Honorable Mention
Again, putting this list together was impossible, and we agonized about the order and what made the cut and what didn’t and for too damn long. Ten films that came extremely close to making the list, but got nixed in favor of something else—literally at the last minute—(and if you wanna consider them 101-110, feel free), Edgar Wright’s “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” Luca Guadagnino’s “I Am Love,” Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia,” Charlie Kaufman’s animated movie “Anomalisa,” Dee Rees’ “Pariah,” Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers,” Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” and Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash” tied with Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk.” That’s a pretty solid list of films in of itself, and in some regards, there’s a lot of heartbreak in these lists, and we could easily go to 200, but that’s life.
Other films many of us love and many of us vied for—and probably spent a few months on the list before they were ultimately cut— include Francis Lee‘s “God’s Own Country,” John Crowley‘s “Brooklyn,” “Cold War,” Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “Inherent Vice,” Greta Gerwig‘s “Lady Bird,” “The Favorite,” (yes, almost all of Lanthimos’ films made the list), “The Tribe,” Sebastián Lelio‘s original 2013 version of “Gloria,” Jason Reitman’s “Young Adult,” Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver,” and “The World’s End,” Martin Scorsese’s “Silence,” and “The Irishman,” Spike Lee’s “BlackKklansman,” Bong Joon Ho’s “Snowpiercer,” Dennis Villeneuve’s “Sicario,” “Prisoners” and “Blade Runner 2049,” Robert Eggers’ “The Witch” (on our horror list, so it got a bit of a pass), “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,” “Eighth Grade,” “Paddington 2,” “Hereditary,” “Birdman,” “La La Land,” the Coen Brothers’ “True Grit,” “Uncut Gems,” “Green Room,” Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” and “The Bling Ring,” Eliza Hitman’s “Beach Rats” and Andrey Zvyagintsev‘s “Loveless,” just to name a few. We could comfortably sit here and list out 1,000 films, but who has that time?
The long lists were pretty endless, to be honest. Still, a reminder, lists dedicated to documentaries, and animation are coming soon (and yes, we realize there were exceptions on this list). But if we wanna shout out a few more—and of course we do—let’s give mention to Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines,” JC Chandor’s “Margin Call” and “A Most Violent Year,” David Fincher’s “Gone Girl,” Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike” and Ryan Coogler’s “Creed” and “Black Panther.” The decade produced countless masterworks, so as always feel free to sound off, or go apoplectic in the comments section, and stick around for more Best of The Decade coverage, Best of 2019 coverage and Most Anticipated 2020 coverage as well.
— Edited by Rodrigo Perez and Jason Bailey.
— Writers: Nicholas Laskin, Max Roux, Andrew Bundy, Lena Wilson Ella Kemp, Rodrigo Perez, Drew Taylor, Jason Bailey, Nik Grozdanovic, Christian Gallichio, Joe Blessing, Johnathan Christian, Bradley Warren
— Special thanks to the always invaluable early input of Oliver Lyttelton, Kevin Jagernauth, Jessica Kiang.