The 50 Best Movies of the Decade
By Jake Skubish
As the decade comes to a close, I am looking back at the best of cinema from 2010 - 2019. Check out the Best of the Decade Homepage for the rest of the lists.
One thing is undeniable about the internet: if someone has an opinion on something, there is a list ranking it. There are lists for everything: movies and music, of course, but you can also find the Los Angeles Times’ breakfast cereal power ranking, or the Huffington Post’s ranking of fonts, or Gizmodo’s ranking of planets in the solar system.
These rankings all do something strange: they put on an air of authoritativeness. The L.A. Times says their list is “official”; HuffPo’s is “totally definitive”; Gizmodo’s is “ultimate” and “indisputable.” Each of these descriptions is presented with a knowing wink at its impossibility. The internet has neutered authority and expertise; the wisdom of the crowd always wins out, and any list that claims to be “definitive” is either facetious or ignorant.
Which is all to say: what power can a list possibly hold in this landscape? Why listen to a friend’s restaurant recommendation when thousands of people on Yelp will tell you where to eat? Why read this very list of movies if Metacritic or IMDb can aggregate the best choices for you? Putting the state of criticism in this context can make any attempt to have your individual voice heard feel silly.
But framing things this way is already conceding defeat to the hive mind structure of the web. Thousands of data points have a claim to authority that I alone will never possess, and trying to claim that I do, no matter how tongue-in-cheek I intend the statement, is wrongheaded. My rankings will never be authoritative, nor should they be. These are the 50 best movies of the decade because they are the 50 best movies of the decade to me. I think, and I hope you will think so too, that this personalization makes the list more compelling, not less. All criticism is autobiography, and pretending it is not cheapens the endeavor.
One more note about how I formed this list: I have a simple thought experiment that helps me to organize what does and does not make the cut, adapted from “the incinerator” that Filmspotting often invokes. If there were only one copy of every movie made from 2010-2019, and they were all trapped in a burning building, and I only had time to save 50 of them, which ones would I save? This hypothetical helps me think about which movies mean the most to me personally, but also which I would like the decade to be remembered by.
Anyway, that’s enough from me. Let’s get to the damn list.
50. First Man
First up is First Man, a movie I threw onto this list at the last minute. I cycled through a few films in this slot, but I couldn’t shake Damien Chazelle’s wildly undervalued biopic of Neil Armstrong which, upon revisiting, I found to be an absolutely masterful film. Based on Chazelle’s prior movies I assumed this would be a film about ambition, but when you realize it is instead a delicate meditation on grief and trauma, you can appreciate it for the gem it is. First Man is available to stream on HBO.
49. Hustlers
The joyous irony of Hustlers is that, as they hatch a plan to establish self-reliance, the women at the center of the film become reliant on each other. Hustlers is a love story of sorts, but it’s an affection that cannot be extracted from the environment that produced it. The film is a testament to the value of love in the face of exploitation, not necessarily as a means to dismantle that exploitation but to defiantly thrive in its shadow. It’s a love that quietly fights back. This love is what separates Hustlers most from its closest comparisons. As disparate as Magic Mike, The Big Short, and The Wolf of Wall Street are, they all share the belief that capitalism is an alienating force. In Hustlers, love is the critical response, and offers a sliver of hope.
48. Snowpiercer
Director Bong Joon Ho has been earning massive praise this year for Parasite, and it’s well deserved: it might be his most patient, mature film to date. But Snowpiercer, a bananas sci-fi action flick about a class uprising on a post-apocalyptic train, remains my favorite of his from this decade. The train is a transparent metaphor for a corrupt capitalist system, but it is nonetheless effective. You don’t have to stay for the high-brow theorizing, though; Snowpiercer is a hell of a lot of fun. Its thrilling ending brings the theorizing and the action together: sometimes, you just have to blow it all up. Snowpiercer is available to stream on Netflix.
47. The Wolfpack
The Wolfpack doesn’t have a whole lot to say, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. The documentary, which follows a group of brothers who have grown up locked inside their Manhattan apartment, is more of a small portrait of life in a vacuum. It is about the inherent value of human connection, and the ability of humans to carry on in the face of limiting circumstances. Life is undeniable for the brothers at the center of this film. The Wolfpack is available to stream on Hulu.
46. Flight
The best movie I’ll never, ever watch again in my life, Flight stars Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker, a pilot who miraculously saves his plane from crashing only to face an investigation for his drug use during the flight. It’s a classically forceful performance by Washington, but the film is thrilling beyond him: Robert Zemeckis knows how to pace a movie. As Whitaker hurtles toward his fate, the film becomes an insightful blend of commentary on media, addiction, and heroism. If you can bear to watch the plane crash scene, check out this film.
45. 12 Years a Slave
On its face, 12 Years a Slave might seem like classic awards season bait, especially since it won Best Picture at the Academy Awards; Hollywood historical dramas about slavery have a spotty history of accuracy. That’s precisely why the film is such a crucial corrective. 12 Years a Slave pulls no punches in its depiction of the deep trauma American slavery caused for generations of black families, and that pain is felt throughout the film. It’s a movie that stares its audience right in the face and not only implicates them, but asks them how much we’ve really reckoned with the past.
44. Drinking Buddies
Joe Swanberg is one of the most underappreciated directors of the decade, but this lack of stature is almost by design: his films are small stories about the relationships between normal people. Drinking Buddies remains his crowning achievement. It’s a delicate movie about the thin line between friendship and romance, and about the existential mundanity of heartbreak. Olivia Wilde is incredible in the lead role, and Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, and Ron Livingston excel as the rest of the leading cast. Drinking Buddies is available to stream for free on Tubi.
43. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the one of eight stand-alone Spider-Man films and four different reboots of the friendly neighborhood hero in the last 16 years. So it’s a delight that it is a completely refreshing take, and the best Spider-Man film yet. It achieves this feat primarily by toying with audience expectations. Spider-Verse actively rejects the “origin story,” and it stars a black-Hispanic hero (among others, including a Spider-Pig). Perhaps most exciting is the film’s madcap animation, a gorgeous Anime-comic book style mashup that’s a strong case that all animated movies shouldn’t strive to look like Pixar films. I can’t wait for the sequel. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is available to stream on Netflix.
42. This Is The End
This Is the End turns Hollywood’s camera on itself: if the apocalypse came tomorrow, what would these esteemed actors become? The answer, of course, is a bunch of helpless cowards. But Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, and the gang eventually cooperate and learn the value of friendship in spite of their impending doom. From the arrival of Danny McBride to the scene in heaven, This Is the End may be the most consistently funny live-action movie of the decade.
41. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Despite the common line of criticism against it, The Force Awakens does not merely mimic the original Star Wars trilogy in order to secure the favor of diehard fans. It takes the heart and emotional core present in the old films and transfers them to an original world. This film is less synonymous than it is analogous. There is a light poignancy at the core of the movie in terms of its exploration of right, wrong, and personal choice. But aside from that poignancy, The Force Awakens is an action classic unto its own because it made me happier than nearly any other movie I saw this decade. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is available to stream on Disney+.
40. Lemonade
Lemonade is both intimate and calculated, pushing the boundaries of our personal ties to celebrity relationships. Somehow, Beyoncé allows the trials of someone so far above us all to remain universal in this beautiful film. Its universality stems from its ability to tell not only the story of one high-profile romantic quarrel, but a piece of the story of black womanhood in America. In Lemonade Beyoncé admits that love is natural, and that it is not mutually exclusive to be powerful and vulnerable. Musically the film is eclectic and draws on a number of genres, but the music helps to carry the narrative arc from one scene to the next (with assistance from some gorgeous poetry passages by Warsan Shire).
39. They Came Together
They Came Together has an abysmal 5.5 rating on IMDb and a 60 rating on Metacritic. Do people not understand that this is satire? The confusion would be understandable given how spot-on David Wain’s evisceration of the rom-com genre is. It’s broad, dumb, and often grotesque humor, but it savages rom-coms with a love for the genre. They Came Together is the most quotable comedy of the decade, and it’s a shame that more people haven’t seen it, or understood it. They Came Together is available to stream for free on Tubi and Vudu.
38. Sorry to Bother You
Sorry to Bother You feels like it owes its lineage more to memes than movies. It captures the sensibility of millennial America, or Gen Z, or whatever arbitrary moniker you want to give young people who grew up on the internet, resent capitalism, and give a shit about the future of the planet. It’s irreverent, and hilarious, and completely earnest. It’s as if Clickhole produced a Spike Lee Joint. And in creating this tone, it’s one of the first movies I’ve seen that both takes on issues that plague American youth and emulates the way they see the world. Sorry to Bother You is available to stream on Hulu.
37. Holy Motors
There are many critically beloved films that lack logical consistency and tend not to connect with wider audiences. Most of these avant-garde films don’t work for me, either, because in their experimentation they lose their connection to humanity. But Leos Carax’s Holy Motors, about a man carrying out a series of performative “appointments” one night in Paris, blends the bizarre with a thrilling energy. It’s strange and unique, but most importantly, it feels alive. Holy Motors is available to stream for free on Tubi.
36. Beginners
There’s a lot going on in Beginners. Oliver’s (Ewan McGregor) dad (Christopher Plummer) is dying, and Oliver also learns that his dad is gay and has a younger male partner. At the same time, he strikes up a romance with a woman he meets at a party, Anna (Mélanie Laurent). It’s a lovely, compassionate film about family and grief, and also one of the most charming romances of the decade. Beginners also happens to feature one of the best animal performances of the decade from an adorable terrier (the dog actor’s name is Cosmo!!!). The true highlight of the film, though, is Laurent, who has a captivating screen presence and deserves to be in many more great films than she is.
35. Inception
Inception was the first movie I ever went to a midnight premiere for, and 14-year-old me was not disappointed. Christopher Nolan’s original action film about planting dreams inside people’s heads was like nothing I’d seen before. 23-year-old me, however, was a bit disappointed upon revisiting Inception this year. The plot is convoluted, the characters are flat, and there are glaring logical errors that muddle the story. But it remains a unique concept, and the final shot is still one of the great “gotcha” moments in film history. Sometimes you have to honor the originality of a film, even if it doesn’t completely stand the test of time. 14-year-old me would be mad if I left it off this list. Inception is available to stream on Cinemax.
34. Us
The brilliance of Us is that it doesn’t just explore the need to look within, but the terror that actively ignoring the evils inherent in our identities will reap. We are a people operating with a fractured coexistence between body and soul, and yet carry on as if nothing is wrong. In this way Us accomplishes something much different, and perhaps more difficult, than Jordan Peele’s Get Out: implicating the audience in America’s social ills without giving them an obvious “other” to whom they can deflect. Us is available to stream on HBO.
33. The Martian
Space movies often lend themselves to philosophical introspection. But sometimes you just want to have fun at the movies, and that’s what The Martian delivers. They don’t make many movies like it anymore: big budget non-franchise fare with big movie stars and big stakes. Matt Damon is stuck on Mars and we are trying to get him back to Earth, that pursuit is thrilling, and that’s basically all you need to know.
32. Bo Burnham: Make Happy
Is this technically a movie? Maybe not. But Bo Burnham’s 2016 standup comedy special is undoubtedly one of the great cinematic products of the decade no matter how you define it. Burnham’s typically goofy wit turns caustic as he directly confronts his crowd to deliver a message: if you can live your life without an audience, you should do it. Then he continues to perform for them. Bo Burnham: Make Happy is available to stream on Netflix.
31. Before Midnight
Before Midnight is a vastly different film than the first two in director Richard Linklater's trilogy, although it still manages to flow with the previous installments. It’s the most complicated film emotionally of this series. Before Midnight toys with our expectations of Jesse and Celine’s prior courtship, and then proceeds to deal us blow after painful blow. And yet it is a good thing that it breaks the mold: we get an honest story about two confused, flawed people who may or may not still be in love, and about what the confinements of time and space can do to a relationship that was founded on youth, freedom, and a lack of responsibility.
30. Lady Bird
What is it that elevates Lady Bird above so many other run-of-the-mill high school coming-of-age films? Perhaps it’s the film’s deft handling of class, faith, and family. Perhaps it’s the indelible performance by Saoirse Ronan. I think more than the themes or performances, though, Lady Bird stands out for the transitive nature of Greta Gerwig’s storytelling. Most high school movies trace the arc of characters finding their identity; this film is special because the process of Lady Bird finding hers is ongoing, as is true for all of us. Lady Bird is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
29. Moneyball
Moneyball is very easily the best sports movie of the decade, and a movie uniquely designed for modern sports: it’s about using advanced analytics to provide your team with a slight advantage, and manages to make such a venture thrilling. The film works, as all great sports movies do, because it’s less about the sport itself than an underdog’s ability to to find a way. That, and because the relationship between Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and his daughter (Kerris Dorsey) gets me every time. Moneyball is available to stream on Starz.
28. The Tree of Life
IMDb describes The Tree of Life as “the story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956,” which is kind of like describing a Dalí painting as being about melting clocks: sure, that’s what it looks like, but it’s really only a fraction of what’s going on. Terrence Malick’s landmark achievement attempts to capture the nature of human experience and somehow succeeds. The Tree of Life is available to stream on Cinemax.
27. Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
The ending of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is a thrilling scene for many of the reasons Tarantino set pieces are often thrilling: the raucous music, the over-the-top violence, the humor, the unexpected little touches that make perfect sense in hindsight. But it’s also one of Tarantino’s most tender historical manipulations, because the film up to that point had given the audience a sense of Sharon Tate’s daily life. It’s one of Tarantino’s few historical corrections that is the removal of an action, rather than the creation of one. In doing so, it’s much more emotionally affective, and respectful of the life Tate lived. Hollywood goes well beyond the emotional depths of Tarantino’s prior films because it not only offers an alternate vision, but mourns the loss that was.
26. Arrival
Director Denis Villeneuve is a master of telling the story of an individual whose actions drive the consequences of a situation far bigger than themselves. What makes Arrival stand a step above Sicario and Blade Runner 2049 is the extent to which the implications for the overall situation mirror, and deepen, the ramifications for the individual. How this comes together, I won't say; Villeneuve pulls off one of the most mystifying turns in a movie I've ever seen. It's not merely rewarding in the shockingness of it, though. The symbiosis of Adams's character arc and what she discovers from the aliens is truly beautiful.
25. The Lego Movie
The most surprisingly great movie of the decade, The Lego Movie is an absolute treasure. It is the funniest movie of the decade, one of the most visually daring, and one of the smartest, becoming something truly insightful in the film’s wild turn to reality. Filmspotting host Josh Larsen puts it best: the film celebrates “creative community as a compromise between suffocating order and individualistic anarchy.” Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are one of the most inventive voices in Hollywood, and I can’t wait to see what else they create. If you love The Lego Movie, check out this year’s sequel The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, the much maligned sequel which is nearly as good and wisely challenges the “everything is awesome” mantra of the first film.
24. Oj: Made in America
O.J.: Made in America is seven and a half hours long, but it’s worth every minute of your time. The documentary chronicles not just the trial of O.J. Simpson but the entire span of his life from young football star to convict, and also spans the critical context in which his trial took place. The film is a case for how exciting traditionally styled talking head documentaries can be if their vision is clear and their story is compelling. O.J.: Made in America covers race, fame, the criminal justice system, and the veracity of the stories we tell ourselves, and it sustains its intrigue for the entirety of its runtime. O.J.: Made in America is available to stream on WatchESPN.
23. Ex Machina
For a movie so sleek, slow, and philosophical, Ex Machina is a suspenseful thriller. The movie is about Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a young programmer who wins a mysterious contest and is invited to the secluded home of wealthy tech giant Nathan (Oscar Isaac). When he arrives, Caleb discovers Nathan brought him there to have him participate in a real-life Turing Test: Caleb is to sit down with an AI that Nathan created named Ava (Alicia Vikander) and discern what makes her non-human.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the film is that unlike many other great sci-fi films it is not a warning of what could happen, but a chilling statement on where we already are. In Ex Machina, Frankenstein’s monster is not a cautionary tale; the monster is already on the loose, with little hope of containment. Ex Machina is available to stream on Netflix.
22. Whiplash
Whiplash was a loud, bombastic debut for director Damien Chazelle, an announcement that he would be a formidable talent in Hollywood for years to come. At an hour and 46 minutes Whiplash is one of the most efficiently, expertly paced movies of the decade, and it gets increasingly tense with every passing moment. What makes the film extraordinary, however, is the turn it makes at the end. Chazelle leads us to believe the film will have one thing to say about the folly of ambition; the all-time ending provides an idea much more ambiguous, and rewarding.
21. Blue Valentine
Blue Valentine stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as a couple falling in love, and falling out of it. The film cuts back and forth between the early days of their romance and the emotionally fraught present state of their fledgling relationship. It’s a deceptively complicated movie, one that doesn’t feel as if it has all that much to say but is unique precisely because of that restraint.
Normally in films about a dying romance we might get some insight into what went wrong. Not here. Blue Valentine ends in a way that suggests that nothing specific can identify what went wrong between these two people; their lives simply changed, and the romanticism they had at the beginning passed them by. Blue Valentine is available to stream on Netflix.
20. Shoplifters
Shoplifters follows a family of thieves in Japan, scraping by on small-time thefts. Their lives change when they take in a child who had been beaten and are completely turned upside down when the child’s wealthy parents want her back. A more tender version of this year’s Parasite, Shoplifters is a somber reminder that no matter how much scheming the poor do to escape their situation, the money wins out. Shoplifters is available to stream on Hulu.
19. The Queen of Versailles
When thinking about income inequality in the United States, it can be difficult to even imagine the scale of extreme wealth that a handful of people possess. Lauren Greenfield’s extraordinary documentary The Queen of Versailles serves this imaginative function, not only demonstrating the material wealth gap but also the psychological blindness that necessitates justifying that level of wealth. A damning portrait of the American Dream, and how not to take care of pets.
18. Paterson
So often in our lives we are concerned with whether we are accomplishing enough. Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson is a quiet rejection of this manner of thinking. Adam Driver plays a man who drives a bus, writes poetry, and doesn’t do a whole lot else. But as his routinized life unfolds, the beautiful simplicity of it blossoms. We don’t need much more then a passion and the people we love. Paterson is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
17. The Lobster
A succinct takedown of our societal obsession with marriage, led by Colin Ferrell's brilliant, hilariously self-aware stoicism. The Lobster is cinematic celebration of discovering love on its own terms, capped off by a final scene that evaluates a viewer's optimism that this is even possible. The Lobster is available to stream on Netflix.
16. Gravity
Gravity is a visual masterpiece, and it would be just a good film if director Alfonso Cuarón was willing to settle for visual amazement. But he artfully weaves in larger ideas, and Sandra Bullock turns in an incredible performance. Through all the messages about letting go and the will to survive, Gravity ends asking the audience to consider whether it’s worth it to try to live fully. Are the desperate attempts the astronauts are making worth anything, or should they stop and take in the beauty that surrounds them? A similar conundrum can be posed to those who see this film. There are many thematic elements to consume in Gravity. But sometimes, you have to stop and enjoy the view. Gravity is available to stream for free through IMDb TV (with ads).
15. First Reformed
In First Reformed Reverend Toller transforms into an unstable figure akin to Travis Bickle, the infamous anti-hero from Taxi Driver, the 1978 Martin Scorsese film written by First Reformed director Paul Schrader. Toller, however, manages to evade the total darkness that consumed Bickle. On the edge of violence he finds salvation in a moment of genuine, even mystical, human connection. Climate change is still impending and his disillusionment with the church remains intact, but that does not mean Toller has lost his faith. Life is worth living, it seems, for the people we share it with, no matter how fleeting or doomed that shared experience may be. First Reformed is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
14. Gone Girl
A true masterpiece, and a wildly undervalued film. More than any other contemporary movie, Gone Girl examines how the social roles we play affect our private identity, and suggests (convincingly) that public perception matters more than the truth. There are a million things going on behind closed doors, but at a candlelight vigil for the missing Amy, the only thing two onlookers debate is whether or not Nick is hot or creepy. The truth exists, but to the majority of us, it's synonymous with appearance.
13. The Big sHort
The Big Short is a heist movie without any pleasure in taking the money, because the fact the money can be taken suggests we’re all screwed. The cutaways in the film are a meta-commentary: don’t get distracted. Look at what’s happening. Humans have the capacity to choose. Don’t choose fraud again. Everything The Wolf of Wall Street wanted to convey with overwhelming vice and nihilism, this film does with self-awareness and a melancholy humor. The Big Short is a smirking, mocking, depressed sigh of a movie, and the final text that appears on screen remains terrifying.
12. Green Room
Green Room is the most terrifying movie of the decade, and there’s nothing monstrous or supernatural about it. Jeremy Saulnier’s horror film stars a punk rock band who inadvertently book a show at a venue owned and frequented by Neo-Nazis. It’s the most tense movie I’ve ever seen, and features a superb performance from the late Anton Yelchin. Green Room is available to stream on Netflix.
11. Her
The best thing about Her is I can’t tell whether it’s one of the best romantic comedies I’ve ever seen or the scariest horror movie I’ve ever seen. The film is ultimately about the human capacity for emotional connection, and about what it means to be alive in this world. But it also cautions us that we may not make these meaningful human connections enough without technological dependence. Her is available to stream on Netflix.
10. The Florida Project
The American movie, as a medium, is almost always aspirational: we see stories of people we’d like to become. Even among films that we consider to be harsh criticisms of American society, they tend to focus on characters who are more beautiful, or smart, or funny, or charming than the rest of us. That tendency leads to an omission of perspectives from those at the bottom. Among the 50 movies nominated for an Oscar in 2018, only one dealt meaningfully with poverty in the U.S.: The Florida Project.
This is not atypical: among all American films between 1902 and 2015 (essentially the entire span of film history), only 299 films were significantly concerned with poverty or homelessness. That’s less than three movies per year.
The Florida Project breaks this mold. The film takes place over the span of a summer in Orlando, where a young girl named Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) lives in a motel just outside the boundaries of Disney World. As Moonee scampers around the area with some other friends from the motel, her mother, Halley (Bria Vinaite), struggles to find the money to pay her weekly rent to the motel manager (Willem Dafoe) who works tirelessly to hold the motel together.
The Florida Project feels like an unprecedented achievement because the motel patrons are not depicted as the alienated rejects of American society; they are the heart of American society. Sean Baker’s America is one that exists in laundromats and dollar stores and roadside highways. Those people, over in Disney World? They’re in the periphery. The spaces in between are where everything is really happening. At one point, an outsider to the motel community remarks that the place is a dump. It’s probably how I would describe the motel, too, if I were passing by on my way to the self-proclaimed ‘Most Magical Place on Earth.’ But after spending two hours in this space, it seemed ridiculous that he could possibly call the motel a dump, and not see it for what it is: a home. The Florida Project is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
9. Cameraperson
What is a movie? I suppose that’s a strange question to ask so deep into my Best Movies of the Decade list. But putting the medium in such terms helps clarify what they include and what they leave out: directors film hours and hours of footage, and whittle it all down into a coherent story. Of course, this is not how life works, and it’s why we love the movies: they make sense of our lives in a compact narrative. But of what significance is everything that gets left on the cutting room floor?
Cameraperson is the answer to this question. This stunning documentary comes from filmmaker Kirsten Johnson, who has served as a cameraperson on documentary films around the globe for decades. The film is a compilation of the footage she shot that did not make those other films. There is not a strict narrative structure; we jump between footage in a wide variety of contexts and locales, and even see some of Johnson’s own personal life in her relationship with her mother.
But even though there is not a story does not mean we do not create one. Eventually Cameraperson develops a message, just as any display of the human experience will: it’s about the diversity of human experience, and the small emotional moments that make it beautiful. If you check out Cameraperson, I implore you to have patience. It takes a bit of time to get into its groove, but the payoff is worth it.
8. The Act of Killing
One of the most jaw-dropping films I've ever seen, The Act of Killing invites leaders of Indonesian genocide to recreate their misdeeds as film scenes. It's insane how different the motives are for the filmmaker, Joshua Oppenheimer, and the subjects of his film to have this produced.
The paramilitary leaders disturbingly discuss their killings in a completely nonchalant manner, and the most interesting part about this film is the main subject, Anwar Congo. He is perhaps the most ruthless screen villain I've ever known. His justification of his actions seem to either push for the relativity of morality or show that he is simply sociopathic. And yet he does have demons from his past. His killings bring about nightmares. And he seems to possibly change over the course of filming.
By the end, he attempts to empathize with those he killed. But he can't understand how futile this empathy is, and he really can't understand the full effect of the actions he committed. This movie deserving a bigger audience. Everyone should see it. The Act of Killing is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
7. Get Out
Get Out is the story of a black man named Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) going to his white girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents’ house for a weekend getaway. Standard unease around white people soon gives way to horror as Chris discovers the family’s true intentions.
Director Jordan Peele’s concept of the Sunken Place is a rich allegory: black people are forever stuck existing as a function of a narrative created by and for white people. “You’ll be able to see and hear...[but] your existence will be as a passenger, an audience,” Jim Hudson (Stephen Root) tells Chris of the Sunken Place. This purgatory is directly akin to writer Ta-Nehisi Coates' rumination on the American black experience in We Were Eight Years in Power: “We are invited to listen, but never to truly join the narrative.”
Kaluuya’s face in the first Sunken Place scene is one of the most striking images I’ve ever seen in a film. His expression is full of fear, but not surprise; it’s a realization that it really was all a trick.
6. La La Land
La La Land has been widely praised by critics but has earned a fair amount of backlash among moviegoers, which I’ve been surprised by. It is, as IndieWire critic David Ehrlich puts it, both a romance about movies and a movie about romance. It’s a restrained musical, antithetical to the typical splashy, gaudy extravaganzas we get on screen. It features one of the great romantic lead performances, and one of the great performances of the decade, in Emma Stone’s turn as Mia. And it features one of the most devastating and emotionally satisfying endings of all time. Damien Chazelle loves the movies, and that’s why I love his movies. La La Land is pure magic. La La Land is available to stream on IMDb TV (with ads).
5. Boyhood
In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, psychologist Daniel Kahneman discusses the idea of the “remembering self” and the “experiencing self.” Kahneman describes how research shows that people judge the happiness of their lives more by their memory of the experiences they’ve had than the quality of those experiences in the moment.
Director Richard Linklater’s entire career can be summarized as a plea to audiences to find joy in the experiencing self. From the Before trilogy to Dazed and Confused to Boyhood, Linklater has a knack for capturing moments in time and locking in on the value of characters’ ability to revel in the wonder of life before them.
None of his films have done this quite as well as Boyhood, which captures the small moments that matter in the formulation of a life. A different scene wrecks me with each subsequent rewatch of Boyhood, which is how I know the film is working: the film has a different sort of potency, and a changing relationship with its audience, as we age, just like Mason (Ellar Coltrane) at the center of it all. Boyhood is available to stream on Netflix.
4. Moonlight
Moonlight is a heartache of a film, and it’s stunning for the way it lends transformative power to the small moments in life. Chiron’s identity is forged in schoolyard scuffles and swimming lessons, and the episodic nature of his growth supplies every moment in the film with a palpable gravitas. The deep emotional consequence of Chiron’s loneliness stems from this arc: he is the sum of these experiences, no matter how much he tries to start over, and these experiences are largely outside of his control.
Hopefully, the shocking triumph of Moonlight at the Oscars is indicative of future inclusivity, but the film’s success shouldn’t have to be tied to its fate at a self-indulgent awards show. Early on in the film, Juan (Mahershala Ali) tells a young Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert) that “at some point, you got to decide for yourself who you’re going to be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you.” The same can be said of the film itself: Moonlight is a triumph on its own terms and should be treated as such. Moonlight is available to stream on Netflix.
3. 56 up
Think Boyhood, but real. The most remarkable social experiment ever captured on camera, director Michael Apted has been filming the same group of British people every seven years of their lives since they were seven years old. The latest two installments came out this decade, and they can’t really be separated. As their lives have unfolded, the documentary’s subjects have changed as people do: they’ve married, matured, and yes, died. The magic of these films is how they put in perspective what really matters most in our lives, less the global trends we focus so much on than the friends and family that stay with us. And even at this late stage of their lives, these films serve as a powerful reminder that these people are still figuring out how to live a good life, just as we all are. It’s a miracle that these movies exist, and if you haven’t seen them you should seek them out right away.
2. The Social Network
The Social Network is Citizen Kane for the internet era. Citizen Kane tells the story of Kane’s (Orson Welles) meteoric rise as a newspaper tycoon. Like The Social Network, the film is, on its face, a classic story of American ambition and entrepreneurialism. But by the end, we come to learn that Kane was never really motivated by money or power but personal loss in his childhood. In The Social Network, Erica (Rooney Mara) is Mark Zuckerberg’s (Jesse Eisenberg) Rosebud.
This personal motivation is Fincher’s focus. He doesn’t really pay much mind to corporate invasions of privacy, or how Facebook might interact with international politics, and because of that neglect it doesn’t really matter that he couldn’t know the global role Facebook would later take on. The Social Network isn't a movie about Facebook's relationship to selling our private data so much as it’s about why we willingly give over that data in the first place.
Fincher’s film argues that the issue of privacy is incidental to the idea that all we really want is to be part of a community, to be on the inside. It’s why we barely blink when the personal information of 50 million people is stolen without our permission. Because all we want is to create a narrative for our lives, and now, with Facebook, we can construct that narrative and watch it play out in front of our eyes in real time. The Social Network is available to stream on IMDb TV (with ads).
1. Tower
This documentary tells the story of the 1966 school shooting at the University of Texas-Austin, a tragedy that killed 16 people. To say that Tower is a hard watch is an understatement. There have been many movies that have made me shed tears, but no other movie has had me outright sobbing like this one.
That might not be a great selling point, but I promise, many of those were tears of joy. Few movies have ever boosted my confidence in the goodness of humanity as much as Tower. The film devotes little time to the identity of the shooter, or his motivations. Instead, Tower is dedicated to the heroes of that day, the folks who risked their lives to take down the shooter and save the wounded.
Tower is, for the most part, about the goodness of the people who prevented the situation from becoming much more grave than it already was. But the movie does turn outward at the end, imploring that the viewer to never stand by in the face of egregious violence, and implicating us in its continuation.