A list of my personal top 20 films from 2010 – present that I still keep updated as often as I can. I included links to the trailers for each entry and highly encourage you to check these out. There is a large variety of filmmakers from all over the world that I thought were important contemporary voices in the art form that need to be heard. Hope you enjoy this list and I’m always looking for some recommendations!
Lowlife Love (Uchida, 2015)
“Based on many of Uchida's own experiences, the scenes expose some of the realities that those wanting a career in film need to go through, comparing filmmaking to 'falling for a no good slut.'”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSHd9mB1C48
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Ceylan, 2011)
“The body means different things for each of them, and Ceylan's mesmerizing existential drama takes its time establishing the players and bringing their inner lives into focus. It's cinema as autopsy.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKgHqU1jrs
Mommy (Dolan, 2014)
“There are tons of ups and downs and soapish highs and lows, but what stops this from ever becoming a telenovela is the riveting wonder of the performances and the sheer brio of the filmmaking.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9LVLCYvqSI
Frances Ha (Baumbach, 2012)
“The director mixes moods with a playfulness that is both brazen and carefree and yet precisely modulated, yielding results that amplify the specific content of the screenplay. This makes for a film that, however cheap it was to make, incredibly rich to watch.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9YKHRQkf7k
Whiplash (Chazelle, 2014)
“Although a couple of narrative twists late on threaten to drum us into melodrama, Chazelle never misses a beat and the film builds to a cathartic crescendo.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d_jQycdQGo
Only God Forgives (Refn, 2013)
“Only God Forgives will, understandably, have people running for the exits, and running for the hills. It is very violent, but Winding Refn's bizarre infernal creation, an entire created world of fear, really is gripping. Every scene, every frame, is executed with pure formal brilliance."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqAeVosG4zI
Spring Breakers (Korine, 2012)
"Spring Breakers seems to be holding a funhouse mirror up to the face of youth-driven pop culture, leaving us uncertain whether to laugh, recoil in horror, or marvel at its strange beauty. All I knew is I couldn't wait to see it a second time."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmjzSLp_m-A
Shame (McQueen, 2011)
“Driven by a brilliant, ferocious performance by Michael Fassbender, Shame is a real walk on the wild side, a scorching look at a case of sexual addiction that's as all-encompassing as a craving for drugs."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=24cjqfVv1fs
Hard to Be a God (German, 2013)
“A fantastical examination of man’s inhumanity to man, and as replete as it is with persistent visceral disgust, it also pulses with intelligence, a mordant compassion, and yes, incredible wit.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zMPyWa2kVs
Black Swan (Aronofsky, 2010)
“A full-bore melodrama, told with passionate intensity, gloriously and darkly absurd. It centers on a performance by Natalie Portman that is nothing short of heroic.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013)
"You may not be able to figure it out, but that's part of the point of this sensually-directed, sensory-laden experiential (and experimental) piece of art that washes over you like a sonorous bath of beguiling visuals, ambient sounds and corporeal textures."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SilYsr_3vrA
A Separation (Farhadi, 2011)
"The drama it might remind you most of, oddly enough, is "Six Degrees of Separation," also about the snowballing connections between unlikely people. And as in that urban clash, the bedrock of it all is social responsibility, ever crumbling and rebuilding. A total triumph."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlMaGZuSlDY
Young & Beautiful (Ozon, 2013)
"Young & Beautiful is mysterious and erotic, though the ending may leave some as cold as Isabelle."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CTm06H2Vvo
The Florida Project (Baker, 2017)
"The Florida Project won’t let us look away. Nor, given its brilliance, would we want to. Instead, we laugh, we watch silently, and we’re challenged to stop simplifying people's lives so we can offer easy theoretical answers."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwQ-NH1rRT4
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Lanthimos, 2017)
"The rich vein of unsettling darkness and psychological unease that ripples like a treacherous underground stream beneath the absurdist humor of Yorgos Lanthimos' work becomes a brooding requiem of domestic horror in his masterfully realized fifth feature."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQFdGfwChtw
Enemy (Villeneuve, 2013)
"Enemy is a transfixing grand slam that certifies Villeneuve as the real deal and one of the most exciting new voices in cinema today."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJuaAWrgoUY
American Honey (Arnold, 2016)
"Part dreamy millennial picaresque, part distorted tapestry of Americana and part exquisitely illustrated iTunes musical, “Honey” daringly commits only to the loosest of narratives across its luxurious 162-minute running time. Yet it’s constantly, engrossingly active, spinning and sparking and exploding in cycles like a Fourth of July Catherine wheel."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1SpWZm1PLc
Blue Is the Warmest Color (Kechiche, 2013)
"Less concerned with classic storytelling than with creating virtual performance pieces on screen, the film features dozens of extended sequences of Adele and Emma both in and out of bed—scenes that are virtuously acted and directed, even if they run on for longer than most filmmakers would allow."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2OLRrocn3s
Incendies (Villeneuve, 2010)
"A staggering political drama that could put you in mind of the intimate sweep of Bernardo Bertolucci, Incendies feels like a mighty movie in our midst."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nycksytL1A&t=4s
The Neon Demon (Refn, 2016)
"When the film reaches its logical end point, Refn just keeps pushing, and eventually lands on a sequence so jaw-dropping...that all you can do is howl or cheer."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cipOTUO0CmU