If Hollywood studios no longer seek the cover of dignity that comes with making and releasing individualistic movies of doubtless lower profit, the executives in charge don’t seem to really care. Westerns experienced something of a resurgence in the 2010s, with these being the decade's best western movies according to Rotten Tomatoes. The mumblecore generation has now entered, and in many ways transformed, the true mainstream of movies: Greta Gerwig, Terence Nance, Josephine Decker, Andrew Bujalski, Amy Seimetz, Barry Jenkins, Joe Swanberg, Lena Dunham, Adam Driver, Sophia Takal, Nathan Silver, Shane Carruth, David Lowery, Kate Lyn Sheil, Alex Ross Perry, Kentucker Audley, Lynn Shelton, Robert Greene, Ronald Bronstein, and the Safdie brothers, to name just a few. Twenty-seven films—I couldn’t cut further—in numerical order (though, except for the first few, that order only holds approximately, and its specifics reflect specific inclinations at the moment I hit “send”). The response of the movie industry to this heroic and pain-filled activism has been not even quarter-assed. At the same time, while directors are freer to be themselves, so are the studios. Some of them feature delightful effects, moments of symbolic resonance, playful humor, and even a few striking performances that mesh well with the stark (or, rather, Stark) writing. Click here to read our review. Many of the decade’s big names in the genre are English-language endeavors belonging to franchises like John Wick, Mission: Impossible, and Mad Max, but for the best action movies … At the same time, this shift hasn’t helped many independent filmmakers from earlier years whose artistry is among the treasures of their times and whom the industry has nonetheless ignored. These pleasures—yes, authentically cinematic—are, however, secondary to the over-all tone that these movies convey: highly managed production to the point of inhumanity. Ad Choices, Agnès Varda’s Extraordinary Cinematic Accomplishment, Five Innovations That Changed the Art of Cinema, Photograph from Fox Searchlight / Everett, overturn the crucial antitrust ruling of 1948, Richard Gere, whose support for Tibetan cultural freedom, “Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard. In reconsidering the decade’s films, I found that some of my own priorities and passions shifted, in two opposite directions: toward the unique sense of experience that filmmakers avow and forge, and toward the sense of originality, of reconsidering and reconfiguring the nature of cinema as such. When studios were the only game in town, directors went to them hat in hand, knowing that, with large budgets at stake, their films had to be commercial. In this list, there are action movies with female leads, stories set in an apocalyptic future, and special effects that could make James Cameron sigh. Share Share Tweet Email. "Birdman" (Director: Alejandro Gonzàlez Iñárritu, 2015) Michael Keaton in "Birdman." But modern Westerns have reinvented or expanded on the usual tropes. The horror genre: What a decade it’s been, right? From sound film to steadicam, these technologies were pivotal moments in film history. That’s where critics come in. Spike Lee long found himself shut out even of independent financing, using his own money for “Red Hook Summer” and then turning to Kickstarter before being, um, reëstablished, at a time when he was already long established and his projects should have been prime productions. Of course, what’s overarchingly important in this decade in movies reaches far beyond the movies themselves. That’s where this list comes in. Its creators put into bold artistic action the fundamental premise that promises to turn minor shifts in the industry into a sea change: namely, the idea that the personal experience of filmmakers and a film’s participants is inseparable from the film’s process, its subject, its contents, and its style. The green screen and the computer graphics take precedence. The best superhero movie of the last decade isn’t an Avengers team-up or a grim DC flick. Ten years ago, it seemed like we all had a pretty solid idea of movies — what they can do, who they’re for, and where they’re watched. All rights reserved. Many critics bemoan another of the decade’s trends, a related one: because the studios have turned to superheroes, children’s movies, franchises, and assorted other bombastic spectacles, they’ve stopped making (or, actually, drastically cut back on) so-called mid-range dramas for adults. All decade long, aside from the reliably surprising masterworks by established filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Frederick Wiseman, and Paul Thomas Anderson, there has been a profusion of daring films by younger filmmakers who are part of the mumblecore constellation, as well as a bunch of actors (and cinematographers and other artists) who emerged from those films. T here's really only one consistent success story when you look at the movies of the past decade - comic-book movies. The place of politics in the making and releasing of Hollywood movies is trivial, however, compared to persecution occurring elsewhere, including the arrest and imprisonment of filmmakers in Iran and Russia, and China’s repression and elimination of its formerly thriving and vital independent film scene. Superhero productions feature three women striding silently into battle rather than none, and reliably include actors of color in roles of ahistorical and impersonal substance. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Sono started the decade strong with an ambitious gore movie about a serial killer, shockingly based on real life with a premiere at the 67 th Venice IFF. bye hope you dont reply thankX" Actually stating a favourite movie is that of a subjective opinion, not factual. These are the best movies of the 2010s (according to us). By Riley Keefe Dec 22, 2019. I could nearly have filled my decade list with their films—but, in the interest of spreading (and acknowledging) the love, I included only a few exemplary ones. The Man From Nowhere. Here’s the best, worst, and mehst. The misrepresentations, whitewashings, banalizations, and exclusions that have sustained the Hollywood system have begun to come to light, and there have even been consequences for some of the perpetrators. Most crucially, this has been the decade of the public acknowledgment—with the activism and advocacy of the #MeToo, Time’s Up, Black Lives Matter, and #OscarsSoWhite movements, along with the accusations against Harvey Weinstein and many other men in the media—of the rotting foundation on which the film industry and society at large are built. The first-person accounts, the daringly original artistry, and the self-aware and group-oriented activities of these filmmakers have opened the cinema to far more varied voices and ideas. What you are attempting to do is express your opinion as factual because you strongly believe your opinion is better than other peoples opinions, but it isn't. The best movies of the decade, according to us. It's safe to say these movies do not disappoint. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is precisely what the superhero genre needed right at that moment. That’s why many directors of less-than-distinctive visual sensibility get hired by Marvel to make superhero movies; they basically direct actors, while the “visuals” are farmed out to technicians and specialists. The movement of intimately scaled, often improvised, low-budget dramas and comedies that pull their actors from the lives and milieux of filmmakers who build stories around their personal experiences has become the energy-giving core of the American cinema. Join us at looking back at some classics and obscure gems. Yet this decade has also seen, in surprising ways, the convergence of these two currents of activism and aesthetics in ways that I hope will continue in the next decade and beyond. Jeff Goldblum Weighs In On The Best Movies Of The Decade As part of Morning Edition's "Best of the Decade" series, actor Jeff Goldblum shares some of his favorite movies from the 2010s. And barring Jurassic World, Rogue One, and The Lion King, the 10 highest-grossing domestic films are represented. What renders the Marvel trend significant is that it has come to command the so-called discourse and has marked the careers of directors and actors. We’ll be back to discuss the results of this chicanery ten years from now. I'll update the list soon. 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What’s more, the Trump Administration is making a similarly brazen effort to boost the studios and crush the opposition of independent producers and exhibitors, by moving to overturn the crucial antitrust ruling of 1948, which led to the rise of independent producers and exhibitors (and a vast outpouring of creative filmmaking) at that time. A savage battle breaks out between two Korean families who have been greatly benefiting from one another. (Kieran Fisher) (Kieran Fisher) 99. Westerns are unique in their ability to capture a timeless moment in history while offering some of the best cinematography in movie history. This is part of our Decade Rewind, which runs throughout November.Keep up as we look back at the best, worst, and otherwise interesting movies and shows of the 2010s. The 30 best films of the decade, ranked. To revisit this article, select My⁠ ⁠Account, then View saved stories. Nonetheless, independent productions, including both new filmmakers and the generations of veterans, have, for the most part, proved to be liberating for filmmakers, and that system is one of the reasons why American filmmaking has been so artistically innovative all decade long—even if much of that filmmaking has been an economic sidebar to Hollywood product. The best movies of a decade that changed everything. The Best Movies of the Decade (2010-2019). The 20 Best Black Films Of The Last Decade. Related: Best Streaming Movies Of The Decade. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. From first-time directors to box office hits and stellar performances, Black films in the 2010s pushed film forward. There are the noteworthy exceptions, such as “Black Panther,” which, as good as it is, remains the one film that the system’s defenders trot out as its justification. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. "Good Time" is the decade's best 'one crazy night' movie, the decade's best New York movie, and the decade's best movie in which Robert Pattinson acts like he was shot out of a cannon at a thousand miles an hour. 20 Best Movies of the Decade The movies that defined the 2010s. Comment. Meanwhile, that category’s place in the mainstream has been taken over by serious-minded television series—and, with only a handful of exceptions, they’re basically the same thing: script-delivery systems, minus discernible directorial originality or inventiveness. Movies released between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019 with 15 or more reviews in Metacritic's database were eligible for inclusion. The other, inadvertent kind of pile-on is a perverse by-product of popularity: not only do a small number of blockbuster movies dominate the industry’s economy, but the sheer fact of popularity (and the related phenomenon of celebrity) is multiplied and amplified online. The Polygon staff submits its own favorites, and invites you to do the same. 15. Directors: Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba. Now, it's time to do the same for movies. The malicious kind is all too obvious: fanboys who, when the nakedness of their emperor (whether superheroic or political) is stated, react with rage ranging from insults to ethnic slurs to rape threats and death threats. (Needless to say, such hostility serves to make critics hesitate to express themselves freely, and it disproportionately targets female writers and writers of color.). The Academy has taken much bruited yet minor steps to diversify its membership (which still named the white-savior movie “Green Book” Best Picture). (The idea is at work in documentaries, too.) Here's your definitive Top 10 horror films from 2010-2019. It would have been both boring and inaccurate to cull the movies from the top of my annual lists from the past decade. 2020 is around the corner and that means a new decade of MOVIES is upon us! The gap between what’s good and what’s widely available in theatres—between the cinema of resistance and the cinema of consensus—is wider than ever. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Best Movies Of The Decade. From sci-fi and horror to dramas and romance, the 2010s had plenty of cinematic masterpieces. Peter Debruge’s 10 Best Movies. The decade of independent filmmaking not coincidentally parallels the decade of the Marvel juggernaut, which began in 2008, with “Iron Man,” and soon thereafter came to dominate the box office, the release calendar, and multiplex screens—three factors that are askew to the art of movies. "i wasnt giving an opinion, its a fact that INCEPTION is the best movie of the decade and top10 movies ever made. It’s now the prominent streaming services, principally Netflix and Amazon Prime—the main competitors to theatrical distribution—that seek to prove themselves as more than mere disrupters of the cinematic economy but, rather, as positive contributors to the cinematic ecology. To do so they’ve been producing, acquiring, and releasing exceptional movies that the studios wouldn’t and that other independents couldn’t, such as “The Irishman,” “Marriage Story,” “Chi-Raq,” “Paterson,” “Atlantics,” and “Manchester by the Sea.” Many of the best new movies are being produced or released by streaming services, which is to say that they’re more widely available, albeit for home viewing, than independent or international films ever were in times centered on theatrical distribution—yet few of them get the attention they deserve, simply because they often fly beneath the radar of publicity. Also, I found that there are filmmakers who are as great and as important as any represented on this list, but whose over-all body of work takes precedence over any individual film (for starters, Terrence Malick, Hong Sang-soo, Ava DuVernay, Joe Swanberg, Robert Greene, James Gray, and the late Chantal Akerman and Agnès Varda). An action film can take place is just about any setting, focused on any topic, and portrayed by any actor. 100 Best 2010s Horror Movies. Seriously, the past decade has been absolutely packed with Christmas films, both in theaters and in various streaming services. The superhero movies seldom transmit more than a glimmer of personal sensibility, and almost never do so through the essence of movies: images and sounds. Most of the best ones weren’t (one timely example: Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy,” from 1983, cost nineteen million dollars to make and took in two and a half million dollars at the box office), and, as a result, the best directors’ careers were imperilled, often stalled, even completely shut down. Not only are Chinese filmmakers unable to make frank movies about Chinese society, but American studios are equally disinclined to run the risk of displeasing Chinese authorities (and no movie is shown there without government permission). The necessity, the urgency, of diversifying the ranks of directors is inseparable from the diversification of the spectrum of experience—and of artistic inspiration—that the cinema can offer. The Twenty-Seven Best Movies of the Decade. Every Movie of the 2010s, Ranked Our critics pored over 5,279 of the decade’s films. Many of the substantial changes in the industry have come from the new generation of filmmakers—yes, mumblecore. Superhero movies themselves may offer a modicum of pleasure, and, on rare occasion, even more. Filmmakers themselves, and their personal visions, are what’s being sold by these independent producers, and, as a result, they can make movies as they see fit—which is why there are many more American movies on the decade list than I expected going into it. Votes: 737,885 | Gross: $74.10M — Tony Manfred. © 2021 Condé Nast. What she’s really discovering, though, in a movie that turns out to be as religious as it is prickly, exuberant, and moving, is the glory of life itself. Earlier this week, we published our list of the best music of the decade. Of all the top-shelf horror of the last decade, we distill the absolute best 10 entries in the genre. The Tiananmen Square massacre and China’s current genocidal policies toward the Uighur population won’t show up in any Hollywood film soon—and neither, I suspect, will Richard Gere, whose support for Tibetan cultural freedom has virtually got him blacklisted. That’s also why the Marvel movies are, over all, deadening. By design, only one film on the list is from 2019; I’ll have more to say about this year soon. Movies listed in the top 10 are my personal favorites. As Rebecca Davis recently reported, in Variety, what promises to follow in China are “independent-style films that look and feel like indies—yet are nonetheless studio-financed and exist within China’s strict censorship regime.” The rise of movie theatres—and the importing of Hollywood movies—in China, and the counterpart of the investment by Chinese producers in Hollywood, promises yet another dire shift. By Richard Brod y. November 26, 2019 Save this story for later. It’s a wonderfully animated Spider-Man movie about someone else other than Peter Parker. As a result, editors seek more and more coverage of those megaphenomena, crowding out coverage of less-popular yet ultimately more significant movies—at precisely the moment when, because these movies get scant distribution and are often virtually hidden on streaming sites, critical attention is all the more essential to their recognition. Part 2: Best-of-the-decade top ten lists The studios have unmasked themselves, in an eerie but apt parallel to the national political unmasking that has occurred in this decade. I find the complaint misplaced: there are plenty of good and substantial movies being made, not often by the studios but, rather, by independent producers, and also by streaming services. 0. 39. The film feels like a rejuvenation for a genre that people always talk about a bubble bursting. Best western movies from the last decade. Early on in the genre the plotlines, themes, and motifs were somewhat formulaic. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. Just as the Republican Party has, in the age of Donald Trump, been liberated to be openly what it has been functioning as for the past half-century—a white people’s party—so Hollywood has been liberated by superhero and franchise fandom from the effort to make dignifying and self-justifying productions, and the studios are, for the most part, pursuing their commercialism and peddling their illusions unabashed. Now such ambitious movies of substance are rarely being made by studios but by independent producers, and they’re not being made on a mid-range budget but on low budgets. 100 Best Movies of this Decade (2010-2019) by Prince_Sid | created - 04 Jan 2018 | updated - 11 months ago | Public Thank you Everyone for 500,000+ views. Film feels like a rejuvenation for a genre that people always talk about bubble... With Christmas films, both maliciously and inadvertently, to versions of the best movie the! 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