The Big Picture - The Top 10 Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture

Episode Date: November 26, 2019

Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan to discuss, debate, and ultimately crown the 10 best films of the decade as they see them. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Hollywood's biggest stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Time Magazine says DiCaprio and Pitt are marvelous together. Now with over 20 minutes of additional scenes and exclusive access to the set, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, watch it now on digital, rated R. Remember when tie-dye was an activity? He can't throw and he can't field, but what can he do? Right now I'm just admiring my own gallantry for eating it the way you've prepared it. What was Mr. Zuckerberg's ownership share diluted down to? It wasn't. It's his first day on Wall Street. Give him time. You love them, and they know it, and they love you, and you know it, but it's a party. What was Sean Parker's ownership share diluted down to?

It wasn't. What was Peter Thiel's ownership share diluted down to? It wasn't. And what was your ownership share diluted down to? Point zero three percent. We're the common denominator. Cut to ten years later. Like how 10 years ago you were in first grade and now we cut to

i'm sean fennessey i'm amanda dobbins and this is the big picture a conversation show about the greatest movies of the past 3650 days50 days. A little format change to the Oscar show this week. We're putting stock up, stock down, and the big race on hiatus until next week. And if you want to hear about Frozen 2 or more about Knives Out or the early word on Sam Mendes' 1917, tune in on Monday. Today is all about the big picture's big picture. And that, of course, is our collective ranking of the best movies of the decade. Joining Amanda and me is, of course, the big homie, Chris Ryan. What's up, guys?

The pod uncle. How are you? I feel like I've almost known you guys for, well, I've known you definitely for the decade. I've almost known you. Yeah, we're like 11. What, 13, 12, 11? Yeah, it was 11. So we're almost there. Yeah. Did you guys first bond over movies? Was that your introduction? Because that was the introduction I had to Amanda Dyer. I don't think so. I think you came late to me

as a moviegoer. Yeah, first we were just... It was purely social. Yeah, media holiday parties. That's right. But it's true that Sean and I met after the screening of Avengers. Like, we had met before,

but that was the first time we really talked. First time I ever saw Thanos was followed quickly by having a drink with you for the first time. Is Thanos in that movie? He certainly is.

He appears at the end in the bumper. You remember? I know. I really don't. Okay. They hadn. He appears at the end in the bumper. You remember? I know. I really don't. Okay. But I remember the drink. They haven't quite figured out the CGI yet on that one, right?

He looks a little bit different. It's just like Josh Brolin wearing a lot of makeup. Guys, we're going to talk about the best movies of the decade. How many movies does Thanos appear in on your list? Nine. Nine. That's pretty good. I don't think Thanos appears in nine movies.

He's so good in shoplifting. What does this decade in movies mean to you? Obviously, the three of us have spent more time thinking, writing, podcasting about the medium in that time. But when you think of the 2010s and movies, what do you think of? Chris, why don't you take it away? Well, I think that in a lot of ways it is about technology so not only in terms of

the differing ways that films are being made now in terms of digital cameras becoming more and more the norm and the way that films are being made

with digital cameras changing like what you're allowed to do on set how many takes you can get where you can go with a camera and not needing

a setup like that but I think for me like this list was a lot about, it wound up being very American and it wound up being very much about where America was, how it got where it is and where it is now. And I didn't expect that to be the case at all. Also where it might go in the future. And I didn't expect that to be the case.

So in some ways, I was really gratified by looking at my list. I'm sure your guys' list, and seeing it tell like a real story outside of just like, here's where the industry went. And here's where like superhero franchises are. And here's where this like shared universe gets us. It was like a real like, oh, wow, these movies still have a lot to say about what it means to be a person.

Amanda, what about for you? I had a similar experience. There are some not even political but sociological and kind of what's happening in the decade themes definitely running through my movies as well. last 10 years, so that's recency bias, and also just my personal nature, that there is a threat of, I don't want to say optimism, but like wonder and hope in these movies. Apparently that's what I gravitated towards. No kidding. It's a real Obama era list, I gotta say. So, you know, and you have to think that we are spanning two pretty distinct eras, both in American ideology and experience and also in moviemaking when making this list. And I do find it is there's nothing in the middle for my list, which is really interesting. So. But, yeah, I you'll see. I think I guess ultimately that the movies are still a

place where I go to feel something larger than myself, especially as in this decade, TV has proliferated and there is so much to watch and you can find something so specific to your interest on television, which is great. I love it. Shout out the bold type. But, you know, at the movies, you go to experience a collective vision or something outside what you would normally seek out. And I think in in some ways, my list reflects that. It's such an interesting compromise act because you're basically trying to make some sort of agreement between personal taste and collective greatness,

like a collective acknowledgement of greatness. I actually found this list, it was very easy to make a huge long list. And then you start getting into like, what is it that makes a movie better than another movie? Which is, I think, an incredibly personal decision.

You know, and I think some of this has been a little bit warped by doing a bunch of rewatchables over the last year, where you kind of get into more about what's the long-term entertainment value

of a piece of filmmaking rather than whether it was intellectually stimulating or artistically breathtaking or demanding in that first viewing that you had versus I know that this movie is going to be a part of my life for the next few decades. So with that in mind, do you guys have one sort of honorable mention

that maybe doesn't totally fit it doesn't really have a place on the list for you but does the thing that chris is describing which is it kind of exists outside of the rewatch ability it out exists outside of the like prestige list making galaxy brain that we sometimes have to have to do this but one that you're just like i just like this movie it didn't find a place on my top 10 but i really want to give it a quick shout out i have so many i mean i do have some of the prestige ones i my list as we will discover quite quickly was real gut check i wrote the 10 movies that came to me and you know i tried to apply some editor stuff after the fact but i don't have a lot of like the truly like the great consensus movies of the decade i'm gonna going to go ahead and say right here,

and I feel guilty about it, but Moonlight is not on my list. It's not on my list. Moonlight is one of the greatest achievements of the past decade or the past, I don't know, my lifetime in cinema. I believe that. And part of it is just because

Moonlight has been on a lot of lists and I was trying to be a bit more idiosyncratic and a little more expression of my tastes and also just, you know, make it interesting. But that's one that I have on the other side of the spectrum. I have Creed on my honorable mentions. Creed's on my list. I loved Creed. I saw Creed alone in the 34th Street Theater in New York and just started crying as soon as that theme song comes up at the end. I was moved. That was great. And that's sort of a emblematic, you go to the movies and you get swept up in something experience for me. CR. There were movies that I felt like were representative

of the work of either an actor, actress, director that I felt like ultimately were my favorite movie by that person from the decade, but weren't one of my favorite movies of the decade. So something like Haywire directed by Steven Soderbergh, which I adore, have watched five or six times over the last 10 years, but honestly couldn't put in my top 10. Also, there's a couple of genre movies like It Follows or Green Room or even Get Out that I felt like just didn't quite make it into the top 10. My list is, I will say, idiosyncratic to myself as all of these things are, but it's a little bit more consumed with the self and my idea of what an honest hero is in a movie. I realize that a lot of the figures that my movies are obsessed with are these singularly driven, weird,

sometimes hopelessly out of control of their self. And I sense that in sort of in the mechanics of what I relate to in movies, which is very unhealthy, I think, in a lot of ways. But it also feels like a little bit of a testimony to what the decade was about. The decade was about like ruthlessly ambitious people rising to power, really without any cuffs on, just like doing whatever they wanted to do

because they could. And even though you're right that the first half of the decade is very much Obama time and has felt very hopeful, the second half of the decade has been pretty challenging, pretty distraught, pretty much like a reckoning for what we had in the first half. And so by chance, I have almost one movie from every single year of the decade. Very similar to you. I just wrote down the 10 movies that I thought of and worked from there. And I probably removed one thing or added in one thing here and there. But for the most part, this is what I think of when I think of the last 10 years.

Too quick. That makes sense, though. If it's the best movie of a year, it's already in that rarefied era for you. So it would be hard to not. It would have to be an extraordinary other movie year for the second or third best movie. I'm speaking specifically from you. If it's like the third best movie of 2012

is better than the best movie of 2017. I've got two from 2013 and nothing from 2011. I have between 2011 to 2013 is five or six of my list. Interesting. I don't know. Do you know any math, Chris, on yours? I got two from 12. It's pretty spread out for me. Two quick honorable mentions for me. I really wanted to put Stories We Tell and It's Such a Beautiful Day on my list. It's Such a Beautiful Day is an animated movie by this guy, Don Hertzfeld.

It's not technically a movie. It's three short films strung together. I really love his movies. They're all about the dread of the future and pain. I would recommend you check them out if you have free time or are willing to watch stick figures for 90 minutes. And want to have your mind blown.

I think it's an absolutely amazing movie. Stories We Tell Sarah Polley's sort of documentary about her parents' past. Genius movie. But yeah, I mean, those movies also, I think, kind of fit into the theme of the past and reckoning with the future. Should we do our list? Yeah, let's get into it. Amanda, you want to start with number 10?

Sure. Let's just start this with something ridiculous. My number 10 is the film Fast Five from 2011. Because here I am. Good pick. I'm a woman of the people Fast Five from 2011. Because here I am. Good pick. I'm a woman of the people, as everyone knows. No, listen, I really do believe, like I said, this was a bit of like a gut check, writing down like memorable experiences watching movies. And I do also believe that a list like this actually has to engage with cinema and movies as a popular entertainment and things that people see. I do not have any Marvel

on my list, but I do have Fast Five because at the end of the day, it is just a dumb, amazing movie where people are dragging a safe through Rio and you're just like, what is happening? And I do think it's a relic of another era. There is that like Obama era optimism and inclusivity. And we're all a family and we're doing this together that kind of pushes the movie and this franchise. And it's obviously also kind of a flex moment in the franchise because it's when The Rock joins and becomes much larger. But I don't think I had seen a Fast and the Furious movie before some friends took me to this. And I remember just sitting in the theater being like,

yo, they're really doing this. They're just really driving a safe through the damn city and it just keeps going. And it's exciting and propulsive and loud and stupid and kind of transcendent. It's kind of a funny pick

because of all of the big franchises in the entire movie world, and Chris and I are susceptible to a lot of them. I'm susceptible to most of them that's the one that I think has never really touched us yeah I think I've seen like three of them and then the one like well I saw one with Kurt Russell and I was like this can't be real like maybe it is like you're just like am I watching this yeah yeah I don't dislike them I like them I just I've never gotten obsessed with them and Fast Five is kind of universally understood you and I are not coming from that from a perspective of being like that we're too good for this like no no just I've never gotten obsessed with them and Fast Five is kind of universally understood as the best but you and I are not coming from that

from a perspective of being like we're too good for this no no definitely have seen Den of Thieves five times so it's like

don't worry about it I love action franchises it's just for whatever reason this one which pretty much barring your sort of intergalactic comic book universes

has emerged as the franchise of the 2010s your case is very strong. It is like an amazing set piece in that movie with the safe. It's damn good stuff. Chris, what's number 10 for you? Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

All right. Yeah. This is also on my list. So this is probably so low because it's so recent. So low. Well, it's on 10. I think it has the potential to rise up, you know what I mean, on further viewings. But it's easily far and away it I think it has the potential to rise up you know what I mean

on further viewings but it's easily far and away the best movie of this year I think it's the best Tarantino movie from this decade

it features two of my favorite performances from the decade in Brad Pitt and DiCaprio and Lena Dunham

and Lena Dunham yeah I'm just super into yeah to Scoot McNary's brief appearance. And I felt like it was a good way to kick off the list because it's about being obsessed with movies in a lot of ways. So I just wanted to throw that out there to begin with. We've talked so much about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I don't have to belabor it too much, I don't think. I'll be circling back to it as we continue to go down the list.

My number 10 is Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse. You may have heard of this movie if you've ever listened to this podcast. I think it's a nice placeholder for two different categories. One, comic book movies completely taking over the entire genre of filmmaking. Two, animated movies which have had a fascinating 10 years and if one thing dominated if comic book movies dominated the decade animated movies secretly kind of run hollywood and keep the lights on and it's something that is a little bit of an undiscussed aspect of it obviously i know you guys are not huge animated movie fans i've seen this movie this movie i think

does something that most animated movies don't do which is it really pushes the medium forward in a major way. The animation style is incredible. The storytelling is great. It gives you both the sort of self-knowing, sarcastic meta aspect of Deadpool, but it also gives you the kind of like sincere, uplifting storytelling that is in the best of Spider-Man stories. I think it's like an absolutely amazing movie. It holds up really well. We revisited it earlier this year. I'm really glad you appreciated it. That was very meaningful. And anyone who hasn't seen it, I would recommend you watch it. Number nine. Magic Mike from 2012. So it's interesting. Another way that I was putting this list together is that I was definitely not counter-programming, but there were certain things

that I thought I knew that both of you would do. Like Sicario, Day of the Soldado? No, well... Is that not on your list? If Sicario is not on your list, I'm going to be surprised. But also, I really thought

Haywire was going to be on your list. Yeah. Because I know that that is a big movie for you. And, you know, it's also Soderbergh exploring the physique in different ways.

Magic Mike has a bit more narrative structure to it. Haywire is more like, I like it when ladies run. Yeah. Well, Magic Mike is like, I like it when Channing Tatum dances. But so does everyone. I mean, you know, you kind of forget in 2012 what a phenomenon this was. And kind of looking back on it, it anticipates a lot of the movie existing on the Internet or outside of the actual experience of watching the movie. And like the concept of Magic Mike has really lived on. But, you know, it anticipates a lot of things.

It's a story about some guys in Florida who are just trying to do the best that they can. Like a long time you know and that is kind of it's before the big short I believe and it's before kind of the Florida trilogy that is now um overtaking independent cinema and I also think it you know it finds movie stars it brings you the reconnaissance it's it essentially like a modern day musical in a lot of ways where they just stop to let Channing Tatum be amazing. Cody Horn, Apex Mountain. Yeah. I was going to offer you guys the opportunity to talk about Cody Horn. Justice for Cody Horn. Performance means a lot to you. It's really,

it's still astonishing on rewatch. She's a very special actress. Yeah. That's my take. That is true. It's an extraordinary and memorable performance, which is true of pretty much everyone in this movie. Sure. Yes. There we go. Magic Mike. I love Magic Mike. I don't even know if I've got Magic Mike on my top 100 list I've got going, but I do love it. I don't have a Soderbergh movie on my top 10, which on the one hand, I kind of feel bad about. On the other hand, it's hard to pick. It's just hard to pick. To your point about Haywire, it's just very difficult to put your finger on well what is

what is his quintessential statement yeah yeah exactly I don't know what about you Chris number nine the master this is also on my list yeah um I will we can save the actual description and talking about the master uh for when it comes up for. I would just say that one of the delights of the decade has been the ceremony around going to see PTA movies when they come out. And I saw The Master, I think you and I went to

Musso and Frank beforehand and John Bryan was in the restaurant and we went down there. I think we saw like a 10 p.m. screening and got out at like, you know. I believe it was midnight. It was, yeah. I think it was a midnight screening.

This was before they were starting to show these movies at 7 p.m. on Thursday nights. Right. So it was a Thursday night at midnight. So we got out around like 2.30 in the morning or whatever and just kind of like stalked home. I think I saw it like a couple days later in the theater. I still don't understand it. It's still one of the most haunting movies I've ever seen.

There's a lot in there that I think going forward winds up like saying a lot about like where we are. But to me, it's also like the resonance it's taken on, unfortunately, because of Philip Seymour Hoffman's passing as being kind of a testament to his genius. And also just like it has the atmosphere of one of those late 70s movies that you read about in books where you're like, man, the making of the deer hunter is just like all these people being involved. It just feels like a bunch of people like kind of at their absolute peaks. And it's just one of the most beguiling movies I've ever seen. Very special film. My number nine is O.J. Made in America.

Let me ask you guys a question. Do you consider this a movie? I think it's okay to okay because of its documentary-ness or the fact that it's a 10-hour TV show? The fact that it's a... Well, I wouldn't call it a 10-hour TV show. Right. But it is a 10-hour, 7-hour series essentially. But it is operating

under the same auspices that films operate under. You know, the sort of arc of the story, the way that it's told. It's a traditional documentary just elongated into multiple parts. But I think the sort of the arc of the story, the way that it's told. It's a traditional documentary just elongated into multiple parts. But I think, you know, the Academy changed their rules

so the movies like this can no longer compete. Like, would you consider The Vietnam War to be a movie? I would. Okay.

I would. I think of the Ken Burns series as films. Okay. I wouldn't have put it in my top 10, so it's not really like a parliamentary movie.

The Vietnam War? Yeah, I would. No, you wanted to put baseball in though. And we said, Chris, that was released 25 years ago. You can't put that in.

That was some behind the scenes banter that we had earlier. Do you consider it a movie? Well, I was just thinking, I watched it at home. I watched it on my TV and I consumed it in an episodic way. So to me, it was a documentary series, but that's really just because how I consumed it. So that's a helpful way of letting me talk about it. I, Chris and I were both working at ESPN at the time, and I had a

chance to see the movie before it was released in a theater and talk to the filmmakers about, you know, how they put it together and what would, you know, sort of what the process for it was. Ezra Edelman is the director, just amazing genius documentarian. And it struck me as a movie. Sitting in a theater for six and a half hours to watch it was a highly immersive experience. And it's been talked about over and over again, what makes this movie so special. It won the Best Documentary Oscar, won scads of awards. It's one of the most recognized achievements in documentary filmmaking ever. The thing that sticks with me is it's one of the best movies about the arc of time. A lot of documentaries like the Vietnam War try to capture that. And in

some cases they do, but they're often about events or they're about ideas or they're about a sport or the blues. They center themselves around themes or objects. This movie is certainly about race and violence and our relationship to it, but it's about a person and it's about what happens to a person when they go inside the machine and how it can damage them badly. It's just an amazing collision of all things that interest me about movies and moviemaking. So that's my number nine O.J. Made in America. Number eight. This is a great segue from a movie that's about the arc of time to a movie that posits that time is possibly not an arc, which is Arrival. Yes.

Which is my number eight. Yes. I rewatched Arrival last night and found myself as moved as I did the first two or maybe three times. I can't remember that I saw it in theaters. Listeners will know I'm not a huge sci-fi person. And I also don't characteristically find myself responding to deeply philosophical or really movies about crises of faith or crises of spirituality. And this to me is a movie about faith and wonder and believing in something larger. And I find myself absolutely rocked by it. I mean, you know, it's beautifully shot by Bradford Young and

obviously directed by Denis Villeneuve and based on a great Ted Chiang short story. The ideas are all there, but it's kind of, I couldn't tell you why this movie and something else. Sometimes the alchemy just kind of works and you find yourself moved by something. You're going full genre. This is amazing. Well, here I am. I like to go to the movies and have fun. That's a good one. Where is it on your list? It's at number four. Is it? Oh, I didn't even think it would be. And like you, I also, I saw it like two or three times in the theaters the year it came out back in 16. And I've seen it recently. And I was as

rocked by it as I was that when I first saw it in the theater. He's my favorite director of the decade. And I think that this might be his best movie. Man, I should revisit it, huh? Yeah. Sounds like I fucked up. Let me look at my long list and see if I've got it on here. It's amazing. I do. It's at 75. 75. Perhaps that's too high. No, you know what it is? It's like, I think it's the best that Hollywood can do. Yeah. I think it's like two really great movie stars. It's spectacle, but like humanity. And I actually do think that the twist works. And I think that's like two really great movie stars. It's spectacle, but like humanity. And I actually do think that the twist works. And I think that the ending is maybe one of the most moving endings I've ever come across.

I totally agree. And, you know, it has that thing of you want to know what's going to happen. It is, we read the Manola Dargis review and she says it sometimes it's like pretty straight for a movie that is about how time is a flat circle i guess or but and for kind of metaphysical concepts but it really just is kind of like now we got to go back up in the thing but that it manages to walk the line between genre and something really profound is i think what what speaks to me about it it's a great one number eight chris minding the gap all right uh it's bing lu's documentary from last year what speaks to me about it. It's a great one. Number eight, Chris. Minding the Gap. All right.

It's Bing Liu's documentary from last year about a bunch of kids, a bunch of skater kids growing up in Illinois and the, again, like kind of repeating a theme, but the cycle of not violence per se,

but kind of the cycle of somewhat poverty, somewhat just like hard times in America, how impossible it is to get out of your circumstances in this country, and is also just like one of the most affecting character portraits you can see. You feel like, you know,

I think that I talk a lot about this on The Watch because we deal with, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens of fictional characters a year when we're talking about all these shows and we have all these different, do I like this person or do I believe this person or do I want to spend time with this person? And character is really such a difficult thing to describe,

like whether or not there's a good character or an interesting character. And I feel like I can safely say in this doc, you just feel like you know these people. And in some ways, that's the best achievement of the film. I know you feel really strongly about it too i do i didn't put it on my list um not not for a good reason it's an amazing movie it was one of my one or two or three favorite movies of the year last year i talked about it incessantly it's um it's just an unusual circumstance to get that level of intimacy over that level of time with people. And it's very carefully orchestrated,

the way that it's cut together and the way that the reveals happen. And it's not done in a way that is cynical. It's very sincere and empathetic. It's not trying to gotcha, even though there are a lot of kind of like shocking, emotionally disruptive moments in the movie. And it just seems really, really sincere. And it's funny, I'm looking at my list and it's kind of like half sincere and half engineered. And sometimes it's good when a movie is just exactly what it means to be. You know, when I talked to Bing Liu about it, you could tell just based on his disposition,

the kind of guy that he is, that there's not a lot of, you know, effrontery or effacement going on. It's also kind of cool to, you know, we follow so much about like, oh, this director was looking at this project and then they moved on

and this person, this movie could only have been told by him. Yes. Like it's his perspective, it's his experience, it's his life, it's his friends,

it's his way of shooting skateboarding and the way in which the skateboarding is this escape for these guys. So, yeah, if you haven't seen it, it's on Hulu, I think still, I would imagine. And I can't recommend it more highly.

My number eight is Mad Max Fury Road. It's my number seven. Speaking of movies that can only be made by the person who made them. This is a good stand in for why sequels don't have to be bad. I think we hear sequels and we think that they are destroying modern movies. We think that they are tearing down creativity. George Miller waited decades to make a fourth movie. He tried very hard over a long period of time. The actual physical production of this movie started years before its release in 2015.

And it isn't just an absolute symphony. It's- I think you could make an argument that this is the best made movie of the decade. It's right there for sure. I mean, it is similarly holds up amazingly well if you watch it to this moment it feels like the kind of movie that you know when you watch casablanca sometimes and you're like this still works perfect like it just it has not that nothing feels dated nothing feels overworn it's kind of like it's it's

classicism despite the fact that this is a movie that features like a a demon playing guitar and like people on flying spikes Nicholas Holt just being like I'm a blood boy yeah even despite all of those weird storytelling trappings

just a kick ass relentless exciting action movie that also has ideas in it if you want if you choose to explore them if you choose to see it as an ecological tale

you can if you choose to see it as a story about feminism you can if you choose to see it as an ecological tale, you can. If you choose to see it as a story about feminism, you can. If you choose to see it as a story about Tom Hardy not knowing how to speak, you can. But when it's working, when it goes to the 11th level, it is hair-raising. And so it's number eight. It does seem like it's also the critical consensus. Every single list that I've read is on it. It's also the one that a lot of filmmakers are like, that's the one. Yeah. That's like, if you want to know how to edit a scene

and understand space and shoot action, that's it. A lot of times when we hear a movie took three or four years to complete, we think that it's a disaster. I wonder if more movies, now this is not necessarily financially reasonable, but should more movies start in 2019 and be wrapped in 2023 and will we just get better movies i mean i'm a full believer that the reason that movies are better than tv is because people are spending more time and energy and money and resources on one thing it's like that they're spending more time instead of me having to spend more time watching like you know episode six because you guys didn't really know what was going on and you had to fill two more hours before you got to the thing. So I agree with you. It might also drive everyone insane. It seems like

a pretty involved process. Yes. And I would like to keep the directors that we have rather than, you know, miring them in intensity for four years at a time. Yeah. At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves on this show, I learned that 1917 began shooting in April and wrapped in November, which is just insane when you see that movie. But so it's not true in all cases. But I agree with you that more time and effort. Look at The Irishman, you know, more time and effort into these films often produces better results because things are not being hacked together at the last minute.

I think that's also true of life, but that's just me. I'm also the person who put Fast Five on her list instead of Mad Max Fury Road, so whatever. Number seven. There I am. My number seven is Frances Ha. That is also my number seven. Oh, really? Oh, that's nice.

Yes. I think this is a personal pick. I mean, you know, Noah Baumbach is one of my favorite directors. Greta Gerwig is incredibly important to me, and this is her introduction on the main stage, if you will. She co-wrote the script and obviously stars in it. This is a top five, three, one New York movie for me, which has a lot to do with the fact

that I was Frances Ha's age at the time this was released and also living in New York. And I think, you know, we were talking about optimism and my list being a little more hopeful than I expected. And this is the most hopeful Bombeck movie.

It's someone breaking through and seeing the world in a different way. And I felt like I got to access that when I watched this movie and it means a lot to me. It's a wonderful movie. Couldn't have said it better myself. I don't I got to access that when I watched this movie. And it means a lot to me. It's a wonderful movie. Couldn't have said it better myself. I don't have anything to add.

I think it's completely touching and important to movies to me personally. Chris, number seven. Mad Max is seven. And so, and Frances Ha is yours. Frances is mine. Oh, great. Okay. So six is so efficient right here.

This is going to be extra efficient because my number six is Skyfall. And we have an entire podcast that you can listen to about why Skyfall is, you know, this is my franchise. I mean, I know I picked Fast Five. Fast Five is more like dumb action movie and this is my franchise. Movies can make literally a billion dollars and also have ideas and be excellent. And I love this movie. It appears I don't have Skyfall in my top 100. Well, we don't.

Do you have Casino Royale in there? I don't. Forfall in my top 100 well we don't do you have Casino Royale in there I don't for all the Casino Royale truthers and mentions you want to just carve out 30 seconds to speak to the Casino Royale truthers

I hear you your voices matter I think that you guys have plenty of space on the internet to express yourselves and and you have done so

and that's great and we love you and we love and keep shining poker and we love Mads And we love poker. And we love Mads Mikkelsen. Keep shining. Keep shining.

Okay. Fair enough. Skyfall is a fantastic movie. Check out the rewatchables. Number six, Chris. Drive. Oh, this is a couple of things. So first of all, it came out in 2011.

I moved to Los Angeles in early 2012, but it started visiting here to move here in 2011. And I feel like was a very formative movie and my ideas about what Los Angeles could be, which have all been completely crushed. Isn't that good? Sure. I mean, I don't know what you were hoping for, but...

How many heads have you stomped out in an elevator? I've tried to I'm trying to articulate one thing about this movie and maybe you guys can help me none by the way no heads

thanks for clearing that up this feels like a generationally cool movie but specific to this decade you know what I mean I think we may have squandered how cool this movie was

in the years to come with like TikTok and shit but there was a moment what? where I feel like this movie was in the years to come with like TikTok and shit, but there was a moment where I feel like this movie was like as,

it was like, oh, like we've turned a page. You know what I mean? This is a new director, Nicholas Wenningref, and these are new movie stars with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan.

It's a great story. It's so cool. And the music, the sort of very Johnny Jewell chromatics, like glass candy soundtrack. It felt like something. And the music, the sort of very Johnny Jewell chromatics, like glass candy soundtrack. It felt like something really breathtakingly new, even though the story is obviously just basically a remake of a Walter Hill movie. I don't know necessarily that I have

like an overarching theory. This movie is so romantic and so violent and so beautiful and so cool and so rewatchable. And Oscar fucking Isaac is just in it for like eight minutes and amazing and Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston and it's just it's Drive. It's fantastic. This is a movie that got kind of memed to death but is still like slaps. Yeah. It's hard to be an earnest adult man

in 2019 and be like Drive is so cool dude. Yeah. What's cool is satin jackets with tigers on them. I mean I was at some point is it just that you want the jacket? Do you want us to get you the jacket? No, but do you know what I mean by like, it felt like there was a kind of different dialect

being spoken for this movie. I think it was unafraid to be seen as pretentious and slick. You know, like Refn's style is very glossy and it's very iconographic. You know, he's trying to make something that is memorable and could be frozen in time. And I think he's gotten punished for that in the years to come. And, you know, Only God Forgives is a personal favorite of Chris and I, and is one of the more

depraved movies of the last century. It's not on my list here. I wish it were. Maybe one day a rewatchables of Only God Forgives between just you and I that is never released can happen. And I think he's gotten kind of picked over over the years. He's released this Amazon show that did not go over super well, even though Chris also loved that. I was just thinking about Chris and my husband texting about that show for three months. Have you guys finished watching it? Yeah, for sure. Okay, good job.

I haven't. I love Drive. I've always loved Drive. Yeah. I do personally find it hard to keep a straight face while talking about what makes it so cool. That actually was an extraordinary performance by you. Just saying like,

there was once a time when men were men. No, it's not when men were men. It's just that I think I was, we were coming out. I think that that was the first time where I felt like, oh, this isn't like movies from three years ago. You know, it's like you watch a movie and you feel like this is a new voice and a new way of telling this kind of story. And it's been imitated so much over the last 10 years. I think it's a

deeply influential movie for not only in movies, but I think it even had a big impact on like music and fashion and the way people kind of conduct themselves. And there's like a kind of like a kind of paradigm that it set up. Right. It's also nothing's cool anymore. And specifically that part of cool. Yeah. Like that type of cool does not exist.

Yeah. And and part of it is because it's you can't really be earnest, enthusiastic about something and also be cool. Those are like opposed ideas. And we do live in a time where everyone is just really, really passionate about the things that they are passionate about and is just giving you that with enthusiasm and detail. Or anger. Or anger. That's true. But you're all in on something and that doesn't allow for the detachment that makes something cool in the way that drive is cool. It's funny when you said that it was like, maybe it's a road not traveled for this generation,

but to me, it kind of seems like the last gasp of like our actual generation before the young children came and gave us TikTok. Yeah. I agree.

That's what I thought you were going to say too. When you use the word generationally, I thought you meant kind of the end of a generation being able to create this kind of imagery. I guess I didn't see it that way

until you guys just showed us how old we all are. Washed as fuck. Number six, Get Out. Yeah. Yeah. You know.

It's important. Just a brilliant movie. Introduction of an important and fascinating and fun new filmmaker. It's really great to have somebody who is so pop and has such a clear idea

of his or her own cinematic language. Jordan Peele kind of checks all the boxes of the cinephile stuff and also all the boxes of you just want to go out to the movies and have a great time. It was exciting just to watch people get excited about us because of what Get Out did to the culture. It feels like one of those classic movies where it's going to be absurd that it didn't win Best Picture 15 years from now. we're going to talk about that for a long time just a perfectly orchestrated horror movie that also has a lot to say about society features great performances has great laugh lines it has like all of the great night out in a movie stuff that you want and it stands

up to re-examination it actually it grows richer the more times you watch it and you can see that there's a lot of meticulousness in the way that he put the movie together. And I think it's emblematic of like a, not quite a changing of the guard of horror, but an indication that, you know, through Blumhouse and through a sort of a sense that social ideas still belong in horror movies, that they're coming out of the sort of saw and haunted house generation of horror movies that we were, we could still get something that had kind of a vision of what our society is really like so get out just an incredible testament to like the regenerative power of filmmaking talent like where you think like i've seen it all there's no way i can get scared in a different way there's no

new trick that this guy can pull and then you you realize like, oh, like I think the world just went like Technicolor watching this movie. This is one where I felt really bad not having it on my list. And I kind of went another way in the horror genre. Surprise. I know it's me. I contain multitude. Genre Dobbins today. But also, but I think it's probably the top five most important films just in terms of reinventing the way we think about a genre and also just getting people to respond to it. Everyone has seen and understands Get Out, which is phenomenal. That's a good point. It went so immediately from movie to part of the lexicon.

The fabric of culture, for sure. Amanda, number five. My number five is Phantom Thread. Yes, very hard for me to leave this off um and the reason it's on my list is because i needed a love story on my list and there are not uh very many love stories made this decade for a lot of reasons and i that is a not even genre just like a whole a theme in filmmaking that has always been important to me because i'm a human being and this is the one

that stands out I mean it obviously also is uh Paul Thomas Anderson doing a costume drama which is great for me and it has like a great director who has made movies that I recognize as excellent but maybe don't always hit my particular taste centers kind of going straight to the heart of it and then finding something new in all of

in the types of movies that I've enjoyed for decades it's his most it's his tightest movie by far yeah for sure

if I was being truly honest with myself all three of his movies from this decade would be on my list I tried to keep one director only one one entry from a director.

I did the same. But The Master, Inherent Vice, and Phantom Thread are three of the six best movie going experiences I had in the last ten years and learned something new about myself and about the way to tell stories. He does what I had always been waiting for from a director

for our generation. It's exciting that he's able to make the kinds of movies that he wants to make. He's a rare auteur. I think there's like a handful of people, maybe Wes Anderson, Tarantino. There's a very small number of people who get to actually get close to the budgets they want, the stars that they want, and still get to tell the stories the way that they want to. Phantom Thread is a perfect movie. Not on my list. Chris, number five for you.

Speaking of love stories, Before Midnight. Is it a love story? I think so. Yes, ultimately. But it's like it's marriage story before marriage story. Yeah, it's also like weirdly, I don't mean to make this sound odd, it's like the story of my life. Like these movies have come out pretty much parallel

to the place I was in my life when they were released. So I very much like identified with the Ethan Hawke character, Jesse in the first one and his sort of wanderlust. And the second film, which I think is probably the best one, uh, like articulates those last embers of like real,

like adventure in your life and real romance and real risk-taking that you can really have before you really start hurting other people with your decisions because you have this family or you have these responsibilities. And then this movie just really reckons with that.

And one of the reasons I love this movie is because Jesse's kind of a dick in this movie. And I really do feel like of the three of them, this is the film that feels most co-authored by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawk and Richard, Richard Linklater. But it never feels like it's telling the story from the perspective of one character.

It really, truly feels like the story of a couple. Um, it's in no ways cinematically that remarkable. It's pretty bougie. It's about this like pretty well off couple who are having a lovely summer in the Mediterranean. And he's got a writing career. And she's tired of sublimating her hopes and dreams to his career.

And he's got a wandering eye. And it's pretty pedestrian. But a lot of people have put boyhood in their their top decade list of the decade and it's kind of like beyond me as to why you wouldn't put Before Midnight

and it's it's a crowning achievement to chronicle this fictional couple over the course of what 20 years or so I think I feel like it's unfinished

yeah that's part of what maybe one of the reasons why I don't think to put these movies in these places is because it is purposefully episodic and the returning to it every what is it like nine years or something like that they return to these characters indicates to me that i don't know

the totality of the story and since i maybe it's because we don't know the totality of our own lives and that's kind of the point of the films but it i feel like i'm hanging i'm and i'm like i want to know where they're going to be now right and so I don't have the same sense of resolution that something like OJ made in America gives me or it was just like well here is what happens with race in America across six and a half hours you know there is a kind of you know you button up your shirt at the end of it um isn't it more like life though it is yeah it is I mean those movies are almost too much like life for me which is why I ultimately

I really admire those movies and it gets so uncomfortable because they aren't I'm not like hey man it's a Wednesday let's fire up some like before sunset I need like the rigor of a bomb back script and the jokes and the playwriting to provide some

structure around the emotions because if you're just like putting the emotions out solo, I'm just like, well, this is very uncomfortable. I don't even do this in therapy. And that's kind of my, I remember vividly seeing Before Midnight and just being like, I really have to get out of here. This is really intense. This is really intense, which is not the response that I had, for example, to the marriage story. It's less, it's less controlled and more raw. Well, it's harder because you went from seeing this couple be kind of a platonic ideal for what you imagine for yourself in life to kind of resenting each other. And that's heartbreaking.

You spent four hours on screen time and you've imagined 20 years of real lifetime for these people and you've seen them age. And then to watch them just kind of nitpick each other,'re like fuck is this what we're all doomed to be you know like yeah that is the thing that scares me off of it in a lot of ways both before sunrise and before sunset and with the right kind of interpretation quite hopefully maybe they'll reunite and he'll meet her you know back in europe and then at the end of before sunset it's sort of like you know he's gonna miss that plane yeah and at the end of before midnight i'm like are we all doomed

like are we all doomed to hate each other in perpetuity or at best resent each other as you said and that is like a scary proposition i think they find something new at the end of this movie though you know detente yeah um my number five is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood okay for many of the reasons that Chris said I've now seen the movie four times

it is a fascinating portrait of sort of the opposite of what Before Midnight does Before Midnight is like here's how it really is here's what happens

when you get into your 40s and life is hard and relationships are not easy and we're all flawed. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is, here's what I wish could have happened and here's why. And here's what I love and here's why I love it. And I'm going to show it to you in Technicolor. And it's just a very spirited and hopeful movie that shouldn't be. It should actually be a movie about the end of a time. That was the pitch originally. It was like 1969

or at the dawn of the apocalypse. America is about to go belly up and things are going to be horrible. And it isn't that. And it's somewhat wistful for the 50s and 60s, but I think it's also somewhat wistful for our vision

of what was once good, even if it was never actually there. Just an amazing filmmaking achievement and like a master in his safest place, you know, in Hollywood making his LA movie. Did you consider putting Django or Hateful on this?

Or would you have if you had the Paul Thomas Anderson amendment? Probably not. I think Inglourious Bastards was his 21st century achievement. Highest level achievement. I think Inglourious Bastards was his 21st century achievement. Highest level achievement. I have some regrets about not putting The Hateful Eight on my top five murder mysteries list.

That dawned on me. Yeah, that was suggested to me, but that one's tough for me. Yeah, I really like it. It actually would probably match my strict interpretation of the murder mystery. It's a traditionally defined. I love both of those movies. I like Django. I love Hateful Eight.

But Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is close to a summation for him. It's, I think, as close as he'll get to Love Letter. And it's extraordinarily well done. Marvel released a new podcast about the Fantastic Four called Marvels. Based on the graphic novel by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, the show is set in New York City and it does an incredible job of immersing you in the real world of the Marvel Universe

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Get unlimited access to every Masterclass. And as a listener of this podcast, you get off the annual all access pass go to masterclass.com big picture that's masterclass.com big picture for 15 off of masterclass number four and number four is money ball i just i you know i feel like sean and i did an entire podcast about brad pitt that was just screaming money ball uh i part of it is how watchable it is and part of it is that it takes things that i don't care about including sports and spreadsheets and turns it into well i don I don't. You're laughing, but I don't care.

I put it on the record. I do not care about sports and spreadsheets. I think The Ringer has made you care about both, but that's a whole other story. But she just put a movie at number four

that hinges on Ricardo Rincon getting treated. Right. And it's just because... What can't Moneyball do? Right, exactly. You have an action movie, a science fiction movie, a sports movie.

Yes. I am, like I said, I contain multitudes. Denim geek Dobbins. This is very rude. Sorry that I am just, you know, taking all that cinema has to offer. Ain't it cool, Dobbins? It's me and Martin Scorsese, okay? Just going to see things and having a personal connection.

That's what I look for at the end of the day. But anyway, it makes... Is Doctor Strange on your list? No, I still have never seen Doctor Strange. I really don't know what's happening in that movie. And when they showed up in Endgame or whatever, I was like, what is happening? Who is that? Anyway, Moneyball. That makes you just really invested in things that you don't care about. And also, quite frankly, like the concept of moneyballing something has become larger than the movie, which is useful. I think it's, we put it as the best Brad Pitt performance, right? If I didn't, I was wrong. I think so.

And some of it is just watching like a true movie star performance, which we've talked about at length. We don't get as many of those anymore. And this one is just like, wow shit it's brad pitt it has a nice relationship to once upon a time in hollywood right because it's the stillness and the cool and the reserve but there's something underneath that you're like is there something really wrong with this guy is he really angry or is it just you know is like the jockishness that pitt to it. What an amazing movie that is. And the other thing I would say, it's just there is an emerging theme

of just people against the system. And that obviously becomes more and more resonant as this decade goes on. But Moneyball is a 2011 movie and it's starting to identify like a major theme that is like in a non-political way, but at the same time is it's like such a future this decade sports movie exactly yeah every story that sort of matters about this decade is about

uh and for as much as you may like loathe or love these storylines is about people finding an edge and figuring out how to beat the system at its own game. Chris, Arrival is your number four, right? Can I just do Denis Villeneuve's decade real quick? Ensemble D's. 2013, he makes two movies, Prisoner and Enemy. Prisoner's an enemy. I love Enemy. I fucking love Enemy. And I also love Prisoners.

Enemy rules. Which one is the one? The spider one. And Prisoners is Hugh Jackman and Paul Dan... Prisoners I find to be less successful, personally. But you forget Jake G with his neck tat. It's an interesting...

What's his detective name? Why are you shopping for kids' clothes? Is it Detective Loki? Yeah. Okay. Gyllenhaal is a fucking lord. He is amazing.

What a great decade for him. Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner. It's a fucking great decade for a director. And he blade runner it's not it's fucking great decade for a director and he does he basically does it on his own terms i mean he now is getting sucked into franchises and he'll either come out of dune on the other side as like the new spielberg or he'll he'll be whatever it is but man like i it's hard to get better than the prisoner's enemy

sicario arrival run i think an interesting thing about that too. And that's in three years. Arrival is his, I think it's his only movie out of that bunch to not be shot by Deakins. And the Roger Deakins effect, I think it'll be interesting to watch at the 1917 thing, how much credit Deakins gets versus Sam Mendes. And you could have made the case that Villeneuve, oh, you know, foreign filmmaker come to America, hires basically the most gifted director of photography that's living and letting that person create the visual

language for your movies but then he works with Bradford Young a young much younger DP and create something that is like really challenging visually in. I would also argue like understands human moments maybe in a way that Deakins doesn't, which is Deakins is a lovely, lovely visual artist, but sometimes is not the most intimate one. That's right. My number four is Whiplash. Here's my case for Whiplash.

I just definitely spent the last 10 years of my life being way too obsessed with my job and to destructive effects. And I feel like this is a cautionary tale, brilliantly told. It's also about domineering people and the people you encounter in your life who are too hard on you and what you sacrifice for the things that you love, et cetera, et cetera. But it is primarily about someone who got way too inside their own head about who they should be and why. And I think it's a very graceful metaphor for film directors. It's also a very graceful metaphor

for just about anybody on the internet. Everybody on the internet self-styling themselves over the last 10 years should watch Whiplash and be careful not to get into a vicious car wreck because you've pushed yourself too far to the limit. Obviously, Damien Chazelle announces himself to get into a vicious car wreck because you've pushed yourself too far to the limit. Obviously, Damien Chazelle announces himself as one of the three or four biggest talents in moviemaking. It'll be very interesting to see where his career goes, I think,

to go to the super-duper highs of La La Land and then sink down with some of the disappointment and frustration of First Man in the aftermath of that. His next decade, I think a lot of people in the movie business view him as like, is he our Spielberg or something like that? Does he have the ability

to make things like that? I think he's a little too idiosyncratic to be that big of a movie maker. His tastes are a little bit more old-fashioned. Yeah, yeah.

And he's now making a movie about old Hollywood next with Emma Stone, which will be interesting to see. Whiplash just feels like one of those

lightning-in-a-bottle movies where, for whatever reason, the right producers came on board, Jason Blum decided next with Emma Stone, which will be interesting to see. Whiplash just feels like one of those lightning in a bottle movies where, for whatever reason, the right producers came on board, Jason Blum decided to put money behind it even though it's not

like any movie Jason Blum ever produces, and this guy made a full-length film out of his Sundance short and hit something that was very, very resonant for me.

Probably the iconic scene of the decade where you're rushing or dragging. Yeah, I think so. And also, one of the decade. Are you rushing or dragging? Yeah, I think so. And also, one of the first meme movies.

Oh, yeah. I feel like J.K. Simmons and his character, obviously his performance is amazing, but the rushing or dragging is like a bit online. Yeah.

What came before that? Dark Knight. They got Heath out there. Okay. And here we go. Yeah. Okay. Number three, Amanda. My number three is Heath out there. Okay. And here we go. Yeah. Okay. Number three, Amanda.

My number three is Parasite. Damn. Yeah. This is my, which I'm counting as a horror movie. This is what I was alluding to. I think we talked about how this decade spans two political moments. I mean, several political moments, but two distinct eras. And this is the first real piece of, it's not even post-Trump art.

I'm aware that it was made in South Korea and it's about a South Korean family. But to this moment of nationalism and capitalism and despair and anxiety and anger that we are in, I think this will be the movie that I remember from this moment. It's an amazing movie. I thought about putting it on. I couldn't put, I just didn't feel like I could put two 2019 movies on the list

because for fear of recency bias, but, you know, obviously a marvelous, fantastic movie that we're probably going to be talking about a lot more in the next two months. Chris, number three. Lady Bird. This is my number two.

Yeah. Probably the best experience I had watching a movie. Like, you know, you have like a couple dozen of them in your life, if you're lucky, where you just, the lights go down and then like for two hours you feel like you're floating. Just felt like it was the story she was born to tell. And she told it. It's hard to like even put it into words, like how beautiful this movie is and how funny this movie is and how affecting it is and then also like that real crackle you feel when you're like oh man like gregor wick's gonna make movies for 20 years and sersha ronan and timothy chalamet are gonna be in movies for 30 or 40 years like we're just gonna

see like this is like the first peek into this beautiful start of something and uh yeah i mean it's like it would be a good partner movie with whiplash i think in some ways it's like uh slightly less dark but a lot about like construction of self and construction of self uh through culture and through passions and through family or lack thereof. And yeah, I just, I can't say enough great things about that. I feel like I always end these like top fives by like trying to put like a superlative at the end, but it's just Lady Bird. No, I have written down a perfect movie question mark,

which I think it is. And part of it, as Chris said, is that it is so specific to Greta Gerwig and you're watching this and you not only know, oh, I'm going to be watching Greta Gerwig movies for 20 or 25 years, but you know what a Greta Gerwig and you're watching this and you not only know, oh, I'm going to be watching Greta Gerwig movies for 20 or 25 years, but you know what a Greta Gerwig movie is. Like you have a sense of the tone and the interests and the way the characters speak

and the things that she's going to examine again and again. So it's both so specific to her and it's a tremendous mother-daughter movie. And I can't think of that many mother-daughter movies, which we know why, because, you know, they don't let that many daughters make movies. But I, it is both a tremendous

and really moving evocation of that relationship. And I think is also pretty universal. I think about how many things it's about. Yeah. But it's not like about it. And like, and this is not a shot at one of my favorite storytellers, but it's not like David Simon, where it's like, it's about institutions. It's just like, no, it and like, and this is not a shot at one of my favorite storytellers, but it's not like David Simon where it's like,

it's about institutions. It's just like, no, it's like, you know, like all this stuff that's in there about religion and sexuality and art and, you know, class and the wrong side that there's literally the wrong side of the tracks. Yeah. But it's just all told through this very compact story. I love it. I love Lady Bird.

Is it on your list? It's not on my list. I had a strong feeling that Amanda would be coming through and then you dropped the bag and so we're all set on Lady Bird. So where are we at? Number three.

Number three for you? That's Lady Bird and that's number two for you. Yes. Okay, so number three for me is Inside Llewyn Davis. Speaking of movies to pair with Whiplash maybe.

The Coen Brothers. Very important to me. Very interesting decade from the coen brothers here are the four coen brothers movies from the 2010s true grit a fine movie a remake a fun romp winner oscar winner but and a very successful very financially successful movie maybe not in the top 10 of the Coen Brothers films. Inside Llewyn Davis in 2013, Hail Caesar, which I love, but is probably lesser Coens, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which I also love, but is probably lesser Coens.

I think Inside Llewyn Davis is really the only, the first movie they've made since A Serious Man that is in the canon. And it's in the canon because it's similarly like a lot of the best stuff on my list including once upon a time in hollywood a love letter to a time that the filmmakers are obsessed with which is this like new york folk scene in the early 60s and it's also a love letter to the people who don't make it who don't got it who are like close who are really close to having

it but i don't see a lot of money here. That sort of vicious blade that F. Murray Abraham wields at the end of the movie after he watches Llewyn Davis perform this very sincere song after going on this almost Greek tragic journey. Yeah, Odyssean sort of. Yes, is kind of like astoundingly devastating to me and such a sad and weird evocation of trying so hard to resonate and knowing that you're not quite there. And then obviously the movie ends with Llewyn Davis getting a good look

at what he wants to be, which is Bob Dylan playing, you know, the gaslighter or whatever and taking over the American consciousness, the popular culture of the world and the the coens are not usually that sort of sentimental they're usually a lot more arch and i think they could only really tell a movie like this through the eyes of a lewin davis but it features some of the best music that you'll find in a movie in the last 15 years an extraordinary os Isaac performance that's like now quite underrated.

And a sense of, a sense of like deadness. You'd think that early, the early 1960s would be like jazzy and poppin' and fun. But everybody there in that time, John Goodman passing out in the bathroom. Yeah, it's kind of gray and damp. And Carey Mulligan is furious at Davis.

And, you know, Garrett Hed headland is a dirt bag yeah and everybody is just kind of a miscreant in the movie and which is very true to the cones obviously but it is not like a romanticization of that time i feel like part of it was that that it's got a absolutely astonishing trailer and people were really like this is going to be an incredible movie about 60s and folk music and he's a genius and it's also got like a great romantic screwball comedy in the middle of it it was just like not that at all yeah and it's like artists have to go to their sister's house to pick up their belongings because they don't have anywhere to live you know like artists are broke and they're trying really hard to get people to hear what they have to say but most people just don't give a shit

a lot of them are pricks yeah completely yeah I have a vivid memory of seeing this movie in Christmas 2013. And I believe it was the first year that my now husband had come to Atlanta to spend Christmas with my family. And we see a movie with my father on Christmas night. And I saw it having seen the trailer and being like, you know, all these, it's going to be a fun 60s movie and sort of had a slightly more muted reaction. And my father and my husband both loved it. And they were talking about it in the car home and my dad just announced, it's like, well, Amanda doesn't like movies where men don't talk very much. So her opinion doesn't count. And that indictment has stayed with me to this day. Yeah. I mean, that's an accurate description of the film. I don't know

if it's an accurate description of you, but. I don't know, but it gets to that tone. It is reserved. It absolutely is. It's kind of a comedy. It's as close as I have to a comedy on my list, but it is a bleak, bleak, bleak movie in the best way possible. So number two, you've already shared is Lady Bird. Yes. Anything else you need to say about Lady Bird no I feel like Chris and I just like shared our happy feelings for a while about Lady Bird great movie

yeah A plus CR your number two Wolf of Wall Street yeah so I would not have put this on the movie on this list

until recently I rewatched it recently and I think that I was ready to leave this movie back in 2012 and just kind of be like it produced some some great gifts and it was like an excellent comedy and a very demanding watch because it's so long and then I re-watched it recently and I was like oh this movie like explains America uh and how fucked we are and it's crazy the debate around this movie it seems so wrong now to be like are we

celebrating these guys and does martin scorsese think all this behavior is cool and we spent like a solid six months debating that it is definitely the funniest movie of the decade um and that is in and of itself a tragedy that um but you kind of think about when you look around not only our business but the state of the country right now and

you think like in 50 years are we going to look back and be like we completely like just ransacked like what we had here and just completely just sold ourselves

and this is that's what this movie's about it's about the people who are buying us and it's so fucking good it is so electric it's also like people who are buying us. And it's so fucking good. It is so electric. It's also like, almost like in terms of,

in terms of filmmaking, like he kind of outdoes himself. There's not any dead moment of this movie that doesn't have something where a camera's flying by and someone smokes crack and then it goes into slow-mo and a marching band walks out.

I mean, we've talked about this a lot recently because of so much Scorsese stuff, but this movie is just phenomenal. If you're a big fan of this movie, I encourage you to keep an eye on the Ringer Podcast Network in the near future. Not a perfect movie, but perfect in its imperfections. I think the fact that it has been so, what I would say is misunderstood in the years since, as you indicated, Chris, is part of what makes me like it more is part of what makes it's the the subtlety of the the farce and the satire is so effective to me now and so evident as chris as you're saying that 2019 feels so much it feels so much more resonant that it makes it simultaneously more devastating and more fun um the fact that they were so perceptive about the

worst kinds of people in our society and also made that we're unafraid to make those people joyful. Yeah. Because that actually is what's going on. These people who are doing these things, they're not twisting their mustache and thinking about taking over the world and torturing people. They're like, what I need to do is feel good all the time. Yeah. And they're literally like, once you need to do is feel good all the time. Yeah, and they're literally like,

once you feel this way, how would you ever possibly feel any other way? If you get this rich and you do this much coke and you have this kind of life, how could you possibly ever go back? And that's what a lot of Martin Scorsese movies are about.

That's the heart of destruction. People chasing this impossible feeling. And yeah, it's just, it's sort of wild to think about like these movies coming out in 12. When did Big Short come out? 13? I think it's 15.

15. Yeah. And kind of feeling like, wow, we really got out from under that. Yeah. These are capstone movies. Let's just put this one, you know, the world spins forward.

And that was obviously, they were more like Canaries in the coal mine. My number two is the master which chris mentioned um i don't i it's it beguiling was the word that you used and i i would i would echo it it's a little hard for me to understand at this point what i like about it i think it is the most mesmeric movie on the list it's not something that i fully understand either as you indicated chris but it is the movie that holds my attention

most clearly and I think all of the drapery around it all of the Scientology story and L. Ron Hubbard all of that stuff has kind of lost the time to me like I'm not thinking about

any of that stuff when I watch the movie now what I watch is from the window to the wall and the kind of almost like like yeah there's

there's something like metronomic about it. There's something rhythmic about it. And the way that the dialogue is written and the way that it's delivered, especially by the two leads is trance-like. And that is the purpose of the movie. It's a kind of like, let it wash over you, like those waves that you keep coming back to over and over again, that vision of the rush behind the boat. And it's sort of like how things can take over your mind. And that's really what the people who are being seduced into this practice do. And that's what movies do to me. They just, they wash over me over and over and over again.

And they kind of take me away for good and for bad. Number one, Amanda is just being very polite about it I knew that you would both have the master it's a great movie I assume we all agree

on number one yeah we do it's your pod it's go for it man it's Guardians of the Galaxy 2 yes

yes we did it Thanos I am inevitable no it's the social network the social network We did it! Thanos! I am inevitable. No, it's The Social Network. The Social Network is the best movie of the decade, and it's not close. Yeah.

Not even close. It's reassuring in a way that this was easy. I knew that I would have this to come back to. Would you like to vamp first? Well, we were talking about Lady Bird being a perfect movie, and I think that The Social Network is also a perfect movie and I think that the social network is also in a lot of ways it is also a perfect movie but then it's a perfect movie that defines an era and kind of predicts everything that comes on a like international level and also on a really human level both of how Facebook

literally changes our entire world and democracy and and all the things that animate the rest of the movies that we just discussed on this list but is also about one guy uh trying to get inside and trying to find a way uh to connect with people and creating different ways to do that and is is what he created helping him or us connect i don't know outlook. Outlook not good. In a way, this movie articulates the kind of thing I was trying to say with my idiotic drive take,

which was just that it is about the turning of a page. It is about like when everybody who's kind of like in their mid-30s on is like, I don't understand how the world works anymore.

Like, this is why. Or the things that this movie is about is why. The things about a guy in a room saying like, well, I know things that this movie is about is why the things about a guy in a room saying like well I know there's like these ideas about privacy

or these ideas about like our inner self versus our outer self but what if I just took those away and would people be able to turn away from that would people be able to resist that

for to hold on to like any kind of societal norms and it doesn't hurt that this movie is just like as entertaining and professionally

made as you can make a film you know and it's the idea I think Sorkin and Fincher it's like I'm so glad that they haven't done anything else it's almost like that's the perfect encapsulation of the two of them I'm sure they will at some point you know

do you think that the sequel should happen? Do you think the next 10 years should happen? With those filmmakers and that cast? Has that been talked about? I don't know.

I mean, like, I would watch it. You know, like, I would watch the shit out of that. I would not say no to that. Do you watch it? I would not say no to that. I don't know what it would be about. You watched every episode of The Morning Show. I would not say no to that. I don't know what it would be about.

You watched every episode of The Morning Show. I would hope you would watch it. Please respect The Morning Show. Would it be about the election? What would you make it about? Would you make it about 2016? I would make it about what happens when a tech company truly rises to power.

This movie is essentially a diagnostic. It's an origin story. It's why did this happen and where did it go wrong? But it doesn't totally reflect the strength that Facebook created. You know,

if you look at the numbers that they used to promote the movie, what was the, was it 500 million? Yeah, 500 million. You know what's cooler than a million dollars

is a billion dollars. Which obviously they're worth billions and billions of dollars now. And they have more than billions of users. And what we saw was actually quite quaint relative to what it has become. Now that's in some ways harder to tell because it's less about people. And someone like Mark Zuckerberg has become very shaded. And what we see from him in the world is a little bit difficult to interpret. And he's more of a celebrity in a way now

than he is some kid wearing flip-flops in Harvard, demeaning people with, you know, face mash or whatever the early iterations of the company were. That being said, and maybe this is foolish, but I trust Aaron Sorkin to kind of weigh the power of the moment and figure out how to continue to tell the story, I would watch it for sure.

The thing that I don't, the reason that I love the movie so much is because it feels impossible now. The idea of those two people coming together for a major studio to tell something that is this risky because they stretch the limits of truth in the story. Sorkin has been very straightforward

about how he doesn't care that there's not total fealty to the truth in order to make a great film. And the fact that it costs as much money as it did without stars, it doesn't really have movie stars in it. It's still like a hugely budgeted movie made by Sony nine years ago. Just is very unlikely. You know, there's a lot of talk about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood kind of being a last bastion for this kind of movie.

That movie has Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in it and Margot Robbie in it, you know, and it's Quentin who is, you know, a brand unto himself. David Fincher is not a brand. He's beloved by this podcast and many other people.

He's a brand to you. He is, but it's not the same thing. David Fincher movies aren't necessarily events and where his career has gone after this is kind of fascinating too. He is. But it's not the same thing. David Fincher movies aren't necessarily events. And where his career has gone after this is kind of fascinating too. He basically makes two more films. And then he moves on to Netflix. And makes series television for Netflix.

Which I like the series television he made. But it's pretty crushing to me. It's odd. But I think that he would probably say. I mean, I'm sure he likes the fact that he has 10 hours to make something. And he can oversee stuff rather than have to be getting all the insert shots

in Zodiac. Not that he wouldn't do that, but I just mean I'm sure he enjoys being able to oversee 10 hours of stuff. But you're right. I don't know who would underwrite this. And if they did, I don't know at what price point. Part of what makes this movie so appealing though is

it is so economic. It's a two hour and one minute movie right and isn't it like a 160 page script though that they just read really fast yes exactly sure but at the end of the day it's just about like he had one bad you know it's one intimate experience that explains the whole thing and I think it would be hard to find a single personal experience that can explain like all of Facebook now, you know, we've just, there's so many people involved in Facebook now, that would be a difficulty. The other thing, and this is like really depressing, sorry, but the difference between 2010 and now is that in 2010, it, it meant this is not entirely factually true.

And we knew that. But people do receive this as a story about Facebook. And they think they understand something more about this entity that controls a large portion of our lives. But people are willing to take a movie at face value in 2010. And people are not willing to take anything in 2019 because of Facebook. Literally because of Facebook. The dark side of that trailer is like, I miss like the person typing like, where are you? It's like, there's like a little bit of ennui

to the behavior of Facebook. Like where it's like people are spending maybe a little too much time on it. Right. You know, or looking for connections that aren't there. Right. Think about what, yeah, if they did that trailer today, it would be like a meme of

trump holding an eagle with like a bare-chested putin next to him and be like vote for this person right there's so much about it too that is perfectly calibrated first time trent resner and atticus ross do a do a score they win uh best score for this I think it is Sorkin needs someone to reign him at times. Yes. And I feel like you can feel Fincher

that you can feel the push pull between them. And that tension is really useful for both of them. I think some David Fincher movies

run the risk of even though they're active being a little bit inert. If you watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it's kind of like what is anyone's motivation here?

What are these people doing and why? You never feel that in the social network. Every scene, you're on the tips of your toes, leaning in, trying to figure out where it's going next. It's crackling, the whole thing. Which is so unusual for a docudrama about a bunch of college kids. I mean, that's really what the movie is. Coding. Again, it's more spreadsheets and people. This scene when they're literally building Facebook, which is just him blogging, literally. In 2010, they made blogging interesting,

but it's because it's interspersed with the blog, but it's interspersed with all of the finals clubs. And the tension between what he's doing and what he's trying to do is just so like perfectly expressed. Yeah. The world gets to meet Armie Hammer. I mean, I think that I showed restraint

in not yelling Armie Hammer when you were talking about the lack of movie stars in this film or just yelling Armie Hammer. Yeah. He's wonderful. I think it's the best ever use of Justin Timberlake. It seems more self-aware of Justin Timberlake than Justin Timberlake himself.

I think there's a case for it as the most overlooked lead performance in a movie of the last 10 years in Eisenberg. It's like Dustin Hoffman good. It is unbelievable. And if this were 1978, it is the kind of performance people would be like, well, this is obviously an Oscar winner.

And I think Eisenberg's nominated did not win and his career has been interesting since this he's obviously been in some very successful films and done a lot of interesting indie work

but this feels like the moment you saw it it was iconic you know the scene of him after he goes into the he's egged on into going into

the boardroom meeting wearing his robe and his slippers yeah and he comes out and he's in that plaza that is what I think of when I think of Eisenberg into going into the boardroom meeting wearing his robe and his slippers. Yeah, and he comes out and he's in that plaza. That is what I think of when I think of Eisenberg as an actor. You know, it's just such a perfect vision for him. What else about the social network?

I just think it's, you guys have touched on it. It's different people bringing out the best in each other because of that, just like that perfect timing of the moment they found each other. It's hard to overstate also just how entertaining this movie is. I was thinking about the pacing of it and it just never drags.

There's never really a moment where you're like, God, why are we spending this much time on this? Or this scene is really, or why is this, this is a really boring montage. I just feel like I could start it from any place. I could start it from the beginning. I've seen it 10 times now I could start it from the beginning I've seen it

10 times now at least it's just and it just feels like the most modern most decades summarizing movie and also honestly nobody's really directed a better movie since then like in terms of like it's not like films look drastically different like I feel like movies are still trying to catch up with how good this movie looks. Yeah, it's a perfect combination of form and content. You know, that's the thing. And that's the idea of Fincher and Sorkin coming together with great actors is you've got a person who knows how to perfectly shoot something. You've got a person who knows how to perfectly write something, at least in this kind of

story. And it comes together to make the best movie of the decade it's really watchable we've said a lot of high-minded stuff this movie rocks it's just really fun to watch and we can't underestimate that i have one list general question what's the worst movie you thought about putting in your top 10 oh my god or what would have been if not the worst what would have been the most like a worst, what would have been the most kind of third rail? Like you're not sure if this would fly. You have to do a lot of explaining.

That's such an interesting question because it really gets to the heart of list making as a philosophical pursuit. I think the movie that I had a hard time cutting. Because nobody here was like, what? You know what I mean? Like nobody, we were not like,

just made anybody's picks. We just picked 30 movies. We had a lot of overlap. I wanted to put Edge of Tomorrow on, which I don't think is, there's by no means is a bad movie. It's not even a disreputable movie. In fact,

it's taken on like kind of a hipster, like this was actually an incredible movie, kind of reputation. But the thing about Edge of Tomorrow is it's not really about anything. Like it doesn't have any themes. There's no ideas in it. All the movie,

I think every single movie we've listed, even Fast Five, if you're willing to go in on the like, it's all about family bullshit, has some sort of like, something meaningful in its subtext. Edge of Tomorrow is just a really high concept action thriller. And it's really, really is just a really high concept action thriller.

And it's really, really, really, really, really well done. It is like Hollywood movie making at its best. And I wanted to put it on and I chickened out and I put Fury Road on. I thought about putting Wonder Woman on just to piss off Bill Simmons. Bill, if you're still listening, this is a great test. I love you. No, just kidding. I wouldn't have.

But I did put that on an honorable mention just in the sense of it's the only superhero movie that I even like remotely responded to in an entire decade of watching them I feel like everything else was I mean Creed's really good I wouldn't have been embarrassed putting Creed on there yeah Suicide Squad for you Chris Zero Dark Thirty Dark Thirty. Oh yeah, one of those. Which is like the reverse of Social Network. Yeah. Turns out we were wrong. They lied and it hurt people.

Well, I mean, look, I think that that movie got really twisted and turned around and the discourse around it. And it's really easy to be like, your MCM loves black sites, you know, and just have like a shot of Jason Clarke. Oh my God. Your MCM? DM loves black sites, you know, and just have like a shot of Jason Clark. Um, your MCM, well, you know, like if you distill the discourse around a movie to film Twitter,

it's very easy to be like to hate every movie praising or dismissive of a movie. And I think that this is a film that tried to capture history and collided with history in a very interesting way. Aside from that. And I hate, this is like, not,

this is not like a deeply held belief, but it's kind of hard to watch Zero Dark Thirty and not say that's a masterpiece of filmmaking in terms of how effective it is and the way it quickens your pulse and what it does and some of the shots. And I think it ultimately ends on an incredibly hollow, fucked up, open

ended and empty note, which I think has been somewhat misunderstood over the years people think it ends on a mission accomplished note and it doesn't but it's definitely

probably been the most sort of hotly debated one of the most hotly debated movies in the last 10 years I haven't revisited it in a while

did you like it when it came out? I loved it when it came out it's obviously masterful filmmaking I think that that's an interesting aspect of what we're doing here is the dialogue around a movie and what can happen to it when it's been put into the spin cycle right and obviously a lot of what's been revealed about the storytelling in that movie is is suspicious at best um and and dangerous at worst and that that has been part of why people are significantly more out on it.

They are politically out on it. And so it takes away some of the achievement of the filmmaking. Have you seen the report, Chris? Not yet. It's a really interesting, because it's like a direct... Counter to it, right?

It's a corrective. It's a corrective. And Zero Dark Thirty is being watched in the film at one point. And to me, it was a really interesting exercise in what makes a true story and what makes a good movie. And stakes and filmmaking and a lot of the things that you pointed out. And I think both have strengths and both have really obvious flaws in retrospect. Yeah.

But I would recommend it. And nobody needs to see the true true true true to life version of the social network I don't think that we would necessarily be better off for it because ultimately the lesson of the social

network is still true even if they took some liberties with the truth the same cannot unfortunately be said for zero dark 30 guys this was uh very moving well done thank you for

sharing the inner truth of your life at the movies in the last 10 years I appreciate you both you got it. Thanks, Sean. Thanks again to Amanda Dobbins and Chris Ryan. Please tune in to The Big Picture next week after Thanksgiving,

where we'll be predicting some Golden Globe nominations. See you then. And purpose requires an understanding of intent. We need to find out, do they make conscious choices or is their motivation so instinctive that they don't understand a why question at all? Could you answer the next series of questions without blinking your eyes?

Yes. Without fear and hesitation, answer as quickly as you can. Sure. With the millions of women that have had to give up their hopes, I'm not going to do it. This is bigger than me. This means more than me. Wow.