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

[Tower]

5 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 82

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

"But Hulk like real fire. Like... raging fire. Thor like smouldering fire."

158 points, 15 lists

directed by Taika Waititi | US | 2017

 

The Pitch: Thor must escape the planet Sakaar to return to Asgard and stop the goddess of death Hela from destroying the world. Tbh they both would have probably done better just hanging out with Jeff Goldblum the whole time or something.

 

Top 12 Placements: 3

Metacritic: 74

Box Office: $854m WW

Awards: 3 Critics' Choice Awards nominations; 8 Empire Award nominations

BOT History: #17, Top Comic Book Movies of All Time (2019); 2 BOFFY nominations

Critic Opinion: "The greatest trick this studio wants to pull, at this point, is to make more of the same feel either exhilaratingly fresh, or sufficiently retro-inflected to qualify as a nostalgia trip. As both, Thor: Ragnarok counts as some kind of double peak." - Robbie Collin, The Telegraph

"Odin, for his part, comes to understand the extent of his wrongdoing in his twilight years, and speaks to Thor from beyond the grave: “Asgard is not a place. It never was. It is a people,” not unlike Waititi’s own Pasifika ancestors, who carried their culture with them not by land but by sea. “Ragnarok,” the end of the world as the characters know it, is inevitable. Their kingdom was built on a foundation of lies, and those lies continue to fuel death, destruction, and suffering all across the realms, both as a far-reaching consequence of their universal meddling and in the form of the embodiment of Death itself. The suffering shall continue unless this system of cosmic control is completely burned to the ground. Suddenly, even this funniest of Marvel films starts to have stakes that feel real and consequential." - Siddhant Adlakha, The Village Voice

BOT Sez: "I loved the hell out of this movie. Seriously, it's nice every once in a while to have a Marvel movie (Hell, to have a modern blockbuster in general) solely concerned with telling a fun story and having a fun time. It doesn't take itself too seriously, yet ends up feeling all the more secure in its own identity for it. Plus it finally feels like Marvel has a good handle on where Thor fits in the MCU and how to utilize him best moving forward." - @rukaio101

Commentary: The MCU makes its second appearance of the day with the movie that, following in the footsteps the Guardians of the Galaxy films, introduced some much-needed irreverence to its solo franchise, and presaged Black Panther with its political bent. Both came courtesy of Taika Waititi, who successfully carried his sensibility over into blockbuster filmmaking, the result becoming by far the most popular Thor movie among both audiences and critics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tower]

5 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 81

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

"Who am I? I'm a hard worker. I set high goals and I've been told that I'm persistent."

160 points, 16 lists

directed by Dan Gilroy | US | 2014

 

The Pitch: A stringer records violent incidents late at night in Los Angeles and sells them to a local TV station, gradually expanding his business.

 

Top 5 Placements: 1

Top 12 Placements: 2

Metacritic: 76

Box Office: $50m WW

Awards: Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay; 4 BAFTA nominations

BOT History: #17, Top Movies of 2014; BOFFY nominations for Best Actor and Original Screenplay

Critic Opinion: Gyllenhaal is in almost every frame of writer-director Dan Gilroy's first feature, skinny and wide-eyed, running down a driveway with his camera or cutting across oncoming traffic in the Challenger. It's an intense performance, the flip side of Ryan Gosling's in "Drive," playing the angles and filling space with empty words instead of soulful silences." - Jeff Baker, The Oregonian

"The film has a sulfuric, Dostoyevskian quality — and sick sense of humor — that captures the muted aquarium that Los Angeles becomes at night, a spell that’s broken once plot overtakes mood." - Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

BOT Sez: "The vampire metaphor runs through the movie and creeps everywhere from the settings (nightime LA), the protagonist and his "job". A livid and creepy guy who just strolls into the night looking after someone and something he can vampirize to elevate himself in the social ladder applying all those self-improvement and self-made man success mantras like a robot lacking any genuine human social skills and speaking in corporate business lingo 24/7. And the horrible truth is that's what makes him the best at what he does." - @dashrendar44

Commentary: We wrap it up for today with the morbidly funny 2014 character study that gave Jake Gyllenhaal a chance to deliver arguably the most startling and impressive performance of his career (give or take Okja). Despite its focus on a profoundly unlikable sociopath, the film became a nice mid-range commercial success upon its wide release, and its bluntly satirical look at unethical journalism and its place within the larger capitalism-driven culture attracted to it a not-insignificant number of devoted fans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lorddemaxus]

13 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

 

Calling Just Mercy incredibly manipulative is a grave disservice to the quality of the film

Eh, I thought it was the same predictable Oscar-bait film we get each year with the cheesy final monologues and non-existent directing and all. The writing is also so overbearing and heavy-handed that the movie feels almost exploitative. A well-intentioned and necessary story told in the laziest way possible. Hope Cretton goes back to making his nice little indie dramas.

Edited April 12, 2020 by lorddemaxus

[Jake Gittes]

5 hours ago, terrestrial said:

if uncredited scenes count too, and if e.g. movies like Thor 2 make it (hypothetically, I know, I know), then he might end as one of the most appearing in a movie actors. See uncredited in Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, playing Loki-CA in Thor 2 adds 3 listings alone.

Add Spider-Man: Homecoming, and wow, he was in way more than ‚only‘ 3x CA + 4x Avengers = 7x MCU movies, means he appeared till now in 11x MCU movies

 

Note that it says "actors with multiple characters", not "with multiple appearances". 

 

[terrestrial]

1 hour ago, Jake Gittes said:

Note that it says "actors with multiple characters", not "with multiple appearances". 

🙏 a lot, I missed that!

 

How do you handle director’s work?

 

[Joel M]

This list went downhill fast. 

[Jake Gittes]

2 hours ago, terrestrial said:

🙏 a lot, I missed that!

 

How do you handle director’s work?

 

Will count all the movies.

[The Panda]

10 hours ago, Plain Old Tele said:

Someone should bump my 25 most overrated list.

 

(Don’t.)

Movies Tele hates and thinks brainwashes people into liking them

 

Superman 1 and 2

Inception

The Goonies

Scarface

Austin Powers

The Dark Knight

The Graduate

Mrs Doubtfire

All the Rocky Sequels

Rambo Movies

Magnolia

Boogie Nights

Every WDAS Movie

The Dollars Trilogy

Every Woody Allen Movie

Transformers

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Shining

Every Inarritu Movie

It’s a Wonderful Life

Million Dollar Baby

Forrest Gump

Inglorious Basterds

Psycho

Every MCU Movie

[terrestrial]

1 hour ago, The Panda said:

Movies Tele hates and thinks brainwashes people into liking them

 

- snip -

 

If the list is true, I am surprised to realize I agree to probably at least 75% of those. Or 85%...

spoiler tags, as this is OT

 

Spoiler

 

E.g. Rocky, I liked the first one, the next ones only scenes/moments, as far as I even have seen them

same counts for all Rambo movies (still have not seen the last one or the last two ones, not sure how many they did), some impacting scenes I do like, the rest is meh to ~ why on earth do people love them questioning 

 

Do not like comedies in general, so either have not seen all mentioned or did not enjoy them.

Saw e.g. The Graduate once then, o.K., it was not that bad, but also not that good/interesting to me, too many idiotic behaving characters and so on.

 

Big difference to Tele are the MCU movies, but only in part:

I do like/love some of the MCUs, but can not stand e.g. the character of Iron Man at all (part 1 was o.K. to a degree, still not a fan), have no interest into Spider-Man, did not like e.g. the last Avenger in big parts (probably bcs I do not like IM, and to me A4 is an IM-fest?)

I liked the most of the part 1 movies, but not all

 

As no interest into teen=stories, also no Goonies for me.

 

I do not hate TDK, but did not like it either, the idea to destroy a new character already in part,2 I do not like in general, also other reasons, can‘t stand TDKR at all.

 

Psycho, interesting scenes, not a fan overall

 

I love the swordfights in PotC, especially the longer one in the first part (Bllom vs Depp in that workshop, I even laugh about that), never watched all of them (had to accompany son or ... for part 3 I think, or was it part 2, part 3 I know scenes at least, way worse), but I love sword-fights in general.

 

Do not understand the Forrest Gump reactions, not a bad movie, not an interesting movie to me

 

generell:

bad movie means real bad like bottom 100 at IMDb

Do not like romance as well, also not 95% of all horror movies

 

Hubby loves Its a Wonderful Life, I find the whole story... depressing, not what I am looking for in a movie (too much bad things seen or lived through in RL, enough bad news too, no interest anymore)

I did watch depressing movies in younger years, like French film noir, I am over those kind of movies)

 

Can‘t watch Inception, even the trailers made me nauseated, something to do with my eyes and more, no opinion

 

Have seen involuntarily Transformers (in parts or I have forgotten the most), did not click with it, the human characters seemed very immature..

 

I think WDAS could be animated (I am bad with those letter things), not into animated as well

 

Dollar movies, I like usually some scenes, and I think at least some of the music, not sure have to hear a soundtrack to really remember what belongs to what. Only typical Spaghetti Western I like mostly is Once Upon a Time in the West (title? the one with Charles Bronson in it)

 

Woody Allen, agree, a few funny scenes in a few of them maybe (for the moment my brain is blank), his chosen stories do usually not interest me anyway

 

In addition, another me not reacting the same way as a lot of people

 also not a Jason Bourne fan, first part was at least somewhat interesting to me (I love the original 3 books bcs the characters do develop, especially JB), did not like the others at all, only the one without JB, as that one has elements of for what I love the original 3 books for. Movies and later books (other writer) make the character to the same boring lone wolf character as already seen way too often

 

Whats not named I either have not seen or I did not like it as well

 

Is that 85% overlap? Not sure 🤔 

 

 

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

Number 80

Spoiler

 

 

"Jack, the world is so big. It's so big, you wouldn't believe it. And room is just one stinky part of it."

162 points, 16 lists

directed by Lenny Abrahamson | Canada, Ireland, UK, US | 2015

 

The Pitch: The life of a woman who spent seven years in captivity and her 5-year-old son prior to and immediately following their escape.

 

Top 12 Placements: 2

Metacritic: 86

Box Office: $36m WW

Awards: Academy Award for Best Actress, out of 4 nominations; BAFTA for Best Actress; 9 Canadian Screen Awards; 7 Irish Film & Television Awards

BOT History: #5, Top Movies of 2015; BOFFY for Best Actress and Best Overlooked Feature, out of 7 nominations

Critic Opinion: "Director Lenny Abrahamson has made a deeply moving story about how adults try to explain the world to their children — even when they don’t always understand it themselves. And Brie Larson gives a tremendous performance as a mother who must be strong for her boy, until she suddenly can’t be anymore." - Tim Grierson, Screen Daily

"It’s a testament to the story’s underlying integrity that, even when deprived of some of the elements that made Emma Donoghue’s 2010 book so gripping, director Lenny Abrahamson’s inevitably telescoped but beautifully handled adaptation retains considerable emotional impact." - Justin Chang, Variety

BOT Sez: "This was incredible. I know it's often a hyperbole when people say this, but it really makes you see more of the beauty of the world after you leave. Larson and Tremblay are amazing together, and their relationship, though its ups and downs, single handedly carries the movie as they go through their unusual series of events. Right as the movie seems like it may end, the actual second act begins, exploring the impact of what follows, and every emotion captured feels authentic, real, and truly mesmerizing." - @Spaghetti

Commentary: We kick off today, as we did yesterday, with a highly emotionally charged independent drama starring Brie Larson as a traumatized but resilient young woman caring for a younger character, in this case her own child. Two years after Short Term 12 gave the actress a dramatic breakthrough, Room won her a host of industry and critical awards, while also becoming an unlikely Best Picture nominee and making a child star out of Jacob Tremblay. Despite a relatively low box office gross, the film's emotionally direct approach ultimately ensured it a wide and appreciative audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

Number 79

Spoiler

 

 

"I hoped today would be a good day. Hope is a dangerous thing."

162 points, 17 lists

directed by Sam Mendes | UK, US | 2019

 

The Pitch: During WWI, two British soldiers are tasked with delivering a message that will prevent 1,600 men from walking into a trap.

 

Top 12 Placements: 3

Metacritic: 78

Box Office: $368m WW

Awards: 3 Academy Awards, out of 10 nominations; 7 BAFTA Awards, including Best Film and Best Direction

BOT History: #5, Top Movies of 2019; BOFFY for Best Cinematography and Original Score

Critic Opinion: "Even if the film is mostly hitting familiar notes in terms of story and theme, it expresses a concise, focused and expertly managed vision with which there’s little to quibble, and the extraordinary style represents the fruition of a long-imagined dream on the part of many directors and cinematographers. From now on, when the discussion turns to great works of cinematography and camera operating, 1917 will always have to be high on the list." - Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

"The movie is more successful as a thriller than as a thoughtful examination of war and its horrors; Mendes seems less interested in bigger ideas about the nightmare of battle and its effects on his characters than he is in Hitchcockian audience manipulation." - Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

BOT Sez: "From a technical perspective, the film is a tremendous accomplishment: Roger Deakins’s cinematography is gorgeous as usual and moves carefully and precisely enough to sell the illusion of continuous movement much more often than not; the sound design is crisp and puts the directional capabilities of an Atmos sound mix to great use; and Mendes directs each element of each scene confidently and with a clear sense of each detail’s purpose, whether practical or profound." - @Webslinger

Commentary: While it may feel to some at this stage like this film could be about as old as the titular year, this was not the case for 17 of our participants, who provided it with steady support before a very late-in-the-game surge - 52 points awarded by the last two people who voted for it - pushed it from just outside the top 100 into the 70s. The first director to make the list twice, Sam Mendes came back from the debacle of Spectre with a personal prestige project that sparked arguments concerning its combination of simple narrative and elaborate technique, but still became one of the director's most acclaimed movies and a major hit with awards bodies and the public.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Jake Gittes

[Eric Duncan]

 

[lorddemaxus]

2 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 79

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

"I hoped today would be a good day. Hope is a dangerous thing."

162 points, 17 lists

directed by Sam Mendes | UK, US | 2019

 

The Pitch: During WWI, two British soldiers are tasked with delivering a message that will prevent 1,600 men from walking into a trap.

 

Top 12 Placements: 3

Metacritic: 78

Box Office: $368m WW

Awards: 3 Academy Awards, out of 10 nominations; 7 BAFTA Awards, including Best Film and Best Direction

BOT History: #5, Top Movies of 2019; BOFFY for Best Cinematography and Original Score

Critic Opinion: "Even if the film is mostly hitting familiar notes in terms of story and theme, it expresses a concise, focused and expertly managed vision with which there’s little to quibble, and the extraordinary style represents the fruition of a long-imagined dream on the part of many directors and cinematographers. From now on, when the discussion turns to great works of cinematography and camera operating, 1917 will always have to be high on the list." - Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

"The movie is more successful as a thriller than as a thoughtful examination of war and its horrors; Mendes seems less interested in bigger ideas about the nightmare of battle and its effects on his characters than he is in Hitchcockian audience manipulation." - Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

BOT Sez: "From a technical perspective, the film is a tremendous accomplishment: Roger Deakins’s cinematography is gorgeous as usual and moves carefully and precisely enough to sell the illusion of continuous movement much more often than not; the sound design is crisp and puts the directional capabilities of an Atmos sound mix to great use; and Mendes directs each element of each scene confidently and with a clear sense of each detail’s purpose, whether practical or profound." - @Webslinger

Commentary: While it may feel to some at this stage like this film could be about as old as the titular year, this was not the case for 17 of our participants, who provided it with steady support before a very late-in-the-game surge - 52 points awarded by the last two people who voted for it - pushed it from just outside the top 100 into the 70s. The first director to make the list twice, Sam Mendes came back from the debacle of Spectre with a personal prestige project that sparked arguments concerning its combination of simple narrative and elaborate technique, but still became one of the director's most acclaimed movies and a major hit with awards bodies and the public.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't even like this film much but at least I can understand why it made it in.

[Jake Gittes]

Number 78

Spoiler

 

"I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass."

163 points, 18 lists

directed by Barry Jenkins | US | 2018

 

The Pitch: In the 1970s New York, a young black woman seeks to clear the name of her lover, who's been falsely accused of rape, before the birth of their child.

 

Top 5 Placements: 1

Top 12 Placements: 1

Metacritic: 87

Box Office: $20m WW

Awards: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, out of 3 nominations

BOT History: #9, Top Movies of 2018; BOFFY for Best Original Score, out of 6 nominations

Critic Opinion: "The look and feel of the movie—with its luxurious sense of color, its slow gestures and nimbly drawn-out scenes—is so much bigger, more generous, than the hardships it depicts. It’s a vision of 70s New York we’ve never really seen before, practically Candyland compared to the usual vision—even as Jenkins wisely reminds us, over and over, that there’s ugliness here. His New York is gritty, sure, and mightily aware of poverty, graffiti dredging the subway lines, drugs, and the rest. [...] But a sense of community flourishes in defiance of the ugliness. A slow pan across a sunlit row of brownstones paints the world of this neighborhood in one lush, loving swoop. Family interactions—between Tish’s family in particular—are vibrant with sincerity and affection. Entire scenes are constructed out of the ways characters look at each other, the geometry of all that looking acting as the scaffolding for everything else, the connective tissue linking us to the characters and the characters to each other. [...] What Jenkins gets most right—what astonishes me the most about this film—is Baldwin’s vast affection for the broad varieties of black life. It’s one of the signature lessons of Baldwin’s work that blackness contains multitudes." - K. Austin Collins, Vanity Fair

BOT Sez: "What Jenkins accomplishes here is extremely impressive in how it maintains fidelity to Baldwin’s words while also feeling distinctly cinematic; KiKi Layne’s use of Baldwin’s prose as narration feels natural rather than tacked-on, and it’s matched with keen visual representations of the beautifully-composed language. Just as Moonlight was so good at evoking feelings of longing, intimacy, and self-acceptance, Beale Street evokes feelings of love and such an unmistakable aura surrounding the bond between Tish and Fonny that it’s tough not to be moved by the raw power of their scenes together." - @Webslinger

"If Beale Street Could Talk provides extraordinarily intimate and emotionally direct moments while deliberately not allowing them to build on one another to form a single gripping narrative; instead, wafting around its story of two young African Americans' romance and the wrongful imprisonment of one of them, it hunts for incidents and observations it can arrange in non-linear fashion, at times privileging introductions over developments, decisions over actions, and descriptions over depictions, seeking to situate its specific events within the larger never-ending narratives of everything from love and family to racism and sexual violence." - @Jake Gittes
Commentary: 22 films in, we get our belated first entrance from 2018. (But where's 2010?) While Barry Jenkins' follow-up to Moonlight paled in comparison to that film when it came to surface-level success, it didn't take long for it to find admiration from those who responded to its daring narrative structure and scope, a leap forward for the writer and director in terms of ambition and, some even argued, quality. Remarkably, it ended up appearing on almost as many individual decade lists as Jenkins' 2016 Best Picture winner, which we will get to... at some point.

 

 

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

Number 77

Spoiler

 

"You're Rick fuckin' Dalton. Don't you forget it."

164 points, 15 lists

directed by Quentin Tarantino | US, UK, China | 2019

 

The Pitch: A faded TV actor and his stunt double navigate the changing film industry in 1969 Los Angeles.

 

Top 12 Placements: 2

Metacritic: 83

Box Office: $374m WW

Awards: Academy Award for Best Production Design and Best Supporting Actor, out of 10 nominations; Palm Dog - Cannes Film Festival

BOT History: #9, Top Movies of 2019; 9 BOFFY nominations

Critic Opinion: "Having never been entirely won over by the clever-clever period genre revisionism that has been Tarantino’s mainstay since Bill was killed, I was delighted — after all the lurid what-if speculation over the film’s relationship to the Charles Manson story — to find that his latest is, in such large part, a kind of gorgeously lacquered megabudget hangout movie." - Guy Lodge, The Playlist

"This is a massive film—or was that its ego towering over me?—that patiently guides viewers through its immaculate reconstruction of late-60s Hollywood: its movie sets, costumes, cars, and radio; the peaking counterculture and the culture it countered. I recalled Whit Stillman wisdom regarding period films: “When you are alive and existing, you do not feel, ‘I am in period.’ And when I see overly beautiful, perfect period films, I think: ‘This is fake’.” Tarantino is clearly enthusiastic about this era, eager to lavish us in its finer details and attitude, but he makes it present, and does so by foregrounding the movement (of people, of the camera) so that the film becomes about our situation in this historical moment, which is always understood to be an interpretation (a double) of what actually took place then." - Blake Williams, Filmmaker Magazine

BOT Sez: "The whole vibe was fantastic - really captured that era in time - my Dad had that Cadillac but in blue & I can still remember driving around with the windows down & the radio blasting.  Leo & Brad were fantastic & Margot was wonderful as Sharon - so sweet & lovable with her wonderful life all ahead of her.  Leo had me laughing so much - really loved his performance.  Growing up in the 70s we were all fascinated with Helter Skelter - the book & the miniseries & oh how I wish this ending would have been the reality - me & my sister were quite emotional at the ending. - @Catty

"It is known that chill Brad is the best Brad and fun Leo is the best Leo, but I think both are really special here. Even if they are giving different kinds of performances, to me they both manage the perfect balance between cartoony comedy characters and real genuine people with a meaningful connection. [...] I really really enjoyed this movie from start to finish. It didn't bother me how much it lingered on scenes like Cliff preparing dinner for his dog or driving around LA, in fact most of them were absolutely essential to the general vibe of the film. Tarantino movies are too long or indulgent has been the most common complain I've heard for almost every Tarantino movie before or after Sally Menke's death, but in this case like in almost all of his movies for me it's not a bug, it's a feature. I also found the movie deeply respective of Sharon Tate and imo it pays a beautiful tribute to her. Even if her primary function in the movie is to build tension just by her presence, she still manages to get some of her original shine back before she was a very famous murder victim. Margot Robbie is so wonderful in it despite her limited screentime." - @Joel M
"i'll take a four hour cut that's just an extra hour of people driving around listening to the radio. i loved those parts. the rest is pretty good." - @CoolioD1

Commentary: Staying in the lovingly-made-period-piece territory, the countdown goes from 1970s New York to the adventures of our boys Rick and Cliff. Surrounded by its fair share of question marks and controversies while in production, Quentin Tarantino's most recent film ultimately defused some, toyed with others and generated new ones with its bittersweet portrait of changing history that used its third act to do some changing of its own. Even with the presence of two of the biggest stars in the world, it became remarkably successful for a plotless hangout movie about the late '60s film industry, making one more forceful argument for fully studio-backed idiosyncratic auteur filmmaking. Yet one can't help but feel that, going forward, this kind of film will remain at best an anomaly.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Jake Gittes

[Jake Gittes]

Number 76

Spoiler

 

"You will not survive here. You are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now."

165 points, 15 lists

directed by Denis Villeneuve | US | 2015

 

The Pitch: A princlipled FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war on drugs at the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

#1 Placements: 1

Top 5 Placements: 1

Top 12 Placements: 1

Metacritic: 82

Box Office: $85m WW

Awards: 3 Academy Award nominations

BOT History: #10, Top Movies of 2015; 4 BOFFY nominations

Critic Opinion: "The true victim in (and of) Sicario is its protagonist, who attempts to do the right thing at every turn and is rewarded by being systematically squeezed out of her own story. It’s an uncommonly bold gambit, expressly designed to frustrate people who want to see a strong woman deliver a righteous ass kicking. The progressivism here is instead rooted in futility and despair, which provides much more of a valuable shock to the system." - Mike D'Angelo, The AV Club

BOT Sez: "Intense, brutal, terrifying, and visceral. Chris Ryan of Grantland is right- it feels like the Apocalypse Now of the drug war. A hypnotic movie that delves deeper into unspeakable horror and darkness than most movies dare to do. Fascinating, complex politics, too. Feels like No Country meets Platoon meets Traffic meets Prisoners. It's just fucking aces. So much to pull apart here. Deakins and Johannsson's work is just tremendous in adding to the mood and tone of this piece. And dat cast.....jeez. Every player in this matters, and nails it. Blunt and Brolin have never been better. And Del Toro.....one of the most memorable performances and characters of modern times. He's just a presence. Like an unstoppable, otherworldly force taking human form. He's Anton Chigurh in tailored suits." - @Cmasterclay

Commentary: Writer Taylor Sheridan and director Denis Villeneuve enter the list with their dark 2015 war-on-drugs thriller that put the former on the map and further solidified the reputation of the latter before he made the leap into science fiction. Unfolding from the POV of a heroine desperately struggling for agency and utilizing Villeneuve's now-familiar gravely portentous style for maximum tension, Sicario provided a good number of participants both in front of behind the camera each with their own showcase, which made it a well-received mid-budget success.

 

 

 

 

[WrathOfHan]

Hollywood is too low; I was one of the Top 12 placements  

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by WrathOfHan

[Cap]

10 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

Note that it says "actors with multiple characters", not "with multiple appearances". 

 

 

Spoiler

also, other than Its a Wonderful Life, @Plain Old Tele’s list really isn’t full of that many hot tales. 

[The Panda]

16 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 76

  Hide contents

 

"You will not survive here. You are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now."

165 points, 15 lists

directed by Denis Villeneuve | US | 2015

 

The Pitch: A princlipled FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war on drugs at the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

#1 Placements: 1

Top 5 Placements: 1

Top 12 Placements: 1

Metacritic: 82

Box Office: $85m WW

Awards: 3 Academy Award nominations

BOT History: #10, Top Movies of 2015; 4 BOFFY nominations

Critic Opinion: "The true victim in (and of) Sicario is its protagonist, who attempts to do the right thing at every turn and is rewarded by being systematically squeezed out of her own story. It’s an uncommonly bold gambit, expressly designed to frustrate people who want to see a strong woman deliver a righteous ass kicking. The progressivism here is instead rooted in futility and despair, which provides much more of a valuable shock to the system." - Mike D'Angelo, The AV Club

BOT Sez: "Intense, brutal, terrifying, and visceral. Chris Ryan of Grantland is right- it feels like the Apocalypse Now of the drug war. A hypnotic movie that delves deeper into unspeakable horror and darkness than most movies dare to do. Fascinating, complex politics, too. Feels like No Country meets Platoon meets Traffic meets Prisoners. It's just fucking aces. So much to pull apart here. Deakins and Johannsson's work is just tremendous in adding to the mood and tone of this piece. And dat cast.....jeez. Every player in this matters, and nails it. Blunt and Brolin have never been better. And Del Toro.....one of the most memorable performances and characters of modern times. He's just a presence. Like an unstoppable, otherworldly force taking human form. He's Anton Chigurh in tailored suits." - @Cmasterclay

Commentary: Writer Taylor Sheridan and director Denis Villeneuve enter the list with their dark 2015 war-on-drugs thriller that put the former on the map and further solidified the reputation of the latter before he made the leap into science fiction. Unfolding from the POV of a heroine desperately struggling for agency and utilizing Villeneuve's now-familiar gravely portentous style for maximum tension, Sicario provided a good number of participants both in front of behind the camera each with their own showcase, which made it a well-received mid-budget success.

 

 

 

 

Ah, now we’re back to the good stuff

[Jake Gittes]

10 minutes ago, The Panda said:

Ah, now we’re back to the good stuff