Top Ten 2010s... So Far
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 10:30PM 
I just spent 108 minutes catching up with Jesse and Celine. We've met them twice Before... and I spent the first 2/3rds of the movie grinning like a damn fool I was so happy to be marinating in their always passionate detour-filled conversations. It's too early to say how much I loved the movie (though I did) but it got me to thinking what an achievement this series is and got me to thinking of true movie magic and how much of it we've had lately. So while so many of my fellow critics enjoy their mad rush through Auteursville at Cannes tonight I'm remembering the time I fell in love with this movie...
...and that one
...and that one
...and that one.
Here's my ten favorite movies of the 'Teens (2010-2019) ... so far of course
the bonafide masterpieces -it'd be tough to imagine them not being on the decade best list 6 years from now
1. I Am Love (Luca Guadagnini)
2. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
3. The Social Network (David Fincher)
indelible achievements
4. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
5. The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko)
6. Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance)
movie magic
7. Amour (Michael Haneke)
8. The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
9. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)
and?
10 ... let's leave this spot open for a current passion since this list is silliness until 2019 rolls around. How will Frances Ha and Before Midnight age? They'll certainly make my top ten list this year. And if they don't this will be a startlingly fine year.
And while I still have your attention you should "like" The Film Experience
Honorable Mention: Beginners, Weekend, Magic Mike, and Moonrise Kingdom
Growing?: Blue Valentine and The Fighter and Melancholia are aging well
Fading?: I admit my initial passions for both Black Swan and The Artist have cooled a bit.
Which films this young decade have already staked a claim on your 4ever heart?
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The Masterpieces:
A Separation
Amour
Toy Story 3
The Tree of Life
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Weekend
Most Rewatchable
Bridesmaids
How to Train Your Dragon
Underrated
Young Adult
Animal Kingdom
Need a Rewatch to Confirm Initial Suspicions of Greatness: Cloud Atlas, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Artist, Mother
Bubbling Under: Magic Mike, Moonrise Kingdom, The Illusionist, Drive, Melancholia, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Help
Fading: Inception, True Grit
Growing: Beginners, The Social Network, The Kids Are All Right
My list (it's not very unique, but all are very close to my heart!)
FOR THE ALL-TIME LISTS (A+)
01. The Tree of Life
02. The Social Network
MASTERPIECE (?) (A)
03. Holy Motors
BRILLIANT! (the positions are interchangeable, based on my mood) (A)
04. Oslo, August 31st
05. Drive
06. A Separation
07. Amour
08. Upstream Color
AND THE REST (not sure which two fill the remaining slots) (all are A-)
Stories We Tell
Inception
Dogtooth
Everyone Else
Blue Valentine
Black Swan
A Prophet
Certified Copy
Melancholia
Margaret
Hugo
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Weekend
Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Master
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Dark Knight Rises
Rust & Bone
The Kid with a Bike
In no order:
The Social Network
True Grit
Black Swan (or maybe Another Year)
The Tree of Life
A Separation
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Zero Dark Thirty
The Master
Beasts of the Southern Wild (or maybe Moonrise Kingdom)
Beyond the Hills
Without allowing myself to think too much or second guess my choices....
(In alpha order because there's already too much pressure)
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Black Swan
Blue Valentine
Bridesmaids
Drive
The Help
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Please Give
The Social Network
Weekend
Alternates: Amour, Animal Kingdom, Argo, Moneyball, ParaNorman
Confession: I almost included Easy A because it is easily the movie I've re-watched the most since its release. I think it's hilarious and that Emma Stone's performance deserved a lot more attention.
In no particular order:
Drive
Middle of Nowhere
Melancholia
Attack the Block
The Social Network
A Separation
Tree of Life
Black Swan
Wreck It Ralph
A Royal Affair
@Nat: Lonergan's scenes are the weakest of the film and do invite a sense of self-aggrandization, but they don't take away from the experience for me.
Watching Margaret with its obvious stitchwork led to a film whose intensity wasn't marred by or diluted with standard filmmaking practices; it's like seeing an Alexander McQueen where the beauty of the piece is entirely that you can see the emotion seething off of it, like a feeling brought to a boil.
1. The Social Network (A)
2. Drive (A)
3. Blue Valentine (A)
4. Melancholia (A)
5. Zero Dark Thirty (A)
6. A Seperation (A-)
7. The Ghost Writer (A-)
8. I Am Love (A-)
9. The Fighter (A-)
10. Magic Mike (A-)
Oh, Liam and Keelay! You are my heroes for mentioning Fast Five and Easy A. These kind of movies always get left out of top 10 lists.
Quickly, in no order, for pure, long-lasting, cinematic experience, I have to go with:
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
A Separation
Take Shelter
Life of Pi
Restrepo
Winter's Bone
Toy Story 3
Looper
Bully
Order's liable to change any given period of 10 seconds, but for now:
10. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
9. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)
8. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
7. Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh)
6. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
5. Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
4. Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
3. The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet)
2. Weekend (Andrew Haigh)
1. White Material (Claire Denis)
I'm often several years behind on catching up to the most notable films, so I can't judge many of the movies mentioned here. But I can say with certainty that Zero Dark Thirty and The Social Network will make my Top Ten of this decade. Both are timeless masterworks. Possibly making the list -- Life of Pi and Lincoln.
Crap, I came up with mine some time ago and forgot it. Okay, let's try it, in no particular order.
The Kid with a Bike
Take Shelter
A Separation
The Master
The Tree of Life
Certified Copy
Mother
Greenberg
Before Midnight
The Skin I Live In
1-The Social Network
2-Never Let Me Go
3-The Tree of Life
4-Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
5-Melancholia
6-Anna Karenina
7-Black Swan
8-Holy Motors
9-Rabbit Hole
10-Another Year
Honourable Mentions: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Take Shelter, The Master, Cosmopolis, Incendies
Very glad to see your top ten list because these movies are awesome (except for Drive). I don't think that 2010 was anyhow exceptional, but some good quality pieces appeared indeed. One of my personal stars was Insidious by director James Wan.
And don't forget about not so highlighted yet important protest films scene. There are many movies you should see.
In no particular order:
Winter's Bone
Skyfall
Haywire
Anna Karenina
Prometheus
Lincoln
Holy Motors
Farewell my Queen
Nothing however, has managed to displace Women on the Verge as my favorite film of all time (closely followed by Some Like it Hot).
Yaxley: Which Dragon Girl? I like both, but prefer the Swedish.
Two foreign language films have lodged in my brain: Poetry and A Separation. Filling out the rest of the list would be too haphazard for me and I have to think about Amour a little more.
One of the reason I like The Tree of Life so much is because it aims so high and it connects more often than not. I guess I admire that more than movies that have perfect, but lower, aim.
It's always hard with more recent films because opinions can shift so radically over time. But for right now:
01. Tree of Life
02. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
03. The Turin Horse
04. Melancholia
05. Moonrise Kingdom
06. To the Wonder
07. Toy Story 3
08. Cosmopolis
09. Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
10. A Separation
One of the best movies I've seen this decade was a Swedish film called PLAY, which I saw at Toronto in 2011. It played the New York Film Festival and a number of others but has inexplicably gone without US distribution so far, which is truly unfortunate.
In no order:
The Master
Zero Dark Thirty
It's Such a Beautiful Day
A Separation
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Melancholia
Tree of Life
The Kid with a Bike
Incendies
Marwencol
Others (and a lot of these also involve how many times I want to re-visit/re-watch these movies): Certified Copy, The Interrupters, Like Someone in Love, This is Not a Film, The Color Wheel, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Moonrise Kingdom, 21 Jump Street, Terri, Tabu, Holy Motors, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Black Swan, Spring Breakers, Killing Them Softly, Attack the Block, The Illusionist, Warrior, The Fighter, True Grit, Four Lions, Carlos, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Chronicle, Poetry, Damsels in Distress, Top of the Lake, Take Shelter, The Social Network, Captain America: The First Avenger, Margaret, Cosmopolis, Pariah, Magic Mike, Not Fade Away, Lincoln, Rango, No, Of Gods and Men, Sightseers, Wisdom Teeth (short), Heartbeats, Laurence Anyways, This is England '86, and This is England '88.
Don't know how to get it to 10 out of these 12 - Drive, Young Adult, Beginners, Scott Pilgrim, Easy A, I Am Love, The Social Network, Moonrise Kingdom, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Melancholia, Black Swan, The Ghost Writer. Which would be my 10 out of those 12 would likely depend on my mood that day.
If we're going by US release dates...
1. The Ghost Writer
2. The Tree of Life
3. Vincere
4. The Kid with a Bike
5. Margaret
6. Weekend
7. Everyone Else
8. Melancholia
9. Let Me In
10. A Separation
Nathaniel - sorry, I was felling a little dictatorial this morning....it's just that I love The Tree of Life so much! It's perfect to me in many aspects! enough already, we can agree to disagree... but I really think you should see it one more time, so you can see that I'm right, kkk, I kid, I kid! here's hoping that Gravity blow us away big time so that our number one can be the same ;
1. Beginners (A+) - A perfect film
2. Dogtooth (A) - The first viewing simply blew me away
3. Blue Valentine (A) - So raw, so real. And Michelle...
4. Young Adult (A-) - People didn't get that movie
5. A Prophet (A-) - Audiard simply gets cinema
6. House of Tolerence (A-) - I have to rewatched it but it is growing on me
7. Black Swan (B+) - great rollercoaster
8. Drive (B+) - same
9. Searching for Sugar Man (B+) - in the top 10 simply because I bawled for 30 minutes
10. The Impostor (B+) - very good construction
I already posted 10, but I can't believe I didn't even remember Animal Kingdom when making the list. So good and definitely worthy of the list. Also, depending on the day Toy Story 3 could maybe make it.
I also want to say that I'm glad I'm not the only person to put Bridesmaids. For me, it's one of the most rewatchable, but also has so much to say about depression and it hits really close to home for me. There's such heart to that film it actually makes me emotional when watching it. So I'm glad I'm not the only person who seemed to enjoy it that much.
Films that I LOVED and have already faded for me ... Precious, The Artist.
My favorites:
1. Holy Motors
2. A Separation
3. Certified Copy
4. The Story of Film: An Odyssey
5. Weekend
6. Toy Story 3
7. The Trip
8. Moonrise Kingdom
9. The Illusionist
10. Midnight in Paris
I know I'm super late to the post, but, eh, why not.
Ghost Writer
The Kids Are All Right
Winter's Bone
Beginners
Moneyball
Midnight In Paris
Drive
Perks of Being a Wallflower
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Cloud Atlas
The Help
Just missed: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,True Grit, Cabin in the Woods
Growing on me: The Master
Fading: Social Network, Django Unchained, Lincoln
Travis -- you're not super late. it's only the next day ;) happy to see all these lists
Philip H -- horrified that i also forgot ANIMAL KINGDOM!
My Top Ten list:
1. Shame
2. Of Gods And Men
3. The Master
4. Weekend
5. Les Miserables
6. The Social Network
7. Life In A Day
8. Django Unchained
9. Animal Kingdom
10. Fish Tank
This alters a lot, aside from my #1...
1) The Social Network (the first true masterpiece of this generation and still the best)
2) Beginners
3) Mysteries of Lisbon
4) Declaration of War
5) Blue Valentine (moved up for me, thanks to Toy Story 3 overkill in my house)
6) Beasts of the Southern Wild
7) A Separation
8) Tomboy
9) Toy Story 3 (a moderate slip in the ranks, but I still adore this movie)
10) Moonrise Kingdom
2010 holds my favorite of the decade, but as a whole I found it to be a rather weak year in comparison to 2011, which was sensational. Drive just misses here (my #5 of 2011). I've yet to see Amour, so I'm not 100% on 2012, but with Declaration of War, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Moonrise Kingdom and Rust + Bone feeling like true masterpieces to me, this has been an incredible year for film that may even top 2011 when I'm done processing it all.
Henry - David Fincher's Dragon Tattoo :)
Best of 2010 - May, 2013:
01. THE TREE OF LIFE
02. WEEKEND
03. DOGTOOTH
04. THE SOCIAL NETWORK
05. BLACK SWAN
06. AMOUR
07. A SEPARATION
08. THE ARTIST
09. BEGINNERS
10. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
Runner-ups: THE MASTER, FISH TANK, I AM LOVE, BLUE VALENTINE, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Las Acacias
Another Year
Enter the Void
The Kid with a Bike
Like Someone in Love
Margaret
Moonrise Kingdom
Rust and Bone
A Separation
Shutter Island
This might be the toughest list so far!
10. Animal Kingdom
9. Tron: Legacy
8. Holy Motors
7. Exit Through the Gift Shop
6. Melancholia
5. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
4. The Master
3. The Social Network
2. Shame
1. Inception
I realize I'm a bit late but some titles that stick out in my mind, unordered, include:
Lawrence Anyways
Aurora
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
The Turin Horse
Wild Grass
Century of Birthing
White Material
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Slow Action
No
Black Swan is in my top three of all time!
It is that good, and Portman's performance is one for the ages
When is this going to be updated? :D