#21 — Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016) It has been one of the consistent animating questions in science fiction: What will humanity do when visitors from another planet arrive? The premise is an easy entryway to studies of Cold War dread, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-One
#22 — Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) Michael Haneke is not gentle with viewers. The Austrian filmmaker built his formidable reputation with material that dwells, to different degrees, on the significant cruelties human beings exact on one another. The appalling instincts … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Two
#23 — Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, 2013) No other filmmakers thwart their characters’ ambitions and unravel their dreams with quite the same aplomb as Ethan and Joel Coen. The brothers are often lauded for their uncanny … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Three
#24 — Moneyball (Bennett Miller, 2011) Baseball thrives and withers on its sense of tradition. The national pastime and the grand old game, baseball has a professional legacy that no other sport can match. The Chicago Cubs, for example, played … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Four
#25 — Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013) Nearly twenty years after a boyishly cute traveling American named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) met a young French woman named Céline (Julie Delpy) on a train traveling from Budapest to Vienna, all is not … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Five
#26 — Columbus (Kogonada, 2017) Intently studying great films, it turns out, is a solid strategy for someday making your own great film. Before crafting his debut feature, Columbus, Kogonada was surely best known for his exemplary video essays detailing … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Six
#27 — Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018) It’s not uncommon for a filmmaker to reckon with their own past through their chosen medium, but the end result rarely carries as much grace as Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. Drawing on his own history … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Seven
#28 — Snowpiercer (Bong Joon Ho, 2013) Most of the films of director Bong Joon Ho have been wholly original works, suffused with inspiration drawn from serious study of film, perhaps, but springing start to finish from his whirring brain. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Eight
#29 — American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013) Rife with absurdity and energized by misguided bravado and crass capitalistic scheming, David O. Russell’s darkly comic rendering of the FBI’s Abscam sting operation would feel off if it didn’t have “American” … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Twenty-Nine
#30 — The Farewell (Lulu Wang, 2019) The best movies sit and resonate with a viewer, as if taking up permanent residence in the soul. Even as I write that, I understand the sentimental is almost unbearably syrupy, instilling in … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 10s — Number Thirty
Coffee for Two 