Blast Through the Recent Past: The Panda's Top 100 Films of the Decade - The List is Complete! I'll Now Be Silent.

[Tower]

8 hours ago, The Panda said:

 

Nightcrawler (2014)

It's an enrapturing film that keeps you on the edge of your seat to the very end and was sadly a fairly overlooked feature from 2014 that really deserved more attention than what it ended up getting.

 

[The Panda]

 

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Directed by Travis Knight

 

"You are my quest."

 

Most Valuable Player: Laika Studio's Animation

Awards Count: Nominated for 2 Oscars

Box Office: 48m DOM

Metascore: 84

Synopsis: Kubo lives a quiet, normal life in a small shoreside village until a spirit from the past turns his life upside down by re-igniting an age-old vendetta. This causes all sorts of havoc as gods and monsters chase Kubo who, in order to survive, must locate a magical suit of armor once worn by his late father, a legendary Samurai warrior.

Critic Opinion: "The artisan animators of Laika Studios (Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls) have done much of late to elevate the quality levels of multiplex kids’ fare. Their latest – which looks east, recounting a shamisen-strumming boy’s quest to unpick a tangled family history – fends off questions of cultural appropriation via the refinement and sensitivity of its penhand. It’s less an aggressive play for the Asian market than an affectionate gesture towards it." - Mike McCahill, The Guardian

User Opinion: "The beginning of Kubo and the Two Strings was the most emotionally resonant personally: Kubo's relationship with her mother, the quiet moments in between, the village scene to contrast from the beginning, and the appearance of the sisters all worked in tandem to create suspense, curiosity, and had my attention gripped.  The middle was the second strongest part as it was action packed, had brilliant animation, and the story progressed in a smooth manner." - @CelestialFairyIX

Commentary: While Disney got all of the animation attention for their three high grossing and critically acclaimed films, Laika released this smaller in box office (but not as small in scale) film that really stole away the year in the animation game.  Kubo is a simply told children's fantasy that manages to be mature enough in its themes, and beautiful enough in the scoring and animation, to also manage to resonate with adults who went to see it.  You really have to give some credit to Laika for pretty much throwing money at animated passion projects with box office as what's seemingly the secondary goal.  Hopefully they'll be able to stay in the animation game for a while longer.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2017 (1), 2018 (1), 2019 (1), 2016 (1)

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

A Star is Born (2018)

Directed by Bradley Cooper

 

"I just wanted to take another look at you."

 

Most Valuable Player: Bradley Cooper for Directing, Writing and his performance as Jack

Awards Count: Won 1 Oscar

Box Office: 215.3m DOM

Metascore: 88

Synopsis: Seasoned musician Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) discovers-and falls in love with-struggling artist Ally (Gaga). She has just about given up on her dream to make it big as a singer - until Jack coaxes her into the spotlight. But even as Ally's career takes off, the personal side of their relationship is breaking down, as Jack fights an ongoing battle with his own internal demons.

Critic Opinion: "Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born is a traditional Hollywood romance crafted to summon tears and woo Oscars.  This is no small aspiration or achievement. Actor-turned-filmmaker Cooper and his co-star, Lady Gaga, make for inspired collaborators, doing much more than play the star-crossed lead couple. It’s Cooper’s first time as director and Gaga’s first major movie role, but you’d never guess it from the skill and passion they bring to the project.   He plays a veteran rock star on the way down; she’s a singer-songwriter ingénue on the way up. The two connect romantically and musically, as they take an all-too-familiar tale of love, ambition and fate and make it seem as fresh as a first kiss.  The movie is set in modern times, but it feels timeless, befitting a tale that has been filmed three times previously." - Peter Howell, Toronto Star

User Opinion: "The Shallow scene is almost certainly the best movie moment of the year and an instant classic." - @Jayhawk the Hutt

Commentary: Bradley Cooper's directorial debut is electric and by the time you're halfway through the film you've pretty much forgotten you're watching yet another adaption of the classic A Star is Born story.  Lady Gaga and Cooper keep you glued to the screen throughout the entire run, and by the time the film reaches its conclusion you'll have been thoroughly moved (despite knowing exactly what you're getting yourself into watching this storyline).  The soundtrack is fantastic, with some wonderful songs from Lady Gaga that practically serve as a new album release for her.  It's an emotional powerhouse of a film that you've probably already seen by now.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2018 (2), 2011 (3), 2017 (1), 2019 (1), 2016 (1)

 

 

 

[Avatree]

12 hours ago, baumer said:

I've moved this to the main forum.  I know there will be  a lot of best ofs being bcreated in hte next while but since this is the first for the decade, and since Panda always does some of the best write ups, I'm moving this to the main forum.

 

Great stuff so far Panda.

and someone moved it back lol.

[The Panda]

 

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig

 

"I had the worst thought: I've got to spend the rest of my life with myself."

 

Most Valuable Player: Kelly Fremon Craig for Writing and Directing

Awards Count: Nominated for 1 Golden Globe

Box Office: 14.4m DOM

Metascore: 77

Synopsis: Everyone knows that growing up is hard, and life is no easier for high school junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), who is already at peak awkwardness when her all-star older brother Darian (Blake Jenner) starts dating her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). All at once, Nadine feels more alone than ever, until the unexpected friendship of a thoughtful boy (Hayden Szeto) gives her a glimmer of hope that things just might not be so terrible after all.

Critic Opinion: "This feels-filled comedy introduces a unique new voice, but it’s not that of star Hailee Steinfeld, who at 19 is practically a grizzled Hollywood veteran. It’s that of Kelly Fremon Craig, the screenwriter and first time director who brings a fresh perspective to the high school coming-of-age genre.  Steinfeld plays Nadine, a 17-year-old left floundering when her best friend starts dating her all-star brother. While teenage tropes are dutifully checked off — the love triangle, the makeover, the party gone wrong — there’s originality to Nadine’s lonely quest to find her place, only to ultimately learn she’s not alone in being all alone.  Steinfeld delivers another dependably solid performance, particularly in the film’s dramatic scenes, but it’s hard not to imagine another young actor spinning a role this rich into a star-making breakout, much as, say, Emma Stone did with Easy A. Steinfeld’s best comedic scenes are opposite Woody Harrelson, whose unsentimental teacher pops Nadine’s self-inflated balloon, generating some of the film’s biggest laughs." - Ryan Porter, Toronto Star

User Opinion: "Fucking amazing movie. It might be my favorite of 2016." - @WrathOfHan (who still uses this film as his avatar)

Commentary: There's been quite a few different coming of age, teen angst films to have come out this decade, but very few of them capture the teen angst as well as The Edge of Seventeen.  The film feels a bit like some of the classic 80s Hughes-esque films meant for a 21st Century audience.  It's a movie built on character relationships and popping back and forth dialogue, especially when Woody Harrelson's character is on screen.  The movie doesn't shy away from some of the typical dramatic teenage tropes you'd expect in a high school flick, and the revelations Nadine makes are also fairly standard for the genre, but its the power in the script and dynamic performances that help to elevate this film as one of the best in its respective genre this decade.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (2), 2016 (2), 2017 (1), 2019 (1)

 

 

[The Panda]

 

A Ghost Story (2017)

Directed by David Lowrey

 

"A writer writes a novel, a songwriter writes a song, we do what we can to endure."

 

Most Valuable Player: Andrew Dorz Palermo for the Cinematography

Awards Count: Some Critics Circle stuff

Box Office: 1.6m DOM

Metascore: 84

Synopsis: Resonating with vibrant memories and silent echoes of a shared life, the old house is somehow connected to "C", a sensitive composer who is hesitant of leaving it, while his loving wife "M", on the other hand, is keen on moving out, having an indecipherable but grim premonition of danger. Sadly, disaster soon strikes, and C's untethered spectre which detaches from the lifeless body, rises from the mortician's table, and in a swift decision, decides to linger in this dimension to faithfully follow the grieving M back to the old house. As silent as a shadow and as invisible as the air, C's unappeasable phantom observes M's denial and depression gradually turn to acceptance and even hope, as time unravels, moving forward through the decades. In this earth, man struggles to leave his legacy behind. Is this the way to immortality?

Critic Opinion: "Maybe it's impossible, or maybe we just have to accept that our lives, with all their pain and joy, might always look silly and standard when held up against the vastness of existence — the drinks shared outdoors on the stairs while the stars turn above. It's in that gap that A Ghost Story exists, when it, with terrifying ease, lets time slip by until there's a whole new set of people in the house, and then another, glimpsed in photogenic Christmases and house parties until everything gets knocked down and built again.  And the ghost, increasingly threadbare, shifts from a ridiculous image to one that's sad and profound — this mute figure who observes how short and small his life was compared with the grand reach of human existence, and who accepts its worth anyway. That's the kind of message you might roll your eyes at in an Instagram caption, but that doesn't make it any less true." - Alison Wilmore, BuzzFeed

User Opinion: "A Ghost Story mesmerizes in a way films rarely do. Evocative of the free-floating nature of its titular subject, its approach is more experiential rather than telling a story. Lowery's vision of the afterlife is astounding, with tons of quirks that all are grounded in a solid world. The sound and cinematography are both top-of-the-line, and the film is at its best when its playing with horror tropes and really tackling the mourning nature of loss. Hart's score is beautiful, and Affleck and Mara both do admirable jobs in their roles." - @Blankments

Commentary: What other studio would allow studio besides A24 would allow a director to take last year's Best Actor winner, throw a bed sheet over them for the entire movie and tack on an elongated scene of eating pie in a hallway to go with it.  A haunting and ambitious film with a lot of powerful ideas from David Lowrey, when the film is working it truly leaves you as a blanketed observer watching life continue and pass you by.  It's nearly a masterpiece of a movie, there's just some pretty bad stains on the bedsheet here that keep it from skyrocketing much higher on the list than it is here (like that whole monologue sequence that throws the film off).  But beyond those flaws it's an impeccably crafted film from a technical standpoint, a beautiful score and it has the audacity to actually include some fresh ideas (even if not all of them stick).

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (2), 2016 (2), 2017 (2), 2019 (1)

 

 

[The Panda]

 

J'ai perdu mon corps (I Lost My Body) (2019)

Directed by Jeremy Clapin

 

"You should switch jobs, delivery is just not your thing."

 

Most Valuable Player: The animation of the hand!

Awards Count: Come critics circle wins

Box Office: N/A

Metascore: 81

Synopsis: In a Parisian laboratory, a severed hand escapes its unhappy fate and sets out to reconnect with its body. During a hair-raising escapade across the city, the extremity fends off pigeons and rats alike to reunite with pizza boy Naoufel. Its memories of Naoufel and his love for librarian Gabrielle may provide answers about what caused the hand's separation, and a poetic backdrop for a possible reunion between the three. Based on Guillaume Laurant's novel "Happy Hand."

Critic Opinion: "As inventive a piece of animation as you’re likely to see, the extraordinary “I Lost My Body” is about a hand with a mind of its own, and if that sounds a little crazy, this dark, strange and altogether wonderful feature will make you believe.  Directed by France’s Jeremy Clapin, “Body” was the rare animated feature to win a top prize in Cannes (the Critics’ Week Grand Prix) and it also took the top award and the audience crown at Annecy, the world’s premier animation festival. So attention is being paid, and understandably so." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

User Opinion: "I Lost My Body is great, also my favorite animation of 2019 that I've seen so far. Agreed on whoever did that hand animation killing it. I can barely draw a decent looking hand let alone animate one." - @MOVIEGUY

Commentary: I could pretty much copy and paste what I wrote up pretty recently about this film.  I Lost My Body is an oddly moving adventure film which follows a detached hand trying to make its way back to its body.  Along the way, the hand battles all sorts of crazy nonsense from a remarkable sequence involving a lighter and some rats, to pigeons, and to a mystical umbrella ride across an urban highway.  As you become so engaged in the hand's pursuit for its body, you grow more attached to the hand's owner, and by the end of the film receive a feeling of liberation.  A wonderful little animated feature.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (2), 2016 (2), 2017 (2), 2019 (2)

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Directed by David O. Russell

 

"Humanity is just nasty and there's no silver lining."

 

Most Valuable Player: The Cast of the Film

Awards Count: Won 1 Oscar

Box Office: 132.1m DOM

Metascore: 81

Synopsis: Against medical advice and without the knowledge of her husband Pat Solatano Sr., caring Dolores Solatano discharges her adult son, Pat Solatano Jr., from a Maryland mental health institution after his minimum eight month court ordered stint. The condition of the release includes Pat Jr. moving back in with his parents in their Philadelphia home. Although Pat Jr.'s institutionalization was due to him beating up the lover of his wife Nikki, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Nikki has since left him and has received a restraining order against him. Although he is on medication (which he doesn't take because of the way it makes him feel) and has mandatory therapy sessions, Pat Jr. feels like he can manage on the outside solely by healthy living and looking for the "silver linings" in his life. His goals are to get his old job back as a substitute teacher, but more importantly reunite with Nikki. 

Critic Opinion: "Writer-director Russell is just the guy to bring out (and then calm) the manic dysfunction in these folks. That's kind of been his thing in everything from I Heart Huckabees to The Fighter. In taking Silver Linings Playbook from page to screen, Russell embraces some pretty conventional notions about the curative power of family and friends, but he makes that embrace bracing with frenetic editing that puts you inside the heads of his troubled leads.  The performances — including a grounded turn by Jacki Weaver as Pat's mom and a manic one by Chris Tucker as his best friend from the asylum — are this film's chief silver lining. Also a dance sequence that allows the director a subversively bipolar Cinderella joke just before the climax." - Bob Mondello, NPR

User Opinion: "One of (at least) three films that were equally deserving of Best Picture, IMO. I'm a huge fan of The Fighter, but this is the best work I've seen from O'Russell yet." - @Shawn

Commentary: A few years before David O. Russell got cancelled (or did he?  I can't remember for certain), he delivered what seemed to be a unique and refreshing change of pace from him.  Silver Linings Playbook has some of the elements of a romantic comedy, but it plays out its story in such an organic way that it really surpasses the genre that it is supposed to be apart of.  Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are explosive in their roles, in quite a few different ways.  The film casts a rather wide net in its approach to looking at mental illness, but despite this it does so in a loving enough way that even if it misses some nuances, it's still able to come across as good-hearted.  It's definitely a great film, especially when you're needed to be put into a hopeful mood (and if you like to watch the Cowboys win!).

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (2), 2016 (2), 2017 (2), 2019 (2), 2012 (1)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Hereditary (2018)

Directed by Ari Aster

 

"Hail paemon!"

 

Most Valuable Player: Ari Aster and his Auteur vision

Awards Count: Critics Circle Nominations

Box Office: 44.1m DOM

Metascore: 87

Synopsis: When her mentally ill mother passes away, a woman named Annie (Toni Collette) and her husband (Gabriel Byrne), son (Alex Wolff) and daughter (Milly Shapiro) all mourn her loss. The family turn to different means to handle their grief, including Annie and her daughter both flirting with the supernatural. They each begin to have disturbing, otherworldly experiences linked to the sinister secrets and emotional trauma that have been passed through the generations of their family.

Critic Opinion: "There are moments in which the camera glides through the Grahams’ home. The slowness of its movement combines with the eerie, understated music from composer Colin Stetson to create a very unsettling ambience.  The creepiest performance comes from Ann Dowd as the seemingly sympathetic stranger, Joanie, who befriends Annie. Dowd is one of those character actors you recognise from other films and TV dramas without immediately being able to place her. Here, she has a toughness and meanness you can always detect in spite of her seeming kindness  Hereditary may not be as terrifying as the advance hype has suggested but it’s a provocative and subtle horror film with layers you don’t find in more conventional haunted house tales. The fright factor here comes less from the shrieks, decapitations and simmering undercurrent of violence than from the grief and doubt that we read in Collette’s features and in the eyes of her disbelieving son." - Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent

User Opinion: "Really enjoyed this one. Had me clenching my arm rest so tight in the final moments that I nearly got rigor mortis in my left hand as I got up to leave." - @JohnnyGossamer

Commentary: Hereditary is a piece of masterclass mood setting from Ari Aster, who's imagination in his first two features seems to have no bounds.  The film sets you up expecting a certain kind of possessed child horror film, and then twists the knife and becomes a compelling look at a mother going through grief, and how this battle of grief is liken to a horror film itself.  There's many surrealist elements that leave you questioning how much of the strange things you saw have actually happened, and how much is the coping.  Toni Collette on the remark is fantastic in the lead role and really should have gotten more notice than she did last year.  Hereditary is a film that will leave a lasting impression, even if that impression isn't entirely glowing, and that's a good thing.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (3), 2016 (2), 2017 (2), 2019 (2), 2012 (1)

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Annihilation (2018)

Directed by Alex Garland

 

"It's not destroying. It's making something new."

 

Most Valuable Player: THAT BEAR!

Awards Count: Some critics circle awards

Box Office: 32.7m DOM

Metascore: 79

Synopsis: A biologist's husband disappears. She puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, and a linguist.

Critic Opinion: "Garland has crafted a world of profound beauty and complexity, one which borrows various ideas and images – deftly splicing together DNA strands from Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, Virginia Woolf’s ‘To the Lighthouse’ and other cinematic and literary touchstones – yet always manages to move to its own unique rhythm. And like the director’s earlier cerebral sci-fi, Ex Machina, this one features an astonishing dance sequence, a haunting performance scored to pulse-quickening perfection by composers Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow. It is a visually and thematically rich work that offers plenty of thrills and surprises but few easy answers." - Adam Woodward

User Opinion: "I should also say more than just "the bear".

 

Yeah, there are some great jump-scares, and I think horror buffs will like the more extreme moments (like the stomach scene), but overall it's the mood of the movie and it's stately, methodical exploration of this mutating natural beauty that's so engrossing. I remember wondering at one point -- just before that total gonzo lighthouse sequence -- how Garland was gonna wrap this up in any way that felt satisfying, and yet he completely nailed the ending (for me)." - @Plain Old Tele

Commentary: Alex Garland's follow-up to his sci-fi hit Ex Machina is something that takes it further in terms of visual bizarreness, creative push and thematic territory.  While not everything about Annihilation lands perfectly, it's such a unique science fiction vision that it's hard not to appreciate fully for the innovative work that it is.  There's some incredible set pieces, with the most notable being that horrifying bear that completely steals the show.  Annihilation is methodical contemplation on human's tendency for self-destruction, and it provides few answers or solutions to the questions that it poses, but leaves it up to the viewer to decide what to make of it all.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (3), 2016 (2), 2017 (2), 2019 (2), 2012 (1)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

La vie d'Adele (Blue is the Warmest Color) (2013)

Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

 

"But I have infinite tenderness for you. I always will. My whole life."

 

Most Valuable Player: Lea Seydoux as Emma

Awards Count: Nominated for 1 Golden Globe

Box Office: 2.5m DOM

Metascore: 88

Synopsis: Adèle is a high school student who is beginning to explore herself as a woman. She dates men but finds no satisfaction with them sexually, and is rejected by a female friend who she does desire. She dreams of something more. She meets Emma who is a free spirited girl whom Adèle's friends reject due to her sexuality, and by association most begin to reject Adèle. Her relationship with Emma grows into more than just friends as she is the only person with whom she can express herself openly. Together, Adèle and Emma explore social acceptance, sexuality, and the emotional spectrum of their maturing relationship.

Critic Opinion: "Steven Spielberg and the Cannes jury loved it. At the closing of this May’s festival, he announced his and his colleagues’ decision to award the Palme d’Or to “three artists: Adèle, Léa and Abdellatif.” Abdellatif Kechiche, director of La vie d’Adèle: Chapitre 1 et 2 (The Life of Adèle: Chapters 1 and 2), now released in the U.S. as Blue Is the Warmest Color, and his stars Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux rushed to the stage to accept their prizes and exchange hugs, smiles and tears. At a press conference after the ceremony, Spielberg called Blue “a great love story that made all of us feel privileged to be a fly on the wall, to see this story of deep love and deep heartbreak evolve from the beginning. The director … let the scenes play in real life, and we were absolutely spellbound.”" - Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

User Opinion: "Probably one of the best films I've ever seen. People keep talking about the sex scenes, and they are pretty full-on, but behind the controversy is a heartbreaking, honest, intimate, sometimes joyous and always awe-inspiring piece of cinema which reminds us why we go to the movies: to feel something, to see things in a different light and to get completely engaged in the experiences the characters go through." - @Jack Nevada

Commentary: The least remarkable thing about this movie is the sex scenes, which seems to be what got it a lot of its attention back in 2013.  Blue is the Warmest Color is an immersive drama that brings you to become fully invested in the five year budding romance between the two main characters.  It's an intimate film that successfully does its job that all film should do, and that is to bring its vivid emotion to life and have you feel it all.  Maybe it's a bit long, but that length is probably required for the full investment needed to have the movie work its magic.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (3), 2016 (2), 2017 (2), 2019 (2), 2012 (1), 2013 (1)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

 

"I'm going to smoke everyone involved in this op and then I'm going to kill bin Laden."

 

Most Valuable Player: Kathryn Bigelow's Direction

Awards Count: Won 1 Oscar

Box Office: 95.7m DOM

Metascore: 95

Synopsis: Maya is a CIA operative whose first experience is in the interrogation of prisoners following the Al Qaeda attacks against the U.S. on the 11th September 2001. She is a reluctant participant in extreme duress applied to the detainees, but believes that the truth may only be obtained through such tactics. For several years, she is single-minded in her pursuit of leads to uncover the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden. Finally, in 2011, it appears that her work will pay off, and a U.S. Navy SEAL team is sent to kill or capture Bin Laden. But only Maya is confident Bin Laden is where she says he is.

Critic Opinion: "‘Zero Dark Thirty’ is lean, mean storytelling: no backstories, no-frills – just action and an effortless forward momentum. Maya is obsessed with tracking down one of her leads: a man said to be Bin Laden’s courier. Some might think Bigelow is apologising for torture with this film. She’s not. She’s interested in why Maya and her CIA colleagues behave as they do – with the detachment of a reporter. We see the desperate context they work in – the tick, tick, tick wait for more bombs to go off around the world. Years pass. We watch a pile-up of dead-ends and mistakes.

Boal spent the best part of a decade talking to counterterrorism operatives, and it shows in his faultless dialogue. At CIA headquarters, they question Maya’s credibility. ‘What do you think of her?’, asks the CIA director (James Gandolfini). ‘She’s smart,’ answers an advisor. ‘We’re all smart,’ he deadpans. It’s 2010, and some analysts doubt Bin Laden is still the game, or perhaps he’s dead. Bigelow is the smartest guy in the room when it comes to portraying tribes: from the CIA wonks to the big, suicidally brave knucklehead Navy Seals sent in to take out Bin Laden, all barrel chests on the outside, mushy-sweet on the inside.  The endgame – a raid on a suburban house in Pakistan – is a white-knuckle watch. And when a Seal finally puts a bullet into a thin, grey-bearded man, you don’t doubt for a second this is what it was like: dogs barking, freaked-out locals raising a mob outside. This is an instant classic." - Cath Clarke, Time Out

User Opinion: "Masterful direction, taut writing, perfect editing and not a false note in any of the performances - Jason Clarke, in particular, is going to get really sought after after this. There were times when I did think both the film and Chastain might have been going for a bit too much emotional distance, but then I was surprised how perfectly the very final scene landed. While the reviews led me to expect something very close to Zodiac (a film I absolutely love), it isn't quite that - Zodiac was much more about how the long and exhausting obsession of its three main characters nearly destroyed their lives, ultimately dissolving in time rather than getting a closure. Maya's obsession in ZDT has a very clear closure - her own personal Zodiac found and killed - but much more of an emphasis is placed on the aftermath. "Where do you want to go?", she is asked. All she could do in response is cry, helpless, in a state of (as I'm sure it was to her) terrifying uncertainty.I'm not entirely sure how ZDT will hold up on the second viewing, but for now it's a very, very impressive piece of work, especially considering I tend to get sceptical, not over-hyped, when I sit down to watch movies that received this kind of early praise. Zero Dark Thirty got me in its grip in its first minutes and didn't let go for the remaining 150." - @Jake Gittes

Commentary: Kathryn Bigelow is a powerhouse of a director, there's a reason she's been able to bypass some of the Academy's sexism when it comes to awarding and nominating female directors, and that's because of films like this one.  Zero Dark Thirty is a masterclass work in tension building, with the finale raid sequence as one of the definitive moments in film to come out of this decade.  Jessica Chastain really deserved her Oscar for this one, even if Jennifer Lawrence was certainly deserving in her own right.  While there's certainly the think-piece issue debates that have come up over how this film utilizes the torture sequences (does it condemn it to harshly, does it not condemn it enough?), they're easy to bypass to get to the true heart and soul of the film which is pretty remarkable.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (3), 2016 (2), 2017 (2), 2019 (2), 2012 (2), 2013 (1)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Directed by Martin McDonagh

 

"Yup, still no arrests. How come I wonder?"

 

Most Valuable Player: Frances McDormand as Mildred

Awards Count: Won 2 Oscars

Box Office: 54.5m DOM

Metascore: 88

Synopsis: THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comic drama from Academy Award nominee Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell), an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.

Critic Opinion: "What’s great about this film is it’s absolutely nothing like you expect it to be. The early trailers give very little away, hinting at a broad comic tone but delicately swerving the philosophical meat of the matter. McDonagh’s writing toys with archetypes but sends everything and everyone in the wrong direction. Mildred is painted as a female avenger, physically styled after the famous ‘We Can Do It!’ American wartime propaganda poster that was latterly co-opted as an icon of modern, can-do feminism. Yet she is no mere emblem, and her reasoning, while often extremely entertaining, often overlooks the deeper nuances of human compassion. She’s still canny enough not to bring a knife to a gunfight, trading body blows – literal and figurative – with anyone prepared to step up. But she’s developed a way of working out how to hit people in the places where it really hurts." - David Jenkins

User Opinion: "Its hard to put feelings down on this movie. It's great, darkly humorous, and real. I'm not usually one to care if what I'm seeing in film is necessarily realistic, but everything in this movie felt more like an unfolding of real events, and still felt like a complete story.  McDormand is perfect. Rockwell is perfect. Harrelson is Harrelson. And Dinklage is an important humanizing part of the film. The ending is spot on. While I'd love the tight little bow of it all being wrapped up, but here we get character growth and that sense of...future, I guess. It's late my thoughts aren't the best. But this movie is great." - @RandomCat

Commentary: Yes, I realize this was a fairly controversial/polarizing film on these boards, and likely this may be one of my first major 'objectionable' picks for a few members here, but no reason to steer away from the hot takes!  Three Billboards is a dynamite of stinging character monologues and it's wickedly entertaining film of pent up frustration demanding something be done, only to stop and reflect at the very end on if all of the rage is truly worth following through on.  As for the controversies, I don't believe Sam Rockwell truly had a fully formed redemption arc but was a complex character from the start (and remains one at the end).  It's an impactful and memorable work overall.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (3), 2017 (3), 2016 (2), 2019 (2), 2012 (2), 2013 (1)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

The Big Sick (2017)

Directed by Michael Showalter

 

"What's my stance on 9/11? Oh um, anti. It was a tragedy, I mean we lost 19 of our best guys."

 

Most Valuable Player: Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon for the Screenplay

Awards Count: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Box Office: 42.9m DOM

Metascore: 86

Synopsis: Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani), in the middle of becoming a budding stand-up comedian, meets Emily (Zoe Kazan). Meanwhile, a sudden illness sets in forcing Emily to be put into a medically-induced coma. Kumail must navigate being a comedian, dealing with tragic illness, and placating his family's desire to let them fix him up with a spouse, while contemplating and figuring out who he really is and what he truly believes.

Critic Opinion: "Then this very true story becomes something else entirely, and it's nothing short of a total delight.  The best way I can describe this rich-yet-simple, hilarious-yet-so-real little story, is that in a big season of big fat fun blockbusters, The Big Sick is like a delicious cinematic sorbet. It cleanses the palate, boosts your spirits and makes your veins pulse with laughter, love and life." - Kate Rodger, Newshub

User Opinion: "Overlong like everything Judd Apatow touches but warm, funny and likable. Ray Romano and especially Holly Hunter steal the movie." - @La Binoche

Commentary: The Big Sick is a charming autobiographical feature on the part of screenwriters Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon.  Despite being autobiographical in nature, the film still manages to maintain a focused narrative drive, with just a bit more brutal honesty than that of a typical rom-com.  The honesty in the screenplay allows the film to sting in both its humor and the emotional core that drives home toward the end of the movie.  It's a wonderful little world you get to spend some time in, and even if it could have been cut down just a tad, you're having such a good time you're okay with the elongated stay.  I wish more biopics were like this one.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2017 (4), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (3), 2016 (2), 2019 (2), 2012 (2), 2013 (1)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Amour (2012)

Directed by Michael Haneke

 

"Things will go on, and then one day it will all be over."

 

Most Valuable Player: Emmanuelle Riva

Awards Count: Won 1 Oscar

Box Office: 6.7m DOM

Metascore: 94

Synopsis: Georges and Anne are a couple of retired music teachers enjoying life in their eighties. However, Anne suddenly has a stroke at breakfast and their lives are never the same. That incident begins Anne's harrowingly steep physical and mental decline as Georges attempts to care for her at home as she wishes. Even as the fruits of their lives and career remain bright, the couple's hopes for some dignity prove a dispiriting struggle even as their daughter enters the conflict. In the end, George, with his love fighting against his own weariness and diminished future on top of Anne's, is driven to make some critical decisions for them both.

Critic Opinion: "This is the bulk of the picture, the drama—Georges’s response as Anne continues to decline and her response to their new condition. We also see other aspects of their lives. She talks with a visiting young pianist about Beethoven’s Bagatelles, and he plays her favorite for her. (Later we see Anne alone in her wheelchair, trying to move to the music.) And there is the family core, including visits from their married and troubled daughter. But the picture is about Georges and Anne and their new life.  Much of the time is spent as he goes about his nursing duties, as he prepares meals. I haven’t seen meals involving older people that affected me so keenly since Ozu’s Tokyo Story. Georges knows what she likes, and she knows that he knows, saying nothing about it. The meals are both memories and markers." - Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic

User Opinion: "Oh my god this is a great film. I cried like a baby. The title doesn't fool you- Amour is a movie about love. It's about all of love's happiness, heartbreak and reality, and- in its darkest moments- what love demands. Riva gives a wonderful physical performance, but IMO Trintignant is equally deserving of praise. He's the story of the movie. He quietly suffers in this film- so quiet that a friend compliments him on how well he's taking his wife's emmient demise- and it's both sad and cathartic to see him go over the edge and end it all. The pigeon that he captures and then lets go away encompasses his experience in a profound, quiet (the key word for this movie is 'quiet') way. Haneke's brilliance in directing and writing this film is holding back. Long takes, overlit realistic shots, no score, seemingly mundane situations, and a disregard for a real sense of narrative continuity in an attempt to make each moment feel as important as it can be. He lets Riva and Trintignant do their thing, and I can't stress enough, they are miraculous. Enamoured as I am with Amour, I don't know if I'll see it again. Each scene in this film still resonates so vividly, and it's such a roller coaster of an experience." - @Gopher

Commentary: Per the translation of the film's title, Amour is a testament to all of the joys, pains and trials that encompass the idea, or passion, of love.  It's easy to make a film that ends with a couple getting together, leaving all of the future aspects of the relationships unforeseen, it's even just as easy to make a film that shows a tragic break-up.  It seems much harder to make a film that shows a love that still burns strong but has to watch what it loves fade away regardless.  Haneke crafted a powerful vision with this film, and Emmanuelle Riva was sensational as the lead actress in the movie.  Definitely one to catch up on if you happened to have missed it.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2017 (4), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (3), 2012 (3), 2016 (2), 2019 (2), 2013 (1)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Directed by Steve McQueen

 

"I don't want to survive. I want to live."

 

Most Valuable Player: Sean Bobbitt for the Cinematography

Awards Count: Won 3 Oscars

Box Office: 56.7m DOM

Metascore: 96

Synopsis: Based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty personified by a malevolent slave owner, as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon's chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.

Critic Opinion: "The ultimate cruelty of humanity is tested to the perimeters of hell in 12 Years a Slave, a true story about the ugliest and most shameful chapter in American history. This gut-churning endurance test about a free man of color who was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 unspeakable years is so harrowing that any viewer with a weak stomach is cautioned ahead of time as a public service: Whole sections of 12 Years a Slave may be too unbearably wrenching for even the bravest soul to watch. But the impact is so profound that it would be a crime to miss it." - Rex Reed, Observer

User Opinion: "Well, I had to watch this movie in two sittings so maybe the parts where I felt kinda disconnected were because of that. I noticed that this is one of the few movies that aren't really remarkable throughout, but when they end you start noticing what it did to you. While the 'Time' copy composed by Zimmer was okay, I still say the songs (the ones with vocals) are pretty good and I think he deserves to be nominated at least.  Everything else was great, and I've got to say that the thing that moved me most throughout the movie was Pitt's character doing what he did, even though he had no proof whatsoever that Solomon was speaking the truth. That's the scene that moved me the most and probably will stay with me. I chose to forget the brutal scenes simply because they are too brutal." - @ChD

Commentary: 12 Years a Slave received many comparisons to Schindler's List, and there's a good reason for it, it's a brutal and emotionally burdensome film to sit and watch but it feels like something that is absolutely necessary to do.  There's some gruesome shots by Bobbitt, and I mean this in a complementary way to him.  I'd say this film should end up being a required viewing for any American to watch, as it's way to easy to overlook exactly what the horrific crime of America's past is in the modern age, and how these horrific acts have continued to ripple throughout the history in the US.  An essential cinematic viewing, however I'd reckon most will only choose to sit and watch this one once.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2017 (4), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2011 (3), 2018 (3), 2012 (3), 2016 (2), 2019 (2), 2013 (2)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Rango (2011)

Directed by Gore Verbinski

 

"I couldn't help but notice you noticing me noticing you."

 

Most Valuable Player: Gore Verbinski for Directing

Awards Count: Won 1 Oscar

Box Office: 123.5m DOM

Metascore: 75

Synopsis: Rango is a pet chameleon always on the lookout for action and adventure, except the fake kind, where he directs it and acts in it. After a car accident, he winds up in an old western town called Dirt. What this town needs the most is water, but they also need a hero and a sheriff. The thirsty Rango instantly takes on the role of both and selfishly agrees to take on the case of their missing water. 

Critic Opinion: "What is surprising is how much it mimics the experience of watching a classic Hollywood film. Without double-crossing the kiddie contingent, "Rango" is iconic like a spaghetti Western, smart like a '70s conspiracy thriller and lively like a Coen brothers comedy.  The latter quality comes partly from the Coens' cinematographer, Roger Deakins, who advised Verbinski on the look and lighting of the project. The team has created a feverishly detailed desert oasis, the town of Dirt, where a stranger arrives one dusty day. A lanky chameleon (voice of Johnny Depp) brags to townsfolk like the feisty belle Beans (Isla Fisher) that he's a gunslinger named Rango, but he's really a city slicker, a Hollywood house pet who fell onto the freeway during a moving-day mishap." - Joe Williams, St. Louis Dispatch

User Opinion: "Tis perfection through and through" - @Ethan Hunt

Commentary: As somebody who has a pretty larger soft spot for spaghetti westers, Rango is a slam dunk of an animation.  Maybe there's some quirks in the full picture, but it's a lot of these small quirks that make this film as fun and lively as it is.  Rango is a rare animation that truly manages to be just as much for adults as it is for kids, I know that's said about a lot of well reviewed animations but a lot of those reviews are being slightly disingenuous.  The animation is absolutely breathtaking, especially when you consider that this film came out in 2011.  What other director would be as audacious about their studio animation as Gore Verbinski?  Verbinski is a truly interesting director, who's always worth watching, even when his films turn out to be hot messes, thankfully Rango is far from being one of his oddball misses.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2017 (4), 2011 (4), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2018 (3), 2012 (3), 2016 (2), 2019 (2), 2013 (2)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by The Panda

[The Panda]

 

Eighth Grade (2018)

Directed by Bo Burnham

 

"Gucci."

 

Most Valuable Player: Elsie Fisher as a Kayla

Awards Count: Nominated for 1 Golden Globe

Box Office: 13.5m DOM

Metascore: 89

Synopsis: In his feature film directorial debut, comedian Bo Burnham deftly encapsulates the awkwardness, angst, self-loathing and reinvention that a teenage girl goes through on the cusp of high school. Given that the 27-year-old stand-up comic achieved fame as a teenager himself through YouTube by riffing on his insecurities, he is uniquely capable as the film's writer and director to tell the story of Kayla, an anxious girl navigating the final days of her eighth grade year, despite creating a protagonist w female instead of male. Like Burnham did more than a decade ago, 13-year-old Kayla turns to YouTube to express herself, where she makes advice blogs in which she pretends to have it all together. In reality, Kayla is sullen and silent around her single father and her peers at school, carrying out most of her interactions with her classmates on Instagram and Twitter.

Critic Opinion: "One of the film’s most touching things is her discovery of a videoed message from her nine-year-old self to her current self, and then her shooting a new video message, intended to be viewed by her 18-year-old self. They are both full of upbeat, serious faith in the future, and very different from the imaginary letters to one’s own teenage self that middle-aged newspaper columnists are sometimes asked to compose and that invariably go on about getting a sense of humour – just the kind of condescension that any teenager would resent. Fisher’s portrayal of Kayla’s life has such charm and unassuming decency." - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

User Opinion: "The best horror movie of the year." - @Rorschach

Commentary: A harrowing reminder of how cringey and awkward of a human being you used to be, and maybe also a good-hearted film that could help current awkward pre-teens learn and grow to be slightly less weird and awkward teenagers.  Eighth Grade is a remarkable debut feature from Bo Burnham and one of the many A24 films that has been looked over by awards committees because apparently they're just too good and innovative to need any of them.  Elsie Fisher is great in the lead role of the film, and I am hopeful that she'll get more leading work coming into the next decade.  There's small, indie coming of age films by the dozen but few of them are able to really get the genre spot on as well as this one does.

Year Count: 2015 (5), 2017 (4), 2011 (4), 2018 (4), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2012 (3), 2016 (2), 2019 (2), 2013 (2)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Riaru onigokku (Tag) (2015)

Directed by Sion Sono

 

"Why did we have to run?"

 

Most Valuable Player: Sion Sono for Writing and Directing

Awards Count: N/A

Box Office: N/A

Metascore: N/A but 91% on RT

Synopsis: As the sole survivor of a horrendous and rather mysterious accident, Mitsuko, a typical Japanese teenager, can safely say that her day has got off to a bad start. It seems that an unstoppable force of nature, a doomed field trip, and a strange case of amnesia can easily coexist in a bizarre parallel universe, where a desperate Mitsuko is always on the run from something inexplicable, intangible, and utterly deadly. However, that's not all. Amid piles of fresh dead bodies, mounds of scorching bullet shells, and rivulets of fragrant young blood, frail Mitsuko must fight to stay alive, before her already messed up day becomes even stranger. But, the question still remains. Who is the enemy?

Critic Opinion: "TAG’s opening sequence, for example – which surely qualifies as one of the most arresting in film history – begins with an idealised scene: happy schoolgirls on a bus, heading off on a trip, blithely laughing and throwing pillows back and forth, as their female teacher comments on how “nice and sunny” it is. Yet as Mitsuko bends over to pick up her dropped pen, a supernatural force shears off half the bus, bloodily taking the heads and upper torsos of the other girls with it, and leaving Mitsuko covered in blood and fleeing what appears to be a leafy gust of wind (with its own Evil Dead-style shaky cam POV shot as it chases her down the road). Later, her lessons with best friends Aki (Yuki Sakurai), Taeko (Ari Hiraoko) and Sur (Ami Tomite) – short for ‘Surreal’ – will be brought to a violent end when the school’s teachers suddenly turn guns and grenade launchers on their student body.  Here youth is fleeting, and mortality is never more than a few steps behind – but even as death adopts irrational forms, the film itself deploys equally irrational transitions, always staying close to Mistuko while her locations and scenarios, even her identity, radically change, so that by the end she is also the 25-year-old bride Keiko (Moriko Shinode) and a long-distance runner named Izumi (Erina Mano). Confused and traumatised by her strange, wrenching experiences in a world inhabited exclusively by women (apart from a tuxedoed bridegroom wearing a pig’s head), Mitsuko is guided by the loyal Aki, who recurs in every storyline, to a climactic meeting with her maker, for whom she is a mere plaything." - Anton Bitel, Little White Lies

User Opinion: N/A

Commentary: Tag is a bizarre, bloody and over the top Japanese take down of the patriarchy.  The premise of the movie where this Japanese girl continually finds herself in odd violent situations, such as a gust of wind cutting all of her classmates in half, some bonkers shooting sequences that leave you revolted and in a state of laughter at the utter absurdity of it all, and some other surprises that come about throughout the film.  What really brings this film together though is an ending twist that I won't spoil here, but it manages to place all of the craziness into its place and actually delivers a fairly poignant attack on the patriarchy.  Really well done foreign film that I doubt anyone else here has seen.

Year Count: 2015 (6), 2017 (4), 2011 (4), 2018 (4), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2012 (3), 2016 (2), 2019 (2), 2013 (2)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)

 

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

Directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone

 

"Ever since I was born, I was dope."

 

Most Valuable Player: Lonely Island's Soundtrack

Awards Count: Some BOFFY Noms

Box Office: 9.5m DOM

Metascore: 68

Synopsis: When his new album fails to sell records, pop and rap superstar conner4real (Andy Samberg) goes into a major tailspin and watches his celebrity high life begin to collapse. He'll try anything to bounce back, anything except reuniting with his old rap group The Style Boyz.

Critic Opinion: "To say that the Lonely Island’s new movie Popstar is the best film parody of popular music since This Is Spinal Tap is to do it a disservice. That’s because Popstar is just about the only film parody of pop music since Spinal Tap. This is, as the poet said, crazy, but it’s only while watching Popstar that you realize exactly how crazy this is. In the three decades since Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer donned the blown-out wigs of Spinal Tap, pop has undergone a revolution only matched by the 30-year revolution that culminated in Spinal Tap. (The previous revolution was led by rock, while the new one is led by hip-hop, electronic music, and Swedish dudes named Karl.) This, it turns out, is the source of Popstar’s greatest weakness and its greatest strength. While the movie initially appears to be a spoof of Justin Bieber’s blockbuster concert documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (Popstar’s own subtitle is Never Stop Never Stopping), in fact it’s a spoof of a whole new era of pop decadence. When it loses focus, it’s because there are far too many rich targets to lampoon." - Forrest Wickman, Slate

User Opinion: "I saw it today & I was pretty much laughing from star to finish! I love Andy Samberg & Lonely Island's style of comedy, so I am not surprised I enjoyed it so much! Funniest movie of the year so far and honestly one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time! All the songs were hilarious and I liked that is was done in a documentary style as I really enjoyed all the talking head parts! Might even be my favorite movie of the year so far! With that said, I can easily see why somebody could hate it if this is the style of comedy they prefer." - @Empire

Commentary: Absolutely hysterical mockumentary that channels the energies of This is Spinal Tap, even if it may not be as clean of a film as that one (which would be a tall order to ask for regardless).  The soundtrack is absolutely iconic, from the scathing remarks about the Mona Lisa, to the demand for Equal Rights and of course Bin Laden (and many more).  Andy Samberg completely envelops the role of a douchey popstar who's career takes a sharp decline, maybe that's because he was playing only a slight caricature of himself.  One of the most quotable films I saw this decade, too bad nobody went and saw it so it never gets quoted outside of these parts of the web.

Year Count: 2015 (6), 2017 (4), 2011 (4), 2018 (4), 2010 (3), 2014 (3), 2012 (3), 2016 (3), 2019 (2), 2013 (2)

Director Count: Alex Garland (2)