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| Scene from Django Unchained |
As 2019 reached its end, another decade of cinema had passed. It's amazing to think about how things have evolved since 2010 when the biggest controversies were about recognizing genre movies. Things look different now, especially as genre films like The Shape of Water and Parasite are winning Best Picture and the voting body looks incredibly different with each passing year. With this period in the books, it feels like a good time to celebrate their accomplishments by ranking all 88 titles nominated for Best Picture from worst to best with the goal of seeing which films are more likely to stand the test of time. Join me every Saturday and Sunday as I count them down, five at a time. It's going to be a fun summer looking back on what was, especially as we prepare for the decade ahead and an even more interesting diversity that we haven't even begun to think of.
24. Django Unchained (2012) – Dir. Quentin Tarantino
You’d figure that by this point in Tarantino’s career that he’d be starting to slow, finding a conventional groove that is reverent. Instead, he’s shifted his attention to smashing apart genres and recreating them as critical assessments of its themes. Much like how Inglourious Basterds famously found Jewish soldiers murdering Nazis, this western homage takes the slave narrative to an ultraviolent fantasy, taking down racism with some of his wildest imagery and most eccentric soundtrack choices. Even if it’s one of his most confrontational films, it’s arguably one of his most culturally relevant from this entire decade, reminding audiences that he’s still capable of using style to comment on the substance in one of the strangest epics in his career.
23. Black Swan (2010) – Dir. Darren Aronofsky
There is plenty to love about this surrealist masterpiece that manages to take artist obsession to a new place. It’s violent, sexual, and intense as Aronofsky creates a psychological thriller that is equal parts profound and trashy, using petty jealousy as a crux for Natalie Portman’s Oscar-winning performance as a paranoid dancer. Everything about the film plays like a demented ballet, twirling you around its unnerving visuals that may mean nothing or everything in the world. Whatever it is, the obsession has rarely felt this compulsively familiar. No matter how much we try, it will make us unrecognizable to the world. It’s just a matter of catching ourselves before it’s too late.
22. Life of Pi (2012) – Dir. Ang Lee
Among the greatest disappointments of this decade is watching special effects company Rhythm & Hues go bankrupt following this success. This is one of the most innovative films of the decade, managing to show the personal divides within the human condition. What is the difference between man and animal, faith and science, or fact and fiction? So many things perfectly play at odds with each other, creating a meditative journey that ends up being one of the most successful gambles in Lee’s career. Despite perceived minimalism, it manages to create a thought-provoking spectacle that is unlike anything cinema has offered. Lee has dedicated his next few movies by trying to match the magic of this film and has lost something in the process. All he needs is a man, a boat, and CGI animals to tell a story.
21. Lady Bird (2017) – Dir. Greta Gerwig
After years of acting in and writing other people’s movies, Gerwig jumps into the director’s chair to produce one of the best coming of age films of the decade. With an endless array of jokes and a top-notch performance by Saoirse Ronan, this story manages to find the balance between teenage rebellion and a study of a family with economic struggles. What separates this from low brow contemporaries is the emotional heart and insight into every character that Gerwig gives, making a world that feels so real in its boringness. Anyone who has lived in an uneventful town will recognize some part of the film. Otherwise will just feel nostalgic for a bygone era when we were more naïve and the worst we could do was dream of a life outside of city limits.
20. Spotlight (2015) – Dir. Tom McCarthy
Not since All the President’s Men has a film properly celebrated “the process” of journalism. McCarthy’s personal experience makes him qualified to explore the Boston church scandal in great detail, finding memorable performances merely through observation, listening to the victims, and trying to piece together the bigger picture. Everything about this feels earned, managing to convey the frustrations with the fewer triumphs. It’s in the rewrites, the story delays, and other small reveals that make this an essential film about why journalism, even in a “fake news” era, will always matter. The truth needs to be documented, and thankfully Spotlight is there to be both informative as well as entertaining.
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