Angry Robot

Best Films of the Decade

In this reporter’s opinion:

I’m too lazy to be too fussy about it, so that’s not necessarily in any order, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten something great, or failed to see something mindblowing. I haven’t put films from this past year which is probably a mistake, but it feels too hard to make an accurate judgment of anything so recent.

My conception of an ideal film is something that makes you think and feel. Preferably both, but films that provoke only thought are better than those that provoke only feeling (Forrest Gump can make you sniffle, but that doesn’t make it a wonderful film). I measure the greatest films by how much I reflect on them afterwards, and that is often a combination of thoughts and feelings. As a consequence I love open-ended, somewhat mysterious films whose meanings are elusive, rather than films that tie everything up into a neat little bow.

I know, the last two entries on that list don’t quite match those criteria. I just added them because I’ve probably watched them the most, so they would be more in the ‘guilty pleasure’ category.