Decades of Cinema - 10 Best of 2010 - Present

Previous decades lists are: 1920's, 1930's,1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's and 2000's.

Here are my ten favorite films released between 2010 and today.

10. Inside Llewyn Davis 

The Coen brothers have been making amazing films for over 30 years, and their most recent example of this was the underappreciated 2013 gem Inside Llewyn Davis. Yet another movie by them that balances the laugh out loud comedy with a shocking amount of nuance, leaving bits and pieces to dig up with each revisit. 

9. Inception

The movie that single-handedly brought me back out to the cinema again after a multi-year hiatus following the birth of my daughter. One look at the trailer for Inception and I knew it would demand a giant screen, and boy did it. An incredible achievement from Christopher Nolan that is just as fascinating no matter how many times you see it unfold. 

8. Life of Pi

I don't have religion in my life, but every so often I feel like I find God in a film. Life of Pi is one of those experiences (with another one at the top of this list). This is a profoundly beautiful picture.

7. Cloud Atlas

Incredibly epic yet at times painfully intimate. Ambitious almost to a fault, but I forgive it. Cloud Atlas is a superb adaptation of a book that seemed impossible to translate coherently to film, yet it was done. I was blown away the first time I saw this film, and with each subsequent viewing my admiration grows.

6. Take Shelter

Director Jeff Nichols handles the subject of mental illness with grace and class and a stunning level of maturity considering it was only his second feature film. Michael Shannon wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for his lead performance, yet he not only should have been, he should have won the damn award. Take Shelter is brilliant and has one of the great endings in recent memory. 

5. Drive

I am a married heterosexual man, but I am not afraid to use the word sexy to describe Ryan Gosling in Drive. Seriously, Nicolas Winding Refn crafted a masterpiece here that is so damn, for lack of a better word, cool I can barely wrap my mind around it. From beginning to end I am intoxicated by the neon glow, the incredible score and the subtle but perfect performances. Drive is the type of movie that makes me wish I could create one of my own.

4. Boyhood

I never thought a film could capture the authenticity of life in such a way, but Boyhood is moving in its simplicity. It isn't a film about milestones, it is the story of those other days that mean so much but seem to slip through the cracks as time goes by. The underlying message is one that I found very powerful as I watch my own daughter grow up so fast: time is relentless.

3. Gravity

Sure, on the surface it's a film about a woman trying to survive a catastrophe in space, but what is really on display is so, so much more. Gravity is a heartbreaking but life affirming metaphor for grief and just how challenging to overcome it, and to say I was moved by the journey of Dr. Ryan Stone is an understatement.  

2. The Social Network

As a super fan of David Fincher, I don't say these words lightly: The Social Network is his masterpiece. The origin story of Facebook and its rise to internet domination doesn't sound appealing on paper, but it touches on familiar themes of loyalty and betrayal and it does so perfectly. The Oscar winning screenplay from Aaron Sorkin, the Oscar winning score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and the unfortunately not but should have been Oscar winning direction from Fincher, all of it added together is essential cinema.

1. The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is not only my favorite recently released film, it is my favorite of all time, period. It is profound poetry in motion, a movie that literally taught me to embrace and appreciate the miracle of existence. 

So that's it, the end of my Decades of Cinema lists. I would love to hear some feedback on my picks from all of the decades, find out which ones you love, which ones you loathe and everything in between.

100 Favorite Films - #60 - #51

A continuation of my list counting down my 100 favorite films of all time.


60. Rope (1948)

When the name Alfred Hitchcock is mentioned, instantly the mind races through classics like Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window and The Birds, and understandably so, but Rope is a masterful film that seems to not get enough credit. During the very first scene of the movie, we witness a murder, a tragedy for no real purpose beyond the thrill the two killers get from doing it.

While the story taking place on screen is chilling enough, the innovative style of Rope is part of the reason I fell totally in love with it. Hitchcock used a series of long takes, each roughly ten minutes in length, and then the picture was edited in a way that it appears as if the camera never once cuts. It as if we are a fly on the wall and were able to witness something deranged, and the camera pans around and brings us incredible frames that bring exactly what we need to see into focus at that moment. A masterpiece of tension building and technical wonder.


59. Rashomon (1950)

For the most part I am still shamefully unfamiliar with the work of Akira Kurosawa, but Rashomon is one I know very well and a film that has left a powerful mark on cinema as a whole. The structure of the storytelling was game changing at the time, as the plot revolves around multiple people telling their differing version of events regarding the same incident, and the end result is a remarkable film about morality and the untrustworthy nature of storytelling.


58. Baraka (1992)

No narrative, no voiceover, yet nothing short of spectacular. Baraka is a documentary film that explores themes with surprising depth and clarify despite merely being a series of powerful imagery from across the world. The themes being explored need no explanation because if you are watching closely, they will reveal themselves in meaningful, unforgettable ways.


57. Fargo (1996)

The Coen brothers have mastered the art of crafting films that are both dark comedies and thematically rich dramas, and Fargo is a sublime example of this. At times jarringly heartbreaking yet also hilariously scripted and performed, Fargo manages to deliver a little bit of everything over the course of 98 incredible minutes.


56. Inception (2010)

Ultra ambitious and massive in scope, Christopher Nolan transitioned from Gotham to a science fiction marvel involving the ability to enter dreams and thus alter real life. I remember vividly how in love with the Inception trailer I was, practically watching it on repeat for months leading up to its summer release. The actual film did not disappoint.


55. Mulholland Drive (2001)

Instantly I knew I was in love with Mulholland Drive yet if you would have asked me why after the first time I saw it, the answer would have been similar to "It's creepy and weird and I love it." Vague, sure, but the picture is so confounding I still to this day find it difficult to put into words what I extract from the experience. What David Lynch crafted here is likely not something often referred to as "mediocre" or "average", because it has all the makings of a polarizing work that you either cherish or admonish for its abstract nature. Count me among those that hold it in high regard.



54. Donnie Darko (2001)

Speaking of head scratching cinema, from the very same year as Mulholland Drive comes my next film, Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko. A very young Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead role as Donnie, and the film revolves around his search for meaning and understanding after experiencing bizarre visions warning him of an approaching Doomsday. The most often reaction to this film after a first viewing is also to search for meaning and understanding, and it took a few revisits for me to form an opinion of what actually occurs in the end. I find Donnie Darko to be a meaningful and fascinating cinematic journey.



53. Gone Girl (2014)

My Review of Gone Girl

If it weren't such a recently released film, I honestly might have it ranked even higher, but it demands a second viewing for me to cement down my initial thoughts, which were that this is quite possibly the finest work by director David Fincher to date. Gone Girl is a dark, gloomy, beautifully made thriller that also serves as a very clever satire of both the struggles of marital life and of the landscape of American media. I was wrapped up in this one from beginning to end, and Rosamund Pike is a revelation, a performance that reminded me of a perfect combination of old and new Hollywood. I feel like she both could scare the piss out of me here yet also time travel to 60 years ago and star along side Jimmy Stewart in a Hitchcock film. So good.



52. Hana-Bi (Fireworks) (1997)

Written by, directed by, edited by and starring Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, the man does it all and what he poured his heart and soul into is a beautiful film called Hana-Bi, released in the United States under the title Fireworks. Kitano plays a cop named Nishi who feels compelled to quit the force after his partner is badly injured during an incident and is relegated to a wheelchair. With his retirement, Nishi now has the time to look after his ailing wife Miyuki who is fighting a battle with leukemia, and the film explores their relationship along with the added tension of Nishi owing money to the Yakuza with no means to pay them back.

This is a film I credit for my love of cinema, as I saw it at a time when I didn't understand what an art form the medium could be, and Hana-Bi really opened my eyes.



51. Back to the Future (1985)

What do I really need to say about this one? A blast to the past from director Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future is a film I was raised on since childhood, a VHS tape that I wore down from so many viewings. The film was and continues to be a massive success and it deserves it, as it remains an important piece of pop culture and a quotable, beloved film even roughly thirty years later.

50 down, 50 to go. Above is an image from a film that will appear on my next list of ten.