Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
In my penultimate article of this series, we look at the films of the 2010s, which was characterized by five general groups of films that I plan to highlight today. The best of each of these five groupings featured on my final list, but it’s also important to talk about other significant films in those groups. I’ll be handling today’s a bit differently bit splitting up the also-rans into those five groups along with the five selections made. The five groups of films are genre/franchise films, films by Black filmmakers, films by women filmmakers or narratives focusing on women, animated films, and queer films. Let’s dig into these groups now:
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Black filmmakers really came into their own in the 2010s with the likes of Steve McQueen opening the decade and Jordan Peele closing it out with several strong titles. Spike Lee continued to prove a force in the industry while Ana DuVernay and Barry Jenkins also had some impressive work as well. Of all of the films I could cite, 12 Years a Slave is probably the most monumental, sea change of a film in the bunch. Set the Antebellum south, it follows the tale of free Black man from the north (Chiwetel Ejiofor) as he’s tricked into a situation that sees him sold as a slave in the south where he must eke out whatever existence he can before finding a way to escape back to the less virulent form of racism he faced back home.
Ejiofor gave a commanding performance and although he went home empty-handed, the film earned three Oscars out of nine nominations, winning for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actress (Nyong’o). Nyong’o among the others all turned in excellent performances. A film from a Black filmmaker had never won the Oscar for Best Picture before. That McQueen didn’t also win a n Oscar for directing is a shame, but it was hopefully the beginning of a new trend where the voices who experience injustice get to tell their own stories rather than white filmmakers taking the privilege themselves.
While McQueen’s best film was indeed 12 Years, his prior effort, Shame was a significant achievement as well. He proved himself quickly, announcing a major filmmaker had arrived on the scene. The same could be said for Peele who went from sketch comedy master to filmmaking genius with Get Out, a film that paved the way for the filmmaker and enabled horror to hold sway at the Oscars, earning Peele an Original Screenplay award and the film a Best Picture berth. Rounding out the decade of impressive achievements was Jenkins with If Beale Street Could Talk. While some would highlight his prior film, Moonlight, as his masterpiece, If Beale was a far better film, though it was under-awarded winning only Best Supporting Actress for Regina King.
Carol (2015)
Queer filmmakers also had an excellent decade. After years of tiptoeing around gay characters, Todd Haynes finally gave audiences what they wanted and a fully-queer lesbian melodrama starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It was only nominated for six Oscars, none of which were Best Picture, and went home empty-handed. The ’50s-set drama saw photographer Mara falling head-over-heels for wealthy Blanchett whose lavender marriage had produced children, but not contentment pushing Blanchett to seek companionship with the young woman who was intrigued by her.
Blanchett’s masterful performance was equaled by Mara’s with Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler providing able support. With the setting of a highly repressive era, the forbidden love affair these two women engage in carries risks for both. Blanchett fears losing the silver spoon she’s become accustomed to, pushing Mara to arm’s length at time, creating a fascinating dynamic between the two. With some gorgeous cinematography and a lyrical style, Carol was the pinnacle of LGBTQ cinema in the 2010s.
Yet, Haynes wasn’t the only queer filmmaker making great cinema in the decade. Lisa Cholodenko started the 2010s off with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in the leads in The Kids Are All Right. Following Carol were Call Me by Your Name by Luca Guadagnino and Love, Simon by Greg Berlanti who’d already made a name for himself by making queer-inclusive television. Not all films can be about the LGBTQ community, but including gay characters is always a positive, so shout out to straight filmmaker Stephen Chbosky for creating a humane and believable gay teen in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
While it might be tempting to classify animation as a genre, it is not. It’s a medium. The historical use of animation has largely been to produce children’s entertainment, but kids movies is the genre. Plenty of films over the years have stretched the definition of what an animated film has to be. While Disney has done its own revisions, the 2010s were characterized primarily by other studios refining what the medium could offer. The pinnacle of those achievements is Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings, a stop-motion animated adventure with gorgeous art, lovely music, and strong vocal work.
The film is about a 12-year-old boy (voiced by Art Parkinson) who can animate origami figures with his magical shamisen and does so to support he and his mother who has been ill for years. When the grandfather who stole his eye when he was a baby comes back to take the other eye, sending a pair of wicked sisters after him, the adventure takes flight. The themes of family are tightly woven into a compelling martial-arts-filled action drama that also features the solid voice work of Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, George Takei and Brenda Vaccaro.
The decade had no shortage of strong animated features across its length. Hayao Miyazaki made his magnum opus in The Wind Rises, certifying himself as the king of Japanese animation. Pixar rounded out its impressive string of computer-animated successes with Inside Out while Sony showed that Disney isn’t the only animation house that can produce great, popular films with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
With the arrival of X-Men and Iron Man at the beginning and end of the 2000s respectively, the comic book adaptation genre reached its peak in the 2010s. Along with that rise to popularity, The Lord of the Rings trilogy enabled all sorts of genre films to stand up and get the attention of audiences who had typically favored more broadly appealing fare. Sure, there were plenty of sci-fi spectacles in the 1980s, but they struggled for more than critical acclaim, but as that decade ran out, things started ramping up until what has to be considered one of the finest periods of genre filmmaking ever.
At the top of that list is the Denis Villeneuve masterpiece Blade Runner 2049, which brings back the 1982 original’s Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) in a plot that could have broader implications than ever before with the discovery of a potential self-replicating replicant. Ryan Gosling joins the sequel as K, a replicant who works for the LAPD seeking out and “retiring” errant replicants. Villeneuve is an inventive filmmaker bringing his brilliant vision to life with the help of master cinematographer Roger A. Deakins who makes this film one of the most beautifully framed and lit film ever made. Unlike the Alien franchise, this distant sequel proved effective and engaging.
While sci certainly had its hits throughout the decade, including Snowpiercer, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, other genres also had some stellar efforts. Standing above the increasingly similar Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, and Logan both showed the milieu could put out films that were genuinely great. Then there’s the crime genre, which Drive exemplified; the spy thriller toplined by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; the traditional thriller, which counted Buried amongst its successes; and horror, which the aforementioned Get Out was a clear standout. It was a thriving decade for the kinds of films that have too often been dismissed as fluff.
Little Women (2019)
There have been many films adapted from the works of Louisa May Alcott. All of them have been strong because the source material is so good. What matters is how the version still feels timely regardless of its period. Greta Gerwig, whose years of experience as an actor, has more than proven her ability to draw fascinating characters with her pen and to frame her action in modernist terms. For this rendition, her Lady Bird muse Saoirse Ronan steps into the role of Jo March, a headstrong young woman whose desire to become an author mirrors that of the story’s author. Through that lens, she frames the struggle for equality against the backdrop of a distrustful era where it took great courage to give women the same chance men had always had. Who better to helm such a film than Gerwig.
That framework puts the period drama into the minds of young women and girls who can see the same struggles they are facing now as systemic rather than being a byproduct of a long gone time. It’s that position that a lot of women filmmakers face in getting their projects off the ground. Like their queer counterparts, women aren’t being given nearly the same opportunities as men. Even Black filmmakers are facing less of a burdened for acceptance in a “man’s world.” Gerwig more than proves the case that such filmmakers should be given the power to make their own stories and that they don’t have to delve into testosterone-filled genres to be taken seriously as great filmmakers.
That frame of mind is needed for the look at women-helmed films and women-led films for the decade wasn’t nearly as kind to such filmmakers. The aforementioned Wonder Woman is an example with Patty Jenkins turning in one of the best entries in the comic book genre while the aforementioned Ava DuVernay did similar with Selma. Yet, apart from these, I didn’t get to see a lot of female-helmed films, which is a shame because they have great voices when given a chance to present them. Strong women characters, on the other hand, were quite common with several great ones helmed by male filmmakers. Brie Larson’s Grace in Short Term 12, Ronan’s Ellis in Brooklyn, and Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series.
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