The Ten Greatest Films of the Decade so Far

We are four and a half years into the decade and we've had some bonified, pantheon-bound hits.

We may only be a few years into the decade, but we cannot underestimate the amount of good cinema that has been released to the masses. As a self-proclaimed critic and overall film-lover, I’ve watched close to every Best Picture nominee this decade alongside dozens of other notable films. I’ve seen big-budget and small-budget movies, films from American directors and many by foreign directors. I’ve compiled a lot of what I believe are the best films of the decade so far.

The Top 10

10. Dune: Part Two (2024) - dir. Denis Villeneuve

I’ve been called pretentious for my film takes in the past…which is bullshit. I watch Rush Hour 2 at least once a month. Well here’s one for all you: I FUCKING LOVE DUNE..both of them, but Dune: Part 2 is the stronger of the two films in my opinion. The floating scene (pictured above), the Harkonnen battlefield scene, the worm-ride? This movie is one of the most innovative, creative, and daring films I’ve seen in years. Don’t even get me started on the score. This franchise pushes the boundaries even by sci-fi standards. It’s a film that makes you say: I cannot believe a movie can do this.

9. Past Lives (2023) - dir. Celine Song

The only film this decade besides Oppenheimer that I’ve seen twice in the theatre. I was unemployed when it came out and randomly went to the theatre for a matinee screening of Past Lives. At the end of the film, I wept like most people in the crowd. I felt so touched by it that I took my girlfriend to see it two days later. Again, at the end of the movie, predictably, we wept. Celine Song’s debut feature is about longing and grief. Grief for past relationships that never saw their full potential. Grief for the person you used to be. Greif for the notion that the only thing constant in our world is change. Teo Yoo and Greta Lee are brilliant actors. You fall in love with them, and then they break your heart. I’ve seen films where the boy doesn’t get the girl or vice-versa, but none as devastating as this. Ready for my hot take? It’s a better film than Br*ef Enc*unter.

8. Oppenheimer (2023) - dir. Christopher Nolan

My favorite theatre experience of the decade so far. My partner and I went to see it on opening weekend, the day after we watched Barbie. The theatre was packed and it felt like a special experience to all be watching the same film together for the first time. I was on the edge of my seat for all three hours of the film, wishing it would never end. What can be said about this film that hasn’t already been said. It might be the most heart-pumping, jumping-out-of-your-seat entertainment of the decade. The Trinity Test scene is as good as it gets. I’m not one of those “film bros” who believes that Interstellar is life-changing. I hated the ending of The Prestige. I’ve been critical of Nolan in the past, but Oppenheimer is a stroke of genius and his opus. I’ve watched it 8 times, and I’ll probably watch it another 80 more.

7. Babylon (2022) - dir. Damien Chazelle

I’m Babylon-hive. I’m so Babylon-hive that I’ll go as far as to admit that it is my favorite film of the decade. This is a personal choice for me because I know how polarizing the film is. I have always had an infatuation with the 1920s and the Jazz Age. Also, the film feels like a love letter to the idea of filmmaking as a whole, which I appreciate. This three-hour epic has it all - love, sex, violence, action, debauchery, a rise-and-fall arc, incredibly hard partying, and great music. I found it delightful and rewatchable.

6. Licorice Pizza (2021) - dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

The multifaceted Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, son of the late, great Phillip Seymour, are terrific in their acting debuts in PTA’s latest San Fernando Valley epic. The film is full of A-list cameos, classic music, and beautiful Southern California scenery. The film isn’t necessarily strong on the plot as it follows Haim and Hoffman’s characters on their adventures trying to navigate the late 70s in Southern California. It’s a story that very literally is about two lost young people who may or may not be infatuated with one another, but it’s a story about how confusing it is to be alive. Alana’s character begins the film working as a photographer for school photos before partnering up with Hoffman in the waterbed sales business and ultimately ends up working as a volunteer for an ambitious politician (played by Benny Safdie). Her confusion about her place in the world permeates to all parts of her performance. Her relationship with Hoffman feels very innocent, despite what people will try to tell you on Twitter. It’s a touching film that we can all relate to. Who doesn’t feel lost from time to time?

5. Decision to Leave (2022) - dir. Park Chan-wook

Decision to Leave is my first Park Chan-wook film. I didn’t see Oldboy until a year later (WOW), so his genre-defying 2022 film was my introduction to the insane, creative mind of Chan-wook. The film follows a detective who is investigating a man’s death, only to become involved with his widow. What comes next is a psychological thriller, a romance, a drama, and even a touch of comedy. There were times when I didn’t know what genre of film I was watching, but I realized that was the point: this is a genreless movie, that is not meant to fit in the confines of genre. Life isn’t a single genre, so why should film be?

4. Tár (2022) - dir. Todd Field

I still haven’t gotten over the fact that Cate Blanchett was robbed of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. It’s one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. The way Blanchett embraces the brutish, deceitful, and ruthlessly ambitious Lydia Tár, a world-famous composer in the world of classical music. Tár is a liar, a cheater, and a brute, but she is also great at what she does. Todd Field directed this beautiful meditation on what it takes to be great and the idea of success making us worse versions of ourselves. I’ve seen this film three times, one of which was with my girlfriend, and at one point during the film she turned to me and asked “How does someone even think of this?” I don’t know. I definitely couldn’t have.

3. Drive My Car (2021) - dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi

When I read the Haruki Murakami short story a few years ago, I was floored by just how much he could fit in such a short amount of pages. Haruki is the master of writing with emotion and making the audience feel all of the same things he does. The story is about an aging playwright who has just lost his wife and needs to hire a driver to take him to and from the theatre so he can work from the backseat of the car. The driver that he picks, a young woman, is tormented by her own faults and demons. The story gets tangled when one of the actors in the play that our protagonist is directing has had a past affair with the playwright’s late wife. Hamaguchi took this story and expanded it far beyond what Murakami did. I was wondering how you can extract a three-hour film out of a twenty-five-page short story, but Ryusuke Hamaguchi takes the source text and exercises creative liberties to explore what happens to the characters after the source text has ended. Drive My Car is a film about family and loneliness and has some of my favorite shots of the decade. That cigarette scene (pictured above) is my favorite single shot from a movie in years.

2. The Zone of Interest (2023) - dir. Jonathan Glazer

The Zone of Interest will stick with you long after the credits have rolled. Glazer’s 2023 Academy Award-winning film follows a family of Nazi’s who live just on the other side of the walls of Auschwitz. The family goes to the beach and plays in the park and has dinner parties. They are like every other family. The husband, Rudolf Höss, goes to work and the wife stays and home and tends to her garden. The father just happens to be working in the concentration camp, committing some of the most horrible, violent acts to humans that we’ve ever known. The film shows Höss to be a good soldier, one who follows orders and wants to continue doing a good job so his family can live a good life. It’s the purest form of evil, but Glazer makes it look so banal. It’s a film showing us that evil doesn’t sit in a tower on a stormy mountain. It’s not an evil man wearing a black turtleneck stroking a cat. It’s banal. It’s boring. It can be anywhere

1. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) - dir. Martin Scorsese

The king stays the king. Late-stage Scorsese has become underrated if you can believe it, and KOTFM is in the Scorsese pantheon of great cinema. There is nothing I could change in this film from its wonderful acting performances, mainly by Lily Gladstone (who was SNUBBED by the Academy) and Robert De Niro, to the score by the late Robie Robertson, to Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography. Some of Scorsese’s best shorts are in this film. And the ending? Wow. Just a once-in-a-lifetime film by a once-in-a-lifetime artist. We’re only a few years into the decade, but this was an easy pick for the best film of the 2020’s so far.

Peace and Love