Vinylwriter’s Top 10 Films of the Decade

10. Mommy (2014 / directed by Xavier Dolan)
In a fictitious Canada, a new law allows parents to lock their problematic children inside a special center. But Diane “Die” Despres (Anne Dorval), a widowed mother, decides to educate her hyperactive and violent teenage son Steve (Antoine Olivier Pilon) herself. Steve has insanely violent episodes and suffers from serious mental instability. The mysterious neighbor Kyla (Suzzane Clément) offers her help, and the relationship between the three will become increasingly close; raising questions, mysteries and immensely powerful emotions. An intense family story where tenderness and brutality lie close together. (Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize 2014)

9. Under The Skin (2013 / directed by Jonathan Glazer)
An alien woman (Scarlett Johansson) drives around the streets of Glasgow, Scotland. She strikes up conversations with various men that she picks up along the way. She seduces and abducts them. However, as this woman encounters more men, she will also realize and discover new things about herself. A dark, philosophical, terrifying but utterly captivating journey into the unknown depths of cosmic infinity. Read our full review here

8. Winter Sleep (2014 / directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
With influences from writers like Dostoievski, Chéjov and Tolstoi, director Nuri Bilge Ceylan takes us to the depths of the ancient stone town of Cappadocia, Turkey. Once there, he creates a massive character study that focuses into the everyday existence of a middle-aged former actor and hotel owner (Haluk Bilginer), and the people revolving around his universe. The film emerges with a multi-layered and brilliant study of human weakness. All of their moral implications resonate far beyond its remote Turkish setting. (Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Palme D’or in 2014)

7. Leviathan (2014 / directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev)
In a Russian coastal town, Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov) and his family face off a corrupt mayor (Román Madyanov) who wants to buy the piece of land upon which their house is built, willing to destroy the family nest to raise a modern building instead. The family is tormented by the forces of fate, power, and lies. It all translates into an immense fight against an almighty corrupt system, injustices, and hypocrisies. A flaming desire to demonstrate the truth. (Winner for the Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival 2014)

6. Burning (2018 / directed by Lee Chang-Dong)
In Paju, South Korea, Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) is a young aspiring writer who takes odd jobs and takes care of his family’s farm. He reconnects with a former classmate Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), whose affections later turn to the wealthy and mysterious Ben (Steven Yuen). Ben’s unusual character will soon take everyone into a dark and mysterious path. The film is a beautifully strange journey that focuses on class division, the dramatisation of psychological breakdowns, and the consequences of alienation. It also works as a critique of toxic relationships and misogyny. A fiercely intelligent and complexly layered experience.

5. The Lobster (2015 / directed by Yorgos Lanthimos)
The film focuses on a tightly controlled hotel on the coast of Ireland. David (Colin Farrell), a recently divorced man, is given 40 days to find a partner inside “The Hotel”. Otherwise, he will be transformed into an animal of his preference; in this case, a lobster. Lanthimos creates a surreal and grotesque universe in which marriage is idealized and it is indispensable in order to remain a human. (Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize 2015). Read our full review here

4. ROMA (2018 / directed by Alfonso Cuarón)
Roma is the neighborhood of Mexico City where mexican director Alfonso Cuarón grew up. The director signs his most personal work by returning to recreate the Mexico City of his childhood, in order to highlight what happened around him and went unnoticed as a child: the life of the maids of his upper-class house and the heated socio-political climate of Mexico City during the 70s. The film is shot in a gorgeous, lyrical and poetic black and white. Part memoir, part elegaic fiction, Cuarón hit cinematic perfection with this beautiful work of art. (Winner of the BAFTA Film Award & Foreign Language Film Oscar 2019)

3. The Tree Of Life (2011 / directed by Terrence Malick)
With cosmic, powerful, and bone-chilling audacity, director Terrence Malick inserted the creation of the universe and the five-billion-year history of Earth into the tale of a middle-class family in 1950’s Texas. Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn headline this titanical experience, filled with beautiful, ravishing visuals and meditative voice-overs. (Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Palme D’or in 2011)
“A film of vast ambition and deep humility … The only other film I’ve seen with this boldness of vision is Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it lacked Malick’s fierce evocation of human feeling.”- Roger Ebert

2. Amour (2012 / directed by Michael Haneke)

A striking love portrayal of two elder and retired musicians coping with vascular dementia. We see Mrs Laurent (Emmanuelle Riva) transforming from a graceful lady to a completely unrecognisable person. Her husband, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) loves and patiently takes care of her, demanding nothing in return. In ‘Amour‘, we delve into the deepest, purest, and most profound type of love. (Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Palme D’or in 2012)

1. Melancholia (2011 / directed by Lars von Trier)

Melancholia is a sci-fi-drama that tells us a story through the perspective of two sisters; Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). A hellish wedding and a series of painfully sad events happen while a mysterious planet called “Melancholia” threatens to collide with Earth and destroy the planet. Lars von Trier crafted an ultimate masterpiece about clinical depression, anxiety, and the end of the world. Read our full review here

by Octavio Carbajal González