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grudlian.

Best Of The Decade Pt. 1

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I would suspect that Oppenheimer probably got his "masterpieces" in with The Act of Killing/The Look of Silence, but that's due to the unusual circumstances for the documentaries.

But that aside - new voices from mostly this decade that gets me excited when they have a new movie come out:

Peter Strickland

Robert Eggers

Alex Garland

And technically, Lanthimous became known to me last decade with Dogtooth, which I still think worked for me the best, but most of his career (and his rise) seems to have been this decade with The Lobster and The Favourite.

I haven't connected with a Barry Jenkins film yet, but it always (you know, all two times) feels like he's a step or two away from making a great one, so I still look forward to what he's doing.

Jonathan Glazer possibly got his great film in this decade with Under the Skin, but to truly assess that, it would mean I'd need to see more than that and Sexy Beast. (If we're still talking about directors doing better in one decade over another)

/restating personal biases statement

I don't know if any of the directors I listed above have done their "There Will be Blood" yet though. (Possibly to one of @sycasey 2.0's points though, it took me a while to come around on TWbB because of PTA's prior tendency to ape other director's and originally, I didn't know if I cared for the abruptness of the ending, which now feels like a perfect spot to stop the film).

And a number of them are only two or three films into their career, and it isn't a given their career will continue in the directions we hope.

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This is where I admit I have never seen a Claire Denis or an Agnes Varda film (I did buy High Life as part of my end of year viewing).

Because my inability to consume everything probably has some weight on my perception of the Decade.

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7 minutes ago, ol' eddy wrecks said:

I don't know if any of the directors I listed above have done their "There Will be Blood" yet though. (Possibly to one of @sycasey 2.0's points though, it took me a while to come around on TWbB because of PTA's prior tendency to ape other director's and originally, I didn't know if I cared for the abruptness of the ending, which now feels like a perfect spot to stop the film).

Slight obversation/counterpoint, the big movies Bleary and I listed in the 2000's weren't directors coming out of the gate creating masterpieces, but rather at minimum (PTA) a decade after they became big in the arthouse world, produced some high points of their careers.

I'm not sure how that translates to the 2010's though (in terms of I don't know who we'd expect to be breaking out this decade - other than maybe Jonathan Glazer - and that's depending on if you hated or loved Under the Skin).

Oh wait, I haven't seen Parasite, but possibly Bong Joon Ho?

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I've been out of the country for a couple of weeks so I apologize for my delay into this conversation, and I apologize for mentioning things that are now repeats at this point. I'm also sad that I didn't start using Letterboxd until 2014 so I don't have a comprehensive list of the movies I loved from 2010-2013 but I'll do my best to remember the ones I would like to see in a Best Of list.

2010:

My top movie is definitely The Social Network as well, and it was my favorite of the year at that time, with Black Swan a CLOSE second. I am still mad that TSN didn't win best picture that year at the Oscars.

  • The Social Network
  • Black Swan
  • Winter's Bone
  • Never Let Me Go (Not an American production I don't believe, but this stopped me in my tracks none the less)

2011:

  • Drive
  • Another Earth
  • Bridesmaids
  • Pariah
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

2012:

  • Argo
  • For a Good Time, Call...
  • Frances Ha
  • The Avengers
  • Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

What I notice about my choices are that I do gravitate to ones that are lesser known, not because of trying to pull any kind of indie cred, but because these are the ones that have stayed with me for so long. I still talk about Another Earth and For a Good Time Call because they are fucking fantastic movies and I think it's a fucking shame that good art like these two get overlooked so often. The Best Of Lists usually always include the ones that we all already know about because of the box office receipts or Oscars or even the buzz surrounding them when they came out but the awards "snubbed" them. But I want Best Of lists to truly represent the best of what has come out in its entirety even though no one may have heard of one movie or another.

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