Our writers share their favorite films of the past decade

Brett Wright:

1. Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
2. Audrey the Trainwreck (Frank V. Ross, 2010)
3. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
4. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
5. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
6. The Past (Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
7. Tiger Tail in Blue (Frank V. Ross, 2012)
8. Marriage Material (Joe Swanberg, 2012)
9. Archipelago (Joanna Hogg, 2010)
10. Field Guide to November Days (Nick Peterson, 2010)

Read Brett’s series on the Films of Frank V. Ross

Logan Taylor:

1. Climax (Gaspar Noé, 2018)
2. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
3. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
4. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)
5. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
6. We Need To Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2012)
7. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2013)
8. Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)
9. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
10. The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012)

Read Logan’s guide to “Elevated Horror” in the 2010s

Bennett Glace:

Buzzard (Joel Potrykus, 2014)
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry, 2011)
The Day He Arrives (Hong Sang-soo, 2010)
The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davis, 2011)
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman, 2017)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017)
Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, 2013)
The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, 2019)
Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold, 2011)

If this list has a flaw (and that’s a big if) it’s that it totally ignores Martin Scorsese who somehow made this decade the most fruitful of his long and storied career. Here’s 11 more directors who deserve a place in any 2010s retrospective: Maren Ade, Khalik Allah, Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Josephine Decker, Nathaniel Dorsky, Asghar Farhadi, Josh and Benny Safdie, J.P. Sniadecki, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Each has directed more than one film that could’ve found a spot in the list above. 

Read Bennett’s interview with Buzzard director Joel Potrykus

Craig Wright:

Audrey the Trainwreck (Frank V. Ross, 2010)
Buzzard (Joel Potrykus, 2014)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016) 
Don’t Think Twice (Mike Birbiglia, 2016)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, 2012)
Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
Springsteen on Broadway (Thom Zimny, 2018)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malik, 2011)
The World’s End (Edgar Wright, 2013)

Danny Moltrasi:

The Tree of Life (Terrence Malik, 2011)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (Terrance Nance, 2012)
Thou Wast Mild and Lovely (Josephine Decker, 2014)
Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Kaili Blues (Bi Gan, 2016)
Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold, 2012)
The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr, 2012)
Field Niggas (Khalik Allah, 2015)

Frankie Vanaria:

Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)
The House That Jack Built (Lars Von Trier, 2018)
The Love Witch (Anna Biller, 2016)
Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)
Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro, 2013)
Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, 2012)
The Revenant (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2016)
Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)

Jim Hickcox:

As a horribly inconsistent film viewer who drains such facts as release dates like angel hair through my well-worn colander, I am going to list 10 movies that have inspired me in some way and which I assume came out in the last decade. I offer these in no particular order (I am tempted to offer them in truly no order at all and jumble the names together, but I’ll restrain myself, as I have to do with the noodles that slip through my colander the first time).

Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2018)
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2016)
Balloonfest (Nathan Truesdell, 2017)
Fast Five (Justin Lin, 2011)
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (Sion Sono, 2013)
Woman at War (Benedikt Erlingsson, 2019)
Baskin (Can Evrenol, 2015)
How to Keep Smoking (John Wilson, 2014)
Baahubali: The Beginning (S.S. Rajamouli, 2015)
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (Julien Faraut, 2018)

Shane Pfender:

Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
Audrey the Trainwreck (Frank V. Ross, 2010)
Archipelago (Joanna Hogg, 2010)
24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami, 2017)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, 2015)
The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, 2019)
Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014)
Tiger Tail in Blue (Frank V. Ross, 2012)

Jason Michelitch:

1. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
2. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
3. The Return (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2011)
4. Audrey the Trainwreck (Frank V. Ross, 2010)
5. Leviathan (Verena Paravel/Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2012)
6. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams, 2012)
7. Free in Deed (Jake Mahaffy, 2015)
8. Twixt (Francis Ford Coppola, 2011)
9. Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch, 2017)
10. Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)

TOP TEN THINGS I WILL STILL REMEMBER FROM FILMS FROM THIS DECADE WHEN I’VE FORGOTTEN ALL THE GOOD FILMS AND THE NAMES OF MOST OF MY RELATIVES AND MY BRAIN IS ABOUT TO RELEASE DMT ON MY DEATHBED:

1. Ben Kinglsey literally pulling out a chart on an easel to explain the plot in SHUTTER ISLAND (Martin Scorsese, 2010)
2. “I’m the captain now.” — Barkhad Abdi in CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Paul Greengrass, 2013)
3. Ciarán Hinds giving Helen Mirren the bug eyes right before all the lights in the room dim in their last scene together in THE DEBT (John Madden, 2010)
4. Oscar Isaac dancing in EX MACHINA (Alex Garland, 2015)
5. Matthew Macfayden spinning in and out of his coats in ANNA KARENINA (Joe Wright, 2012)
6. An owl flying into a schoolroom through a lit chimney, in flames, being immediately swatted down by the teacher, and showing up stuffed on the wall in a scene an hour later in TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY (Tomas Alfredson, 2011)
7. A baker named Peeta whose secret power is making himself look like a rock with bad hair, and all the other good jokes in THE HUNGER GAMES (Gary Ross, 2012)
8. “I got my… hawt tannin’ oyyl.” — James Franco in SPRING BREAKERS (Harmony Korine, 2012)
9. Russell Crowe riding a tiny dragon and shooting a laser gun on Death Metal Krypton in MAN OF STEEL (Zack Snyder, 2013)
10. The goddamn goose in WAR HORSE (Steven Spielberg, 2011)

Oliver O’Sullivan

1. World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt, 2015)
2. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
3. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
5. Good Time (Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, 2017)
6. Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham, 2018)
7. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016)
8. Brawl in Cell Block 99 (S. Craig Zahler, 2017)
9. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
10. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

Steve Collins

Through depth, strangeness, vitality, or all of the above, these are the ones that left their impression the strongest.  They all ooze cinema.

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
2. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019)
3. First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2017)
4. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)
5. American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
6. Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2018)
7. Uncut Gems (Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, 2019)
8. Mission Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie, 2018)
9. Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, 2011)
10. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing Taylor and Verena Paravel, 2012)
—–
11. Kid With a Bike (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 2012)
12. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
13. Butt Boy (Tyler Cornack, 2019)
14. Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

Robert Delany

1. Kindless Villain (Janie Geiser, 2010)
2. Circus Drawings (Richard Williams, 2010)
3. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, 2013)
4. Ghost Strata (Ben Rivers, 2019)
5. Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, 2012)
6. Glistening Thrills (Jodie Mack, 2013)
7. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
8. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011)
9. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr, 2011)
10. 24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami, 2017)
11. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing Taylor and Verena Paravel, 2012)

Follow our series of The Best of the 2010s in Film here

This post was updated on December 22, 2021 to include lists from additional Split Tooth writers
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