OK kids, we are here!!! Close to the tip-top of my favorite films from the past decade and yes, it has been a long time coming after as the writing of this series is concerned. But, I am here and more than ready to dive in to the films that meant the absolute most to me over these last ten years. So...let's get to business.
20. "THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL" DIRECTED BY WES ANDERSON (2014)
It was such a masterfully stunning achievement! To think, after a more than illustrious career that included nothing less, but not limited to, "Rushmore" (1998), "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001), "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (2009) and "Moonrise Kingdom" (2012), Writer/Director Wes Anderson emerged with a film experience that eclipsed everything he had previously unveiled, so much so that all of his prior films felt like warm-ups to this one.
Starring a wonderful Ralph Finnes plus seemingly everyone who has ever made an appearance within a Wes Anderson film, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is a feast of a visual wonderland (I swear, every single frame of the film could exist as its own work of art to be displayed upon a wall) that s also a masterpiece of storytelling construction, plotting and most especially, language, a quality that made the film a sheer delight to just listen to as dialogue of this high quality is of such rarity.
This film is a succulent fantasia, a luxurious yarn that spans four time periods yet is largely set in the mythical Eastern European location of Zubrowka circa 1932, with the final glory days of the titular hotel as the focal point. For all of its whimsy and delight in a story that features a murder mystery, a stolen painting, prison escapes, ferocious villains, youthful romance, delectable baked goods, rapid snowy chases through the mountains, and the building friendship between the hotel's masterful concierge and a young immigrant/hotel Lobby Boy in training, Anderson houses a deeply melancholic tale, a mournful ache for the lost romance of a time, place and era and the relationships which shaped us therein. And in doing so, it is a film that is a love story to the art of storytelling itself and the storytellers who weave those very dreams that we are transfixed and transformed by.
Wes Anderson is unquestionably that type of a storyteller and his film, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is precisely, beautifully that type of a story.
(Originally reviewed March 2014)
19. "BRIDESMAIDS" DIRECTED BY PAUL FEIG (2011)
The best comedy of the decade.
Paul Feig, re-teaming with his "Freaks And Geeks" partner, Producer Judd Apatow and from a brilliantly conceived and deeply felt screenplay co-written by the film's star Kristin Wiig (who herself delivers a richly multi-layered performance) flew exceedingly far beyond just depicting women fronting a cheerfully vulgar and raucous hard R rated comedy that could get itself just as nasty as any male driven comedy released since John Landis' "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978).
Paul Feig, re-teaming with his "Freaks And Geeks" partner, Producer Judd Apatow and from a brilliantly conceived and deeply felt screenplay co-written by the film's star Kristin Wiig (who herself delivers a richly multi-layered performance) flew exceedingly far beyond just depicting women fronting a cheerfully vulgar and raucous hard R rated comedy that could get itself just as nasty as any male driven comedy released since John Landis' "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978).
For all of the copious and loud laughs (many of them arriving from Melissa McCarthy's star making, force of nature performance), what was achieved was a beautifully designed ode to the bonds of female friendships as Annie Walker (Wiig), a woman in early middle age now experiencing a downturn trajectory in her life who is now fearing the loss of her best friend Lillian Donovan (Maya Rudolph), who is about to get married and move permanently from Wisconsin to Illinois.
As with the very best films in the Apatow movie universe, "Bridesmaids" creates a story and full tapestry of characters that you love spending time with as much as the filmmakers and actors did themselves, while also valiantly leaping over every conceivable cliche in the romantic comedy genre. In doing so, Feig always finds the greater, and often more painful, truths which ensures that as wild as the film becomes (and often is), we are always witnessing a film about real people in real situations dealing with real emotions. And that is where "Bridesmaids" strikes gold over and again as it is a comedy that has the strength to be about failure, envy, jealousy, competition, self-loathing, insecurity, class warfare the clash of the person you once were and the person you are still wishing to become, and the difficulties of maintaining friendships as we age.
Paul Feig's "Bridesmaids" more than shook up the typically male driven adult comedy genre. This is the film that raised the bar.
(Originally reviewed May 2011)
Blistering, unrepentant and nuclear fueled, Martin Scorsese's rapacious satire, starring a sensationally mammoth performance from Leonardo DiCaprio as stockbroker Jordan Belfort, is one of the cinematic MASTER's two very best films since his now iconic "Goodfellas" (1990)--the other being his criminally undervalued and downright gorgeously artful children's fantasia "Hugo" (2011), but for me, this film does carry the edge.
Epic and sprawling, Scorsese's morality tale of the stupendous rise and spectacular fall of a young stockbroker who eventually builds his own firm and engages in rampant corruption and fraud, is a veritable blitzkrieg of a film experience. It moves like a cocaine injected rocket for its three bursting at the seams hours, as its take-no-prisoners aesthetics perfectly captures the enough is never enough/greed is GREAT mentality of its characters and is visualized via an ocean of mega-excess and Bacchanalian debauchery.
Yet, for all of the vulgarity and profanity on rampant display, what Scorsese has devised is a swan dive into the maelstrom of avarice, grossly disturbing opulence and over-consumption and male driven hubris of our society, which is then further contributing itself to our own societal spiritual decay with our increasing soullessness, and severe obsessions with fame at the expense of our own moral character and compassion. It is an extreme film for extreme times and as often laugh-out-loud as it is, "The Wolf Of Wall Street" is ultimately a tsunami of rage and sorrow at our own cultural downfall, and absolutely none of us are let off of the hook--as evidenced by the film's killer final shot.
Leonardo DiCaprio once again showcases why he is one of his generation's finest actors walking the planet. If you still do not believe that statement, just watch the sequence where he has to descend a flight of stairs while high on Quaaludes. That scene alone should have guaranteed him an Oscar!
(Originally reviewed December 2013)
DIRECTED BY ALEJANDRO G. INARRITU (2014)
This movie was high wire, virtuoso filmmaking that represented a career peak for Alejandro G. Inarritu. Visually dynamic, psychologically harrowing, euphorically self-congratulatory and fueled by a kinetic energy typically reserved for live theatrical performances, Inarritu's film, starring a riveting Michael Keaton as a former superhero movie box office champion who embarks upon a precarious career re-invention as a serious playwright/Director/actor is precisely the type of film that is impossible to ignore due to the audaciousness of its presentation and the intense commitment of every participant involved.
"Birdman," in addition to housing a collective of searing performances, all the way from the main top tier cast (which includes Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis, and Emma Stone) to momentary players (Bill Camp as a homeless man literally howling a soliloquy from Macbeth on the New York City streets is an intensely unforgettable sequence), as well as a staggeringly innovative drum score by Composer/musician Antonio Sanchez, Inarritu unveils his film through a series of dizzyingly complicated unbroken long takes, all of which contributes to the fever dream aspect as well as the feverish reverence of the entire enterprise during which one missed cue would unravel the complete experience...much like the sanity of Keaton's character.
In addition to existing as a wholly engaging backstage drama, Inarritu has fashioned what could be viewed as a dissertation about success and failure in the 21st century, a cultural commentary about the nature of truth and reality in our social media addicted age, the inspirational and destructive uses of the ego and hubris, plus the validity and existence (or non-existence) of art when superheroes and toys rule the day, therefore making the characters as well as all of us complicit in our artistic and societal downfall.
An electrifying experience without question.
(Originally reviewed November 2014)
(Originally reviewed November 2014)
By now, I am certain that you have seen this outstanding film, one that made the more than deserved victory lap at this year's Academy Awards by winning Best Foreign Film and Best Picture. But, to be fair and just in case, I will refrain from producing spoilers here.
Even so, what I feel more than comfortable expressing at this time is that Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" is an absolute masterpiece from top to bottom, inside and out. The film about two families (one wealthy, one poor) and what happens when they intersect, is meticulously conceived, written, acted and directed, making for a devilishly multi-layered feature that weaves a social/class satire, Hitchcock-ian thriller and a devastating morality tale together with superior cinematic storytelling skill.
What I loved the very most was how it is a wholly unpredictable film, a Pandora's Box of a story which is surprising in a way that I really haven't quite seen since Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994). And even further is Bong Joon-ho's visual poetry in which the gorgeously designed house of the wealthy family, with all of its sets of stairs--itself essentially another character within the film--serves as the film's commentary on class warfare resulting in an experience that is simultaneously claustrophobic and cavernous, intimate and universal, familiar and foreign, hilarious and horrifying.
(Originally reviewed November 2019)
My number one favorite film of 2019 easily made this compilation and even more than "Birdman," it was high wire filmmaking of the tallest order while elevating Herculean technique into elegant, muscular, magnificent cinematic poetry.
The deceptively simple story of two young British soldiers during World War I who are instructed to hand deliver a message to fellow troops informing them to not engage in a planned attack the following day as they will be ambushed is visualized through what feels to be two, extended and exquisitely delivered long takes, with no discernible editing whatsoever, thus presenting the harrowing journey essentially in real time to absolutely staggering effect.
But, Mendes far exceeds what could ave existed as an extremely well conceived and performed gimmick by ensuring the technique forged a perfect symmetry with the story and characters. In doing so, "1917" fully encapsulated the epic and the intimate, the mammoth and the minuscule, the personal and the universal in a tale of courage, dedication, determination, devastating loss and miraculous survival.
And with all due respect to Christopher Nolan's excellent "Dunkirk" (2017), Sam Mendes' "1917" is his finest hour as a filmmaker and it is the decade's finest war film.
(Originally reviewed January 2020)
(Originally reviewed January 2020)
Very recently, Edgar Wright celebrated the official 10th anniversary of the original release of this film and I am so happy that he did, for it was a game changer, a cinematic outlier during a decade in which the movies increasingly took less and less creative risks. Believe me, this film, was a dazzling one-of-a-kind experience that was proudly not for everyone's tastes yet for me, I was completely swept away within its audio/visual hyperkinetic frequency from the very first image to its last.
The story of the titular Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), a jobless, overly sensitive 22 year old musician and video game obsessive who grows infatuated with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the new American transplant into this snowy Canadian town but must defeat all seven of her "evil exes" in order to win her heart is a kaleidoscopic amalgamation of comic book mythology, melancholy love stories, video game pyrotechnics, rapid fire dialogue, quicksilver martial arts battles and sonic blasts of indie rock music, all of which is augmented by some of the most imaginative visual effects of the decade hands down!!! Truly a marvel as this film arrived during our time period in film in which special effects are everywhere, therefore not making them remotely special anymore.
Beyond the orgiastic aesthetics, Edgar Wright has fashioned a deeply perceptive narrative about a collective of media saturated, emotionally guarded young people who all utilize their ironic poses and faux jadedness as shields to protect their hearts from emotional wounds, especially within romance. Scott Pilgrim takes this notion to the extreme as he essentially views existence as a video game and the journey he takes in the one where he slowly begins to not only embrace his humanity but his impending adulthood.
There is no middleground with a film like this one. You either go with the ride or you don't. And for me, and in a career as audacious as Edgar Wright's, this film is his very best.
(Originally reviewed August 2010)
(Originally reviewed August 2010)
Literally, just two hours before writing these words, the absolutely devastating news arrived that Chadwick Boseman had passed away at the age of only 43 after a battle with colon cancer. It is news that upended me for a variety of reasons but for the purposes of this entry, it is firmly because he fully embodied the role of our King T'Challa, our Black Panther, OUR SUPERHERO.
Representation means absolutely everything and within the predominantly White comic book movie genre, where Black characters are typically relegated to supporting roles or others that exist upon the fringes, Ryan Coogler's "Black Panther," gave us the very best film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as this was the first Marvel film that was actually about something greater than heroes and villains.
"Black Panther" is a film proudly about Black excellence and nationalism, where the pride and inspiration of who we are as a race is found in a dream vision of our own ascension. By giving us the fictional African landscape of Wakanda, we were presented a world of Afro-futurism, an African dreamscape, a land and population of characters that passionately asks the question of what would have become of Black people had we not been colonized. In doing so, Coogler also sets up a conflict between the Africans who exist within Wakanda and the African-Americans who have been denied inherent birthrights, most notably our culture and ancestry, due to enslavement. This conflict is then played out brilliantly between the film's African-American antagonist, Erik "Killmonger" Stevens (a searing Michael B. Jordan) and the African T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the new young King of Wakanda and of course, the superhero Black Panther himself, in a battle that pits the African dream against the painful Black reality.
Ryan Coogler has miraculously taken the product that is the Marvel movie and created an impassioned personal statement that houses a labyrinthine display of details placed into the iconography, languages, clothing, symbols, customs, tribal markings, and music. Additionally, he also challenged the Hollywood and cultural beauty stereotypes and standards by showcasing a collective of brilliant, beautiful and formidable DARK skinned Black women in major roles and without any sense of sexual objectification and celebrated for their bravery, loyalty, intelligence and nobility.
And most of all, it is a film of legacy and how our young King leans about what it means to be a King, how to become a King and how to step into the metaphorical shoes of those who stood before him while also charting his own path. Chadwick Boseman's now iconic performance exudes strength, grace and yes, a certain royalty as we journey with him through comic book adventure and the classic hero mythology while he, and the film, first and foremost, represented everything that we could become and everything we already are.
Rest In Power, my King.
(Originally reviewed February 2018)
The most recent entry upon this list and after seeing it, it would have been impossible to have this list without it.
Trey Edward Shults' sprawling, gorgeously filmed and emotionally wrenching drama of an affluent African-American family enduring a devastating downward spiral and ensuing rebuilding after a family tragedy is a voluminously immersive and emotionally up ending experience that finds the epic within the smallest moments, the individualistic motivations of one while exploring the connections and fault lines within a family unit, demonstrating how lives, so narrow in focus, implode upon themselves only to find themselves reconfigured into an entirely new entity.
"Waves" is an extended tone poem of a film, where the dialogue is scant and the audio/visual aesthetics serve as the engine to the film's meticulous, masterful storytelling, which possesses captivatingly insightful multi-layers that consistently enhance the film's inherent drama, which includes, but is not limited to, a fiercely primal Father/son study, as well as individualistic and generational racial trauma as it relates to Black manhood and the subjugation of Black male emotions.
Yet, keep your eyes upon Taylor Russell, who is the film's secret weapon as the daughter in the family. She is a quiet force of nature so powerful that the film would unravel without her.
(Originally reviewed August 2020)
The inimitable Spike Lee unleashed his 1970's period drama/police thriller/social satire/cultural commentary hybrid directly into the eye of the hurricane that is 21st century American society under President Donald Trump and the result was one of his most exhilarating, essential "joints" as it expertly merged and mirrored past and present with explosive precision.
Based upon the bizarre but true story of the first Black detective in the Colorado Springs police department (played by John David Washington) who infiltrates a local chapter of the KKK via clever code switching on the telephone and through the visual presence of his Jewish partner (played by Adam Driver).
Fully provocative, confrontational, ingenious, soulful, disturbing and enraging, "BlacKKKlansman," is yet another cinematic experience that showcases how Spike Lee remains one of our most fair minded directors as well as being a brilliant visual stylist, historian and storyteller. I deeply appreciated how he humanized the members of the KKK, when he could have made them cartoonish villains. By doing so, Lee expertly compared and contrasted the juxtapositions between the Civil Rights issues of the Black Power Movement and therefore, the venomous White nationalism of the KKK. Lee displayed the love that exists inside of the hate and fear of the KKK as well as the self-love that is designed to empower a race that is discriminated against.
Spike Lee delves deeper into the personal as John David Washington's character, dealing with the institutionalized racism of the police department, does find his own sense of racial complacency challenged as does Adam Driver's character, who essentially exists in a performance housed inside of another performance, so as to not be discovered as being Jewish by the KKK, forcing him to re-evaluate his own self-perception and the racism he can choose to ignore or not due to the color of his skin.
Again, Spike Lee is imploring us, furiously demanding of us to get our faces right into the filth of racism in order to understand the parallels between what was and what is at this point in our collective history. In doing so, "BlacKKKlansman" is an engaging, infuriating slow burn of a film, one that as soon as it is ignited, we are all caught in the fray.
(Originally reviewed August 2018)
COMING SOON: THE TOP TEN!!!
