SUNDAY BEST: TOP TEN GREATEST MOVIES OF THE DECADE

Just to recap, here are the best movies of the decade #50-#11


50.  Risen (2016)
49.  Wonder Woman (2017)
48.  Little Sister (2016)
#47 Arrival (2016)
#46 Argo (2012)
#45 X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

#44  Creed (2015)

#43 Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

#42 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (2018)

#41 Justice League (2017)

#40 Gravity (2013)

#39 Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

#38 Toy Story 3 (2010)

#37 Room (2015)

#36 Avengers: Endgame (2019)
#35 The Red Pill (2016)
#34 The Town (2010)
#33 A Quiet Place (2018)
#32 Jane Wants a Boyfriend (2015)

#31 Captain America: Civil War (2016)

#30 Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

#29 Harry Potter and the Deatlhly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

#28 Lincoln (2012)

#27 Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

#26 Liberal Arts (2012)

#25 Game Night (2018)

#24 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

#23 All Is Lost (2013)

#22 Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

#21 Les Miserables (2012)

#20 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

#19 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

#18 American Sniper (2014)

#17 Of Gods and Men (2010)

#16 Little Women (2019)

#15 IT (2017)

#14 Joker (2019)

#13 Interstellar (2014)

#12 Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

#11 Teddy Bear (2012)

And now below are the TOP TEN MOVIES OF THE DECADE

10.  Ted (2012)



From my review: Some movies are funny and are vulgar. Some movies are funny because they are vulgar. Ted is the latter. That is not necessarily a criticism of the film, but its vulgarity is played for maximum humor in every scene that uses it...

Thematically, this movie is about growing up. The very relatable challenge is that John has a best friend who retards his growth. But their affections are so deep that John cannot turn him away. This theme has been explored in other wonderfully original comedies like Shawn of the Dead and Made. Having the burdensome best friend embodied by a Teddy Bear, the very symbol of childhood, was a stroke of comedic genius. This is not because Ted is a horribly insightful and symbolic movie. It's because putting the foulest language imaginable into the mouth of fluffy, innocent-faced doll is hysterical. MacFarland plays this to its greatest effect... 

Something to keep in mind about this movie is that it is written by an 80's Child for 80's Children. John is a 35-year-old man and the movie is replete with references to things that strike that very specific chord. The most notable of these is the recurring Flash Gordon theme. As someone who remembers that his first trip to the movie theatre was to see Flash Gordon on his 3^rd birthday, I found these scenes particularly endearing. There are several jokes that poke fun at that movie, but you can tell it is done with from the point of view of someone who deeply loves it. And that is how it is with all of the nostalgic pop culture humor. The jokes come fast and furious with the Family Guy style of bouncing from references to Aliens, Indiana Jones, and Octopussy.

But unlike Family Guy, Ted actually has heart and emotion in it. As silly as it is, you can invest in the John/Ted relationship, while at the same time understanding how unhealthy it is. And you have to wade through loads of profanity, both in language and content, in order to get to those character moments. I was disappointed, but not shocked, that there was one topless scene that could have been cut out entirely. But this movie is raunchy in most possible ways and is very politically incorrect in how it targets its humor. It was what my wife called “Guy-Funny.” Things like drinking and drugs in movies don't bother me so much if they aren't glamorized. Too often I've found that marijuana particularly is given a pass. There is a lot of pot smoking in Ted. But without getting preachy about it, the movie shows how living that lifestyle will hold back your potential for growth, not just in your professional life, but in you personal life as well. And when the harder drugs are introduced, worse things happen. I don't know if that was MacFarland's intention with that, but it was the message I walked away with.

Blimpy said that a mark of a good comedy is how many lines you keep quoting after you see it. And that is what I find myself doing days after seeing it. Ted doesn't try to be bigger or deeper than it is. It isn't a political satire or a commentary on social issues. It is just a silly movie about a man-child trying to grow up despite is foul-mouthed talking Teddy Bear. I laughed a lot. The whole theater laughed a lot. And for that alone, I got my money's worth.

9. John Wick (2014)

I had avoided this film for a long time because the premise sounded completely stupid to me: hit man gets revenge for the killing of his dog.  It wasn't until some pals of mine sat me down for a guys' movie night that I was finally introduced to the gloriously bloody world of John Wick.

This is the new standard for hard-boiled action.  Ever since movies like Quantum of Solace, action directors began using a frenetic and confusing amount of quick cuts to artificially give their scenes more dynamism.  John Wick does the opposite.  It lingers and lets the action play out like a gruesome ballet of death.  Underneath this, the filmmakers created a whole mythology and culture in this underworld that is as intriguing and fascinating as anything in the Harry Potter films.  On top of that, I believe this is the series that reinvigorated Keanu Reeves as the iconic status he currently holds in our culture.  He gives everything to this part and you can see the power of his presence in every scene.  The story is straightforward and primal so that you can come along for a cathartic ride of revenge.

8.  Logan (2017)

From an earlier post: There isn't another super hero movie like Logan.

This movie is sober, contemplative, visceral, and heartbreaking in a way I haven't seen in this genre before....

The most important thing to understand about this movie going into it is that it is actually less of a superhero film and more of a classic Western.  Logan is the hard-travelling hero who has lived too long and seen too much killing....

The violence in this movie is more graphic and emotional than any other X-Men film.  As someone who grew up with the comics, this is was how I always imagined Logan cutting loose.  And while it at first as the same vicarious thrill as watching Deadpool or John Wick, after a while the graphicness of the violence gets to you, which I think is part of Mangold's point.  We've reveled in Wolverine's ability to cut his enemies to shreds over the last 17 years.  Now we get to feel what that does to a person's soul.  And yet the action sequences are still enough keep you on the edge of your seat.

One of things I loved most about the film was its depiction of simple, ordinary love.  There is a moment in the movie where our three main characters spend the night with a farmer family.  Mangold fills the scenes around the dinner table with such humor and warmth that part of you wants to leave all of the violence and just settle in.  This family is depicted as faith-filled, hard-working, and trying to get by in life with larger forces arrayed against them...

[It is on this point that I want to spend a little more time.  One of the things that elevates this movie is the focus on the quiet love mentioned above.  The scenes with Logan and Charles are so touching especially upon repeat viewing  because the only thing bonding these men together is the love they have for each other.  And when all is said and done, Logan comes to learn that the only happiness in this world that can be found is through love.  That message does not come off as cheesy or overly sweet.  Instead it is the hard-fought truth underneath all the darkness.]

Logan is powerful and emotional film that has stayed with me in my mind and my heart long after watching it.  When so many movies disappear from our consciousness like smoke, the solid and strong Logan is something to treasure.

#7 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

From an earlier post: This was supposed to be Marvel's first bomb...

The opening scene was more emotional than I was expecting, but nothing life-shattering.

But then Chris Pratt showed up.

And he put on that walkman and started dancing around.  Until we had that insane opening title shot.  You know the one: the ridiculously large title with the teeny-tiny Peter Quill dancing in the corner.

And at that moment, the movie owned me.

You need to understand that movies are a kind of magic.  The job of a movie is to cast a spell on you that transports you to another world.  And in that moment I was transported.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't just for that single moment alone.  There were many times along the way that the spell could have been broken.  And it should have been.  Yondu the space redneck should have been beyond dumb.  A raccoon and talking tree should not have had any depth.  The tongue-in-cheek humor should have undercut all of the dramatic tension.

But it didn't.

Guardians of the Galaxy  is that rare movie that skirts so close to the line of awfulness that it makes it good.  The movie almost dares you to hate it before winning you over with its amazing charm.

Part of the movie's strengths is that Gunn didn't set out to make a traditional Marvel movie.  He was making a space epic like Star Wars or The Last Starfighter.  To that end, Gunn was allowed to play in his corner of the sandbox free from too much intervention...

But as funny as the movie is, I think people forget just how exciting Guardians of the Galaxy is.  I remember flipping stations and the prison escape was on.  Even though I had seen it dozens of times, I was glued to the TV.  The movie is a big spectacle, but it isn't empty explosions and noise.  And it is emotional.  The two scenes with Peter's mother are powerful but so is that beautiful moment where Groot wipes away Rocket's tear and simply says, "We are Groot."   Those three words pack more of an emotional wallop than whole monologues from other movies...

It is true that the villain is a one-note despot.  But this leads to one of the greatest villain showdowns since the Ghostbusters confronted Gozer:  the dance off!

Again, this moment should have taken the entire story off the rails.  It should have been a cringe-fest of cheesiness.  But in the hands of Pratt and Gunn, it turns in to a moment that converges the plot and character into a sharpened point.  Ronan is too powerful.  Quill cannot stop him, cannot reason with him, cannot bargain with him.

So Star Lord dances.

And it is a thing of beauty.

Iron Man, Captain America, or even Spider-Man could not have pulled that off.  Only Peter Quill and the Guardians of the Galaxy could have given us a unique movie moment like that.

#6 Man of Steel (2013)

From an earlier post:

My appreciation of this movie only grows with time.

I know that this movie has many detractors.  The chief criticism I hear is that Superman should be bright and fun, not serious and dark.  I can appreciate this point of view, but I also think that this misses much of the movie's point.

Since Superman's introduction into popular culture, the world has descended deeper into modernism and nihilism.  Superman is meant to be a symbol of hope to stand above and against the raging cynicism.  But Zack Snyder is showing us in Man of Steel how someone raised in this morally ambiguous culture can rise up.  That isn't to say that there wasn't a good deal of pessimism when the original movies were introduced.  But as time goes on, it is Superman's innate goodness, not his Kryptonian origins, that make him seem more and more alien to the human race.

Watch how Snyder uses the visuals to sell the grounded reality of the movie.  His constant use of hand-held cameras and very hard lighting take away the glossy, artificial feel that many of these films have. 

Snyder's Superman is in many ways the Christ-figure.  But it is not meant to be a mere allegory.  The analogy is not perfect.  Instead, this Superman is as fallen as any of us.  This movie (and its sequel) are about the heroes becoming who they are, along with all of the errors along the way.  That is why this movie is not called "Superman," because while he was always a "Man of Steel" he has not yet truly become Superman.

#5 The Greatest Showman (2017)

I was quite enamored of this movie when I first saw it.  It was a big, bold, colorful, musical spectacle.  It had the heart and the tone of the great old-fashioned musical while employing modern visual storytelling techniques.  Jackman is perfect as PT Barnum, the King of Humbug, who gets so caught up in his own devices that he almost loses everything that means anything.  

Usually as the years pass, the emotional impact of the music wears off and we can have a better understanding of the film's quality.  Sometimes music can cover up for deficiencies in a movie because it can act as a shortcut to emotion.  But in the intervening years, my esteem for this movie has only gone up, as has my appreciation for the music.  Almost every song is great and memorable (compare that to the many mediocre songs in something like Frozen II).  They are evocative and also a lot of fun to sing.

The story is simple enough, but that is not a bad thing.  A good movie casts a spell on you and The Greatest Showman does exactly that.  You are taken in by the wonder and the romance of it all and it makes you feel happy when you are finished.

#4 Inception (2010)


Christopher Nolan created a truly epic and groundbreaking film.  This movie is a visual masterpiece that has layers on top of layers.  

Many people focused on the technical achievement of this film, and rightly so. But all of that is just smoke and mirrors. What sets this film apart, in the end, is its complexity and its emotional heft. The film acts as a movie version of Russian nesting dolls: action takes place inside of action, inside of action, all happening simultaneously. The effect is a multiplication of thrills because you are not simply experiencing one high tension sequence after another, but instead you see them all at the same time. But even with this complicated achievement, it is the central mystery, the mystery of Cobb's broken life, that puts this over the top. Something is haunting this man, who is so lost he can barely separate reality from dream. Understanding his pain, his guilt, and his need for redemption makes us desperately desire that he navigate his was through the mental maze of his own making and make it back home.

3. Avengers (2012)


It is very interesting.  About two years ago I did a list of the greatest super hero movies of all time and I placed Man of Steel above this movie.  What changed?

Having seen the final two Avengers films, I am even more appreciative of the triumph that is this original film.  It really was lightning in a bottle where everything clicked and ran on all cylinders.  As Thanos would say, it was "perfectly balanced."

As I wrote in an earlier post: Cinematic universes are not new.  Universal did this with its stable of movie monsters back in the day.  But Marvel had a lot more challenges.

-Different Studios:  Because Marvel had licensed its properties to other studios, using their own characters became complicated.  The could not use Spider-Man who was with Sony, nor any of the X-Men, who are licensed to Fox.  Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, were all distributed by Paramount.  The Incredible Hulk was produced by Universal.  And now, The Avengers was being made by Buena Vista (Disney).  This created legal and financial complications like no other.

-Balancing the Characters:  Story-wise, this movie has a gigantic logistical challenge.  Each of the four main heroes are the stars of their own franchise.  That meant that each of the main characters could not be reduced to a supporting character.  This isn't just a narrative necessity, but going forward, each of these heroes needed to still carry their own film.  Reducing them in any way would damage future films.

-Sum Greater than Parts: In order for this grand experiment to work, The Avengers couldn't just be equal to the previous hits.  It had to greatly surpass them.  The risk was high.  If The Avengers bombed or even became a modest hit, it would have derailed the entire franchise.  And Marvel had everything riding on this.  They took out a gigantic loan to finance their studio.  If they failed, they would lose the rights to their biggest characters like the Avengers, including Captain America. Marvel gets a lot of flack for not taking chances.  I've even hit them on this point.  But when you take a big risk that turns out to be a big hit, you often forget what a risk it was.  And Marvel took a big risk by turning the writing and directing duties over to Joss Whedon.  Whedon had a lot of credibility in the geek culture and fan base because of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.  But in terms of bankable movie credentials, Whedon was a big risk.  He had only directed one other movie:, Serenity, which did not even make back its modest $39 million budget.   But they gave him the keys to the kingdom and he delivered. 


2. The Way (2010)


This is such as simple movie but it is powerful in that raw simplicity.  

Emilio Estevez has actually been directing almost as long as he has been acting. And while a number of his earlier films have not been great (Wisdom), or silly fun (Men at Work), he tried to step into a more mature chapter with 2006's Bobby. But while that was an attempt at showcasing a large ensemble cast against a traumatic historical background, The Way is a deeply personal and surprisingly spiritual mediation on life. As the story follows Tom (Estevez's real life father Martin Sheen), a California eye doctor whose estranged son, Daniel (Estevez), dies while walking the El Camino de Santiago. For reasons he cannot quite understand himself, Tom decides to finish his son's camino. Along the way, he encounters the colorful countryside and even more colorful characters. Estevez makes the Camino itself a character, filming the Spanish/French countryside with such beauty and elegance that when the journey comes to an end, there is satisfaction and sadness: Satisfaction at completing the pilgrimage and sadness that the journey must end.  The movie also does not overplay the cathartic experience, but he trusts the visuals tell the story. And what a story it is!  I now dream of one day walking the Camino de Santiago before I die.

#1 Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)


I know that this choice will generate the most controversy.  I wrote in my original film flash:  Loved, loved, loved this movie.  Best film translation of the DCU (though not for kids).

My admiration for the movie has not diminished, but only improved.  

I wrote in an earlier post: There is no doubt that I am in the clear minority in my love for this movie.  And I can't think of a single other person I've read who would put this as their number one film..  But I stand by this decision with any critical integrity I can muster.

In a conversation I had with my friend Rick O., we agreed that unlike even the best Marvel movies, the films of the DCEU are ABOUT something.  Man of Steel dealt with large issues of identity, family, and clashes of cultures.  Batman v. Superman deals with fallen human nature, man's place in the universe, God and the problem of pain, civil liberties vs. justice, trust vs. suspicion, and what it means to be really human.  And it tackles all of these things in a way that does not feel out of reach for a film that is based on the premise of two superheroes punching each other a lot.

I have watched and re-watched this film several times and it gets better with each viewing.  Even my original dislike for Jessie Eisnberg's choices for Lex have grown on me.  I can see in it now the toxic false-masculinity that fills the character.  He feels powerless so he lashes out at his objects of hate: Superman because he sees him as stand-in for the God he hates and Batman because he is a reminder of everything Lex could be but is too weak to be.

And I stand by all of my original observations about how this movie has the best cinematic Batman, how the visual spectacle is amazing, how it creates an epic scale in plot and theme, that it raises religious issues in a respectful and entertaining way, that its emotional core is primal and solid, that the performances are top-notch, and that this movie is ultimately a strong story about raising us from darkness into the light.

People still dislike the darker tone, but Zach Snyder's whole experiment has been to see if we could find a good and heroic soul even in the crucible of this fallen world.  Everyone is against Superman, even the one who should be on his side: Batman.  And yet, Superman never stops trying.  When Batman goes to kill him, Superman accepts that he will die and only asks that his mother be saved.  Many other people have a problem with Batman killing, and I understand that.  But that is part of his entire redemption arc.  We see a Batman who has grown weary and cynical at the fallen state of the world.  He has given up hope.  He even sees his entire war on crime as pointless.  It is Superman's selfless altruism and sacrifice that redeems Batman's soul.  Look at the journey he takes to get to the point at the end where he can say, without any irony, "Men are still good."  

This movie is everything I could have hoped for in a comic book film.  It is better than most people believe.  I stand by my final thoughts on this film: 

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is not just a great super hero movie.

It is a great movie!




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So there you have it.  What are your thoughts?