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.

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Revelation Film Festival 2026 - Wrap up

So that's Rev for another year. I made it to eight films and it was far from a stellar collection, but I think I made the wrong choice to start with - Bulk , when I could have waited an hour and watched Rosebush Pruning , which looked better in hindsight. Anyhoo, live and learn, I guess. Here are the films I saw in viewing order: Bulk ★ Boy, this was hard to get through. More pleased with itself than it had any right to be. Sam Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara are together again (after the vastly superior Control ) with Noah Taylor wafting around too. Writer/director Ben Wheatley has had a roller-coaster of a career so far, but this must be one of the nadirs. There are elements of Team America: World Police , Eraserhead and model work reminiscent of Ray Harryhausen, but the overripe dialogue, annoying performances, and sheer boredom all serve to give this a whiff of a pretentious student film (past experience verified). Avoid. Penny Lane is Dead ★ ★ ★ There is ...

The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan is one of the few active directors who can entice punters to the cinema (along with Denis Villeneuve), and they've come out in droves for his latest, a retelling of Homer's The Odyssey . Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca who is co-opted to join his overlord, Agamemnon, in his attack on Troy. After near 10 years of siege, culminating in the Trojan Horse event, the silly bastard then decides to take the scenic route home, and gets plumb lost. What follows is a technically brilliant rendering of mythical nonsense made to feel real. Odysseus's mini-fleet of three ships and maybe 100 (?) men run into several hardships, notably the Cyclops; a small army of huge men called the Laestrygonians; the sorceress, Circe; and some salacious sea nymphs. These set pieces are fantastic, especially the Cyclops (played by TARS voice from Interstellar , Bill Irwin), and Circe's cottage, where she has a way with greedy menfolk. Samantha Morton is almost best...

The Kidnapping of a President

This film, screening at the Nordic Film Festival , is a slightly slapstick telling of the attempted coup in Finland in 1930, where ex-President Kaarlo Ståhlberg and his wife were kidnapped and driven across the country by the right wing fascist Lapua Movement. It's tied together by a best on ground performance from the Finnish Glenn McGrath, Jussi Vatanen (it's astonishing how much this guy looks like Pidge - scroll to the bottom and decide yourself). He plays Eero Kuussaari, a colonel desperate for respect and promotion. This frustration and feeling of inferiority drives him to drunkenly order a young crew of right-wing activists to kidnap Stahlberg (Pertti Sveholm) from his country home. They don't bargain on Mrs. Stahlberg (Riitta Havukainen) insisting on joining them. Director Samuli Valkama has made a clever little historical comedy drama with current reverberations, considering Finland's place as a potential bulwark to Russia in Europe. The events of this film ta...

The Last Resort

This preview for the Nordic Film Festival is a proper drama for grown-ups, directed and co-written by Maria Sødahl, that poses some curly questions. It's about a middle class Danish couple on holiday with their young daughters in the Canary Islands. Interestingly, the Danish title is Paradis , which carries a bit more irony than its English title. Mikkel (Esben Smed) and Louise (Danica Curcic) are a typically 'normal' couple from northern Europe, enjoying their island holiday when they run down a bloke while driving at night. He turns out to be Ahmed (Aziz Çapkurt), a refugee from Afghanistan, and his leg is pretty munted. Trying to do the right thing, they take him to hospital and leave him with some cash, and crucially, their resort room and phone numbers. This minor act of kindness, and no little guilt, sets in motion a slow building series of events that fucks with the couple's holiday, and relationship in a wider sense. The resurfacing of Ahmed is clearly signpost...

The Christophers

The title of the film refers to a series of paintings started by Julian Sklar in the 90s but left unfinished for reasons made clear later. Sklar, as played by Ian McKellen, is eccentric and irascible, and seems to be a blend of famous British painters, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud. As Sklar is getting on in years, his grown children hatch a plan to have the paintings 'completed' for sale, with, or preferably without, their father's knowledge. For this undertaking they must enlist renowned art restorer (and dab hand forger), Lori Butler, an old acquaintance from art college. The premise is fine, but unfortunately, as created by Steven Soderbergh (director) and Ed Solomon (writer), it doesn't have any legs. Paradoxically, the best bits are probably also part of the reason it falters. McKellen is superb as the lovelorn painter, artistically blocked and emotionally bitter. His pithy, acerbic dialogue is great and he gives the performance full welly, but the actual storyli...

Supergirl

This new superhero flick from the DCU is an incel's nightmare. Following on from James Gunn's Superman of last year, Craig Gillespie takes the director's reins for this spin-off, Supergirl . Quick deviation - partway through, there's a clever aside about how Kara gets the 'girl' label, while her cousin Kal-El can use 'man'. Starting as it means to go on. Before we actually see the lead, we open with the motivating event of a family slaughter by the face-studded Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), sending young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) off on a revenge quest, which eventually drags in Kara Kor-El (Milly Alcock). Kara is on a week-long birthday bender, making sure to stay in red sun systems so that her powers don't work and the booze does. This is significant for the showstopping transformation yet to come on an interplanetary bus. Look, the film itself is fine, nothing new in the storyline structure (Andrew from The Curb notes that 'the ...

The Captive

Screening at the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival , Alejandro Amenabar's first film since 2019 is a mildly controversial take on the 5-year captivity of legendary Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes. We begin the film as Cervantes is led into a dusty courtyard in Algiers, along with many other kidnappees. Before he can be sold as a slave, or sliced up for insubordination, he presents a letter from the Spanish court, signalling that perhaps it's better he be kept as a hostage for ransom. The film takes a bit of time to get rolling from here but when it does it settles into a clever mix of melodrama and weighty ideas. Cervantes, with his weak left arm acting like an acting crutch, slowly becomes the cheerleader of the prisoners, writing his stories in the air, only stopping when he temporarily runs light on material. The story takes a hurdle when the Bey, a high-ranking provincial governor (Alessandro Borghi) overhears the stories told in the courtyard and summons Cerv...

The Good Boy

This English/Polish co-production is not to be confused with Good Boy , a dog-based horror film, even though in most regions the definite article is removed - it seems only Australia and the UK have it as The Good Boy . To muddy the waters more, in some areas, including the US, Brazil and the Netherlands, it's called Heel , something you might say to a dog. Anyway, I'll call it THE Good Boy because that's how it's being sold here. It's directed by a Polish guy called Jan Komasa, who's done some features in Poland, and written by first time writer Bartek Bartosik, alongside slightly more established Naqqash Khalid. They've concocted a genre pic that flirts with horror, winks at black comedy and straight up propositions psychological dependency drama. At the beginning of the film, young scally Tommy (Anson Boon) is a hateable twat, acting 'the big I am' on a night out, drug-fucked and aggro with everyone, until he sets off on his own for more action. ...

The Rivals of Amziah King

This final film at the Lotterywest Film Season for the Perth Festival is a surprising gem. It combines a great musical opening scene with a fine entrance from Matthew McConaughey. Writer/director Andrew Patterson knows who he's got on his hands here. McConaughey has fun with this role of Amziah King, his first real starring part since The Gentleman in 2019, and in fairness, the film probably wouldn't have been made without him. The story goes thus: a honey maker (or beekeeper, apiarist, professor of bees, call him what you will) is coopted into helping the police identify a stolen batch of honey barrels. After a frankly incredible (in the good sense of the word) honey heating procedure that goes off the rails, Amziah finds himself at cafe, where he bumps into Kateri, a young woman who used to foster with him when she was a kid. A star is unearthed here in Angelina LookingGlass (what a name!), in her debut film role, and the rest of the cast is fittingly grubby and grungy. Kur...

80s Movies and their Songs

So I was driving back from down south and we decided to fiddle with the radio. A generic FM station appeared and my Gen X ears knew most of the tracks, some ok, some dire. But the thing that prompted me to start this post was that a couple of the songs were clearly linked to films from the 1980s. I began thinking that, as much as it doesn't really happen now (or even much after the end of that decade, with some notable exceptions), this 'movie/song tie-in' was a huge pop culture phenomenon back then. As a massive time-wasting technique, I decided to do a bit of research and try to find the film and song pairing that was the most popular of the era. Box Office Mojo helped with the film's takings, but how to discern a song's popularity? I've had a look at the US Billboard charts and the UK top 40, so we'll see if this goes some way to covering it. Ultimately, the song that YOU heard on the radio all the time, or watched on MTV (often with the film's actor...

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