By Roy Mathur, on 2019-12-31, at 18:29:25 to 19:06:54 GMT, for Captain Roy's Rocket Radio Show, Listen
Best Movies of the Decade
I was going to rank the very best of all media, but, though this is not a movie podcast, I've spent most leisure hours going square-eyed in the last ten years.
Neither is this an endless list, but the best from the categories I am most interested in, and ending with three that are non-geek. So, even if you aren't a geek, there is still something here for you.
There's some crossing of genres, but artificial delineations are rather naff, so we'll ignore it.
This is a highly subjective selection, loosely ranked, and chosen in terms of my enjoyment. Those marked, "*" I watch repeatedly.
Science Fiction:
*Inception (2010). Beautifully realised, dream-like film about a con caper inside a dream. Great cast, acting, sets, wardrobe, action sequences, and FX/VFX/CGI. The film was so good, it made it difficult for filmmaker Christopher Nolan to best himself in future endeavours.
*Arrival (2016). Not the first sci-fi proposing that language can change you and the way you see the world, see Samuel R. Delany's 1966 novel Babel-17, but certainly the most powerful cinematic representation of the concept. Brilliant across the board; script, Amy Adam's acting, in this film in which aliens, as a way of preserving their linguistic knowledge, gift humans with a language that alters the perception of time.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Max takes on another power-mad nutter with a huge amount of help from badass woman warrior Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), who completely steals the show. So action packed, such a technical achievement, an amazing elevation to high art of what began as superior Ozploitation. What a ride.
Fantasy:
*Maleficent (2014). A fairytale about love, betrayal, brutality, that says vengeance isn't as easy or as simple as you might think. The only modern Disney live action remakes/reboots I have seen that isn't terrible. Angelina Jolie makes a good bad/good fairy.
A Monster Calls (2016). Is it real or is it imagination, or psychosis? There's a bit of Roald Dahl in this film about a monster coming to the aid of child dealing with mother's illness and school bullies.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010). This fantasy movie revealed the real origin of modern, kind, kid friendly Coke Cola Santa in the shape of Finnish Joulupukki; the demonic child murdering Yule Goat. A fun and nasty antidote to Christmas cheer.
Horror:
*The Babadook (2014). Stressed single mother with extremely imaginative and energetic child battles a monster dreamt to reality from the pages of a mysterious and sinister children's book. I was reminded of Terry Gilliam, fairytales, and childhood terrors. Well, what I assume scares other children. I was always fine with fantastical monsters... unless that monster was Jaws. It also appealed to me simply because it centres around a frightening book. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.
*Black Swan (2010). Imagine The Red Shoes, if it was made by the pair of maniacs, William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty, behind The Exorcist. Ballerina under enormous pressure to perform in an upcoming production of Swan Lake begins to come apart in nightmarish nocturnal New York. There's a little of Carrie here too in the toxic mother-daughter relationship.
Get Out (2017). This film tackles covert, even unconscious racism that nice middle-class liberals think they don't have. Thematic echoes of Society and stylistic nods to The People Under the Stairs in a film about going to meet the in-laws. As a first generation brown English person; a generation X'er who suffered the worst and most overt racism possible, I still see racism today. Only now it's wriggling under rocks instead of out in the light of day. Get Out did a great job of satirising the phenomena in the form of the most perfect horror film. As a horror film for the horror cognoscenti, and for someone who is not white, it spoke to me in two languages I am fluent in. It also blasted the filmmaker, comedian Jordan Peele, into auteur orbit.
Others:
*The Artist (2011). Who would have thought of how brilliant a silent black and white French film about the silent era could be? But it is. This is a delightful, comedic, pathos-laden, nostalgic look back at the time before the talkies. There's also a cute little doggy. Gargh! But even that didn't spoil my enjoyment.
*Nightcrawler (2014). Thriller that tips right over into horror in a dark tale of a psychopath discovering a talent for, "if it bleeds, it leads" style video reporting. It's also an object lesson in what happens when greed excuses such behaviour.
Red Hill (2010). Tough Australian neo-western revenge thriller set in a corrupt outback town. The movie also introduced me to that great hackles-raising song Black Eyed Bruiser by Stevie Wright, which you should definitely not listen to while handling firearms. (Not a commonplace pastime in the UK, so let's instead say, "don't listen to this while driving.")
