Best Films of 2011 to 2020 - End of Decade Report

I realised a few weeks ago that I've been doing the Film Shapes blog since 2011. This got me thinking that it might be a doddle to put together an aggregation of the top tens of each year, a kind of 'best of the decade' list. Not such an easy task. I've had to stretch a mooted ten out to twenty and the order has been troubling me for some days. As it turns out, all these films were actually made between 2011 and 2020, otherwise titles like Inception may have snuck in. Anyway, I'll leave you with this for now and bugger the consequences.

20. Slow West (2015)

An odd, melodic Western, directed by John Maclean (of The Beta Band), this has young Scot, Kodi Smitt-McPhee crossing the perilous US west, helped or hindered along the way by their excellencies Michael Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn. As the title suggests, it's slow-paced but that's what sets it apart from other films of its ilk. Come to think of it, this is a pretty lonely ilk.

19. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Yes, I know it's not a great film. Allow me this one. Queen are on a pedestal for me and Freddie was music's legend, so I saw this as a spine tingling, grin inducing party of a movie. Yes, it's full of faults but it provided the best time at the cinema that year, and sometimes that's enough.

18. Tenet (2020)

Most recent on the list, Christopher Nolan's confusingly ace time-twisting thriller was a cracker. There are top turns from Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki, amongst others, as well as enough elaborately staged set-pieces to appreciate the effort of handing over this leviathan to us, the CINEMA viewing public. As they say in some sports, "he's left it all out on the pitch".

17. The Act of Killing (2012)

Talk about your gob getting smacked. I wouldn't believe this film as a premise if I hadn't seen it. It's a doco made by Joshua Oppenheimer (plus an anonymous co-director) which covers the Indonesian genocide of 1965-66. Sounds grim, sure, but what elevates this film is that somehow the directors have got the fucking perpetrators to re-enact the killings in the style of their favourite film genre. Grotesquely peerless. See it.

16. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

I'd still say TFA is the best of the 'later'  Star Wars films. It's a joyous trip, peppered with nostalgic touches but with enough new blood in Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver to inject currency. Involuntary smiles, shivers and tears. What more can you ask for?

15. The Favourite (2018)

A well written story based on historical figures (Queen Anne and Lady Marlborough) and full of cracking lines (e.g. "What an outfit.") but it's the cast that really make this a great film. Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Nicholas Hoult are all giving it some serious welly. Yorgos Lanthimos knocked just the right amount of kilter off proceedings to create a gem.

14. The Insult (2017)

This is an incredibly tense, immensely watchable drama that explores the festering animosity between people in Lebanon. Director Ziad Doueiri pits a Lebanese Christian against a Palestinian refugee and watches as their small dispute over a water pipe escalates, ending in a high-profile court case. The balancing act of trying to decide where our sympathy lies is the real winner here.

13. The Hunt (2012)

Mads Mikkelsen has put in some mint performances in his time but none have been much better than in this Danish drama. He plays a teacher accused of molesting his students and the 'hunt' of the title refers to his sudden ostracisation in the community. A great unease sets in as you watch this and I reckon director Thomas Vinterberg wants us to feel discomfort. 

12. Whiplash (2014)

Damien Chazelle's breakthrough feature (only his second film) just nails it. I can't remember a more exhausting finale since maybe The Bridge on the River Kwai. I felt like I'd run around the park as the credits rolled. And I still can't tell if Miles Teller is rushing or dragging.

11. Captain Phillips (2013)

The best Tom Hanks performance in the best Tom Hanks film so far, though credit must go to Paul Greengrass for tooling such a tense drama. The gritty, prosaic feel of the film place this a notch above most 'abduction' films and Hanks' bravura at the climax was a shocking KO. I never knew he had it in him.

10. Interstellar (2014)

Ambition in most filmmakers' hands tends towards bombast and bloat, but Christopher Nolan doesn't seem to be fazed by any of that. The themes and vistas he's playing with here are mind-bending but he has a knack of making films that are accessible and extremely watchable. This is one of his best. And certainly his most emotional.

9. Logan (2017)

Well, well, what's this then? A comic book movie in the top ten, you say? Indeed. This is just a fantastic film, dealing with creeping mortality, and with sterling work from Captain Picard and Huge Action. The slow motion scene in Vegas is a real arse clencher and Dafne Keen plopped herself on the map too.

8. Rust and Bone (2012)

I'm not sure if this is a false position but Marion Cotillard raises many things (fnaar fnaar), as does the director, Jacques Audiard. Erase these two from the project and it may not have resonated as much as it did, but I enjoyed the fook oot of this. Bare knuckle boxing, amputation, Orcas - what's not to love?

7. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

What a belter this is. Denis Villeneuve mastering the reins, Roger Deakins making the whole thing look amazing and Harrison Ford killing the grizzle. In fact, this could have been higher than 7 - the original is in my all-time top ten and this isn't too far away from that film. For my money, they're the best parts one and two ever put to screen.

6. A Separation (2011) 

Possibly the first Iranian film I'd seen and it knocked me about a bit. Asghar Farhadi has a talent for finding the drama in everyday lives and making it seem like it's the World Cup final. A seemingly simple domestic situation spirals to its courtroom conclusion, with the director's daughter Sarina Farhadi smack in the centre. The final scene is near perfection.

5. Parasite (2019)

Not much more need be said about this modern classic. Deserved all the plaudits it received. So well made and cleverly devised, I still shake my head at some of the moves the Bong man pulled off here.

4. Us (2019)

Another recent stunner, this isn't talked about as much as the above but it's just as good (if not better). Lupita Nyong'o is a cut above in this and Jordan Peele raised the bar from Get Out two years previous. The feel, the genre fiddles, the music, the humour, the script (full of crafty placements) - all elevate this to greatness. And I still don't care what Merv says;)

3. 1917 (2019)

So very nearly made it to the top, this was my favourite of 2020 by a healthy margin. 'One shot' gimmicks aside, it's a perfectly made slog. Big thanks to Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins (obviously) for pulling this off. An amazing feat.

2. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

A brilliant iteration of the John le Carré novel about the British spying fraternity and a possible traitor within. Director Tomas Alfredson brings an outsider's eye to the adaptation and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema makes everything look likes it's been sucked through a nicotine filter. Gary Oldman as George Smiley is peerless, though the rest of the cast (Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Kathy Burke, etc) run him a tight race. Possibly the best spy film ever made.

1. Dunkirk (2017)

Nolan's third entry in the list and it's a masterpiece. The balance of maintaining tension while exploring character and time is phenomenal. The cast is superb but almost camouflaged into the tapestry of the converging timelines, which meet at the fulcrum of a leaking ship in the English Channel. Hoyte van Hoytema (see above) and Lee Smith (also editor of 1917) add to the roll call of talent on this barnstormer. Epic in quality and grandeur.