1. Blackhat (Coincidentally enough it was August last year that I bought this movie based on a No Country recommendation - in hindsight this movie would have been amazing to see at the cinemas. Rewatched this 2 nights ago and still holds up beautifully, and actually if I hadn't rewatched it Tangerine would have been #1.)
2. Tangerine (I adore the messiness and scatterbrained nature of this movie so much and it has some of the best pacing I think I've ever experienced. There are also more genuinely funny moments than any recent comedy I can think of.
The Ana Foxxx cameo scene is one of my favourite cinematic moments of the 2010's.)
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (Some complaints aside (good job making the titular character the most bland, boring character in the whole film) this is probably the best, or at least my favourite, blockbuster action film of the 2010's. It also contains one of the most on-the-nose political allegories I've ever seen (ie patriarchy) but it doesn't detract, on the contrary I actually think it really works. That aside this is just a very fun movie that self-consciously returns ownership of the post-apocalyptic action genre to George Miller after decades of the franchise being ripped off by everybody (asserted viciously by bringing Hugh Keays-Byrne back to great effect). Hail Furiosa!)
4. Green Room
5. Sicario (Not quite sure who started this "trend" of sprawling military/tactical/procedural action crime films that put a lot of effort into creating tension and a brooding atmosphere but my limited pool of references makes me always think of Michael Mann and in many ways this movie especially made me think of his stuff. I really liked Emily Blunt and it was cool to see the Get Out guy in action, since I haven't seen that movie yet and things like this always help to take that next step into seeing something. I need to rewatch this one before I can consolidate my views, but I liked it a lot and was basically glued to the screen the whole time. The true star of the movie was Benicio del Toro though and the whole film's core themes were basically encapsulated in his character alone, everybody else was just along for the ride.)
6. Bone Tomahawk (S. Craig Zahler fucking rules man, he's one of my other favourite newer directors and his debut was a pretty insane one at that! Cannibalism, ultra-violence, troglodytes, Kurt Russell, western setting, exploitation, Kurt Russell, Kurt Russell, Kurt---you get the point. This is a movie unashamedly trying to entertain and bring back a certain era of balls-to-the-wall craziness and trashiness. If The Hateful Eight was tapping into The Thing, Bone Tomahawk is Kurt's 2010's Escape from New York.)
7. Too Late
8. The Lobster (Whenever I think of The Lobster the word 'bleak' comes to mind. All the settings exude coldness, whether it's in the literal cold wet forest or the metaphorically cold rooms and houses. Civilization is purposely depicted as cold and lifeless, strangled by order, but unlike most movies that go with this idea, nature isn't presented as this warm freeing elemental force where humanity can escape to and throw off their shackles, and for me that's a lot of the horror of this movie. The choices presented seem to be; live and die as an automaton or live and die as a scared animal.)
9. The Revenant (I've seen many survival films and even more revenge films and I'm struggling to remember any of them being as dismal and oppressive as this is. I forget where I saw someone call this 'Breathing: The Movie' and at first I took it as an attack on the movie, partly because it probably was but also because I wasn't much of a fan of it, but after rewatching it and it finally clicked the whole 'breathing' thing is very accurate and that's part of the oppressive nature of the movie, I feel. The viewer spends so much time so closely following Di Caprio's character that you can almost feel the destruction he's putting his body through, the toll the elements are taking on him, as he literally crawls and almost freezes to death in pursuit of revenge. If they ever invent technology that allows the viewer to experience the elements the actor goes through in the process of making a movie, this one will be for adrenaline junkies. Also, beautiful cinematography!)
10. CHAPPiE (Very cool, very entertaining, though surprisingly has much less action than his previous films but it doesn't feel like it's lacking it. It feels like a good balance. Many people have told me (and said in reviews) that this one is more light-hearted than Neill Blomkamp's previous films, but I disagree. I think people are confusing the lack of action with a lighter approach, because this film's themes are just as dark, adult and intense as any of Blomkamp's other films, albeit with less gore and violence. He really tries to drill down into what I think is a core theme with all of his works; how flawed humanity is and the concept of human consciousness vs artificial intelligence.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HM: Cemetery of Splendour, Embrace of the Serpent, SPL2, Far From Men, Turbo Kid, Ant Man, The Hateful Eight, Black Mass, Darling, Girl Asleep.
There are still so many I wanna see, especially The VVitch but also Aaaaaaaah!, Partisan, Port of Call, Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen and American Ultra, but I feel really good about my list and most of my choices are movies I've watched several times each and have held up very nicely.
The only two very recent additions are Sicario and Too Late. I tracked down the latter and watched it the same day I saw
@challenge_everything recommend it, so thanks for that dude that was a super good recommendation, insta-favourite for me!
Sicario was one of those movies that really lived up to the hype and praise I'd seen around the Internet, will definitely be watching the sequel soon. Also now I want to see Zero Dark Thirty RE
@no country for old wainds' RYM review.
