15 For 15: Celebrating 15 Great Films from the Last 15 Years
Film reviewer picks his favorites since the Reader's inception
There are times when it feels difficult to be a film fan in the modern world. Billionaire CEOs continue to consolidate more and more of our media into giant, monopolistic empires, and heads of streaming services have all but declared open war on movie theaters. Not to mention the looming existential terror that is AI, which threatens to turn all art into a self-perpetuating deluge of soulless mush. The art of film seems to be in a precarious situation at this time. That said, there are always great films being produced every year, and the last decade has seen some of the most innovative and exciting films in the history of the art form. So rather than dwell on the negative, I will be celebrating the fantastic movies that have been released since the beginning of the Erie Reader. These are 15 (plus a few more) of the best films that we have seen in the last 15 years (in order of my favorite):
1. The Tree of Life (2011) by Terrence Malick for creating an experimental art piece at this scale and budget, and for making a breathtakingly gorgeous film that manages to combine the personal, the spiritual, and the cosmic simultaneously.
2. Memoria (2021) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul for the ambitious task of making an auditory and visual feast that seeks to connect our shared humanity through language, history, memory, and dreams.
3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) by Celine Sciamma for combining the historical and the personal, and for eloquently showing how patriarchy and tradition kept so many voices silenced through history. There are still so many stories left to be told. (see also: Moonlight, 2016)
4. Holy Motors (2012) by Leos Carax for being such an entertaining commentary on the bizarre, often surreal nature of modern filmmaking in a world where technology and the increasing ease of capturing images anywhere at any time have blurred the line between reality and film.
5. Aftersun (2022) by Charlotte Wells for its heartrending story about how we often put together memories of childhood to try to understand our parents as adults, and the immense grief felt when a loved one we never truly knew is gone forever. (see also: All of Us Strangers, 2023)
6. Burning (2018) by Lee Chang-dong for making an intense thriller out of the frustration and alienation that modern life often puts its most desperate people through, and how that alienation sometimes manifests in shocking and violent ways. (see also: Parasite, 2019)
7. Nocturama (2016) by Bertrand Bonello for deftly exploring the dichotomy of hating the exploitative nature of the modern, late-stage capitalist world while still being trapped within it, and the desperate attempt to do something, anything, to fight back. (see also: First Reformed, 2018)
8. Personal Shopper (2016) by Olivier Assayas for its unique and fascinating take on the ghost story, and for brilliantly showing the ways modern media and technology leave "ghosts" of the people we love behind after they are gone.
9. I Saw the TV Glow (2024) by Jane Schoenbrun for telling a horror story that expertly shows the ways nostalgia can become a comforting prison while simultaneously showing the existential horror of gender dysphoria. A story desperately needed in this age.
10. Her (2013) by Spike Jonze for its heartbreaking story of how the modern world produces a unique kind of loneliness and how advancements in artificial intelligence can make us question what it truly means to be human, albeit in a much more positive way than real life.
11. Showing Up (2022) by Kelly Reichardt for giving us a quirky and oddly funny film that is an unapologetic celebration of art and the hard work one must go through to bring an idea to life. Sorely needed in this world of featureless "content".
12. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) by Radu Jude for making a surreal, gonzo look at the authoritarianism and moral hypocrisy in which the "civilized" world often exists, and for being the funniest depiction of the absurdity of living in the middle of a global pandemic.
13. Frances Ha (2013) by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig and The Worst Person in the World (2021) by Joachim Trier for telling that uniquely "Millennial" story about feeling trapped between adolescence and adulthood and feeling the need to do something but not being quite sure what. (I couldn't choose one film, so I chose both).
14. Sorry to Bother You (2018) by Boots Riley for its absurdist and darkly hilarious satire of the crushing realities of living in a world that places profits above all else, and how capitalism can so easily lead to the loss of a person's identity. Doubly so for people of color.
15. Hundreds of Beavers (2022) by Mike Cheslik for reminding everyone that creativity and innovation can still be found at the movies, and for being an entertaining adventure that combines the best of Buster Keaton and the Looney Tunes.
