The 10 best movies of the decade (2010 - 2019)

Its been one hell of a decade for movie fans, filled with some legendary movies. Here's a list of my favorite movies of the decade. I haven't seen all the movies that have come out, maybe missed out on a bunch of great ones, this is just a list of movies that had me lose my mind over how amazing they were.

10) Arrival

Denis Villeneuve is slowly establishing himself as a great director, a couple more big hits are going to earn him a place among the greats. Aliens have been portrayed in other films but this movie follows Amy Adams, a linguist who attempts to communicate with them in order to know what they want and the movie keeps getting more exciting with time. Amy's relationship with her daughter is beautiful and the back and forth shots between the past and the present are outstanding. Great camera work, cinematography, gripping story, and a brilliant soundtrack has earned Arrival a place in the top 10 list of the decade.

9) Hacksaw Ridge

Mel Gibson made one of the best war movies of all time that has a place very close to and in some ways better than 'Saving Private Ryan'. This was the first movie where Andrew Garfield really had a chance to show off his acting skills and earned himself an Oscar nomination. The movie had great action, emotions, a brilliant background score, and inspired people to respect their values irrespective of what the world demands. Desmond Doss was a true hero and the movie was one of the best documentaries ever made.

8) Django Unchained

Tarrantino has earned his place among the best directors of all time due to his unique style of storytelling and extreme violence in almost every film he has made. Jamie Foxx stole every second of the movie he was on and his friendship with our favorite dentist/bounty hunter, Dr. Schultz was just the best considering the depths he was willing to go to find Django's wife, Broohmhilda. Django Unchained earned Christoph Waltz his 2nd Oscar and what should have been DiCaprio's 1st Oscar even though the latter statement is debatable given the number of brilliant performances by DiCaprio and his limited screentime in this unusually long feature film. But that scene where DiCaprio improvised having injured himself and smearing his own blood on Broomhi's face trying to teach them a lesson about the anatomy of skulls became one of the highlights of DiCaprio's distinguished career. Considering what a great job Tarrantino did with DiCaprio even as a supporting character, Once upon a time in Hollywood was a letdown for many fans who weren't aware of the history of Hollywood even though it was critically acclaimed. Hopefully, his 10th and final film targets a larger audience.

7) Mission Impossible: Fallout

I love Tom Cruise and I'm a huge fan of the Mission Impossible series. They took a franchise to a whole new level from floppy discs to holograms, a series which has adapted to modern times. The only thing that has remained constant is Tom's dedication and passion for doing death-defying stunts. We saw run around the Burj Khalifa, he was hanging on to the edge of an airplane, he held his breath underwater for 6 minutes. He has always aimed to do something better and more daring every movie and has been the backbone of the franchise. Fallout had the best story and challenged Ethan's core values of respecting every single life equally no matter what lies in the balance. I won't be surprised if Ethan goes to space in the next one and knowing Tom, I'm sure he'll train to become an astronaut if that's what it takes.

6) Coco

Animated movies have a special place in my heart, as a child, we always prefer animated cartoons to feature films. Lion king holds a special place for many of us and I grew up watching a lot of DC animated flicks. I had a hard time choosing between Inside Out, Spiderman into the Spider-Verse and Coco. Coco won because of that climax where grandma Coco wins the battle against Alzheimer's and sheds light on her father's real identity. It broke the strongest hearts, especially those who had a healthy relationship with grandparents and made us respect our ancestors more. The movie had a brilliant list of songs including 'Remember Me' one of my all-time favorites and absolutely deserved the Oscar for that year.

5) Joker

Most of us thought that an origin movie for the clown prince would be a really bad idea considering how bad he was handled in the suicide squad. The name 'Todd Phillips' was also not good enough for me to be on board with it. There was a lot of buzz about Scorcese's involvement and how it was going to be drawing inspiration from 'The king of comedy' and 'Taxi driver'. The only thing that made me excited about it was Joaquin Phoenix and what a performance it was. There have been plenty of oscar worthy performances throughout his career but this was easily his best and my favorite Phoenix movie after 'Her'. All that coupled with Hildur's brilliant soundtrack has earned it a spot in my top 10 and as one of the best comic book movies of all time. A fresh take on the superhero genre, the more I think about it, the better it gets.

4) Avengers Infinity War

MCU ruled the box office for one full decade especially since the release of the first Avengers movie which was a dream come true for all Marvel fans and put DC way behind in the feature film game, right now there's no competition at all. There have been some great movies and very few failures despite the constant politics involving the rights of Spiderman, firing Joss Whedon and Edgar Wright but I think Kevin Feige and company have stood strong and kept faith in their actors and directors.

I had a really hard time choosing one movie after narrowing down my list to 3 movies which at least deserve a mention here namely Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Infinity War, and Endgame. The common thing between them being Joe and Anthony Russo who took Captain America and made him the most badass character from a very predictable, perfect, old-fashioned hero while maintaining his core values. Winter Soldier is a political thriller, a first for the MCU and probably the only movie which made the kids bored and the adults wide awake at the edge of their seats with the perfect pacing, action and great acting. Endgame was slow-paced, had its flaws but the portals scene and climax were basically the result of 10 years of hard work and world-building.

I chose Infinity War over the other two because the fight between Thanos and the Avengers at Titan especially Strange and Tony followed by the result of Thanos's snap made me feel emotions that no Marvel movie or any comic book movie has ever done and that would be something that separated Infinity War from all the others. Even though a part of me kept saying 'Of course they'll be back' that was the first time that we saw our beloved heroes lose on such a large scale and it's going to be hard even for Marvel to beat that.

3) Interstellar

We've had some amazing space movies like Gravity and The Martian but what made Interstellar so great was the possibility of finding other galaxies. It's exciting to even think about it but Nolan made a whole movie about it managing to keep that excitement throughout. While there are aspects of it that are hard to believe and parts of the movie that felt downright stupid like the whole thing about 'love' being the key to transcend all dimensions of space and time, the movie overall was still visually awesome and made people aware of black holes and the concept of time running faster. Hans Zimmer's score fits perfectly and Matthew's acting especially when he saw his kids all grown up and the scene with old Murph reunited with her father were just a few of the many great scenes the movie had. Christopher Nolan knows how to keep your attention and watching this movie in a theatre filled with silence is one of the few memorable moments I can never forget.

2) Whiplash

"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'" This movie was a masterpiece from start to finish and was all about how legends were made. Fletcher is probably the harshest teacher/guide I've ever seen. The way he first introduced himself and encouraged Andrew and the way he threw that chair at his head because he was rushing, humiliating Andrew in front of his class was another experience I'll never forget watching the first time. Living in a world that's all about feedback, constant judgments and a way to escape into our comfort zones when things get hard, Whiplash was all about the extremes that a teacher was willing to go to, the limits he was pushing and the psychological trauma that it caused to students. The suicide story made a lot of sense, Fletcher's method of training can be questioned, even prohibited but we can all agree that the look he gave to Andrew, in the end, was just acting gold and J.K. Simmons deserved that oscar.

Honorable Mentions

Quick mentions of movies that almost made the list.

The Dark Knight Rises: A bit slow-paced, maybe Heath Ledger set the bar too high. Could have had more Batman screentime, still a great ending to the trilogy.

Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows: Liked it better than the first one, RDJ was the best guy for the role, Hans Zimmer once again delivered like a boss. A great plot, most importantly, Moriarty was done very well. The chess scene between Holmes and Moriarty is my favorite.

Kingsman The Secret Service: Took the spy movie genre to a different level, the tests were the best parts. Church fight still remains as one of the best scenes I've ever seen. Screwed up the ending in an otherwise classy film.

Avengers Endgame: Too many plotholes, hulk completely wasted, a true cinematic achievement which can only be appreciated if you grew with these characters and followed each of their journeys. This was fan service at its best and the portal scene was a reward for 10 years of world-building.

Captain America The Winter Soldier: One of the most serious Marvel films, non-kid friendly, came close to Infinity War in terms of pacing. Action-packed, fixed Captain America, made him more interesting and relatable as a character.

Toy Story 3: Would have been the perfect end to the Toy Story if they weren't greedy enough to make a 4th part. Andy going to college passing the toys to the next generation was the most perfect ending I could think of. I didn't watch part 4 because I wanted this to be my ending.

X-Men First Class: Most favorite X-Men film. They fixed all the problems of the X-Men universe, not able to think of a better casting choice for Charles and Eric than McAvoy and Fassbender. Wasted opportunities especially after Deadpool. Successfully killed the franchise with Dark Phoenix.

Rise of the planet of the apes: Huge achievement in technical work. Andy Serkis carried the franchise single-handedly. Turned out to be the best trilogy of the decade and one of the best trilogies of all time.

Inside Out: Literally played with our emotions. Bing Bong's disappearing really took a toll on me. The whole process of growing up and becoming more mature filmed beautifully. One of Pixar's best.

Edge of tomorrow: Beautiful concept even though it drew inspiration from groundhog day. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt had great chemistry. One of the most underrated films of the decade.

Spiderman Into the Spider-Verse: This was basically a tribute to Spiderman and his fans. Great story-telling, amazing soundtracks and a great introduction to Miles Morales. Fat Peter Parker became a fan favorite.

1) Inception

Christopher Nolan continued to conquer the decade with consistent hits starting the decade with one of his best films (2nd best in my Nolan list). The concept of dream-sharing was extremely fresh and was brilliantly executed. The movie was extremely fast-paced, action-packed, demanded extreme attention and eventually rewards it. This movie is one of the most rewatchable flicks ever made and has aged phenomenally. Hans Zimmer absolutely deserved an oscar for this because the music complimented the film so well. He composed gems like '528491', 'One simple idea' and 'Mombassa'. My personal favorite soundtrack is 'Time' which also happens to be a part of my everyday playlist. Leonardo DiCaprio's acting, Nolan's genius idea, and execution, Zimmer's breathtaking soundtracks, and outstanding special effects have made Inception not only the best movie of the decade but also one of my all-time favorite Hollywood movies. Nolan has been proving consistently that he's a genius and just like 2010's Inception at the very beginning of the decade, I expect Tenet, which comes out in mid-2020 to be my favorite pick for this decade, only time will tell.