With the Oscars coming up this Sunday, I thought it would be fun to put together a list of my favorite and least favorite movies from the last few years. As always, your comments are welcome!
– John
Highest Rated Feature Films: 2010-2014
5 stars
The Tree of Life (Terence Malick, 2011) US
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) US
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014) US
4 1/2 stars
The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, 2010) US
جدایی نادر از سیمین [A Separation] (Asghar Farhadi, 2011) Iran
Le gamin au vélo [The Kid With a Bike] (Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 2011) Belgium
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012) US
Des hommes et des dieux [Of Gods and Men] (Xavier Beauvois, 2012) France
Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) France
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012) US
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013) US
Her (Spike Jonze, 2013) US
Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013) US
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013) US
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013) US
Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2013) US
La grande bellezza [The Great Beauty] (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013) Italy
Ida (Pawel Pawikowski, 2013) Poland
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013) UK
Happy Christmas (Joe Swanberg, 2014) US
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014) US
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, 2014) UK
4 stars
Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010) US
The Fighter (David O. Russell, 2010) US
Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010) US
Submarine (Richard Ayoade, 2010) UK
Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance, 2010) US
The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011) US
Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011) Denmark
Bernie (Richard Linklater, 2011) US
50/50 (Jonathan Levine, 2011) US
Hugo (Martin Scorcese, 2011) US
Win Win (Thomas McCarthy, 2011) US
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011) France
The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev, 2011) US
Bonsái (Cristián Jiménez, 2011) Chile
Like Crazy (Drake Doremus, 2011) US
Margin Call (J.C. Chandor, 2011) US
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (Glenn Ficarra, 2011) US
A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg, 2011) Canada
Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012) US
The Paperboy (Lee Daniels, 2012) US
The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012) US
Argo (Ben Affleck, 2012) US
Safety Not Guaranteed (Colin Trevorrow, 2012) US
A Late Quartet (Yaron Zilberman, 2012) US
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorcese, 2013) US
The Spectacular Now (James Ponsoldt, 2013) US
American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013) US
The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013) US
Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2013) US
All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013) US
Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) US
Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013) US
American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014) US
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014) Australia
Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014) US
The Theory of Everything (James Marsh, 2014) UK
Highest Rated Documentary Films: 2010-2014
5 stars
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2012) Germany/US
4 1/2 stars
Marwencol (Jeff Malmberg, 2010) US
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010) US
Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, a Tale of Life (Werner Herzog, 2011) Germany/US
4 stars
Restrepo (Sebastian Junger & Tim Hetherington, 2010) US/Afghanistan
Buck (Cindy Meehl, 2011) US
Pina (Wim Wenders, 2011) Germany
Muscle Shoals (Greg “Freddy” Camalier, 2013) US
Cutie and the Boxer (Zachary Heinzerling, 2013) US
Particle Fever (Mark Levinson, 2013) US/Switzerland
Lowest Rated Films: 2010-2014
2 stars
Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) US
2 1/2 stars
Source Code (Duncan Jones, 2011) US
House at the End of the Street (Mark Tonderai, 2012) Canada/US