I saw an article recently on Polygon in which the authors listed their favorite movies of the decade, and it got me to thinking. Stupid lists like that are so my thing. So of course I had to compile my own favorite movies from 2010 - 2019.
It ended up being really difficult not to have this whole thing be a list of Marvel movies. I've excluded a few like Thor: Ragnarok and the second and third Captain America films because I didn't want to have even more Marvel films in my list. In the end, I managed to have just under half of my list be Marvel.
I've also left out a number of movies I know would be in many others' top ten lists. I didn't love Logan or Mad Max: Fury Road nearly as much as everyone else, and although Blade Runner 2049 was decent, I can't put it into my own top ten. I do wish I could have found space for Deadpool or X-Men: Days of Future Past though. Those were both excellent.
10 - The Endless As a general rule, I'm just not into horror. But certain horror films are just quirky or unusual enough that they grab my attention. The Endless is the kind of movie where it's actually really difficult to even figure out what it's about until around the halfway point. But it may be the best on-screen rendition of cosmic horror I've seen, and HP Lovecraft is never mentioned once.
9 - Guardians of the Galaxy Before Guardians of the Galaxy hit the theaters, the idea of a space opera featuring a raccoon and a tree as main characters would have sounded idiotic. And it would have been so very easy to screw it all up. But they didn't.
8 - It Follows Yes, yes. Another horror movie. But its premise is so amazingly original and I notice new things every time I watch. The premise: a being is following you. It walks slowly, so if you drive a few hours away, you've probably bought yourself a day or two or respite. If it catches you, it will kill you. It can look like anyone in order to blend in. And only you can see it. The only way to get rid of this curse is to have sex with someone, at which point it will be trying to kill them instead. But after it kills them, it comes back after you...
7 - Predestination Based on the classic science fiction story All You Zombies by Robert A Heinlein, Predestination is a serious time-travelling mindbender of a story. It's difficult to even explain much without spoiling things, but it begins with a time-travelling agent jumping to 1975 in order to stop a terrorist.
6 - Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse It's no secret, but this is likely the best animated superhero film of all time. Yes, yes, I hear you talking about Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and Ima let you finish, but when you look at the animation style, the excellent storyline, and the stellar characters, it's likely that this isn't only the best animated superhero film ever made, it's also arguably the best Spider-Man film ever made.
5 - Super 8 Long before Stranger Things, this film captured the nostalgic magic of the 1980s in true Spielbergian style. I love Super 8 for much the same reason that I love Stranger Things. A group of kids in the 80s stumble upon something strange and alien, and are able to do what the grown-up authorities cannot. Realistic? Heck no. Fun? Of course.
4 - Avengers: Infinity War Here's the one you knew would be on this list. I'm sure you'd have been surprised to not see Infinity War and/or Endgame on my list. I just couldn't bring myself to include both and take up two slots, and while both of those films were amazing, I had to give the slot to Infinity War.
While every other film is the hero's story, Infinity War sees Thanos as the protagonist. He's not the good guy, but Infinity War is the story of his quest. And when he succeeds, the audience was stunned. Just stunned. What an insanely audacious ending. I loved it.
3 - Interstellar I loved Interstellar for much the same reason that I loved Contact back in the 90s. This past decade has had so many similar movies, all very good. We've had Gravity, Arrival, and Ad Astra to name a few. But Gravity and Ad Astra were at their cores personal stories. I did love Arrival. It nearly made this list. But whereas Arrival is the story of how Humanity prospers as a result of first contact and successful communication with an alien race, Interstellar is the story of humanity succeeding on its own. And while it mirrors Contact in that it features the lead female's relationship with her father as a core component, it contains no aliens.
Interstellar is a hopeful story. It begins in a horribly dystopian world in which humanity is slowly losing the ability to grow food, and blindly hoping that things will just get better despite inaction. The early scene in which Murphy's schoolteachers assert that man never landed on the moon still infuriates me. Over the course of the film the characters persevere, sacrifice, and ultimately succeed despite very long odds. This triumph leads to the film's conclusion which shows the human race surviving and heading towards a brighter future. This is why I love the movie.
2 - Kung Fury This one is the oddball. It's not science fiction, it's comedy. It's not a rated film, and hasn't ever to my knowledge hit theaters. It's barely even a movie! You can watch Kung Fury right now on YouTube, and if you haven't, then you should do so immediately. It's only a half hour long. The first time I watched, I laughed so hard that it hurt, and I had tears rolling down my face.
Kung Fury is a specific kind of humor: over-the-top ridiculous. Intentionally so. The lead character, Kung Fury, is a cop with magical kung fu powers. His partner is a half-dinosaur named Triceracop. And the film's villain is the evil Nazi kung fu master: Hitler.
1 - The Avengers This not only my favorite of the MCU movies, it's the film I've got to call my favorite of the past decade. I could go into why, but that in itself is easily a very long article. Instead, I’ll redirect you to Bob Chipman’s excellent long-form video essay on the subject: The Avengers: Really That Good.
The Avengers not only deals with the five core Avengers members meeting each other, it characterizes every one of them amazingly well. Think of Black Widow’s introduction with the Soviets who think they have her captive or Thor’s joy at battling Hulk on the SHIELD helicarrier. Think of Iron Man flippantly offering Loki a drink at the film’s climax or Captain America’s line “There’s only one God, ma’am, and he doesn’t dress like that.” I love this movie.
Honorable Mention - This is 40 While I know it's not a great film, I really love the movie. The 2007 film Knocked Up with Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl is special to me. That film's cast (Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr, Harold Ramis) is much better than This is 40, but both films feature Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann's family, and they're my favorite part of each.
Wildly exceeded expectations - The Lego Movie Seriously, did anyone expect a film based on Legos to be any better than the film based on the board game Battleship or the film based on the video game Doom? Turns out, it's surprisingly good.
I'd ask you to comment with your own favorites in the past decade, but after redoing my website, I've left the commenting off. Turns out that web 2.0 is so last decade. Maybe shoot me a message on Twitter with your own favorites from the past decade.