Our final ranking in this endeavour leaves us with 15 more truly excellent films and an over-abundance in the honourable mentions. I was about to say that I hope you enjoy reading through this list as much as I enjoyed compiling it, but I enjoyed absolutely nothing about having to cut a list of 50 incredible films down to 15 (hence the honourable mentions, I just couldn’t bring myself to excise them entirely).
15. Shame (McQueen, 2011)
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Steve McQueen's mediation on the nature of addiction,
specifically here sex addiction, is a brutal and harrowing film that you can’t
take your eyes off of. For me this is still McQueen’s best film and it’s a true
testament to the film and the filmmaking that I keep returning to it, despite
the deep suffering that is on display. Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan
both offer us the best work of each of their careers, exploring deep sadness,
depression and anxiety all through the lens of a brother-sister relationship.
Both are going through terrible things in their lives and both need each other
the most they ever have, but just can’t let each other in. A very moving and powerful
piece of film, not for the faint hearted (graphic sex-wise speaking).
14. Blade Runner 2049 (Villeneuve, 2017)
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I’m just gonna say it, for me there is ultimately no doubt that this is a superior film to the original Blade Runner in almost every way. Nobody can take away from the original and it’s groundbreaking direction and visuals, but if we break it down I just see that there’s no debate. The performances here are superior, including Ford. Again, nobody is taking away from Rutger Haur’s seminal performance, but that is undoubtedly the best part of that film, whereas here in Blade Runner 2049 we have so much more to celebrate. Villeneuve further solidifies himself as the second greatest director of the decade, with this being his undisputed masterpiece. The peak of modern sci-fi at current.
13. Inside Llewyn Davis (The Coen brothers, 2013)
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The Coen’s offer us yet another beautiful, comedic, dramatic
period piece exploring an abundant amount of themes whilst always keeping you
wholly entertained, all to the extent of them making it look deftly effortless.
Inside Llewyn Davis is just yet another prime example
of their supreme talent, taking us on another odyssey, similar to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but here there is no such
broad comedy and slapstick – here we are delving into the desperation of a man
who’s just trying to catch his break. As that man, Oscar Isaac, is great giving
many differing musical performances that each garner a separate emotion from
the audience, varying from very funny comedy to simply heartbreaking material.
A true Oscar travesty is the complete lack of nominations, bar two very well
deserved nominations for sound-mixing and Bruno Delbonnel’s astounding cinematography
work.
12. Blue Jasmine (Allen, 2013)
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The Woody love-fest continues on this week with yet another masterpiece, this time the truly exceptional 'Blue Jasmine' starring the truly exceptional Cate Blanchett, along with the truly exceptional Alec Baldwin. This film is quite simply truly exceptional, there’s just no way around it. It’s my second favourite Woody film. Woody offers you yet another excellent script and some of the most subtly genius direction of our time, but Blanchett steals the show. This is her movie and her Jasmine will go down in the history of performances for all time, along with Woody’s incredible role going down as one of the best characters ever.
11. The Irishman (Scorsese, 2019)
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Many have commented on how it’s astounding that Martin Scorsese is still making true masterpieces in the world of cinema, but it really doesn’t surprise me anymore, and I can feel safe sitting down for Scorsese film knowing that if not a masterpiece, I will certainly receive a film of immense and triumphant quality, The Irishman is such a film of immense and triumphant quality, another true masterpiece. The triptych of De Niro, Pacino and Pesci brings us once more into the world of the mafia through Scorseses’s lens, but here we remain long after the end of a Casino or Goodfellas, we remain to see the true effect of what goes on after the cameras cuts in those films. Where a hit took sometimes a minute in those films, we remain and we see the painstaking planning and take about fifty minutes and the film is all the more devastating because of it.
10. Gone Girl (Fincher, 2014)
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The first of two Fincher releases on this list, this perverse psychological thriller is a welcome return to the long missing sub-genre of the erotic thriller. Here we have a more than worthy return with echoes of the genre classics such as Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, but fundamentally develops its own version even more delicately and truthfully disturbing with the sort of ending that you still don’t see coming although it’s really the only ending that there can be. Gillian Flynn does a marvellous job of adapting her own novel to the screen and developing a fervent and terrific screenplay that deals with drama and tension precisely and with Fincher further removes a single element of fat. Ben Affleck is so perfectly cast as Nick Dunne that the film more so becomes a piece of social commentary on his place in film and his celebrity, as well as being a marvellous thriller. But Rosamund Pike is the winner here, as Amy Dunne, the greatest villain of the decade in such a truly exceptional performance that I am ever surprised that she’s not the biggest actress in the world right now.
9. O.J: Made in America (Edelman, 2016)
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8. Her (Jonze, 2013)
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This beautiful romance written and directed by Spike Jonze follows Theodore as he traverses a new love with a computer operating system in the not so distant future. This powerful elegy on the nature of relationships and perhaps even the futility of a perfect love, is a thoughtful and enlightening piece of film and writing that has the complete control to depict certain scenes that could be played for comedy in so many films and yet the possible humour never crosses our minds. One of the most subtly brilliant films of the decade, actually, the film’s brilliance isn’t subtle at all, it’s rather clear as you are watching it that the film is a fury of talent and excellence with the ability to warm the coldest heart and leave you praying for the possibility of connection to this day.
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher, 2011)
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Another Fincher and another Mara film for the list. For me this is the most underrated David Fincher of all time and maybe his second best next to Zodiac. It’s such an impeccably made sprawling feature that just defies every rule and succeeds in doing so. For me this is just leaps and bounds above its original Swedish counterpart, from casting to script, but chiefly in direction and editing. The film is just short of three hours and in what seems to be a common theme for this list, flies by without ever even contemplating boring you. The overall atmosphere so totally consumes you that you find yourself unable to leave the cold and tight grasp of a master film-maker.
6. Phantom Thread (Anderson, 2017)
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It’s writing essays like this that make me consider whether or not this decade or the previous could go up against the 70s, still the greatest decade for film that there has ever been. Paul Thomas Anderson, my favourite director delivers yet another bloody masterpiece as if it is all that he knows to do. This time it’s Phantom Thread, the story of Reynolds Woodcock, a 1950s London fashion designer and renowned dressmaker who falls in love with Alma, both played respectably by Daniel Day Lewis and Vicky Krieps, both on such marvellous form that it begs the question of Oscar (but we know that Anderson has been snubbed to an ungodly level, it’s old news, but it never doesn’t make it annoying). Lesley Manville steals the show as the sublime Cyril, a character of such devious creation that you long for more time with her, but precision is key here and every frame and every hair is perfect and every second is worth it.
5. Marriage Story (Baumbach, 2019)
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One of the most beautifully devastating films of our era; Noah Baumbachs’s magnum opus focuses in on Charlie and Nicole Barber as they divorce, based in large part by his own admission on his experience divorcing Jennifer Jason leigh in 2013. Leigh has reportedly seen the film and liked it, which I think says more than any review ever could, because Baumbach doesn’t make Charlie an angel, nor does he make Nicole an unbelievable'bitch'. Naturally there is a distance as the film isn’t wholly non-fictional, but the film is so poetically truthful in it’s pain and forces us an audience to sit and grin and bear through a truly emotionally wrenching experience. Early in the film Adam Driver’s Charlie leaves the cinema with his son, who comments that the film made him cry “four times”. Whether by design or not, I had four separate occasions of balling the first time I saw the film and have been crying at every screening since.
4. The Master (Anderson, 2012)
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There has been no better duo on a film screen in the past ten years. This is Hoffman’s best. This is Joaquin’s best, Joker be damned. We understand the stretches that these two incredible actors are making to make this story plausible and wholly realistic. The immense power and fury in both lead’s astounds me every time I see the film and the early scene shared between them rightly ranks amongst the greatest of all time, never mind this decade. What can I do but bow down to the Paul Thomas Anderson’s sheer brilliance and pure genius. An incredible mediation of faith and a man’s place in the world.
3. Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood (Tarantino, 2019)
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2019 was an absolute banner year for film in my eyes and I
could have had many different films form the year on this list, but really had
to compartmentalise a possible recency bias however Irishman, Marriage Story and my third choice from the year, Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood are all
so bloody excellent that they had to be on this list and they certainly deserve
to be. Hollywood is in my opinion
Tarantino’s greatest effort, a far more mature work it could be said for his oeuvre,
with one of the most painfully haunting and beautiful endings that I have seen in some time. But Tarantino does naturally
relish and give us some of the most of that what we want, excellent extended dialogue
scenes, scenes of horrific and entertaining violence and indelibly
unforgettable characters.
2. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (Inarritu, 2014)
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The biggest Oscar travesty in recent memory for me, in the hands of Keaton, this film soars and with the context we know about his own career, he breathes great life into the film just by starring in it. But he does by no means rest upon his laurels, making you never really sure whether or not you should be laughing with hysterics of cringing or averting your eyes. But to avert your eyes from this film, would be truly impossible it seems. Inarritu’s film simply soars, pardon the pun.
1. 45 years (Haigh, 2015)
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Hands down the greatest performance in recent memory for me, male or female. Talk about subtlety? The quality of this film and this performance sneaks up on you through the film and for so long after it. During it, you can see the pain behind the eyes, but by the final shot you see a masterpiece of a performance in one real-time slow zoom in. After the film you consider how great it was, but just like that zoom in, it holds and remains until you realise that this is one of the better films of the decade and perhaps of the past 25 years. And that’s because of Rampling. Incredible Rampling. For me this was the first film I wrote down for this list, it has always been my number 1, and will I feel, remain that way forever, as it slowly climbs further and further up my top films of all time.
Second tier honourable mentions: Blue Valentine, Moneyball, Midnight in Paris, The Lincoln Lawyer, Bridesmaids, The Ides of march, You’re Next, The Muppets, 21 Jump Street, Killing Them Softly, Django Unchained, Philomena, Whiplash, La La Land, The Guest, Calvary, It Follows, Slow West, Logan, Silence, Nocturnal Animals, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, The Old Man and The Gun, Ghost Story.
Top tier honourable mentions: Prisoners, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Social Network, Drive, The Wolf of Wall Street, Knives Out, The Descendents, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, Jackie, The Beguiled, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Hereditary, First Man, Shutter Island, Paddington 2, Spotlight, The Guest, Sicaro, Steve Jobs, The Witch, Everybody Wants Some, The Nice Guys, Nocturnal Animals, Parasite, JoJo Rabbit, Uncut Gems.
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And so concludes this entire multiple week running endeavour. 8 rankings, over a 100 films ranked, over 250 more in the honourable mentions. You need never be lost for what to watch again, I hope. It has been my absolute pleasure to guide through this past century or so of film, or at least my view of it from above.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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