Post by Tarek J
While preparing my obligatory year-end list for the best films of 2019, I figured it only relevant to reflect on the past decade as we entered 2020. In doing so, I decided to do a little extra work this year and give you guys a few lists leading up to my “best of 2019” , starting with the 15 best films of the decade 2010-2019. Before jumping in, let’s just state the obvious and say that this is an impossible task as every year brings us tons of great films, so take ten years and select this handful was way more stressful than I imagined:
15) Under the Skin
14) Roma
13) Parasite
12) Arrival
11) The Grand Budapest Hotel
10) Inception
Every decade or so comes a film that catches the audience off guard and breaks what they think is possible with cinema. In the 90’s, it was watching Trinity escape the agents in the opening of The Matrix that made us all realize we were in for something we’ve never seen before (and the rest of the film just got more incredible). In the 00’s, it was watching Sméagol have a conversation with his alter ego Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. And now in the 10’s, it’s watching a zero-G fight happening in a rotating hallway in Christopher Nolan’s Inception that defined the shift in cinema. From the bombastic trailer (which launched a genre of horn blasting Bwaaam trailer soundtracks), to the incredibly complex plot, the vast visuals, and the notional core in the film, Inception became one of the most unforgettable movie-going experiences for all who watched it. Some can argue there are better films that deserve this slot, but none were as effective or influential as this.
9) Amour
Moving on from the gigantic Inception, my number 9 is the tiny and intimate masterpiece from Austrian auteur Michael Hanneke, Amour. A heartbreaking and harrowing tale of love under the worst circumstances, Amour was one of the few foreign films of the decade that crossed over to the mainstream due to nothing more than its cinematic perfection. Equally shocking and moving, it’s a landmark in foreign cinema and the best film in a filmmakers impressive career.
8) Moonlight
Another small film, made famous for being the actual Oscar winner in 2018 although La La Land had been mentioned by mistake first, Moonlight bring the introduction of an entirely new voice to cinema, Barry Jenkins, The film is beautiful, touching, cool, stylish and different than most other films out there, the cinematography is gorgeous, but it’s the raw and real emotions on display that elevate this film and makes it one of the very few Best Picture winners that actually deserved it.
