Just when you thought you had enough of 2014 year-end lists, it’s now 2015 and time to begin everyone’s “halfway through the decade” retrospective lists.
The folks at Fandor are the first out of the gate, as they asked 290 film critics (and assorted other movie lovers) what they thought the best films of 2010-2014 were.
The 26 films below veer more towards the art house end of the spectrum, but there’s some great representation for filmmakers like The Coen Bros, Terrence Malick, David Fincher, Spike Jonze, etc…
The Best Films of the Decade So Far (2010-2014)
1. The Tree of Life (103 votes)
2. Certified Copy (91 votes)
3. The Master (76 votes)
4. Margaret (68 votes)
5. Holy Motors (66 votes)
6. A Separation (64 votes)
7. Under the Skin (61 votes)
8. Inside Llewyn Davis (59 votes)
9. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (45 votes)
10. Boyhood (44 votes)
11. Goodbye to Language (41 votes)
12. The Social Network (40 votes)
13. Moonrise Kingdom (36 votes)
14. Her (33 votes)
(tie) Leviathan (2012)
16. Mysteries of Lisbon (32 votes)
17. The Act of Killing (28 votes)
(tie) The Turin Horse
19. Before Midnight (27 votes)
(tie) Melancholia
(tie) Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
22. Frances Ha (25 votes)
(tie) The Wolf of Wall Street
24. The Immigrant (24 votes)
(tie) Spring Breakers
Tabu
As far as comic-based (or related) films go: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World came in at #36, Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Wind Rises made it in at #44, Blue is the Warmest Color is #56, The Dark Knight Rises wound up at #141 along with Snowpiercer. Kick-Ass, We Are The Best and X-Men: Days of Future Past also received one vote each, landing them at #248.
I’m surprised to see there wasn’t any support for The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy, especially given the recent WGA nod for the latter. I’m sure 5 more years, and further perspective, will alter much of this list dramatically. Regardless, there’s a lot of stunning cinema here, and it’s a great list for anyone looking to check out something new, or a film they might have missed over the past few years.
And here’s a nice video compilation of the top 26:
Wow.
That list is blindingly awful
Yay for Inside Llewyn Davis!
No Speed Racer? I call bullshit.
I have to respectfully disagree about Inside Llewyn Davis. IMHO, at number 8 it rates waaaaay too high. Love the Coen Brothers, but really hated this when it came out. Early 60’s folk music in New York never sounded like it did in this movie. But for a song or two, not even close. And I never believed the main character had any sort of passion for the music he *did* play.
If you want to see a great film (released this year) about music that’s authentic and heartfelt and full of all the crazy things that music *is* about, see Whiplash, starring Miles Teller and a mesmerizing J.K. Simmons. Now that’s a movie that should have been a lot higher than #175.
Hey John,
I think Speed Racer came out in 2008, but how’d you feel about Cloud Atlas?
Charlie,
I hear you! Llewyn Davis was one of those films that sorta underwhelmed me at first, but then its charms worked its way into my head, especially its pseudo-Sisyphean structure. I know the main character was based on Dave Van Ronk and used some of the traditional music he played, but I’m not familiar enough to know how much. Definitely that song “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” that opened the film at least.
The only thing the pretentious, miscast and overlong ‘Margaret’ is masterly about is in illustrating just how unprofessional a film director can act. Lonergan’s refusal to honor his contract will only make it harder for future filmmakers to win final-cut rights.
Why did people like the movie “Her” so much?
It is probably the only movie I ever walked out of. Sure it had good art direction, but all the dialogue was so pretentious and cheesy.
Maybe I can’t talk though since I’m not into artsy films. My favorite movie is Team America: World Police, which should be on this list!
Team America: World Police came out in 2004, so sadly, it wouldn’t be eligible for this list.
I have only seen Boyhood from the Top 10. And I gotta say it was great. Patricia Arquette never disappoints. And it barely looked like she aged in the span of the 12 years this movie took place.
Tree of Life as the best movie of the first half of the decade? Can’t help but roll the eyes.
@kyle Pinion
Whoops. For some reason I thought the list was from 2004 to 2014, which in retrospect does not make any sense.
But still “her” was terrible and “sharknado” should be on the list.
Some really great movies on here, a small handful I probably wouldn’t have picked myself, but I see why they were chosen.
I am legitimately shocked at the lack of Edgar Wright representation on this list, though, and I’d like to see more representation from action, comedy, and horror in general.
Still, any list that has Certified Copy, Margaret, and A Separation in the Top 10 is pretty alright by me.
“I’m surprised to see there wasn’t any support for The Avengers”
I’m not surprised that it missed the boat. Once the luster of the various Marvel franchises coming together on screen for the first time wore off, all that was left was a lot of terrible dialogue, explosions, and a sad excuse for a plot. On the other hand, a number of the movies that did make the list weren’t very good either, probably a symptom of only having five years worth of films to pull from.
Kind of interesting to me that the top three rated movies from the same time period on IMDB.com are Inception, Interstellar (both of which are much farther down the Fandor list), and the French film The Intouchables (which doesn’t appear on the Fandor list at all).
What an excruciatingly terrible list by my particular lights, epitomized by the #7 placement of the amateurish “Under the Skin”. That highly-divisive film is ludicrously overpraised by style-conscious critics but mostly loathed by actual audiences (with a majority of 1/5 reviews from customers at Amazon.com).
The indignant tone pervading these comments is wonderful.