Time seems to be really good at sneaking up on people, and for a lot of us here at Way Too Indie it was hard to believe that our little site has been running for five years (Happy Anniversary to us!). We weren’t sure on what the best way to celebrate our anniversary month could be, but then it suddenly hit us: Way Too Indie’s 5th anniversary just so happens to fall on the halfway point of the decade.

So we spent most of the last 2 months putting together our collective list of the best 50 films of the decade so far. After a lot of deliberating and discussing, we compiled this list of 50 films that came out between 2010 and 2014 (Note: we went by original release date, not US, meaning some films like Dogtooth and A Prophet couldn’t make the cut). These are the films we love, cherish, and will remember years and years from now. A lot has changed with film in the last 5 years, but the quality of the creative output only seems to keep getting better. Here’s to an amazing first half of the decade, and let’s hope the next five years lead to even bigger and better things.

Each day this week we will reveal ten films from our list of 50, so check back tomorrow for the next group of films.

Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far
(#50 – #41)

Argo

This 2012 political thriller won Ben Affleck the Oscar for Best Picture but that wouldn’t have guaranteed it a spot on this list. What really put it over the edge were a number of factors including the combined talents of Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman. My favorite moments of the movie were all of the ones with them in it. Though Argo has been criticized for taking some all too common Hollywood liberties with the truth, such as minimizing the role of the Canadian Embassy in the rescue, it’s success in revisiting a moment in our history whose details had only been made known to the public when the classified documents were published in 1997 made it a film worthy of note and attention for it’s portrayal of CIA exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez’s unconventional attempt to rescue members of the US Embassy in Iran taken hostage during the revolution. [Scarlet]

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild’s biggest achievement is its ability to create a world that is both fantastical and grimly realistic. Benh Zeitlin’s Hurricane Katrina parable plays as a fantasy, but doesn’t wash away the serious realities facing the people in this environment. Enhancing the world-building is the community of actors (in many cases, non-actors) who feel authentic but are never looked down on. Honestly, I have nothing in common with these characters and don’t have any contact with the real-life versions of them, but I’m able to live in this world for 90 minutes. This community is strong, happy, unwilling to be changed or catered to. Some have complained that this approach feels like a grotesque travelogue for privileged outsiders to connect with the less fortunate, but I think that is a grave exaggeration. Perhaps I could see that a little more if there wasn’t as much soul in the work. Beside its wonderful magical realism, Beasts of the Southern Wild is grounded in the relationship between Hush Puppy and Wink, with powerful performances from Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry. [Aaron]

Toy Story 3

For all of its technological greatness, Pixar Animation’s first film, 1995’s Toy Story, was also a triumph in the story it told—a story embracing nostalgia (with ample pathos) and doing so without schmaltz or contrivance. After A Bug’s Life came 1999’s Toy Story 2, which is remarkable as both a glorious stand-alone tale (this time about commodifying nostalgia) and one of those rare better-than-the-original sequels. The studio’s next seven films would offer an embarrassment of creative and original riches: Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up. But for their 11th film, the studio knew it had one more great tale to tell from the toy box, and Toy Story 3 turned out to be the best of the trilogy, continuing its path down nostalgia lane to…the lane’s end. It’s heartbreaking farewell to nostalgia—a farewell born of something as normal and natural as growing up, summoned forth the heaviest of tears in a collection of films rich with Kleenex-demanding moments. There’s now a Toy Story 4 in the works, and while my knee-jerk reaction is to scoff at the notion of another sequel, Pixar’s handling of Woody, Buzz, and friends has not let me down yet; in fact, it has only ever lifted me up. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have something in my eye. [Michael]

Winter’s Bone

Debra Granik had only directed one other film when her indie Winter’s Bone came out. Starring the yet-to-be national treasure Jennifer Lawrence, then relatively unknown, the film was a sleeper. The kind that had a general buzz, though no real commercial success, following its Sundance premiere and a Grand Jury Prize win. After all, a backcountry noir taking place in the bluish bleak Ozarks following a teenager looking for her missing father among her rather sinister meth-making family, was never going to be the family-fun hit of the summer. And while we’re grateful for this film catapulting J-Law into the serious film world (and earning a first Oscar nomination), what makes Winter’s Bone deserving of this list is that Granik created an enthralling mystery propelled by the immense talent of all its performers (though, definite shout out to John Hawkes and all his cigarette smoking). Up until its last shocking moments the film captivates. Most especially by Lawrence’s Ree Dolly, a feminist heroine holding her own among bumpkins, addicts, liars, and her own evil family. Watching a man endure what she faces would surely not have been as compelling. Winter’s Bone is a film of strength and artistry, a time-tested combination. [Ananda]

Leviathan

Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab (official site) has been home to some seriously innovative and aesthetically astute moving images since 2007. It wasn’t until 2012, however, that whispers of this wondrous Lab began to resonate wider in the film world, when Lucien Castaing-Taylor (director of SEL, and professor of Visual Arts and Anthropology at Harvard) and Véréna Paravel got together and created something wholly extraterrestrial in feel. Leviathan is a documentary (though that term is used very loosely when labeling anything that comes out of SEL) that follows a fishing trawler in the dead of night, as it goes about its unceremonious business. With freewheeling cameras strapped to the boat, at times operated by fishermen, or seemingly capsized on the murky surface of the ocean, Leviathan tethers the audience to the experience of industrial fishing, and to the beasts and humans who all play a role in the cruel theatre of unrestrained nature. It’s a viewing experience unlike any other of the decade so far, and is the furthest one could get from conventional, mainstream, filmmaking. Unforgettable, transportive, and frantically cinematic, Leviathan breathes through celluloid, drowning our senses in saltwater and the glory of filmmaking. [Nik]

Amour

Michael Haneke’s Amour might be a slow-burner, but it packs one hell of a mean emotional punch. The film features two brilliant performances from Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant, who play an elderly couple madly in love with each other. The film defines what true love means, especially after the wife suffers from multiple strokes and the husband attends to her without feeling an ounce of burden. Haneke gambles by heavily implying how this will end from the opening scene, but his masterful presentation in this gorgeous foreign saga is anything but a wager. This may be Haneke’s most accessible film to date, earning the auteur the first Oscar nominations of his career. Amour is an emotionally charged love story that’s both inspirational and devastating, and if by the end you haven’t teared up at least once, you are a robot. [Dustin]

Oslo, August 31st

Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31st, while not at the top of this list, is certainly one of the most devastating films of the last five years. Taking place over a day in Oslo, the film follows Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), a 34-year-old recovering addict trying to start his life over. Anders constantly teeters right on the edge of relapse, but the things driving him back to taking drugs are the sorts of universal issues films rarely address with this much potency. It’s about trying to move on from your mistakes when everything around you serves as a reminder of your past. It’s about seeing everyone you know leaving you behind as they figure their own lives out. It’s about spending every waking minute thinking about any life but your own. Oslo, August 31st is a film about failure, and one of the only films to deal with this topic in such a nuanced, sympathetic and realistic manner. [CJ]

Stray Dogs

Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang’s Stray Dogs is a cavernous picture about a family scraping through the world inch by inch, tearing themselves to the bone. Lee Kang-sheng plays a homeless man who feeds his two children by holding up advertisement placards at a busy intersection all day, rain or shine (and boy do we see it rain). He and his kids squat in a dank abandoned building by night, bathe in public restrooms, and are forced to scrounge for their dinner. There’s a woman involved, too, but it’s not clear who she is, exactly. Is she the mother? A guardian angel? What makes things even murkier is that she’s played by three separate actresses. Ming-liang has a proclivity for insanely long takes, ten minute-plus static shots that achieve a level of intimacy only found in the corner of cinema he’s dug out for himself. Stray Dogs has a few of them, and they’re astonishing (especially the film’s final shot, which crushes the heart harder with each passing second). What’s remarkable about the film is that it forces you to take a long, hard, unblinking look at the nightmare of abject poverty, an issue we’ve all been conditioned to walk away from. It’s a devastating experience, and a stunningly beautiful one, too. [Bernard]

The Babadook

Good horror movies scare you with the unreal. Great horror movies terrify with the real. Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook does both. The writer/director sets us up and wears us out with a very real, first-half study of a mother’s descent into parental madness. Amelia (Essie Davis) is a tired single mom with a thankless job, inconsiderate friends, a flatlined love life, and a hyper kid. She is also a woman whose husband was killed in a car accident six years prior while en route to deliver that kid, leaving an ever-present—and always discomforting—sense of resentment that a mother should never feel towards her child. And that child is a handful—always at full volume and always full speed, ranting and raving and railing against a monster that doesn’t exist. Yet. Then the unreal occurs and the monster manifests itself from one of the simplest joys of childhood and one of the great mother/child relationship conduits: a children’s book. No sooner does Amelia wither from tired to exhausted, she must dig deep to find indefatigable to save her son and herself. [Michael]

Moneyball

It’s rare for a sports drama to discover untouched terrain within its genre. Story after story following ragtag bunches forming bonds to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles have played out so often in movies that the entire sports genre is often discarded sight unseen. Moneyball proves the exception to this unstated rule by largely moving the action away from the baseball diamond and into the executive conference rooms. Tracking often-derided Oakland Athletics’ general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) at the forefront of a burgeoning sports analytics movement, the sharp dialog in Aaron Sorkin’s script communicates the intricacies of “Moneyball” without becoming lost in a haze of batting percentages or average WAR scores. Moneyball makes the story of a sports executive engaging by illustrating the relationship dynamics Beane navigates between himself and members of his organization, as well as executives outside of the Oakland A’s. Seeing Beane negotiate, and attempt to influence the sports culture within his club makes a mostly unnoticed aspect of team sports appear just as vital as it is fascinating in the film. [Zachary]

See the rest of our Best Movies Of The Decade lists!

View Other Lists of this Feature:
Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far (#40 – #31)
Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far (#30 – #21)
Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far (#20 – #11)
Best 50 Movies Of The Decade So Far (#10 – #1)

Blake and I list our top ten favorite films of 2011. Comparing films to one another is hard to do when they are often so different. Thus ranking other people’s artwork such as films is never easy but everyone likes a Top 10 list (which is the reason why I told Blake we should do a numbered list of 10 instead of just an alphabetical one). So without further ado, our list of Top 10 Films of 2011:

]]> http://waytooindie.com/features/top-10-films-of-2011/feed/ 0 http://waytooindie.com/news/awards/2012-oscar-nominations/ http://waytooindie.com/news/awards/2012-oscar-nominations/#comments Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://waytooindie.com/?p=2630 The nominations for the 2012 Oscars were announced this morning with Hugo leading the pack for the 84nd Academy Awards with 11 nominations. The Artist came in as a close second with 10 nominations including; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Score. There were a few big surprises in the Best Picture and Best Director categories. Click Read More to see the full list of Oscar nominations.]]>

The nominations for the 2012 Oscars were announced this morning with Hugo leading the pack for the 84nd Academy Awards with 11 nominations. The Artist came in as a close second with 10 nominations including; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Score. This is the first year with the new Best Picture rule, no longer is there a set number of Best Picture nominations, instead a film needs to get 5% of votes get a nomination. The new rule is a great change. This year still ended up with 9 films, a few more than I expected.

Perhaps the biggest surprises were The Tree Of Life getting nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, which I am glad that film is getting some love from the Academy. Other shocker is Michael Fassbender not getting a nomination for Best Actor for his role in Shame, shame on you Academy. Tilda Swinton comes up empty for Best Actress for We Need To Talk About Kevin. But some good news, Gary Oldman received his very first Oscar nomination which makes a lot of people happy.

Full List of 2012 Oscar Nominations:

The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
Moneyball
The Tree Of Life
War Horse

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Alexander Payne – The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Woody Allen – Midnight In Paris
Terrence Malick – The Tree Of Life

Demian Bichir – A Better Life
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
George Clooney – The Descendants
Brad Pitt – Moneyball
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis – The Help
Rooney Mara – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn

Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Nick Nolte – Warrior
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Max Von Sydow – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer – The Help

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Kristin Wiig & Annie Mumulo – Bridesmaids
J.C. Chandor – Margin Call
Woody Allen – Midnight In Paris
Asghar Farhadi – A Separation

Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne – The Descendants
John Logan – Hugo
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon – The Ides Of March
Steve Zaillian & Aaron Sorkin – Moneyball
Peter Straughan & Bridget O’Connor – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

A Separation
Bullhead
Footnote
In Darkness
Monsieur Lazhar

A Cat In Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss In Boots
Rango

Hell And Back Again
If A Tree Falls; A Story Of The Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated

Guillaume Shiffman – The Artist
Jeff Cronenweth – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Robert Richardson – Hugo
Emmanuel Lubezki – The Tree Of Life
Janusz Kaminski – War Horse

Anne-Sophie Bion & Michel Hazavanicius – The Artist
Kevin Tent – The Descendants
Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Thelma Schoonmaker – Hugo
Christopher Tellefsen – Moneyball

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2
Hugo
Midnight In Paris
War Horse

Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2
The Iron Lady

Ludovic Bource – The Artist
Alberto Iglesias – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Howard Shore – Hugo
John Williams – The Adventures Of Tintin
John Williams – War Horse

“Man Or Muppet” – The Muppets
“Real In Rio” – Rio

Drive
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon
War Horse

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: The Dark of The Moon
War Horse

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: The Dark of the Moon

The Barber Of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God Is The Bigger Elvis
Incident In New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami & The Cherry Blossom

Dimanche
The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic

Moneyball is a film based on the book of the same name that was directed by Bennett Miller about a small market baseball team that found an innovative way of evaluating players. Co-written by the talented Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), the film is a true story about how Billy Beane used unconventional thinking to focus on buying wins instead players.

Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) was a whole package as a baseball player. He could hit, field, throw and run; a rare package to find. The New York Mets gave him an offer right out of high school. Billy already had a full ride to Stanford but a tough decision that the Beane Family would have to make is go to college or go to the pros.

There are some players that just do not pan out in baseball. They have the ability on paper but for one reason or another just do not perform in the major league. Billy Beane was one of those players. After 6 years he comes to grips that he is not a baseball player but he would like to stay in baseball as a scout. He eventually became the General Manger for the Oakland Athletics.

Set in the 2002, the team with the lowest budget aims to get back to the postseason again but will have to do so without 3 major players. They lost first baseman Jason Giambi, outfielder Johnny Damon and closer Jason Isringhausen to teams that could offer a higher salary. “There are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there is 50 feet of crap. And then there is us, says Billy.” Their budget limitations make it an unfair game but it is his problem to fix. Billy realizes that they need to think differently with their existing recruitment process.

On a trip to the Cleveland Indians management office, Billy is talking to their GM about possible trade acquisitions. As they throw some possible trade ideas around he notices a man in the corner who whispers advice into the ears of the other guys in the room. The negotiations are going nowhere but the man in the corner intrigues him.

After the failed negotiation meeting is over Billy walks right out of the office to the desk of the man in the corner to find out more about him. His name is Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a shy young player analyst who has never had a job in baseball before this. Not only that, but this is his first job in any profession. This baffles Billy but he is more concerned on what exactly he told the guy in the meeting.

The two step out of the building to talk more privately about what Peter Brand is all about. Peter explains that baseball teams are misjudging their players and more importantly mismanage their teams. He explains that instead thinking in terms of buying players they should think in terms of buying wins.

Soon after the two first met, Billy hires Peter to his team as the assistant GM. Peter uses Bill James’s formulas to come up with the true values in each player. He believes that there are 25 undervalued players out there that the team can buy on the cheap. Billy refers to their new strategy as counting cards at the blackjack table, trying to beat the odds. He calls this new strategy Moneyball.

The team’s scouts were very skeptical about this new strategy. They believe that there is more to baseball than just numbers and stats, it is about people and chemistry. There are fundamental elements where stats do not apply. Billy knows that the only way he can prove that the system works is by winning games.

The team starts the season off cold (losing 14 of the last 17 games). The seriousness of their poor record is starting to be brought to Billy’s attention. Even by his daughter. She asks him if he will be losing his job. He tells her not to worry about the fact his team is in last place and the things on the internet about him potentially losing his job. He tells her not to worry for her comfort but you can tell he is worried. Still, deep down he believes in his strategy.

The film portrays the hero to be Billy Beane but when you really think about it, it was only his acceptance of Peter Brand’s (in real life his name was Paul DePodesta) strategy and philosophy really changed the game. Every decision that he makes is because Peter said to do it. At least that is what I got out of the film, though props to Billy for looking for progressive ways to win and giving Peter a chance.

It is a movie about sports but it is not a sports movie. In fact, you do not even need to be a baseball fan to enjoy Moneyball, but it does not hurt either. The point of the film is not about an underdog sports team winning games but rather the way they went against the traditional way of evaluating players.

Brad Pitt does a fine job playing Billy Beane but I think the top performance goes to Jonah Hill. He played the number-crunching nerdy Yale graduate wonderfully. Philip Seymour Hoffman comes in with the small role of the team manager named Art Howe but takes a backseat to the main roles of Pitt and Hill.

Moneyball is an entertaining and soulful crowd pleaser with great acting and terrific writing. The only thing preventing this home-run film from being a grand-slam is the lack of risk taking. In the film’s defense, it is hard to take too many risks when it is based on true life events because staying true to the story is best. I do not know much about Billy Beane but perhaps they could have developed more from his ex-wife, the high billed Robin Wright, who only is seen in one scene. Still, you will likely not walk out of this film disappointed.

The Toronto International Film Festival has started announcing titles of films that will be playing at it’s 36th annual festival held from September 8th – 18th 2011. Last year the TIFF had 246 films that were part of the festival, which included many world and international premieres. This year’s lineup looks to be very promising as it includes the works from; George Clooney, Francis Ford Coppola, Lars von Trier, Morgan Spurlock, Cameron Crowe and Jay & Mark Duplass. This year Way Too Indie’s very own Blake Ginithan will be attending TIFF and will be reporting back his thoughts on it so stay tuned.

There are too many films to list for one article so instead I will list some of the most exciting and big-named films coming to TIFF in 2011.

Why excited: It stars one of my favorite actors Philip Seymour Hoffman. Speaking of stars it is loaded with them; George Clooney (who also wrote and directed it), Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.
Synopsis: An idealistic staffer for a newbie presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail. Based on the play by Beau Willimon.

Why excited: Again, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill certainly do not hurt either.
Synopsis: The story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

Why excited: Not only is it black and white but it is a silent film.
Synopsis: Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

Why excited: The film is going to be a big mind-fuck. Plus got to love John Hawkes.
Synopsis: Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.

Why excited: 50/50 shot of being funny or lame but I enjoy Seth Rogen.
Synopsis: A comedic account of a 27-year-old guy’s cancer diagnosis, and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

Why excited: Any director that gets banned from Cannes is pretty badass. Plus Kirsten Dunst won Prix d’interpretation feminine at Cannes from her role in this film.
Synopsis: Two sisters find their relationship challenged as a nearby planet threatens to collide into the Earth.

Why excited: Looks like it might be a decent action movie.
Synopsis: A Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist gone wrong.

Why excited: Nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, this foreign film looks incredible in an artsy kind of way.
Synopsis: A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.

Why excited: Sounds messed up, in a good way.
Synopsis: Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.

Why excited: Jay and Mark Duplass are amazingly talented indie directors with their own style.
Synopsis: When he leaves his house on a banal errand for his mother, Jeff discovers that the universe might be sending him messages about his destiny.
There is no trailer for this film yet

Why excited: The synopsis sounds very intriguing. Seeing parts of the film upside down sounds brilliant.
Synopsis: Tul, a hitman, is shot in the head during an assignment. He wakes up after a three-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally. Then he meets a girl that turns his world even more upside down. Who was trying to kill him in the first place?
There is no trailer for this film yet

Why excited: Why not?
Synopsis: Idiosyncratic, cheeky and uncategorizable, the films of Guy Maddin are testaments to the singular vision of a great contemporary cinema artist, and Keyhole may be his boldest film yet. A surreal indoor odyssey of one man, Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric) struggling to reach his wife (Isabella Rosellini) in her bedroom upstairs, this hypnotic dreamlike journey bewilders and captivates.
There is no trailer for this film yet