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

[Jake Gittes]

Number 38

Spoiler

 

"I don't see a lot of money here."
253 points, 19 lists

directed by Joel & Ethan Coen | US, France | 2013

 

The Pitch: One week in the life of a struggling New York folk singer in February 1961.

 

#1 Placements: 1
Top 5 Placements: 1
Top 12 Placements: 2
Metacritic: 93
Box Office: $33m WW
Awards: Grand Prix - Cannes Film Festival; 2 Academy Award nominations
BOT History: #11, Top Movies of 2013; 4 BOFFY nominations
Critic Opinion: "While often funny and alive with winning performances, Inside Llewyn Davis finds the brothers in a dark mood, exploring the near-inevitable disappointment that faces artists too sincere to compromise—disappointments that the Coens, to their credit, have made a career out of dodging. The result is their most affecting film since the masterful A Serious Man." - Alan Scherstuhl, TVV
BOT Sez: “This may be the Coen's most melancholic story-- there's a profound sense of loss and coldness to Llewyn's life--but it's still incredibly funny, visceral and emotional, and the music adds so much to the film's characters and atmosphere. Llewyn's character study proves how you can pour your heart and soul into what you do and be really good at it, but it doesn't matter if you can't catch a break. The most devastating shot in the film is right before an ass-whooping from a man in the shadows, Llewyn looks at Bob Dylan and realizes that he's not special, that he's not going to make it no matter how much he tries. We laugh at how bleak Llewyn's life is so we don't cry. This is what the Coens excel at and what all of their best films pull this off in spades. Inside Llewyn Davis is absolutely one of their best.” - @Gopher
"I like how the Coens Bros portrayed the early sixties wintery atmosphere and offer a glimpse of Greenwich Village's effervescence, lot of struggling artists all over the US coming to NYC running after paychecks after paychecks hoping to catch the big break. The whole movie feels like a meandering folk song in which we explore the tribulations of a jewish Sisyphe going round in circles running after a mirage, he's a wandering minstrel carrying his bad luck like a burden hoping his music as a savior. The Chicago trip felt quite dreamlike and random, like we dive into Davis dark psyche questioning the meaning and purpose of it all.

For me, one of the stand-out scene is Llewyn Davis heartwrenching rendition of The Death of Queen Jane when he goes A Capella pouring his naked soul to Grossmann staring at him, just to be denied from the ground up. When you feel the movie hit the Zenith, the character hit the Nadir. The fatalistic realization that no matter how hard you'll try, you're nothing special, you will not stand among the crowd because there's always somebody out there who is more lucky, more gifted, more talented and that it all boils down to lucky chance and unfortunate string of events. In that regard, Davis said something like "There are two kinds of people in this world, those that divide people in two categories and the others...". But at the end of the movie, he is reminded with a punch that good ole biblical sayin' "For many are called, but few are chosen.” Llewyn Davis definetely belongs to those "many" like most of us and that's a bummer. But even if the destination is not what many of us envision, that odyssey to bloom is worth to walk through." - @dashrendar44
Commentary: The Coen brothers get their (unfortunately) sole entry on the list with their most acclaimed film of the decade. With its downbeat story about an abrasive artist's struggle, there was an element of self-fulfilling prophecy to the film's own struggle to get the attention it deserved from theatrical audiences and (more damningly) industry awards bodies, but it's precisely the Coens' willingness to dive head-first into the bitterness and melancholy of this period of their protagonist's life that earned the film its fans among those who did see it. Six years later, its reputation has only grown.
 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

8 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 38

  Hide contents

 

"I don't see a lot of money here."
253 points, 19 lists

directed by Joel & Ethan Coen | US, France | 2013

 

The Pitch: One week in the life of a struggling New York folk singer in February 1961.

 

#1 Placements: 1
Top 5 Placements: 1
Top 12 Placements: 2
Metacritic: 93
Box Office: $33m WW
Awards: Grand Prix - Cannes Film Festival; 2 Academy Award nominations
BOT History: #11, Top Movies of 2013; 4 BOFFY nominations
Critic Opinion: "While often funny and alive with winning performances, Inside Llewyn Davis finds the brothers in a dark mood, exploring the near-inevitable disappointment that faces artists too sincere to compromise—disappointments that the Coens, to their credit, have made a career out of dodging. The result is their most affecting film since the masterful A Serious Man." - Alan Scherstuhl, TVV
BOT Sez: “This may be the Coen's most melancholic story-- there's a profound sense of loss and coldness to Llewyn's life--but it's still incredibly funny, visceral and emotional, and the music adds so much to the film's characters and atmosphere. Llewyn's character study proves how you can pour your heart and soul into what you do and be really good at it, but it doesn't matter if you can't catch a break. The most devastating shot in the film is right before an ass-whooping from a man in the shadows, Llewyn looks at Bob Dylan and realizes that he's not special, that he's not going to make it no matter how much he tries. We laugh at how bleak Llewyn's life is so we don't cry. This is what the Coens excel at and what all of their best films pull this off in spades. Inside Llewyn Davis is absolutely one of their best.” - @Gopher
"I like how the Coens Bros portrayed the early sixties wintery atmosphere and offer a glimpse of Greenwich Village's effervescence, lot of struggling artists all over the US coming to NYC running after paychecks after paychecks hoping to catch the big break. The whole movie feels like a meandering folk song in which we explore the tribulations of a jewish Sisyphe going round in circles running after a mirage, he's a wandering minstrel carrying his bad luck like a burden hoping his music as a savior. The Chicago trip felt quite dreamlike and random, like we dive into Davis dark psyche questioning the meaning and purpose of it all.

For me, one of the stand-out scene is Llewyn Davis heartwrenching rendition of The Death of Queen Jane when he goes A Capella pouring his naked soul to Grossmann staring at him, just to be denied from the ground up. When you feel the movie hit the Zenith, the character hit the Nadir. The fatalistic realization that no matter how hard you'll try, you're nothing special, you will not stand among the crowd because there's always somebody out there who is more lucky, more gifted, more talented and that it all boils down to lucky chance and unfortunate string of events. In that regard, Davis said something like "There are two kinds of people in this world, those that divide people in two categories and the others...". But at the end of the movie, he is reminded with a punch that good ole biblical sayin' "For many are called, but few are chosen.” Llewyn Davis definetely belongs to those "many" like most of us and that's a bummer. But even if the destination is not what many of us envision, that odyssey to bloom is worth to walk through." - @dashrendar44
Commentary: The Coen brothers get their (unfortunately) sole entry on the list with their most acclaimed film of the decade. With its downbeat story about an abrasive artist's struggle, there was an element of self-fulfilling prophecy to the film's own struggle to get the attention it deserved from theatrical audiences and (more damningly) industry awards bodies, but it's precisely the Coens' willingness to dive head-first into the bitterness and melancholy of this period of their protagonist's life that earned the film its fans among those who did see it. Six years later, its reputation has only grown.
 

 

 

 

 

“The Coen Brothers get their first and only entry”

 

You Bastards keep doing 2010 dirty and snubbed this work of art

 

[WrathOfHan]

UH-OH!

[aabattery]

The four people who put Llewyn in their top 12.

 

[Eric the Fall Guy]

6 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

“The Coen Brothers get their first and only entry”

 

You Bastards keep doing 2010 dirty and snubbed this work of art

 

Hey buddy, the 2010 list is right around the corner

[CoolioD1]

29 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

#1 Placements: 1
Top 5 Placements: 1

wait this doesn't track since it was my #2

[grim22]

2 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

wait this doesn't track since it was my #2

Jake is using math where each category is independent. So he doesn’t count #1 in top 5 and doesn’t count top 5 in top 12.

[CoolioD1]

Just now, grim22 said:

Jake is using math where each category is independent. So he doesn’t count #1 in top 5 and doesn’t count top 5 in top 12.

...oh

[cannastop]

Just now, grim22 said:

Jake is using math where each category is independent. So he doesn’t count #1 in top 5 and doesn’t count top 5 in top 12.

I messed up the 70s list this way too.

[CoolioD1]

SOMEBODY'S COOKING THE BOOKS!

[Jake Gittes]

Number 37

Spoiler

 

"Hey, Mom, did you feel emotional the first time that you drove in Sacramento?"
261 points, 24 lists

directed by Greta Gerwig | US | 2017

 

The Pitch: A teenage girl goes through her senior year of high school in early 2000s Sacramento, California.

 

#1 Placements: 1
Top 12 Placements: 1
Metacritic: 94
Box Office: $79m WW
Awards: 5 Academy Award nominations
BOT History: #8, Top Movies of 2017; BOFFY awards for Best Actress and Supporting Actress

Critic Opinion: "Gerwig doesn’t trap her protagonist in the oblivious underage bubble that most coming-of-age dramedies inhabit; Lady Bird’s parents, played by Tracy Letts and Laurie Metcalf, are fully formed humans with their own deep flaws and vulnerabilities." - Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
BOT Sez: “I loved the theme of yearning for escape that's present in the film, and how each event in Christine's life almost feels like it's stockpiling, until she finally escapes (or literally 'flies away' in a plane) and realizing how much of the youthful entrapment was built up inside her own mind.  It's one of the more honest coming of age films I've seen, and you can tell a lot of that is Gerwig's heart and memory toward her own youth.  With its setting in 2002-2003, and the fact Gerwig grew up in Sacramento, you can tell it's a fictional telling of her own story (which is what makes it so great).” - @The Panda
"'Did you get emotional  the first time you drove through Sacramento?' should be a line that goes down in cinema history” - @Ethan Hunt
"Going in mostly blind, and walking out, I now know why Ethan and the teenagers specifically are nutting over this movie." - @MrPink

Commentary: Our second female-directed 2017 film of the day is Greta Gerwig's debut as a solo writer and director. A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age dramedy that served up 90 minutes' worth of sharp observation and character detail, it established Gerwig immediately as a filmmaker to reckon with, gave Saoirse Ronan and veteran character actress Laurie Metcalf a showcase each, and found in a certain teenage BOT member someone to call it his favorite movie of the 2010s.
 

 

 

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

Number 36

Spoiler

 

"He is not a dude. You're a dude. This... this is a man. A handsome, muscular man."
264 points, 18 lists

directed by Anthony & Joe Russo | US | 2018

 

The Pitch: The most ambitious crossover event in history

 

Top 5 Placements: 3
Top 12 Placements: 2
Metacritic: 68
Box Office: $2.048 billion WW
Awards: Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects; Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Movie
BOT History: #22, Top Movies of 2018; BOFFY for Best Villain
Critic Opinion: "Never has the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” seemed like more of a universe, in ways both good and bad. Infinity War—the title is almost too apt—is a narrative juggling act the likes of which I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. It is far from a perfect movie, but it is probably close to the best movie it could have been." - Christopher Orr, The Atlantic

"It’s exhausting, but it’s also frequently effective. It’s surface-level with its emotional beats, but a number of them still land, largely thanks to the continuously all-in performances of the series’ endlessly patient stars. It’s an event that advertises itself as an event in every way, while somehow still managing to justify the immense hype around it." - Dominick Suzanne-Mayer, Consequence of Sound
BOT Sez: “The accumulation of individual marvel movies interlock in such a way that the experience does not diminish but grows with every passing movie. We identify deeply with the host of superhero characters that are thrown at us in a way that there simply would not be time for in a normal film building up character arcs from scratch. Though most characters do not have much screen time, we can read a whole lot more into their individual actions than the scenes suggest. The Captain America entrance scene must have surely sent thrills down the spine of every marvel film fan who had seen Civil war and the circumstances in which that film ended.” - @Fish&chips

"Frankly, it’s the essence of comics themselves, poured onto the big screen. It looks great (especially those space scenes) and the movie builds into one giant “they won’t end it like that, would they?” that, as an audience member, either you’re hoping for (if you’re familiar with the story), or you’re genuinely not expecting (the more casual folks). Either way, the Russos chose to stick to the pure roots of Marvel, and ended one of the biggest blockbusters ever on a mysterious and incredibly bleak down-note… but one that (in the best comic book sensibility) teased the hint of a new beginning." - @Plain Old Tele
Commentary: That time Marvel made $2 billion by cannily extending the second act of a typical blockbuster into its own 2-and-a-half-hours feature film, which made the result feel just unfamiliar enough to provide a real jolt: a spectacle of all the beloved superheroes introduced over the previous decade repeatedly and desperately losing. It also succeeded in paying off all those teases of Thanos, belatedly giving the MCU an intimidating supervillain, even if his understanding of overpopulation didn't quite live up to his physical strength.
 

 

 

 

 

[WrathOfHan]

57 minutes ago, aabattery said:

The four people who put Llewyn in their top 12.

 

You're welcome.

[Plain Old Tele]

You play dirty, @Jake Gittes.

[Cap]

37 and 36. 
 

 

 

[charlie Jatinder]

22 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 36

  Reveal hidden contents

 

"He is not a dude. You're a dude. This... this is a man. A handsome, muscular man."
264 points, 18 lists

directed by Anthony & Joe Russo | US | 2018

 

The Pitch: The most ambitious crossover event in history

 

Top 5 Placements: 3
Top 12 Placements: 2
Metacritic: 68
Box Office: $2.048 billion WW
Awards: Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects; Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Movie
BOT History: #22, Top Movies of 2018; BOFFY for Best Villain
Critic Opinion: "Never has the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” seemed like more of a universe, in ways both good and bad. Infinity War—the title is almost too apt—is a narrative juggling act the likes of which I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. It is far from a perfect movie, but it is probably close to the best movie it could have been." - Christopher Orr, The Atlantic

"It’s exhausting, but it’s also frequently effective. It’s surface-level with its emotional beats, but a number of them still land, largely thanks to the continuously all-in performances of the series’ endlessly patient stars. It’s an event that advertises itself as an event in every way, while somehow still managing to justify the immense hype around it." - Dominick Suzanne-Mayer, Consequence of Sound
BOT Sez: “The accumulation of individual marvel movies interlock in such a way that the experience does not diminish but grows with every passing movie. We identify deeply with the host of superhero characters that are thrown at us in a way that there simply would not be time for in a normal film building up character arcs from scratch. Though most characters do not have much screen time, we can read a whole lot more into their individual actions than the scenes suggest. The Captain America entrance scene must have surely sent thrills down the spine of every marvel film fan who had seen Civil war and the circumstances in which that film ended.” - @Fish&chips

"Frankly, it’s the essence of comics themselves, poured onto the big screen. It looks great (especially those space scenes) and the movie builds into one giant “they won’t end it like that, would they?” that, as an audience member, either you’re hoping for (if you’re familiar with the story), or you’re genuinely not expecting (the more casual folks). Either way, the Russos chose to stick to the pure roots of Marvel, and ended one of the biggest blockbusters ever on a mysterious and incredibly bleak down-note… but one that (in the best comic book sensibility) teased the hint of a new beginning." - @Plain Old Tele
Commentary: That time Marvel made $2 billion by cannily extending the second act of a typical blockbuster into its own 2-and-a-half-hours feature film, which made the result feel just unfamiliar enough to provide a real jolt: a spectacle of all the beloved superheroes introduced over the previous decade repeatedly and desperately losing. It also succeeded in paying off all those teases of Thanos, belatedly giving the MCU an intimidating supervillain, even if his understanding of overpopulation didn't quite live up to his physical strength.
 

 

 

 

 

 

too low. also mean endgame is higher. that's sad.

[SLAM!]

When Inside Llewyn Davis is two spots behind Infinity War:

 

"Hey, look... I'm really happy for the gig, but... Who wrote this?"

[The Panda]

Just go ahead and get the other four funnybook movies over with now.  It’s too much!

Edited April 17, 2020 by The Panda

[Jake Gittes]

2 minutes ago, The Panda said:

Just go ahead and get the other four funnybook movies over with now.  It’s too much!

I'll do what I can

 

Number 35

Spoiler

 

"Death... by exile!"
270 points, 21 lists

directed by Christopher Nolan | US, UK | 2012

 

The Pitch: How did Bruce get back to Gotham?

 

Top 5 Placements: 2
Top 12 Placements: 3
Metacritic: 78
Box Office: $1.084 billion WW
Awards: Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway); MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Shirtless Performance (Christian Bale)
BOT History: #1, Top Movies of 2012; #1, Top Movies of 2012 Revisited (2017); #88, Top 100 Best Movies of the Century (2015); #20, Top Comic Book Movies of All Time (2019); 5 BOFFY nominations
Critic Opinion: "The Dark Knight Rises may be a hammy, portentous affair but Nolan directs it with aplomb. He takes these cod-heroic, costumed elements and whisks them into a tale of heavy-metal fury, full of pain and toil, surging uphill, across the flyovers, in search of a climax." - Xan Brooks, The Guardian
BOT Sez: “The Dark Knight Rises is often times quite moving and thrilling, just managing to stick the landing, but it doesn’t appear to have done it with ease. Nolan makes the mistake of biting off more than he can chew with so many storylines to weave together, and the result is a less tightly written film than The Dark Knight or even Batman Begins. The set up is huge, as it brings in elements from both of the previous films, including the aftermath of Harvey Dent’s and Rachel Dawes’ deaths, while incorporating a lot of storylines from the first which I’ve chosen not to reveal for the sake of spoilers. Despite being 2 hours and 40 minutes long, one could argue the movie actually could have been longer, allowing many of the dramatic moments to settle in and breathe, and adding to the gravity of how serious and dire the situation gets in Gotham City, which make no mistake, becomes worse than ever despite the events of the first two. The movie zips at a furious pace that means you will never be bored, but it results in a film where you feel like Nolan isn’t quite in control, a bizarre feeling considering how calculating his films can be.

But, there’s a lot to be said in how the film ties the overall trilogy as a whole. As a complete character arc, Bruce is giving a finale that he deserves, and it certainly helps that Christian Bale delivers a terrific performance as Bruce Wayne, which shocked me, considering how apathetic he seemed in The Dark Knight. But somehow, he regained his spark and delivers an unbelievable amount of charm to the character. [...] Fuck you Jake” - @MrPink
Commentary: Nolan walks in da club when there are only 35 spots remaining, because it's not like he was gonna first show up in the bottom half like some fuckin' loser. Four years after giving the world an unforgettable comic book blockbuster in The Dark Knight, he went all out with its longer, more sprawling, more bombastic sequel, which outgrossed its predecessor in the worldwide box office and left his loyal fans with just enough thrills (and memes) to still carry a lasting impact in the year of our Lord 2020.
 

 

 

 

 

[Cap]

4 minutes ago, The Panda said:

Just go ahead and get the other four funnybook movies over with now.  It’s too much!

We’re not done yet. There are at least three more coming. Plus whatever you call the dark knight rises. 
 

ETA: lmfao. I did not expect that to be out of the top 10. Are the Nolanites slipping?!