Day 19 of Best Films of the 2010s: Sleeping With Other People (2015)

I caught this romantic comedy on Netflix, and was surprised that I liked it so much, as it ended up feeling more deeper than the original surface story would seem. The plot centers on two people, played by Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis, who lost their virginities to each other in college, and reconnect years later in a sex addicts anonymous group while trying to deal with being habitual cheaters who sabotage their own relationships. They have an obvious sexual chemistry between them that they acknowledge, but as both of them know that they are bad in romantic relationships, they instill a rule about staying friends, even employing a safe word whenever sexual tension arises between them.

It’s a really touching movie with a lot of emotional depth that goes into the darker part of Brie’s character Lainey, as she is hung up on her affair with her old college fling, a married doctor who cheats on his wife with her, and who she ruined her last relationship for. Adam Scott plays him in this creepy, wormy kind of way with a thin mustache, and he comes off as pretty cold and unappealing, yet she can’t resist him, using him like a drug. She comes off as a sweet and funny person who needs to find her own strength to truly get over him and grow up more.

Sudeikis’ character Jake has this mix of being a charming rakish bro but having a deep heart when it comes to his friendship with Lainey. He chooses to date casually, not wanting to settle down so he won’t cheat, and ends up going out with his boss, a solid Amanda Peet, who seems way more adult and together than he is. But he and Lainey are still drawn together, and keep trying to stay platonic friends so that they don’t ruin things by dating and inevitably cheating on one another.

The film was made by Lesley Headland, who is most famous for creating Russian Doll, the standout time loop Netflix series with Natasha Lyonne, as well as the underrated dark comedy Bachelorette. There’s a lot of care put into this film, with these flawed romantic leads that felt more relatable to me than others, and I liked how the movie was about messed-up cheaters who learn how to deal with their issues and grow to become better people, it felt refreshing to watch, and was one of my recent favorites.

Day 18 of Best Films of the 2010s: Young Adult (2011)

It’s a little tough narrowing down a role of Charlize Theron’s in this decade, given that Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde are also among my list for this project. But I picked Young Adult because Theron was just so sharp and mean in playing this petty woman still mentally stuck in high school twenty years later, still seeing herself as the hot prom queen, and when her old high school boyfriend, now married and expecting a child, invites her to a backyard party in their hometown, she is dead-set on stealing him back and proving to everyone that she’s still hot.

It’s this messed-up, mean-spirited, insecure high school mentality that Theron plays so well with her stunning looks and the stinkeye that she gives to anyone she deems beneath her. She assesses every woman she meets by just staring her up and down, internally judging her for her clothes, hair, makeup, or anything just so she can say to herself, “Yeah, I’m prettier than her.”

And the object of her affection (Patrick Wilson), is just so naïvely friendly to her, welcoming her back like she’s an old friend instead of his ex, and is blissfully unaware that she’s there to blow up his marriage and try to just snatch him from his settled domestic life, like to just pick up from high school as if nobody else has moved on. It’s a great contrast to her pettiness that he’s just so nice and trusting, while a lot of the other women see through her schemes and are at arm’s length with her.

With Patton Oswalt as a former bullied classmate who provides an uglier reality to how much high school sucks for most people, Young Adult, written by Diablo Cody, is just a sharp and dead-on film that gives a sympathetic perspective on a really small-minded and immature character.

Day 17 of Best Films of the 2010s: Warrior (2011)

I went into this thinking it would be a cheesy sports movie about MMA, and was blown away by how great it was. It’s a sports movie/family drama about two estranged brothers (Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy) fighting for a $5 million dollar prize in an MMA tournament, and dealing with a lot of issues over their fractured family. I was really taken in by the depth of character development with the brothers, the heart and honesty that Edgerton and Hardy brought to their roles (particularly Hardy, as an AWOL military war hero who barely talks in the film save one major confrontation scene on the beach with his brother), and the warm craggliness of Nick Nolte as their father trying to mend old problems and bring the family back together again.

I felt like this movie got seriously slept on by the mainstream public, as it got good critical reviews but didn’t become a major sports movie hit. It’s a really touching and honest film, and an almost hidden gem.

Day 16 of Best Films of the 2010s: Girlhood (2014)

This French film about a group of girlfriends in the projects of Paris really stood out as a solid film about friendship and tested boundaries. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, so I don’t recall a lot, but I liked how this film was about an awkward girl being accepted into a tough girl gang, and being integrated into their bonds and being attracted by their bravado and feeling protected within their circle. One of the standout scenes is when they get a hotel room together, drink, and dance to Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” it’s a stunningly beautiful scene of teen girl friendship.

It’s a really heartfelt coming of age film, about a shy girl learning to gain confidence through her girlfriends while also making foolish choices in order to impress them, walking a balancing act between her childhood naïveté and adult awareness. The director, Celine Sciamma, just did Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and I’m looking forward to seeing that too as another depiction of women’s relationships onscreen.

Day 15 of Best Films of the 2010s: Green Room (2016)

I usually don’t get scared by movies, but this intense thriller got to me inside. I saw this at the Nitehawk cinema in Brooklyn, and found this film to be terrifying. A punk rock band on the road ends up playing at a Nazi skinhead club way out in the rural country, and end up being held hostage when they accidentally see a murder. They know they will die, so they, being punk kid amateurs against armed white supremacists, fight back in a scrappy way to survive, and its rough to watch.

Anton Yelchin was so good as a fragile kid fighting tooth and nail to get out, and it’s sad that this came out shortly before he died in a freak accident. And Patrick Stewart was chilling as the local Nazi leader, who just talks in a quiet, calm voice, and speaks in vague euphemisms about killing the band to cover everything up.

I really do like thrillers, especially ones that make me really uncomfortable to watch, and this was a really great and harrowing film to watch.

Day 14 of Best Films of the 2010s: Ingrid Goes West (2017)

I don’t really think this is a great film, as it has a copout ending that spoils the film for me. However, I’m noting it for Aubrey Plaza’s performance. She plays an obsessed stalker who latches onto an Instagram influencer (after having already served her sentence in a psychiatric hospital for stalking and attacking a previous influencer), and copies her look and worms her way into her life to be her best friend. Plaza acts a lot with her eyes, and she was so good at conveying the insecurity and desperation of her character to seem effortlessly cool and nonchalant, like in trying to write the “perfectly casual” comment on the influencer’s post, to dressing like her object of obsession, and having this pained look in her eyes of “please like me.”

Elizabeth Olsen was also spot on in adopting the L.A. vocal fry influencer voice where she tosses off everything as “the best” and acts both positive and condescending at the same time. Given that she mostly shines in indie dramas, and isn’t an improviser like Plaza is, it’s fun to watch her playing this vapid and airy character outside of more serious stuff like Martha Marcy May Marlene and Wind River. And while I know she’s famous from the Avengers movies too, I see her more as an indie drama actress first.

Again, I think it’s just a decent movie, but Plaza was fantastic in playing this character struggling with her mental health and dangerous obsession, and recommend it for her alone.

Day 13 of Best Films of the 2010s: The Favourite (2018)

I went into this being a huge fan of Rachel Weisz (I basically fell for her when I was 13 from Stealing Beauty), and adored this one. I like the satirical humor, the power play of two women vying to be the queen’s favorite and influence, the gorgeous costume design, the wide angle lens like something out of a Busta Rhymes video, the queer romances intertwining, and Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz as rivals while Olivia Colman’s queen is ill and eccentric. I don’t have a lot to say about this one, I just found it really intriguing and enjoyable to watch.

Day 12 of Best Films of the 2010s: The Martian (2015)

I saw this twice in theaters, and just loved it. I loved how it was a movie about NASA, and there were no villains in the film, just a positive movie about trying to bring a botanist/astronaut home who got accidentally stranded on Mars after a mission, and how the botanist survives through a mix of science, savoir faire, and good humor. It felt like a really rich movie, and I liked how it combined humor, dramatic tension, high stakes, and a variety of astronauts, scientists, physicists, and mathematicians at NASA to work together and figure out issues through problem solving. I’ve mostly posted a lot about indie or artsy films, so I wanted to mention a Hollywood film that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Day 11 of Best Films of the 2010s: Support the Girls (2018)

I watched this on Hulu, and really got into it. Regina Hall is really warm and charismatic as the manager of a sports-themed restaurant in the style of Hooters or the Tilted Kilt, who looks out for her “girls,” runs a tight ship, and has to get through a particularly difficult day of technical issues, a failed overnight robbery, domestic drama with the waitresses’ lives, managerial issues with her boss, and much more. It’s a really caring portrait of working-class women in Texas who would be otherwise dismissed because of their attractive looks and skimpy outfits, with a lot of heart and respect for the largely female cast. Hall is fantastic in this standout performance, and I’m happy that she’s way more famous now and getting more substantial roles in films like this, Girls Trip, Think like a Man, Little, and People Places Things, after years of largely playing side roles of either the best friend, sister, or the girlfriend in movies.

Day 10 of Best Films of the 2010s: Good Time (2017)

I didn’t see this when it first came out, I saw it later on at the Moving Image museum. I really dug it a lot, and liked how it was going for an 80’s sketchy movie look, like a genre thriller, albeit with higher production value from esteemed indie directors the Safdie brothers and featuring former teen idol Robert Pattinson. It’s one of those movies where everything crazy happens in one night, and Pattinson plays a bank robber trying to free his brother from jail by getting more money for his bail bond, going through the shady underworld of Queens at night, and just running into a lot of offbeat characters along the way. It just keeps getting deeper into this weirder odyssey, and I was totally into it. I also liked the neon colors too, hence why I chose this photo to illustrate my post. This film not only gave the Safdie brothers more critical acclaim, but also gave Pattinson more indie street cred post-Twilight, along with the films he did with David Cronenberg and Claire Denis.

Day 9 of Best Films of the 2010s: The Handmaiden (2016)

I really loved this one, it was a unique and cool adaptation of Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, taking a story initially set in mid-19th century England and transferring it to 1930s Japan-occupied Korea, and making it fit perfectly. I loved the twists and weirdness of the thriller, the sometimes absurd comedy, the gorgeous set design, the intense eroticism, and its overall creativity. I haven’t seen it since it came out, but I adored it in theaters, I thought it was so much fun to watch.

Day 8 of Best Films of the 2010s: Stories We Tell (2012)

I’m a big fan of Sarah Polley, and liked how personal this documentary was, about her trying to learn more about her mother, who died when Polley was 11, by interviewing family and friends, and sharing vintage Super-8 home movie footage that is later revealed to be re-enactments. She also discovers more secrets about her identity and her family history, like how she was the product of an extramarital affair between her mother and a film producer. I only watched part of the film, but I found it fascinating, and liked how Polley has this compassionate heart in her filmmaking and comes off like a regular person in her roles and directing features.

Day 7 of Best Films of the 2010s: Pariah (2011)

This was a fantastic standout and feature directorial debut for Dee Rees, of an intimate drama about a Black lesbian teen named Alike (Adepero Oduye) struggling between being closeted to her traditional parents and being her free self among friends, and exploring her identity, her sexuality, and struggling with her relationship to her conservative-minded mother.

I really liked how the film was often about Alike struggling with her duality of roles in her life, of appearing more traditional straight female among her family and shedding that to be her natural lesbian self outside of the home, and trying to understand her sexuality with like-minded girls, with mixed results and confusion.

This film kicked off Rees’ successful career as a director, with Bessie and Mudbound to follow. And while I do wish Oduye became a bigger star after this film, it was a joy to watch her in a short film in which she played Nina Simone, a role she should rightfully play in a major biopic.

Day 6 of Best Films of the 2010s: 50/50 (2011)

I don’t know why this connected with me, it just did. It’s a funny comedy-drama about cancer, and I like how it’s played very realistically, not full of melodrama, and is often more about the day to day average life of a person with cancer, dealing with frustrations and finding humor when they can to cope with it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great in this film, he just captures a lot of little nuances in his performance, and makes him feel more like a person you would know, he has a nice warmth to him. I really liked Seth Rogen as his dudebro best friend with a lot of heart and love for him beneath his pot and sex jokes. Angelica Huston is fantastic as his shut-out mother struggling with seeing her son in pain, and Anna Kendrick was really fun and charming as his awkward therapist in-training, trying way too hard to show empathy through scripted maneuvers.

I even really like the Seattle setting, it’s not often you see movies set in the PNW, so it was a nice change of pace. This is just a really solid movie all around.

Day 5 of Best Films of the 2010s: Grandma (2015)

This was one of the more interesting and unique indie films I had seen in years. Lily Tomlin plays a woman who is grieving the loss of her longtime partner, just broke up with her much younger girlfriend of a few months, and her teen granddaughter (Julia Garner) comes to her to tell her she’s pregnant and needs $600 for an abortion appointment that day. Both are broke, so they just go around to people they know who owe them favors to collect the money in time for the appointment. It’s funny and strong, and is a heavily female-focused story, with a lot of solid actresses in supporting roles (Marcia Gay Harden, Laverne Cox, Lauren Tom, Judy Greer, Elizabeth Pena, Colleen Camp), and it was a rare movie focusing on a lesbian woman in her senior age with a lot of varied life experience. I just really dug this one a lot.

Day 4 of Best Films of the 2010s: John Wick series (2014, 2017, 2019)

I was amazed by the first film. I loved its highly stylized atmosphere, use of neon colors and lighting cues, the grimness of the fight choreography, Reeves being intimidating and stoic in a largely silent role in the first film, men fighting each other in suits, the rawness that Reeves pulled out of himself during his monologue scene in the finale of the first one about the significance of his late wife and the puppy, the tight cinematography that largely holds still on fight sequences, the organized underworld system of assassins and their neutral meeting ground of an elite hotel, the fact that all of this bloody revenge was sparked by the death of a puppy, the dark humor sprinkled in here and there, and just how intricate the whole John Wick universe gets. I just adore this series so much and had so much fun watching the last one this year.

Day 3 of Best Films of the 2010s: Obvious Child (2014)

I had heard of this when it originated as a short film in 2009, being up on Vimeo, directed by Gillian Robespierre, and starring a not totally-known Jenny Slate as a young woman who gets dumped, has a one-night-stand, gets pregnant, and has an abortion. It was full of heart, funny, touching, and Slate was totally charming with her cartoon voice and normal girl face. I even liked how the dialogue in the abortion waiting room scene was very reminiscent of Kevin Smith dialogue, a la Chasing Amy, with characters connecting through shared histories of knowing the same people from high school.

The film became a feature in 2014, and even though the story doesn’t reflect mine totally, I found the film deeply relatable. Part of it was Slate’s performance, but I think it was the writing of a character who is near thirty and doesn’t have a direction in her life, and I was definitely like that, working a lot of assorted nowhere jobs in my twenties before I figured out that being an archivist was right for me at age 29. This film just grabbed me, and I’ve watched it several times, and I find it funny and comforting to watch as a fractured romantic comedy. Richard Kind is so wonderful as Slate’s dad, with a puppet jump scare that makes me laugh every time, and Gaby Hoffman was fantastic as Slate’s deeply real best friend, I loved their chemistry and bond together. It’s just one of my favorite films of this decade.

Day 2 of Best Films of the 2010s - Paterson (2016)

I felt at such peace while watching this movie, and loved its serenity and simplicity. Adam Driver plays a bus driver named Paterson in Paterson, NJ who writes poetry, and he’s a quiet person who lives a very scheduled, average life with his girlfriend and their dog. He writes poetry for himself, not to be famous or to share with the world, and he loves observing people during his route or at the bar at night. His partner’s open artsiness complements his quiet artsiness. I love the little moments in this film, like when he chats with a guy (Method Man) working through some raps while doing his laundry at the laundromat, or smiling at people’s conversations on the bus, or just sitting outside eating his lunch and writing poetry. It’s a beautiful movie, and one of Jim Jarmusch’s best.

Favorite Films of the 2010s

To close out the last month of 2019, I will post about my favorite films of the 2010s, going for 31 for every day of December. There may be other favorites that I would be leaving out, but a lot of these have been my favorites of the decade.

Goon/Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2011 and 2017)

I put these as a double because I just love these two movies so much. They're dirty and messy and hilarious hockey movies about a likable loser named Doug (Seann William Scott) who is the enforcer on a Halifax hockey team, just knocking guys out with bloody punches, but feeling like the misfit because of his quietness and lack of brightness. He's a sweet guy, and it was a nice change to see Scott expand his acting from just playing smirking assholes in bro comedies to playing someone with more heart and sensitivity. In the first film, he gets a girlfriend in a hockey groupie (Alison Pill), makes friends with the rowdy, shit-talking team, and goes up against a rival enforcer (Liev Schreiber), gaining more experience and finding his place in the world. In the sequel, he gets the hell beaten out of him by a new enforcer rival (Wyatt Russell), ending his career on the ice. He tries to work a straight job in insurance, is awaiting the birth of his child with his now-wife, and misses hockey and reconciles with his old rival (Schreiber) to get back to his team and take back his place on the ice.

That's the basic plot, but the beauty of this film is in its heart of showcasing a wonderfully potty-mouthed team of Canadians and Eastern Europeans shit-talking one another in thick accents and having a brotherly love for one another. I just adore these movies and the rawness of it all.

Honorable Mentions for Horror Movie Month

Day 30 of Horror Movie Month: Dead Ringers (1988)

I was really amazed by this movie. Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who pretend to be one person to romance a female patient, and have a very unhealthy co-dependent relationship with each other. It was really captivating to watch, and one of my top favorites of David Cronenberg’s films, next to Crash, Existenez, and Eastern Promises.

Day 29 of Horror Movie Month: The Awakening (2011)

I really dug this one a lot. An old-fashioned ghost story set in 1920s England, where Rebecca Hall is a cynical debunker of ghost hoaxes that investigates a spiritual haunting at a boys’ school of a recent boy who died. I found it eerie and loved the atmospheric vibe, as well as Hall in her pragmatic performance.

Bonus for Horror Movie Month: Jennifer’s Body (2009)

I really liked this a lot, and saw it in theaters when it came out. I liked how it was a pretty good horror comedy that mostly focused on female friendship, had a standout performance by Megan Fox who just dug right into the biting humor of the role, and had some truly horrifying sad scenes in it, like of Jennifer getting murdered by an indie rock band for a sacrifice to the devil, or when a more likable sweet character got killed. I thought it was smart and funny, and felt like it got a bad rap at the time because of Fox being seen as a bad actor combined with trailers only playing up her sexiness and nothing else.

Amanda Seyfried was also really solid as the “nerdy” (I use that in quotes because she basically looks more like Hollywood’s version of a girl nerd than like everyday ones) best friend who has an unhealthy co-dependent relationship with Jennifer.

I haven’t seen this since it came out, but I just really enjoyed it, and I’m glad it’s getting more appreciation now than it did back then.

Day 28 of Horror Movie Month: In My Skin (2002)

This is a French body horror movie that focuses a lot on self-mutilation, and it’s this weird movie that is about a woman who has a psychotic break after an accident and is getting this intimate feel of exploring her own body and being disconnected from everyday life, getting wrapped up in cutting up her legs even as she likes digging into herself, and eventually eats her own flesh. It isn’t for anyone with self-harm issues, as the movie definitely puts an artsy gloss over it, but I found it unique and interesting.

Day 27 of Horror Movie Month: Near Dark (1987)

I was blown away when I first saw this movie. A badass vampire western with one of the coolest casts at the time, with Lance Henriksen as an Old West vampire giving intense stares and Bill Paxton as a Texas punk vampire just having a ball causing havoc. I love the drama of this film, how the innocent young man is turned into a vampire early on and trying to survive with this assembled family of vampires who seem more like a Wild West gang. The film looks fantastic at night scenes, with a lot of great backlit shots and deserted vibe, and I love how messy and dirty it looks. It’s such a great film, and I’m happy it’s around.

Day 26 of Horror Movie Month: American Mary (2013)

I really liked how twisted and graphic this movie got. Katharine Isabelle plays a medical student who gets revenge on her rapist by holding him prisoner and doing body modification surgery on him to violate his body like he did to hers. She also gets into the world of doing body modification for willing patients, and gets really good at it. I liked this movie’s weirdness, how Isabelle just dives so deep into the underground vibe of the role, and how the directors, twin sisters Sylvia and Jen Soska, clearly have a alternative style that fits the goth/kink/BDSM/indie horror audience for this movie.

Day 25 of Horror Movie Month: Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

I’ve been talking about this with a friend, so it felt inevitable that I talk about it. I only just saw it last year, and found it to be a mix of horrifying, sad, and powerful. It’s a movie about being in an unfamiliar world between life and death, and wrestling with one’s own sanity and accepting certain truths about themselves. Tim Robbins was great in this, it’s one of those times when I don’t even think about the famous actor in the role, he just becomes Jacob and I feel so much for his confused psyche. I loved how nightmarish it was and how it felt so strange but also made me feel more accepting of certain inevitabilities in the end.

While this quote may be a spoiler, it’s one of my favorites in the film, and sums up the movie in a nutshell, from Danny Aiello’s character Louis:

Louis: "If you're afraid of dying, and you're holdin' on, you'll see devils tearin' your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freein' you from the world. It all depends on how you look at it."