My first impulse was, "Yes". Whiplash is a tight film, with no fat on the bones anywhere. Every line feels needed, and its got a breakneck pace, high stakes, and delivers on every centimetre of celluloid.
But then I remembered that it lost the Academy Award that year to Birdman; I love Birdman. That year would have been *tough* for me if I were a voter, mostly because those two films were magnificent.
That got me to thinking: what other great films am I forgetting?
I snuffled around a bit, looking up best picture winners for the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, searched "best of the decade" lists, and then I snooped through some notable filmmakers' filmographies looking for great pictures. There were dozens. In fact, I found fifty-four that I shortlisted, and that's not counting the films I hadn't seen (like The Master or Moonlight), and also ignoring that the vast majority of non-American films get lost in the blizzard of media.
How do you compare these? How do you compare a top-grade superhero film (Logan) to a musical dramedy (La La Land), or either of those to a neo-noir set in the Appalachians (Winter's Bone)?
I put them into sub-categories: drama (26), comedy (5), dramedy (7), sci-fi (9), superhero (3), and "other" (3). Then I figured out the top-level films from each category, mostly went by gut intuition, and came up with this:
The contenders for "Best Picture of the 2010s" (according to me), are Whiplash, The Wind Rises, Silence, Get Out, Phantom Thread, The Two Popes, Birdman, La La Land, Under the Skin, Her, Arrival, Logan, The Favourite, Holy Motors, and Midnight In Paris.
Those films really stick with me in a lot of ways, and I feel each brought something interesting to the table.
Ultimately, I've got to go with Silence. Scorsese's most underrated picture, and my favourite of his works. Silence is one of the only films I've seen and then just remained in my seat after it was over, unwilling to move, just having been washed over by the experience I'm not sure I was fully prepared for. It's powerful stuff, and my choice of the decade's best.
For what it's worth, I don't think Silence made anybody's top 10 lists, and it wasn't really nominated for much, either. People can yap about Crash/Brokeback Mountain, The King's Speech, or whatever they want - Silence is the most glaring oversight in Best Picture history - wasn't even nominated by those cads!
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GenoWashingline (811)
3 years ago
Ahhh, I love Scorcese, The Irishman and Wolf Of Wall Street would be in my top ten of the Decade.
But I seemed to be one of the few people who went to see Silence in my local cinema... To me it had a brilliant start and finish (great last scenes), but for about 90 minutes in the middle there I think it just got really slow, and not in a good "meditative" way, but a dull one for me at the time...
Maybe I am a few years older I might give it another go, I can imagine it might suit the older soul.
Still though, thanks for your in depth thoughts thee, really enjoyed reading that. I think Under The Skin is great too, definitely top ten material.
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MarkDaniels (310)
3 years ago
Yeah The Irishman and Wolf were fantastic. Both films were my favorite films of the year they were released. I will admit that Wolf had a pretty tough competition in regards to my favorite film of 2013. That was a great year for film. I really had a hard time between that, Prisoners, Dallas Buyers Club, Catching Fire(which I find to be very overlooked nowadays), American Hustle, Her, etc but I eventually came to the verdict that Wolf of Wall Street is my favorite. Silence I thought was great and shouldve got a best picture nomination but it doesn't have much of a replay value and I've only seen it once.
Under The Skin is also amazing.
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Ace_Spade (9367)
3 years ago
My pleasure. I love going through this stuff and thinking about it; thanks for the topic!
Irishman I loved. I always thought the criticisms of it were so nitpicky, stuff about the CGI de-aging, or how it was long/dull - none of that was, I thought, a decent way to view the film.
Wolf of Wall Street, honestly, I didn't enjoy that much.
I get why Silence might drag for some people, but for me the intensity of that faith journey never left me comfortable - in the best way. My theory is that this discomfiture was why it didn't do well. I think it was a contemplation of faith, spirituality, religion, and God. I think it was a dive into a life dedicated to a cause filled with doubt. I think it was about persecution, responsibility - so much was going on in there. The true discomfort comes from the "sides" you might be on. A Christian (or religious person) watching the film won't get a great "Don't worry, God's real; religion's great!" moment, but an atheist never gets an "Awakening to skepticism" moment, either. No matter who you are, you'll be troubled by the film.
That's what I LOVED about it, though! It felt so authentic and real! It felt like Scorsese was really, deeply grappling with these HUGE questions without looking away from the "practicality" of life; it was philosophical without being in an ivory tower, and that was astonishing!
Combine that with the performances (how were NONE of them nominated for Oscars!?), and the cinematography of the film (it shows off Japan so, so well), and you've got a masterpiece.
The sound of the film! How it sounds is incredible!
I haven't re-watched it, but some day I will. It is monolithic and amazing. I almost feel like I need to brace myself before re-watching the film.
Sorry... I'm gushing. But it was such a powerful experience for me.
I do (seriously) I do get how it might be dull for somebody.
I've been old since I was twelve, I think, so... yeah, maybe that's it.
Under the Skin is fantastic, too, yeah. I almost forget about it, it's so unassuming. I also second- (and third-) guess myself about loving it because of the nude scene from Scarlett Johansson. I think that scene is so touching, has nothing to do with sexuality, and is a powerful moment of humanity and vulnerability. But I second-guess myself like, "Oh, do I just like this because I want to see nudity? Oh, no, it's art. Sure. Sure, it is, perv...!" like my inner monologue won't let me just appreciate the art. That's just my hangup I guess.
But, yeah, it's a great movie. It's creepy, unsettling, and then kinda uplifting and beautiful. The scene with the deformed guy is - yeah - that's so touching and disturbing at the same time. It's a great movie, and a great use of sci-fi to get at things that are just the human condition (as all great sci-fi does).
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