Where does the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo land on this list?
Photo Credit: Sony Pictures
Can you believe it’s been five years since I’ve been writing
(even to the smallest audience ever) on this blog? Because it has and since I’m
graduating high school officially in just a few short weeks and it’s been five
years it’s time to make a bunch of lists! We start the look back with the best
films that I saw during high school (or starting with the first January of high
school and moving into the present) because some obvious favorites weren’t eligible
(if 2008 were eligible this list would be way to predictable) so it’s going to
be a tough list with a lot of really good films to be had here. Without further
ado here are the best films I’ve seen throughout my high school and blogging career:
Honorable Mentions:
Inception, Black Swan, Django Unchained, Avatar, The King’s speech,
Lincoln, The Artist etc.
10. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (2010)
This one is a mega personal pick. At the time (way back in
2010) I only put Scott Pilgrim at number 10 on the list as I found it to be an under
watched and fun diversion. Over the years this film has only gotten better and
become one of my top comfort films that I can go back to over and over again.
Plus the jokes land just as well now as they did the first time I watch it.
Truly a fantastic film that deserves much more attention then it ended up
getting.
9. Toy Story 3 (2010)
Another movie that keeps getting better with repeat viewings
Toy Story 3 was a true marvel when it came out and continues to hold up
fantastically. Pixar seems to have reached a peak with Toy Story 3 as it
brought all of the power and emotion Pixar could have over the course of an
amazing 90 minute film. Not only that but Pixar created perhaps the greatest
third film in a franchise ever that was actually better then the first two. Toy
Story 3 is fantastic on so many levels and it’s disappointing to see that they
haven’t done much right since.
8. District 9 and Moon (tie) (2009)
Two of the most powerfully real sci-fi movies to come out in
2009 Moon and District 9 showed what could be done with a lower budget and a
lot of creativity. District 9 took a brutally real look at what would probably
happen if aliens landed on earth. It gave us a phenomenal structure that kept
the viewer engaged, some great acting from a virtual unknown (good old Sharlto Copley),
and a concept that kept its legs going at full speed throughout. Moon was a
creative innovative film that played with a dangerously real idea of resource
and human management. It was true thinking man’s sci-fi that brought the true
disturbing factor as well. Both films have one thing in common; they were great
lower key sci-fi movies from two great young sci-fi directors.
7. Drive (2011)
Yet another film that gets better after repeat viewings
(this seems to be a theme) Drive shows the power of what an action film can
really be when it’s intelligent. Drive wasn’t especially action packed
(although what action scenes existed were amazing) but what it did provide was
a powerful, artsy, and intelligent punch that was accentuated through some
amazing direction and a great leading performance from Ryan Gosling. Drive also
had one of the best choreographed action scenes put to film in the modern age
at the beginning that gave it’s thematic statement right of the bat, an action
film can be smart and artsy. How many films these last few years can say that?
Very few that’s for sure.
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2010 and 2011)
The list begins to heat up a little. While Steig Larson’s
novel The Girl with the Dragon was a very good thriller in its own right it was
not until the film adaptations where the material became truly special. It
always seemed that the films captured more of the edge and intensity of the
material then did the original book. Plus the performances, direction, and overall
pacing of the films were just down right near perfect. Noomi Rapace and Rooney
Mara gave star turning performances that were equally as fantastic as the title
character Lisbeth Salander, the films captured more of the dark vibe then the
books better then the books, and ultimately it just seemed that the material
was dying to be shown instead of told. If I had to pick a favorite adaptation
it would probably be the English language Fincher version because of the darker
tone and more vulnerable heroin, but either film you watch you can’t go wrong
at all.
5. The Social Network (2010)
The film I most underrated at the time (realistically it should
have been the number one film of 2010) The Social Network is just a phenomenally
near perfect drama that captures something truly special. As much as he can be
frustrating in the television medium at times (Newsroom says hi) when Aaron
Sorkin is confined into writing a film he writes his finest work and The Social
network is no exception. The dialogue just pops perfectly from the screen in
ways no other film have over the last many years have. Add phenomenal performances
form Jessie Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake (whom I still
think should have been at least nominated for best supporting actor that year)
and fantastic direction from the great David Fincher and the Social Network is truly
a great film that should not be missed.
4. Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Of the two Tarantino films to be released over the last five
years Inglorious Basterds was the one that captured what makes a Tarantino film
special the most. The opening scene of this film alone would probably have put
this film as high as it is on this list as it featured some of the best acting (yay
Christoph Waltz), pacing and writing of nearly any film on this list. That wasn’t
the only scene that made Inglorious Basterds a special film as it included long
stretches of beautiful conversations in different languages in the center of
the film that built to fantastic bursts of Tarantino violence. The film was
just a pure showcase of Tarantino at his finest all the way through and
provided the perfect show case of why I love Tarantino’s filmmaking.
3. Looper, Zero Dark Thirty, and Amour (tie) (2012)
Yeah it’s cheating but really I couldn’t wrestle with separating
this equally amazing core of films that defined cinema in the great cinematic
year of 2012. Each film is very special and masterful in its own unique
fashion. Looper is the best sci-fi film in about a decade providing a truly
amazing core concept and running all the way with it. Zero Dark Thirty was a thriller
masterpiece providing true tension and emotional weight in every frame along
with an amazing performance from Jessica Chastain. Amour was a true emotional
powerhouse a film that didn’t manipulate its audience but at the same time
pulled more emotion out of a situation than any other love story in 2012. What
do they have in common; they are three masterworks that were a large part of
why 2012 was one of the finest movie years in a long time.
2. Before Midnight (2013)
Yes it’s very recent but I can’t help but fall in love with
this film the more and more I think about it. No other film can be as elegantly
romantic and yet capture the truth of a relationship as well as Before Midnight
did. The film is so natural, so well written and Ethan Hawke and July Delpy
have the best chemistry in the book. Is this a little high of a placement for
this film? Perhaps but it had a divine effect on me that few films of the last
many years have had. It took something simple and made a brilliant film about
it and in the era of big films being big Before Midnight is a true masterful
treat to the senses.
1. The Tree of Life (2011)
The film that had the most divine effect on me that came out
over the course of the last five years was easily the Tree of Life. Never have
I walked out of a theater more intrigued and puzzled by a film. Terrance Malik’s
masterpiece was a truly ambitious trance of a film that investigated something so
large (the universe) and translated it into something so intimate (a 1950’s
family). The whips of memory that defined the films center remain one of the
most powerful sequences of a film ever and the universe section allows for
Malik to reach large to put the lives into a grand perspective. The film is so gorgeous,
so ambitious, and ultimately so powerful that it defies classification and
demands attention. It’s the film that to this day in which each viewing feels
just as awe inspiring as the last. Each frame is so powerful and provides true insight
into the power of ambitious filmmaking at its finest.
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