tribute to black excellence in a world that always underestimates them. It was worthy enough to become the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Wakanda forever!

The event movie Avengers: Infinity War made the unprecedented choice of having a devastating ending: the heroes actually lost. But its follow-up Avengers: Endgame gave a supremely satisfying ending to the 12-year-long story, confirming that the 2010s were the decade of the superhero.

2. 12 Years a Slave

The Schindler’s List of this decade.

Hollywood has always been shy about depicting American slavery on screen, but it was inevitable that someone would be brave enough to do it. The true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South, is devastating but essential. Steve McQueen (no, not that one) directed this moving film with unblinking courage and heart. Also features career-best performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor as the lead and Lupita Nyong’o in her breakout role as a fellow slave determined to keep her dignity.

1. The Films of Christopher Nolan

A new titan of cinema rose this decade. After seeming to peak with The Dark Knight in 2008, still one of the most significant movies made in the last 25 years, he directed four movies in the 2010s… and all four are masterpieces, a track record unmatched by anyone else in the industry.

Inception was his exploration of dreams and the possibilities of people sharing dreams and pulling off heists using sleep technology. Head-trippiness and Joseph Gordon-Levitt crawling on the walls and ceiling commenced.

The Dark Knight Rises was his epic conclusion to the Batman trilogy, introducing the unstoppable force that is Bane, and having the city of Gotham save itself in a huge final showdown.

Interstellar was the most intelligent and moving science-fiction movie of the decade. Matthew McConaughey’s struggles to relate to his kids are just as interesting as his adventures on other planets and in black holes.

And then he made Dunkirk, his version of a World War II movie. The true story of British soldiers trapped on the beach, and their countrymen’s efforts to rescue them, is done not just with suspense and patriotism, but with terror. It somehow manages to be both realistic and cinematic at the same time.

And, because there were so many good films this decade, here are a few more shout-outs that couldn’t fit into the top 10!

- The Irishman. I was too hesitant to put a recent film on this list, but Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece of the gangster genre will stand the test of time. Honestly, I think it’s just as good as The Godfather.

- Documentaries! From feel-good movies like Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and RBG to the deep-dive of O.J.: Made in America and the visual awe of Free Solo, to films that actually helped make history, like Citizenfour and Icarus, documentaries shined in the last decade.

- Whiplash and A Star Is Born. Two similar movies about trying to make it in the world of music, with mixed results. Excellent looks into the sacrifices artists make to reach their dreams.

- Star Wars: Episode VII- The Force Awakens. While none of the other Disney-Star Wars movies lived up to this film, the first return to the galaxy far, far away brought the nostalgia along with a bunch of new ideas, making for a fun, emotional, old-fashioned ride.

- Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln. The best performance by an actor in a movie this decade.

- BlacKkKlansman. The stranger-than-fiction true story of a black cop who infiltrated the KKK earned Spike Lee his first competitive Oscar.

- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The best Spider-Man movie didn’t come from Marvel Studios. It was this animated gem that proved anyone can be behind the mask.

- Wonder Woman. ‘Nuff said.

- Deadpool. Again, ‘nuff said.

- Cloud Atlas. This movie wasn’t embraced by the masses, but I think it’s amazing.

- The Cabin in the Woods. The other great horror movie this decade.

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, both parts. The end of an era!

- Bridesmaids and Trainwreck. Funny women!

- Lady Bird. Greta Gerwig’s little gem of a film.

- X-Men: Days of Future Past. When in doubt, travel through time.

- Logan. Who knew the world needed an R-rated Wolverine movie?

- Argo. See, Ben Affleck is good for something.

- The Martian. See, Matt Damon is good for something.

- Selma. Why did it take so long to make a movie about Martin Luther King, Jr.?

That’s all I got. Hopefully I’ll see you again before it’s been 10 more years. Happy moviegoing!