Every Best Picture Nominee of the 2010's Ranked: #15-19

Scene from Boyhood (2014)

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.

19. Inception (2010) – Dir. Christopher Nolan

In his first movie since The Dark Knight, Nolan goes even further with his time-bending ethos by takings us inside of his characters (literally). It’s a heist story that takes place inside the mind, featuring a logic that bends every set into surreal images that reflect a master at his best. Few films define the Nolan aesthetic quite like this, managing to dominate the pop culture zeitgeist with memorable iconography and an easily lampooned Hans Zimmer score. Once the dominoes start falling over in the third act, it is a nonstop thrill until the end. You may even be caught off guard by the end, and that only makes it better. 

18. Boyhood (2014) – Dir. Richard Linklater

Simultaneously the most ambitious movie to receive a Best Picture nomination and the most unaspiring. The story follows a boy as he grows up through his youth into his early teens. It embodies Linklater’s desire to capture the passage of time and does so in these emotionally powerful ways, managing to capture life as it is. It finds a generation evolving through the George W. Bush and Barrack Obama administrations, and in the process captures the feel of being alive during those years. The characters form wrinkles and inches throughout those years, and Linklater manages to make it all work at making you feel old in a new and groundbreaking way. 

17. The Irishman (2019) – Dir. Martin Scorsese

This may be the most significant film in Scorsese’s entire career if for no other reason than that only he could’ve made it. While the de-aging make-up may strike some as controversial, it is needed to reflect the death of the gangster movie genre by those who helped create it, finding them stuck in a profession that slowly eats away at their morality. Robert De Niro hasn’t been this good in many decades, managing to reflect a complexity without more than a shrugging shoulder as he acts opposite Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. At 3.5 hours, it earns every minute for how it drags on a feeling of purgatory, realizing you can change anytime and don’t. You’ve put yourself in this misery, and now you have to live with your consequences.

16. Call Me By Your Name (2017) – Dir. Luca Guadagnino

There are few films that perfectly captured the feeling of first love quite like this. With an early best performance from Timothee Chalamet, it manages to find romantic glances forming with Armie Hammer as they walk around aimlessly, believing that things will last forever. It finds a way to make you feel that longing, that you’ll never grow old and be this young forever. It’s a genuine feeling captured perfectly, and the only sadness comes from the story having to end. Though don’t feel bad. Be glad that it existed at all, to give you that feeling of happiness that is unlike anything else in the world. 

15. Gravity (2013) – Dir. Alfonso Cuaron

There wasn’t a single film nominated this decade that justified the idea of “3D IMAX” with as much confidence as this. On one hand one of the most experimental, it is a space action film that is constantly throwing obstacles at Sandra Bullock. The audience is constantly on edge as the sound overwhelms the senses and the visuals throw them into constant uncertainty. It’s a feat on many fronts, including a reinvention of narrative-driven entirely by action. Even then, the greatest achievement is never wasting time, becoming the shortest Best Picture nominee of the decade (and century). Every moment makes you believe in the potential of blockbusters to be groundbreaking. Many have tried, but few have come close to the streamlined brilliance of this narrative.