The 100 Best Films of 2010-2019

I am significantly less proud of this list—not because it's not a good list or basically a reflection of my opinion, but just because there are films on this list that would normally be on a runner's up list. Not driven to abandon by sequels, youth dystopia, vampires, preachy animated films, or franchises, 2010-2019 were lean years for me and the people who like the kind of movies I like. Still, I was surprised at the quality of the top twenty or so on the list. Happy reading!

100. Macgruber

When I first saw this, I thought it was a cinematic travesty.

A few years go by and it's a classic.

99. Ted

98. Trainwreck

97. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

96. Blue Jasmine

95. Blockers

94. Lady Bird

93. About Time

92. Man of Steel

91. Evil Dead

90. The People vs. George Lucas

A movie with good arguments and big heart for its subject.

89. Woody Allen: A Documentary

88. J. Edgar

87. Stonewall Uprising

86. Pacific Rim

85. The Heat

84. 21 Jump Street

83. August: Osage County

82. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

81. Joker

80. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Easily the funniest movie of the decade.

79. The Other Guys

78. Wonder Woman

77. Real Steel

76. RED

75. Horrible Bosses

74. Spectre

73. The Judge

72. Richard Jewell

71. Beasts of the Southern Wild

70. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

My propensity for documentaries aside, a great one.

69. Mission: Impossible—Fallout

68. Dolemite is My Name

67. Creed

66. The Martian

65. Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation

64. Ruby Sparks

63. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Parts 1 and 2

62. True Grit

61. My Week with Marilyn

60. Whiplash

A movie only a critic could love, but at least it's watchable unlike something like American Hustle.

59. Amy

58. Nebraska

57. The Edge of Seventeen

56. Zero Dark Thirty

55. The Dark Knight Rises

54. BIRDMAN or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

53. And Everything is Going Fine

52. Death at a Funeral

51. The King’s Speech

50. Despicable Me

A movie that justly spawned a successful franchise. Fresh and funny.

49. Life Itself

48. Yes, God, Yes

47. Easy A

46. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

45. Blue is the Warmest Color

44. Wagner & Me

43. Fences

42. Toy Story 3

41. Abducted in Plain Sight

40. Noah

When they look back over the decade, they'll discover this one got short shrift all around.

39. Iron Man 3

38. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

37. The Other Side of the Wind

36. Isle of Dogs

35. Knives Out

34. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

33. Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol

32. The Fighter

31. Argo

30. Spring Breakers

An extended joke on a generation that wouldn't get it, it still is endlessly funny satire.

29. Boyhood

28. Les Misérables

27. Midsommar

26. Lincoln

25. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

24. The Master

23. Nymphomaniac

22. 12 Years a Slave

21.  Red State

20. Tabloid

A mini-masterpiece by the great Errol Morris.

19. West of Memphis

18. Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief

17. Tangled

16. Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

15. Hidden Figures

14. Silver Linings Playbook

13. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

12. Melancholia

11. The Tree of Life

10. Killer Joe

Exploitative, ultraviolent, remarkable. William Friedkin's greatest achievement.

9. The Social Network

8. Inception

7. Gravity

6. The Wolf of Wall Street

5. Moonrise Kingdom

4. Spotlight

3. Her

2. Django Unchained

1. O. J.: Made in America

Not only the best documentary ever made, one of the great films ever made.

The 100 Best Films of 2000-2009

I had already planned for this year's penultimate blog piece to cover the best 100 films of 2010-2019, so I thought I would offer my list for the decade previous in preparation. A version of this list is published in Everyone Else is Wrong (And You Know It): Criticism/Humor/Non-Fiction.

The original list included a disclaimer (and this will go for next week also) that many of the international films on this list are here because they had a wide and touted release in North America, so I'm comfortable with this list being my personal picks for the best films I saw from 2000 to 2009.

100. Superbad

A raucously funny and ultimately moving dissection of platonic male relationships.

99. Dancer in the Dark

98. Knocked Up

97. Mean Girls

96. Chicago

95. Walk the Line

94. Topsy-Turvy

93. The New World

92. Requiem for a Dream

91. Napoleon Dynamite

90. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

A horrifying documentary about the most infamous cult the world has ever known.

89. Heist

88. Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones

87. The Last Samurai

86. The Bourne Identity

85. Changing Lanes

84. The Notebook

83. George Washington

82. Spartan

81. Frost/Nixon

80. Akeelah and the Bee

A touching comedy, endlessly watchable with two spot-on lead performances.

79. Unfaithful

78. Spider-man

77. Bend it Like Beckham

76. The Secret Lives of Dentists

75. Sideways

74. Inside Man

73. Cast Away

72. State and Main

71. Casino Royale

70. Thirteen

The quicksilver of adolescence is portrayed beautifully in Hardwicke's indie hit.

69. The Brown Bunny

68. Super Size Me

67. Grizzly Man

66. Ghost World

65. The Passion of the Christ

64. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

63. About Schmidt

62. Garden State

61. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

60. A Prairie Home Companion

Robert Altman's eulogy of Americana that was also his last motion picture.

59. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

58. Traffic

57. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

56. Love Actually

55. Open Range

54. Road to Perdition

53. Possession

52. Gladiator

51. The Golden Compass

50. Collateral

A remarkable action-thriller, Michael Mann's best film since Heat.

49. Remember the Titans

48. Lost in Translation

47. Catch Me if You Can

46. Frailty

45. Born into Brothels

44. Gosford Park

43. American Movie

42. Closer

41. Good Night and Good Luck

40. I Heart Huckabees

An off-the-wall, existential comedy. A film unlike any other.

39. The Company

38. The Prestige

37. The Incredibles

36. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

35. Batman Begins

34. Minority Report

33. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

32. Inland Empire

31. Cinderella Man

30. Across the Universe

Its flaws aside, if you don't like Julie Taymor's film, you may have no heart.

29. American Splendor

28. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

27. The Royal Tennenbaums

26. Capturing the Friedmans

25. Adaptation

24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

23. The Piano Teacher

22. Monsoon Wedding

21. Monster’s Ball

20. Juno

An imminently quotable screenplay shot with tenderness and good humor.

19. In America

18. Match Point

17. Eastern Promises

16. Alexander

15. Mulholland Drive

14. A History of Violence

13. The Queen

12. The Aviator

11. King Kong

10. The Dark Knight

The finest superhero film ever made.

9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

8. The Departed

7. Almost Famous

6. Finding Nemo

5. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

4. In the Bedroom

3. Avatar

2. Spirited Away

1. The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King)

A masterful trilogy of technical marvels.

Terrific New Theatre's Splendid SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE: A Stage Review

Forty years ago, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine unleashed on the world a difficult, demanding, rapturous musical called Sunday in the Park with George. Developed Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, it was Sondheim’s return to the musical theatre after the initial failure of Merrily We Roll Along. Part Broadway and part avant-garde, Sunday was a major step forward for musical theatre writing and remains one of the relatively few musicals to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Over time, Sunday happily found its place in the repertory of American musicals, so it’s hard to imagine now how groundbreaking it was in 1984. Sunday’s score was hard on the untrained ear to those who wanted simple, jaunty melodies, so much so that when Jerry Herman won the Tony that year for La Cage aux Folles, he used his acceptance speech to denigrate Sunday, which is now regarded as not only one of Sondheim’s finest works but a masterpiece of the American stage.

Terrific New Theatre chose Sondheim’s groundbreaking work for their own groundbreaking in a beautiful new performance space on the north side of Birmingham. I’m happy to report their production is a marvel. David Strickland has provided what should be the template for doing Sunday in a small space with no proscenium. He and musical director Michael King have assembled a top-notch cast of actor-singers to bring this intimate look at artists’ lives to shimmering life.

Act I of the show focuses on George Seurat, the forward-thinking and critically ignored French artist and his model/mistress Dot, who loves George despite his inability to connect with her on a normal human level because of his work on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the famous pointillist painting. Act II flashes forward a hundred years to a possible descendant of George (also named George) who navigates the world of modern art and produces endless light inventions that have made him stagnant. Feeling he has nothing more to say, he is confronted by his forebears and is urged to break through to something new.

Being a Sondheim aficionado, I spent some time with the libretto and score before venturing to the theater. Not a single beat is missing from TNT’s production. From the seamless way George stalks the park and gives voice to his models to the long, uncomfortable silence before a single note of the Act II opening number is played. While one can still innovate, Sondheim’s works require productions faithful to the text and there is little to find fault with here.

Caleb Clark and Kristen Campbell are so splendid in their respective roles that one almost thinks they’re not acting at all. They have gone past performance into living the roles. Clark’s full-throated George (eschewing Patinkin-like falsetto) is a triumph of craft, as close to perfection in singing and acting as possible. Campbell seduces the audience each time she is onstage, taking us with her on every emotional plane from her neglected Dot to the reminiscing Marie.

Birmingham theatre legend Celeste Burnum plays George’s mother (and an art critic in the second act) and brings deep emotion and feeling to both her scenes and her gutwrenching duet with George, “Beautiful.” The two Celestes of Act I (played by Alex Hawkins and Harmony Grace Leverett) are endlessly funny in their scenes with Blake West as the slightly “odd” Soldier. Ryder Dean, perhaps, stands out as one of the most colorful onstage—first as the coachman Franz in Act I and as George’s longsuffering technical assistant Dennis. Both are fully realized characters by a natural talent.

While Holly Dikeman’s Yvonne is expertly played (and her Naomi a highlight of the second act), there might have been more depths in the character of Jules than Chris Carlisle had yet to plumb prior to opening—though he more than makes up for that facile performance in a hilarious Act II bit as the museum director.

For many years, even theatre people felt like Sunday was a great first act with a second act let-down. Enough time has passed that this initial conception has thankfully been completely railroaded. The entire meaning of Sunday lies in its experimental second act and that it is given the equal weight it is due is much to the production’s credit.

The few things one could quibble with—the unnecessary “dance” during “Everybody Loves Louie” in which one could only hear the creaking of the upstage platform or the way Dot did not seem to change her gait while pregnant—can be dismissed as few shows are seldom perfect. Some deficiencies could not be helped—the score is played in a reduced instrumentation by a fine ensemble, but the score did suffer from the lack of original orchestrator Michael Starobin’s idiosyncratic percussion and the terrible lack of French horn. This Sunday, though, is the closest thing to perfect Sondheim I’ve seen live.

In the end, I go to the theatre to be moved. I don’t want something clever, intellectual, brain-tickling, preachy—anything of that kind. I go to be emotionally moved. So, I suppose, the finest compliment I can give this production is that I was in tears as the end of each act, listening to a remarkable chorus sing “Sunday” from the feather-soft opening to its miraculous climax. I think this is a sold-out show but go onto the theater and get in line to see if somebody has the gall not to show up. You won't regret it.

The final performances of this Sunday are tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm. Photographs courtesy Steven Ross.

Sunday in the Park with George

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by James Lapine

Directed by David Strickland

Musical Direction by Michael King

Musical Staging by Tahauny Cleghorn

Terrific New Theatre

2112 5th Ave N; Birmingham, AL 35203