Here's the moment you've all been waiting for. The second part of my best of the decade list. I honestly didn't split this in half solely for the sake of building suspense. My reasoning was mainly that a giant top 50 list would be so large that no one would read the whole thing, so splitting it in half seemed more manageable. And again, I waited this long between posts, not to build suspense, but because typing up that whole thing was exhausting, so I needed a break. But I'm not going to lie, the suspense has been kinda fun. The first part of this sparked so many questions with movies that weren't there. Was it because they were in the top half of the list or because they missed out entirely? Well, now we have the answers. And said answers are sure to present more questions, so feel free to fire away. But I will make one note here that I tried to focus this list on the movies that made more of a lasting impact on me rather than the movies that were enjoyed in the moment, then quickly forgotten, which is why you've seen more of the dark and emotionally heavy films. I've also completely abandoned my year end lists, which you may have already noticed. But nevertheless, there's no real rhyme or reason here. Just my favorite movies, whatever that may mean.
25- Split
As I've referenced once or twice, the specific order of this list isn't necessarily something that I'm completely married to. All of these movies are so good and somewhat interchangeable that their presence on the list is what means the most rather than the order I placed them in. Point in case, when I saw that "Split" was ending up in the 20s, I purposely slotted it at No. 25 so that I could use its picture as the social media preview because it's a great representation of my taste in movies. If you ask me what my favorite movie of all time is, I'm going to dance around that question and throw in something about me preferring to compartmentalize into eras or genres rather than a "best of all time." But then I'll concede and say Hitchcock's "Psycho." And Split is, well, a modern-day "Psycho." Not just in tone and style, but both Norman Bates and Kevin Wendell Crumb are villains who suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder. "Split" is just "Psycho" on steroids because Kevin has 24 different personalities in his head while Norman just has two. Is that concept realistic for actual D.I.D.? Well, maybe not. But in the context of this being in Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" universe, it makes perfect sense as a supervillain origin story. I just wish "Glass" would've been better.
24- Star Wars: The Last Jedi
And this is where all of you laugh at me close this list, right? Because how dare someone enjoy "The Last Jedi." I mean, didn't we all band together and decide prior to the movie's release that we were all going to trash this as the worst movie of all time? Yet here I am, not only breaking away from that by claiming it's a good movie, but I'm including it on a top half of a best of the decade list? Yep. You'd better believe it. And at least you have to give it to me for sticking to my guns and not giving into peer pressure. I'd say I'm just being facetious here, but I'm actually kinda serious on that last point. After the initial wave of hatred came in from the butthurt fanboys, I think people went in with the idea that they were supposed to hate this movie, so they came up with the worst excuses as to why they were disappointed. It's all pathetic in my opinion. Now in hindsight, the sequel trilogy did suffer as a whole from being a bit directionally compromised. JJ and Rian played a game of telephone with the trilogy rather than being in sync with their ideas. But I personally liked Rian's style more. I would've loved to see him do the entire trilogy instead of just the middle chapter. That would've been phenomenal. But I've always gravitated towards Rian's style, so are you really surprised?
23- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
There's only one thing that I really need to say about the second chapter of this epic trilogy. Apes on horses with machine guns. Am I right? But OK. I'll say more. This is a movie that takes the complex and fascinating themes of the first one and builds on that. After a large percentage of the human race gets wiped out by a virus (uhhh... yikes!), the human characters in this, led by Gary Oldman, are simply reverting to drastic measures to save their race. They aren't the villains of the movie, but there's definitely some questionable things done. Yet can you blame them? No. Their race is going extinct. Then we have the apes. Caesar loves humans. He has a lot of respect due to his connection with his former owner. But he's also going to do what he has to in order to protect his race. Yet it's not just humans vs. apes in this movie. There's some conflicting ideas among the apes as certain of them start questioning Caesar's leadership, which leads to the most fascinating and memorable aspect of this movie. Koba vs. Caesar. If you want to talk about one scary ape, that's Koba. Again, he has solid motivation. But he's fierce and terrifying. As much as Andy Serkis rightfully gets praise for his portrayal of Caesar, Toby Kebbell deserves more credit for his portrayal of Koba.
22- The Avengers
The movie event of the decade? This is definitely one of those unique movies that completely changed cinema. It was a risky idea to decide to build a cinematic universe, but high risk led to very high reward to the tune of $22 billion worldwide through 23 movies in the MCU thus far. Such a high payout has led every other studio to scramble to figure out how to compete as everyone is trying to build their own cinematic universes or major event films. And it's all because "The Avengers" worked. As a lifelong fan of the superhero genre, it was an absolute joy to be a part of that experience back in 2012. And I've thoroughly enjoyed the journey ever since. With "The Avengers," I watched it five or six times in theaters, being super giddy and excited every single time going in. Even to this day, this stands as an absolutely solid movie that's very well constructed. Yes, there was five movies building up to it, but even for those who skipped those five, the movie itself gave every character his or her moment as they slowly built up the team and the chemistry. This all leading to one of the most entertaining movie finales in cinema as they team up to fight off Loki's alien invasion in New York City. We're not quite done with the MCU, though, so strap in for more!
21- Prisoners
This might come as a slightly surprising entry for people who follow me closely simply because I've just not talked about this movie too much. I don't think I ever reviewed it and there's not been too many opportunities to talk about it, but once you dive into what this movie is, this will make complete sense as to why it's here. As one who's watched all 319 episodes of "Criminal Minds" and binged all of "Mindhunter" in, like, a day, crime dramas are kinda my thing. Few crime dramas have been as perfectly executed as "Prisoners." The movie stars Hugh Jackman as a father who goes completely mad when his daughter gets kidnapped and he doesn't believe the police are doing enough to find her. Hugh Jackman has done a lot of amazing work in his career, so when I tell you that his performance in "Prisoners" is the best individual performance in a movie that he's given, that should mean something to you. Although the more impressive element to this movie is the director. Every movie that Denis Villeneuve has done has been a different genre or subgenre, but he's managed to make top-notch films in every single one of those genres. He seems to have a perfect knowledge of exactly what every individual movie needs. And that's rather mindblowing.
20- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
It took me a long time to come to the realization that "The Winter Soldier" is a better movie than "The Avengers." And to this day it remains an interesting debate. Do you go for the movie that changed the movie world and made all of us superhero fans shout for joy or do you go for the movie that has the better plot and better story? As you can see, it remains close for me, but I have ultimately gone for the latter. This is the movie that most definitely put Captain America on the map as his first movie wasn't all that great. I mean, sure, "The Avengers" certainly helped. But this movie was something else. The emotion here is sky high as he realizes that his sacrifice from the first movie was ultimately for nothing and that his friend Bucky is alive, but has his mind wiped and is being used as a super soldier to attack him. Then, of course, we have the inner workings of Hydra coming to light as it's revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised with Hyrda agents working in their ranks for quite some time. It's worth mentioning the brilliant performance of Robert Redford as the very underrated villain Alexander Pierce, leader of Hydra. With the decade being littered with all kinds of superhero movies, "The Winter Soldier" still stands out as one of the better ones.
19- 1917
This past year was quite the excellent year for film as "1917" is one of three movies to make this top half of the list. In fact, "1917" barely slid in at the last moment, coming out it limited release in December 2019. Most human beings, myself included, saw it in theaters THIS decade instead of last. But it still counts and is absolutely worth a mention as one of the best and most surreal war films I've ever seen. It takes the fancy camera trickery used most notably in Hitchcock's "The Rope" and 2014's "Birdaman," that of presenting the illusion of the movie being filmed in one shot, and makes the best use of it that I've personally seen. As we follow two young soldiers during World War I on a very important mission to warn the Allies that they're about to walk into a trap, this camera trickery gave me the illusion that I was walking right along with these two soldiers in a sort of quasi Virtual Reality scenario. I've watched and enjoyed a lot of war films, but I've never seen a war film where it made me feel like I was right there in the battle. That added a new level of intensity as I began to fear for my own life, not knowing at all what was around the corner. The final war film of the decade was definitely the best one to come out, at least in pertaining to historical war films.
18- Gravity
This is a tricky entry. My favorite movie of 2013 easily won that title mainly due to the theatrical experience it provided me. Back when the world still cared about 3D, this was probably the best usage of 3D as it was more than just a gimmick or a visual treat this time around. The 3D of this movie was an important part of the film's narrative as it gave the illusion that you were up in space with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. That 3D element combined with fantastic sound design provided what was certainly one of the more unique theatrical experiences as it felt like quick the personal achievement on my part that I made it back down to Earth when the movie was finished. But I will admit that, prior to creating this list, I had not seen "Gravity" since October 2013. That made it one that I had to rewatch in preparation. Does it hold up seven years later when being watched on my tiny computer screen? Actually, yes. Sure, it's a much different experience, but this movie still has a solid narrative and one of the decade's most memorable soundtracks that makes this a haunting space film. Because, yeah, this movie is quite terrifying as it puts on display the unforgiving nature of outer space, thus effectively ruining dreams of many hopeful future astronauts.
17- Ex Machina
Alex Garland is a filmmaker who is definitely on my radar after both of his first two directorial efforts made my top 50 of the decade, this one and 2018's "Annihilation." Of the two, "Ex Machina" is most definitely the standout. The funny thing about this is that on paper this doesn't sound like anything that special. A dude made a robot and he invites another dude up to his secret place to participate in an experiment regarding said robot. I mean, how often have we seen a premise regarding Artificial Intelligence and how that's maybe not the best idea in the world for humanity to play around with that? Yet despite a familiar premise, it's the execution here that provides for a rather stunning experience. This is a very meticulously crafted film that leaves you on the edge of your seat for the entire film with your heart pounding in your chest. Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleason provide solid work as our two human characters, just months before they reteamed as Poe Damron and General Hux in this little known film called "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." But it's Alicia Vikander as the A.I. named Ava that owns the screen. She actually won an Oscar that year. Personally, though, I like to pretend it was for this movie rather than "The Danish Girl."
16- Logan
The X-Men had a bit of a wild journey this past decade. After crashing and burning in 2006 with "X-Men: The Last Stand," then failing to ignite in 2009 with "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," they officially got rebooted in 2011 and things were going good for a while until they crashed and burned again, then finished the decade being owned by a completely different studio as Disney bought Fox. But nevertheless, going along with the ride the entire time, beginning in 2000, was Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Say what you want about the X-Men. I have my fair share of harsh words. But everyone loves Hugh Jackman's legendary performance as Wolverine. And he provided quite the swan song in 2017 with "Logan," the Wolverine movie that everyone had been begging a long time for. "Deadpool" opened the door for this project's success and "Logan" rather quickly took advantage and sprinted across the finish line. But yet the most impressive thing is that, even though the movie had every right to be this bloody, insane gore-fest, the movie had a lot of restraint as it told a dark and dreary tale of a character once strong and proud, who now seemed to be the last strings of his journey. This is a movie that completely superseded its comic book genre and became a glorious and haunting film.
15- Mad Max: Fury Road
Every year provides its own set of challenges when putting together my end-of-year list. Usually, though, I can rather quickly identify the best of the bunch. However, 2015 was not that year. I struggled mightily as to what my favorite movie was. I eventually settled on a movie that was not "Mad Max: Fury Road," but yet with the help of time, "Fury Road" has definitely risen to the top as the most memorable film of that year. It's a movie that's really rather baffling in attempting to explain why. And it has nothing to do with nostalgia for me. I hadn't even seen a Mad Max film until I did a marathon of them the month this came out. The first two are decent. The third one is weird. But this fourth one is an absolute masterwork of filmmaking. And it's weird because this is such a simple movie. A group of misfits escapes the main group in an apocalyptic wasteland and the result is a movie that's essentially a big chase scene for two hours. But again, it's the execution that makes it work. The pacing is fantastic. The emotion is high. And the action sequences themselves are stunning, both in terms of the construction and choreography as well as the pure entertainment value. This is a movie that can be rewatched an endless amount of times and never get old.
14- The Babadook
Arguably the most disliked genre that I hear from my friends is that of the horror genre. For some reason the entire genre has a negative stigma with some people. And I find it quite amusing when said people watch a horror movie that they enjoy, but then immediately write it off as being a suspense or a thriller instead. This is a strange phenomenon to me that I could go off on a long rant about, but for the sake of not enough space here, I will forgo. The reason why I personally love the horror genre is that, when done right, it's a genre that has the potential to dive much deeper thematically than any other genre. "The Babadook" is a shining example of that. While, yes, there is a high level of entertainment value in the extreme levels of intensity that certain sequences bring. Namely, like, the whole second half of the movie. But this movie is way more than suspense and terror. It's an allegory for mental illness and depression. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a movie that dives deeper into the reality of depression than "The Babadook" as it uses a mysterious shadowy figure that they call the Babadook to explore the mind of a woman whose life has gone to Hell following the death of her husband. And for that, the movie leaves a lasting impression.
13- Parasite
Our most recent best picture winner is honestly one of my favorite best picture winners in quite some time. At least the best of this past decade. I'd have to check if there's anything between now and "Return of the King" that would be better. I'm also ecstatic at the idea of a foreign language film winning best picture. That was a great moment in Oscar history. As Bong Joon Ho said during his Golden Globes speech, if you can get over the one inch barrier of subtitles, there is a huge door open to you with many great films available to watch. That's me summarizing, not a direct quote, but you get the quote. If you skipped this South Korean film because you had to read subtitles, you're honestly missing one of the best movies of the decade. Bong Joon Ho is a fantastic director who really knows how to craft a film. I haven't seen all of his films, but another one of his films, "Snowpiercer," was also one that nearly made my decades list. I don't want to say a whole lot about "Parasite" because it's still fairly new and a lot of people might not have seen it, but nevertheless this is a brilliant combination of a lot of different genres that includes some extremely poignant themes that resonated quite strong with me. It's also one of the most intense films of the decade.
12- Django Unchained
In case you're keeping track, this is the second time in this post where I'm retroactively changing my favorite movie of the year. And this is a big one because it means that 2012's best movie of the year goes to Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" instead of "The Avengers." I binged all of Tarantino's movies prior to seeing "The Hateful Eight." That was quite the bloody marathon, but "Django Unchained" was one that completely blew my mind. Tarantino's second best film behind only the masterpiece that is "Pulp Fiction." In rewatching "Django," I noticed a trend with Tarantino. He has a liking of giving the metaphorical middle finger to dark times in history. In "Django" he did just that with slavery as the movie is about a black slave who gets free, becomes a bounty hunter, and uses that profession to completely annihilate the whole household of a rather brutal and mean white slave owner who wronged both him and his wife. But the movie is more than just a brutal, gore fest. It has the feel of a Western that just so happens to take place in the South and Tarantino implements the perfect amount of suspense and build-up using great acting across the board and super sharp dialogue. And, of course, it has one of the most therapeutic finales.
11- Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Perhaps a surprise choice here that some may not be expecting to be so high? The reason for this placement is a combination of the astronomically high entertainment value of this individual movie as well as the overall achievements of the franchise as a whole. In pertaining to the latter, how many franchises can claim that they got progressively better with each film over the span of two decades without any sort of reboot? And how many of said franchises has a lead star who found the fountain of youth and is bound and determined to one-up himself in each movie? I'm not going to claim this is the ONLY franchise to achieve similar feats, but in a day where every studio wants a successful franchise, "Mission: Impossible" currently stands a gold standard. And Tom Cruise, man. Like, holy cow. There isn't anyone working today that compares. With "Fallout," specifically, he learned how to fly a helicopter so that he could shoot those scenes himself without any stunt double. Every movie he does something totally crazy and it's all him. And the man is 57 years old. With all of that in context, "Fallout" individually just happens to be one of the best action/spy thrillers to have ever been made. I challenge you to find a better sixth movie in a franchise.
10- Warrior
And now we're into the heavy hitters. The top 10 best movies of the decade. We begin this section by perhaps the most criminally overlooked film of the decade. "Warrior" did not do well at the box office and I haven't many people talk about it since. Yet everyone who I've successfully persuaded to watch it has been completely blown away. Quite honestly, I've never been into real life MMA or boxing, but in the cinematic world of that genre, I grew up loving the "Rocky" movies and I'm typically a sucker for other fighting movies. "Warrior" is in the MMA world and is the story of two brothers and their familial relationship as the enter the same MMA tournament. In terms of the MMA side of things, the fights themselves are exhilarating. Even in a recent rewatch, having known the outcomes of the fights, they are still intense and nerve-wracking. And very well choreographed. On top of that, the emotion the movie packs is intense. The two brothers and their dad have a very broken relationship that the movie explores in significant depth. The father is trying to right the wrongs of the past, but it's too little, too late in the eyes of both brothers. Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte star. Nolte got an Oscar nomination for playing the father. All three deserved one.
9- War for the Planet of the Apes
In a similar light as "Mission: Impossible," franchise achievement is what helps boost the final chapter in the new Planet of the Apes trilogy. Yeah, sure, the movie on its own is cold, dark and chilling. A fantastic movie. But the difference between a good trilogy and a great trilogy is how they stick the landing and "War" was a perfect capstone. And honestly, this has to go down in history as one of the greatest trilogies ever made. Seriously. "Star Wars." "Lord of the Rings." "Planet of the Apes." This trilogy is in that echelon. And the fact that they're all so interconnected, with a beautiful and tragic arc on both sides of the human and ape conflict, speaks volumes about how the finale wrapped everything together. But not just that. This trilogy was able to accomplish something that I don't know has actually ever happened. Create a prequel trilogy that is excellent AND ties into the original film. Because not only does this movie do a fantastic job at tying this individual trilogy together, but it also runs right into the original 1968 Charlton Heston "Planet of the Apes" film in a way that I was, quite frankly, not expecting. In fact, it gave that movie an origin story that made a lot more sense than the direct sequels to the original film, which initially established a weird time loop.
8- Lady Bird
One common theme that you will seem with some of these final films is that of life. As in movies about life really affected me. There's a couple of these major "slice of life" films here as well as movies that make you ponder about real-life themes and scenarios that consequently cause the movie to seep out beyond the confines of a fictional piece of art and thus have greater purpose than mere escapism. "Lady Bird," my top movie of 2017, is one of these direct slice of life movies. There's not specifically one particular story arc that the movie follows. Rather, it follows the journey of a high school senior as she lives out her final year with her parents and then moves off to college. Thus it might be a slightly nontraditional narration than your typical three-act structure, but the way all of it is framed and constructed by director Greta Gerwig is done in such a way that causes you to soak in so many different themes and messages along the way that hit home. In fact, I remember my drive home after initial seeing this was super emotional. I broke down and became homesick. I missed my high school. I missed my home town. I missed my family. I missed my friends. I missed the simple pleasures of life that I often took for granted. It was an extremely overwhelming experience.
7- Joker
To those who might have been somewhat surprised by my pick of "Joker" as the best movie of last year, and might again be surprised as seeing it as the seventh best movie of the entire decade, it all makes sense when you actually think about. "Joker" was the perfect storm of things that I love. I'm no major respector of companies when it comes to superhero or comic book movies, but if you make me choose, I've grown up with DC and have thus had a stronger overall connection to it than Marvel. I love the Batman universe. Joker is one of my favorite villains. And I love movies that are deeply psychological. Sure, I was as nervous as anyone when this was announced because I don't think Joker needed an origin story, And from the director of the dude who did "The Hangover" trilogy? Say what? But despite all the odds, this simply connected on every level. Some may have been critical due to it being too much like an old Scorsese movie. I think that connection made it beautiful. It's a dark and terrifying character study of a man who was rejected by society. Some also have claimed it's a dangerous film. To that I say... why? Because it's real? Remember what I just said in regards to movies about real life? Sometimes real life is dark, brutal and unforgiving.
6- The Witch
Is this an empowering movie about a young girl who is finally able to break away from the foolish traditions of her family and accept who she truly is? Or is it a tragic tale of a young girl who tried her best to follow what she knew was right, but was ultimately unable overcome the forces of darkness? Is it a movie that rejects Christianity as fraudulent and binding while painting witchcraft and devil worship as a delicious and exciting path? Or is it a movie that acknowledges the reality of the devil and paints a cautionary tale about what could happen to even the most faithful Christian families if they let down their guard? As a devout Christian myself, you obviously know the angle I choose to take on this one. A lot of horror movies can be unconventionally spiritual and profound in ways that traditional religious films are completely incapable of. But in an awkward turn of events, "The Witch" is a movie that was actually endorsed by modern Satanic worshipers, so what's the actual answer to what this movie really is? I don't know. And director Robert Eggers purposely chooses to not take sides or give any easy answers, which makes this one of the most fascinating and disturbing horror films I've seen. I can't really recommend this. But if you do see it, let's talk.
5- Toy Story 3
There's no easy transition going from "The Witch" to "Toy Story 3." Now just imagine the confused look on my face when I sat down and forced myself to pick which one was better. I think I stared at that screen for five whole minutes. But in continuing this theme about life, here's a quick snapshot into my younger life. I grew up with "Toy Story." In fact, I was around Andy's age when the original came out in 1995. We had Woody and Buzz toys growing up. That movie was one of the movies that was on a constant rotation in our house. That VHS was very well used. With all that in context, you're telling me that Pixar makes another Toy Story sequel during the summer before my first full year of college in 2010? And the movie is about Andy moving away to college and having to say goodbye to his childhood while giving his old toys away? Talk about timing there, Pixar. This is a studio that has excelled in pulling at your heartstrings in multiple different ways. Everyone has their own favorite Pixar film because Pixar is able to speak to each person on a personal level through at least one of their movies. "Toy Story 3" was that movie for me. Pixar probably would've had more representation on this list, but the other movies in my top five Pixar rankings came out in different decades.
4- Avengers: Infinity War
You can go ahead and peak at the top three if you want, but I'll just make the reveal right here. "Avengers: Endgame" did not make the cut. It fell entirely out of the top 50 for me. We can discuss that in more detail later on if you want, but for me it was "Avengers: Infinity War" that was the more memorable experience. Here's the thing. I really enjoy the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A LOT. They have their formula down and I'm a complete sucker for that formula. Yet there are some slight negative consequences to having that formula down so well. One of them is that it doesn't open the door for them too wide to be super crazy and bold. I'm not saying they need to. But that's just the reality of it. And I think that is why "Infinity War" is super memorable because it's the one Marvel movie where I had no idea what was going to happen. The tone is set early on when they kill off Loki right at the beginning. I spent the entire movie living in fear and terror that any one of the other characters who I've grown to love could easily get the ax at the hands of Thanos. Then they ended the movie by doing the unthinkable. Thanos won. He accomplished his mission. Then we spent a whole year on quite the extreme cliffhanger waiting for what the aftermath of all of it would be.
3- Boyhood
Some called this movie a gimmick. I wholeheartedly disagree. Sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but for me this was one of the most mind-blowing cinematic experiences ever. Yes, there's been plenty of movies made in the style of "Forrest Gump" where we watch our lead character grow up on screen. But usually they switch actors when they present the passage of time. "Boyhood" did not. Richard Linklater took quite the gamble when he chose to cast a fictional family, then spend the next 12 years filming a movie, wherein he would film for about once a week every year. The end result was the king of the "slice of life" movies because our main kid was a very young kid at the beginning of the movie and off to college at the end. And again, it was the same actor. We literally watched him grow up on screen. "But Adam, this movie had no plot!" Of course it did! Not a conventional one. But the plot can be summed up in one word. And you guessed it. LIFE. Life has many stories interwoven along the way and I enjoyed all of them. I was so invested in this movie that it was probably the shortest three hours of my life. We got to college and I was ready to watch the next 12 years of his life. It could've been a sequel we called "Manhood." What a journey that would've been.
2- La La Land
Does the fact that I interviewed director Damien Chazelle shortly after seeing this movie a month early for my internship at the time cause me to be biased towards "La La Land"? Abso-FREAKING-lutely! I mean, who said I had to be objective here? This is MY list. And I loved this movie so much that I probably ruined it for some of you, who then turned around and hated it because you didn't quite love it as much me and thus didn't understand the hype. But in fairness, you didn't interview the director after seeing it. All that said, I loved this movie before that interview. Me and my friend who I was allowed to invite were on Cloud Nine and were so excited to share this movie with the world when it came out to the public. Fast forward nearly three and a half years, and this movie was still super impactful for me last month when I rewatched in preparation for this. In fact, probably more so. In short, it's a movie about dreaming. But instead of drifting off into a fantasy world of rainbows and butterflies, it takes a -- yep, you guessed it -- real life approach to dreaming. Because sometimes life takes you in a much different direction than you anticipated. And sometimes you then reflect back on all the "what ifs" of life. And I've done all of that more than my fair share of times.
1- Inception
I considered trolling everyone by putting something like "Cats" or "The Emoji Movie" at No. 1 just to throw everyone off. In all seriousness, I watched "La La Land" and "Inception" back-to-back last month in order to figure out in my mind which one of them was my No. 1. It was a difficult decision, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that "Inception" is really the only choice here. Christopher Nolan set a really high bar at the start of the decade. And although many movies came close, ultimately no movie was able to top "Inception." And it's a movie that's so beautifully complex that it's a gift to the world that keeps on giving. When I first watched this movie, my friends and I sat on a bench in Taco Bell and spent at least an hour or two simply trying to figure out what the frack we just watched. Ten years later, I can still have a similarly detailed conversation with friends and family after watching it. And I continue to gain new insights along the way with each watch. But it's not just the complexity factor in play, this is a movie that covers just about every emotion from being wildly entertaining to deeply depressing. And it hits a whole plethora of genres along the way. It's truly one of the most unique and thrilling cinematic experiences in the history of... ever.
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