BOT's Top 100 Films of the 2010s: The Countdown | List complete

[Jake Gittes]

Number 51

Spoiler

 

 

"I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this."

221 points, 21 lists

directed by Ridley Scott | US, UK | 2015

 

The Pitch: 

 

Top 5 Placements: 1
Metacritic: 80
Box Office: $630m WW
Awards: 7 Academy Award nominations
BOT History: #6, Top Movies of 2015; #28, Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies (2020); BOFFY for Best Adapted Screenplay, out of 6 nominations
Critic Opinion: “At its heart, The Martian is an unapologetically stirring celebration of our ability, as a species, to solve even the most daunting problems via rational thought, step by step by step. It’s basically Human Ingenuity: The Movie.” - Mike D'Angelo, The AV Club

"Perhaps most importantly, not only does the film stress the importance of using math and physics and botany and chemistry to solve problems, but it also makes a plot based on scientific inquiry and audacity just as exciting and even more unpredictable as the movies’ usual brand of problem-solving, the kind that involves punching everyone and then blowing everything up." - Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
BOT Sez: “Allaying my initial fears that the lauded names in front of and behind the camera would adopt a more serious tone at the expense of Andy Weir's wry spins on the survival adventure subgenre, the final product strikes a winning balance between lighthearted irreverence and armrest-gripping tension. It's rare that a film can blend two seemingly contradictory tonal elements to strong effect, but this film accomplishes it thanks to the consistently savvy choices of Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard. With such versatility in tone, it's all-too-appropriate that Matt Damon, one of the most versatile actors working today, is so good in the title role. Damon's charisma and just-about-perfect delivery of gallows humor makes him all too easy to watch for the stretches in which he is the only person onscreen, but he also pushes himself to subtle yet resonant emotional depths whenever the gravity of his predicament hits him. The rest of the cast is solid as well, but it's not altogether surprising that no one else has the requisite screen time or development to steal the show from Damon (in fact, one of my few very minor quibbles with the film is that I would like to have seen more preliminary development of the crew so that their sense of camaraderie is clearer when the inciting incident occurs).” - @Webslinger

“Matt Damon is one of the best actors out there who's capable of serious work and can deliver sly jokes. His comedic chops are criminally under served.” - @MrPink
Commentary: One of the decade's most likable and inspiring Hollywood movies, which brought together Andy Weir's science- and problem-solving-celebrating original novel, screenwriter Drew Goddard's pop instincts, Ridley Scott's sure hand, Matt Damon's movie-star charm, and a game supporting cast. It probably couldn't have been any more of a sure bet as a non-sequel star vehicle, and indeed when time came it fired on all cylinders, cleaning up at the box office and checking in at the industry awards. Both its high placement here and the high number of lists it appeared on reflect that success.
 

 

 

 

[Ethan Hunt]

Fuck Yes. Love this shit

[Madhuvan]

So, lots of cbm movies in top 50. 🤗🤗

 

Hoping some hindi movies also make the list. 

[lorddemaxus]

So are the two better Ridley Scott sci-fi films from the 2010s gonna make it in too?

[Jake Gittes]

Stats after #100-51

 

Yearly breakdown: 2011 (4), 2012 (5), 2013 (5), 2014 (7), 2015 (6), 2016 (6), 2017 (4), 2018 (6), 2019 (7)

Directors with multiple films on the list: Sam Mendes (2)

Actors with multiple characters on the list: Brad Pitt (4); Jessica Chastain (3); Robert De Niro (3); Chris Pratt (3); Octavia Spencer (3); Cate Blanchett (2); Emily Blunt (2); Kyle Chandler (2); Jason Clarke (2); Tom Cruise (2); Willem Dafoe (2); Adam Driver (2); Idris Elba (2); Chris Evans (2); Brendan Gleeson (2); Sally Hawkins (2); Brian Tyree Henry (2); Jonah Hill (2); Philip Seymour Hoffman (2); John Hurt (2); Scarlett Johansson (2); Brie Larson (2); Jennifer Lawrence (2); Amy Ryan (2); Cobie Smulders (2); Imelda Staunton (2); Emma Stone (2); Ben Whishaw (2) 

[Spidey Freak]

2010 having 0 entries in the bottom half and then going on to make a killing in the top half is a mood  

[charlie Jatinder]

@Jake Gittes make it 20 15 15 movies a day please.

 

[Jake Gittes]

8 minutes ago, charlie Jatinder said:

@Jake Gittes make it 20 15 15 movies a day please.

 

 

10 takes me hours each day as it is. And I don't wanna change things up and cut things like BOT history or commentary from the entries at this stage. 

[MrPink]

10 hours ago, lorddemaxus said:

So are the two better Ridley Scott sci-fi films from the 2010s gonna make it in too?

 

 

 

[SLAM!]

You guys think Samson could make the list? 🤔

[Dementeleus]

25 minutes ago, SLAM! said:

You guys think Samson could make the list? 🤔

[filmlover]

28 minutes ago, SLAM! said:

You guys think Samson could make the list? 🤔

Yes. And place higher than Black Panther. Justice for Samson!

[Rorschach]

All these funny book films making it on here gives me hope for a Top 10 placement for Venom.

[Jake Gittes]

Number 50

Spoiler

 

 

"It's hard for a good man to be king."

223 points, 14 lists

directed by Ryan Coogler | US | 2018

 

The Pitch: T'Challa, the newly crowned king of Wakanda, is challenged by Erik Killmonger, who wants to abandon the country's isolationist policies and begin a global revolution.

 

Top 5 Placements: 3
Top 12 Placements: 1
Metacritic: 88
Box Office: $1.346 billion WW
Awards: 3 Academy Awards, out of 7 nominations; SAG Award for Best Ensemble Cast; 5 Saturn Awards
BOT History: #8, Top Movies of 2018; 4 BOFFY Awards
Critic Opinion: "Handsomely mounted by Creed director Ryan Coogler and starring an enviable slate of black actors that makes cameoing comics godhead Stan Lee almost seem lost, the film is provocative and satisfying in ways that are long overdue, like its ornate, culturally dense production design and the deeper subtexts of honor, compassion and destiny." - Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out

"Killmonger’s goal is, in his eyes, the global liberation of black people. But that is not truly his goal, as Coogler makes clear in the text of the script and in Killmonger’s interactions with other characters. Like Magneto, another comic-book character who is a creation of historical trauma—the Holocaust instead of the Middle Passage—Killmonger’s goal is world domination. “The sun will never set on the Wakandan empire,” Killmonger declares, echoing an old saying about the British Empire, to drive the point home as clearly as possible. [...] The following distinction is crucial: Black Panther does not render a verdict that violence is an unacceptable tool of black liberation—to the contrary, that is precisely how Wakanda is liberated. It renders a verdict on imperialism as a tool of black liberation, to say that the master’s tools cannot dismantle the master’s house." - Adam Serwer, The Atlantic
BOT Sez: “With Black Panther, Coogler has delivered an extremely exciting, stylish, and confident action film that somehow finds ways to take the Marvel Cinematic Universe in directions it hasn't already trod across eighteen previous films while also hitting the series's recurring "making your own monsters" theme with greater depth than any previous installment. By mostly eschewing the larger events of the other films in the present MCU phase and limiting the presence of outside characters to two background players we barely saw in the previous films (Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman, who had glorified cameos in Age of Ultron and Civil War, respectively), it feels as close to a standalone film as the MCU has produced since the first Iron Man, and it uses this sharp focus to simultaneously develop the mythos surrounding Wakanda in a fascinating manner, craft character relationships so effective that they lend themselves to real stakes in the third act, and use the central conflict between the titular hero and the antagonist to communicate a resonant, all-too-timely message about the perils of nationalism.” - @Webslinger
“Clearly the most interesting MCU film thematically, if not a bit imperfect. I wish they could have taken more time to explore the dueling ideologies a bit [...] There's a lot the movie is trying to tackle here that the 2hr 15min feels short for what it's trying to achieve. Give me Nolan length here if we're going to be talking about race, privilege, and geopolitical relations.” - @MrPink
Commentary: Top 50 kicks off with one of the decade's biggest and most important success stories. Arrive though it did as part of the most successful ongoing movie franchise in the world, Black Panther - the first nine-figure-budgeted tentpole made by a predominantly black creative team - blew past all expectations, becoming one of the highest grossing movies ever made, and it benefited greatly from director and co-writer Ryan Coogler's energy and ambition, even if he too had to struggle with the MCU's typically shoddy bits of pre-viz action and effects work.

 

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

3 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 50

  Hide contents

 

 

"It's hard for a good man to be king."

223 points, 14 lists

directed by Ryan Coogler | US | 2018

 

The Pitch: T'Challa, the newly crowned king of Wakanda, is challenged by Erik Killmonger, who wants to abandon the country's isolationist policies and begin a global revolution.

 

Top 5 Placements: 3
Top 12 Placements: 1
Metacritic: 88
Box Office: $1.346 billion WW
Awards: 3 Academy Awards, out of 7 nominations; SAG Award for Best Ensemble Cast; 5 Saturn Awards
BOT History: #8, Top Movies of 2018; 4 BOFFY Awards
Critic Opinion: "Handsomely mounted by Creed director Ryan Coogler and starring an enviable slate of black actors that makes cameoing comics godhead Stan Lee almost seem lost, the film is provocative and satisfying in ways that are long overdue, like its ornate, culturally dense production design and the deeper subtexts of honor, compassion and destiny." - Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out

"Killmonger’s goal is, in his eyes, the global liberation of black people. But that is not truly his goal, as Coogler makes clear in the text of the script and in Killmonger’s interactions with other characters. Like Magneto, another comic-book character who is a creation of historical trauma—the Holocaust instead of the Middle Passage—Killmonger’s goal is world domination. “The sun will never set on the Wakandan empire,” Killmonger declares, echoing an old saying about the British Empire, to drive the point home as clearly as possible. [...] The following distinction is crucial: Black Panther does not render a verdict that violence is an unacceptable tool of black liberation—to the contrary, that is precisely how Wakanda is liberated. It renders a verdict on imperialism as a tool of black liberation, to say that the master’s tools cannot dismantle the master’s house." - Adam Serwer, The Atlantic
BOT Sez: “With Black Panther, Coogler has delivered an extremely exciting, stylish, and confident action film that somehow finds ways to take the Marvel Cinematic Universe in directions it hasn't already trod across eighteen previous films while also hitting the series's recurring "making your own monsters" theme with greater depth than any previous installment. By mostly eschewing the larger events of the other films in the present MCU phase and limiting the presence of outside characters to two background players we barely saw in the previous films (Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman, who had glorified cameos in Age of Ultron and Civil War, respectively), it feels as close to a standalone film as the MCU has produced since the first Iron Man, and it uses this sharp focus to simultaneously develop the mythos surrounding Wakanda in a fascinating manner, craft character relationships so effective that they lend themselves to real stakes in the third act, and use the central conflict between the titular hero and the antagonist to communicate a resonant, all-too-timely message about the perils of nationalism.” - @Webslinger
“Clearly the most interesting MCU film thematically, if not a bit imperfect. I wish they could have taken more time to explore the dueling ideologies a bit [...] There's a lot the movie is trying to tackle here that the 2hr 15min feels short for what it's trying to achieve. Give me Nolan length here if we're going to be talking about race, privilege, and geopolitical relations.” - @MrPink
Commentary: Top 50 kicks off with one of the decade's biggest and most important success stories. Arrive though it did as part of the most successful ongoing movie franchise in the world, Black Panther - the first nine-figure-budgeted tentpole made by a predominantly black creative team - blew past all expectations, becoming one of the highest grossing movies ever made, and it benefited greatly from director and co-writer Ryan Coogler's energy and ambition, even if he too had to struggle with the MCU's typically shoddy bits of pre-viz action and effects work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great Coogler movie, to bad his best movie (Fruitvale Station) has little to no chance of showing up.

[Jake Gittes]

Number 49

Spoiler

 

 

"Twelve notes and the octave repeats. It's the same story told over and over, forever. All any artist can offer the world is how they see those twelve notes."

225 points, 18 lists

directed by Bradley Cooper | US | 2018

 

The Pitch: 

 

 

Top 12 Placements: 2
Metacritic: 88
Box Office: $436m WW
Awards: Academy Award for Best Original Song, out of 8 nominations
BOT History: #2, Top Movies of 2018; BOFFY for Best Original Song
Critic Opinion: "Gorgeously shot, lighted and scored, and acted by both leads with an incandescence that feels fully lived in, Cooper’s movie seduces you almost immediately. It doesn’t promise the shock of the new, but from the first frame it casts a spell, the kind that lets you know immediately that you’re in good hands." - Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

"This latest and fourth version is a gorgeous heartbreaker (bring tissues). Like its finest antecedents, it wrings tears from its romance and thrills from a steadfast belief in old-fashioned, big-feeling cinema. That it’s also a perverse fantasy about men, women, love and sacrifice makes it all the better." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
BOT Sez: “Cooper’s directorial debut is confident and almost always knows exactly what it’s doing. He steps back when he needs to and takes control when it’s necessary. The film feels timeless and perhaps it is. After all, the story has been remade countless times and it still feels like something we can’t keep our eyes away from. Gaga and Cooper are a duo that can’t be stopped in this film. Both of them deliver performances that are almost unfathomably good for both their characters. The music is memorable and utilized well; it’s a musical where the motifs always build in truly lovely ways.” - @Blankments
“two moments made me cry 1) sam elliott fighting the tears when bradley cooper tells him he's his idol, cos you know when sam elliott cries, coolio cries. 2) the shot of the dog sitting outside the garage after coop hanged himself, which is like the cheapest fucking thing in the world but godddaaaaaaamn it.

i have some nitpicks (rise to fame felt kinda rushed, slimy british manager is a character from a worse movie) but this is some transcendent shit. just gotta shout out the concert scenes especially because i literally did my film studies dissertation on concert films, i've seen a lot of them, and this had some of the best concert scenes i've ever seen like holy shit.” - @CoolioD1

"A Star Is Born is way more epic than LotR" - @Ethan Hunt
Commentary: Staying in 2018, we move on to Bradley Cooper's passion project that became his debut as a writer, director and musician. Taking on one of Hollywood's most oft-told dramatic stories, he succeeded in re-telling it in a way appealing to the 21st-century audience and thus scored a commercial triumph, even if he did also have to watch his 18 months' worth of singing lessons lose a whole lot of Best Actor awards to Rami Malek's lip-syncing and fake teeth. 
 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Jake Gittes

[Jake Gittes]

Number 48

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

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

225 points, 21 lists

directed by Steve McQueen | US, UK | 2013

 

The Pitch: Solomon Northup, a free African-American man, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841.

 

Top 5 Placements: 1
Top 12 Placements: 2
Metacritic: 96
Box Office: $187m WW
Awards: Academy Awards for Best Picture, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay, out of 9 nominations; BAFTA for Best Film and Best Actor
BOT History: #6, Top Movies of 2013; BOFFY awards for Best Ensemble, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress, out of 8 nominations
Critic Opinion: “Given 12 Years A Slave’s subject matter, it’s a welcome surprise that John Ridley’s script pushes McQueen to prove he can proficiently execute multiple tones. Dexterity is necessary to handle adaptation of Solomon Northup’s slave narrative, which is a sort of ghastly picaresque featuring Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) as an innocent continuously abused in various settings. [...] There’s a pointed crane up from his dungeon to a bird’s eye view of the White House within shouting distance. Washington, D.C., is a particularly stark example of how the United States’ infamous incarceration rates disproportionately affect black people: 50.1% of the district’s population according to the 2012 census, but making up 91% of its inmates in June. That crane shot directly connects this country’s overblown prison business with executive policy, and it’s one of many indications that 12 Years is up to more than simply rendering The Horrors Of Slavery at a safe distance for everyone to shiver blamelessly at. The subject is, among other things, structural racism, in which institutional practices make everyone complicit in a greater ill without the possibility of identifying actors whose removal would lead to justice.” - Vadim Rizov, Filmmaker Magazine
BOT Sez: “Fantastic movie that lives up to the hype. I wasn't a big fan of either Hunger or Shame, but I absolutely love 12 Years A Slave. It was wonderfully-directed. Acting performances are good to great all around. Fassbender is outstanding in the role, his mannerisms were spot on as the manic, abusive and despicable slave-driver.Chiwetel Ejiofor is fantastic. His acting strength lies in the emotional and physical struggle conveyed through body language, especially his eyes. I can see and feel the anguish and pain just by his stares. It was a powerful, but not the in-your-face type of performance, and I love that. Another performance that also caught my attention is by Lupita Nyong'o in the role of Patsey. But really, they were all good. Definitely completely a characters-driven movie and succeeded at that. Storytelling was very effective, I felt engaged throughout. The rawness and sensitive nature of the subject involved was handled, in my opinion, in the most-suited way." - @Sam
Commentary: Our third, and third-to-last, Best Picture winner. Following his provocative arthouse successes Hunger and Shame, director Steve McQueen found a wide audience when he applied his unwavering, carefully studied approach to some of the toughest subject matter there is, making a film that avoided being either melodramatic or miserablist. A strong box-office success and winner of many industry awards, it remains widely admired, including by members of this board.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Jake Gittes

[Jake Gittes]

Number 47

Spoiler

 

"What is wrong is wrong, no matter who said it or where it's written."
230 points, 12 lists

directed by Asghar Farhadi | Iran | 2011

 

The Pitch: As an Iranian middle-class couple separate, conflict arises when the husband hires a lower-class caregiver for his Alzheimer's-suffering elderly father.

 

#1 Placements: 1
Top 12 Placements: 4
Metacritic: 95
Box Office: $24m WW
Awards: Golden Bear, Silver Bear for Best Actor and Best Actress - Berlin Film Festival; Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
BOT History: #80, Top 100 Movies of the 21st Century (2015)
Critic Opinion: “Showing a control of investigative pacing that recalls classic Hitchcock and a feel for ethical nuance that is all his own, Farhadi has hit upon a story that is not only about men and women, children and parents, justice and religion in today's Iran, but that raises complex and globally relevant questions of responsibility, of the subjectivity and contingency of "telling the truth", and of how thin the line can be between inflexibility and pride – especially of the male variety – and selfishness and tyranny.” - Lee Marshall, ScreenDaily
BOT Sez: “A Separation is one of the greatest foreign films ever made, and easily one of the best of the decade. I've only seen it once, but it absolutely left a lasting impression on me. The acting is spectacular from the two leads (and the child actress is surprisingly great, too), and the script is fantastic. The writer(s) of A Separation are incredibly talented due to their seamless ability of dealing with the plight of three protagonists without it ever feeling over-stuffed or insincere. It's rare for any script to manage that. You'll walk away feeling hugely impressed by this courtroom drama, and hopefully have a better understanding of what life in Iran is. I only wish this film was seen by more people, as it brings out the best and most important aspect of cinema: to better understand others.” - @Noctis
Commentary: Our highest-ranking 2011 film! And it earns that status despite not even making top 5 for that year when it came to the number of lists it appeared on. (Aside from Moneyball, The Raid and The Tree of Life, there are two 2011 movies that received more individual mentions yet didn't crack the top 100 at all.) That speaks as well as anything to the impact of this unrelenting drama, which gave Iranian cinema its biggest global success this century. Of the 12 BOT members who did vote for it, 10 had it somewhere in their top 30; its average point score is currently the highest in the top 100 for any film that appeared on more than 5 lists. It's a record we will see broken again, but not for a while. 
 

 

 

 

[Dementeleus]

A SEPARATION is extraordinary. 47 is way too low.  

[Ethan Hunt]

13 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

A SEPARATION is extraordinary. 47 is way too low.  

Tele you're such a hypocrite, lmao. holy shit.