The Best of the Decade
Happy New Year! The end of 2019 is here. Before we head into the roaring '20s, I'm excited to take a look back at what the last 10 years have brought us.
Thank you all for reading Seen & Heard over the last two years! I'm so grateful for all of you and wish you all a happy new year and wonderful holiday season!
The Best Movies of the Decade
Over the last 10 years, we've been blessed with a lot of amazing movies, so it was tough to narrow down this list! Here are some of my favorites from the decade:
The Oscar Winners:
We got off to a strong start in 2010 with the release of The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. The film takes a look at the creation Facebook and paints Mark Zuckerberg in a less than flattering light. Ironically, this portrayal might make even more sense in 2019 than it did in 2010. With memorable dialogue, incredible performances from the entire cast and an excellent score, it's no wonder the movie was celebrated during award season.
In 2012, David O. Russell wrote and directed Silver Linings Playbook, which remains one of my all-time favorite films. It marked the first time I came to truly appreciate Cooper's acting chops, as I watched him grapple with his bipolar disorder and learn how to dance. It also contains one of my favorite movie scenes.
The 2015 Pixar movie, Inside Out, hit audiences of children and adults right in the heart (RIP Bing Bong). It told the story of a girl who was struggling to express feelings of being sad and lonely because she always felt she had to feel happy, using animated versions of these emotions to share these expressions. I'm so happy that Pixar found such a beautiful way to put this together for children everywhere to watch on-screen.
Associated with one of the craziest moments in award show history, 2016's La La Land was an innovative take on the movie musical, with homages to Singing in the Rain and other films. I'll just reshare my favorite scene again.
The Real-Life Heroes:
Nora Ephron is one of my heroes, so I fell in love with the 2015 documentary Everything is Copy, which examines her life. Because the film is directed by her son, Jacob Bernstein, it gives so much personal detail to the sometimes private Ephron and is filled with interviews with family and friends.
Directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, the 2018 RBG documentary came out at just as Ruth Bader Ginsburg pandemonium hit an all-time high. You'll laugh. You'll cry.
The Super Heroes:
The 2010s marked a decade-worth of Marvel movies, but the best of all was 2018's Black Panther. The film completely immerses you in the world of Wakanda and features one of the best and most complicated conflicts at the center of a super hero film. Also, there's Michael B. Jordan, so...
While Marvel found its stride in the 2010s, DC really struggled. The only true standout was 2017's Wonder Woman. Directed by Patty Jenkins, the movie's action sequences with Gal Gadot brought me to tears.
While not technically a "super hero" movie, Ava Duvernay's A Wrinkle in Time felt like an epic film, where heroes travel between worlds, a little girl is on a quest to save her father and Oprah, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling are guiding forces along the way.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun:
In 2010, Emma Stone landed a leading role worthy of her talent and blew everyone away in Easy A. It's filled with hilarious bits (I've got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine) and doesn't follow the formulaic approach that other high school-focused movies often do.
What 2010s recap would be complete without Bridesmaids? Released in 2011, Kristin Wiig is firing on all cylinders in the role of Annie, as a woman struggling to figure out her life after her dream job falls apart and her best friend gets engaged. I rewatch this scene frequently.
In 2017, Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish and Jada Pinkett Smith got together to have their own fun in Girls Trip. On a vacation in New Orleans, the four friends get into plenty of mischief and take some time to renew their decades-long friendship. It's the film that gave Tiffany Haddish her time to shine!
This year's Booksmart continued the theme of women having fun in film, with Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Devers as best friends. In one wild night out before graduation, they finally get to know their fellow students and have some fun themselves.
The Rise of Gerwig:
In 2012, Greta Gerwig was starring in and co-writing the amazing Frances Ha. Then she did the same for Mistress America, which is perfect. Then she wrote and directed the flawless Lady Bird. And at the end of the decade she released a truly inspired version of Little Women, which she also directed and adapted for the screen. I could gush for hours over this amazing woman, who is truly living her best life!
A Few of My Favorite Things
From movie scenes to TV shows to celebrity comebacks to memorable award show moments, 2019 has been filled with some memories that we must relive. Here are 19 of my favorites:
Oscars Mix-Up: It's hard to look back at the decade without referencing one of the most-talked about moments: the mix-up at the 2017 Oscars ceremony, when La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner instead of Moonlight. Watch it again in all its awkward glory.
Let's Take a Selfie: In another humbling award show moment, Ellen Degeneres attempted to take a selfie with Meryl Streep and several other A-listers rushed to enter the photo as well. Celebrities, they're just like us!
Mansplaining: If you could choose one scene in movie history that perfectly illustrates how condescending men can be when they think they're smarter than women, this one would be at the top of the list. The dialogue is sensational and Jesse Eisenberg and Rooney Mara deliver it perfectly during the opening scene of The Social Network. We should have all known Mark Zuckerberg would disappoint us once we saw this.
Don't Call it a Comeback: Remember when we all loved Anne Hathaway in 2010? And then in 2012 she cut her hair and started winning too many awards and everyone hated her? And then she disappeared for a couple years because she couldn't do anything right? And then in 2018 she made her much-anticipated comeback in Ocean's 8, where she played an outlandish version of herself and we all decided we liked her again? Thank god this princess is back in our lives again!
Diving Deeper: There are many memorable scenes in Booksmart, but the one I find myself thinking about again and again is towards the climax of the movie, when Kaitlyn Devers is swimming. In this one scene, she experiences true freedom and heartbreak. The way it's shot is beautiful and the music is perfect.
Love Story: This decade introduced us all to the world of Schitt's Creek and the talents of show creator Dan Levy. While the series has given us too many memorable moments to count (and even more memorable line deliveries), the one that always comes to mind is a romantic serenade between David and Patrick during open mic night.
Plot Twist: Before Dan Fogelman created the twisty This is Us, he wrote the screenplay for the 2011 film Crazy, Stupid, Love. There's a point toward the end of the film when the entire cast collides together unexpectedly in a hilarious scene that reveals connections between different characters.
Elementary: In 2010 a new take on Sherlock Holmes premiered on the BBC and the internet quickly fell in love with Benedict Cumberbatch as the smart and selfish detective. Out of the show's 13 episodes, my favorite remains season two's A Scandal in Belgravia, which contains some hilarious moments and plot twist after plot twist.
Shondaland: The 2010s also marked the decade of Shonda Rhimes, as she continued to slowly take over network TV and then grew too big for it and decided to takeover Netflix too. When Greys was already in full swing, Scandal entered the picture. I still remember my jaw dropping when I watched the pilot episode and realized that Olivia and Fitz were having an affair. It changed the television game and also cemented the female anti-hero as a TV trend!
Elevator Fights: It doesn't seem right to talk about the past couple of years of film without bringing The Avengers into it. One of the strongest aspects of the stories was the evolution of Captain America. Chris Evans gets two amazing elevator scenes, one in Captain America: Winter Soldier and one in Endgame, that deserve to be revisited.
Elevator Fights, Part Two: In a real-life elevator fight, Beyonce, Jay-Z and Solange got into it at the Met Gala in 2014. The video leaked and blew up the internet.
Best of the Decade: My favorite TV show of the decade is Jane the Virgin, because of its inventive storytelling and unique, yet perfectly calibrated, tonal shifts. It's all grounded in the story of a female writer in her 20s dealing with unexpected circumstances.
Cry Me a River: Parenthood is filled with tearful moments, but the best of all is in season four, when Kristina tells the rest of the family that she has cancer. It's shot mostly without dialogue and the viewers are left to imagine hearing the news themselves. The cast plays the scene to perfection, making me cry every time I revisit it.
Boy Bye: What would we do without Beyonce? Lemonade is the most powerful album of the decade. Each time I revisit it, I'm stunned by the anger and power she exudes in every carefully created song.
Musical Mess: Smash was a complete disaster. But as a lover of musical theater, it's a hot mess that I love. Megan Hilty is the true hero of the story -- creating amazing performances out of absurd storylines. Her performance of Let's Be Bad is one to remember.
Will They, Won't They? New Girl was another standout from this decade, and my favorite moment of the series is still Nick and Jess' first kiss in season two. Set to no music, the build-up of tension over the first 20 episodes of the series explodes in the perfect way.
The Boy Who Lived: In retrospect, the final two movies of the Harry Potter series were kind of a mess. And in the years since, J.K. Rowling has made some questionable choices. But let's go back to a simpler time in 2011, when J.K. Rowling, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint made some beautiful speeches at the final film's premiere.
Funny Girl: Kate McKinnon made her SNL debut in 2012 and since then she's gone on to hilariously portray pretty much every powerful woman in the universe. She even caught RBG's attention!
History Has its Eyes on You: Hamilton. What else can I say? I re-listen to the entire album every few months and find myself noticing and appreciating different things every time. Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical truly changed the Broadway game and created a space where everyone felt seen.
