As we near 2020 and the beginning of a new decade, we were hit with the idea of looking back on the last ten years of film and picking out our favorite things in a few categories. So I'd like to look back and present my own favorite actor, actress, director and overall film of the 2010's.
Favorite Film
Logan
There are plenty of films I've really loved in the last decade. “It Chapter 1”, “The VVitch”, “Mr. Holmes”, “Pacific Rim”, “Mad Max Fury Road”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “Murder on the Orient Express”, and “Star Trek Beyond” just to name a few.
But nothing has stuck with me like “Logan.” I, like many, grew up watching Hugh Jackman play Wolverine, and after almost twenty years, getting a movie like this as the culmination of a career defining role was something to see. This film hurts, it viciously reminds you that your idols will grow old, maybe even be shadows of the figures you admired. “Logan” is bleak, depressing, and utterly committed to its tone and characters. Every actor came here to work. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart turn in some of the best performances in their careers, Boyd Holbrook makes his mark as a truly intimidating villain and newcomer Daphne Keen stands just as tall as everyone else in a star-making debut as Laura Kinney. The violence we all expected from finally getting an R-rated Wolverine movie delivers in spades, being that it is both viscerally satisfying while still not breaking the mood of the film; its quick, filthy and gut-wrenching.
This might sound like sacrilege to some, but I consider “Logan” to be this generation's answer to “Unforgiven”. Its an almost cruel deconstruction of a genre popular at the time, while also serving as loving farewells to them as well. But compared to other serious comic book films like “The Dark Knight”, which was an excellent film to be sure, or especially something like “Batman v Superman”, Logan has one key advantage, and I will again point to Daphne Keen. She carries her weight both when the film needs her to be a glorious asskicker or a scared, haunted child grown old before her time, but she's also still innocent and provides a spark of hope in the film to keep everything from getting entirely miserable. A bit of levity before the movie decided to kick you in the gut again.
Comic book film or not, “Logan” is something truly special, a tightly paced narrative carried by stellar acting from talents both new and old and a perfect swan song to nearly two decades of work. This is easily my favorite movie of the decade, even if I can't watch it all the time because it makes me bawl my eyes out without fail.
Favorite Actor
Chris Evans
While this might seem a predictable choice, I really can't think of an actor who hit it big in the last decade I like more than Chris Evans. While most will point to Robert Downy Jr. as THE central performer of the MCU, and I hardly blame anyone who does so as he is extremely talented and played the part perfectly, I feel Evans had an even more difficult task in taking a character as pure and straightforward as Steve “Captain America” Rogers and turning him into a massive fan favorite, due entirely to Evan's ability to sell you on just how much Steve believes in the good in the world and his duty to always stand for a righteous cause, his steadfast personality and a wholesome sense of humor too. Chris Evans made us care about, root for, grieve with and smile at the end for a character as down to earth and good as Superman, and I find that to be an incredible accomplishment considering general modern audience dislike for such an unambiguously “good” character.
Of course, while he is most famous for his huge role in the MCU he hasn't sat on his laurels and let Marvel money make him complacent, branching out into other films such as “Snowpiercer” and most recently a widely acclaimed role in “Knives Out”. But to go beyond simply pointing out how talented he is, I also picked Evans as my actor of the decade for much the same reason Tom Hanks has remained my favorite actor ever: he's just a good person. Friendly, humble, genuinely grateful for his fans' support and his own efforts to push for causes like social equality. Plenty of people who make it big in Hollywood let it go to their heads, but Evans hasn't. So for both his talent on camera and his personality off camera, my choice for Actor of the 2010's is Chris Evans.
Favorite Actress
Millie Bobby Brown
And now for something that might not be quite as expected, someone very new to the acting business indeed. While the decade has seen a number of talented women breaking onto the scene, none struck me quite as much as Millie Bobby Brown. And my first piece of media to see her in was not, in fact, Stranger Things. It was Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Now people who have seen my reviews will know Im a huge Godzilla fan, but I didn't actually think too highly of the new film. Only two things stood out to me: the monsters, of course, but also the fact that of everyone in the film, it was Millie Bobby Brown who was really trying to perform despite being handed a pretty terrible script. When even an acting legend like Charles Dance can't seem to muster the energy to try, you know you've got a dud, but Millie really freaking tries to wring something out of her character, and that passion for her work is something wonderful to see.
And then of course I finally caught up on the first couple seasons of “Stranger Things” and yeah this young lady has a gift. Frankly everyone on that show is a treat to watch, but Eleven? Eleven has become one of my favorite characters in television. Millie plays by far the most difficult character, and even at her age she rips out your heart strings with her emotional performances only to make your heart repair itself and burst anytime she and Finn Wolfhard (also a real talent to watch in the years to come) do, well, ANYTHING together because its so adorable.
And so for the sheer amount of emotion she is able to convey from intense drama to sweet young romance, and make you believe it wholeheartedly, I can safely say the actress I have been most impressed with is Millie Bobbie Brown.
Favorite Director(s)
Joseph and Anthony Russo
Oh I can hear it now. “What, his pick for director is the Russo Brothers? The MCU guys?” You're damn right it is. Now I will openly admit, I know next to nothing about Directors. In the list of things I look for in “Who is part of this movie” the director ranks pretty low, which is pretty silly considering they are so instrumental to everything about cinema in general. But there was one thing I do know about the brothers Russo that prompted me to pick them for this category. In a surprise collaboration with popular youtube channel “Honest Trailers” the brothers admit to 'trying to Honest Trailer-proof their films'. That is to say, they go over their films to try and make sure the writing is tight, and lacks significant plot holes and inconsistencies. That is a quality I greatly admire and find to be lacking in a lot of cinema today. So much is just all about pretty visuals and trying to sound deep with vague themes that the film might not even actually have, or actively contradict. But as can be seen in (most) of their MCU work the Russo Brothers have a strength when it comes to making a film where all the pieces line up as well as a remarkable talent for balancing huge casts and still making sure everyone gets some spotlight.
The MCU films at their best feature stellar character writing and the Russo brothers are GOOD at it. All four of their MCU entries feature a perfect control over keeping everyone in character no matter what film or even genre they came from. Their story writing is also mostly excellent, with “Winter Soldier” and “Infinity War” being truly great films even in the ever-growing ocean of comic driven cinema.
And so for their stellar character work and (again, usually) rock solid writing, I hope my decision to talk about the Russo brothers as the standout Director(s) of the decade doesn't seem too basic.
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