Seventh Row editors Orla Smith and Alex Heeney pick their 50 favourite films of the 2010s decade, from Leave No Trace to Paddington 2. Read more best of the decade coverage.
As we approach the final month of the 2010s, it’s time to look back on the best films that the decade offered us. After we asked our critic and filmmaker friends to weigh in last week, we’ve decided to put together our own list. Below is the top 50 films of the decade, as curated through discussions between Seventh Row editors Alex Heeney and Orla Smith. Our aim was to create a list that represents the decade as we see it, our own personal tastes, and the sensibilities of our publication. In other words, if you like these films, we think you’ll like what we do at Seventh Row.
50. The Riot Club (2014, dir. Lone Scherfig)
“The lads of The Riot Club – an exclusive club for 10 of Oxford University’s richest and brightest young men – make Chuck Bass (Gossip Girl), at his rapiest, look like a prince. And this is a guy who traded the love of his life for a hotel before sleeping with his barely consenting step-sister. Like Chuck Bass, these boys were raised in the lap of luxury and privilege. As they say in Britain, they’re posh, which comes with special customs, accents, and terminology.” …READ MORE
49. Dreams of a Life (2011, dir. Carol Morley)
Director Carol Morley heard a story in the news in 2006 that fascinated her: a young woman, Joyce Vincent, was found dead in her North London bedsit. She was so socially isolated that she’d been there three years before anyone discovered her body. Morley interviews people who knew Joyce, and actress Zawe Ashton recreates imagined moments in Joyce’s life. It’s a film that causes you to reflect on your own life. If I died, how long would it take for me to be found? Who would come looking for me first? But it’s also a reflection on the unknowability of other people. Morley is aware that, while she and Joyce’s friends can guess what was going on in Joyce’s head, they will never really know, and it would be disrespectful to suggest that they could. – Orla Smith
48. Private Life (2018, dir. Tamara Jenkins)
Tamara Jenkins only makes movies about once a decade. Private Life is her third feature after Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) and The Savages (2007). Unlike some filmmakers renowned for long gestation periods, like Jonathan Glazer or early Terrence Malick, her films are not grand, sweeping, or heavily stylized. They’re intimate character dramas — but the time and effort Jenkins puts into her projects shows in every detail. Besides having three perfect performances from Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, and newcomer Kayli Carter, Jenkins’ direction of fertility drama Private Life looks effortlessly perfect. Her film follows a middle-aged artistic couple trying to have a baby. The procedure of fertility treatment is captured in its minutiae. It’s heartbreaking but also funny, and mostly about how an experience as exhausting as fertility treatment can push a couple apart but ultimately bring them closer together. – Orla Smith
47. Clouds of Sils Maria (2014, dir. Olivier Assayas)
Clouds of Sils Maria is the ultimate hangout movie. Maybe when I say “hangout movie” you think of Richard Linklater’s or Kevin Smith’s slacker, stoner comedies, but in my humble opinion, I’d take Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche spending some quality time together on a mountain over those any day. Clouds is about an actress, Maria (Binoche), rehearsing for a play, a two-hander between an older and younger woman. In her youth she played the younger part, but now she’s cast as the older woman. However, Binoche only reaches the stage in the film’s epilogue. The majority of Clouds takes place in and around a remote mountain cabin, where Binoche’s character rehearses her play with personal assistant, Valentine (Stewart). We observe their conversations about life, art, and aging as they run lines, hike, and go to the cinema to watch a superhero movie together. It’s a privilege to watch two such sublime actresses bounce off one another for two hours. – Orla Smith
46. No Home Movie (2015, dir. Chantal Akerman)
“Two minutes into the first Skype conversation between Chantal Akerman and her mother “Maman” in No Home Movie, I was a goner. Maman lights up at the sight of her daughter’s face and the sound of her daughter’s voice. It’s clear from every smile, every gesture, that there’s great love and warmth between them. I’ve never seen love expressed so purely on camera.
The scene is a change of pace from the film’s opening, which is alienating and even trying: four nonstop minutes of watching a fragile tree blowing in the wind. It may be a bit overkill as a symbol for resilience, but Akerman is teaching us patience. Most of the film’s images take time to find resonance. Eventually, they devastate.”…READ MORE
45. The Kid with a Bike (2011, dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
A tale about the power of choosing to love someone unconditionally, this Dardenne brothers film will break and warm your heart. At the start of the film, we’re introduced to Cyril (Thomas Doret), a troubled kid who was abandoned by his father and now lives in a state-run care home. He’s a kid who longs desperately for a parental figure’s love, but instead of his father he finds it in Samantha (Cécile De France), a hairdresser who lives alone and meets the boy by chance, eventually agreeing to foster him on weekends. What’s so moving about the film is the unconditional love Samantha shows to Cyril, and how unexpected it is to the young boy. He reacts to her kindness by acting out, expecting her to eventually cast him away. But Samantha chooses to stick by Cyril no matter how bad things get, a choice that surprises and overwhelms Cyril. – Orla Smith
44. Enough Said (2013, dir. Nicole Holofcener)
Writer-director Nicole Holofcener has made her name with dialogue-driven female-centric films, like “Walking and Talking” and “Please Give”, that are by no means chick flicks. Over the years, the characters in her films have aged and matured, at pace with her own aging, and that of the frequent star of her films, Catherine Keener. In Holofcener’s very funny and moving “Enough Said”, Keener plays Marianne, a sophisticated, divorced, and self-centered poetess; she lives in a the sort of dream home you see in magazines and pals around with Joni Mitchell. Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as Eva, another divorced woman and mother, whose daughter, like Marianne’s, is about to leave the nest for university, and she’s feeling lonely. Marianne desperately needs to cling to someone and Eva needs to feel needed, so when Eva starts working as her massage therapist, they become friends, if somewhat toxic and adolescent ones. Eva also starts dating Albert (James Gandolfini), whom she starts to fall in love with, in spite of his gut, until Marianne starts poisoning the well: Eva learns he’s the ex-husband Marianne has been bad-mouthing, and Eva’s insecurities and desire for Marianne’s approval threaten to jeopardize her budding relationship.
The film starts out with a non-stop succession of realistic yet funny encounters or witty one-liners — the characters are intelligent but not hyper-intellectuals — but as they slowly fall into their own traps, the film becomes equally moving and heartbreaking. Holofcener strikes the perfect balance of finding the comedy in mid-life troubles without exploiting or making light of them, or being too bleak, and in so doing creates a very realistic portrait of a group of adults on the brink of major changes. – Alex Heeney
43. Our Little Sister (2015, dir. Hirokazu Koreeda)
“Our Little Sister is a quiet, sweet, and heartbreaking film about three grown, co-habitating sisters, who meet their younger fourteen-year-old sister, Suzu (Suzu Hirose) after their absent father dies, and decide to take her in as one of their own. The tender scenes of female bonding are what’s likely to stand out to most people: these are smart, funny, and gutsy, open-hearted women, who love fully and easily. Their various adventures are charming, whether it’s making a feast, falling for boys, or struggling to not get too emotionally involved in their work.” …READ MORE
42. The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018, dir. Desiree Akhavan)
Desiree Akhavan’s first film, Appropriate Behaviour, was a ramshackle joy, and her follow-up, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, is even better. Already, Akhavan seems to have come into her own as a filmmaker. Cameron Post follows Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) a lesbian teen in the 1980s who is sent to a conversion therapy camp. Akhavan’s airtight, 90-minute marvel uncovers the grievously harmful tactics employed by such institutions. It also movingly chronicles how gay teens make their own family in harsh circumstances, as Cameron’s friendship with Jane (Sasha Lane) and Adam (Forrest Goodluck) is the film’s beating heart and winning source of dark, sarcastic comedy. What’s more, Akhavan procures Moretz’s best performance to date. Many have criticised Moretz’s acting over the years, but it feels like that’s partially down to a string of directors objectifying her and not knowing how to utilise her. After Cameron Post, it’s clear Moretz has the ability to be great. – Orla Smith
41. Support the Girls (2018, dir. Andrew Bujalski)
Leaving the cinema after Support the Girls, I felt different. I looked at the people around me differently, with a keener sense of empathy. The world felt somehow warmer. That’s the empathetic power of Andrew Bujalski’s filmmaking and his incredible cast, particularly lead Regina Hall. Hall plays Lisa, the general manager of a Hooters style sports bar. It’s her job to look after the wellbeing of the girls who work there, while still satisfying the higher ups. The film simply follows a day in her life: the business struggles, the emotional co-workers, the stress of juggling it all, and the quiet moment’s Lisa must take for herself in order to cope and keep a brave face for the girls in her care. – Orla Smith
40. Tomboy (2011, dir. Céline Sciamma)
The middle film in Céline Sciamma’s unofficial coming-of-age trilogy (bookended by Water Lilies and Girlhood), Tomboy follows her youngest protagonist to date. A 10-year-old with the given name Laure (Zoé Héran) moves to a new neighbourhood and presents themself to their new friends as Mikhael. For much of the film, Mikhael is prevailingly happy. They have no label for their new gender presentation, and perhaps it’s too early to define it, although as an adult, modern audience we may see Mikhael as trans or non-binary. It’s simply clear that they’re happiest as Mikhael. Things get more complicated when adults and Mikhael’s peers discover how they’re presenting themselves and take objection to it, a disruption of the peace and happiness Mikhael experiences before bigotry came into play. – Orla Smith
39. Ninth Floor (2015, dir. Mina Shum)
“By focusing Ninth Floor on the crucial but under-discussed Ninth Floor protest against racial discrimination, Shum aims to shine a light on race relations not just in the past but today. In February 1969, students at Montreal’s Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) held a peaceful protest against racial discrimination at the university on the ninth floor of the school. The protest was in response to the university’s inaction regarding a complaint against biology professor Perry Anderson of racial discrimination 10 months before. ‘If you’re talking about peaceful,’ Shum noted, ‘when the original charges were laid, there was no protest at that point. There was just sort of a trust that due process would occur. When that didn’t happen, they upped it by having a peaceful protest — very Canadian. We will try to make peace before we make war,’ said Shum.” …READ MORE
38. Neruda (2016, dir. Pablo Larraín)
“Just days into the national hangover following the presidential election, I saw Pablo Larraín’s Neruda, a brisk biographical chase film about the communist Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, by the dazzling Chilean director Pablo Larraín, and it seemed to sing with the choruses of the American left. Whatever else contributed to the ascension of a common magpie to the presidency, the blame lies partly with the left party for its failure to galvanize the workers in battleground states. Never mind that the losses in the Rust Belt were slim; it’s troubling that it was even close. What is the historical party of labour with such distance from labourers? The recurring question of Neruda stings the same tender flesh. The pudgy poet rose to power as a champion of the miners in the arid Atacama, but in cosmopolitan Santiago, he lives among the socialites in idle distraction. How can he be the voice of the people from his party palace?” …READ MORE
37. Wadjda (2012, dir. Haifaa Al-Mansour)
The first Saudi Arabian film directed by a woman, Wadjda, is also exactly the kind of film I’d want to show my daughter. As the story of a girl who desperately wants to ride a bike in a society when this is absolutely taboo, it’s a joy to watch her flout convention, set her mind to something, and smash the patriarchy in the small ways she can. For years, aspiring feminists had Jo March; now, we have Wadjda. – Alex Heeney
36. The Levelling (2016, dir. Hope Dickson Leach)
“The Levelling tackles what may be the most complex kind of grief: that felt for a loved one who took their own life. We follow young vet student Clover (Ellie Kendrick, a striking presence) as she returns to her family home in rural England after the sudden and unexpected death of her brother Harry. Helping her father Aubrey (David Troughton) take care of the family farm, she soons entertains suspicions about the circumstances surrounding what Aubrey describes as an accident.” …READ MORE
35. Our Loved Ones (2015, dir. Anne Émond)
“In Our Loved Ones, Québécois director Anne Émond makes the physical closeness of loved ones tangible. There’s intimacy in every moment shared between family members here, often expressed through the sound design that highlights barely perceptible noises. Whether it’s the breath of a partner lying in bed next to you or the thump of a tight hug, Émond has a gift for making you feel like you’re there in that moment, where being near someone is a form of comfort.” …READ MORE
34. Lean on Pete (2017, dir. Andrew Haigh)
“At first glance, Lean on Pete seems like a departure for British writer-director Andrew Haigh. Unlike 45 Years and Weekend, which are mostly set within their respective protagonists’ homes, Lean on Pete is about a boy constantly on the move. Where 45 Years, Weekend, and Haigh’s TV series Looking were preoccupied with characters in search of intimacy and connection, much of Lean on Pete finds 15-year-old Charley (Charlie Plummer) completely alone as he wanders across America, with nobody but his trusty horse, Lean on Pete, for company. Charley’s needs — a roof over his head — are more basic, but his emotional journey is no less potent. It’s his connection with Pete that lets the withdrawn Charley finally unfold himself and pushes him to keep moving, in search of somewhere to call home.” …READ MORE
33. Hail, Caesar! (2016, dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
“The Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar is a glorious, hilarious tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood. With its very own Esther Williams (Scarlett Johansson), Carmen Miranda (Veronica Osorio), and Gene Kelly (Channing Tatum), it’s got all the stock characters and genres of classic cinema. Even Roger Deakins’ 35mm cinematography mimics old movies, framing the action head-on as if filming a stage. But Hail, Caesar isn’t just a nostalgia-fest. By returning to mine an earlier age, the Coens provide a rare vehicle for today’s stars. Because the characters track so clearly to historical figures, it invites comparisons that the sterling cast manages to live up to.” …READ MORE
32. Angels Wear White (2017, dir. Vivian Qu)
The violence and trauma that the women in Vivian Qu’s Angels Wear White experience happens offscreen because that’s how the society treats it: invisible, easy to ignore, unimportant. When twelve-year-old Wen is raped in the hotel where Mia works, Mia films the security footage to prove the perpetrator is a threat. But nobody cares about Wen’s trauma, treating her as a trollop rather than a victim, and Mia’s own precarious situation makes her hesitant to come forth and help Wen, even as we suspect Mia has had some kind of similar experience. Qu keeps the camera at the height of her two young female protagonists, effectively creating empathy with these young women whose feelings are too easily ignored by the people around them. – Alex Heeney
31. Their Finest (2016, dir. Lone Scherfig)
“With most of the young men away fighting, World War II meant women and older men suddenly found themselves getting opportunities they never could have during peace. Lone Scherfig’s new film, Their Finest, looks at such opportunities in the film industry, which was desperate to create morale-boosting propaganda. When Catrin (Gemma Arterton) attends an interview for what she assumes is a secretarial position, she discovers she’ll be writing the women’s dialogue (“slop”) for the next propaganda film about the successful evacuation in Dunkirk. Although she starts out timid and unsure, writing the film with her partner Buckley (Sam Claflin) while battling with an arrogant elderly actor (Bill Nighy) gives Catrin newfound confidence. The film is the story of her blossoming, her screwball comedy-esque relationship with Buckley, and the madness that goes into producing a war-time film.” …READ MORE
30. Timbuktu (2014, dir. Abderrahmane Sissako)
As the story of a cross-section of the people living in the city of Timbuktu, Mali, who are living under the occupation of misogynistic Islamist extremists, you might expect Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu to be bleak .It’s sthe opposite. Yet despite the hardships that its characters face day to day, I was most struck by how much joy is in the film and the strength of the women. Though set in an oppressive society, it’s about the women fighting back and taking charge of their lives, even if in small ways. Sofian El Fani’s gorgeous cinematography highlights the vibrant colours of the homes and clothes and the stark beauty of the desert. There are parts of the film that are extremely difficult to watch, but there’s also humour and the sense of a very diverse and resilient people who will persevere. – Alex Heeney
29. Paddington 2 (2017, dir. Paul King)
As much as we love our indies, there’s a certain great joy to when a big-budget, splashy blockbuster turns out to be great. It’s proof that there’s still room for artistry in the studio system, no matter how hard it might be to marry the two. Paul King made a thrilling, funny, heartwarming film with Paddington 2, one that easily outclasses its predecessor. What’s more, the film ends with Hugh Grant’s delightful villain performing one of the most well choreographed song and dance number in ages. – Orla Smith
28. Wild Nights with Emily (2018, dir. Madeleine Olnek)
In the last few years, Emily Dickinson has suddenly become a major preoccupation of filmmakers. Despite being a beloved poet, her life had never been depicted on screen — until Terence Davies’ 2016 Dickinson biopic, A Quiet Passion, which we explored in a Special Issue. Since then, we’ve had the (in my mind superior) Wild Nights with Emily, and a TV series starring Hailee Steinfeld is on its way. There seems to be something about Dickinson’s reclusive but brilliant life that speaks to the here and now. Perhaps, in a time of increased affirmative action for women in the creative arts, we’re attracted to the tragedy of a genius woman whose work wasn’t appreciated until after her death.
Wild Nights, unlike A Quiet Passion, acknowledges the overwhelming evidence that Dickinson (here played by Molly Shannon) was a queer woman. Restored letters reveal that she and her brother’s wife were lovers for decades. Dickinson is often portrayed as a staid, antisocial woman who rarely left the solitude of her room. However, director Madeleine Olnek attempts to rewrite this narrative. Her Dickinson is full of life: she’s prickly, but also funny and, of course, gloriously intelligent — all is true of Olnek’s film, too. Although it is carefully period accurate, the film feels more modern than Davies’, perhaps due to its frank approach to its central queer relationship. Dickinson and her lover’s relationship is not depicted demurely or treated as transgressive. They’ve been together for decades, so they speak to each other and touch each other with the casual familiarity of any married couple. Crucially, the film doesn’t turn Dickinson into a purely tragic figure, focusing on the relationship that brought joy to her life. – Orla Smith
27. Selma (2014, dir. Ava DuVernay)
“Near the beginning of Ava DuVernay’s evocative, moving, and inspiring Selma, which chronicles the lead-up to the historic Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo, marvellous and compelling) walks into a hotel in Selma serving “whites only” and attempts to register for a room. When he’s met with a punch in the face, he knows the town is the right place to bring his protest. As King explains, on the best days of the Civil Rights movement, “our adversary makes a mistake.” What he means is that the white law enforcement lets chaos break loose, making inhumane arrests or violently beating the black protestors — exactly what they need to generate national press. And they’ve just proven that this kind of casual bad behaviour is the norm in Selma.” …READ MORE
26. At Berkeley (2013, dir. Frederick Wiseman)
It’s hard to pick just one Frederick Wiseman film to include on this list, but we went with At Berkeley in part because we’ve had the most time to think about it and stay in love with it, among his recent trilogy of films about institutions of learning (National Gallery and Ex Libris). This four-hour film flies by, but you can feel the gears in you brain turning as you watch, processing what makes up an insititution of learning, the challenges of the administration compared with the discrimination faced by the students, and all of the accomplishments in between. It’s a film so packed full of insights, in which every scene makes you rethink the previous one, that it rewards endless rewatches. At 89, Wiseman is still one of our finest filmmakers. – Alex Heeney
25. We Are the Best! (2013, dir. Lukas Moodysson)
“The trio of girls that form a punk rock band in the uproariously funny and buoyant We Are The Best! are not your average movie teenagers, but they are exactly what real-life teenagers are like. They’re smart, gutsy, opinionated, and witty, and they have the ups-and-downs of real friendships. More than any other film I’ve seen, this latest from Swedish auteur Lukas Moodysson (Fucking Amal), based on a graphic novel by his wife Coco, best captures what it felt like to be a teenage girl – the best and the worst of it – even though it takes place in Stockholm twenty years before I became a teenager in Canada.” …READ MORE
24. Transit (2018, dir. Christian Petzold)
“In Transit, the new film from German director Christian Petzold, the city of Marseille and the time period in which the film is set are almost unrecognisable. Unlike most dramas set during World War Two, this one does not feature the familiar backdrop of pastel costumes and dusty streets which usually marks a story firmly in the past. Rather, there is a hybrid of present-day and wartime objects: there are no mobile phones or computers, but the police wear modern riot gear; people use typewriters yet they wear modern clothes. Though adapted from Anna Seghers’ 1942 novel set during World War Two, Petzold’s adaptation could just as well be unfolding in the present.” …READ MORE
23. The Look of Silence (2014, dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)
“Director Joshua Oppenheimer follows Adi, a forty-year-old Indonesian optometrist whose brother was murdered in the 1965 genocide, as he confronts with great empathy and composure the men behind his brother’s slaughter. Perhaps confronts is the wrong word, for his goal is to generate a dialogue, to make peace, to get at the truth, and to forgive, if given the opportunity. Adi was born two years after his brother, Ramli, was killed. He may not have been alive at the time, but the trauma of the coup is still fresh and present to Adi: the perpetrators are still in power and he is surrounded by neighbours who took part in the killings and were rewarded richly for their service.” …READ MORE
22. Archipelago (2010, dir. Joanna Hogg)
“Archipelago expands on the vacation theme of Joanna Hogg’s previous film, Unrelated (2007), but with characters who are a lot less willing or able to change. Twentysomething Edward (Tom Hiddleston) is the perspective character in the film, and, like Unrelated’s Anna, he hopes to leave his former life to escape what he does not like about himself. The film charts a family vacation in the Scilly Isles that is ostensibly Edward’s send-off for his impending year-long escape. He is no longer in his old life — a high-powered financial job in the city that he hates — nor beginning his new life as a volunteer sexual health educator in Africa. Edward’s time in the Scilly Isles, which pushes him into old toxic habits by sharing space with his family, only cements his listlessness, his uncertainty, and the misguided rashness of this choice that he hopes will be a panacea for both his upper class guilt and his passivity.” …READ MORE
21. Aquarius (2016, dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)
“Aquarius follows Clara (Sonia Braga), a widow and retired music critic who is the last person left in her apartment building after a major buyout that caused all the other tenants to leave. She refuses to leave on principle, because she won’t be chased out of her home, but also because her apartment is where she’s lived her life and made her memories. Were she to move, she’d lose a part of herself. As the construction company tries more and more threatening tactics to push Clara out of the building, she gets increasingly stubborn about standing her ground. As this real estate battle plays out, we also get a glimpse into Clara’s day-to-day life, her relationship with her family, and the class divide between her relatively rich family and the poorer parts of town.” …READ MORE
20. Unsane (2018, dir. Steven Soderbergh)
“What appeared at first to be a small experiment in Steven Soderbergh’s extensive directorial canon — a low budget film shot on an iPhone — ended up one of his greatest achievements. Watching Unsane for the first time was an incredibly cathartic experience for me: it was very emotional to see a film depict the way women must constantly perform in order to appease or even survive the men who objectify them. I felt especially gratified given the film explored these themes through the lens of horror tropes and techniques — it acknowledges that living under patriarchy is, in fact, horrific, and should be recognised as such.” …READ MORE
19. Coriolanus (2011, dir. Ralph Fiennes)
Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut is a straight up masterpiece, and one of the best film adaptations of a Shakespeare play — all the more impressive because of what a difficult play Coriolanus is. Transporting the action to modern day, Fiennes stars as the emotionally stunted war machine, Coriolanus, who takes revenge on his own kingdom when they exile him — only to be convinced to stop by his overbearing mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Working from a pared down script by John Logan, Fiennes finds great psychological insight into this often unlikable character and fills out the supporting roles with memorable performances and interpretations. I was ambivalent the first time I saw the film and was new to the play; on second viewing, having seen other productions, I realised what an amazing accomplishment it is, and a compulsively watchable one. On our Shakespeare podcast, 21st Folio, we went deep on what makes this film so great and compared it to the Donmar’s production (captured by NTLive) starring Tom Hiddleston only to conclude that nobody can play Coriolanus as well as Fiennes. – Alex Heeney
18. Raw (2016, dir. Julia Ducournau)
“Three people fainted during the North American premiere of Raw, writer-director Julia Ducournau’s cannibalistic coming-of-age story. Crisply shot and incredibly well-acted, Raw confidently straddles the boundary between gore-shock and psychological horror. Ducournau’s film centres on Justine (Garance Marillier), a young vegetarian who develops strange appetites after she’s forced to consume raw meat as part of a hazing ritual at veterinary school. Justine’s sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf), an older vet student, at first seems distant, but the two prove more alike than we can initially imagine. Together, both sisters embody a new kind of female body horror where carnal hunger isn’t contingent on sexual rapacity.” …READ MORE
17. Charlie’s Country (2013, dir. Rolf de Heer)
Rolf de Heer’s Charlie’s Country is a harrowing look at the ways in which white privilege and colonialism continue to negatively affect aboriginals in Australia. We follow Charlie (an amazing, heartbreaking David Gulpilil), an elder in the community, who is struggling to survive. He doesn’t have enough money to eat well, so he tries to fashion himself weapons to hunt, only to have these confiscated by local law enforcement, because he doesn’t have a permit — and can’t afford one. The police are just following the law, doing their best, but it’s part of a long history of colonialism which has systematically disadvantaged the aboriginals. We watch Charlie persevere, destroying his life, trying to find his purpose again, and all the while caught between the white man’s world — there is medicine there that can help — and his culture. There’s a telling line when he visits the doctor who insists he speak English, unlike a foreigner, and Charlie explodes — in his mother tongue — about who the real foreigner and intruder is. – Alex Heeney
16. Personal Shopper (2016, dir. Olivier Assayas)
“Was Maureen depressed because she lived in her phone, or did she live in her phone because she was depressed? In Personal Shopper, the intimate way in which we interact with technology is both a metaphor for depression (and anxiety) and an expression of it. As Kristen Stewart, who plays the titular personal shopper Maureen, put it on Charlie Rose, her co-star in the film was her phone. Most of the time, Maureen is alone, though she’s constantly communicating with someone through her phone. But she’s detached in every sense of the word: from her own life and ambitions, from other people, and from her reality.” …READ MORE
15. Louder Than Bombs (2015, dir. Joachim Trier)
“Joachim Trier’s sublime English-language debut Louder Than Bombs is an engrossing and empathetic look at a family recovering from trauma. More experimental and broader in scope than Trier’s perfectly taut Oslo, August 31st, it’s still just as carefully judged. If you dig deep enough, they share DNA: a story about exile and the meaning of home; a story about how relationships are linked to time and space; and a story of depression, loneliness, and fleeting connections.
Re-teaming with his co-writer Eskil Vogt and cinematographer Jakob Ihre (Reprise, Oslo August 31st), Trier finds new cinematic forms to delve into the inner lives of three characters in the Reed family: the sensitive patriarch Gene (Gabriel Byrne) and his two sons — new father Jonah (Jesse Eisenberg) and socially awkward teenager Conrad (Devin Druid) — who are dealing (or not) with the death of family matriarch Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert). The film switches perspectives between the three men, like a fictional version of Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell, as we try to understand what they’re going through. And like every Trier film to date, it left me completely emotionally destroyed, only increasing in potency with each repeat viewing.” …READ MORE
14. Proxima (2019, dir. Alice Winocour)
“The idea of the separation from Earth resonate[s] with the idea of the separation from the little girl,” Alice Winocour told me, regarding her outstanding new film, Proxima. Eva Green plays Sarah, an astronaut in training who is chosen to take part in a space mission, something all astronauts dream of but many never get to do. When she tells her ex-husband (Lars Eidinger), who is also a colleague, all she has to do is beam at him, and he knows what’s happened. Nothing else could make Sarah this happy.
But there are complications: namely, Sarah’s young daughter, Stella. Sarah will be away from Earth and from her daughter for a whole year. But this isn’t a film about whether or not Sarah decides to leave; there’s never any doubt that she will go. Sarah adores her job, she’s fantastic at it, and the film never judges her for wanting to do what she loves. Stella will be fine in the hands of her father, who’s capable and loving, so Sarah doesn’t have to worry about her little girl’s well-being while she’s gone. In fact, there’s very little traditional conflict in Proxima. But that doesn’t make it any less gripping.” …READ MORE
13. The Deep Blue Sea (2011, dir. Terence Davies)
“For Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz), the tragic heroine of The Deep Blue Sea, nothing is worse than the thundering sounds of everyday minutiae. Dinners dominated by the sounds of cutlery and china clinking eventually pushed her to abscond from her comfortable, posh life. But when the film opens, the soundscape is filled with Hester’s suicide preparations: the click of the lock on the door sliding into place, the clink of her coins falling into the gas meter. As Hester reclines and waits, she remembers the end of her marriage, to her gentle but boring husband Lord Collyer (Simon Russell Beale), and the deliriously romantic beginning of her affair with the former RAF pilot, Freddie (Tom Hiddleston). The camera circles around Hester’s and Freddie’s naked, entwined bodies in bed. But screenwriter-director Terence Davies tells us what Hester can’t see by repeating the shot, this time scanning Hester’s body on the ground as she waits to die: the affair may have brought her back to life, but it also killed her.” …READ MORE
12. The Burden (2017, dir. Niki Lindroth von Bahr)
“‘I wanted to ask the question: if you were, for example, night cleaning a hamburger restaurant, and suddenly found yourself in a musical, what would you sing about?’ And so Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s hilarious and moving short film The Burden was born. Made over two and a half years, this highly original stop motion animation film screened in the TIFF Short Cuts section, and it was one of the best things we saw at the festival. Inspired by Old Hollywood musicals like Singin’ in the Rain and Anchors Aweigh, The Burden features tap dancing mice cleaning in a hamburger restaurant, lonely fish at a long stay hotel, and monkeys in a call centre who find themselves in a Busby Berkeley number — all singing about existential despair, anxiety, and loneliness.” …READ MORE
11. You Were Never Really Here (2017, dir. Lynne Ramsay)
“When we first see Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) in action in You Were Never Really Here, he fulfills all our expectations of a hitman. He’s a hooded figure, prowling a dark alleyway at night. A random attacker doesn’t phase him: Joe knocks the man down with a headbutt, as if it’s nothing, and walks away. He seems like a smooth operator, and director Lynne Ramsay encourages us to revel in his brutality, lingering on Joe’s victim as he writhes in pain on the floor, while an adrenaline-fueled synth piece in Jonny Greenwood’s score kicks in. Joe wishes he were in the kind of film where the hitman is detached and ‘cool’, where violence offers a thrilling catharsis. But by forcing us to share Joe’s warped perspective, You Were Never Really Here takes a far more honest approach to a hitman’s trauma and suicidal ideation.” …READ MORE
10. Stories We Tell (2012, dir. Sarah Polley)
“Sarah Polley’s film is more creative nonfiction than documentary: a film about uncovering and unpacking her family’s history that is itself designed to draw our attention to the art of storytelling on film. Reenactments that feel like home videos can be mistaken for fact, and interviews with multiple people in the family reveal often conflicting perspectives. Polley lets us see herself in the frame with a camera or in direct dialogue with her subjects, as a reminder that not only is she choosing the questions and directing the conversations, but also curating the footage and how it’s presented. Many people tell their stories in this film; Polley gets the final say in the cutting room.”
9. Sergio & Sergei (2017, dir. Ernesto Daranas)
Sergio & Sergei is a warm comedy about connecting across borders and a critique of totalitarian regimes. Sergio is a Marxist Philosophy Professor in Havana and a ham radio enthusiast. Just as the USSR is dissolving, he unexpectedly makes radio contact with Sergei, the only cosmonaut still on the Russian Space Station MIR, and they become friends. Both suddenly find themselves isolated from the rest of the world: Cuba has lost its closest ally while Sergei finds the borders on the ground have changed in ways that seem arbitrary from outer space. Meanwhile, Cuban government agents are eavesdropping on Sergio’s transmissions when they discover he not only has an American friend (an Apollo conspiracy theorist) but a Russian one — at this time in politics! Hilarity ensues, but director Ernesto Daranas Serrano pays close attention to how political events impact day-to-day lives, focusing on the humanity of his characters and the importance of their relationships. It’s a crowd-pleasing delight. – Alex Heeney
8. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, dir. Céline Sciamma)
“The winner of the Cannes Best Screenplay prize, Portrait is a masterclass in structure. When we interviewed Sciamma about Girlhood, she talked about wanting to create the “desire to see a face” or “the appetite for [a] face.” Sciamma pushes this to the extreme in Portrait, creating immense suspense in our desire to see Héloīse (Adèle Haenel), the noble woman that Marianne (Noémie Merlant) has been commissioned to paint. We track Marianne on a long journey to Héloīse’s home, and then hear about Héloīse from everyone she knows. Even the first time she appears on screen, we follow her from behind, on tenterhooks for her to turn around and show us her face.” …READ MORE
7. Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013, dir. Jeff Barnaby)
Métis writer Chelsea Vowell wrote “I strongly believe that every adult living in Canada should watch this film (though there are more trigger warnings for this film than I can count, so please take care)” because it was a “a glimpse into something none of us really want to see but must face.” In a time when political art is so didactic, Rhymes for Young Ghouls stands out for its brilliant use of genre film language, mixing horror, grindhouse revenge, and post-apocalyptic imagery to express the very real horror of Canada’s colonialism. What sets Rhymes apart from many “revenge fantasy” films is that it remains mindful of how violence affects characters and produces and reproduces trauma that flows through generations. – Brett Pardy
6. Call Me by Your Name (2017, dir. Luca Guadagnino)
“Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name is his sweetest, calmest, and loveliest film. It sneaks up on you. For 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and grad student Oliver (Armie Hammer), it’s both lust at first sight and a winding journey to each other — on bikes and in the water, through physical teasing and gentle intellectual one-upmanship in the Northern Italian countryside, summer 1983. Throughout, Guadagnino captures what first love feels like, in all its fumbling, awkward, confusing, terrifying, joyous glory.” …READ MORE
5. Weekend (2011, dir. Andrew Haigh)
“In Weekend, Russell’s (Tom Cullen) home is a quiet, safe space that he’s carefully carved out, away from the loud, disorienting, and often homophobic city. Russell grew up in foster care without a proper home, so having a place to call his own is especially significant. He’s made the apartment his own: postcards are arranged on the kitchen cupboards and taped to the wall of his bedroom in a collage. There are plants on every windowsill, brightening the space. His rooms are filled with things from charity shops, in part due to financial necessity, but also because Russell likes things with history — even someone else’s. At one point, he gives a speech about the mismatched mugs in his kitchen, positing a possible backstory for how one of them ended up in the charity shop. Inventing stories like that is half the fun because It imbues every object with meaning.” … READ MORE
4. Leave No Trace (2018, dir. Debra Granik)
“Films about living off the grid tend to hurtle toward a collision of worlds. In Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace, military veteran Will (Ben Foster) and his teenage daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) live in an illegal camp in Portland’s Forest Park. Overhead, sunlight filters through the canopy, and a spider spins its thin, silvery web. Father and daughter spend their days trekking through the brush, scavenging for mushrooms, and fortifying their tent — but it is only a matter of time before they are banished from Eden and forced (like the rest of us) to play by society’s rules.
In Leave No Trace, Granik uses the high-stakes set-up of her genre — the divide between nature and civilization — to trace an ordinary familial journey: the process of separating from a parent during adolescence. In the wilderness, Tom and Will are closer than they would be otherwise; their survival depends on their cohesion as a unit. Upon re-entering society, however, they stumble into a new economy of space, and the state draws boundaries between them. Through trial and error — and a zigzagging odyssey into and out of civilization — Tom and Will seek a new equilibrium in their relationship, one that will afford Tom the chance to follow her own desires and intuitions.” …READ MORE
3. Mouthpiece (2018, dir. Patricia Rozema)
“The best movie of the year, Mouthpiece, is Canadian, set in Toronto, and written and directed by women and about women. Director Patricia Rozema (Mansfield Park, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing) — in collaboration with Toronto theatremakers-actors-writers Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava — has effortlessly adapted a piece of physical theatre into a naturalistic film that gets up close and intimate with the characters. The film’s innovative conceit is that the main character, thirty-something Torontonian Cassandra, is simultaneously played by two actors, Nostbakken and Sadava. This dual performance, where the actors sometimes mirror each other and sometimes diverge or even conflict, allows them to represent two sides of a complex woman who is constantly in conflict with herself. It’s a meditation on the things we think and the things we do, and how they can be contradictions, how every moment is charged with multiple emotions.” …READ MORE
2. Certain Women (2016, dir. Kelly Reichardt)
“Not much happens on the surface in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, but these small stories have big emotions and ideas. A lawyer (Laura Dern) having an illicit affair is pestered by her dogged former client. An entrepreneur (Michelle Williams) seeks to buy rocks from a local friend to use in the house her husband is building for her. And a ranch hand (Lily Gladstone) becomes enamored with a young lawyer from the city (Kristen Stewart) who teaches a night class in town.
All of the interactions in the film find people talking to each other without quite listening to or hearing one another, with women’s voices most often falling on deaf ears. But the film is as much about the ways in which our personal space is invaded, the way we invade others’ spaces — sometimes, just by insisting on being heard — and how we create our own prisons, even as we seek to liberate ourselves.” …READ MORE
1.Oslo, August 31st (2011, dir. Joachim Trier)
“Joachim Trier’s brilliant and moving Oslo August 31st is as much about its protagonist — the over-educated, over-privileged, recovering heroin addict Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) — as it is about his generation and his city. Anders is our window into the city, and as a former drug dealer, he was, in the words of his former friend, “the best connected guy in Oslo” — although he spends the film feeling like the most disconnected one. When he returns to the city for one day in August, it’s from a ten-month exile in rehab. The occasion is a job interview, but he also uses the opportunity to catch up with old friends and family, in an effort to either start again or to say goodbye — he hasn’t quite decided which, having attempted suicide that morning, but changing his mind. We wait with baited breath to see which way it will go.” … READ MORE
