The 16 Best Drama & Comedy Films of the Decade
Occasionally, we come across films that tend to defy traditional genre tropes, whether through sheer uniqueness or a combination of multiple genres in one. Those particular films can be really special viewing experiences, and ones that we rarely forget. We asked our some of our favorite writers, filmmakers, podcasters, and artists to give us the best dramas and comedies of the decade. Enjoy!
Drive
Masterfully suspenseful, emotionally powerful, and infinitely cool, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive is my favorite movie of the decade. Ryan Gosling’s never been better as the nameless driver, a protagonist so charismatic that he makes Steve McQueen look like Mr. Bean. Throw a supporting cast of Oscar Isaac, Carrey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston and a perfect against-type Albert Brooks into the mix and you have one of the best rosters in recent memory. It’s a fascinating character study, a powerful love story, and an exhilarating thrill ride that’s about as good as it gets.
Aaron Chewning is a comedic writer/director/performer http://aaron.productions/
The Irishman
In mulling this question over, that of "favorite movie of the decade," the only title that came up was The Irishman. The film being fresh in my mind, I chalked the feeling up to freshness. And yet, there is something about the movie that stands out among the crop. No doubt there are other worthy films of the last decade, but, with 10 years of movies and TV shows meant to seem like movies behind us, I can't stop thinking about Joe Pesci. His performance was so perfect, so understated, both calm and calming. Even if it had not been from an actor known for how well he can shout on screen, it would still be a moving performance. The scope of this film, spanning close to 60 years, is visualized and tangible to a degree I can't quite describe. And then there's the familiarity. Somehow I know these characters. I mean I don't, but growing up with an Italian American clan from New England (with no known mob ties, thanks) created a vibe of nostalgia. 1960s crooners, fresh bread, exclamations like "minchia!" evoke the same feeling as Christmas dinner. And even though these men are killing each other all the way to a fruitless dead end, they are still real people motivated by love, honor, and family. The last thing I'll say is that, for all its glory, this decade in film often left me tapping my foot with impatience. Every movie I see is at least 20 minutes too long. Perhaps most impressive then, is the fact that throughout all 3.5 hours of The Irishman, not a line, not a shot, not a moment was wasted. I was never bored. The film has stuck with and, I assume, will continue to stick with me. In a decade of strapping young lads, The Irishman is the venerable old wiseman sitting on top of the mountain.
Derek A. Kamal is a game maker and self-published author. He hides his work at ShorelessSkies.com
Whiplash
Whiplash grabs my attention from the very first frame, and it carries me, gripped, to the final moments. It does this, not only through the brilliant performances of Miles Teller and J.K Simmons, but through the skillful direction and writing of Chazelle. Every beat of the story serves the character development of Teller’s character, Andrew Neiman. We are glued to Neiman throughout the journey, latched onto his psyche, such that we feel his anguish and desire. Not a moment is wasted. I’m in awe of this level of tight storytelling. Chazelle adeptly creates a piece that is at once deeply complex, yet elegantly simple.
Ryan W. Smith is a screenwriter/producer, who has written feature films and TV for Anonymous Content, Netflix, Disney and others. He is the co-writer/producer of the science-fiction thriller, VOLITION (directed/co-written by his brother, Tony Dean Smith), set for release in early 2020 — www.volitionthemovie.com.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
My favorite movie of the decade is the second best film of 2014 according to the Academy: The Grand Budapest Hotel. It’s the first R rated film I saw on my own, purchased my own ticket for, and a piece of art that charmed me more than anything I’d ever seen, or have seen since. Is it a heist movie? An alternate history? A slice of life film? I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know it’s a good film. Not perfect, not necessarily a masterpiece, but good. And for me, it is watch at minimum once a year good. I’ve only got one paragraph so I won’t go into detail about the myriad of reasons to love this film, but if you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and see what I believe is the best film of the 2010s.
Alex Oakley is an aspiring actor, an amateur content creator, and all around enthusiasm enthusiast based in Atlanta. One of the co-hosts of the Shot for Shot Podcast.
Tree of LIfe
I remember everything about the experience of seeing Tree of Life, Terrence Malick’s filmic poem about memory and childhood. I haven’t seen the film since seeing it in theaters on opening night because it impacted me so greatly I was unable to speak after seeing it. I cried in public in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, unable to express my immediate reaction with words. I saw Tree of Life a few months before my father’s stroke, during a time in my life when I was very aware of his declining health. The film was timed perfectly to strike the very essence of what I had been battling internally - looking back on my experiences as a child and trying to hold onto them, trying to make sense of how the people closest to me shaped me into the adult I was in 2011. Malick’s dream-like, lyrical style invoked the sentimentality in looking back on one’s experiences, both good and bad, before the universe we all come to know rapidly expands past our own grasp of it. It’s a film that makes remembering our pasts both celestially stunning and earthbound to the tragedies we cannot escape.
Victoria Negri is a writer/director whose feature work includes “Gold Star,” in which she also co-starred with Oscar-nominated actor Robert Vaughn, and the upcoming film “ULTRA.” For more info on her work: victorianegri.com
Thunder Road
Ok, this is such a hard one. So many great films have come out in the last ten years, but only a few have really affected me or changed the way I look at film. Thunder Road is one of those films. Writer/Director/Actor Jim Cummings originally released Thunder Road as a 13 minute short, and then adapted it into a feature length film a few years later. The short was already my favorite short film I'd ever seen when it came out, so when I found out Cummings was working on a feature length version, my mind was blown. And, needless to say, the film did not disappoint even a little. It was laugh-out-loud funny, incredibly heartfelt, and inspiring. I remember immediately wanting to go write something right after I saw it, and that feeling is exceedingly rare these days. I've written about Thunder Road at length here, just in case you'd like to read some more gushing over the film.
Colby McHugh is a writer who loves pop culture in all of its many mediums, who also would like to write comics one day. Any artists interested in talking ideas or just shooting the shit can email him at showandtellwords@gmail.com
American Hustle
I’m surprising myself with this choice. I liked American Hustle well enough when it came out in 2013, but it wouldn’t have topped my list of “Favorite David O. Russell movies” at the time, and I would’ve laughed if you told me I’d pick it as my favorite movie of the whole damn decade. But I’ve watched it three or four times since then, and (here’s 21st-century cinephilia for you) I’ve looked at various scenes on YouTube too many times to count. And I’ve grown to love it. I love those characters, in all their heedless, hectic striving and their hunger for life. I love the cast — great actors bringing their A-game, and some pretty good actors achieving greatness. I love how Russell cranks everything up to eleven, the music spilling out over the scenes like syrup, the restless camera and the relentless pacing. When Hudson asked me to take part in this survey, I started coming up with a list of possible favorites, and stopped when I got to thirty candidates — a ridiculous number. And impossible to choose a single favorite among them. But then, when I asked myself which movie I’d want to watch again right now, I thought of American Hustle, and smiled.
Nelson Kim teaches film at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, and makes strange, personal indie movies like www.SomeoneElseMovie.com when given the chance.
Tree of Life:
While there are numerous films to mention from the last ten years, my favorite film from the 2010s was Tree of Life, written and directed by Terrance Malick. I chose this film because it is one that truly impacted me on a personal, emotional and artistic level, and has stayed with me since the first time I saw it. It's great importance for me has to do with the themes within the film: difficult family relationships, existential questions about God/faith, the purpose of our pain and suffering, and how these non-tangible things are embodied and lived out in front of us as children within our nuclear family, and stay with us into adulthood. I especially love how Malick uses cinematography and visual poetry to narrate the film and address these deep philosophical questions in the same way God answers Job in the Bible, (quoted at the start of the film) as he questions God about his own pain and suffering. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is intrigued by these themes and ideas, and loves the cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezk.
Mikaela Bruce is a Writer- Director located in Los Angeles, Ca. www.pasareafilm.com | www.mikaelabruce.com
Blue Jasmine
Though I feel badly choosing a Woody Allen movie considering his malfeasance, for me
BLUE JASMINE is the best movie of the decade. It's layered in emotional ways that magnify both class differences and commonalities as well as mental health and how our sense of identity can become skewed and fraught by our own actions. More so, Cate Blanchett simply gives the performance of her life (again, every time). Though there were others that came close for me, i.e. almost everything from Denis Villeneuve, I watch Blue Jasmine a few times a year and I always find something new and subtly brilliant every time.
Jenny Frankfurt is a former literary manager who currently runs The Finish Line Script Competition www.finishlinescriptcomp.com
We Need To Talk About Kevin
“Favorite Movie of the Decade” is one that is apt to shift depending on the day or minute that the question is posed, but overall it’s got to be Lynne Ramsey’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. It’s so rare that all of a film’s elements can converge in such a powerful, poignant, provocative, unsettling, thoughtful, and effective way. Lynne Ramsey has a wonderful way of giving you just enough of a foundation to really let your brain play with what you bring to the movie. Apparently as a parent I brought a lot into the movie with me … and as the film unfolds I felt myself as a parent unfolding with it. It is among the most terrifying movie-watching experiences of my life … and I sat in awe of all of it. Visually it’s beautifully bold and unique. The performances are phenomenal (John C Reilly isn’t given nearly enough credit as a dramatic actor). Obviously, I highly recommend the movie but even more so if you are a parent. The approach and perspective of the mother (played perfectly by Tilda Swinton) is brave and rare. Just make sure you have someone close by to talk to about it because when the credits roll you will most definitely need to talk about We Need To Talk About Kevin.
Jordan Noel is a director/editor/artist/dad/husband/ friend best known for not keeping his website, jordan-noel.com, up to date.
Winter’s Bone
Let’s go all the way back to the beginning of the decade. The film that jumps out for me is Winter’s Bone. I choose Winter’s Bone because it is a great example of a successful (read “made it to mainstream”) Indie film that was directed and written by women and has a young woman in the centre of it. It opens on a foreign world – a world that doesn’t bother itself with what’s progressive and cultural because it has its own culture. It is a culture of people who have to fight for their everyday survival – lying, cheating, and stealing. It isn’t apocalyptic—we recognize the people in it: the desperate women who try to keep their children fed, and the unapologetic, opportunistic men who believe they are worth more than those they deem to be beneath them. And then there are the police who want to get these guys knowing that the only thing separating them from the others is their badge. Amongst all of these thieves and sinners is a young woman who just by her very presence is heroic. She stands up and has such a clear sense of who she is, where she stands in relation to the rest of those around her, that she glows in contrast to the dark tree lined landscape that surrounds her rundown home. She has a clarity of right and wrong that drives her empathy and she is “much more heroic than most men on screen” says one critic. This type of heroics has only been allowed for male characters on screen, but here it was in black and white and sepia blue. I was excited for these characters—women who articulate a depth that was complex and compelling—and I watched this young woman as she solved the problems in her world. There had not been a movie out there that was singularly clearing a path for others like it, directed, written and led by women. I was hopeful for the future of film that represented women the way that I am as I express my humanness.
CK Love is a writer/director currently working on two short films and an Instagram graphic novel @frankiencharliesworld with a partner. You can find her on Twitter at @cklovewrites
Room
Jacob Tremblay gives a knockout performance as Jack. This little boy has never known the outside world and his mother is able to help him create games and activities within a confined space for seven years. The aftermath of when they are rescued shows the trauma and changes they must now endure once they are free. The conflict between his mother and her parents is what really makes the story worth it, although the idea of how they got to be locked in a shed is sickening.
Ethell Nunez-Suazo is an aspiring Line Producer and Unit Production Manager working her way up in the indie world. Instagram: @original_clone_in_black Twitter: @cloneinblack
Two Night Stand
I’m a sucker for a well-written romantic-comedy and this one fits the bill. The thing I love about this story is that it mostly takes place in one location, which is a big challenge for a writer. This movie does it really well and keeps things interesting.
Jennifer Blanchard is a multi-passionate writer (www.byjenniferblanchard.com), storyteller, radio show host (www.35anddivorced.com) and maker (www.gerryrene.com) whose screenplay, The Rules, placed as a semi-finalist in the 2019 Stage32 Rom-Com Script contest.
The Master
I can’t shake this dizzying concoction of historical drama, existential exploration, and psychological portraiture that happens to feature two of the best performances (by Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman) I’ve ever seen in a movie. Combine that with Paul Thomas Anderson’s visual eye, so potent that even the deleted scenes contain all-time great shots, and top it off with Johnny Greenwood’s troublingly hypnotic score, and I’m left with a film that has haunted me since I saw it in 2012, and I’m sure it will continue to haunt me for decades to follow.
Brent Lambert-Zaffino is an Atlanta-based filmmaker and Programming Director at the Etowah Film Festival.
La La Land
Bright and beautiful colors, relatable character struggles, a score that alone brings you through all the emotions of the film, and a not-so-happy, happy ending make La La Land my favorite movie of the decade. Damien Chazelle created two of the most relatable characters to me in this whole decade. They reflect similar struggles that I face every day when it comes to chasing my own dreams, but they also provide hope that there is always a chance for your dreams to play out. While many hated the ending for Mia and Sebastian, I thought that the epilogue was one of the most beautiful sequences of my lifetime. To me the ending is not about the heartbreak of what could have been, rather it reminds us that each person we create intimate connections with existed in our lives for a reason, regardless of how long our paths crossed. There will always be relationships that exist solely to push us forward and to grow as people, whether or not they work out in the end. La La Land reflects the real struggles and hardships that many creatives face and it does so in such a stunningly shot and well-written manner.
Sonya May is a video editor and aspiring screenwriter living in the greater Atlanta area.
Sing Street
When selecting a favorite movie, it not only has to have phenomenal filmmaking elements, but it also has to be a guilty pleasure that lures me to watch it over and over again. The film I have most enjoyed this decade was Sing Street. A musical coming of age story where the characters explore who they are amidst discovering their dreams. Despite shadows in all the young kid’s lives, they are enlivened by creative momentum when they combine their talents and form a band. Though they join for unique reasons and varying skill sets, their approach to life changes when they discover how art positively fuels them in an unstoppable direction.
Michelle Caruso is an independent film Writer/Director who strives to create films with themes and characters that audiences can empathize with, learn from, and will resonate with their life experience.
