Music & Films for
Common People
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50
CAROL
Dir. Todd Haynes
United Kingdom, 2015
The first collaboration between Haynes and Cate Blanchett was an explosive gender-bending reinvention of Bob Dylan in I'm not There. In Carol, they make queer magic again in one of the most elegant and subtle love stories of the decade. The director takes his time to build, through glances and double-meaning phrases, the seduction and passion between two women of different social worlds, and set a state of trance to observe how they internal worlds explode while never losing the smoothness and sophistication he achieved by telling the story through mirrors, windows and semi-open doors.
49
WHIPLASH
Dir. Damien Chazelle
United States, 2014
A film about musicians have never been as nerve-wrecking as Whiplash. Through a brilliant screenplay that faces an aspiring jazz drummer with the most perfectionist and meanest teacher, Chazelle keeps rising the stakes and giving unexpected twists until we are bitting our nails on the edge of our seat. Of course that level of tension also gets a good impulse for a masterful editing, and an intense and unforgettable performance by J.K. Simmons. The directorial sense of rhythm in the overall film resonates with one of the most important topics of the film: timing is everything.
48
GRAVITY
Dir. Alfonso Cuarón
United States, 2013
On paper, the story of an astronaut who gets lost alone in space and needs to find her way to the Earth sounds a Hollywood cliché, but in hands of Alfonso Cuarón, it reaches impressive levels of technical and artistic genius. Not only it's a film that only has two characters (and just one of them for half the film), Gravity manages to explore and existential side of the outer-space adventure; a simple and straight-forward story but with several layers of depth. And don't let us get started with the amazing cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki, the space might have never looked so beautiful on screen.
47
ELLE
Dir. Paul Verhoeven
France, 2016
If we were to make a poll on which is the best living actress, we are certain that the top choice would be Meryl Streep. But in alternate world were French language is dominant and French films are the most seen globally, there would be no competition for Isabelle Huppert. In Elle, she gives one of her best ever performances, as a woman trying to find answers, and later revenge, after she was raped in her own home. It is certainly a polemic film that will sparks hours of discussion on how it approaches female sexuality, but the thriller dark intones and narrative development are unquestionably good.
46
BEGINNERS
Dir. Mike Mills
United States, 2010
Right there at the beginning of the decade, when we weren't able to foresee it, but hipster culture was already starting its decline, Mike Mills made one of the most hipster films to exist. Following the reconnection a man has with his father, who at his 75 years old came out as homosexual, and the new relationship he starts after the passing of the old man, it is a sweet exploration of human relationships and how they are able to give meaning to our life. With a quirky style, Mills makes a small indie film that is huge in its heart and its messages of being true to oneself.
45
LES AMOURS IMAGINAIRES
(Heartbeats) Dir. Xavier Dolan
Canada, 2010
Xavier Dolan was 20 years old when he filmed Les Amours Imaginaires, his second film, but the first one that made very clear that a new enfant-terrible had arrived and was ready to shake up cinematic style. If there's a strong narrative of a bittersweet double infatuation within a group of friends, the most memorable thing of this film (and practically any Dolan film), it is the visual approach that he takes to set his story. Relying heavily on videoclips and fashion aesthetics, Dolan plays with adventurous camera angles, vibrant colors and an exquisite soundtrack to give us a memorable vintage queer experience.
44
JOJO RABBIT
Dir. Taika Waititi
United States, 2019
Waititi made us laugh several times this decade with his particular witty dry sense of humor, and was able to offer a refreshing look to Maori culture, the vampiric myth and superheroes film, but we can finally say that he has finally matured his narrative and visual style with Jojo Rabbit, a refined comedy with a strong understanding of politically incorrect humor to tackle Nazism and the way that hate is spread within a society. With a very good balance between hilarity, tenderness and political speech, there are plenty of scenes and characters that are very memorable and destined to pop culture canon.
43
AH-GA-SSI
(The Handmaiden) Dir. Park Chan-Wook
South Korea, 2016
Park Chan-Wook uses the camera as a voyeur that is subtle in movements to avoid being discovered, to reveal the story of a woman that is convinced to became the maid of a rich lady to trick her and steal her fortune, only to end up falling in love with her.​ The screenplay reveals things in small doses, leading to two major plot twists that make the story even better, but the director makes an aesthetic experience of every single shot, mastering the cinematic language to exploit the richness in the art direction. ​At times beautiful and subtle, at times brutal and explicit, it keeps things interesting until the last minute.
42
MOONRISE KINGDOM
Dir. Wes Anderson
United States, 2012
If no one is going to question the level of creativity and artistry in the work of Wes Anderson, the amount of effort he puts in creating unique visual worlds, comes at the expense of flimsy storylines that really lack depth and development in its structure. But Moonrise Kingdom is the best example of the wonders that can come when his unmatched visual skills are matched with a strong and developed screenplay. We still have the quirky characters, the perfect framing and composition, the superb use of color, but here the narrative arc is complex and fulfilled, rather than an eccentric show-off.
41
FORUSHANDE
(The Salesman) Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Iran, 2016
Farhadi confirmed that he is one of the smartest screenwriters nowadays, gifting us with yet another puzzle that reveals itself slowly, showing in each layer a more complex understanding of the social and psychological relationship of his characters. Avoiding any sort of Manichaeism, we face difficult moral disjunctives where there are no easy answers and the way he choses to navigates them reflects the deep understanding of existential human comedy from Farhadi. If the style is modest, yet correct, he is starting to develop a pretty unique narrative language in his use of the time and the camera.
40
TABU
Dir. Miguel Gomes
Portugal, 2012
Gomes is able to jump from one story to a second one with not much relation among them, pulling a remarkable change of style, and still never losing the grip of the lyrical narrative he develops. Contemplative and poetic, with several nods to classic silent cinema, specially to Murnau's last film of the same name, Tabu is both a look to tradition in film and an adventurous experimentation in style and narrative. With a beautiful black and white cinematography, Gomes goes from present to past to trace the race relationships between Europe and Africa, and to explore rich female characters.
39
NYMPHOMANIAC
Dir. Lars Von Trier
Denmark, 2013
Just as the title promises, we have five hours full of explicit sex in a tale of a woman who is addicted to it, but with a provocateur as Lars Von Trier, this is not even one of his most shocking films (hello, Antichrist or The House that Jack Built). Although some of his films are fairly sexist, here we get to see the ambivalence in his relationship towards women in what might be his most feminist film, one that explores the depths of female desire, independence and rebellion to social roles. With very memorable scenes and frames, it manages to keep a strong cohesion throughout all its individual vignettes.
38
BIRDMAN
Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu
United States, 2014
The stand out is the fascinating simulated single long shot that Emmanuel Lubezki crafted with audacious camera movements and his usual perfect use of light, but here exploring the possibilities of artificial light more than in any other of the films he has shot. But beyond the stunning visuals, Birdman is also a brilliant dissection of fame, the vanity of show-business and the desire to transcend, and probably the best super-heroes films of the decade (if we stretch what we consider as such). Iñárritu assembled a brilliant cast, but Michael Douglas (the first film Batman) as the lead, is a touch of genius.
37
EL ABRAZO DE LA SERPIENTE
(Embrace of the Serpent) Dir. Ciro Guerra
Colombia, 2015
Guerra transports us to a different world with a daring style that has documentary qualities in its narrative, and a gorgeous B&W cinematography. Traveling to the Amazonia, we follow a botanist and a chaman in their quest for a plant with magical properties, only to end up facing the cruelest side of colonialism. Although it might be considered an adventures film, he gaze here is different from traditional Western cinema, a demanding film with a paused rhythm that captures the richness of the landscape but that is merciless in tracing the race and faith relations of Latin colonialism.
36
TESTRÖL ÉS LÉLEKRÖL
(On Body and Soul) Dir. Ildikó Enyedi
Hungary, 2017
Enyedi creates a smart, funny and touching love story about two socially-inadequate people that connect with each other when they discover that they share the same dreams every night.​ A great study of characters, very unlikely candidates for a romantic film, but approached in a sincere way to discover their inner worlds, getting their human side without risking crossing the line of corny clichés. Set in cold environments and very formal in the aesthetic approach, the director makes use of a particular sense of humor and relies on the great performances of the main couple to offer a very memorable experience.
35
SHAME
Dir. Steve McQueen
United Kingdom, 2011
From the opening scene with a full frontal nude by Michael Fassbender, you know that this is a film that you're going to remember. An exploration to the life of a man who is addicted to sex and the disruption to his lifstyle by the arrival of his sister, McQueen caves deeper and deeper in the psyche and the ethos of this guy who is controlled by his libido. A great cinematography in the use of color, movement and framing, and an elegant rhythm make a good contrast with the raw topics of the film. In the end, we are shown that exposing our emotions is way harder than exposing our bodies.
34
DOGMAN
Dir. Matteo Garrone
Italy, 2018
What it takes for a good man to make something atrocious? From the opening scene, Garrone is able to give us a precise glimpse on who's the lead characte, what are his virtues, and what will be the reason why he'll eventually be driven to a spiral of madness. The interactions between Marcello Fonte, as the noble dog groomer, and Edoardo Pesce, who plays his gangster ultra-violent friend, are quite enjoyable, the mismatch of characters, both in physical appearance and personality, makes for delightful scenes that most of the time play with dark humor to show the ridicule on human comedy.
33
DRIVE
Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
United States, 2011
If you ever encounter a person who is confused about what is actually the role of a director in a film, Drive will be your best bet to explain it. In less capable directorial hands, this screenplay would have been easily another Fast & Furious sequel, Winding Refn takes decisions entirely out of the box in every single aspect of the film. Instead of frentic persecutions with lots of editing cuts, he goes for long shots and a paused rhythm; he favors retro italo-disco as the soundtrack instead of an intense action score, and instead of Vin Diesel and Megan Fox, he gives us layered performance by Gosling and Mulligan.
32
A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT
Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour
United States, 2014
Hipster Iranian feminist skating vampires. Probably just that concept was cool enough for getting our attention, but Amirpour is daring in her visual approach and creates a fascinating pastiche of styles and references that include westerns, graphic novels and Lynch's obscure surrealism, only to come with a postmodern hybrid that twists the myth of the vampire, and making her lead character an avenger to sexism. But as weird as this all sounds in paper, there's a deep elegance in the rhythm and sober black and white cinematography, while the soundtrack is incredibly stimulating,
31
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN
Dir. Malik Bendjelloul
Sweden, 2012
This is one of those magic documentaries where the less you know about them, the more you'll enjoy. A research to tell the story of an unsuccessful Chicano artist with a tragic story who never realized that his music became monumental in a different corner of the world led to the documentary team to find much more than what they intended, and in their way to talk about art in the age of music as a corporate industry as opposed as music as a countercultural weapon. This little documentary is a testament of how music and cinema can create miracles.
30
MONOS
Dir. Alejandro Landes
Colombia, 2019
Part of the blossom of Colombian contemporary cinema, Monos is a sort of Lord of the Flies within the Colombian guerrilla. A sick trip to the middle of the jungle where a group of teenagers are given guns and a hostage to take care of, a dangerous mix that only can lead to tragedy once the first wrong decision is taken. ​But Monos is not only brilliant in the character development it offers; the stylistic dark approach that Landes takes to his story is raw and feral, with a very careful cinematography, a superb rhythm given through editing, and an unsettling music score composed by Mica Levi.
29
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Italy, 2017
Guadagnino made a film to arouse all our senses and our libido; we can almost smell, touch and taste the story of a summer romance between a teenager and his father's apprentice.​ The beautiful cinematography, the charming music by Sufjan Stevens, the colorful mise-en-scène in the Italian countryside, and all elements work together to make a vivid experience of passion where the growing tension makes the desire stronger and deeper.​ It is warm, sweet and touching, a reminder that the greatest love stories are not always the ones that last forever, but the ones that are able to transform us.
28
UN HOMME QUI CRIE
(A Screaming Man) Dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Chad, 2010
Traditionally, African cinema has been largely ignored in the global cinema panorama, but this decade saw several indications that point to a growing and richer scene from all over the continent. Un Homme qui Crie is an intimate existential tale about an old man that is forced to give up his job when his bosses decide to hire his son. A reflection on what is a person is capable of doing when they have lost the sense of their life is portrayed with simplicty, but with honesty and a full commitment to tell a hard and painful story without succumbing to melodrama.
27
ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
Dir. Jim Jarmusch
United Kingdom, 2013
Vampire love stories were a hit during this decade for all the wrong reasons, but Jarmusch corrected the way and gave us the antithesis of Twilight: a sophisticated and mature story about the meaningless of living eternally. A couple of bohemian vampires, Adam and Eve (of course), try to redefine the purpose of their existences when disrupted by the wild sister of her. Swinton might be one of the most iconic vampiric performances in the history of cinema. A film full of beautiful dark atmospheres and a seductive paused rhythm, that opposes the assumed idea of vampires as synonym of horror films.
26
BLACKKKLANSMAN
Dir. Spike Lee
United States, 2018
Spike Lee makes a frontal confrontation to the rise of white supremacism by going back in history to the times of Ku Klux Klan, but with a surprising approach: a comedy (of very dark humor) about a black policeman that manages to infiltrate in the Klan. The screenplay is the biggest asset of the film, tackling such a difficult topic in the smartest way possible, and managing to empower people rather than making them feel miserable about the atrocities committed by racial hate. Lee takes a lot of narrative and visual inspiration from Blaxploitation films, the first ones to have a black character as the lead.