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| Scene from Get Out |
With 2019 marking the end of a decade, it's time to commemorate the past 10 years with the help of Listmania Decades. Over this year's 12 months, the series will look at a variety of different styles of film in order to highlight everything that made this period unique and exciting. While this isn't meant as a collection of the greatest films ever released, it's more meant as a highlight of films that I would consider to be among my favorite, or ones that are worth remembering in the future. So please feel free to join me every 19th of the month to highlight a new entry that will highlight 25 films that exemplified a certain field of cinema. There's a lot of great work out there, and this list barely captures the bulk of it. Feel free to leave your favorites in the comments so that we can find more to appreciate before this year is through.
THIS MONTH: There's no denying that October is Halloween season, and part of the fun is watching genre movies. For most, it's about finding what's scary or supernatural out there, exploring the weird side of cinema. It's why it feels right to explore the horror, sci-fi-, and fantasy movies that not only were great but helped to shape the decade. While this list pulls exclusively from this genre, it will quickly become clear how creative and flexible each has become. What is scary can mold into a drama, comedy, or even romance. These are just a few of the many great films that have come out and helped to make the world a much more interesting place. While these aren't necessarily the go-to options for Halloween haunts, they are sure to keep you perplexed about the potential of the genre.
1. Black Swan (2010)
The decade kicked off very well with one of the strongest groups of nominees in recent memory. What made it more incredible is that there would be room for one of the most beautiful, intense, crazy Best Picture nominees in history. Director Darren Aronofsky has made a name for himself by pushing boundaries with cerebral imagery and a performance by Natalie Portman that is physically taxing and gets under your skin. Everything about the film is ethereal and thrusts the viewer into a world of obsession that makes ballet into a horror show that has never ending hurdles. You too would go crazy if you had to perform in Swan Lake, and the camera's swift pace is just as much a dance as the ballet itself. By the third act it's a look into just how far some would go for a perfect performance. It's scary, it's campy, but most of all it's a premiere example of the "prestige horror" that will become more popular by the end of the decade. Still, nothing comes close to what Aronofsky does here with surreal long takes and spinning dancers.
2. Get Out (2017)
There have been few welcomed surprises as finding out that comedian Jordan Peele was a gifted artist. In his directorial debut, he far exceeds expectations by finding a story of racial divisions and turning it into the horror experience of the decade. With a story that never ceases to twist and turn in disturbing ways, it creates iconic moments drenched in historical and cultural references that makes it one of the densest nominees in recent history. There's plenty to love in Daniel Kaluuya's reserved performance, which hides his fear from others while cuing the audience into something more terrifying. It's hard to forget Get Out, if just because it refuses to be anything except relevant. There's power in every frame and it will join the ranks of the greatest horror films of all time. The question as to whether Peele will be on that list as well has yet to be seen. Just wait until Us comes out.
3. Stoker (2013)
Director Park-Chan Wook was one of many filmmakers who transitioned into English-language cinema this decade, and boy did he deliver one of the juiciest melodramas of the decade. Lead by the perfectly precocious Mia Wasikowska, the film never lets up its eerie tone as it explores the life of the Stoker family, which is fully of dark secrets and mysteries that only become more twisted as the story continues. The visuals are just as stunning, managing to turn things like crushing an egg into nauseating acts in between some of the most creative transition shots of the decade. It may not seem like the most conventional of horror movies, but when your mom is Nicole Kidman and her stare threatens to burn the house down, everything is downright scary. It's a masterpiece of tone, depicting the roots of homicidal nature in a coming of age story like no other.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
The first outing with the Guardians of the Galaxy was fun, but it was nothing new in the way of cinema. Turns out it was only the set-up for this masterpiece of space operatics. It's a story that pits nuclear families against the real thing with a great turn by Kurt Russell as a man who can create planets from thin air. It's the funniest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as one of the most satisfying third acts, managing to get into some surreal and insane imagery while being a quasi-musical. It's an ambitious crossroads of ideas coming together with some of the most vibrant cinematography of any big-budgeted blockbuster this decade. There hasn't been a film this unique or fun from any studio that matches the opening credits sequence. It's a lovable weird film that deserves your respect, even if you don't love sci-fi or fantasy.
5. Under the Skin (2013)
While Scarlett Johansson would go on to play a variety of aliens, she has never done it better than in director Jonathan Glazer's sci-fi oddity. She plays an unnamed force, walking the Earth in search of meaning and companionship. It's practically plot-free, but it doesn't matter. The atmosphere is so deeply rooted in rickets that scratch on a top notch Mica Levi score and force the viewer to contemplate their own isolation. There's plenty of imagery that will stick with the viewer, creating moments that decipher humanity through a warped lens. It seeks to get under your skin and succeeds. The film may or may not make sense, but that's besides the point. It's about the experience, and few films come close to such a visceral experience that hasn't been matched. It's the quintessential alien movie of the decade, in part because what's alien is how we treat each other. It's our job to find new ways to empathize, and Johansson is our cipher into that potential answer.
6. Logan (2017)
Up until Avengers: Endgame, it seemed like the idea of actors retiring from their roles was the perfect punchline. Who would think of walking away from the fame and iconic role that would make hundreds of millions simply for showing up? For Hugh Jackman, Logan was the end of the road and few directors deserved to take him out like James Mangold. It's not only the best X-Men movie by several miles, but it's also the perfect encapsulation of the genre. Jackman is still strong, but his subtle withering shows a man who cannot save the world forever. Alongside an excellent performance by Laua Kinney as X-23, the film explores what it means to grow old and lose the desire to be a hero, and what keeps us doing it. There's so much power packed into the drama of this film, managing to be the most mature and violent film in the series. It's a farewell to an icon the likes of which the Marvel Cinematic Universe has yet to achieve. Farewell, Logan. Cinema was better for having you.
7. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
Among the animated franchise this decade, the only one that could compete with Disney was Dreamworks' incredible How to Train Your Dragon series. Not only were the stories filled with action and emotion, but the visuals were some of the strongest in the realm of CGI. By the time its conclusion came around, the series was confident enough to make a powerhouse of a film that managed to say goodbye while playing with the form. Toothless remains one of the best cartoon characters, managing to charm you with nothing more than a smile. It's a world that is better for having existed, even if the ending is far from the easy out many would want. It's a happy one, but it's one that sticks with the series' desire for humans and dragons to coexist peacefully. It's bittersweet for being gone, but the journeys of Hiccup and Toothless are great for what they have taught us about nature and ourselves.
8. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
While the trend of vampires may be a constant throughout the decade, there were none who reinvented the archetype quite like this Iranian story of a skateboarding teenager in a pseudo-western who falls in love. It's one of those directorial debuts from Ana Lily Amirpour that is among the most exciting tales of the decade. With beautiful black and white cinematography, the story unfolds in a way that captures the viewers and never lets up. Amirpour has established herself as a director of promise, managing to create atmospheric genre films with plenty of heart and depth that creates a deeper understanding of Iranian youth culture. While The Bad Batch may have not been as great of a follow-up, she still possesses plenty of great ideas that will hopefully make her one of the best filmmakers of the next decade.
9. The Witch (2015)
The thing that makes director Robert Eggers' film so powerful is that it feels genuinely like an artifact pulled from centuries ago. There's so much to the film's atmosphere that is itself haunting with the murky weather drawing the viewer into a cold world of people excised from society for unknown reasons. What is known is that this is a breakout role for Anya-Taylor Joy as a woman accused of being a witch who finds the people in her life slowly falling into chaos. The film's use of religion and classic photography for visual references creates a story that is almost too convincing. It even makes the goat Black Phillip into one of the greatest villains of the decade. While audiences at the time complained about the film not being scary, it's a tonal nightmare that sneaks up on those willing to fall into the darkness and find themselves lost in one of the few theatrical releases also endorsed by Satanists. If that doesn't convince you that the film has a great depiction of witches, then nothing will.
10. Hereditary (2018)
There are few directors who hit the scene this decade that feel as much like the genuine article like Ari Aster. Even with the sound on mute, or even paused, every frame of his debut has some haunting undertone clashing with the symbolism of a family trying to hold it all together. You think that you're ready to deal with grief, but then there's Toni Collette's amazing performance whose only desire is to eat at your soul, making you understand the pain that lies underneath. It isn't just a story of scares, but of a deeper knowledge of how it festers throughout a family lineage and comes up in unexpected ways. It's one of those films that only gets better with each viewing because knowing the demented nature to come seems more dreadful once every piece of foreshadowing is brought to the surface and every detail is as understood as it can be by the audience.
11. The Shape of Water (2017)
It still seems bizarre to think of a film in which a deaf woman falls in love with an aquatic creature winning Best Picture. It's too esoteric of a concept, especially given how rarely fantasy cinema has won. With that said, director Guillermo del Toro's empathetic heart manages to raise the monster movie genre to a thing of prestige, capturing a vulnerability of its central cast that explores how we search for love in this cruel world. It's a contemporary fairy tale, albeit with more of an R-Rated sensibility, and one of the most touching love stories of modern years. It's a film that proves that there's room to question genre movies of the past and update them in a way that speaks to our modern sensibilities. Thankfully del Toro did it with one of the best set designs of the decade as well as a creature design that finally gives actor Doug Jones the credit he deserves. It's a thing of beauty and proves that cinema can be far more interesting than it currently is. All it takes is a little effort.
12. Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
While Laika Studios has always been an exemplary example of stop motion animation, it took a while for them to create a film on par with their first. In some ways, Kubo and the Two Strings is arguably the studio's crowning achievement to date thanks to pushing the boundaries of what the medium can do - including large puppets that are seen being assembled during the credits. The spectacle in every frame makes this one of the greatest films of the decade and in general. It helps that the story of a boy learning the value of storytelling is among their strongest works as well. The action is superb and the finale is visually stunning. So much of the film is masterful that it sets the bar so high for Laika's future. When Kubo says "If you must blink, do it now." you might as well. You won't want to miss a minute of this film.
13. Inception (2010)
It wasn't long into the decade that director Christopher Nolan created one of the first iconic movies. It was hard enough to follow up The Dark Knight with a masterpiece, but his "dream within a dream" world that he builds here manages to rival a filmmaker at the top of his skills. With practical effects and his most resonant exploration of time since Memento, he creates a story that is full of rich mystery and dazzling imagery, creating something that comments on why we dream and how ideas get implanted in our heads. While some could get lost in trying to figure out whose dream is whose, it's best to just go along for the ride, experiencing a sci-fi blockbuster unlike any other. While he had been making great cinema for a decade prior, this was the film that proved what Nolan's next stage of his career would look like, and he only has remained interesting since.
14. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Of every Oscar-nominated film of the decade, few feel as unprecedented or groundbreaking as the fourth film in director George Miller's Mad Max series. On paper, it should've been a failure. However, it ended up being one of the most delightfully experimental action films that raised conversation about feminism thanks to Charlize Theron's excellent performance as Furiosa. It's a film that proved that the economy of film doesn't need endless exposition and set-up to give audiences an enjoyable time. All it really needs is a bunch of cars driving in the desert and people swinging from poles. It's a perfect distillation of madness, and one that puts every other car movie of the 21st century to shame. In an era where they sequels are the norm, it's incredible to realize not only that Miller's fourth entry resonates, but that it shows how much more interesting studio cinema could be with people who know how to have fun (and probably have good insurance agents).
15. Personal Shopper (2016)
There have been few films that have captured the process of grieving with as much modern resonance as this. With another great performance by Kristen Stewart, the slow exploration of a recently deceased loved one comes through in text messages, finding ways to communicate with the dead that don't involve seances. This is a drama that treats the subject with more of realism and haunting honesty that makes one question whether the dead truly communicate with the living. Even if it isn't true, one can't help but feel the presence as Stewart stares deep in thought, wondering how to move on without something that made life special. It may not be a horror movie in the conventional jump scare sense, but it still manages to rattle up emotions in more mature ways.
16. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
It's a bit exhausting to have so many Spider-Man performances this decade, so to have a film that features dozens, maybe even limitless Spider-Men sounds like a chore right? Well actually, it's quite possibly the best representation of the character ever and a giant step forward for animation. By creating a Spider-Verse with the groundbreaking animation style, the film manages to blend the childlike sensibilities with a deeper story about how anyone can be a hero, whether they exist as an Afro-Latino kid or an anime girl with a robot or a Looney Tunes-esque pig. The film is one of the most delightful, creative, and successful superhero narratives of the decade and hopefully a look into the future of the genre. For now, it's a one of a kind experience that is hard to now fall in love with as a sugarcoated ode to superheroes that is sweet to its core.
17. The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
In a decade that has sought to find the deeper meaning in what we watch, few movies felt as resonant as this mash 'em-up movie that attempts to throw every cliche at the wall and see what sticks. It's one of those movies whose second half is so insane that it can't help but constantly surprise viewers with every passing reference. It's a commentary on the genre that manages to find Joss Whedon at one of his most clairvoyant moments, finding joy in slowly upping the ante with a Hunger Games-esque situation that goes horribly awry. While most would consider it first and foremost a comedy, its decision to break down conventions of what we take for granted in horror movies helped to pave the way for what the genre would do next, and cinema has been all the better for it.
18. The Love Witch (2016)
With a retro charm, the brightly colored world in which director Anna Biller's romantic witch comedy lives features enough charm to raise a few eyebrows. It also helps that Samantha Robinson's performance at the titular character is so hungry for love that it doesn't stop her homicidal tendencies, which rub up against conflicts regarding her Wiccan ways. The film is a vibrant exploration of the supernatural and sexuality, as well as the deflating humor that comes with violence towards lovers that is maybe meant as romantic. It's a beautiful, surreal film that makes the viewer long for more films to be drenched in such violent color schemes with characters so jaded that they might just be friends with Lana Del Rey. It's strange for sure, but it's also one of the greatest revelations of the decade thanks to its totally, perfectly aloof execution.
19. Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)
By this point, it feels like the vampire has been sucked dry in cinema. Where exactly can they go with a creature who has withstood over a century of filmmaking? For Jim Jarmusch, it's definitely a challenge he accepted by commenting on the decaying nature of cities like Detroit as the titular loves pass the time, trying to make sense of their existence. It's one where vampires are painted more as apathetic humans, haunting clubs more than people, and it helps that Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton both deliver great performances, subdued and full of deadpan humor. It's the vampire movie for those who got tired of seeing them as action heroes and want to see them as something more. Jarmusch's dip into horror is definitely an interesting one, even if the only scare in this is the rising sense of irrelevance.
20. Attack the Block (2011)
There have been few alien invasion movies that evoke as much fun as director Joe Cornish's debut. With characters so dense in their British slang and aliens presented with rotoscoping techniques, the film is a one of a kind journey through the lower class. It also helps that they're armed with some creative ways to fight off aliens and even more quips about how they'd rather just be at home playing FIFA. The film is endlessly creative and never wastes an ounce of energy, managing to be continually shocking and exciting as things go faster and faster. The film did produce future Star Wars actor John Boyega, though one wishes that more of the actors had careers of that magnitude (or that Cornish got to make more films in the eight years since). There's not a dull figure in the entire film, and that's quite an achievement.
21. The Lure (2015)
While this decade has seen a rise in the popularity of musicals, it is likely that you haven't seen one like this. It's the story of gothic mermaids who perform in a revue act while longing to fall in love. They have conflict achieving this in large part because where they can be seen as normal most of the time, the need to live in the ocean creates a disconnect that keeps them from being totally human. It's a heartwrenching, clever musical that finds horror in both its supernatural themes, but also in how it treats its characters. It's a beautiful, even tender film about how outcasts can bond when the world doesn't understand them. It's no The Little Mermaid, it's darker and more brutal than that. Still, it's full of catchy music and one of the most memorable turns by these sea creatures in several decades.
22. Cloud Atlas (2012)
It has only been seven years since its controversial release, but Cloud Atlas still feels like a singular achievement beyond being "the most expensive indie movie in history." For starters, a phenomenal cast led by Halle Berry and Tom Hanks spanning centuries is a daunting task. Add in that each character is playing multiracial characters and it becomes easy to mock for those who don't understand The Wachowski Sisters and Tom Tykwer's vision that "everything is connected." It's a philosophical film that blends genres together through some of the finest editings of the decade. It may be imperfect, but it's the Herculean task that was almost completely worth it. The final results are confusing, exciting, hilarious, emotional, and says more about the world we live in than any singular narrative that has been released since. It is likely to only gain in appreciation as time goes on, and for very good reason.
23. Ex-Machina (2014)
With computers becoming more and more necessary in everyday life, there hasn't been a film that has updated the Frankenstein mythology this well since Jurassic Park. With a career-making performance by Alicia Vikander, the story of how artificial intelligence can gain sentience is full of puzzling ideas that question modern existence. With Oscar-winning special effects, Vikander's Ava becomes one of the most perplexing images and a robot for the ages. The final act is also full of rich turns that only deepen the discussion and raise questions about what will come of a world where robots gain sentience. Will it all have been worth it? If nothing else, it helped to kickstart the career of director Alex Garland, and it has only become more interesting since.
24. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
There were few franchises that felt like they didn't need a reboot quite as much as Planet of the Apes, which last appeared in a notorious Tim Burton-directed bomb. All it took was Andy Serkis and a cast of motion-capture actors bringing the apes to life to change people's mind. Suddenly there was a sense of purpose, making the franchise darker and capable of wilder achievements. Their first outing remains one of the finest achievements in special effects this decade, especially as Caesar grows up from a baby to the radical leader. The Golden State Bridge scene is also one of the most delightful and kinetic action scenes of the decade, managing to show the expanse of what this franchise was going for. Not only were the effects good, but the film proved that you could sympathize with a digital rendering of an ape with the right performance. Serkis continues to be overdue for an Oscar when this franchise started, now it feels criminal that he's ignored.
25. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
It always seemed doomed to happen, but a giant, R-Rated sequel to Blade Runner always felt like a gamble that even Denis Villeneuve couldn't overcome in a three-hour epic. Still, it's what makes the film, in particular, a fascinating franchise film, if just because of how sparse the epic is even when it's exploring deeper themes against a gorgeous color-pallet. It isn't just a cash grab of a sequel, it's a legitimate expansion of the world that makes it even more cryptic and exciting. Those willing to get on board with its creeping energy will appreciate all that it achieves, even as Hans Zimmer's score radiates through your bones. It's a provocative film that never lets up, and its singularity is striking. Few films take as many risks like this, and that's refreshing to see, even as you know it's probably doomed to a box office bomb fate.
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