In the interest of getting “hard” copies of my work under one roof, I plan to spend the next few weeks posting the entire archive of my film journalism here on ScullyVision. With due respect to the many publications I’ve written for, the internet remains quite temporary, and I’d hate to see any of my work disappear for digital reasons. As such, this gargantuan project must begin! I don’t want to do it. I hate doing it. But it needs to be done. Please note that my opinions, like everyone’s, have changed a LOT since I started, so many of these reviews will only represent a snapshot in time. Objectivity has absolutely no place in film criticism, at least not how I do it.
Originally posted on Cinema76.
It seems like only yesterday that I was reading Paste Magazine’s Best of the Decade lists for the first of the aughts and thinking “who the shit is Sufjan Stevens and why is every writer named Tucker obsessed with him?” He was big that decade, I guess. Hard to believe yet another decade has passed since then and it’s once again time to corral our favorite movies in list form. If I’m being completely honest, since first tendering this list for our site-wide countdown, I’ve already had doubts as to its level of thoroughness, and I’ve come across more than a few titles that I’m kicking myself over having forgotten. So once again, I must attach this caveat:
This list is a snapshot that is by no means exhaustive or definitive. I stand by my selections wholeheartedly, but I refuse to quantify it in any way beyond that. Trust me, I’m just as upset about forgetting that one movie as you are (Sorry, Uncut Gems, but you came out a few days too late). Also, these are not the objective best movies. That’s a stupid concept which is impossible to deliver on. These are MY favorites, and if you disagree, congrats, that’s how that works.
This decade is definitely the decade where I’ve grown to hate lists. It’s also the decade where Sufjan Stevens became an Oscar nominee.
25. Steve Jobs (dir. Danny Boyle, 2015)
Boyle + Fassbender + Sorkin + Daniels = The most under-appreciated movie of the decade. Watch it again and you’ll see.
24. The Duke of Burgundy (dir. Peter Strickland, 2014)
Kinksters have the same emotional issues as everyone else? Whodathunkit? So much style and empathy, all in service of a decidedly sexy, baroque tale, acted to perfection by Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D’Anna. This film contains perhaps the longest, driest pee joke ever.
23. The Raid: Redemption (dir. Gareth Huw Evans, 2011)
The best martial arts movie ever made. Evans pushed the frontier of action cinema by integrating the camera work into the fight choreography, creating a truly visceral, breathless experience. Death to hyper-cut shaky-cam! Be better than that. Be like The Raid!
22. Dunkirk (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2017)
The most artistic sustained butthole clench of the decade, with the added bonus of being one of Christopher Nolan’s shortest films. Not a “war is hell” movie, but rather a classy ode to the power of altruism and hope. Slambang old school Hollywood magic.
21. Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016)
A grimy, yet warm thriller with incendiary performances from Chris Pine and Ben Foster. Exciting as hell, but never afraid to break your heart with abandon. Career best performance from the dollop of chipotle mayo that Jeff Bridges keeps packed in his lower lip at all times.
20. Blade Runner 2049 (dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2017)
The rare sequel that is better than its predecessor, whose existence also retroactively makes its predecessor a better, more complete movie. Impossibly good. I don’t believe that this movie exists, yet it does. Deakins is god-level at this point.
19. Fast Five (dir. Justin Lin, 2011)
I used to mock these stupid movies because I felt that they were dumb, and cluelessly so. Fast Five made it clear that no, these movies carry no illusions about themselves (at least not anymore), and should be consumed gleefully. Not an ounce of cynicism is apparent. Earnestness wins the day! Well, earnestness and cars. Cars can do anything, and often will.
18. The Shape of Water (dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2017)
A mute lady and a fish-man fall in love while Cold War tensions run high. What? How the fuck did this win Best Picture?!?!? Welp, it did, and correctly so. I love del Toro, but have always found myself disengaging with most of his films at a point. Not here. He got me hook, line, and sinker. That’s a fish joke. I cried an ocean. That’s another fish joke.
17. The Social Network (dir. David Fincher, 2010)
Anyone who doesn’t have this on their list is a terrorist, a cop, and maybe even a fink.
16. Midsommar: Director’s Cut (dir. Ari Aster, 2019)
A second time feature director made the best epic horror film since The Shining and then rereleased it with 30 minutes of extra footage AND IT WAS EVEN BETTER. How?!?!? Folk horror has never gone down so smoothly…perhaps too smoothly.
15. The Hunt (dir. Thomas Vinterberg, 2012)
Now is probably a good time to revisit this one and be reminded of why mob justice is an absolutely terrible policy. One of the great “I’m so pissed that I’m gonna throw the fucking TV out the window” movies.
14. Bridge of Spies (dir. Steven Spielberg, 2015)
Spielberg directing a script co-written by the Coen brothers. There’s no way this couldn’t work, but somehow it’s better than I ever could have expected. Tom Hanks’ character has a cold throughout the entire film and I felt it. This is also the Apollo Creed to Creed’s Rocky. If you know what I mean, you know what I mean. If you don’t, you will later.
13. Phantom Thread (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)
The best American filmmaker working today has made yet another masterpiece. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen or ever will see, with a darkly hilarious duo of central performances from Vicky Krieps and Daniel Day Lewis, the latter of which used this film as his career swan song. This film needs to be quoted more. It’s quotable as hell. Make the commitment with me. Let’s quote this movie more.
12. What We Do In the Shadows (dirs. Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi, 2014)
Being a vampire would be awesome, but it would also be the worst. This unceasingly riotous comedy brings the laughs while also giving a pretty thorough exploration of the tragedy that is being undead. Plus, this movie has Stu in it and I love Stu. Everybody loves Stu. Stu is the best.
11. Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016)
The type of movie that begs you to watch it a second time immediately after the first time. A consistent barrage of directorial knockout punches bringing to life a deviously twisted script. The decade’s strongest debut film. You won’t be able to snack during this movie, least of all on chicken wings.
10. Upgrade (dir. Leigh Whannell, 2018)
Upgrade is so extremely and utterly my shit that I can’t believe it how lucky we are to have it. Body horror, cautionary tech, and brilliantly choreographed karate fights all packaged in a post-Total Recall grime-punk aesthetic. What’s not to love?
9. Your Name. (dir. Makoto Shinkai, 2017)
I don’t watch a lot of anime, but when I do, I’m always impressed with the depth of emotion that an animated character can evoke. Using a clever sci-fi hook to tell a deceptively large story, Your Name. expounds upon the “body swap” template in stirring and unexpected ways. The plot beats are the stuff of high fiction, but the behaviors of the humans caught up in it all are beyond genuine. Utterly beautiful. I cried so hard.
8. Nightcrawler (dir. Dan Gilroy, 2014)
In a decade where we Americans are wrestling with what Capitalism looks like when left unchecked, prolific “co-writer” Dan Gilroy made his directorial debut with a tale of how our financial system can be perverted to benefit the greedy, furthermore serving as an excuse for their selfish misdeeds. One of Bill Paxton’s last and most compelling performances, with two delicious, demented turns from
Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo. Nightcrawler rules.
7. Inside Llewyn Davis (dirs. Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, 2013)
A strong contender for the Coens’ best film. My read: It’s the story of what Joel or Ethan would do without the other at his side. A melancholy comedy that exhibits the blinding power of ego and the freedom of collaboration. Best soundtrack of the decade and maybe my life. Oscar Isaac has had quite the decade, and it’s his dark turn as a broken folk singer that emerges as the highlight. John Goodman’s return to the Coen cabal is one for the ages, and Adam Driver as an enthusiastic studio musician pretty much steals the whole show.
6. The Skin I Live In (dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 2011)
I love a Frankenstein story, and Almodovar’s surgical body horror film is perhaps my favorite riff on ol’ Frank since Jurassic Park. Bringing themes of gender, sexual entitlement, body identity, and criminal complicity together in service of uniquely structured, delectably paced thriller with a mindfuck of an ending, Almodóvar made the ultimate Almodóvar film. I don’t even think he knows it. The Skin I Live In is Almodóvar’s Haywire in that regard. Ugh, I hate that I wrote that nerdy ass sentence but I think it’s true! If you haven’t seen it, don’t let it be spoiled. The information release system is marvelous, and upon repeat viewings (when you know what’s really going on) you see how close to the chest Almodóvar didn’t play it. It’s the movie from this decade that has taken up the most real estate in my brain. I am haunted.
5. Creed (dir. Ryan Coogler, 2015)
My favorite franchise of all-time is Rocky. Equal parts good and bad, but unwavering in sheer earnestness. The metaphors are broad (work hard, the fight is more important than the win), and it drives them home with a sweat-drenched hammer. The franchise first “ended” in 2006 with Rocky Balboa, itself a perfect thematic finish to a series that ended on a bit of a whiff with Rocky V (an underrated whiff, mind you). Sylvester Stallone, whose unwillingness to give up rivals Rocky’s own, could finally put the creation that gave him his career to bed.
Or so we thought. Enter second-time feature filmmaker Ryan Coogler. He’s got his own script (this is the first time Stallone wasn’t credited as a writer for a Rocky flick), a killer soundtrack, and Michael B. Jordan, a star who seems capable of anything. Creed capitalizes on every piece of lunkhead thematics already in the franchise DNA and gives it modern resonance, partially through a new racial dynamic, and partially through a complete update on what “Philly” is (it’s no longer quite what it was back in Rocky’s heyday, for sure).
Against all odds, Creed is the best film in the series. Yes, even better than the original. And the fact that Stallone earned an Oscar nom for his return, only to lose it to a more deserving candidate (Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies) is downright poetic.
4. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2019)
Perhaps the most divisive movie of the decade outside of Joker, which has yet to inspire a single act of violence (sorry to disappoint, Film Twitter), but that divisiveness is a lot of the fun. Broadly appealing movies tend to lack soul, an ingredient that Tarantino’s latest (and potential best) has in droves. A mix of true-ish crime, revisionist history, and old school panache, our resident Hollywood scholar has taken the pieces of a hugely transformative era in Tinseltown and reworked it into a neo-folk tale set in the auteur’s favorite sandbox. Tarantino’s craft has grown considerably, with the edges of his typically explicit presence sanded off, revealing a level of maturity that many thought never possible from the brain that conjured “Buck who likes to fuck.”
Career best work from Pitt and DiCaprio, a soundtrack to die for, and a breezy feeling that never lets up. Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood is one of few movies of its length that I could’ve sat through several more hours of. A masterpiece.
3. Under the Skin (dir. Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
I just wrote a big piece on this one! Check it out for my full thoughts! For this blurb, I’ll just say this: Under the Skin is the scariest movie of the decade, hands down. I think about it daily, and I get chills every single time.
2. It Follows (dir. David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
I just wrote a big piece on this one too! Read it! I’d say this is the most misunderstood movie of the decade for sure. While most assume it’s about STDs and sexual promiscuity, I must disagree. This is a horror movie about how life only comes with one guarantee: Death. With this decade being the one where I truly became an adult beyond the basic legal definition, I found comfort in It Follows. We are all being chased, and we will all be caught, but in the meantime we should team up and keep the specter of mortality at bay.
The score by Disasterpiece is an all-time fav, and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis makes a strong case for the artistic merit of widescreen digital filmmaking. Director David Robert Mitchell has remained pretty quiet about the film, choosing instead to let it speak for itself — an increasingly rare delight. It Follows is the best horror movie since Halloween, and a welcome addition to the “Dan watches this at least twice a year” club.
1. Swiss Army Man (dir. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2016)
This was a transformative decade for me, and honestly, it’s been as terrifying as it has been illuminating. I’ve been working on myself as best as I can, and in that regard Swiss Army Man came at the right time.
This is the only movie that ever had the balls to say to me “you need to take care of your mental health and it’s gonna be weird but that’s okay.” Beyond how much this movie means to me on a thematic level, it’s also a startling piece of film craft, and a total hoot to watch. I will never be above a good fart joke, and this movie is the best fart joke. I read an interview with Paul Dano in which he stated that when the directors approached him with the script, they stated that their goal was to make a movie where “the first fart makes you laugh and the last fart makes you cry.” Mission accomplished.
