The Best Films from 2010-2014

Below is a list of excellent films, to my mind the best, that were made and released between January 01, 2010 and today, December 23nd, 2014. Obviously there are many I haven't seen and I've not included shorts or animated films, for no real reason. Just to make my job easier. I realize there is repetition of auteurs, but it's my dumb list so there. These aren't in any real order. 

1. Hard To Be A God

2. Dormant Beauty

3. Computer Chess

4. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

5. Leviathan ('12)

6. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

7. Holy Motors

8. 13 Assassins

9. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

10. The Tree of Life

11. House of Pleasures

12. On Tour

13. The Turin Horse

14. The Immigrant

15. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

16. The Deep Blue Sea

17. The Master

18. The Unspeakable Act

19. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia

20. Cosmopolis

21. Force Majeure

22. In Darkness

23. Tabu

24. Patience (After Sebald)

25. Two Years At Sea

26. Shit Year

27. John Carter

28. The Lone Ranger

29. Certified Copy

30. The Grey

31. The Color Wheel

32. A Separation

33. A Touch of Sin

34. Stranger By The Lake

35. Timbuktu

36. The Strange Case of Angelica

37. Beyond The Hills

38. The Hunter

39. Journey To The West

40. Actress

41. Moebius

42. Under The Skin

43. The Grand Budapest Hotel

44. Only Lovers Left Alive

45. A Field In England

46. Hugo

47. The Sleeping Beauty

48. The Rover

49. Perhaps Beauty Has Strengthened Our Resolve

50. The Wall

51. Inside Llewyn Davis

52. The Past

53. The Wolf of Wall Street

54. Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari

55. Vanishing Waves

56. In The Fog

57. Never Let Me Go

58. Jealousy

59. A Screaming Man

60. Tuesday After Christmas

61. Beloved Sisters

62. Super 8

63. Norwegian Wood

64. Last of the Unjust

65. NEDs

66. Margaret

67. Melancholia

68. War Horse

69. Art History

70. Manakamana

71. We Need To Talk About Kevin

72. Silver Bullets

73. Foxcatcher

74. The Skin I Live In

75. Silent Souls

76. Anonymous

77. Archipelago

78. Beginners

79. Looper

80. Lore

81. Kati With An I

82. The Bling Ring

83. Alps

84. Wuthering Heights

85. Jauja

86. Killing Them Softly

87. Somewhere

88. One Minute of Darkness

89. Miners Hymns

90. Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project

91. Inherent Vice

92. Keyhole

93. Lines of Wellington 

94. La Noche De Enfrente

95. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

96. Listen Up, Philip 

97. The Mill & The Cross

98. Contagion

99. Mr. Turner

100. Night Moves

Sleeping Beauty

A little while ago I read that Marco Bellocchio is going to release another movie in 2014, which is the best news I've heard in an age. Like Scott Foundas before me, I'm of a mind that Bellocchio is the greatest living Italian filmmaker (Naturally Olmi, retired, and Bertolucci, very recently unretired, are also high on that list) and very possibly the greatest living filmmaker period. His work has the crisp elocution and delicious texture one typically associates with opera, yet they hit with the force of a brick thrown by an angry rioter. He's given the cinema some of its most ravishing rallying cries, lighting a fire under the comfortably crooked who sit at the top of the junkheap that is the Italian political landscape and in the process refracting the problems facing most political systems. That Italy just happens to have just as many problems as the US and half the filmmakers attempting to assign blame to the right shower of bastards means Bellocchio has had to speak twice as loud. He isn't alone, of course, but he's been at it longer than the incredibly capable likes of Matteo Garrone and Paolo Sorrentino, though the latter seems to have given up muckraking for complaining (both have made films about beauty, but only one of them understands it). In Dormant Beauty, a spiritual cousin to his earlier films China Is Near and Slap The Monster on Page One, Bellocchio presents a Sonata of political machinations from down in the orchestra on up to the balcony. The theme is euthanasia and the way it effects doctors, protestors, politicians, the rich, the poor and the troublingly committed and the effect is like riding through parliament on a motorcycle. Religion, family, illness and unbreakable wills harmonize like a chorus as Bellocchio conducts one of his most surefooted pieces yet.

With Carlo Crivelli's luscious score sweeping everyone toward their date with destiny and Daniele Ciprì's grey-and-blue hues keeping the lid on a boiling pot, Dormant Beauty is one of the maestro's most satisfying watches. Since he started his career exploring the dispossessed accidental life of a malicious dreamer in Fists In The Pocket, Bellocchio has functioned a little like modern Italy's activist attorney, sympathizing with the guilty poor and trying to understand why the rich can't stop tormenting them. He wants the best from a country that he can't bring himself to give up on even as he keeps uncovering new crimes of which to be ashamed. I distantly recall someone describing Marlon Brando in Julius Caesar as like watching steam escaping from a vent, or something to that effect, which is exactly how I'd describe Lou Castel in Fists In The Pocket and the general milieu of Bellocchio's films. He finds Individuals and situations that cause untenable friction and waits to see if a fire starts. Lately though he's added a smooth, seductive momentum to help ease the passing of horrifying circumstance. Call it a coping mechanism but it's made his films hum with new fervor. Starting with 2003's Good Morning, Night he suddenly seemed a 20 year old with an old pro's budget, passion and fury mixing freely while charging like a bull towards...well, that depends. 

In stark contrast to his last masterpiece, 2009's Vincere, there is hope in these disparate tales of loss. It's in the angelic face of Alba Rohrwacher, the annoyingly dogged conviction of a doctor who won't let a patient die, the love between family members despite differences in belief. When the subject is the loss of control and the loss of life and the truly horrifying place they intersect, not even someone like Bellocchio can commit to cynicism. It may be that even having witnessed the death of idealism many times over he still has hope for the future. Or it could be that he has enough faith in cinema to know that no matter how bad things get, it can always be reflected on screen. Bellocchio may never have been this focused before, his rhythm beautiful, his images powerful, his conviction unwavering. It's crucial here that he's turned something of a corner on that front, at least in regard to humanity. In Fists the climactic act of mercy isn't toward its characters, but toward the society they infect, and it's one he feels conflicted about administering. Here and now, he returns to that gesture and grants mercy not to an unfeeling society, but those stuck inside the maelstrom, those who need it most. Even after a banquet of tragedy like Dormant Beauty, the film has inarguably and slyly reminded us that there are still good people, and we shouldn't ever give up on the ones who need us (though in a perfectly bitter twist, that often means doing just that). As long as Marco Bellocchio's making films I'll be watching them and thanking no one in particular that someone should know cinema and its secrets so intimately.

The 2013 Monsieur Oscars

This is a clearly well overdue appraisal of my favourite stuff in motion pictures from 2013. The Monsieur Oscars. I've adapted the categories as the year in film called for it. Each year has to be pliable or I risk not meeting the films on their own terms.



Favourite Fiction Film of the Year

1. The Immigrant
2. Inside Llewyn Davis
3. Dormant Beauty
4. The Past
5. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
6. Computer Chess
7. The Wolf of Wall Street
8. 12 Years A Slave
9. A Touch of Sin
10. A Field In England
 11. The Congress


Favourite Non-Fiction Film of the Year

1. Leviathan
2. The Act of Killing
3. Traveling Light
4. Let The Fire Burn
5. Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?
6. A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness
7. White Epilepsy
8. An Oversimplification of Her Beauty
9. The Last Time I Saw Macao
10. The Jeffrey Dahmer Files 
 11. The Source Family


Favourite Performance by a Director

 1. Marco Bellocchio - Dormant Beauty
2. James Gray - The Immigrant
3. Andrew Bujalski - Computer Chess
4. Ben Wheatley - A Field In England / Sightseers
5. Chantal Akerman - Almayer's Folly
6. Raúl Ruiz - la Noche de Enfrente
7. Sofia Coppola - The Bling Ring
8. Ari Folman - The Congress
9. Pablo Larraín - No
10. Rob Zombie - The Lords of Salem
 11. Jia Zhangke - A Touch of Sin



Favourite Screenplay

1. Computer Chess - Andrew Bujalski   
 2. Dormant Beauty - Stefano Rulli, Veronica Raimo, Marco Bellocchio
3. It's A Disaster - Todd Berger
4. A Field In England - Amy Jump
5. Moebius - Kim Ki-Duk
6. The Congress - Ari Folman
7. The Immigrant - James Gray & Ric Menello
8. Wadjda - Haifaa Al-Mansou
9. Alpha Papa - Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan, Neil & Rob Gibbons & Armando Iannucci
10. Drug War - Wa Ka Fai, Yau Nai Hoi, Ryker Chan, Yu Xi


Favourite Cinematography

1. Darius Khondji - The Immigrant
2. Renato Berta - Gebo & The Shadow
3. Antonio Riestra - Mama
4. Daniele Ciprì - Dormant Beauty 
5. Chung-hoon Chung - Stoker
6. Lucian Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, and the crew of a boat - Leviathan
7. Steven Soderbergh - Side Effects
8. Bruno Delbonnel - Inside Llewyn Davis
9. Philippe Le Sourd - The Grandmaster
10. Anthony Dod Mantle - Rush / Trance
11. Luca Bigazzi - The Great Beauty
12. Emmanuel Lubezki - To The Wonder
13. Oleg Mutu - In The Fog
14. Rob Hardy - Shadow Dancer
 15. Feliksas Abrukauskas - Vanishing Waves



Favourite Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role

1. Jessica Chastain & Megan Charpentier - Mama
2. Barbara Sukowa - Hannah Arendt
3. Jane Levy - Evil Dead
4. Elizabeth Moss - Top of the Lake
5. Marion Cotillard - The Immigrant
6. Missy Keating - Dark Touch
7. Juliet Binoche - Camille Claudel 1915
8. Jeong Eun-Chae - Nobody's Daughter Haewon
9. Waad Mohammed - Wadjda
10. Andrea Riseborough - Shadow Dancer
11. Abigal Breslin - Haunter



Favourite Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role

1. Oscar Isaac - Inside Llewin Davis
2. Leonardo DiCaprio - Wolf of Wall Street
3. Michel Lonsdale - Gebo & The Shadow 
4. Johan Philip Asbæk - A Hijacking
5. Toni Servillo - Dormant Beauty
6. Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years A Slave
7. Ben Affleck - To The Wonder
8. Reece Shearsmith - A Field in England 
9. Vincent Gallo - The Legend of Kaspar Hauser
10. Robert Redford - All Is Lost


Favourite Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

1. Isabelle Nélisse - Mama
2. Lupita Nyong'o, Adepero Oduye & Alfre Woodard  - 12 Years A Slave
3. Jeanne Moreau - Gebo & The Shadow
4. Rachel McAdams - To The Wonder
5. Debbie Reynolds - Behind The Candelabra 
6. Emma Watson - The Bling Ring
7. Daniella Kertesz - World War Z
8. Noomi Rapace - Dead Man Down
9. Alexandra Maria Lara - Rush
10. Joey Lauren Adams - Blue Caprice


Favourite Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

1. Forest Whitaker - Out of the Furnace
2. Pier Giorgio Bellochio - Dormant Beauty 
3. Sharlto Copley - Elysium / Oldboy / Europa Report
4. James Franco - Spring Breakers
5. Javier Bardem - To The Wonder / The Counselor
6. Martin Landau & Adam Goldberg - Anna Nicole
7. Jeremy Renner - American Hustle / The Immigrant
8. Stacey Keach - Nebraska
9. Jim Caviezel - Escape Plan
10. Paul Dano - 12 Years A Slave
11. Michael Parks & Bill Sage - We Are What We Are
12. David Wenham - Top of the Lake

Special mention for actors I'm always happy to see who didn't get much screentime: Ralph Brown - Stoker, Kyle Chandler - The Spectacular Now, Mark Rappaport - Kiss of the Damned, Oliver Platt & Timothy Spall - Ginger & Rosa


Favourite Performance by an Ensemble

1. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
2. A Hijacking
3. It's A Disaster
4. 12 Years A Slave
5. Wolf of Wall Street
6. The Counselor
7. Gold
8. In A World...
9. Blondie
10. Out of the Furnace
11. Drug War
12. Last Days On Mars
13. A Touch of Sin
14. McCanick
15. For Love's Sake

Special mention to Dario Argento's Dracula, which had a perfect cast, directed terribly. 


Favourite Duet Performances

1. Jean-Nicolas Dafflon & Hélène Rocheteau - White Epiliepsy
2. Tom Hanks & Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips
3. Will Forte & Bruce Dern - Nebraska
4. Daniel Bruhl & Chris Hemsworth - Rush
5. Frank Langella & Christopher Plummer - Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight
6. Isaiah Washington & Tequan Richmond - Blue Caprice
7. Matt Damon & Michael Douglas - Behind The Candelabra 
8. Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy - Before Midnight
9. James Gandolfini & Julia Louis Dreyfus - Enough Said
10. Noam Chomsky & Michel Gondry - Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?
 11. Helena Bonham Carter & Dominic West - Burton & Taylor


Achievement in Sound Design


1. Leviathan
2. White Epilepsy
3. Stoker
4. The Wolf of Wall Street
5. To The Wonder
6. A Field In England
7. The World's End
8. The Immigrant
9. Inside Llewyn Davis
10. The Lone Ranger


Favourite Original Score


1. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - West of Memphis
2. Frankie Chan - The Grandmaster
3. Roque Baños - The Evil Dead
4. James Williams - A Field In England
5. Cliff Martinez - Only God Forgives
6. Alex Ebert - All is Lost
7. Christopher Spelman - The Immigrant
8. Carlo Crivelli - Dormant Beauty
9. Arcade Fire & Owen Pallett - Her
10. Sara Neufeld & Owen Pallett - Blue Caprice
11. Hans Zimmer - The Lone Ranger


Achievement in Art Direction

1. The Congress
2. Dormant Beauty
3. Vanishing Waves
4. The Immigrant
5. Trance
6. 12 Years A Slave
7. Inside Llewyn Davis
8. The Lone Ranger
9. For Love's Sake
10. The Bling Ring
 11. A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III

Achievement in Production Design

1. The Grandmaster

2. Stoker

3. Evil Dead

4. Trance

5. Inside Llewyn Davis

6. Mud

7. No

8. The Immigrant

9. Drug War

10. The Lone Ranger

Hardest I Laughed

1. It's A Disaster

2. The Wolf of Wall Street

3. Hellbaby

4. Alpha Papa

5. The Bling Ring

6. Frances Ha

7. Moebius

8. Nebraska

9. In A World...

10. White House Down

 11. Paradise: Faith

I cried during...

1. Vanishing Waves

2. Inside Llewyn Davis

3. Frozen

4. Her

5. Me & You

Special mention...

Tactile old-fashioned Action films

1. Riddick

2. Elysium

3. Drug War

4. Outrage Beyond

5. Shield of Straw

6. White House Down

7. Bullet To The Head

8. The Lone Ranger

9. The Wolverine

Satisfying arthouse headtrips

1. Vanishing Waves

2. The Congress

3. The Legend of Kaspar Hauser

4. Stranger By The Lake

5. The Wall

6. A Field In England

7. Computer Chess

8. Stranger By The Lake

9. Gold

10. In The Fog

I hardly saw any animated films but loved The Congress and Frozen.