The Best Of The Decade

The Tree of Life

It's difficult to narrow down a list of movies because you'll always feel as if you're shortchanging someone. As is the case with any given decade, there were a number of films that moved me for one reason or another in the 2010s.

Although film culture itself is in the midst of some depressing trends that I won't delve too far into here, movies have managed to remain an art form due to the efforts of those who care about images on a screen being more than just entertainment.

Television has, in some respects, caught up with cinema and garners the type of deeply considered criticism that was once merely reserved for movies. In fact, one TV show - David Lynch's "Twin Peaks: The Return" would crack my top 10 of the decade if I considered it a film - some do, and there's an argument to be made for that considering its cinematic essence, but let's face it... it debuted on TV. But some of the other best shows - "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," "Mindhunter," Todd Hayne's HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce" and "The Americans" - would also rank with some of the best films on this list.

As I'd mentioned before, you can't squeeze in everything, so to give a little credit where it's due to some movies I really liked, but couldn't find room for in my top 100 of the 2010s, I'd also highly recommend: Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight," Abbas Kiarostami's "Certified Copy," Jordan Peele's "Get Out," Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right," Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris," Aleksey German's "Hard To Be a God," George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road," Jia Zhangke's "Mountains May Depart," Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Winter Sleep," Deniz Gamze Erguven's "Mustang," Noah Baumbach's "While We're Young" and "Frances Ha," Panos Cosmatos' "Mandy," Orson Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind," Pawel Pawlikowski's "Ida," Bong Joon Ho's "Snowpiercer," Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water," Mike Mills' "20th Century Women," the new "Star Wars" trilogy, Ana Lily Amirpour's "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" and Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

It should also be noted that I haven't seen four of this year's highly acclaimed films yet: Terrence Malick's "A Hidden Life," Celine Sciamma's "Portrait of a Lady on Fire," the Safdie Brothers' "Uncut Gems" and Nadav Lapid's "Synonyms."

Below are my top 100 movies of the decade. These are not set in stone. In a year from now, I might consider my number 80 better than my number 20. Things change. For now, here's some semblance of an order:

Review: Dark Waters

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

"Dark Waters" is a David vs. Goliath tale of a corporate lawyer who turns against his own industry when he learns that a massive corporation - in this case, chemical company DuPont - was covering up egregious actions that have been harming the community in which he was raised. The film follows the formula set up by previous films that cover such stories, including "The Insider," "Erin Brockovich" and "Silkwood."

As such, it's the most unusual movie of director Todd Haynes' character. The filmmaker, who's among my favorite American directors of this century, typically makes movies about women that are set in the 1940s or 1950s - for example, the brilliant "Far from Heaven" and "Carol" or the HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce" - or music films, such as "Velvet Goldmine" and the remarkable Bob Dylan phantasmagoria "I'm Not There."

In other words, "Dark Waters" feels like a standard, somewhat by-the-book, Hollywood drama about the little guy standing up to the corrupt corporation. That being said, it's a good example of that genre, mostly aided by a solid lead performance by Mark Ruffalo as Robert Bilott, a Cincinnati lawyer who defended chemical companies from lawsuits, but who is wooed to the other side in the late 1990s by a farmer who lost 190 cattle due to environmental pollution in Parkersburg, West Virginia, where Bilott grew up.

"Dark Waters" goes to show how draining - both financially and spiritually - a fight against a corporate giant can be. When the evidence comes to light that DuPont had been dumping C8 - also known as perfluorooctanoic acid - in Parkersburg's waterways during its production of teflon products, DuPont decides to drag out the lawsuits against the corporation in court in the hope of bankrupting its complainants, rather than halting production of its dangerous product or cleaning up its own mess.

Bilott is the type of character you'd expect in such a drama - an unassuming Brockovich-type of character who has a hang-dog appearance, but is ready to go for the jugular after he realizes how much harm the company he's fighting has caused to the people of his hometown. The film's second half also focuses on the physical and emotional toll the fight takes on Bilott and occasionally veers into paranoid thriller territory - as one complainant almost becomes the victim of arson, and Bilott becomes frightened to start his own car.

"Dark Waters" doesn't have the lush colors typically associated with a Haynes film - indeed, it has a somewhat drab appearance, but I don't mean that as an insult as this is clearly the aesthetic for which the film aims. The picture is also timely. While the battle over whether corporations are people - as some have argued - has been a years-long debate, there's no question that the release of "Dark Waters" comes at a time when regulations are dropping like flies for companies that have no interest in taking the public's safety into account.

Haynes' film is an angry one - and rightly so. The history of Hollywood movies has seen a steady stream of movies about lawyers or the everyman taking on a corporate entity or the corrupt powers that be - from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" to "The Verdict" - but the current moment is a time at which such a concept feels more urgent. "Dark Waters" might not be the best example of its subgenre, but it's a well made, thoughtful and often riveting legal thriller. And when you consider one of Haynes' early successes - the great "Safe," which was about a woman suffering from psychosomatic stress as the result of her environment - it's not so difficult to see why he might want to make this movie.

Review: Waves

Image courtesy of A24.

The third feature film from director Trey Edward Shults is overstuffed, often visually dazzling, occasionally maddening, well acted and sure to get a strong reaction one way or another from those who view it. The 135-minute film is really two movies for the price of one - a somewhat lurid, albeit well performed and stylish, melodramatic first half, and a much more restrained - and significantly more engaging - second act.

It should be pointed out that Shults - who is also responsible for the equally invasive drama "Krisha" and the low-key apocalypse film "It Comes at Night" - is white, and as a result some of the liberties he takes in telling this story, well, might make some uncomfortable. The film follows an affluent African American family in Florida whose lives take a tragic turn after son Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) takes a terrible action that ruins his life.

Tyler is a star wrestler, and is pushed by his overzealous father, Ronald (Sterling K. Brown), to achieve success. But Tyler finds out from a doctor that he has serious damage to his shoulder and must undergo surgery to prevent permanent damage. This, of course, will derail his high school wrestling career and, perhaps, get in the way of obtaining a scholarship. At the same time, he finds out that his girlfriend, Alexis (Alexa Demie), who's Hispanic, is pregnant, and she's not as keen on having an abortion as he is.

These two conflicts come to a head, and after Alexis has dumped Tyler due to his lack of support in her carrying her baby to term, he shows up at an after-prom party, and a tragedy occurs. As a result, Tyler is imprisoned, most likely for a period of many years. His family is, naturally, torn apart.

But just when you think the film is going to end on a bleak note, a second story materializes - that of Emily (Taylor Russell), Tyler's younger sister, who finds herself ostracized at school due to her brother's actions and being sought by a young man named Luke (Lucas Hedges), who's white.

If you're wondering why I'm pointing out the races of the various characters - and the affluent status of Tyler's family - it's because the filmmakers' use of these various signifiers are at the heart of what some could perceive as the film's faults. The picture's first half becomes increasingly sensationalist and melodramatic, portraying a young African American man and his Hispanic girlfriend in a relationship that takes a dysfunctional turn, with him calling her a "bitch" on more than one occasion and, eventually, getting violent.

However, Emily's relationship with the white guy - whose own problems involve an estranged, drug addicted father who's dying - is portrayed as the more stable of the two. My belief is that Tyler's family is portrayed as being wealthy because had they been lower class, the story might have seen accusations of dabbling in, for lack of a better phrase, misery porn. I don't believe this portrayal of the characters comes from a negative place, but it occasionally makes for uneasy viewing, considering the source.

So, it's a genuinely pleasant surprise when, during its second half, "Waves" leaves behind the melodrama of Tyler's story, and takes a more thoughtful approach to Emily's. For starters, Tyler's story is more grim in the sense that he is the one who commits the act that causes his family's downfall and, therefore, he's a little harder to sympathize with, whereas the second half focuses on the aftermath and how Emily, a shy young woman, tries to bring her family back together again. In other words, the film's second act successfully delivers the emotion - although subtly - that the first act is trying so desperately, and not so subtly, to force on the audience.

"Waves" has drawn a number of favorable reviews, and it's not hard to see why. Visually, it's often stunning - although the swirling dervish camera shots in vehicles driven by its lead characters are often more headache inducing than awe inspiring - and Shults plays with various aspect ratios and visual styles. In terms of performances, the film is very good, especially from its two young leads. Thematically is where "Waves" is a little all over the place, although the second half does a good job of compensating for some of the faults of the first half.

I'd recommend the film overall, even if it has faults. It's the type of movie in which the director just barely gets away with the hat trick he's trying to pull. "Waves" is audacious - occasionally more so than is likely called for - but when it finally finds the heart of its story in Emily's tale, it delivers the emotional punch it seeks.

Review: Atlantics

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Mati Diop's feature debut, "Atlantics," won the Grand Prix prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and it's easy to see why the jury was taken with it. The picture is a haunting, strange and gorgeously filmed allegoric ghost story that has a rhythm and vibe that's different from anything else you'll likely see this year.

The picture at once tackles social issues and features a fated romance, all the while bathing itself in dreamy photography and adding to the mix a touch of the supernatural. As the film opens, a group of men in Dakar, Senegal's capitol city, are demanding the several months worth of pay they're owed by a greedy developer for construction of a new building. As they are fed excuses, they threaten to burn down the building or walk off the job.

One of those men, Souleimane (Ibrahima Traore), wanders off to meet his secret girlfriend, Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), at a secluded spot near a breathtaking beach backdrop. Souleimane and Ada's romance must be kept under wraps because Ada is engaged - albeit not by choice - to a wealthy man named Omar (Babacar Sylla), who will provide everything for her other than the type of true love she has with Souleimane.

Strange occurrences begin to happen. For starters, Souleimane and a group of men take a boat to Spain - without his telling Ada or saying goodbye - in the hope of finding work abroad. Ada is crushed to learn that the boat went down and the men on it are considered missing. Yet, there were no witnesses to the crash, and several acquaintances of Ada swear they've seen Souleimane since.

Ada's betrothal arrives, and during a party celebrating it, a mysterious fire is set in the lavish bedroom that Ada will share with Omar. The police believe Souleimane is involved, and a pushy officer is convinced that Ada has some sort of role in it. Meanwhile, the greedy developer begins to be visited by a group of women with glowing yellow eyes who have come to collect the money owed the missing men.

While the film's tale of interrupted romance is fairly straightforward, Diop's picture takes an interesting approach to its various social issues - the haves vs. the have nots, the refugee crisis and, to an extent, the rights of women to choose their own path. In another film, the eerie supernatural elements might have brought the action to a halt, but Diop shows a steady hand for a directorial debut, and the result is a film with a uniquely moody and dreamy vibe.

The cinematography by Claire Mathon, who also shot another Cannes hit, "Portrait of a Lady on Fire," is hauntingly lovely - especially a shot in which Ada and some other women sit in a dark nightclub while strobe lights pass across their faces - and the score by Fatima Al Qadiri combines a variety of discordant sounds with ambient electronic rhythms.

All in all, "Atlantics" is an impressive debut that is likely to make Diop a director to watch in the years to come. It's available to stream on Netflix and well worth seeking out.

Review: Marriage Story

Image courtesy of Netflix.

"Criminal lawyers see bad people at their best, while divorce lawyers see good people at their worst," says a character in Noah Baumbach's wrenching yet bittersweet "Marriage Story," the director's best in nearly a decade and one of his finest works overall. While that statement is debatable, its second half is mostly true regarding the two lead characters of this film.

We first meet Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) via voiceover as they describe their partner's greatest strengths, although we soon learn that this an assignment given to them by a counselor who is coaching them through the early stages of their divorce. At this point, things are still amicable. He's a theater director in New York City who specializes in the avant garde, while she's his lead actress who formerly got famous from a teen movie before she met Charlie. They have a precocious young son named Henry (Azhy Robertson).

Things start to get complicated when Nicole decides to move to Los Angeles - she's originally from California - to star in a TV show, and Charlie must travel back and forth to see Henry, who is living with his mother. The couple vows not to get lawyers involved, but Nicole eventually relents, hiring the spunky Nora (Laura Dern), which prompts Charlie to hire his own - first the good natured Bert (Alan Alda), but eventually the more aggressive Jay (Ray Liotta).

From there, things get increasingly acrimonious as Charlie's lawyers fight to get the couple considered as a "New York family" for residency and custody purposes, and eventually the couple's grievances get nasty. A court appearance turns ugly - with accusations of alcohol abuse to infidelity - and an argument between Nicole and Charlie at his new apartment results in both of them shouting things at each other they likely wished they'd never said. For the record, Charlie had cheated once during their marriage, and Nicole is prone to taking more than a few nightcaps on occasion.

"Marriage Story" - which feels like a combination of John Cassavetes, Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, meaning it's alternately grueling and very funny - also makes the best use of exploring the New York-Los Angeles dichotomy in any film since "Annie Hall." Much like that classic, Baumbach's film is often bittersweet and filled with longing, that is, when it's not emotionally distressing.

While the film's middle section is full of heartbreaking sequences - the aforementioned bitter fight and a sequence during which Charlie tries with all his might to do the right things during a social worker's visit - the final few scenes are delicate and lovely. There's a scene in which one of the letters from the film's opening scene is revisited, which is followed by a heartbreakingly tender act of thoughtfulness in the final scene.

The performances here are across the board excellent. Driver and Johansson do most of the heavy lifting in their sure-to-be-nominated leading roles, but Dern is a scene stealer as the feisty Nora, a woman whose counsel for her client is likely driven by past experience, and Alda's portrayal of Charlie's first lawyer makes you want to give him a hug.

In his best films - namely, "The Squid and the Whale," "Greenberg" and this one - Baumbach deftly blends acrimony with poignancy, and "Marriage Story" hits some of the highest notes in both categories. It's a powerful slow burn drama that follows the crumbling of a relationship between two people who have their share of good qualities, but also faults.

Baumbach previously explored the harrowing experience a divorce can have on a child - "The Squid and the Whale" - whereas this one gives each of the parents a perspective. Both films are great, and are proof that Baumbach is one of the best current directors exploring the affairs of the heart.

Review: Knives Out

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" is an Agatha Christie-esque mystery with a quirkier vibe - and a little social commentary thrown in. In the vein of "Clue," the picture assembles various members of a bitterly squabbling family to a large old house, to which a detective named Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, putting on a kitschy, southern-fried accent) has been called in the event of the death of the family's patriarch, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a famed best-selling author known for twisty murder mysteries.

Much like one of Thrombey's novels, the circumstances of his death leads to numerous sleights of hand, and rugs being pulled out from beneath the audience. What makes it strange, however, for this type of film is that the central method of Thrombey's death is revealed early in the picture - and, without giving too much away, it doesn't appear at first to involve foul play.

The central figure of the film is Marta (Ana de Armas), Harlan's devoted nurse, who is promised by the family to be taken care of after Harlan dies. However, once Marta finds herself mixed up in Blanc's investigation, all bets are off - not only for Marta, but for the entire family as its members are ready to throw the others under the bus to get a larger piece of the inheritance.

Johnson is a director who often dabbles in various genres - from science fiction ("Looper" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi") to hard boiled noir ("Brick") - so, he seems a natural fit to take on a clever genre exercise like "Knives Out." It's not a great mystery film, but rather a solid piece of escapism with a game cast, which includes Chris Evans as the family's black sheep, Jamie Lee Curtis as the oldest daughter, Don Johnson as her philandering husband, Toni Collette as a daughter-in-law and Michael Shannon as the son who runs Harlan's publishing company.

There's also a bit of social commentary that's occasionally thrown into the mix. Marta hails from Ecuador and the family casually brings up the fact that her mother is an illegal immigrant - other than Johnson's character, who hilariously thinks that Marta made it to the United States "the right way" - in a manner that often feels like a threat.

Shannon's teenage son (Jaeden Martell, of the "It" movies) is referred to by Collette's free-spirited "liberal" character as a "right-wing troll," and there's a lengthy discussion in which the adult members of the family have a debate about immigration - needless to say, some of them are Trump supporters. So, there's something of a catharsis involved watching Marta outsmart these people, who claim they'll take care of her, but turn on her in an instant when fortune favors her.

Ultimately, "Knives Out" is a fresh take on the whodunit. It's priority, despite some veering off into sociopolitical territory, is twists and turns. It's less of a thriller than it is a comedic mystery. It also has the benefit of a pretty wonderful final shot. All in all, "Knives Out" is pretty sharp.

Review: A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.

It's easy to relate to Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) - a stand-in for Tom Junod, who wrote the piece "Can You Say... Hero?" for Esquire in 1998. He's a cynical writer - much like myself - who's not a big fan of sentimentalism or overeager sincerity. And yet, he can't help but admit that Fred Rogers - that's Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks, who doesn't look like the man, but nails his mannerisms) to you - seems like a pretty sincere guy who means every word he says.

It's hard not to love Mr. Rogers - not just for the ways in which he talks matter-of-factly to children about such heavy topics as death and war and helps them find methods of channeling their anger or hurt into something constructive, but also in how radical his show was at the time it premiered in 1968. One of his most famous episodes involved him inviting an African American friend to bathe his feet in the same tub as Mr. Rogers at a time when a number of corners of the United States were still segregating pools. That's not referenced here, but Vogel comes to realize pretty quickly during his interviews for the Esquire piece that Rogers is the real deal.

Marielle Heller's "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is set up like an episode of a Mr. Rogers show. He waltzes in singing his theme song, takes off his shoes and dons his red cardigan. He displays a picture board with photos of friends - one of whom is Lloyd - and talks about the fact that his friend has a problem. This sequence is, of course, in the realm of fantasy, but it sets up Vogel's dilemma. By the way, did I mention that Mr. Rogers is a supporting character, and that the film is centered around Vogel's new fatherhood and distant relationship with his previously absent father (Chris Cooper)?

As the film opens and Vogel gets his Esquire assignment - he doesn't take well to writing about a "smarmy children's show host" - Vogel is on his way with his wife, Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson), to his sister's third wedding (some good jokes are to be had on this matter). There, he runs into his father, who's drunk as usual, and fisticuffs ensue. Feeling pretty low, Vogel heads to Pittsburgh with his assignment of interviewing Rogers.

From the start, he finds the TV personality disarming. For starters, Rogers not only gives rather candid answers, but he also questions Vogel about his own life, and listens intently. Vogel isn't too pleased about this at first, but he eventually rolls with it. There's a moment in which Vogel is attempting to get behind the mask, so to speak, of whom he believes Rogers to be, only to find that the man is exactly the same person in the flesh as he is on TV. Rogers tells him that he tries to get children to find ways to cope with life's harsh elements by finding ways to channel their anger and frustration - whether it's swimming laps (which Rogers does himself) or pounding the low keys on a piano.

Heller, whose previous film was the hilariously melancholic "Can You Ever Forgive Me?", once again focuses her lens on a troubled soul - Vogel, that is, not Rogers. Her latest film has a really great final sequence involving Rogers shooting an episode of his TV show, and then sitting down at the piano. What he does while playing speaks to the fact that even the kindest of souls might have their own demons, and need ways to keep them at bay.

Rhys, who was so great on "The Americans," really carries the film in the lead role, and Hanks is, not surprisingly, very good as Rogers - although he doesn't look like him, what other actor could inhabit the man's inherent kindness and patience better than Hanks?

While last year's lovely documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" got to the heart of who Rogers was, and was a tearjerker in its own right, Heller's film uses the character of Mr. Rogers to show how adults can continue to learn by putting themselves in children's shoes and remembering how they felt at a young age - a piece of advice that Rogers imparts to Vogel during their interview. This is a cathartic film about kindness and understanding at a time when our world could use a little more of both.