25. “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012)
After she became the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar for her 2009 PTSD drama “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow did something few directors ever accomplish: she followed up one of the better Oscar winners in recent memory with an equal-if-not-better psychological nail-biter. “Zero Dark Thirty” was dragged in the same mud that gets stuck on the heels of any film with awards momentum, but many saw through the fallacy of the pro-torture accusations and focused on the film, which was exceptional. It racks up tension around a contemporary political issue with a diamond cutter’s attention to detail. It triumphantly juggles a variety of ideologies (feminism, jingoism, terrorism, pick-an-ism) and gives us one of the greatest Jessica Chastain performances yet, which is saying a lot considering her achievements in this decade so far. Most of all, ‘Zero Dark’ is a high beacon for the kind of directorial chutzpah a female director can achieve.
24. “Two Days One Night” (2014)
The Dardennes’ latest drama almost plays out like a terrifying thriller as it follows a woman struggling to hold on to her quickly eroding dignity in face of insurmountable odds. Terrifically realized by Marion Cotillard’s depressed character Sandra, who returns to her job after a long medical leave of absence only to learn she’s been downsized. The only way she can get her job back is to convince her also-struggling co-workers to forgo their year-end bonus. Then the clock ticks, as Sandra has just one weekend to steel herself to the task of beseeching her coworkers to reconsider a vote on Monday morning, where her financial and emotional future will lie in balance. To watch Sandra tap every ounce of her pride in order to receive the necessary number of votes to keep her job is soul-crushing —when she wants to curl up into a ball and give up, we can only empathize. The Dardennes’ unflinchingly honest and naturalistic film is perhaps their most conventional and straightforward, but it is ultimately a beautiful humanist triumph.
23. “Melancholia” (2011)
Prior to “Melancholia”’s release, director Lars Von Trier noted that he was a little regretful at having made such a “polished” movie, and then came the notorious Cannes press conference and its “persona non grata” fallout. We wonder now in retrospect if that was simply Von Trier’s kick-down-the-sandcastle reaction to having made something so glisteningly brilliant. Starring a revelatory Kirsten Dunst and a terrific Charlotte Gainsbourg as two sisters dealing with the approaching apocalypse in different ways, “Melancholia” is Bergman by way of Tarkovskian sci-fi draped in unforgettably beautiful, doom-laden imagery that is all Von Trier (by way of DP Manuel Alberto Claro). 2014’s “Nymphomaniac” is a terrific film, but its predecessor is a questing, despairing and sad on the kind of world-ending existential level. “Melancholia” feels like it will last until the end of time, however close at hand that might be.
22. “The Hunt” (2013)
One of the more gratifying directorial comebacks of the decade so far has been that of Thomas Vinterberg, who exploded on the world scene with the searing Dogme drama “Festen,” one of the very best films of the 1990s, but whose follow-ups had been increasingly disappointing. He was right back on form with “The Hunt,” though, which saw Mads Mikkelsen (who rightfully won Best Actor at Cannes) as a small-town schoolteacher falsely accused of inappropriate sexual behavior towards a little girl. An old-school throwback melodrama in many respects, it’s essentially a study in goodness, and the thing that confounded so many U.S. audiences —that Mikkelsen simply can’t comprehend that people would think he would do such a thing, and as such never even thinks to deny it— is one of the things that makes the film so special. Incisively shot, written and performed, it’s one of the most powerful films we’ve seen in recent years.
21. “Foxcatcher” (2014)
Bennett Miller’s previous film, the Brad Pitt-starring “Moneyball” came close to grabbing a spot on this list, but ultimately we went with the broader, more elegiac (and undoubtedly more divisive) “Foxcatcher.” Featuring a revelatory performance from Steve Carell, a beautifully understated turn from Channing Tatum (is there any actor who can lend such compassionate interiority to essentially jock-ish dim-bulb characters?) and a crackling supporting turn from the always brilliant Mark Ruffalo, Miller uses the true story of the murder of an Olympic wrestler by ultra-wealthy lunatic John DuPont as a crowbar to prise open a Pandora’s box of secrets and lies about contemporary America. Told in a clinical, observational, anti-melodramatic way, the absorbed and absorbing pace means that the film’s grip sinks in slowly. But by its end, the myth of ambition and exceptionalism which is such an integral part of the patriotic ideal of American self-identity is exposed, and is then torn to pieces with chilling deliberation.