Top 10 Favorite Films of the Decade So Far

Brett Schutt

The 2020's have been an interesting decade for films. This decade has found a lot of variety within the indie sphere like Everything Everywhere All At Once as well as sensational box office hits that will live on in history like last year's Barbie. I'm counting down the ten best films of this decade in my opinion, these are the ones that stick out to me that resonated with me on a deep and personal level.

10. Minari (2020)

Minari is a small A24 film that came out during the pandemic year, which led it to have a really solid Oscar season and gave the film a lot of good exposure. The film is about a Korean family who now live in the midwest trying to survive and cultivate on their farmland. The result is one of the most soothing and poetic films of this decade. Lee Issac Chung directs the film at times like an opera, is sweeping shot choices juxtaposed with the beautiful score by Emile Mosseri makes this more intimate look at family life feel so cinematic in scope. It's a beautiful film that is a great look at how hard it is to achieve the American Dream and keep up the nuclear family but it's not impossible to achieve it.

9. Perfect Days (2023)

One of the missions of Workshopping Humanity is to examine film and art through a therapeutic lens and there's not a better example of that then in Wim Wender's opus Perfect Days. The film follows a janitor cleaning toilets and living a peaceful life where he listens to music and reads books. It's a quiet and meditative look at the rat race, it shows the unglamorous life of being a janitor but shows how our capitalistic structures in the work force shouldn't take away our spirit. We live on and be with peace with the world despite the structures that have been put at place, not to conform but to spite them. This movie is a look at how the quiet moments and the simple conversations with loved ones make life truly worth experiencing, it's a powerful and affectionate piece of filmmaking.

8. Past Lives (2023)

Past Lives is a special type of film. This movie is mostly big stretches of conversations, similarly to Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy, but it examines a much broader stroke than romance at it's core. The film is about two people reconnecting years later. The what ifs arise, if one of us didn't have to move, would we still be together? What would our careers look like? Would we be happier? Past Lives is quietly one of the most devastating films of the decade. It leaves us with many more questions than answers and made me personally reflect on how many directions my life could have gone. It creates an existential spiral and it's one of the most reflective movies I've seen this decade.

7. Luca (2021)

I am the first to criticize Disney and Pixar's creative decisions in the 2020's. The company feels like they latch onto making the most money milking IP franchises and doesn't put as much thought into the films they are actually putting out into the world and what they have to say. However, Pixar had a stint where they actually were creating films with actual soulful content with them with meaningful stuff to say. Soul is an honorable mention for this list, it's a great film but it's Luca I've gravitated to add to this list. It's in my opinion, one of Pixar's best films. The movie doesn't follow a typical Pixar formula and is instead a bit of a hangout movie in a similar fashion to Kiki's Delivery Service. It seems like your typical fish out of water story at first- bit there's so many little details that make this movie such a powerful piece of filmmaking. The films take on identity and suppression is powerful. The revelations made at the end about how the world won't always treat you kindly but find the people in your life that will stand beside you resonates so deeply here. I find the ending of this film, a solid conclusion about the power of connection and letting something free so poignant that I cannot get through it without tears in my eyes. This is my favorite animated film of the 2020's so far.

6. The Green Knight (2021)

The Green Knight is one of the most audacious and boldest films I've seen in theatres. This film, helmed by one of my favorite directors David Lowery provides one of the most transcendental films of the decade. This movie is absolutely stunning, the production design and cinematography are nothing short of masterful. The adaption of this story is also very smartly helmed, giving us a proper adaption that leaves the audience guessing and inferring. Like all great literature and folklore, we see the theme but it's left to us to interpret the theme. This movie is a miracle, not bogged down by any of Hollywood's ideas of what fantasy should be, giving. us a bold and artistic vision that continues to leave me in complete awe.

5. The Holdovers (2023)

The Holdovers is a cozy holiday film about a teacher, a chef and a student forced to spend time together at a private university over the holidays. What subsides is such a funny and deeply sad film about how lost we all are. We can truly learn so much about each other if we spend too much time in the same space together. These three people on completely different stretches of life all bond over the fact that they all hurt and ache for different reasons. However, those aches start to feel the same because simply, we are all human and we share so much collective feeling than we even realize. The Holdovers is a funny, brash, vulgar and heartfelt look at the human condition and is one I will be revisiting every holiday season.

4. Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

"Every rejection, every disappointment has led you to this moment. Don't let anything distract you from it."

Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of the most stunning and original films of the decade. It is a film so universally praised and beloved that it won best picture of the year and it's a quirky genre film. This movie on paper is not an awards movie in the slightest. There's rocks with googly eyes in them and people with hot dog fingers and yet the film still resonates. The film, as surreal and goofy as it gets, never forgets what it's truly about. It's about letting go of the burdens of life's expectations. It's finding hope in nihilism. If nothing ends up mattering in the end, then everything we do does matter when it comes to finding the people we love and hold onto and finding that fulfillment in ourselves. Maybe we won't become everything we want to be, but we will become the thing we were supposed to be.

3. Drive My Car (2021)

I find myself disassociating a lot when I think about Drive My Car. This film is about everything. It's about how to cope with trauma and betrayal. It's about how to channel your art through your lived experience. It's about the connections we make in life and how much they reflect our lived experiences. Drive My Car is a slow and methodical three hour film that truly has never left me since I watched it for the first time. It made me appreciate life and get in touch with my emotions. I remember stepping out of the theatre feeling renewed. The film is a three hour therapy session and through it's languid pace, beautiful scenery and probably my favorite score of the decade, this film is a genuine work of art.

2. I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

I Saw the TV Glow is a revelatory movie. This is easily my favorite horror movie of the decade but just calling it that is also misleading. The film feels like a cross between Twin Peaks and Donnie Darko. It's a heady, twisted and creative look at collective trauma and the bond people can have with art and how it shapes their whole identity. The film has been declared to be a trans allegory by the director Jane Schoenbrun and while that is an idea you could take away from the film, the film also explores a lot of messy and complicated ideas when it comes to all aspects of identity. It's about everyone who is young and feels like they aren't themselves and they don't feel seen or they don't belong. It's one of the scariest and most alienating things a human can feel. I Saw the TV Glow is a cry for help and one that an entire generation of teenagers will come to resonate with.

1. The Fabelmans (2022)

I've never been seen as much as I have in Steven Spielberg's masterpiece The Fabelmans which is a film inspired by his own childhood and love for filmmaking. This movie is a very special one, a type of film you don't see a lot anymore. I find the same catharsis in it I find in a movie like It's a Wonderful Life. Spielberg has made the ultimate statement on why film is important and why art is such an obsession for so many people. Sammy Fabelman, the main character, is able to see the world through a particular lens because of his love for the medium. This leads to revelations and reflections. It's a story about personal discovery and a statement of why film is such a powerful thing we all resonate with so deeply. Plus the David Lynch playing John Ford cameo was one of the most euphoric movie going experiences of my entire life. Take me back to that moment, that was my Avengers Endgame. This movie means a lot to me and I find it to be a foundational film helping me contextualize my aspirations and that is why it is my favorite film of the decade so far.