SAVAGE CINEMA TIME CAPSULE: TOP 50 FAVORITE MOVIES FROM 2010-2019-AN INTERLUDE

 I have found myself in a little bit of a quandary.

As I have been counting down (or is it up?) my favorite 50 films within the decade of 2010-2019, I realized very early on that I had one to two films too many upon the list and for the life of me, I could not devise a way to edit them entirely. Honestly,  just couldn't!! The films in question just had to be a part of the list. And of course, invariably, I thought of some more and then, I saw a film just one week ago that had to be there and...you get the picture.

Granted, this list is my own and no one else's and I can do with it what I please. I have no editors breathing down my neck and the only member of Savage Cinema I have to answer to is myself. Even so, I did want to keep the list to what I had envisioned--mostly, to keep myself in check and not get too terribly carried away. 

So...I do have a kind of a cheat...sort of.

At the conclusion of my third installment, on which I stopped with George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015), I gave it the spot of "20 1/2," the space before the official Top 20 films. And that is where this interlude will take place, a middle-ground between the first 30 films mentioned and the final set of 20. Now, let me inform you that this is not a hefty list but one that does possess a certain symetry between the films listed here. You will see what I mean...

"SKYFALL" DIRECTED BY SAM MENDES (2012)
Who knew that Sam Mendes, Director of the bleak interpersonal dramas "American Beauty" (1999) and "Revolutionary Road" (2008), would ultimately be the very filmmaker to helm the very best James Bond adventure that I have ever seen? 

 Yes indeed! For me, Mendes' "Skyfall" was the film to humanize the iconic superspy in a fashion previously unseen but clearly had been building upwards since Director Martin Campbell's excellent, if a tad overlong, "Casino Royale" (2006) and Director Marc Forster's visually stylish, yet a tad undercooked, "Quantum Of Solace" (2008). For "Skyfall," here was James Bond fully rebuilt as a human being, a flesh and blood man dealing with the aging process and filled with foibles and failings, existing in a story that is fueled not by a villain ready to take over the world (again) but with a furiously urgent interpersonal quality that actually dared to involve audiences with the characters as people as much as being awed by the superior action film spectacle.

As much as Mendes does ensure that "Skyfall" is a feast for the eyes, what makes the film pulsate vibrantly is the core relationship between Bond (Daniel Craig, powerfully owning the role), and MI6 Head Commander M (Judi Dench) and how it is affected by the film's formidable foe played by Javier Bardem. To that end, we are additionally given a film in which Bond and M are each confronting a sense of irrelevancy in a world veering faster into a greater technological age--especially evidenced during the film's outstanding climax which nearly eschews all of the classic Bond technology in favor of something more akin to a Western--which then makes for an experience in which honest existential questions of mortality serve as the film beating heart and dark soul.
(Originally reviewed November 2012)

The "MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE" film series

"MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-GHOST PROTOCOL"  DIRECTED BY BRAD BIRD (2011)
"MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-ROGUE NATION" DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER McQUARRIE (2015)
"MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-FALLOUT"  DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER McQUARRIE (2018)

Even better than "Skyfall," were a trio of films in an on-going film series, which did achieve the overall...ahem...mission of their titles. Tom Cruise's continuing globe trotting adventures of secret agent Ethan Hunt and his crack team of secret agent specialists performed precisely the most impossible feat of relatively any aging film series: each installment was increasingly better than the one before, in terms of creativity, storytelling, execution, and even box office.

This is exactly what aging film series are decidedly not supposed to do. By the sixth film, it should all be old hat and shameless money grabs. But, Cruise, working with Directors Brad Bird and now, Christopher McQuarrie (who has committed to directing installments 7 & 8 back-to-back, pandemic permitting) has deliriously committed himself--all the way to performing the lion's share of his own death defying stunt work himself--to ensuring that every installment more than delivers the goods in good old fashioned popcorn movie entertainment from tight plotting, a collective of characters that we have firmly latched ourselves onto and again, one beautifully, ingeniously imagined set piece after another after another after another that performs the very feat that is actually in short supply these days: the fully breathless, awe-struck, jaw dropping reaction of "HOW DID THEY DO THAT???"

Not every movie needs to be the one that changes the world, re-invents the wheel or speaks profoundly to the human condition. That being said, there is always the presence of great art to be found in grand entertainment created at the height of the powers of everyone involved. No matter how one feels about Tom Cruise, it can never be said that he is coasting upon his considerable legend and celebrity. With this series, he is taking his creativity to the wall, leaping superlatively over that wall and then, finding an even greater wall to leap over once again.
(Originally reviewed February 2012/August 2015/July 2018)

"INSIDE OUT" DIRECTED BY PETE DOCTOR (2015)

I have to confess that this film was in the Top 20 until I felt the need to make some serious and hard fought re-adjustments to the list overall, and believe me, it hurt to leave this one off of the final 20.

But that being said, "Inside Out" is a dream of a film, a nearly impossible feat as the story about the inner world of a 12 year old girl emotionally adjusting to a new move for her family, with the likes of Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Anger (Lewis Black) as visual representations of her emotions, was the Pixar Animation Studios finest film of the decade by a wide mile  (especially as the rest of their output over these last ten years have been largely over stuffed with commercially driven yet unimaginative sequels) and unquestionably, their very best film since their creative zenith which brought us nothing less than Brad Bird's "Ratatouille" (2007), Andrew Stanton's "Wall-E" (2008) and Pete Doctor's "Up" (2009).

What a miraculous, magical film this is. One that combines the arcane with the accessible, the complex and the sublime and a film that will mean different things to different viewers of differing ages as well as being the very type of film one can also grow with, our relationship with it also altering and evolving as we age. For what is "Inside Out" but a film about the brain, a work that possesses feelings about feelings, memories, imagination, growing up and the continuous building of our own emotional vocabulary.   

Furthermore, it is also a film that boldly forces us to examine ourselves, and our relationship with children, as to the futile nature of requiring ourselves to forever being in a state of happiness when our emotions our instructing us otherwise. That sadness is a necessity to the growth of our emotional universe and and what is truly needed is understanding and compassion. 

(Originally reviewed June 2015)

"STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII-THE LAST JEDI" DIRECTED BY RIAN JOHNSON (2017)

If there was any film that truly hurt to leave out of the final Top 20, it was this one.

Writer/Director Rian Johnson's "The Last Jedi," for so many viewers proved itself to being highly controversial. Yet, for me, it was the one "Star Wars" film that surprised me the very most ever since "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980). Now, don't get me wrong, I have long pledged my love for all of the stories of the Skywalker Saga, from the original trilogy to the unfairly maligned prequels and to now, this sequel trilogy, for which this installment was the crowning achievement.

For me, Johnson completely honored everything that George Lucas created yet was bold ans risky enough to also extend the galaxy far, far away into uncharted territory, most notably, a critical sense of self-reflexiveness that proved to be a challenge to itself and its generations of fans. 

This was the "Star Wars" film that questioned the validity of even having more "Star Wars" films if everything was just going to be continuous mining of the original three films at the expense of crafting new tales to tell. This was the "Star Wars" film that valiantly, urgently, passionately marched towards a conclusion while presenting what is essentially a war film, a tale of resistance against seemingly insurmountable forces, played out in veritable inches while also maintaining a sprawling, epic sweep.  

And also, this was the "Star Wars" film that did beautifully echo the past middle installments of their respective trilogies, most notably "The Empire Strikes Back," as budding Jedi Rey edges further down her internal path, confronting potential dark side impulses along the way and the story of the aging, embittered, lonely, ravaged Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill in the performance of his career) finding its blinding, tear stained finale.

Finally, this was the "Star Wars" film that brought everything full circle, a complete 40 years after the release of the original 1977 film, 40 full years after my life was altered forever with that first viewing at the age of eight. Rian Johnson directed as if he would never direct a film again. Every performance was filled with energy, fervor and vibrant life. Even John Williams' score contained an extra level of poignancy and flight.  

It was the magic of the movies at the fullest of its powers.

(Originally reviewed December 2017)

COMING SOON...NUMBERS 20-11!!!