As of today, I have seen 844 films released in the last 10 years. Yes, I do in fact keep a list, thank you for asking. Is that a good enough number? I came to the local festival circuit pretty late (2015, to be exact--the year of "Sleepless" in QCinema). I spent two years during the latter half of the decade based in Iloilo City, which meant time away from the Manila-exclusive film festivals, where many of our local titles have lived and continue to live their ephemeral lives. Why did "The King's Speech," a movie that is just okay at best (albeit starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter in top form), win the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director over the masterpiece that is "The Social Network"? That is a question I still ponder every now and then. Below, I've made a 20-before-20, though in the process of making the collage, I realized I needed to choose a top 10, hence the picture. Lemme know what you think!
MY TOP 10 FILMS OF THE DECADE (in alphabetical order):
1. Arrival (2016; dir. Dennis Villeneuve)
A masterclass in thrilling storytelling through and through. This New Yorker review by Anthony Lane sums up my sentiments precisely.
2. Frances Ha (2012; dir. Noah Baumbach)
By far, the best work of the director who has also given us "The Squid and the Whale," "Mistress America," "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)" and "Marriage Story."
3. Happy as Lazzaro (2018; dir. Alice Rohrwacher)
Starts out as neorealism, then morphs into something between magic and myth. An utterly beguiling cinematic gift.
4. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013; dirs. Joel & Ethan Coen)
The Coen Brothers' finest work this decade is a rumination on success and sadness by way of a folk musical. Who would have thought?
5. Lady Bird (2017; dir. Greta Gerwig)
Love takes limitless form--for parent, lover, friend, place, time--in this sublime reinvention of the American bildungsroman.
6. Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan (2013; dir. Lav Diaz)
This "astonishing study of madness and its accompanying instruments" topped CNN Philippines' rundown of the best Filipino films of the decade. Nobody disagrees.
7. Parasite (2019; dir. Bong Joon-ho)
The perfect moviegoing experience. I caught an early-afternoon screening with maybe 10 senior citizens in the theater--and let me tell you, dear reader, the energy in that room was wild, wild, wild.
8. A Separation (2011; dir. Asghar Farhadi)
"A trenchant emotional thriller that you watch in dread, awe and amazing aggravation," wrote Wesley Morris for The Boston Globe. That 99% critics' score (based on 173 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes sounds just about right.
9. The Social Network (2010; dir. David Fincher)
Hell (and heaven for us viewers) in the form of fragile male egos stabbing each other with words. If I had to pick only one film to represent the decade, this might be it.
10. Weekend (2011; dir. Andrew Haigh)
Even "the defining LGBTQ film of the decade" feels like an inadequate encapsulation of this airtight masterwork.
MY NEXT 10 FILMS OF THE DECADE (in alphabetical order):
11. Apocalypse Child (2015; dir. Mario Cornejo)
Drama with a capital D, that moves with a believably human brain, and knows which wounds to poke and sores to reopen on your puny mortal soul.
12. Certified Copy (2010; dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
The late Roger Ebert spent almost nine paragraphs of his review trying to figure out this mesmerizing, mind-tickling two-hander, before admitting that "perhaps it was wrong of me to even try"--and I am nodding in agreement.
13. Edward (2019; dir. Thop Nazareno)
Maybe it's just my biases as a doctor at play. Maybe it's really the best Filipino film of 2019. Take your pick.
14. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018; dir. Hu Bo)
A sweeping triumph of portraiture, both macro (the fucked-up 21st-century Chinese society at large) and micro (the lost and lonely inhabitants of this modern-day epic).
15. Gone Girl (2014; dir. David Fincher)
If you can survive watching "Gone Girl" get shut out of every category (save for Best Actress) on Oscars nominations day, then you can survive anything.
16. Looper (2012; dir. Rian Johnson)
Where does one even begin with this film? The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress that year did not go to Emily Blunt (she wasn't even nominated), and we are mad as hell.
17. The Master (2012; dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor that year did not go to Philip Seymour Hoffman, and we are also mad as hell. Also probably as good a time as any to share that, for one shining moment, I did consider joining Lancaster Dodd's cult (the power of PTA, yea!).
18. Oda sa Wala (2018; dir. Dwein Baltazar)
If you're not yet a Dwein Baltazar stan, then you're not doing drag.
19. Spotlight (2015; dir. Tom McCarthy)
This is why journalism--the truth and its telling--matters.
20. 20th Century Women (2016; dir. Mike Mills)
Transcends the specificity of its non-Developing World narrative to capture the universal pains and pleasures, confusions and convolutions of coming of age.
PLUS--*30* more titles (in alphabetical order) to make 50:
Boyhood (2014; dir. Richard Linklater); Bridesmaids (2011; dir. Paul Feig); Call Me by Your Name (2017; dir. Luca Guadagnino); Child's Pose (2013; dir. Calin Peter Netzer); Cleaners (2019; dir. Glenn Barit); Cloud Atlas (2012; dirs. Tom Tykwer, & Andy & Lana Wachowski); The Favourite (2018; dir. Yorgos Lanthimos); Honor Thy Father (2015; dir. Erik Matti); Inception (2010; dir. Christopher Nolan); Kiko Boksingero (2017; dir. Thop Nazareno); La La Land (2016; dir. Damien Chazelle); Mad Max: Fury Road (2015; dir. George Miller); Maps to the Stars (2014; dir. David Cronenberg); Margaret (2011; dir. Kenneth Lonergan); Neighboring Sounds (2012; dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho); Nightcrawler (2014; dir. Dan Gilroy); Pamilya Ordinaryo (2016; dir. Eduardo Roy Jr.); Phantom Thread (2017; dir. Paul Thomas Anderson); Roma (2018; dir. Alfonso Cuarón); Shame (2011; dir. Steve McQueen); Shoplifters (2018; dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda); Take Shelter (2011; dir. Jeff Nichols); Tangerine (2015; dir. Sean Baker); Three Identical Strangers (2018; dir. Tim Wardle); A Touch of Sin (2013; dir. Jia Zhangke); Violator (2014; dir. Eduardo Dayao); Wild Tales (2014; dir. Damián Szifron); The Wolf of Wall Street (2013; dir. Martin Scorsese); Zero Dark Thirty (2012; dir. Kathryn Bigelow); and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2 (2010, 2011; dir. David Yates) because die-hard Potterhead here.
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