Independent (indie) film suffered this past decade, let's all give a sarcastic clap to the main culprit: streaming services. Maybe 2020 will be the start of a trend against the internet factory mind-numbing viewers and we get back to real films that offend and educate.
For now let's reminisce on this past decade - why not wait till 12/31/19 you say? You can blame the masterpiece 'Waves' for that. I can guarantee it won't be recognized come Oscar season, art house films are just to creative for the Hollywood machine.
Here are my picks of the stand-out English and non-English flick each year had to offer. (Outlier years are 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019 where two foreign films share top spot). Hands down, 'Incendies' is my pick as the greatest (if not the greatest of all-time) film of the decade. Warning: viewing the following might cause vigorous debate among your social circle, in some cases may cause estrangement.
2010
Somewhere
Director: Sofia Coppola
English
Incendies
Director: Denis Villeneuve
French, Arabic
For now let's reminisce on this past decade - why not wait till 12/31/19 you say? You can blame the masterpiece 'Waves' for that. I can guarantee it won't be recognized come Oscar season, art house films are just to creative for the Hollywood machine.
Here are my picks of the stand-out English and non-English flick each year had to offer. (Outlier years are 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019 where two foreign films share top spot). Hands down, 'Incendies' is my pick as the greatest (if not the greatest of all-time) film of the decade. Warning: viewing the following might cause vigorous debate among your social circle, in some cases may cause estrangement.
2010
Somewhere
Director: Sofia Coppola
English
Incendies
Director: Denis Villeneuve
French, Arabic
2011
Melancholia
Director: Lars von Trier
English
Oslo, August 31st
Director: Joachim Trier
Norwegian
2012
Moonrise Kingdom
Director: Wes Anderson
English
Jagten (The Hunt)
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Danish
Después de Lucía (After Lucia)
Director: Michel Franco
Spanish
2013
Upstream Color
Director: Shane Carruth
English
La vie d'Adèle (Blue Is the Warmest Color)
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
French
2014
Boyhood
Director: Richard Linklater
English
Force Majeure
Director: Ruben Östlund
Swedish, English, French, Norwegian
Phoenix
Director: Christian Petzold
German
2015
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Director: Alfonso Gomez
English
Mustang
Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Turkish
2016
Wiener-Dog
Director: Todd Solondz
English
Toni Erdmann
Director: Maren Ade
German, English, Romanian
2017
The Florida Project
Director: Sean Baker
English
Estiu 1993 (Summer 1993)
Director: Carla Simón
Catalan
Una Mujer Fantástica (A Fantastic Woman)
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Spanish
2018
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Director: Desiree Akhavan
English
Den skyldige (The Guilty)
Director: Gustav Möller
Danish
2019
Waves
Director: Trey Edward Shults
English
Gisaengchung (Parasite)
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Korean
Dolor y gloria (Pain and Glory)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Spanish
I strongly recommend you place your phones in the dustbin and devote a weekend to consuming the above, you never know, it might actually lead you to live a more fulfilling life.
