Paddington’s first-class return in decade’s best
IT was the decade when superheroes reigned, 3D glasses (briefly) came back into fashion, video chains closed and home streaming services became film studios. For the multiplexes, it was also a boom time. Cinema ticket sales had been in decline since the arrival of the top-loadingVHS player but in the 2010s Brits returned to the multiplexes in their droves. Last year, UK cinema attendance was at its highest since 1970. Picking the best films of this golden decade was a daunting task but here I’ve ranked the 20 I enjoyed the most.
20. UNDER THE SHADOW (2016)
This British-made, Iran-set chiller was one of the first signs of a horror renaissance that took hold in the second half of the decade. Set in 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, a mother and daughter are holed up in their Tehran apartment while the city is hit with missiles.Then their block is invaded by Persian ghosts known as djinn. Babak Anvari uses his scares sparingly and with a terrifying efficiency.
19. MOONLIGHT (2016)
This surprise Oscar winner is one of those rare films where every shot, every line of dialogue and every piece of music fit together perfectly. But mostly it’s about performance withAlex Hibbert,Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes playing the young man at three stages of his life.
18. SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE (2017)
Inspired by the success of French silent film The Artist, the Bristol animation studio Aardman shot a feature film without any dialogue. Smart, funny, endlessly inventive and quintessentially British, this timeless adventure is a delight.
17. NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)
Jake Gyllenhaal is an actor who shines brightest in the dark. Here he raises shivers and awkward laughs as a manipulative sociopath who works as a nightcrawler – a freelance cameraman who provides gruesome footage for Los Angeles’ morning news shows.
16. MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012)
Wes Anderson’s quirky sense of humour is not for everyone but this unappreciated gem could be his masterpiece. Set on a New England island in 1965, a love-struck 12-year-old scout runs off with a misfit local girl, sparking mayhem.
The sets are breathtaking, the cinematography stunning and the performances of Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis and Frances McDormand are perfect.
15. A SEPARATION (2011)
There are no heroes in Asghar Farhadi’s knotty family drama. What makes is so compelling is the way he gets us to empathise with everyone’s point of view. It begins with an Iranian couple asking a judge for a divorce. She wants to move abroad and take their daughter. He wants to stay and look after his elderly father.Then a carer makes a shocking accusation.
14. HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE (2016)
Taika Waititi directed Thor: Ragnarok, the funniest Marvel movie, but it was this offbeat, low-key Kiwi comedy that first caught Hollywood’s eye. Sam Neill plays a grouchy bushman who ends up on the run in the wild with an adorably funny and intensely irritating 13-year-old orphan called Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison).
13. YOUNG ADULT (2012)
Charlize Theron delivered another star performance as an unhinged 30-something who returns to her home town to seduce her highschool boyfriend.The sharp script by Juno writer Diablo Cody mixed caustic comedy with moments of exquisitely staged tension.
12. THE REVENANT (2015)
Leonardo DiCaprio deservedly won his first Oscar for his intense turn in this gruelling survival flick based on the experiences of 19th century frontiersman Hugh Glass. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Best Director Oscar and Emmanuel Lubezki’s Best Cinematography award were also well deserved.This demands to be watched on a big screen.
11. WHIPLASH (2014)
Damien Chazelle won an Oscar in 2017 for his musical La La Land and he also hit all the right notes in this drama about an ambitious jazz drummer (Miles Teller) who is bullied to greatness by his overbearing teacher (JK Simmons).The music is great and the drama builds to a perfect crescendo in the tense and surprising satisfying finale.
10. JOKER (2019)
After finally putting Ben Affleck’s dour Batman out of his misery, DC Comics went back to the drawing board with a gritty origins story for his nemesis. Joaquin Phoenix is astonishing as a stand-up comic losing his mind in Gotham City.
9. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (2018)
Lynne Ramsay’s brutally beautiful crime thriller was one of those rare productions where everything came together. Joaquin Phoenix’s jittery performance as a haunted hitman chimed beautifully with Jonny Greenwood’s unnerving score, Thomas Townend’s astonishing cinematography and Joe Bini’s boundary-pushing editing.
8. UNDER THE SKIN (2014)
Scarlett Johansson keeps us guessing with an inscrutable performance as a mysterious alien who cruises Scotland looking for men to seduce and dissolve in a mysterious black goo. Jonathan Glazer shot large sections of this arty chiller in busy streets with hidden cameras inviting us to observe human behaviour from the alien’s perspective. This one got under my skin and stayed there.
7. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015)
“We don’t need another hero,” sang Tina Turner in Beyond Thunderdome, Mel Gibson’s final Mad Max flick.Tom Hardy proved her wrong with a charismatic turn in this heart-pounding reboot. Veteran director George Miller, who helmed the first two Mad Max films, gave his younger rivals a masterclass in action film-making.
6. BRIDESMAIDS (2011)
For decades, female comics had to settle for playing the adorable kook in cheesy rom-coms. But Paul Feig let KristenWiig and Melissa McCarthy off the leash for this comedy classic. In the aeroplane scene, the stars act as a tag team, body slamming us with zingy improvised lines and perfectly honed physical comedy.
5. BOYHOOD (2014)
Digital de-ageing began to creep into films in the second half of the decade but Richard Linklater used a more low-tech approach for his coming-of-age drama. By shooting the film over 12 years, six-year-old Mason (Ellar Coltrane) genuinely grows up before our eyes. This funny, touching labour of love is a genuine one-off.
4. ANIMAL KINGDOM (2011)
A razor-sharp script and perfect casting made this gritty Australian drama about a Melbourne crime family the best gangster flick since Goodfellas. Ben Mendelsohn’s chilling turn made him a star.
3. THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013)
Martin Scorsese ended the decade in style with sprawling Netflix epic The Irishman. But his most entertaining film of the decade is this hilarious, outrageous,
foul-mouthed,
pill-popping assault on the senses. Leonardo DiCaprio forces us to sympathise with the devil with a charismatic and disgracefully entertaining performance asWall Street swindler Jordan Belfort.
2. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER, SPY (2011)
Last year, Gary Oldman won his first Oscar for Darkest Hour but he was even better in this masterful adaptation of John le Carré’s Cold War thriller. Somehow director Tomas Alfredson distilled its huge cast and time-jumping labyrinthine plot into a riveting spy drama.
1. PADDINGTON 2 (2017)
The most entertaining film of the 2010s.After making his barnstorming big-screen debut in 2014, the well-mannered Peruvian hit his stride with this bear hug of a sequel.A big-hearted story, perfect casting (who knew Hugh Grant was this funny?) and the best slapstick routines since Buster Keaton made this the perfect family film.