Who is right about the Best Films of the Decade so far?

Sat, Mar 21, 2015

As we find ourselves in the middle of the decade, there’s been plenty of articles on the cinematic legacy of this decade, it’s early works and what this means for the remaining five years.

Film publications are getting in early, publishing “Best Films of the Decade so far” lists, which as you can guess, are arbitrary and kind of pointless.

What is interesting is analysing the results across the different publications, from the critical to the popular. I would say the one I least agree with would be IMDb, though I don’t think the critical clout behind the other lists make them any more valid.

I’ve always thought providing these lists in a numerical order is more a sign of their popularity than their quality. Is Django Unchained really better than The Wolf of Wall Street? Boyhood better than The Tree of Life? Or are they equally great? Equally the best?

Why not just provide an unordered list and say, “here’s 200 films from this decade that are excellent”?

Are these even “the best films”? Or simply, 50 films really liked by the Dissolve’s readership and critics circle?

Do I have a list of favourite films from this decade? You bet. There’s so much to like about current and future filmmaking. The films mean a lot to me.

Are they the best? Who cares.

 

#	IMDb	Indiewire	Dissolve	Slate
1	Django Unchained	A Separation	Boyhood	The Tree of Life
2	The Wolf of Wall Street	Dogtooth	Her	Certified Copy
3	Interstellar	Under The Skin	The Social Network	The Master
4	The Social Network	The Act of Killing	Certified Copy	Margaret
5	Her	Holy Motors	A Separation	Holy Motors
6	The Avengers	Blue Is The Warmest Color	Inside Llewyn Davis	A Separation
7	The Dark Knight Rises	Certified Copy	Under The Skin	Under the Skin
8	Mud	Inherent Vice	The Grand Budapest Hotel	Inside Llewyn Davis
9	Edge of Tomorrow	A Prophet	Frances Ha	Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
10	Argo	Inside Llewyn Davis	Holy Motors	Boyhood
11	Interstellar (Why twice IMDb?)	Upstream Color	Toy Story 3	Goodbye to Language
12	Flight	The Tree of Life	12 Years A Slave	The Social Network
13	Silver Linings Playbook	Stories We Tell	The Master	Moonrise Kingdom
14	The Imitation Game	Leviathan	The Tree Of Life	Her
15	Captain Phillips	Her	The Act Of Killing	Leviathan
16	Whiplash	Once Upon a Time in Anatolia	Margaret	Mysteries of Lisbon
17	The Lego Movie	Tabu	Moonrise Kingdom	The Act of Killing
18	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Enter The Void	Short Term 12	The Turin Horse
19	The Way Way Back	Frances Ha	Selma	Before Midnight
20	Rise of the Planet of the Apes	The Master	Meek’s Cutoff	Melancholia