Film has changed this decade. In fact, film has changed as an industry and an art form more in the last ten years than any decade prior. If the 1930s saw the 'talkies' take over, if the 1940s saw colour photography begin to take over, if the 1960s experimented with size and scale, if the 1970s removed clear cut heroes and villains in favour of morally ambiguous stories, if the 1980s paved the way for blockbusters and special effects, if the 1990s saw the emergence of mainstream independent films and CGI, and if the 2000s continued to experiment with technology during the birth of franchise dominating blockbusters, then the 2010s is all about progression.
To think that in 2010 DVDs were still doing well, streaming or online renting was not a popular thing, Blockbuster was going strong and everyone was crazy for 3D movies. Cut to 2019: it is immensely hard to find laptops with DVD slots (or DVD players for that matter), Netflix and Amazon Prime are the leading platforms for online streaming, the Oscars no longer have a host and representation is oh so important at the moment.
Politically, Hollywood has swung into the left-wing; with a focus on balancing pay, having a proportional set of Academy members and for its huge promotion of films like Black Panther, Get Out and Wonder Woman / Captain Marvel. Regardless of opinions of it, the shift has been seismic.
And when it comes to the big blockbusters, anyone who has access to a keyboard and a social media platform can become a vocal critic, waging war on those that liked or didn't like a film. Small minorities have allowed opinions to become facts, and even smaller minorities have besmirched the authenticity of their fandoms (Star Wars?), associating their groups with the sort of playground bullying that should be left in school.
On a more positive side of the change, technology has continued to impress, though it has been misused or overused. Motion-capture has become immaculate thanks to films like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, whilst de-ageing or recreating departed characters / actors is also a hot trend, such as in Captain Marvel and Rogue One respectively. Another trend gone wrong is the 'Avengers Effect'. After making $1.5 billion in 2012, Avengers Assemble announced to the other studios that shared movie universes can be immensely profitable. Warner Bros. tried playing catch up with the DC universe, which started promisingly and then derailed due to trying to set up far too much. There was also the failed Dark Universe franchise, that began with The Mummy and ended with The Mummy. The only promising one is Legendary's Monsters Universe, with two Godzilla films and a King Kong film under their belt and a wave of possibilities for future installments. The other hot trend that fizzled out was nostalgia porn: reminding audiences of what they loved as a kid and trying to replicate or honour that love. Jurassic World got there first, then The Force Awakens made $2 billion out of it and then the flood gates opened: everything suddenly needed its own film and small things needed explanations in the form of a TV show etc etc. Disney's all conquering success as allowed them to remake beloved animated classics into live action stories, which retain the strength of the stories but lose the charm. Franchise revival has been done correctly: Creed, Blade Runner 2049 and Mad Max: Fury Road all told new stories whilst honouring those that came before it expertly. These are the kind of sequels the world needs, yet we do not get.
Genre has a concept has had a brilliant decade. Previously, genre films (horror, action, superhero, fantasy) enjoy high box office receipts and can also garner critical praise, but they very rarely enjoy the same success come awards season as the more 'prestige' films: dramas, biopics, historicals... This has changed dramatically in the last few years. Jordan Peele's Get Out received a Best Picture nomination and secured an Original Screenplay win; Logan got a screenplay nomination, romantic fantasy The Shape of Water took home a Best Picture and Director Oscar, and Mad Max: Fury Road hoovered up six awards whilst being nominated for Director and Picture gongs. The changing of Academy voters has allowed younger generations in who have rightfully platformed these genre films not just as 'one of the best [action] films' but also as 'one of the best films, period.' It took a long time, but these larger than life films are finally getting the attention they deserve, a trend that will only improve as we enter the 2020s.
I have made a list of my favourite films of the decade; having chosen 25 as a reasonable number to showcase. Whilst a Top 10 would be symmetrical, it would encourage choosing one film per year, which would mean a bunch of better films would go without mention, especially when 2014 and 2017 yielded far greater films than 2011 and 2013 for instance. And whilst 25 might promote selecting a couple of the best from each year, it still didn't feel like all my favourites were being represented. Another issue is that I have seen but a fraction of the hundreds and hundreds of films that came out since 2010 (I was 10 then to be fair) so my list is barely reflective of all areas of cinema, hence why I am saying my favourite films, and not an objective 'great' list of the best films.
So here is my incredibly opinionated list:
25. Annihilation (2018)
24. Isle of Dogs (2018)
23. The Hateful Eight (2016)
22. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
21. Bone Tomahawk (2015)
20. First Man (2018)
19. Arrival (2016)
18. John Wick: Parabellum (2019)
17. Coco (2018)
16. Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
15. Inside Out (2015)
14. Dunkirk (2017)
13. Whiplash (2014)
12. The Nice Guys (2016)
11. Toy Story 3 (2010)
10. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
9. Joker (2019)
8. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
7. War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
6. The Revenant (2016)
5. Inception (2010)
4. La La Land (2017)
3. Interstellar (2014)
2. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
1. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
What can we learn from this list? Well I am obviously very fond of strongly executed, mid to high budget productions that fuse the artistic with the entertainment. I was surprised that threepicks were westerns, with another film heavily featuring westerns (OUATI...H) and another that burrows heavily from the genre (WFTPOTA). It also might be surprising that a superhero film does not make the cut; Logan and The Dark Knight Rises came close. Of all the big blockbusters on that list
(a budget exceeding $100 million), the majority are originals, with only six coming from existing properties. Other takeaways are that I love Chris Nolan (3 films), Leo DiCaprio (3 films), Tom Hardy (4 films), Ryan Gosling (4 films) and Hans Zimmer (4 films). Science fiction accommodates seven choices and there are four animated choices. It is not the most diverse list. But then again, neither is the film industry.
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