The new decade is here, so it's time to finish our look back on some of the best media of the last ten years.
The start of a new decade seems to be a bigger deal in the film industry than in any other. The decade a movie is released in is often seen as a major characteristic in that movie's personality. There are people who are purely fans of 80s cinema, which could be because that's the era they grew up with and are the most nostalgic for, or it's the era they believe had the best and boldest ideas at the helm. Regardless of genre or studio, it's clear that all pieces of art from a particular decade take on characteristics of the socio-economic climate at the time; a lot of 80s films definitely reflect the relatively recent memory of war paired with the threat of a bigger, bloodier one on the horizon, and the same principles will apply to any time period. The 2010s have seen not only some major shifts in the ideology of global power, but also a huge turning point in the film industry as a business; monopolies are forming, the popularity of original IP is falling, and franchises that would previously have been deemed unsuitable for mass market due to demanding too much loyalty from the casual audience are dominating the global box office. It's bloody terrifying, but also strangely fascinating.
For now, though, we're going to be casting our Disneys and Marvels aside to pick three films that reflect the best, boldest, and most era-defining ideas that have come from cinema in the 2010s. For this section, I have limited myself to films that need no prior context before viewing; major franchises have been a huge part of this decade, more so than any before it, but in this selection I hope to capture three very distinct pockets of the teenies that future generations can dive straight into to get an understanding of what this decade in film was all about.
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Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2011)
Some call it the modern Western. The comic book genre has truly exploded this decade with seemingly every major publisher clambering to get their titles up on the big screen. For me, though, there is only one adaptation that could hold a spot on this list; it's the film that made me fall back in love with cinema, but the major question remains as to how it will be seen by future generations in a market flooded with comic flicks.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World is an Edgar Wright-directed adaptation of a Bryan Lee O'Malley graphic novel series that follows Scott (of course) on his journey to win the affections of a girl by defeating her *checks notes* League of Seven Evil Exes. Yes, it's bizarre. I'm a total Edgar Wright devotee, and any of his films from this decade could've easily made the list, so why on Earth did I pick this one? To put it simply, Scott Pilgrim was the breath of fresh air that cinema needed at the time, and needs even more again now. It sets itself apart in the adaptation sphere by making no attempts to explain or justify itself to its audience. Its smug aura feels like it was peeled right from the pages of the books, and I mean that in the very best way. While a good amount of lore is present for people who like that kind of thing, it doesn't try to justify itself to the audience by saturating it with cinematic tropes we have come to recognise and understand from decades of experience in cinema; the only adaptation that's released since that I can think of that treats its audience with a similar level of respect is Detective Pikachu (which I wrote a whole piece about). It's just pure, unabridged madness, and it makes for one of the most fun viewing experiences you will ever get from the 2010s
What's especially interesting about Scott Pilgrim is that it covers all six books in just one film. While that may sound like too much, it proves one very valuable thing about this movie: it doesn't try to shoehorn its way into a sequel or a follow-up, it simply tries to capture all the magic you could want from the original text to be the best, most faithful and most satisfying adaptation it can be. Very rarely do I come out of a comic book movie now with the same feeling of complete satisfaction. I could go on and on about the wonderful characters, the overstated yet charming visual effects and the absolutely banging hero's journey arc, but I think you get the picture. It's a great movie. Watch it. Next.
La La Land (2016)
My FAVOURITE FILM. EVER. I love it. Oh my god I love it so much.
Ahem... right. Yes, serious review.
La La Land came about when a sort of renaissance was taking place in musical cinema. Les Miserables, The Greatest Showman and countless other hits came through too, but this is the one that really reached recognition from the high-ups at Hollywood. And it would, wouldn't it? Hollywood bloody love films that celebrate themselves. Just look at Tarantino's latest work. Not seeing it in the cinema will probably always be one of my greatest regrets, because when it came onto Netflix a year or so later, something inside me just... clicked. This film. There was just something about it. I wasn't sure what it was at the time, so I decided to find out; once the credits rolled, I said goodnight to my mum, went upstairs, and watched it all over again on my computer. It struck me that from a certain point of view, love is the villain of this story. Love brings our heroes together and shows them how happy they can be in each other's company, and then shows them how loving themselves too will force them to hurt each other. It's not as simple as a battle against good and evil, and everybody who watches it and shares in this story will undoubtedly learn a different lesson from it. You go on a journey with this film and discover yourself along with the characters as you see the decisions they make, both for the sake of themselves and each other, and decide if you would do the same.
So why did it make my list? Well, did you hear me at the start there? It's my favourite film. I love it to the end of the Earth. I recognise its flaws, but ultimately they just make me love it more, and there isn't a single thing I would change about it. It's colourful, it's grand, and it drags me through just about every emotion imaginable. I mean, that first dance number between Emma and Ryan? The chaotic energy is just unbearable. But then when it turns out he walked all the way up the hill with her when his car is at the bottom? Oh my god, that hits me where I live. And the bit where she runs away from Gary to go to him at the cinema? YES EMMA. GO TO HIM. GARY'S NO GOOD FOR YOU. And at the end? I don't wanna give anything away but OH MY GOD JUST GO TO HER. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE? I'M GOING TO DIE.
I mean, er... the cinematography is masterful. Good script. 10/10.
Unicorn Store (2019)
And now for the biggest and most daunting question of the decade: is "cinema" really still cinema?
The 2020 Oscar award nominations reflect this better than anything; out of the nine films nominated for the extremely prestigious 'Best Picture' award, two of them originated on Netflix. Before that, only one title from any streaming platform had ever made the cut: 2018's Roma, from the same platform. Given that straight-to-TV movies had previously been denied access this most illustrious award, this was unprecedented. To add fuel to the fire, Martin Scorsese rounded off the decade with his own Netflix title: the 3-and-a-half-hour crime thriller The Irishman, which found itself among the nominations. Now, Scorsese's impact on cinema this decade can be questioned by a multitude of factors that I won't get into here (that's a whole other blog post) but was this move to go to a streaming platform instead of the big screen deliberate on his part to 'move with the times?' And if not, how has Hollywood reached a point where one of the most well-known names in the industry with a legendary portfolio behind him can't get his new film on the silver screen over the twenty-fifth Marvel origin story? This is just a really long way of saying that the cinema isn't just a place anymore, it's a state of mind. People now regard films that debut on streaming platforms with just as much artistic integrity as those released for exhibition on the millions of cinema screens across the world, and I'm gonna tell you about my favourite. I've talked about it on here before (hence why this introduction is so long) but I couldn't not talk about it now as I round up my favourite films of the decade.
Unicorn Store follows Kit who, having been recently 'released' from art school, moves back in with her parents and faces the prospect of starting a normal, functional adult life. However, upon receiving a letter from a new store in town claiming to be able to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a unicorn, two lives collide and Kit must struggle to maintain what makes her unique in the world of men. It deals with all kinds of issues that have started to become more and more recognised in our world across the last ten years, but ultimately it's about faith. Kit teaches the audience and those around her that faith can be your most powerful tool if you know where to place it, and that's something a lot of people really need to hear going into the 2020s.
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All art is subjective. The film industry may be slowly becoming more and more challenging for the average cinemagoer, but as long as strong voices like the ones above still exist, art will never die. As technologies advance and give visionaries the power to realise their wildest ideas, I remain optimistic about the future of cinema, but the most important thing that we must all try to preserve is the human element. Just this month, we learned of a new AI being developed that would have the power to greenlight film projects automatically purely based on an actor's worth. In addition, we learned of a project that would focus on an entirely digital recreation of late cinema icon James Dean. If we are already arguing about the validity of cinema on streaming platforms rather than in picture houses, what will we make of this? It's our responsibility as cinemagoers more than anyone's to say what we will or won't stand for, whether it's by being as vocal as possible or voting with our wallets. I think I'll leave this decade and face the future with a lesson from the beginning of a previous one:
"Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one."
-Dr Brown, Back to the Future Part 3 (1990)
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