Jinn's 100 Films of the 2010s

That's probably not the best standard to measure it by, and I'm not sure if any purely paternal gratification is the healthiest approach to the film. I will say, as coincidence would have it, that Jojo Rabbit is the last film I watched with my father before he passed away last year, and I was happy that he loved the film since he's not always in the habit of loving the films I recommend that he otherwise would have never heard about. But, yeah, it's not the best film to try to make the old man proud.


And along comes Rock Van Helsing to horribly disappoint our fathers and jab the stake into their otherwise beloved corpses.

39. The Raid 2 (2014, dir. Gareth Evans)





The most dynamic action film since the days of Woo, and with this mix of excellent choreography and stunning jaw-dropping camerawork, it leaves me asking, "Wick who?" (It's not as awful as Keanu gentrifying 47 Ronin but....it's been a horrible decade in a lot of ways as well.)

38. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, dir. George Miller)





No shame in taking the silver trophy for action film, because it more than makes up for that in story, character and production design. A vivid, vivacious continuation of the post-apocalyptic saga, exponentially past Bartertown now into pure brutal madness. To be honest, the only flaw I can think of is that Tom Hardy simply doesn't have Mel Gibson's vulpine presence, and that kind of ineffable talent isn't something you can learn. Ask Alden Ehrenreich!

Wish I could meet you halfway here, but whatever balance of schmaltz and broad humour you found felt way the hell off to me. I will accept that I'm in the minority in ranking it below Spider Baby in the time-honoured Spider-Baby-Jojo-Rabbit spectrum.

37. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019, dir. Quentin Tarantino)





The contrast between DiCaprio's earnest, overly-desperate stressed out egomaniac and Brad Pitt's natural kiss-my-ass nonchalance would aleady be an intriguing pitch into their respective method and/or charisma, and it makes for perfect casting for a washed-up TV western actor and his faithful stunt double. The film is loaded with loving and nostalgic details from vintage L.A. and film and television culture circa 1969. Tarantino's most open love letter to his childhood roots, where what he was watching on TV is far more significant than details about his neighborhood, family, schooling, etc.


Since learning of the project, I was trepidatious. I frankly didn't believe that Tarantino has the necessary emotional maturity for the responsibility of reenacting the gruesome Manson murders. This trepidation continued through the film as I (we) waited dreading the inevitable. After Spawn Ranch (the most impressive sequence of the film), I started to relax a little, but I was still unspoiled on how exactly QT would twist the well-known historical facts (and obviously assuming that he would somehow). Luckily, Tarantino clearly lacked the emotional maturity to reenact the Manson murders, and instead went with a deliriously childish and exhilarating alternative.


The film still has some glaring flaws. Tarantino's version of Bruce Lee is total juvenile fetishized fiction, and there's some odd indifference to most women not named Sharon Tate. (My favorite example of this cold indifference is )

Spider Baby has cursed every film that followed it for not being Spider Baby, so at a certain point we have to learn to have mercy on all of the non-Spider Baby spawn left in its wake. Gold don't grow on trees.

Haven't watched Jojo yet, so I can't comment, but this discussion reminds me, have you ever checked out Lindsay Ellis's video on The Producers and the ethics of Nazi satire in general? I particularly like this section, where she contrasted the satire of Brooks' film with Life Is Beautiful as a criticism of the latter.I felt the plot in this one was a bit needlessly convoluted, and its indulgence in certain genre cliches also kept me from enjoying it as much as the original, but the action in it was indeed pretty amazing.

Agreed.

Rock, I understand you. I don't agree but I can definitely have JoJo and Virginia ("wanna play Spider?") on the same spectrum, they would just be very close together on mine.

That's what I'm talking about.

Mel's "" from To Be or Not To Be is more transgressive, and bless him. I really couldn't care less about the ethics of Nazi satire, and think the whole issue is stupid and only pertinent for idle brains.



The "plot" is just a conveyer for one incredible set piece to arrive at another incredible set piece.

36. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, dir. Wes Anderson)





The most ornate of Anderson's dioramic confections, bustling with hard-working actors and tireless set designers. Wes has decided to have fun recently, and this is as close to pure filmmaking joy that we've seen from him.

35. Under The Skin (2013, dir. Jonathan Glazer)





It might be sci-fi, it might be horror, it might be an art film essay on alienation, and why not all three? Hypnotic and sensual, best left experienced. There is a part which threatens to fall into the gimmick of stunt-casting, but it turns out to be one of the most searing images in modern film.

34. Enemy (2013, dir. Denis Villenueve)





There's that scene in Prestige where, upon encountering his double, the magician instinctively kills him. It's a terrifying trait of primal human psychology. This film involves a similar fear/fascination with the doppleganger, even obsession. Donnie Darko done good here. And (sorry, Rock) that last shot is a scream.

Spider Baby is the only spider-related movie I will tolerate.

Let's not say things we can't take back.

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My Collection

Fine, I will also tolerate The Beyond. But no more!

First, they came for the arachnids, and I said nothing....

"Must....shine....light....in my eyes!!!"

Yeah, Fury Road is a movie that's grown on me to become a pretty great movie, and probably my favorite Mad Max movie as well, and I actually prefer Hardy's take on Max to Gibson's now; I mean, Mel was good as the character in his own entries, but he still didn't leave as much of an impression as Hardy's sheer, animalistic intensity in Fury Road, if you ask me:




Yeah, I liked how Hollywood avoided resorting the game of "oppression appropriation" that Tarantino's been playing with in some of his recent films, since it's really only about historically-based revenge in the abstract, as


That, plus him actually taking the time to give Dalton a solid character arc makes it his best film in at least a decade-and-a-half, IMO.