Alexander Crisp’s Top Ten Films of the Last Decade
A little disclaimer. This is very far from a comprehensive list – if the film isn’t here it’s highly likely I haven’t seen it (drop me recommendations people). But that’s no disservice to these 10 films, 10 worthy works well worth one’s watching. Some bewilder, some bewitch, one literally gets inside your head. Adieu to a decade of great cinema, hello to the as-yet unknown. See you in the roaring 20s (no better way to end an epoch than with a cliché). Here are 10 of the 10’s best.
10. Logan
Considering the ever-increasing scale of superhero saturation this decade has seen, for one film to so sharply stand-out from the mass is no mean feat. I recall being in the theatre for The Last Jedi when the Johnny Cash cover of Hurt snapped me out of whatever distraction was occupying me, because you don’t just use that song for anything. I had no idea what the trailer was for – gradually realising it was X-Men related, but this was clearly not just another X-Men movie.
More than its R-rating, though that gave it a full dramatic license, or its prioritisation of character over action, though it kicks-ass plenty. This is a human drama about ageing, a reconstitution of the superhero genre’s absurdities into something real and profoundly moving. Not even The Dark Knight trilogy took its proponents to such a vulnerable locale. The tone, which confuses so many Marvel films, and the acting, are both utterly spot on. I’m not even going to mention the underdeveloped antagonists. In the same manner the film disposes of them, it knows they aren’t very important. They know who we’re here for. Jackman, Stewart, Mangold, Cash too. The pleasure is ours.
9. Sicario
The first of three Denis Villeneuve-directed gems in this list. His ability to arrest with his visuals and his storytelling, the seamless way they both feed into each other, Villeneuve possesses a poet’s touch. He’s also pretty handy at the flashier stuff too – this contains a stunning action set-piece that lived long in my memory. There is a mid-act dip, but at the close its three key stories dovetail majestically – reinforcing their strengths and imparting the full weight of its power – innocence in extremis.
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson’s literal Viennese sweet shop is simultaneously impenetrable and accessible, flippant and sincere, manic but disciplined – above all else tight, crafted. I couldn’t give you any dramatic interpretation with the greatest confidence, a celebration of culture juxtaposed with the callousness of war in Europe? Perhaps. But even if coaxing cogent criticism out of this picture proves elusive, one will never cease to relish Anderson’s delightful grasp on the surreal.
7. Arrival
This sci-fi pic’s brilliance lies in a sublime narrative flip – inverting its doom-laden disaster-movie premise into a deeply affecting drama that succeeds on a remarkable number of levels. Worth a rewatch, I think.
6. Inside Out
Pixar doing what Pixar does, telling stories only animators can tell. One of their best.
Apropos of the next film on the list, this I have rewatched recently. It’s an excellent film – review’s not bad either.
5. 12 Years a Slave
Naked portrayal of historical event is a road for few biopics choose to go down, and I could think of a few reasons why. It’s perhaps unusual that the event could stand on its own with relatively little narrative to appease the viewer. On some level that does the writing here a disservice – I’ve seen stories as important as this hobbled by compositional shortcomings. Indeed, a late resolutory cameo by Brad Pitt is the only time this one faulters. But I digress. Sometimes we all have to shut up and watch. It is unbearably hard to watch, but watch it we must.
4. The Revenant
Violence is a Hollywood staple, yet most films that contain it never seek to probe its implications – to explore violence as an end itself. That’s the crux of the survival epic that finally ended the Liverpool Football Club of actor’s long wait for an Academy Award. It’s wonderfully made – framing shockingly real bloodshed against the beauty of its cinematography. A testament to endurance in more ways than one.
3. Captain Phillips
Story time. I first saw Captain Phillips in theatres back in 2013, and it was one of the most profound viewing experiences of my life. One of film’s greatest clichés is its ability to transport you into a different world. The truth is that’s rarely how it happens; even great movies can entertain and delight you without altering your perception. But this was different.
Never before – and never since to the same extent – has a movie so completely removed me from my surroundings. The sweat, the salt, the overpowering stench of the lifeboat that provides the bulk of the film’s drama – I felt like I’d been on board the entire time, from opening scenes that sunk my heart into the pit of my stomach – a suffocating dread that gave way to nauseating tension, culminating in a finale only Paul Greengrass could deliver. The performances too were masterful – perhaps a career best from Tom Hanks – a statement that means more than it does for most.
Reframe that in the second person and you have the essentials for this thriller, one that lives up to the word.
2. Inception
To date the last great film Christopher Nolan has made. I hope, no, I’m sure, it isn’t his last. An ingenious piece of film-construction – the literal levels its second half operates on make the fact it’s even coherent a minor miracle, let alone soaring as one of the most thought-provoking heist films ever made.
1. Blade Runner 2049
Overwhelming. Reviewing this film was very difficult, but then how do you go about condensing this much information into a digestible form? There’s barely a scene that doesn’t have enough substance to warrant a 2000-word essay. As I said earlier, Denis Villeneuve is a poet with the lens, his artisan’s eye can’t be overstated. But every element of the production here has combined to realise dystopia that makes it feel like the concept has never been portrayed before – foremost by ground-breaking visual effects, serving its medium by demonstrating the power of the image. Art installation as blockbuster cinema – if that idea bores you or thrills you, you’ll know whether this is up your street. Guess which reaction I had.
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