The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

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Trivia

Gravity - The film's cascade of debris is a very real possibility. This scenario is known as the Kessler syndrome, named after N.A.S.A. scientist Donald J. Kessler who first proposed the theory in 1978. A cascading Kessler syndrome involving an object the size of the International Space Station would trigger a catastrophic chain-reaction of debris. The orbiting debris field would make it impossible to launch space exploration missions or satellites for many decades.
Interstellar - This is Thief's favorite film of the decade...jk. Here's the actual trivia: To create the wormhole and black hole, Dr. Kip Thorne collaborated with Visual Effects Supervisor Paul J. Franklin and his team at Double Negative. Thorne provided pages of deeply sourced theoretical equations to the team, which then created new CGI software programs based on these equations to create accurate computer simulations of these phenomena. Some individual frames took up to one hundred hours to render, and ultimately the whole CGI program reached to eight hundred terabytes of data. The resulting visual effects provided Thorne with new insight into the effects of gravitational lensing and accretion disks surrounding black holes, and led to him writing two scientific papers, one for the astrophysics community, and one for the computer graphics community.
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MoFo Reviewers

Gravity

Conclusion - As an example of what is now possible in terms of technology there is no doubt that Gravity is a landmark film. Alongside it's boundary-pushing CGI the film also features astonishing examples of editing, sound design, cinematography and direction. When it comes to the technical awards at this year's Oscars I don't think any of the other films will need to bother showing up. Where it is less ground-breaking however is in its story and its characters, meaning that I didn't connect with it on a really deep level. Whenever I see a magazine or website list it as the best film of 2013 I will not feel any need to argue against it. On a personal level however I think I loved the likes of Rush, Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World more and can certainly see me wanting to re-watch them more often. What I really need is to re-watch the film on a standard TV to see how it holds up without the addition of the big screen, 3D experience. Oh and on a side note can I say how nice it was to see a big event movie with a running time of just 90 minutes! When I was growing up all films seemed to be 90 minutes but these days at least 2 hours seems to be pretty much the standard.
Read the full review here.

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan took everything that made Inception great, perfected them, and incorporated them into Interstellar. Not just the cutting edge special effects, but the mysterious and surreal dimension crossing which seamlessly melds two styles of science fiction: the space based epics of Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov with the more psychological sci-fi Philip K. Dick. The plot pretty much unfolds in the same way as Inception did, with all the pieces of the mystery slowly coming together to create a nail-biting ending. I don't want to give too much away, but the ending is brilliant and very moving indeed.
Read the full review here.



Whether you like (n)either/both of these films, you have to kind of delight in them being paired together, at least.
Yeah, I love the pairing as well.



I watched Gravity in early 2014 against my better judgement. I thought it was beautiful but really boring. I struggled to get through it and never felt even the slightest urge to watch it again. I never had any urge at all to watch Interstellar and given my recent experiences with revisiting some of the Nolan films I have seen, I think I’ll just avoid his work in general.



A reasonably rare, of late, showing for one I voted for - Gravity floating around for a while before finally landing at #18 on my ballot. I really like Interstellar until it gets to the final act where it loses my interest a little, no surprise to see it make the countdown though.

Seen: 54/68 (Own: 34/68)
My ballot:  


Faildictions  



mark f

Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013)
+
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)


Things get hairy on a planet which could possibly be used as a new home for the human race.
Neither film made mark f's ballot.



I liked Interstellar at the time, though it's been part of a "really-like-but-don't-really-love" Nolan efforts that's stretched into something like a decade's worth of films. I've been meaning to rewatch it for quite awhile, though, and might do so pretty soon, particularly now that I've got it on Blu-ray and have finally upgraded the TV.

Pretty much all of Nolan's films I like significantly more OR less when I watch them several times, so I guess I should find out which way this one goes. Honestly don't know what to expect.





These two titles were also almost right next to each other on the MoFo Top 100 Science Fiction Films list. Gravity was #41 and Interstellar #43.
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



Yes, yes, yes, good pairing here. I saw Gravity in theatres one afternoon and I think I was the only one in the cinema and it was an awesome experience. I haven't revisited the film as I feel watching it on my tv will lessen that initial watching. It would have probably made my top 50.

Not a huge fan of Christopher Nolan like some but I like most of his films. This is one of them. Good movie. Kind of thought it would be higher? Inception will certainly make it (hopefully not much higher but I'm guessing top 10 or 20). Dunkirk? I would have thought so.but would have also thought not higher than Interstellar but happy if it does. Will The Dark Knight Rises make it? I didn't think it was that good but maybe it got the votes to rank this high.
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These two titles were also almost right next to each other on the MoFo Top 100 Science Fiction Films list. Gravity was #41 and Interstellar #43.
Neat that they were ranked close to each other on that list too.



Whether you like (n)either/both of these films, you have to kind of delight in them being paired together, at least.
Yeah this is an insane pairing

Don't really rank Gravity much. It's ok I guess, watchable.
What killed Gravity for me was they tried to go full sci-fact, but they goofed a lot of aspects.

Interstellar though, my #3.

I loved the sci-fi-sci-fact nature of the movie, and that they actually used real science behind time slippage and space-time to tell the story and then combined it with theoretical physics and science-fiction hypothesis to create something believable.

The visuals in both these movies are great, but Interstellar is mindblowingly accurate and beautiful.

1: Ex Machina (2015) - 49th
2: Dredd (2012) - 42nd
3: Interstellar (2014) - 33rd
4: Bloody well better had do
5: Joker (2019) - 60th
6: 100%
7: Prisoners (2013) - 69th
8: 100%
9: The Shape of Water (2017) - 52nd
10: 100%
11: Shutter Island (2010) - 76th
12: 100%
13: Hopefully
14: Hopefully
15: Hopefully
16: Deadpool (2016) - 85th
17: Maybe
18: Logan (2017) - 46th
19: Probably
20: Avengers: Endgame (2019) - 79th
21: The Martian (2015) - 82nd
22: 100%
23: 100%
24: Maybe
25: Probably not



Gravity didn't make my ballot, but I'm a big fan of the film. It's received some backlash over the years from people who've thrown the "no story or character development" criticism at it, but as I said in the preliminary thread, as much as I hate to say this, those people completely missed the point of the film. The science has numerous plot holes, but they're in service for a complex story on isolation and emotional rebirth.

When the shuttle is destroyed at the beginning of the film, it's a metaphor for the accident that happened to Dr. Stone on Earth: the accident that killed Ryan Stone's daughter. When she lost her daughter, she must have felt like she was spinning through space, became alone, and "couldn't breathe". This film represents exactly those feelings of being torn apart from someone.

Director Alfonso Cuaron also said that the film is a metaphor of this loneliness. What other place is more lonely than the emptiness of space and being bubbled up in a spacesuit? There's a film technique called "setting is character" (think of the rain in Kurosawa's "Rashomon"). Gravity is an example of this technique. Deep down, the setting of space represents the lonely mother overcoming the loss of her daughter, fighting her memories, learning to let go, accepting death, returning to society, and connecting with people again.

This kind of story could have taken place on Earth in a house or a city, but was chosen to be shown as a poem in space. There's even scenes where Matt Kowalski, played by George Clooney, says, "Ryan, you have to learn to let go." The film is basically a test for Ryan Stone overcoming the loss of her daughter.

As for Interstellar, even though Thief loves the film, I don't care for it. I liked the relationship between Cooper and his daughter, but the potential of that aspect is hobbled by the poor writing of the film, whether you're referring to the exposition or the power of love themes. Speaking of which, I think the plot mechanics of this film and Inception are McGuffin's since they all seem secondary to the emotional cores of the film (Cobb's conflict with his wife in the former film and Cooper's aforementioned relationship with his daughter in the latter film). In something like Memento, the plot mechanics work much better since they're all at the heart of the main character's amnesia. With these films though, there's a noticeable disconnect between the two elements, even though Inception is worse in that regard.

Anyways, yeah, neither film made my ballot.



A system of cells interlinked
Both titles were on my list.

Interstellar was my #15.

Interstellar is a divisive film, to say the least. Pretty much from the day it was released, I have seen equal amounts praise and vitriol for this grand sci-fi epic. Nolan famously retained a physicist while making the film, in an attempt to stay as true to science as possible. This plays out as you would expect until the film just straight up turns into a black hole of absurdity and accelerates to warp 10. I think being able to overlook this single aspect of the narrative plays a big part in determining whether or not a viewer will love this film, or label it a big ol' stupid waste of time.

I fall into the former. I tend to look at the final minutes as part thought experiment, part homage to the most fanciful era of Spielberg, during which his films were steeped in fantasy and sentiment. Interstellar is pretty much hard sci-fi up until this point, and I can totally understand why fans of the more grounded science fiction style would roll their eyes and check out. But man, as a parent of a young daughter, the daddy-daughter story just gets me. All the emotional beats and histrionics, as meme-worthy as some of them are, just work for me. I have seen this film many times, in spite of its length, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Am I a big ol' sap? Probably, at least when it comes to this film.



Gravity was my #2.

Gravity is on my Top 10 of all time list, and I doubt it will ever fall off of it. In 2015, One of my siblings died unexpectedly at a young age. My family was thrust into an extremely difficult period of our lives, as we grappled with almost unbearable grief, as we had just spent the last 5 years before that dealing with the unexpected death of another sibling, who was taken from us at a young age, as well. Getting that second phone call from the same sister that had called me in 2010 with the same terrible news was like some nightmare déjŕ vu.

Gravity is pretty much entirely a metaphor for this type of grief; how it can seem like an endless abyss of darkness, a precipice upon which you are teetering at all times. I went to see this film in theaters with my wife and another couple, and almost from the start, I could tell the other couple just weren't liking the film. The cinematography was giving the woman anxiety, and her husband was annoyed we ended up in the theater with "the wrong sound system for the movie." I, on the other hand, was going through a catharsis. As soon as Dr. Stone told her story about her daughter, I was transfixed; all the shots and all the metaphor just snapped into place. The darkness, clinging to a thin tether, how you need other people to help bring you back, the rebirth, picking yourself up out of the mud...it was all right there.

When the film ended and the lights came up, was was just sitting there with moist eyes, stunned, and the other couple glanced over and were just totally perplexed by my state. They had been checking their watches, waiting for the film to end, and I was going through a grief process at light speed. The husband fired off another complaint about a speaker being out or some such nonsense, and the wife was visibly shaken by the ordeal, as it turned out she was bad with heights. I didn't say much about what I had just been through, but it was a fairly quiet car ride home.

I still watch this film frequently, sometimes with my family, and it will always remain one of my favorite pieces of art that I have gotten the most out of, and which has helped me with my existence on this planet - a planet that looks so fragile and wonderful from outer space.



Lastly: If I could change one thing about my ballot, it would be to swap this with my #1 film, but at the time, I had just watched the film I currently have at #1, and I wanted to give it every last point that I could in an effort to push it as high as possible. Gravity is easily my favorite of the decade.
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Gravity didn't make my twenty-five, but it is definitely in my top hundred. It should also be noted how magnificent and immersive it was when seen in IMAX 3D. I saw it theatrically three or four times in that format but have probably only watched it once or twice all the way through since then. The huge format and expert use of 3D are definitely key parts of why the world was so impressed with it upon its release, which doesn't translate as well at home, even if you are watching it on a really good system.

But the same is true of 2001 and Lawrence of Arabia and much of the best of cinema. Seeing them properly projected in a theater is the best way to see them, and a very different experience.



A system of cells interlinked
I think Seds and I should podcast Gravity by our different but mutual viewpoints
It's funny, because I chuckled when I saw your comments on Interstellar sticking to science, after I just dragged the end for being absurd. I see your points on Gravity, but obviously I focus on very different aspects of the film.



I probably have a love/hate relationship with Nolan. Back when I was getting into movies, I used to really love him. Some of that earlier work I still like or love, but I feel like he’s collapsing under his own weight in his recent films.

Ever since the global phenomenon that is The Dark Knight he has been declining. I still like Inception quite a bit though, but I also consider that his last great effort. After that it’s either been hit or miss or at the very least a film that could’ve used a little less of… everything I guess.

I’ve come to enjoy Interstellar a fair bit with rewatches, even if I think it’s flawed. It has perhaps the same flaw as Tenet, though maybe in a tad different packaging… in the way that it is trying to be overly smart and complex but it sort of ruins the entertainment of it or the flow of the script. Nolan loves his high concept ideas, but perhaps he needs someone who can harness them better.

Anyway, I am in no way surprised to see Interstellar here and I’m fine with it. That said, I do like Gravity more. An almost complete opposite film in the way that instead of being highly scientific and complex in its script, the script is super thin and basic. However, the visuals and audio and thematic execution is very high. A big screen and loud sound this is a stellar experience.



Gravity didn't make my ballot, but I'm a big fan of the film. It's received some backlash over the years from people who've thrown the "no story or character development" criticism at it, but as I said in the preliminary thread, as much as I hate to say this, those people completely missed the point of the film. The science has numerous plot holes, but they're in service for a complex story on isolation and emotional rebirth.
Exactly. It's character growth via basically an extended allegory. Gravity wasn't on my ballot, but looking at the films that just got nudged off of it, it was my #46.

I really regret not seeing it in the theater.

I watched Interstellar in preparation for this countdown because several people recommended it. I liked it, but ultimately found it a bit lacking.



Welcome to the human race...
No votes. I'm pretty sure that I went to the trouble of seeing Gravity in 3D because of how essential it sounded to the experience and I liked it well enough, though of course I didn't bother with it again for years afterwards. Even after accounting for the considerable difference between cinemas and home theatres, I do think it has limited appeal both as visual spectacle and as one-person survival drama. I've somehow seen Interstellar four times despite never actually liking it - it's the film that made me think that Nolan wasn't all he was cracked up to be as his alleged visionary status was compromised by him failing to transcend his influences (and this definitely doesn't catch enough heat for having the same kind of surprise antagonist as Sunshine did). That it supposedly commits to hard science but can't even get Murphy's law right speaks to how it struggles to define itself as either a thinking person's blockbuster or a genuinely heartfelt lament for family and the future (no matter how much you get Matty Mac to cry at a computer screen). But hey, I put a Resident Evil movie on my list so what the **** do I know.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0