The Nicsperiment's Favorite Movies of the 2010's
I had a weird relationship with film this decade. In the early 00's, I studied film as an undergrad, got A's in all those classes (Except for Philosophy of Film--I hope you're happy, Schufrieder!), and almost went to film school. Instead, I stayed in Louisiana, got married, had a kid, became an accountant, and...host a film podcast. If there's one thing I've learned from hosting an Internet podcast, it's that there are people out there with very specific, hardline opinions who make me, ME, seem like an open-minded, easy-going individual. If there's another thing I've learned, it's that this decade produced so many movies, I am not even going to act like I can make a definitive, objective list of the absolute best ones.
Instead, here are just a few films I liked a lot, the ones that have really stuck with me, in the order they were released.
Inception (2010)
Does the top stop spinning? I care enough about Inception's central character, was drawn enough into his story, his dream world, and can still hear that backing music so clearly, that nearly ten years later, I still want to argue about the two possible answers to that question. Christopher Nolan had an eventful decade, but I think his most memorable and noteworthy work in the 2010's--the moment that will linger on through "Time," if you'll grant me that pun, Inception fans--is Inception.
The Grey (2011)
Maybe you passed up The Grey because the trailers promoted it as the Liam Neeson "wolf-punching" movie. Joe Carnahan's 2011 thriller is more like the Liam Neeson "guy's loss of the will to live butts hard against his raging instinct to survive" movie, featuring a bunch of lowlife, barely-even blue-collar guys on the run from hungry, definitely real, but also metaphorical wolves in the Arctic wastes. Frequent references and allusions to philosophy and religion abound as much as the hungry, territorial, overgrown canines.
Captain Phillips (2013)
Paul Greengrass' handheld, shaky-cam approach can be hit-or-miss, but it's all hit in this cinematic recreation of the first hijacking of a US cargo ship in 200 years.The camera feels empathetic to everyone, and Tom Hanks puts in one of the best performances of his storied career, with a cathartic final moment that may be his best.
It Follows (2014)
If I see another surface-level reading of It Follows that boils David Robert Mitchell's film down to "sex = death," or "the monster is a metaphor for STD's" I'm going to....er, you know what, I'm just going to do this tiny write-up on The Nicsperiment, and have to be happy about that. On the surface, It Follows is an incredibly fun and scary horror film about a supernatural force that takes seemingly random human form, and constantly stalks toward its victim until it overtakes them. Yes, the monster "target" is placed on the victim when the previous victim has sex with them, but the monster and film isn't about sex, but the inevitability and inescapable nature of death.
The Babadook (2014)
And following...in the vein of metaphorical horror, Jennifer Kent's The Babadook is one of the most brilliant explorations of grief I've seen, but also, it's a horror movie about a widow and her son being terrorized by a storybook fiend come to life.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
I don't really give a crap if it's a Marvel or a superhero movie, few if any films have done the "rejects from society find family with one another" thing as well as Guardians of the Galaxy...ever. It's hilarious, the characters are perfectly realized, and the amount of emotion and existential pain is almost shocking--I mean, one of the characters gets drunk, breaks down, and says "I didn't ask to get made!" You can almost feel writer/director, James Gunn, fully realizing the concept of empathy as he's making the film. And that opening credits scene of Chris Pratt dancing through an alien wilderness to "Come and Get Your Love" is iconic as anything Gen X'ers are sentimental about from the 70's or 80's...and I say this with some experience...
Boyhood (2014)
Tough not to appreciate being alive after literally watching Ellar Coltrane grow up before your eyes in Richard Linklater's Boyhood. Linklater nails the rhythms of life for everyone involved, including the titular boy's parents, as the wizened director writes, directs, and cuts together (with great editing by Sandra Adair) 12 consecutive years in his characters' lives. A monumental achievement.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
About 50-minutes in, when Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron start passing guns back-and-forth instead of pointing them at one another, and the score amps up to seemingly one of the first memorable pieces of action music in decades, as a real guy jumps a motorcycle 40-feet over Hardy and Theron's heads, then gets shot off of it and plummets to the ground, I realized that Mad Max: Fury Road is a movie for the ages. Staging flawless, non-stop action that reveals and develops the characters, propelling a plot that is actually about something, 70-year-old director and co-writer, George Miller, shows these damn kids how it's done.
Green Room (2015)
Sometimes things go south, and sometimes, like in Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room, things go dangerously south. In one of his final performances, the deeply missed Anton Yelchin plays a member of a punk band who gets trapped in a skin-head green room, and along with his bandmates, has to get out of the bar alive after they witness a murder. Instead of the band suddenly gaining Nazi-fighting superpowers, the young group are very realistically picked off one by one, as Yelchin undergoes the incredibly believable transformation of decent, level guy reaching ultimate id to survive.
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
I can't remember the last time a film intoxicated me like Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals. Employing the old movie-within-a-movie technique to maximum effect, Nocturnal Animals innovatively explores memory and choice, a novel's metaphorical story reenacting a broken relationship. The visuals and score bring to mind peak Hitchcook through the glass of a swirling cocktail.
Logan (2017)
James Mangold and Hugh Jackman finally give this incredible character--a nearly immortal and indestructible man with a violent past--the film he deserves. If only it wasn't his sendoff! Logan makes a resonant point--when your life has failed, the best you can do is make a better one for those who follow you.
Phantom Thread (2017)
I can't sum up this film's greatness in a paragraph. Paul Thomas Anderson shows a perfectly balanced toxic relationship perfectly, in a perfectly told, perfectly shot, perfectly scored, perfectly acted, perfectly charming film that I could sit in a room and watch for the rest of my life.
Get Out (2017)
Jordan Peele walks Get Out over a trapeze line with no net, balancing chilling horror with a steady diet of humor, social commentary, and plot twists. He gets to the other side, then walks back, then walks to the other side again, without ever losing balance or breaking a sweat.
Star Wars: Episode VIII -- The Last Jedi (2017)
EDITOR'S NOTE (6/15/22): Below, I can see my opinion already starting to turn against this film. A few years later, and...I hate it. I hate this movie. Still, I'll leave my late 2019 opinion preserved below. But in 2022, I hate The Last Jedi. It sucks.
Instead, here are just a few films I liked a lot, the ones that have really stuck with me, in the order they were released.
Inception (2010)
Does the top stop spinning? I care enough about Inception's central character, was drawn enough into his story, his dream world, and can still hear that backing music so clearly, that nearly ten years later, I still want to argue about the two possible answers to that question. Christopher Nolan had an eventful decade, but I think his most memorable and noteworthy work in the 2010's--the moment that will linger on through "Time," if you'll grant me that pun, Inception fans--is Inception.
The Grey (2011)
Maybe you passed up The Grey because the trailers promoted it as the Liam Neeson "wolf-punching" movie. Joe Carnahan's 2011 thriller is more like the Liam Neeson "guy's loss of the will to live butts hard against his raging instinct to survive" movie, featuring a bunch of lowlife, barely-even blue-collar guys on the run from hungry, definitely real, but also metaphorical wolves in the Arctic wastes. Frequent references and allusions to philosophy and religion abound as much as the hungry, territorial, overgrown canines.
Captain Phillips (2013)
Paul Greengrass' handheld, shaky-cam approach can be hit-or-miss, but it's all hit in this cinematic recreation of the first hijacking of a US cargo ship in 200 years.The camera feels empathetic to everyone, and Tom Hanks puts in one of the best performances of his storied career, with a cathartic final moment that may be his best.
It Follows (2014)
If I see another surface-level reading of It Follows that boils David Robert Mitchell's film down to "sex = death," or "the monster is a metaphor for STD's" I'm going to....er, you know what, I'm just going to do this tiny write-up on The Nicsperiment, and have to be happy about that. On the surface, It Follows is an incredibly fun and scary horror film about a supernatural force that takes seemingly random human form, and constantly stalks toward its victim until it overtakes them. Yes, the monster "target" is placed on the victim when the previous victim has sex with them, but the monster and film isn't about sex, but the inevitability and inescapable nature of death.
The Babadook (2014)
And following...in the vein of metaphorical horror, Jennifer Kent's The Babadook is one of the most brilliant explorations of grief I've seen, but also, it's a horror movie about a widow and her son being terrorized by a storybook fiend come to life.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
I don't really give a crap if it's a Marvel or a superhero movie, few if any films have done the "rejects from society find family with one another" thing as well as Guardians of the Galaxy...ever. It's hilarious, the characters are perfectly realized, and the amount of emotion and existential pain is almost shocking--I mean, one of the characters gets drunk, breaks down, and says "I didn't ask to get made!" You can almost feel writer/director, James Gunn, fully realizing the concept of empathy as he's making the film. And that opening credits scene of Chris Pratt dancing through an alien wilderness to "Come and Get Your Love" is iconic as anything Gen X'ers are sentimental about from the 70's or 80's...and I say this with some experience...
Boyhood (2014)
Tough not to appreciate being alive after literally watching Ellar Coltrane grow up before your eyes in Richard Linklater's Boyhood. Linklater nails the rhythms of life for everyone involved, including the titular boy's parents, as the wizened director writes, directs, and cuts together (with great editing by Sandra Adair) 12 consecutive years in his characters' lives. A monumental achievement.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
About 50-minutes in, when Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron start passing guns back-and-forth instead of pointing them at one another, and the score amps up to seemingly one of the first memorable pieces of action music in decades, as a real guy jumps a motorcycle 40-feet over Hardy and Theron's heads, then gets shot off of it and plummets to the ground, I realized that Mad Max: Fury Road is a movie for the ages. Staging flawless, non-stop action that reveals and develops the characters, propelling a plot that is actually about something, 70-year-old director and co-writer, George Miller, shows these damn kids how it's done.
Green Room (2015)
Sometimes things go south, and sometimes, like in Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room, things go dangerously south. In one of his final performances, the deeply missed Anton Yelchin plays a member of a punk band who gets trapped in a skin-head green room, and along with his bandmates, has to get out of the bar alive after they witness a murder. Instead of the band suddenly gaining Nazi-fighting superpowers, the young group are very realistically picked off one by one, as Yelchin undergoes the incredibly believable transformation of decent, level guy reaching ultimate id to survive.
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
I can't remember the last time a film intoxicated me like Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals. Employing the old movie-within-a-movie technique to maximum effect, Nocturnal Animals innovatively explores memory and choice, a novel's metaphorical story reenacting a broken relationship. The visuals and score bring to mind peak Hitchcook through the glass of a swirling cocktail.
Logan (2017)
James Mangold and Hugh Jackman finally give this incredible character--a nearly immortal and indestructible man with a violent past--the film he deserves. If only it wasn't his sendoff! Logan makes a resonant point--when your life has failed, the best you can do is make a better one for those who follow you.
Phantom Thread (2017)
I can't sum up this film's greatness in a paragraph. Paul Thomas Anderson shows a perfectly balanced toxic relationship perfectly, in a perfectly told, perfectly shot, perfectly scored, perfectly acted, perfectly charming film that I could sit in a room and watch for the rest of my life.
Get Out (2017)
Jordan Peele walks Get Out over a trapeze line with no net, balancing chilling horror with a steady diet of humor, social commentary, and plot twists. He gets to the other side, then walks back, then walks to the other side again, without ever losing balance or breaking a sweat.
Star Wars: Episode VIII -- The Last Jedi (2017)
EDITOR'S NOTE (6/15/22): Below, I can see my opinion already starting to turn against this film. A few years later, and...I hate it. I hate this movie. Still, I'll leave my late 2019 opinion preserved below. But in 2022, I hate The Last Jedi. It sucks.
Yes, Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi is not a perfect film. However, over the past couple of weeks, I've really had to come to terms with what works, and why it's resonated with me, and it's the same thing that resonated with me when I first saw it--it's that The Last Jedi has the guts to portray Luke Skywalker, everyone's childhood hero, as a believable failure. It's a realistic portrayal, a natural evolution of Luke's flaws in the original trilogy. It's a Luke an actual human can identify with, and it's a Luke that will stick with me more than the He-Man the fanboys wanted.
Hereditary (2018)
So, we could talk about things and build some healthy family dynamics...or we could let things fester and our family could get preyed upon by a demon-worshipping cult instead. That's so Hereditary!
Parasite (2019)
Bong Joon-Ho has proven himself a master filmmaker before 2019, but 2019's Parasite might just be his masterwork. Parasite explores the way society pits the poor against one another to the benefit of the wealthy, as a scrappy Korean family fights tooth-and-nail just to be a wealthy family's servants. Parasite is zippy and funny, but ultimately a supremely moving work of empathy.
Joker (2019)
Two 2010's movies are currently sitting on the IMDB top 25 user review list: Inception and Joker. The top five movies on that list are, respectively, The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, The Dark Knight, and 12 Angry Men. Joker is tied with It's A Wonderful Life and Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope. Yes, I understand that this is a subjective list. All artistic opinions are subjective. But 560,000 people voted to put Joker in that position. I don't think that those 560,000 people are incels who haven't seen Taxi Driver. The attention seeking "Worst Movies of 2019" lists that have included Joker missed the point. In a violently class-divided society, where basic human needs are ignored, someone like Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck will become an object of worship and emulation. Todd Phillips' beautifully shot and acted Joker creates empathy for Fleck, who has little other choice of path to walk, but doesn't worship him. Phoenix's intonation as he nonchalantly reveals to Robert De Niro's out-of-touch, insensitive talk-show host, Murray Franklin, that Fleck no longer believes in anything, minutes before committing a shocking act of violence on live television, is a sequence I'll carry with me forever. And yet, that bloodshed, along with Joker's other brief seconds of violence, were ironically overblown by the same media that frequently airs much worse on a daily basis. This film demands preconceived notions be left at the door. Whatever you think Joker is without having seen it, it probably is not.
Hereditary (2018)
So, we could talk about things and build some healthy family dynamics...or we could let things fester and our family could get preyed upon by a demon-worshipping cult instead. That's so Hereditary!
Parasite (2019)
Bong Joon-Ho has proven himself a master filmmaker before 2019, but 2019's Parasite might just be his masterwork. Parasite explores the way society pits the poor against one another to the benefit of the wealthy, as a scrappy Korean family fights tooth-and-nail just to be a wealthy family's servants. Parasite is zippy and funny, but ultimately a supremely moving work of empathy.
Joker (2019)
Two 2010's movies are currently sitting on the IMDB top 25 user review list: Inception and Joker. The top five movies on that list are, respectively, The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, The Dark Knight, and 12 Angry Men. Joker is tied with It's A Wonderful Life and Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope. Yes, I understand that this is a subjective list. All artistic opinions are subjective. But 560,000 people voted to put Joker in that position. I don't think that those 560,000 people are incels who haven't seen Taxi Driver. The attention seeking "Worst Movies of 2019" lists that have included Joker missed the point. In a violently class-divided society, where basic human needs are ignored, someone like Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck will become an object of worship and emulation. Todd Phillips' beautifully shot and acted Joker creates empathy for Fleck, who has little other choice of path to walk, but doesn't worship him. Phoenix's intonation as he nonchalantly reveals to Robert De Niro's out-of-touch, insensitive talk-show host, Murray Franklin, that Fleck no longer believes in anything, minutes before committing a shocking act of violence on live television, is a sequence I'll carry with me forever. And yet, that bloodshed, along with Joker's other brief seconds of violence, were ironically overblown by the same media that frequently airs much worse on a daily basis. This film demands preconceived notions be left at the door. Whatever you think Joker is without having seen it, it probably is not.
Comments