A decade of movies - my favourites from 2010 to 2019

With 2019 ending, an entire decade is coming to an end - a decade that has seen some wonderful movies, so let's take a look back to the best movies of the years 2010-2019. This list is quite a mixed bag, including movies I just personally enjoyed, movies I tend do rewatch a few times a year and some cineatic masterpieces. In some years, it was really hard to nail it down to one movie, so I put in a Honorable Mention where neccessary. 

The King's Speech beat Inception for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars in 2011. Colin Firth's performance is outstanding, but (again) the entire cast was amazing. This movie manages to make the audience feel for every moment of it's protagonist's struggle, which is the emotional core of the movie. 

I am going to be completely honest: I haven't seen this movie in probably 4 or 5 years. Back then I used to watch it every time it came in German Free-TV (~once every 6 months), mostly because I was a huge fan of Elle Fanning's acting, but the entire movie resonated with me at that time. The movie was directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by (amongst others) Steven Spielberg, and has some callbacks to the latter's earlier work for sure.

Unsurprisingly (I mean, it's J.J. Abrams), the finale is the thing most often criticized about it. Back when I last saw the movie, it felt good to me, but I definitely have to go back and rewatch it to make up my mind from today's perspective.

Ron Howard directed two of my all time favourite movies, A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13. Even though Rush does not quite live up to these movies for me, it is a great movie and my personal favourite of 2013. Both Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl are outstanding in this movie - Niki Lauda's character was portrayed both unlikably and sympathic at the same time, and James Hunt was just as broken as he was lovable. Even though probably every racing fan knows this story by heart, it kept me excited and thrilled until the end. The racing scenes are executed in an amazing way, and especially the famous crash is so incredibly close to the original. 

I just saw Saving Mr. Banks for the first time quite recentely. and I was blown away by it. Yes, it is quite a foreseeably story, but the acting of Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks pulled me into the movie in a way not many on-screen-chemistries have done before. But another very important part for the emotional depth of this movie was Colin Farrell's outstanding performance of the broken man yet loving father Travers Goff. This movie lived from it's actors' performances, not the story itself, but they carried the weight without the slightest problem.

While celebrating all these wonderful movies, there is one film of the last decade that I have to talk about as well, Ender's Game. The adaption of the same-named novel by Orson Scott Card (maybe my all-time favourite book) lacks everything - EVERYTHING - that makes the book great. Making the children older than in the novel takes away a lot of emotional weight, the characters and character arcs were completely mixed up, some charcters lacked every bit of depth they had in the novel, and the end was done unjustice in the worst way possible. In general, the film lacked all the emotional depth of the book, and did not trigger a single thought like the book did in every scene. That the movie is so terribly bad makes me sad not only because I love the book, but also because there were so many great actors in this film (Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Harrison Ford, etc.). I really hope to see a better adaption in the future - maybe as a TV series?  - which then could even go on to visualize the phantastic follow-up novels, which are actually the only reason Card wrote the book Ender's Game in the first place, and their set-up was completely ignored in the movie.

2014 truly was the year of movies about broken geniuses. Both Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley are outstanding in this film, and you can't argue about the emotional weight each scene carries. Turing's struggle with his sexuality on the one side, which ultimately lead to his death due to the anti-homosexuality laws of that time, and Turing's war-winning brilliance on the other side are both shown in a breathtaking way, and it brought the fate of one of the biggest geniuses of human history to a wider audience (hell, he was one of the people that made computers in the way we know them today possible). 

The Martian is an awesome book - it combines today's science and what will probably be possible in the next 10 or 20 years with a great (and - unlike most Sci-Fi stories - actually believable) story and tremendous humor. The movie captures the most important parts of the book in a great way, even though it has to cut out a few parts and the end had to be modified to put a bit more Hollywood-thrill into it. Still, the film really pleases me as a lover of the book. The acting is great (I mean, it's one of the best casts, including Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean, Donald Glover and Chiwetel Ejiofor), the production design just as well, and I just overall felt like I was more in an actual space story 20 years from now than a Hollywood Sci-Fi movie. This also is one of the movies with the best rewatch-potential on this list, I watch it at least once a year.

Three Billboards is another heavy contender for movie of the century. The movie received numerous awards, including a Best Actress Oscar for Frances McDormand. The movie has so much heart and honesty, it does justice to all it's various characters, it shows each of their motivation, without "justifying" some characters bad/evil sides. This is one of the movies that have a grip from the first to the last second. The acting is incredibly good (yes, I know I say that about every movie on this list), but it is also a very well made film in terms of cinematography and directing. All in all, this movie is a truly special piece of cinematic art.

IT was the movie that really got me into horror, but it is far more than just that, At it's core, IT is a phantastic coming-of-age story about a group of losers, that figure out together they can be stronger than their demons. The horror elements are infused great, with Bill Skarsgård's phantastic performance as Pennywise. But also the kids are casted extremely well, and this movie pulls the audience in even more with every second. Even though it is far from beeing an as "good" movie as e.g. Three Billboards, it is one of my personal favourite movies.

Luc Besson's most expensive European film ever made, the adapti0n of the comic series Valérian and Laureline, which heavily inspired sci-fi classics as Star Wars visually, was kind of doomed to fail, due to the fact that it looked like a copy of exactly these Sci-Fi classics that had actually copied from Valérian an Laureline to casual moviegoers. The film itself captured the essence of the comic without copying it, it actually was story-wise quite far away from it's source material. Still I loved the on-screen chemistry between DeHaan and Delevigne, and I wished they had continues with this cast - maybe with a TV series instead of another expensive movie.

Ron Howard's Apollo 13 might be my all-time favourite movie, so going into this I had quite high expectations - but I was not dissappointed. First Man is not a film about the first man on the moon, it's not a film about the Apollo 11 mission & crew, it is a movie about a broken man and a broken family, living with both his personal tragedies and the knowledge, that his job might leave his children without a father at every momente. Demien Chazelle's direction and Ryan Goslings outstandingly cold performance of Neil Armstrong made this movie truly special, and the beautiful pictures when we finally go to space should not be forgotten either. 

Choosing one of these two movies really wasn't easy for me, because I love both of them. Rami Malek's performance of Freddie Mercury is incredible, but the entire cast just fits their roles. The movie shows the positive and the negative sides of a musical genius, it shows his struggle with his personal identity, and it is cut so perfectly to it's music in some parts (yes, there are a few terribly cut scenes as well, I know). This is a movie with great rewatch-potential as well, and let's be honest: Who doesn't love the Live Aid finale in all it's perfection?

There are two of my most expected movies of 2019, that are not in German cinemas yet, so I can't judge them. 

Taika Waititi's anti-hate satire JoJo Rabbit is one of these movies, where the trailer just got me from the first second. Waititi has a unique style, and I don't believe any other director could have made this movie the way he did, so I am extremely excited to see it.

Little Women is the new movie directed by Lady Bird's Greta Gerwig. The cast is incredible, including Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, etc... I am a bit surprised this movie is in no Oscar-discussions, but I am sure this is going to be one of my favcourite movies of 2019.

But what do you think? Did I miss any of your favourite movies? Tell me in the comments!