Celebrated actor Christoph Waltz recently revealed that he originally turned down Django Unchained, which is shocking given how his Oscar-winning performance as Dr. King Shultz is part of what makes the movie so beloved. Many Redditors believe it’s the best movie of the 2010s, but it’s an extremely close race and other Reddit users have chimed in with their own favorites.
The decade took escapism in movies to a whole other level with superhero flicks and other blockbuster movies, but Reddit users point to tons of riveting dramas too. Between a drama that perfectly reflects the times of the 2010s, a creative but overlooked comedy, and even other Quentin Tarantino-directed releases, the 2010s was one of the most thrilling decades in film.
The Social Network (2010)
Gumby9 is a big advocate for the David Fincher-directed courtroom/internet drama The Social Network being the best movie of the 2010s. The Redditor posits that “you can say that movie captured what the decade was about. Social network, millennials truly coming into the fray, and memes.”
Even in 2010, while it was wildly popular, Facebook wasn’t anywhere near the popularity it’s at now and it didn’t have quite as much influence over what its users read. And between that, the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the very fact that Mark Zuckerberg is indeed the face of many memes, fans want a Social Network 2. The sequel could define the 2020s just as the original defined the 2010s.
Silence (2016)
Interestingly, out of all of the Martin Scorsese-directed 2010s movies, a deleted user chooses the lowest-grossing one with the lowest fanfare. In the 2010s, the celebrated filmmaker directed the hilarious Wolf of Wall Street and the epic The Irishman, but the Redditor chooses the modestly-budgeted spiritual drama Silence about two Jesuit priests.
The user argues that the 2016 movie is “an incredible achievement and Scorsese’s best. We could use some more historical films like this.” It might lack the snappy dialogue and fast pacing that the director is known for, but the film looks beautiful, and it becomes more engaging the more it unfolds.
Whiplash (2014)
There are tons of movies about student-teacher relationships, almost too many, and one that absolutely nobody was asking for was a drama about a young jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and music instructor (J.K. Simmons.) However, Whiplash turned out to be one of the best performance-driven movies of the past 10 years.
Shaunika thinks it’s the best movie of the 2000s because of Teller and Simmons, claiming that “Whiplash is a masterwork of tension with some of the best performances of the decade.” The 2014 release is so much more than the typical mentor-protégé-type story, and it’s actually a riveting psychological drama. And “Not quite my tempo” has become the unlikeliest of iconic movie quotes.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Quentin Tarantino’s output slowed down a little in the 2010s, but that’s hardly a bad thing considering his films have become more consistently great. The decade saw the beloved filmmaker zero in on epic period pieces, and while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood isn’t full of bloodshed and huge shootouts, it’s epic in other ways.
Steves_friend_ puts it best by explaining that the film is full of “unique styles, great music, wardrobe, and cinematography, amongst other things, as well as very compelling characters.” No other movie does a better job of immersing audiences in the swinging sixties, and every crew member clearly poured their blood, sweat, and tears into every element of the production. The 2019 release is one of the few movies that will be considered classics in 20 years’ time.
What We Do In The Shadows (2014)
What We Do in the Shadows wasn’t all that popular when it was first released in 2014, but since actor-director Taika Waititi’s profile massively grew after he helmed Thor: Ragnarok, the vampire movie has become a cult classic. Theravemaster calls it “easily one of my fave comedies of all time, it introduced me to Taika Waititi and I’ve loved him ever since.”
The film is a hilarious mockumentary about the day-to-day life of a group of vampires, and it even spawned a just-as-good TV show. Though the comedy isn’t as popular as other 2010s comedies and is fairly overlooked, it’s by far the most original.
The Revenant (2015)
After losing out four times, it was Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance as Hugh Glass in The Revenant that finally earned him his first Academy Award. Few actors have gone to greater, more strenuous lengths to deliver such a believable performance than DiCaprio did for the 2015 movie.
Along with the performance, Notuch points out the cinematography and the overall ambitiousness of director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, claiming that it’s “probably one of my most breathtaking experiences in the cinemas.” The Revenant went over-schedule and over-budget, and that was mostly simply down to Iñárritu trying to capture natural lighting. But the challenging on-location shoot worked out for the best, as it’s one of the most unique-looking films ever.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Though the fourth movie in the Mad Max series had long been talked about, it was seemingly stuck in development hell and audiences thought it was never going to happen. But 30 years after Beyond Thunderdome, the fourquel arrived and, against all odds, became the very best movie in the series.
A deleted user reckons that it isn’t just the best movie of the 2010s, but the pinnacle of cinema. The Redditor believes that they “won’t see a film like this ever again. It combined a century of filmmaking techniques into a film that was the best and likely last of a veteran director.” However, director George Miller is currently developing the spin-off, Furiosa, and it could be the filmmaker’s swan song.
Inception (2010)
Rabid_Luiz lobbies for Inception as the best movie of the 2010s, claiming that it must be the best “based on the number of times I’ve watched it.” When the movie was released in 2010, director Christopher Nolan set the bar so high early on, and there hasn’t been a better sci-fi movie since.
The film is yet another one starring DiCaprio, and it’s a testament to how great of an actor he is and how much foresight he has when it comes to choosing roles that Redditors call out his movies so often. But while the performances in Inception are great, the 2010 movie is all about the mind-blowing action sequences, the clever storytelling, and that jaw-dropping cliffhanger that audiences are still debating today.
Django Unchained (2012)
Emadyville thinks the first Tarantino-directed movie of the decade is the very best, claiming that “Django Unchained is still my favorite movie by a long shot.” Making a more exciting historical movie than Inglourious Basterds was an impossible task, but, somehow, the writer-director managed it.
The movie features the most thrilling shootouts of the filmmaker’s career, the most spectacular set and costume design, and the best acting in a Tarantino movie. Along with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Revenant, and Inception, Django Unchained is yet another movie starring DiCaprio. And many believe DiCaprio should have won an Oscar for playing the evil, racist plantation owner Calvin Candie.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
A deleted user points to Avengers: Endgame as the greatest film of the 2010s, which arrived at the final hour in 2019. The Redditor argues that “the 2010s will be remembered as the high watermark for the MCU with Endgame as the cap to just over a decade of the cinematic universe.” Even if it isn’t the very best movie of the 2010s, it’s certainly one of the most impressive.
The film managed to tie up the myriad story and character arcs with no loose ends. Its three-hour and 15-minute runtime flies by and feels shorter than some movies half its length. And if the box office statistics are anything to go by, Endgame is by far the best movie of the decade, as it even briefly overtook Avatar as the highest-grossing movie of all time until the 2009 film was re-released.
