I think we can safely suggest that this decade has been incredible for films. Think about how far, in these past ten years, filmmaking has been pushed forward to reach the pinnacle of technical perfection.
The further we get away from it, the more I think that this decade will be known as the technical transformation of film. We’ve seen digital film burst forward due to the dawn of the internet and the low price of materials for both amateur and professional filmmakers.
From Danny Boyle & David Lynch’s embracing of the DV format to the superb quality of the RED, mastered by the likes of David Fincher, there have been a lot of technological advancements in recent years.
The rise in 3D came in the latter half of the decade and the push towards photo realism in visual effects has become huge. Look, for example, at the rise in performance capture from Gollum to the Na’vi, from The Polar Express to Avatar, the leaps that filmmakers have taken have been extraordinary.
Also, we should take a look at some of the influential characters from overseas. Mexican cinema was well and truly here by the middle of the decade with Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu bringing over a new exciting cinema style to a western audience and seguing that sensibility into more mainstream work.
We also have the return of Eastern European austerity in the form of Michael Haneke, who has put arthouse audiences through the pain of watching films which are the true definition of uncomfortable viewing.
We should be proud of this decade. Sure, the mass production of films in Hollywood resulting in over 14 films released per week has given us some truly rotten titles that will be listed amongst the worst EVER made(Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, Marley and Me, Catwoman, to name a few), but we’ve also had some of the finest.
With that in mind, check out our picks for the top twenty films of the decade.
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