In the grand scheme of things, perhaps not many positive things will be said about this decade. Historians may remember it for the transformation of white supremacy, the end of privacy, and democracy under attack. But I think at least one promising piece of news from this rather bleak decade has been the fact that Hollywood, thanks largely to protest (and box office returns), has become a far more diverse place. The #OscarsSoWhite outrage of 2015 led at least in some way to the profound success of films like Moonlight, Black Panther, and Get Out. In 2017, the top-grossing movies of the year were those led by female protagonists (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and Wonder Woman). There has been an "explosion of queer content" this past decade, as well. Hollywood and the Academy have a long, long way to go on these issues of representation, but there have been some significant steps in the right direction.
And sure, Hollywood has had problems with originality and nostalgia this past decade. We are in Peak TV, not Peak Movies. It shows. Whether or not this problem continues or is resolved heading into the next decade is something we will have to wait and see. If we can put aside those issues, it's worth remembering some of the most exceptional films of the past ten years.
The best films of the decade, in no particular order are:
Moonrise Kingdom
The past decade saw some of director Wes Anderson's most renowned work: Isle of Dogs, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Moonrise Kingdom, his best. Moonrise Kingdom is quintessential Anderson, so if his other films haven't exactly been your cup of tea, definitely stay away from this one. It is the archetypal Anderson film because, in addition to that unique color palate and the terrific score by Alexandre Desplat, there is a lot of quirkiness in the acting, namely in the performances of Bruce Willis as a local police chief, Edward Norton as a Scout Master, and Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as the parents of a young girl (Kara Hayward) who is rebellious and runs away with her crush (Jared Gilman). It is the first film of both Hayward and Gilman, who do an outstanding job depicting the young love of these two teenagers. And if you have any experience with Scouting, especially memories of people who take Scouting a little too seriously, this is a must-see.
Iranian writer and director Asghar Farhadi had a remarkable decade, as two of his films (this and the 2011 film A Separation) won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, although he did not attend the Oscars to accept the award for The Salesman to protest the U.S.'s travel ban. This film, like his others, is deeply concerned with the modern difficulties and complexities of the real world, especially when good people do bad things. The main character related to this is Emad, who is played by Shahab Hosseini (who also worked with Farhadi in About Elly and A Separation and who won the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actor). Emad is a teacher, but he and his wife, Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) are also actors preparing for a local production of Death of a Salesman. One night while Emad is away, Rana is attacked in their new apartment. Emad and Rana are both ashamed and both start to lose sleep in the aftermath. Rana becomes almost paralyzed, and Emad becomes obsessed with finding the attacker. The Salesman is not a thriller, but it feels like it has that DNA. Unlike many films these days, Farhadi's scenes can say a lot more with several tense moments of silence than a thousand CGI battle cries can.
12 Years a Slave
12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen, is perhaps the most powerful and disturbing film of the past decade. American film directors have tackled the subject of slavery in the United States before, but not quite like this. Perhaps, as co-star and producer Brad Pitt put it, "it took a Brit" to tell this story so profoundly. Based on the memoir of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), whose story was nearly lost to history, the film adaptation, in just two hours and fourteen minutes, wipes away the Lost Cause propaganda of The Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind. Solomon was a renowned musician who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. For twelve years, he fought to survive, but that (at least in the beginning) was not his primary motivation. "I don't want to survive," he tells other slaves. "I want to live." Ejiofor, who was nominated for Best Actor, is joined by a stellar cast that includes Lupita Nyong'o, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Benedict Cumberbatch, and others. 12 Years a Slave is not an easy film to watch, but it is a necessary one, especially because there are still some people in this society who sugarcoat the reality of what this nation did.
Mother
I'm cheating a little bit because this movie was released in 2009 in Korea but 2010 in the U.S. Director Bong Joon-ho started the decade at his peak with this thriller, and then apparently peaked again at the end of the decade with the much-acclaimed Parasite, which has found its way on many top-ten lists of this year. Of his actors, while it's a bit awkward watching Won Bin as a person with a disability, Kim Hye-ja is superb as his doting mother. When her son is accused of murdering a teenager girl in their small town, she does anything to prove his innocence. She does this despite earning minimal income selling traditional herbal medicine and practicing acupuncture without a license. But as a character, she is given more agency as she becomes more determined (and more malicious). In addition to getting great performances from his actors, Bong's directing skills are exceptional. The tiptoe scene is so simple yet so tense. Plus, the film starts and ends with a notable theme by Lee Byung-woo. Mother is one of the great cinematic murder mysteries of all time.
Black Swan
Black Swan, the psychological horror/thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky, features what is likely Natalie Portman's single best performance as Nina Sayers, a perfectionist ballerina recently cast as the Swan Queen and going through a psychological crisis. Also starring in the film are Mila Kunis as the woman Nina considers her rival and enemy, Barbara Hershey as Nina's overbearing mother, Winona Ryder as Nina's thrown-away predecessor, and Vincent Cassel as a very pre-MeToo bully and jerk of a director. (Incidentally, I'm disappointed in myself that when I wrote my original review nine years ago, I focused on the bad dialogue I thought the character was given and not of what a disgusting scoundrel he is.) It's not the scariest film of the decade (that would be last year's Hereditary), but its creepiness involving finger nails and toe nails will likely stay with you. Black Swan is a campy yet exciting time.
Wadjda was promoted as the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, an ultraconservative Islamic state where it has only been in the past few years in which women have been given the right to drive and cinemas have been re-introduced. The story is about a women girl named Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) whose primarily ambition is to buy a bicycle. Her mother (Reem Abdullah) is supportive of Wadja, but not to the point of earning the scorn of society, especially as she is worried about her husband gaining a new wife. Wadjda's main antagonist is the authoritarian school principal, Ms. Hussa (Ahd Kamel), who runs the girls school with an iron fist. The film, written and directed by Haifaa al-Mansour in her feature film debut, pokes at the Saudi establishment and orthodoxy but is careful not to rock the boat too much. (To avoid publicly mixing with the male crew members on the streets of Riyadh, she often directed scenes with a walkie talkie in a van, as Saudi Arabia has strict rules on gender segregation.) Thus, the film is undoubtedly critical, though not as much as some in the West probably would have wanted. Because of this, it avoids Hollywood cliches and instead is a rather humanist and honest piece of filmmaking. Its star, young Waad Mohammed, is a non-actor, much like the young boy in Bicycle Thieves, which clearly serves as an influence. Wadja is as remarkable as it is groundbreaking.
Nobody doubts Pixar Studio's ability to make astonishing art. That being said, other than Coco, most of what Pixar gave us throughout the past decade was simply sequel after sequel. Inside Out, however, really is an astounding work of psychology-inspired fiction. In it, a young girl's emotional state is navigated by Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black), all of whom are appropriately cast. The girl whose brain they're inside, Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), is a pre-teen going through a rough time as her family moves from Minnesota to California. While being a rather powerful emotional trip, it is also quite funny, namely the dream sequence, the recurring gum commercial song, and the moments when we get to see the emotions of the parents. And the colors in this film are unlike practically any other animated film I can think of. Like many Pixar films, a lot of the ideas and jokes will fly over young children's heads, but the core message of the film, namely that sadness can be just as essential as joy, will not be lost on them.
Room
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue (who also wrote the screenplay) and directed by Lenny Abrahamson, Room is a powerful tale of a woman named Joy (Brie Larson) being held captive by her rapist in a shed. She is trying the best she can to raise her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and keep him as active and healthy as possible, despite all the obvious obstacles. Arguments that naturally happen between a mother and child are only made more frequent and worse in such conditions. This film has fantastic performances, namely from its two stars, Tremblay and Larson. I put Tremblay first because he's basically the main star of the film; in fact, he appears in it more than Larson does. Larson was rewarded handsomely (and deservedly so) with an Oscar for her work, but because the Academy is the Academy, Tremblay was not even nominated that year (though he did win other awards like the Critics' Choice Award). Some of the moments in this film are heartbreaking and some are heart pounding, and it is an absolutely unforgettable work.
The Florida Project
Described by writer and director Sean Baker as a modern-day "Our Gang" set in modern economic harshness, this is a powerful and moving film about children in difficult times. Taika Waititi recently claimed (rather smugly) that he didn't want "American" acting among the performances for the children in his film Jojo Rabbit. Fair enough; there are numerous examples of bad acting among young actors in American films. The Florida Project is undeniably not one of them. The performances of Brooklyn Prince, Valeria Cotto, and Christopher Rivera as the three main children in this community of residents living out of cheap motels outside the powerhouse of Walt Disney's fantasy are among the three best of the entire decade. This is a film about kids being kids, for better or worse, while their parents struggle to make ends meet. The main adult (if that is the right word) is Hailey, played by Bria Vinaite, whom Baker discovered on Instagram. She is in over her head, and while it is easy to empathize with her because the deck is stacked hugely against her, it is also quite difficult to sympathize with her, as she continuously makes one bad decision after another, usually erupting in a violent temper. Her father figure (and that of the children) is Bobby, the hotel manager played by Willem Dafoe, whose performance is so great that his losing the Oscar that year will go down as one of the biggest mistakes the Academy has ever made. The struggles these characters all go through can tell you more about economic struggles in the U.S. these days that practically any other film, and there are not many endings as heartbreaking or unexpected as this one.
When I was a child, I had no idea who Siskel and Ebert were. I did, however, know that if a film's previews claimed "Siskel and Ebert give it two thumbs up," it must have been worth seeing. There has never been a film critic quite like Roger Ebert, and there never will be another one. Few could debate like he could, and none could write like he could. His prose was certainly worthy of that Pulitzer he famously won in 1975, but it was neither dumbed down nor overly lofty. All that is evident in this documentary. It centers on the three major loves of Ebert's life: Gene Siskel, movies, and Chaz, his wife. The most interesting scenes in the film usually are the ones detailing the sometimes explosive relationship between Ebert and his film partner, Siskel. James, whose 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams was massively lauded by the duo, includes those famous outtakes of the two nearly at each others' throats while taping a promo. "It's 'And the Moves!" Ebert scolds after Siskel messes up. When it's time to do it again, Siskel says, "That's this week on Siskel...and Ebert...and the movies...and the asshole, and that's Roger!" But the most moving scenes are the ones featuring Chaz; she's a talented raconteur. With regards to James' directing, there's nothing particularly noteworthy about it, I guess. It doesn't have a bold premise like This Is Not a Film or innovative animation like Life, Animated; it doesn't feel like an epic history of a complex issue like O.J.: Made in America. But his ability to capture such poignancy is unlike just about any other documentarian these days, and Life Itself is probably the best proof we have of this.
Honorable Mentions: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hereditary, Rogue One, Mary Poppins Returns, Monsieur Lazhar, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Little Women
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