AV Club - The 100 best films of the decade (so far)

[StraxStrax]

The tough truth about year-end lists is that they’re usually composed in a hurry. When we first started talking about putting together this list last year, part of what appealed to us about it was the chance to rethink old rankings and to catch up with each other’s favorites—a chance to revisit and rediscover, and to try to define this halfway-done decade.

It was a project months in the making. Deciding the best films of the past five years meant organizing the largest film poll The A.V. Club has ever attempted, based on a new system, different from the one we’ve traditionally used for year-end coverage, which factored in both points and votes in an effort to find a more accurate consensus.

Unsurprisingly, the results were diverse, placing experimental documentaries next to blockbusters, IMAX extravaganzas alongside next-to-no-budget indies. This is, after all, the present we’re talking about—the 2010s, cinema’s first decade as a mostly digital medium, and a time when the small films are smaller and the big films are bigger than ever before. Some of the movies on this list—including the very first title, at number 100—didn’t end up in our year-end best-of polls in their respective years. Heck, some didn’t even receive very good reviews from The A.V. Club when they first came out.

Our voters were asked to submit ranked, 50-title lists of the best films commercially released in the U.S. between 2010 and 2014. (This means that movies that were distributed abroad before 2010 were eligible; our oldest title had its world premiere in 2007.) The resulting list of 100 films will appear in three parts: 100 to 51 today, 50 to 21 on Wednesday, and the top 20 on Thursday.

100 Edge of Tomorrow
99 Mother
98 You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet
97 The Interrupters
96 Black Swan
95 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
94 Only Lovers Left Alive
93 A Field In England
92 The Skin I Live In
91 The Avengers
90 Carlos
89 Barbara
88 Toy Story 3
87 White Material
86 Exit Through The Gift Shop
85 Drug War
84 The Strange Little Cat
83 The Cabin In The Woods
82 Bird People
81 Mysteries Of Lisbon
80 The Past
79 Looper
78 The Kid With the Bike
77 Stray Dogs
76 The Color Wheel
75 Lincoln
74 Citizenfour
73 Gravity
72 National Gallery
71 Beyond the Hills
70 Secret Sunshine
69 Greenberg
68 Winter Sleep
67 Goodbye To Language 3D
66 "Oslo August 31st"
65 The Turin Horse
64 Blue Is The Warmest Color
63 Tabu
62 A Dangerous Method
61 The Deep Blue Sea
60 The Raid: Redemption
59 Two Years At Sea
58 The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
57 Skyfall
56 The Father Of My Children
55 Neighboring Sounds
54 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
53 Room 237
52 Beginners
51 Haywire
50. Amer
49. House of Pleasures
48. The World's End
47. We Are the Best
46. A Touch of Sin
45. Upstream Color
44. Stranger by the Lake
43. Computer Chess
42. The Loneliest Planet
41. The Wolf of Wall Street
40. Gone Girl
39. Force Majeure
38. Bernie
37. Magic Mike
36. 13 Assassins
35. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
34. The Grey
33. Amour
32. Martha Marcy May Marlene
31. Take Shelter
30. Inception
29. Leviathan [the GoPro fishing one, not the Russian movie]
28. 12 Years A Slave
27. Melancholia
26. Drive
25. The Immigrant
24. Zero Dark Thirty
23. Moonrise Kingdom
22. Everyone Else
21. Meek's Cutoff
20. Certified Copy
19. Scott Pilgrim vs The World
18. Winter's Bone
17. Whiplash
16. Two Days, One Night
15. Inside Llewyn Davis
14. Her
13. Holy Motors
12. Margaret
11. The Grand Budapest Hotel
10. Before Midnight
9. The Social Network
8. Under The Skin
7. Dogtooth
6. Boyhood
5. The Act of Killing
4. Frances Ha
3. The Tree Of Life
2. A Separation
1. The Master

Not shocking its a US heavy list since most of the voters are from the US

 

[TheGodling]

That top 10.

I mean, even if I gotta applaud them for thinking out of the box this whole list just reeks of them randomly picking arthouse/indie titles from a hat.

 

[trick]

Drug war is pretty good, but its not even in the top 5 of Johnnie To movies this decade.

 

[StraxStrax]

That top 10.

I mean, even if I gotta applaud them for thinking out of the box this whole list just reeks of them randomly picking arthouse/indie titles from a hat.

I'd like to see your top 10 list but there is a twist!
It has too be from this 100 list!

 

[TheGodling]

I'd like to see your top 10 list but there is a twist!
It has too be from this 100 list!

Funny enough I already did that. Or better, I went through the list to see which movies I would actually put in a top 100 of this decade, and got to 9. So a top 10 was easily made.

Drive
Blue Is The Warmest Color (La Vie d'Adele)
Winter Sleep
The Tree Of Life
The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito)
Holy Motors
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Under The Skin
12 Years A Slave
The Grand Budapest Hotel

In no order (although I'll say La Vie d'Adele and Drive would undoubtedly be in my top 10).

 

[The Watcher]

Original television programming killed the movies in the 2000s. I applaud them for grabbing indie titles and not just basing it on box office numbers, but this list doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. "Her" at 14? C'mon now.

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

Either that's a shytty list or there hasn't been that many great flicks over the past 5 years.

 

[FlyRy]

saw the top 20 last night..

i have no desire to ever see Tree of Life or The Master ever again in my life.

it did make me finally wanna peep Winter's Bone, Scott Pilgrim and Inside LLewyn Davis though

@TheGodling at #30

 

[TheGodling]

saw the top 20 last night..

i have no desire to ever see Tree of Life or The Master ever again in my life.

it did make me finally wanna peep Winter's Bone, Scott Pilgrim and Inside LLewyn Davis though

@TheGodling at #30

lol @ trying to get me mad over a shytty movie being featured in an overall shytty list.

Spoiler

Where's that Birdman though?

And not having seen Winter's Bone yet. It's pretty much Justified, the drama. Also still J-Law's best performance of her young career.

 

[FlyRy]

lol @ trying to get me mad over a shytty movie being featured in an overall shytty list.

Spoiler

Where's that Birdman though?

And not having seen Winter's Bone yet. It's pretty much Justified, the drama. Also still J-Law's best performance of her young career.

saw about 30 min of it once and never finished it

whiplash at 17

 

[TheGreatShowtime]

CTRL+F
Interstellar

0 of 0 matches.

 

[MartyMcFly]

Not too mad at the list. Glad to see Skyfall represented :smugbond:

And toy story 3 and the worlds end and of course the social network. Don't know how I feel about Gravity being there. I get its there for the achievement in direction and visuals but I guess that's just me

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

saw the top 20 last night..

i have no desire to ever see Tree of Life or The Master ever again in my life.

it did make me finally wanna peep Winter's Bone, Scott Pilgrim and Inside LLewyn Davis though

@TheGodling at #30

Winters bone was wack af. Pointless film. Boring too.

 

[MartyMcFly]

saw the top 20 last night..

i have no desire to ever see Tree of Life or The Master ever again in my life.

it did make me finally wanna peep Winter's Bone, Scott Pilgrim and Inside LLewyn Davis though

@TheGodling at #30

Definitely peep Scott Pilgrim. I still need to finish Llewyn Davis myself. It's been on tv a lot lately

 

[TheGodling]

Scott Pilgrim is such mediocre shyt. Pure wannabe cool hipster drivel.