10. Moonlight
(2016)-
Writer/Director Barry Jenkins’ triptych tale of a black boy/man
evolving deserves all the hype it received when it miraculously beat the odds
to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Eschewing cliches, Jenkins creates a thunderously quiet
study where you can practically feel yourself sharing in the character of
Chiron’s molecules changing. It's a stereotype destroying testament to the
power of individuals choosing whom they want to be, regardless of the quirks of the
society they inhabit, whether it’s race, sexuality, class, addictions, or setting.
Powerfully intimate to the point of revelation, it has a patience, sense of
grace, and humanity that anybody can relate to- particularly film lovers.
9. Inception
(2010)-
The blockbuster of the group, writer/director Christopher Nolan capped
off a phenomenal previous decade (Memento,
Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight) by
starting this one off with a bang. Always one to play with themes of time and
psychological deception (amongst frequent love of men’s wear and hydrophobia),
Nolan ups himself here with his bravura tale of intellectual thieves who steal ideas
from people when invading their dreams. Inception’s fiendishly clever premise
(of planting an idea in a mark’s mind
so a rival can take over their company), is packed full of puzzles and exponential
pretzel logic, and threatens to overwhelm one’s senses by abandoning caution as
the crew plunges into dreams within dreams- but never tips into absurdity.
Filled with action, it’s the rarest of summer released big budget films that
dare to have a brain behind all the kinetics. Although he would later win his
Academy Award for The Revenant, my
money is on this being Leonardo DiCaprio’s best fit of a role, perfectly
showcasing his classical movie star strengths while minimizing his Herculean
effort miscues. Also featuring an all timer score from Hans Zimmer (so
effective he would later rip it off for 12
Years a Slave), Inception’s meta metaphor
of the dream land production studios of Hollywood making a film about the
elegant but tumultuous world of the subjective unconscious is the stuff dreams
are made of. Bonus points for generating a fair amount of debate as to the
film’s closing shot, and how it impacts the way in which the film is viewed in
the first place.
8. Certified Copy
(2010)-
Writer/Director Abbas Kiarostami’s tale of a pair who pretend to be a
couple as they explore Italy is a powerful treatise on the nature of reality.
Surrounded by timeless works of art, and navigating through streets and
buildings from other eras, the 2 characters (Juliette Binoche and William
Shimell, both phenomenally natural) almost act as a couple of spies, forced to
spend the afternoon together to probe each other’s truths. While the film features
a twist, it never dresses it up to manipulate one’s intelligence. Packed with
reflective surfaces, its goal is to remind us to stay in tune with whom we
truly are. The result is an art house classic, that similar to its setting,
begs to returned to again and again.
7. Boyhood (2014)-
Writer/Director Richard Linklater already proved his mastery of depicting the
inevitable and bittersweet passage of time in his sublime Before trilogy, but Boyhood,
his tale of a young boy growing up, is his PhD dissertation. Filmed in segments
for 12 consecutive years, Linklater succeeds not only in capturing the magic of
childhood, as the boy matures from a child to an adolescent to a teenager, and
all the joys and confusion and angst and happiness inherent, but in depicting
how the village involved in the raising of this child grows with him. Part of
the magic is in the genius of Linklater knowing that it’s not events such as
the high school graduation that we remember, so much as the actual ride to the
ceremony, making for a film that thrives in the margins of life. There
are some fireworks, in that Patricia Arquette’s mother character has some
spectacularly bad taste in men, but this is centred around the magic of sharing the
consciousness of childhood. Revealing the respective epochs the segments are
filmed in through subtle and not so subtle ways, we watch the characters evolve
and transform, and just as the film threatens to drag, it’s over- and we want to
watch it again. They really do grow up too fast.
6. The Immigrant
(2013)-
Perpetually underrated director James Gray’s tale of Polish immigrant,
Ewa (Marion Cotillard, superb), coming into a hustler/pimp’s sway (Joaquin
Phoenix, intense as ever) is a throwback, not just in setting but in Gray’s
70’s auteur style. As we explore 1920’s New York, the film slowly reveals the difficulties
in navigating the sham of the American Dream, perverted by the wishes of a few
misguided individuals working together in a corrupt system. It’s a set up ripe
with potential for cliché and well trodden tropes, but the magic in the film is
how the film avoids the beaten path in favour of subtlety. Expertly crafted by
Gray, the depth of feeling is as deep as the execution is tight, and even at
the film’s magnificent final shot, not only does it feel like there is so much
we still haven’t found out about these rich characters, but that their journeys
are far from complete.
5. The Tree of Life
(2011)-
Terrence Malick’s ultimate culmination of his sensibilities can go a
little heavy on the platonic allegory and characters that resemble archetypes
rather than people, but its colossal ambition is the only thing more powerful
than its inspiration. Combining a micro story of a nuclear family loosely
connected to his own coming of age in 1950’s Texas, with macro segue ways of
the universe’s greatest mysteries and triumphs, it’s a movie that whispers urgently
when it’s not thrashing to classical music like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Challenging and stunningly beautiful, it’s a
film that begs for repeat viewings, amongst its urgings of something that all
human beings yearn for behind the screen’s indelible images.
4. Manchester by the Sea (2016)-
Director
Kenneth Lonergan’s masterpiece of grief is everything a potent downer could be,
but the magic is in how funny it can be at times, creating something that gives
its characters a glimmer of hope of recovering from unfathomable trauma.
Possessing a terrific sense of place (New England), just try forgetting the
scene where Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck attempt to have a conversation
after so much has changed for them. Affleck’s Academy Award has aged nicely, a
crackling and awkward portrait of repression and denial that hides an ocean of
emotion. Masterfully done, heartbreakingly sad at times, and packed with
unspoken sentiments of melancholic regret.
3. Winter’s Bone (2010)-
Director Debra Granik’s output over this century may be light, but her impact
is potent- nowhere as demonstrably as with her second feature. Jennifer
Lawrence’s coming out party (as an actress that is) showcases an extremely authentic
place of Ozark Americana, crammed full of generations of people wary of
outsiders who identify more with criminals than with those who work in systems.
Lawrence’s wise beyond her years character’s odyssey has her come face to face
with a landscape ravaged by drugs, intergenerational poverty, toxic
masculinity, and eye for an eye family feuds. As her journey becomes more
harrowing and strange, the story transforms to become eerily mythological An
authentic tale of fierce struggle, but also about geography of place and how
people choose their environment- regardless of how the math works out.
2. The Social Network
(2010)-
What a year for 2010. It feels really appropriate to place a film that
premiered as the decade was starting, and never had anything (save #1 below)
really be able to trump its vision. While never concretely a true story per se,
Aaron Sorkin’s rapid fire script furiously showcases the end of privacy, sea
change shifts in capitalism, the annihilation of nature (save virtual), and the
proclamation of trolls. Furiously rewatchable, David Fincher’s scary great
direction of a scary excellent cast (Eisenberg’s defining performance so far) makes
for a fascinating abstract character study of a celebrated monster, and of a
society clamoring for an epoch defining invention. A powerfully effective score
by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross elevates its material even higher. In an age dominated
by social media, it’s the most relevant movie of our zeitgeist, other than…
Great, timeless works aren’t always recognized as such upon release. When Casablanca was released in 1942, it had solid, if underwhelming results, both critically and commercially. It would take a decade or so before its popularity took off and its generational appeal was felt. Her had a similar effect on me- with a little distance and reflection upon a repeat viewing, it felt inevitable placing it here. Her’s story of a lonely divorcee (Joaquin Phoenix, my pick for actor of the decade), falling for their artificial intelligence computer, is even more relevant today than when it was released- only time will tell just how prescient it is. Its fictional story, lacking in a biographical expose kind of way (see #2 above), is what makes the experience that much more universal. After expertly depicting the growing pains of male adolescence in 2009’s Where the Wild Things Are, director Spike Jonze is able to even more crystalize that feeling of not being able to control how head over heels you feel about someone you’re falling in love with- despite some reservations. One of the most intimate movies you’ll ever see where a character has a relationship with something lacking an actual body, it bravely doesn’t hide the ugly truth when it comes to the potential outcomes of relationships. Unlike say, Blade Runner 2049, efforts were made to not depict the setting as mere dystopian science fiction, and the results function more as a powerful romantic drama. A sublime treat, possessing both craft and a delicate heart, its place in history will only be known in the future- one increasingly dominated by technology.
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