The decade that refused to settle
The 2010s did not have a single defining style. That was the point. The decade opened with Christopher Nolan bending multiplex physics and closed with Bong Joon-ho winning the Palme d'Or and the Oscar in the same breath. In between: a Korean revenge opera, a Texan oil parable's afterglow, a plantation horror, a Mexican fantasy, a Mexican war film, a South Korean class satire. Hollywood's prestige engine kept turning, but the most interesting work kept arriving from unexpected directions. The best films of this decade reward the viewer who doesn't treat "awards season" as a syllabus and "festival darling" as a warning.
The undeniable heavyweights
Films that won the argument before it started
The critical darlings
Films that reviewers fought for and time has vindicated
Genre done with full seriousness
Horror, action, and science fiction operating at the highest level
The decade in turning points
- 2010Fincher and Sorkin redefine the prestige drama The Social Network
- 2011Malick goes cosmic; Cannes gives him the Palme The Tree of Life
- 2012Iranian cinema wins the Foreign Language Oscar A Separation
- 2013McQueen's history film wins Best Picture 12 Years a Slave
- 2014Linklater's 12-year experiment pays off Boyhood
- 2015Miller makes the action film of the decade Mad Max: Fury Road
- 2016Jenkins' quiet film wins loudly Moonlight
- 2017Peele redefines what horror is for Get Out
- 2018Villeneuve's sequel proves sequels can be art Blade Runner 2049
- 2019Bong Joon-ho ends the decade with a perfect film Parasite
The bold swings
Films that risked everything on a single idea or form
The decade's best films share one quality: they treat the audience as adults and the camera as an instrument, not a weapon.CrossBinge editorial
Overlooked at the time
Films that deserved more noise on release
International cinema that changed the conversation
The decade's global scope was one of its defining features
The awards players that actually deserved it
Prestige films that held up past the ceremony
