The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

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A system of cells interlinked
When Tenet came out someone making fun of Nolan mentioned that complicated rules for your world doesn’t make a smart movie. I think that kind of implies to Inception too.
Tenet is a weird movie that is almost indecipherable on first viewing, with the rules for the world only adding to the confusion. Once I figured out what a temporal pincer was and then watched the movie again, this time knowing that the entire film is a temporal pincer, the whole thing slowed down and I enjoyed it more. Still not great, mind you, but not the disaster I first thought it was.
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You ready? You look ready.
P.S. - The movie still sucked, but Lawrence's profanity isn't why.
Yup, it was everything else.
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Even ranking decades carries with it lots of assumptions: do you base it on the best of the decade, or the average quality?

My admittedly vague and unscientific feeling of the 2010s is that it might have fewer out-and-out all-time classics (though really, those require time, so I think the most recent decade will always feel like that for a few years, at least, after it ends), but that it has a lot of very good ones. If a decade has more Good films but fewer Great ones, is that better than the inverse? I dunno.



Another pair that would make my 100, so even though I think they are too high I can’t be mad at you mofo.

Silver Linings probably shouldn’t be as much fun as it is considering what it is trying to do thematically. I am sure that’s the problem a lot have with it. I think every character and interaction is pretty great. Very funny movie. Maybe should be rated higher by me actually. There is a Russell from the decade I voted for that I like more though.

I have seen Inception three times now and enjoy it immensely each watch. I have very few movies that I let the discourse get into my head but I think this is one of them. Once I am removed from a watch for a bit, I start thinking this movie is all exposition. When I watch that all goes away. I enjoy the inventiveness. I think the characters are pretty good. I think it looks cool. Especially enjoy the snow dream level. Good stuff, and one that will stay in rotation.
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Silver Linings Playbook in the top 25 eh? I don't know about that. Feel there is some sort of collusion going on a la Jeanne Dielman and that those responsible are now suspiciously quiet. Hm.

On the other hand we have the movie that put annoying sounds in trailers on the map...and in the trailers! Need to manufacture suspense? Just add some braaam.


Anyway both of these are decent or okay, but nothing great. At least in my opinion.
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Actor stats


5
Scarlett Johansson
Chris Evans
4
Leonardo DiCaprio
Jessica Chastain
Mark Ruffalo
Domhnall Gleeson
3
Robert De Niro
Bradley Cooper

Brie Larson
Samuel L. Jackson
Michael Shannon
Matt Damon
Robert Downey Jr.
Chris Hemsworth
Chris Pratt
Jeremy Renner


It was a fight between The Revenant and Inception for a spot on my list. Eventually went with The Revenant because of the imo superior cinematography and stronger performances by both DiCaprio and Hardy. Besides that, already had enough Sci-Fi on my ballot. Glad to see it appear without my help.

Silver Linings Playbook I've only seen once when it came out and enjoyed it a lot, it's my #87. Another film starring Jennifer Lawrence I expected earlier on the countdown and worth a mention is Winter's Bone, my #81.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is my #47. Haven't seen Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

SEEN 62/78
BALLOT 15/25




Confession: I think I'm halfway through the Silver Linings Playbook. I haven't been compelled to finish it. Chris Tucker has some moments that work for me. Jennifer Lawrence (difficult as she can be in real life) kind of works as Tiffany, the kooky, flawed dance instructor and possible love interest. But I think my largest issue is the shrugging off of the bipolar disorder of Pat (Bradley Cooper). I mean, he just got out of a mental institute at the beginning and fine. But it feels like it takes secondary shape to the dance practices, the family drama, the Eagles. And his attempts to win his ex-wife do come across as a bit stalkery. I mean, hello, restraining order?

I mean it's not as bad as what I imagine that Music would be. But it didn't look like it was all that good either.
Yeah, Chris Tucker was surprisingly good and nuanced in this, but as a supporting character, it's not enough to overcome the film's other flaws. I don't know enough about bipolar disorder, but I do agree that Cooper's performance felt a bit off. If someone more familiar with it can tell me how accurate or not it was, I will appreciate. But regardless of that, it does seem that the film uses the illness to give a pretension of being something different while underneath it's just the same generic and cliché romcom.
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Society ennobler, last seen in Medici's Florence
I've seen none of the couple #26. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) / #25. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019).
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#24. Silver Linings Playbook (2012) - I saw it during the award season back then. Meh, it was obviously designed to promote the two newcoming proteges.
- (47/100).

#23. Inception (2010) - Highly budgeted mix of shaken video clips for selling tickets. It was a painfully boring to stand the whole movie.
- (30/100). Ugh
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Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
11 more Silver Linings voters.....where you at!
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The trick is not minding
Silver Linings Playbook made my list at #19. Not really a fan of O Russel, but I find the charms of Jennifer Lawrence endearing.
Inception is good, but not great.



Since it was me mentioned, I have seen Winter's Bone. I think that's still the only Jennifer Lawrence movie I've seen to date. Solid neo-nour set in Appalachia. I would recommend. Wasn't close to making my ballot though.



Since it was me mentioned, I have seen Winter's Bone. I think that's still the only Jennifer Lawrence movie I've seen to date. Solid neo-nour set in Appalachia. I would recommend. Wasn't close to making my ballot though.
Yeah, I had it on my first list, but cut it pretty quickly. It's pretty good, though.



Since it was me mentioned, I have seen Winter's Bone. I think that's still the only Jennifer Lawrence movie I've seen to date. Solid neo-nour set in Appalachia. I would recommend. Wasn't close to making my ballot though.
Yeah Winter's Bone is brilliant.



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I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Inception was my #2. I've said before I could have had my top 5/6 in a different order and maybe I bumped Inception up a little after it failed to make the refresh top 100.



I see a lot of people saying it gets worse the more times you watch it, but I found the reverse. I was a little underwhelmed the first time but think it has great rewatch ability. I guess if you're watching it just for the mind****ery of the different dream levels, that wears off, but that's never been what I liked about it. I'm not interested in tiny clues that supposedly show you when Leo is dreaming.


I like it as a heist movie and a sci-fi action movie. I like the cast, they're all great. I think it's fun. The effects are good, the music is good. That zero gravity fight sequence.


I don't disagree with a lot of the criticism about it, yes, it's long, it's talky, a lot of it is just buildings and it could have used a little more imagination in the dream sections. Yes, it rips off Paprika (like The Matrix rips off Ghost in the Shell). I always want just a little less of Leo brooding and a little more of the supporting characters.


But it is one of my favourite films regardless. I went to rewatch it at the cinema in 2020 when it was re-released. I've been to see the bridge in Paris that features in the film. I've got the poster.


So while I'm a little sorry it didn't make the top 20, I'm happy it made the list.



6/78 on the list
43/78 seen


Here's my prediction for what will show on my ballot

1. no way in h ll. Silver Lining's Playbook (2012) I am just as surprised as you are.
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
3. most definitely
4. highly unlikely
5. no way in h ll
6. highly likely
7. doubt it
8. probably not
9. don't think so
10. could be
11. maybe
12. don't know
13. probably
14. should but won't
15. probably not
16. The Descendants (2011)
17. probably not
18. it should but won't
19. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
20. maybe
21. Spotlight (2015)
22. probably not
23. Boyhood (2014)
24. probably not
25. don't think so


You can hate me. You can block me. But Silver Lining’s Playbook was my number one.
I am surprised to find it here in the top 25 myself. I really love this movie. It is a lot of fun especially for someone who lives in that area. SLP is not filmed predominately in Philadelphia, but in Delaware County where I live. It was so exciting to see Delco in a movie. I know all those places and I know those people. The fact that it feels like a rom-com is odd but it should show you how problematic rom-com’s are. Troubled woman manipulates insane guy into a relationship. That is odd. Pat is odd. He is a violent bipolar guy who just got out of the hospital rather than go to prison. He and Tiffany have conversations that I have had with other psychiatric patients about meds. These conversations are important because you learn things about the meds you are taking that you can’t learn from doctors or the list that comes with your meds. Pat speaks and carries himself the way men do here in Delco. I love Bradley Cooper, he is just so handsome and Jennifer Lawrence is darling and comes across as an older and more troubled woman. It’s a good movie. Maybe not a great movie but a good one. As for David O. Russell, I like this one and The Fighter because the investigate troubled regular people.
I saw Inception and I didn’t like it. I was in fact bored by it.



I didn't like Silver Linings Playbook (I watched only the first 30 minutes, so maybe at the end it got better.)

What turned me off was: I found the characters to be unbelievable in the way they looked, acted and talked. If I can't suspend my disbelief during a film then I'm not 'in' the story and I lose interest. Both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence looked liked 'movie stars' in this, not characters in a story.

I was also put off by the overuse of the F word all the time. Maybe girls talk differently today,. but when Jennifer's character says F.... every other sentence and then says to Cooper, 'do you want to come inside and f.... me'....I thought to myself, people do not talk that way, not all the time. So I didn't believe her dialogue.

The film also lost me when Bradley Cooper goes ballistic in his parents bedroom when he first comes home. That was too much and too extreme too be funny. If that scene was done in a serious drama it would have had punch, but done in a comedy it's not funny.

The director relies on shocking the audience to create his 'comedy' and that's not the hallmark of a good director.

Come to Delco, man, home of the F word and touchy angry mofo's. This movie is right on the money. People who come here from out west are always shocked by the way people here carry themselves.



I tried carrying myself once - it's far, far harder than it sounds.