best of first half of second decade.. 2010 2014 movies
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2010 to 2014 best movies list best first half decade moviesTRANSCRIPT
8/25/2014 Best of First Half of Second Decade...So Far - Hollywood Elsewhere
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2014/08/best-first-half-second-decade-far/ 1/10
Posted at 2:31 PM on Monday, August 18, 2014 by Jeffrey Wells
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Best of First Half of Second Decade…So Far
In late ’09 I posted a tally of the 42 Best Film s of the First Decade of the
21st Century . A little more than four months from now we’ll be at the halfway
mark of the second decade — 2010 through 2014 or five y ears. Obviously I should
wait until late December but here’s a temporary list of the best so far, and then I’ll
update between Christmas and New Y ear’s Eve….fair enough? Doing a decade or
half-decade sum-up requires harshness. Y ou throw out every thing except the real
dead-to-rights bell-ringers. Every y ear people put certain films on their Ten-best
lists because they feel they should (peer pressure, ad pressure, political
correctness). Two or three y ears later those “should” choices go right out the
window.
So far the 2010 to 2014 list includes 35 film s. Some of these will have to get
chopped by y ear’s end. The five best of the last four y ears and eight months (in this
order & including not-y et–opened festival v iewings): Tie between The Wolf of Wall
Street and The Social Network, followed by Leviathan, Zero Dark Thirty, A
Separation.
Best of 2010 (in this order): The Social Network, The Fighter, Black Swan, Inside
Job, Let Me In, A Prophet, Animal Kingdom, Rabbit Hole, The Tillman Story,
Winter’s Bone (10). Best of 2011 (ditto): A Separation, Moneyball, Drive,
Contagion, X-Men: First Class, Attack the Block (6). Best of 2012: Zero Dark
Thirty, Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Barbara, The Grey, Moonrise
Kingdom (6). Best of 2013: The Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Y ears A Slave, Inside
Llewyn Davis, Her, Dallas Buyers Club, Before Midnight, The Past, Frances Ha (8).
Best of 2014: Leviathan, Locke, Wild Tales, Ida, The Grand Budapest Hotel (5).
42 Best of the First Decade (’00 to ’09): Zodiac, Memento, Traffic, Amores
perros, United 93, Children of Men, Adaptation, City of God, The Pianist, The Lives
of Others, Sexy Beast, Avatar, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, Almost
Famous (the “Untitled” DVD director’s cut), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,
Collateral, Dancer in the Dark, A Serious Man, Girlfight, The Departed, Babel,
Ghost World, In the Bedroom, Talk to Her, Bloody Sunday, No Country For Old
Men, The Quiet American, Whale Rider, Road to Perdition, Open Range, Touching
the Void, Maria Full of Grace, Up In The Air, The Hurt Locker, Million Dollar Baby,
The Motorcycle Diaries, An Education, Man on Wire, Revolutionary Road, Che
and Volver.
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8/25/2014 Best of First Half of Second Decade...So Far - Hollywood Elsewhere
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• Reply •
actionman • 6 days ago
2010-2014:
Tree of Life
Boyhood
Enter the Void
Carlos
All is Lost
The American
Under the Skin
The Raid 2
Animal Kingdom
Moneyball
Cloud Atlas
The Grey
5
• Reply •
thewinchester • 6 days ago
There is only one movie for this list.
It is DREDD.
4
• Reply •
dbe2101 • 6 days ago
lol DALLAS BUYERS CLUB lol
3
• Reply •
HarveyLime • 6 days ago
see more
Favorites Overall:
1. Take Shelter (2011 may be my favorite year for movies
since '99)
2. Upstream Color
3. Spring Breakers
4. The Master
5. Melancholia
6. Hanna
7. Her
8. Inside Llewyn Davis
9. Shame
10. Holy Motors
11. The Skin I Live In
12. The Wolf of Wall St
13. Contagion
14. Young Adult
15. Mud
Favorite Docs:
3
• Reply •
Jesse Crall • 6 days ago HarveyLime
HANNA & YOUNG ADULT are just outside my top
10. Really strange movies that reward repeat viewings.
3
• Reply •
Topher0820 • 5 days ago Jesse Crall
Thank you, always thought Young Adult was
supremely underrated
1
wordfury • 5 days ago
Wells, I appreciate, greatly respect, and thoroughly agree with
your disdain for most things Tarantino. Would that the rest of
your colleagues were as clear-eyed.
However, please explain why you apparently prefer Let Me
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8/25/2014 Best of First Half of Second Decade...So Far - Hollywood Elsewhere
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RANDOMS
• Reply •
However, please explain why you apparently prefer Let Me
In, the graceless American remake, over Let The Right One
In, the haunting Swedish original?
2
• Reply •
cinefan35 • 6 days ago
What happened to Wells' love for Silver Linings Playbook? It's
not a film I have ever had any particular fondness for but I
am curious to know why it's no longer on his list of top films
of 2012.
2
• Reply •
Guest • 6 days ago cinefan35
*It's not a film I have ever had...
• Reply •
fahrenheit290 • 5 days ago cinefan35
He just didn't want to see Lincoln win, and at that
point Argo wasn't looking like the alternative.
• Reply •
cinefan35 • 5 days ago fahrenheit290
The way that Wells yammered on and on about
SLP that whole year, I think it went well
beyond just his desire to see Lincoln lose.
• Reply •
GhostOfGigli • 6 days ago cinefan35
Good question. I've never seen him push a film as
much as he pushed that one.
• Reply •
Pertwillaby • 6 days ago
2010-2014
1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher)
2. Somewhere (Coppola)
3. Killer Joe (Friedkin)
4. Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow)
5. Gravity (Cuaron)
6. Stoker (Chan-wook)
7. The Social Network (Fincher)
8. Inception (Nolan)
9. True Grit (Coen Brothers)
10. Skyfall (Mendes)
2
• Reply •
brenkilco • 6 days ago Pertwillaby
Not sure that Killer Joe is any damned good but the
fact that Friedkin could still pull off something this
deliberately twisted at his age has got to count for
something.
Jesse Crall • 6 days ago
Love seeing REVOLUTIONARY ROAD on the previous list. I
try to keep its flame burning to little avail...
2010's:
1. WOLF OF WALL STREET
2. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
3. ZERO DARK 30
4. ANOTHER YEAR
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• Reply •
4. ANOTHER YEAR
5. A SEPARATION
6. KILLING THEM SOFTLY
....^These are a cut above the rest, I think^...
7. THE FIGHTER
8. AMERICAN HUSTLE
9. BLUE JASMINE
10.THE GREAT BEAUTY
2
• Reply •
Jesse Crall • 6 days ago Jesse Crall
Best performances: Leo in WOLF, Blanchett in BLUE
JASMINE, Manville in ANOTHER YEAR, Rooney in
DRAGON TATTOO, Chastain in ZD30, Pitt in TREE
OF LIFE, Bale in THE FIGHTER, Lawrence in
AMERICAN HUSTLE, D-Day in LINCOLN, Denzel in
FLIGHT, Isaac in LLEWYN DAVIS, Hill in WOLF,
Hardy in LOCKE, Leo & Samuel L. in DJANGO, Weisz
in THE DEEP BLUE SEA, Cotillard in RUST & BONE.
• Reply •
HarveyLime • 6 days ago Jesse Crall
Great call on Cotillard in RUST -
underappreciated film, one of my favorites of
that year.
3
• Reply •
Reverent and free • 6 days ago
Into the Wild. Hands down the best of the outdoor free-spirit
movies of the aughts, and what's likely to be Hal Holbrook's
late career pinnacle. When's Sean Penn getting back behind
the camera?
1
• Reply •
Reverent and free • 6 days ago
I don't get the love for Fincher's GWtDT. A well made studio-
budget thriller, better polished and sexier than the Swedish
version, but without Rapace's indelible performance. Damn it
if I can remember one particularly memorable moment by
Mara other than her shower scene.
I'd sooner go for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, one
of the last big budget, offbeat period pieces.
1
• Reply •
Charles Peligro • 6 days ago
No love for The Ghost Writer? A criminally overlooked film
because of...well you know.
1
• Reply •
Thom Phoolery • 6 days ago Charles Peligro
Yeah, Pierce Brosnan is over.
4
• Reply •
brenkilco • 5 days ago Charles Peligro
The movie is good. The result of great direction and a
fair script. As a director of insinuating suspense
Polanski remains in a class by himself. And when he
goes he's taking his kind of filmmaking with him.
Shame.
JoeS • 5 days ago Charles Peligro
Ghost Writer was ok. I actually preferred this year's
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• Reply •
Ghost Writer was ok. I actually preferred this year's
Polanski- VENUS IN FUR which came and went in a
week.
• Reply •
Jan Erik Kollstrøm • 5 days ago Charles Peligro
I thought The Ghost Writer was a flawed movie (did
not like screenplay much) elevated by fantastic
direction; I would not have placed it in my top ten that
year, but I would rank the direction just behind
Fincher.
• Reply •
Steven Kaye • 5 days ago
I'm proud to say I've only seen 9 of your '00-'09 picks, and
just 1 of your '10-'14.
• Reply •
tristan eldritch • 5 days ago
2010-1014:
Under the Skin
Enter the Void
Inside Llewlyn Davis
Carlos
The Master
True Grit
Tree of Life
Upstream Color
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Only God Forgives
Spring Breakers
The Bling Ring
• Reply •
Max Stephens • 5 days ago
The only 21st century films I have seen twice are
Assassination of Jesse James, Casino Royale, Headhunters,
Inception, Lost in Translation, Memento, Midnight in Paris,
Moneyball, No Country for Old Men, Sexy Beast, True Grit,
Tinker Tailor, and Zodiac.
K. Bowen • 5 days ago
I haven't seen enough movies in the past 18 months or so, but
here goes:
2010-2014 (alpha order)
12 Years a Slave
Inception
The Master
Melancholia
Moonrise Kingdom
Somewhere
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Tree of Life (the best)
Unstoppable
Winter's Bone
2000-2009 (alpha order)
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Bright Star
Grizzly Man
The Hurt Locker
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• Reply •
The Hurt Locker
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Man on Fire
Man on Wire
Oldboy
Zodiac
• Reply •
Richard Harris • 5 days ago
2010-2014
1.Spring Breakers (Korine)
2.We Need to Talk About Kevin (Ramsay)
3.A Hijacking (Lindholm)
4.Black Swan (Aronofsky)
5.The Master (PT Anderson)
6.Boyhood (Linklater)
7.The Artist (Hazanavicius)
8.The Double (Ayoade)
9.This Must Be the Place (Sorrentino)
10.Venus and Fur (Polanski)
Honorable Mention: Django Unchained, The Rover, Life of Pi,
Submarine, Compliance.
Underrated: Drinking Buddies, Pain and Gain, Rust and
Bone, To Rome with Love, Bellflower.
Overrated: Both Tom Hooper joints, American Hustle, Grand
Budapest Hotel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The
Avengers.
• Reply •
GhostOfGigli • 6 days ago
How does this gel with your list from last year of your top 30
films since 1988 that did include SLP:
"Hollywood Elsewhere’s Top 30 Films Since April 1988:
Election, Zodiac, Rushmore, Goodfellas, Groundhog Day,
Heat, The Big Lebowski, The Social Network, Children of
Men, A Serious Man, There Will Be Blood, The Insider,
Memento, Fargo, Traffic, Che, Pulp Fiction, Zero Dark Thirty,
Schindler’s List, Moneyball, Being John Malkovich, Silver
Linings Playbook, United 93, The Limey, Volver, Se7en,
Amour. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Fight
Club, The Lives of Others"
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere...
Not that I'm saying SLP should be included, since it definitely
shouldn't. Just wondering what made you see the light on this
one after being such an adamant supporter.
Buck Swope • 6 days ago
all due respect, but i must say i am baffled by your 2011
choices. for someone who isn't fond of comic book movies
(putting it mildly), X-Men:First Class? Really? Attack the
Block? These are fine movies, far from classics.
Just off the top of my head, for 2011, Tree of Life,
Melancholia, The Descendants, Warrior, Another Happy Day,
Girl With Dragon Tattoo.
I do have love for Contagion & Drive, though.
Side note: recently rewatched both Road to Perdition & Ghost
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• Reply •
Side note: recently rewatched both Road to Perdition & Ghost
World. Neither really held up IMHO
• Reply •
JoeS • 6 days ago
My best of '10 to '14 so far (in no particular order): A
SEPARATION, THE GREAT BEAUTY, IDA, THE WIND
RISES, THE ATTACK, SHORT TERM 12, BARBARA,
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, SEARCHING FOR
SUGARMAN, VINCERE (Bellocchio), WINTER'S BONE, A
PROPHET, MOTHER (Bong), INCENDIES and WE NEED
TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN.
Most overrated: Anything by Tarantino or Wes Anderson, plus
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
• Reply •
Charles Peligro • 5 days ago JoeS
Good call on Vincere. Great movie.
• Reply •
JoeS • 5 days ago Charles Peligro
Thank you. Shame it never even HIT the radar.
Superb direction by old timer Bellochio,
gorgeous photography and an excellent
performance by the luminous Mezzogiorno.
Hopefully, it's available on streaming. See it,
folks.
• Reply •
Stanley • 6 days ago
Lost in Translation
Get Low
• Reply •
Gussie Finknottle • 6 days ago
Love lists like this. Only one film on here (that I've seen)
which completely baffles me, and that's Frances Ha. Need
someone to explain what I was missing with that one as I
clearly didn't get it.
Would include the Assassination of Jesse James high up on
my list for the first decade of this century, and remember
being surprised when it didn't make the cut back when you
did your list.
Pleasantly surprised by the absence of Silver Linings
Playbook!
• Reply •
brenkilco • 6 days ago
Looks like a defensible top five. Haven't seen A Separation and
for some reason haven't been able to force myself to watch
Wolf of Wall Street, though I like Scorsese. Just gives off this
been there, done that vibe stylewise. I'll get to it. As social
media progresses and the name Osama Bin Laden recedes I
think ZD30 and Social Network will be forgotten. They're not
classics for the ages. The former not much more than a tense
docudrama with the sort of handheld on the fly camerawork
that has begun to grate, the latter neither great drama nor
great social satire. Just of the moment. So if these really are
the best.......
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• Reply •
Reverent and free • 6 days ago brenkilco
Yeah, I reluctantly have to concur about Social
Network. It's impeccably executed, and very easy to
watch again and again. But after a few viewings
you're left merely admiring it for its sleekness, and
fresh faced cast. It probably will seem very dated in
another 10 years. Eisenberg has since shown himself
capable of much more interesting range as he ages
into manhood.
Zero Dark Thirty I was not impressed with at all. I
don't know where Bigelow gets her hosannahs from.
Neither Hurt Locker or ZDT holds a candle to
Greengrass' work.
1
• Reply •
fahrenheit290 • 6 days ago
Reverent and free
I disagree. Hurt Locker and ZDT certainly
supersede Greengrass' recent work. (I haven't
seen Bloody Sunday.) ZDT in particular...the
cut from the black screen to the light in the
interrogation room at the black site is more
inspired than anything I saw in Captain
Phillips. Bigelow is probably one of the best
directors of action working today, if not one of
the best working directors. She knows how to
capture tension, raise the pressure in a bottle,
and then watch it explode (as in the incredible
final bomb scene in Hurt Locker with Renner
and the Iranian locked into the bomb) or
decompress (the end of ZDT; the street scene
finding the courier). The technical game is at
such a high level--the sound work, the scoring,
the editing. I've been a fan since Near Dark and
think she's fantastic (and so did Kubrick), but to
each his own.
1
• Reply •
JoeS • 5 days ago fahrenheit290
I think they are both terrific.
It is allowed to not pit one against the
other. Different styles, similar (fine)
results.
Reverent and free • 5 days ago
fahrenheit290
That's a nice argument. I do like
Bigelow's earlier films. But none of what
you just wrote about ZDT or The Hurt
Locker really rings true to me. I was
stoked for Hurt Locker after all the good
things I heard about it, but left the
theater wondering what all the fuss was
about. Ditto ZDT. They don't strike me
as being nearly effective at tension as
Greengrass was in Captain Phillips or
United 93. The way he makes you feel
the desperation of the hijackers and
their victims at the same time and how
their mutual fear plays off each other.
That's what makes Greengrass unique
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• Reply •
That's what makes Greengrass unique
for me over most docudrama directors:
having built a sense of realism, he
knows how to unleash an emotional
payoff.
• Reply •
brenkilco • 6 days ago Reverent and free
Sorry, I'm one of those curmudgeons who sees
Greengrass' influence on film editing as
cinematic Ebola.
• Reply •
Reverent and free • 6 days ago
brenkilco
Maybe, but at least Greengrass usually
has a visceral sense to his cutting of
non-Bourne movies, and he does shoot
with an eye for the anamorphic screen
and has depth perception in his shots.
Bigelow has a tendency to go for mini-
edits of tight closeups, like a TV director.
• Reply •
brenkilco • 6 days ago
Reverent and free
Well Bigelow's long lens, jittery, catch as
catch can, faux verite style is just old.
Liked her better in her Point Break days.
• Reply •
tristan eldritch • 5 days ago brenkilco
Have to agree. I always thought Social Network was a
waste of Fincher's talents, and Kathryn Bigelow was a
far more colourful and interesting filmmaker in her
pre-Hurt Locker phase.
• Reply •
berg • 6 days ago
Super Troopers, I Heart Huckabees, Russian Ark, Tell No One
belong on the list
• Reply •
otto • 6 days ago
FINALLY - giving Ida it's due. Good on you.
• Reply •
Christopher A. Otto • 6 days ago
Great list. There has been some great films for sure. In my
mind, though, I feel like it's really front-loaded. I think the
first 3-4 years of the 21st century were an extension of a
brilliant streak of movies that started around 1996-97. After
about 2004, I feel like things stagnated a bit and there were
fewer gems. Fewer risks taken. Again, not saying that we're in
a total rut now. But, man, we had it really going on with
serious and brilliant films in the second half of the 90s and
early 2000s. That's the era I think people will keep coming
back to.
Mark • 6 days ago
1. Bridesmaids
2. True Grit
3. Beginners
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