#1 — Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014) If the best film directors can be said to have central preoccupations that run through their entire oeuvre like a central nervous system, then Richard Linklater’s is the stealthy, patient alchemy that manifests when … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number One
#2 — Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017) For her debut feature as the sole credited director, Greta Gerwig opted for a story so personal that it clearly approaches full-on autobiography. Lady Bird is set in the California city where Gerwig … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Two
#3 — The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011) Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is cinema a formed by memory. Or maybe it’s cinema in the shape or memory. Or cinema capturing the texture of memory. Or cinema turned … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Three
#4 — Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2018) Cold War is the story of Zula (Joanna Kulig) and Wiktor (Tomasz Kot). Not long after the end of World War II, Wiktor is one of the people charged with presiding over a … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Four
#5 — The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot, 2019) At the beginning of The Last Black Man in San Francisco, the main characters are waiting. Jimmie (Jimmie Fails) and Mont (Jonathan Majors) are sitting at the side … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Five
#6 — Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is enamored with stories and storytelling. The celebration manifests in part through the mils obsession of Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), a youthful resident of the island community New Penzance … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Six
#7 — Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019) “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. So begins Little Women, the novel by Louisa May Alcott that was first published in two installments of 1868 and … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Seven
#8 — Burning (Lee Chang-dong, 2018) Burning, directed be Lee Chang-dong, has the pulse of a thriller and the aura of an aching, soulful meditation on life. Like the best thrillers — or at least the most honest ones — it … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Eight
#9 — Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2013) In the ten year stretch of films covered by this survey, I think there may be no single scene that thrills me more than the one that begins with a title card that presents … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Nine
#10 — Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) Part of the progression of cinema during the twenty-tens involved an ongoing discussion — and corresponding recalibration — of who gets to tell which stories. Cultural appropriation wasn’t an entirely novel concept ahead of the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Ten
