75. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
A contained, stress-inducing nightmare with more twists and hard-hitting surprises than you'll find almost anywhere else. John Goodman has never been more compelling, and, no, I still haven't gotten over the barrel scene. This is one of the more fascinating franchise films of the decade, one that isn't afraid to completely reinvent what you think you're going to get when you hear the word "Cloverfield" in the title. It's an absurdity that Dan Trachtenberg has yet to direct a film since.
74. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
A war film with a kickass female lead set in one of the most intriguing periods in all of Star Wars lore? Yes, please. Toss in a couple of the planet's best character actors (Ben Mendelsohn and Mads Mikkelsen) and the most explosive, thrilling final act in the entire franchise and you've got a real winner on your hands. Yeah, there's some iffy CGI when it comes to resurrecting the dead and the opening act has to do a lot of setup in not nearly enough time, but you won't be thinking of any of that. This is an immensely satisfying action epic.
Ari Aster's sophomore film is the rare horror story told almost exclusively in blinding daylight. It's a slow, sometimes off-putting descent into despair and madness with only brief explosions of violence. It's a movie about relationships and a need for family and broken people and it will stick with you for long after you've seen it. One of the decade's most haunting, ingenious conclusions, delivered brilliantly by one of horror's new star auteurs and the riveting Florence Pugh.
72. The Guard (2011)
Let's hear a round of applause for the McDonagh brothers, folks. Martin McDonagh staked his claim on cinema immortality with 2008's In Bruges, and he'll find his way onto this list soon enough. John Michael McDonagh's The Guard, though, is an unmissable slice of dark comedic genius for many similar reason to why Martin's films work so well. The brothers have a knack for going places their contemporaries simply don't, a sort of political incorrectness that isn't there to offend but to drag you into the world their characters inhabit. The characters in The Guard, a racist local Irish cop (the incomparable Brendan Gleeson) and an American FBI agent working on a major drug case (Don Cheadle) are some of the decade's most endearing. Gleeson's Gerry Boyle is brash and rude and a constant thorn in the side of Cheadle's Agent Everett, but he's also, somewhere deep down, a good cop who is going to do the right thing when push comes to shove. He's also going to have you laughing for the full hour and a half you're watching the film. We'll be checking in on another John Michael McDonagh film in part four of this list.
71. Dredd (2012
Alex Garland's cinematic take on the legendary Judge Dredd is one of the most beautiful action films to emerge out of the 2010s. The Slo-Mo scenes (thus named because of the illegal drug that kicks the plot into motion) are incredible looking, and Karl Urban simply becomes Dredd. There's no removal of the helmet for predictable Hollywood reasons, the action is clearly focused, and the supporting cast effectively sells the grungy underworld of Mega City One as a slimy but living thing. There's a reason you're still seeing so many people online begging for a sequel. Sometimes, audiences severely fail movies. They certainly did so here.
70. You Were Never Really Here (2018)
Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here is an uncomfortable, uncompromising look at ugly situations and ugly people, a revenge story and a contemplation on mental health struggles, and contains perhaps our best living actor's most incredible performance of the decade. Joaquin Phoenix is a towering, terrifying figure here, but you'll feel the pain he's feeling from beginning to end and keep hoping for things to get better for him. The scenes that linger in the mind include a dying henchman bleeding out on the floor of a kitchen not wanting to be alone and an unfulfilled desire for violent revenge during the film's extremely tense final act. It's a hard watch, but one I can't recommend highly enough.
69. The Guest (2014)
Was there a cooler movie this decade than Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard's The Guest? An 80s throwback featuring Maika Monroe's breakout role and Dan Stevens in what ultimately becomes unflinching psycho mode, The Guest is uproariously fun. It also has a badass synth soundtrack and all the gunfire and fog machines you could ever want.
68. Dunkirk (2017)
Christopher Nolan's first foray into the world of historical fiction was a successful one, marrying a clever multi-timeline structure and practical effects work on a grand scale. The cast of (at the time) mostly unknowns helps to engulf you into the realities of what it might have been like to be stuck on that beach, and the score by Hans Zimmer is an all-time classic.
67. Wind River (2016)
Sicario writer Taylor Sheridan took his first turn in the director's chair for this reservation set murder thriller that features one of Jeremy Renner's best performances. Elizabeth Olsen's Jane Banner, a young FBI agent brought onto the reservation to look into the crime at hand, is the perfect audience surrogate to introduce us to the complexities of life in the harsh environment depicted. This is a twisty, realistic crime story, and I'll warn you now that it might feel you leaving cold (figuratively and perhaps literally), but it's expertly crafted and well worth the time invested.
66. Seven Psychopaths (2012)
Martin McDonagh + that cast? Come on. Seven Psychopaths is irreverent, inventive, and all kinds of funny. A movie about a dog kidnapping ring and a struggling screenwriter theoretically shouldn't be this good, but with McDonagh's killer script and Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and Christopher Walken at the top of their game, it's a whole lot better than just "good."
65. Logan Lucky (2017)
Steven Soderbergh's return to the heist genre was a welcome surprise back in 2017. With his Ocean's 11 trilogy, one would have thought he'd said all he had to say on the subject, but his hilarious redneck caper Logan Lucky showed us quite quickly that that wasn't the case. Concerning the robbery of a Nascar track on its busiest day of the year (which is at one point in the film referred to as "Ocean's 7/11"), it's the whip-smart script and killer cast that make this one so enjoyable. Come for Adam Driver's fed-up one-armed military vet, but stay for Daniel Craig's insane southern accent, bleached hair, and so-so explosive skills. One of the more underappreciated films of the last few years, in my opinion.
64. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
I struggled to determine how many films from Marvel's endlessly impressive catalog should find their ways onto this list, but Jon Watts' second Spider-Man film was a no-brainer. Given the tough task of immediately following the sprawling MCU's grandest achievement, Avengers: Endgame, Far From Home has to bring things back down to Earth with a relatable, smaller scale story while dealing with the fallout from all those bombastic things that happened shortly ago in Peter Parker's life. Tom Holland continues to excel in his role, and his cast of friends (especially Zendaya's MJ and Jacob Batalon's Ned) keep things grounded and the emotional stakes high. More exciting was the decision to bring in Mysterio, a character I've always loved but worried was too outlandish to pull of successfully on the big screen. There are few things I enjoy more than being proven wrong on those sorts of thoughts, and the mentor-turned-nightmare take (played to great effect by the always great Jake Gyllenhaal) turns this into Spidey's greatest MCU outing yet... and I think the character's best live action film period.
63. The Master (2012)
Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master is, on some level, an investigation of the early days of Scientology, only without using any of the real names involved. That on its own makes for fascinating viewing, but luckily the film is so much more. A tale of a struggling lost soul and a mentor who maybe isn't good for him (and vice versa), it's the performances by Joaquin Phoenix and the dearly missed Philip Seymour Hoffman that make this an essential slice of American cinema.
62. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
And just like that another Marvel film hits the list. Of all the core MCU characters, it was always thought that Thor's solo adventures suffered the most. Hemsworth is so charismatic in the part, so able to weave his way into the comedic group dynamics offered by the Avengers films, that his often too self-serious individual movies felt like missed opportunities. While I think there's plenty to like in Kenneth Branagh's Thor and even Alan Taylor's The Dark World, the addition of Taika Waititi to the Marvel world as a writer and director was a stroke of genius. This hyper colorful, ultra funny space adventure gives Hemsworth plenty of time to shine in the part he clearly love, brings Tom Hiddleston's Loki back into the spotlight, and gives Cate Blanchett a killer villain that you almost hate to see defeated. Add in Mark Ruffalo finally getting to cut loose a bit as Bruce Banner and Taika himself as instant fan-favorite Korg and you end up with one of the best comic book films ever made.
61. I Saw the Devil (2010)
Jee-woon Kim's I Saw the Devil is a terrifying serial killer story, one that is unflinching in its violence but always true to its characters. When Jang Kyung-chul, played to horrifying effect by the amazing Min-sik Choi, murders the former chief of police's daughter -- who happened to be engaged to a top police agent, played by Lee Byung-hun -- he sets off a dark, violent game of cat and mouse. The agent solves the murder quickly, but, determined to get revenge on the killer, tortures and releases him over and over. It's a horrific, back-and-forth war of wills and cruelty with an unforgettably haunting ending. The film certainly isn't for anyone, but if you like your cinema dark, this was one of South Korea's very best films of the 2010s.
60. Hell or High Water (2016)
Taylor Sheridan finds his way onto the list once more, this time scripting the David Mackenzie-directed bank robbery tale Hell or High Water. A story of two brothers doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, it's a hard-hitting emotional tale with a great soundtrack, gorgeous locales, and excellent characterization. Chris Pine and Ben Foster star as the Howard brothers, resorting to robbery to try to save their family's Texas ranch. Tracking them is Jeff Bridges' Marcus Hamilton and his partner Alberto Parker, played by the great Gil Birmingham. You'll find yourself simultaneously siding with the bank-robbing brothers and the lawmen trying to catch them, and that's a rare feat in a crime story.
59. Hostiles (2017)
Scott Cooper's first foray into the Western genre is a mightily successful one. Hostiles is a story of long-standing hatred and possible redemption, and its willingness to mine the darkest depths of the human experience to make its point is a welcome addition to the genre. It's not a fun, shoot-em-up Western, nor is it a reinvention of the genre like Unforgiven. It's a very character-driven piece, and Christian Bale and Wes Studi are both phenomenal in it.
58. Toy Story 4 (2019)
A joyous, hilarious final big screen adventure for characters I have adored for 25 years now. When you can so precisely stick the landing for one of cinema's greatest ever franchises, you're going to end up on a lot of "Best Of" lists. By now, Pixar is quite used to such things.
57. Good Time (2017)
Josh and Benny Safdie's Good Time is very hard, perhaps impossible, to accurately describe. It's a frenetic, stress-inducing film that you have to experience for yourself. One of Robert Pattinson's best performances is the easiest selling point, but this crime story has a lot to say about family and ambition.
56. Upgrade (2018)
Leigh Whannell's sci-fi action film Upgrade is quite likely the movie I've most readily recommended to people over the last couple years. It's kinetic and extremely innovative in its camera work and sound design, Logan Marshall-Green does a great job in a complex role, and the action is extraordinarily hard-hitting. I've yet to discuss the film with anyone that didn't love it as much as I do.
55. The Conjuring (2013)
James Wan's haunted house masterpiece The Conjuring was a massive smash hit for a reason. It has spawned sequels (the nearly equally great The Conjuring 2 in 2016 and next year's highly anticipated The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It), spinoffs (some of them quite good!), and a whole lot of knockoffs that want to capture what Wan did here. The reason for the film's massive success isn't that it is highly original, though it has quite a number of inventive tricks up its sleeves, but that it smartly focuses on characters you care about before throwing you through the ringer. Loosely based on Ed and Lorraine Warren, here played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, this was the perfect franchise starter, filled with great scares, gorgeous cinematography, and well-crafted drama that keeps you engaged and rooting for the family in peril to make it out safely. For my fellow horror fanatics out there, pay close attention to the way Wan effortlessly shows off the geography of the main location. Showing the family moving in, unpacking boxes, and playing around, the camera sneakily guides us through every nook and cranny of the house, subconsciously setting up scares that won't be paid off until much later. It's horror film making at its best.
54. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Joe and Anthony Russo exploded onto the Marvel scene with The Winter Soldier, the second standalone Captain America adventure and the first MCU film to really toy with becoming a different genre altogether. More 70s spy thriller than giant-scaled superhero action extravaganza, The Winter Soldier cemented Chris Evans as the MCU's strongest element, perfectly nailing the essence of the man-out-of-time Steve Rogers in a politically complex, tumultuous modern era. Our horror-esque introduction to Sebastian Stan's Winter Soldier is one of the franchise's best moments, and the Russos give Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson some of the most dynamic material of their lengthy Marvel careers. I love everything about this movie.
53. Midnight Special (2016)
Jeff Nichols, who I have already heaped praise on earlier in this list with Mud, turns his grounded, realistic eye to sci-fi with this severely underrated story of a special child and the family desperately trying to protect him from outside forces. It's filled top-to-bottom with excellent performances (Michael Shannon, Sam Shephard, Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton -- the list goes on), including the breakout role for young Jaeden Lieberher. I don't want to spoil anything about this one, and encourage each of you to give it a shot if you haven't already.
52. Kill List (2011)
Ben Wheatley's Kill List will leave you shaking. I'm just going to tell you that right now. It's a story of two hit men who get in way over their heads, and its expertly-crafted, realistic tone will have you fully invested in the story before you realize that it's too late... you're stuck in the nightmare right alongside them. There are images in this that will forever haunt me. I realize I'm making it sound as though the film is an unpleasant experience, and, in a lot of ways, it is. But it's gutsy, utterly unique horror, and it is truly unforgettable.
51. Enemy (2013)
Denis Villeneuve's Enemy is a modern twist on the classic doppelganger concept, anchored by very strong dual performances by Jake Gyllenhaal. It will have you guessing up until the final, shocking image (which, in full disclosure, scared me so badly that I literally almost fell out of my couch backwards).
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