Top Ten of the 2010s ☕︎ Sci-fi/Fantasy: Blade Runner 2049 (d. Denis Villeneuve, 2017)

by Ash Thorp and Maciej Kuciara

See the full list here.

Like its predecessor, some things about Blade Runner 2049 do not add up narratively or thematically. Despite the obvious care that went into every meticulously-manicured frame, BR 2049 is profoundly flawed, and the flaws create stimulating lacunae for rumination. Given enough time, 2049 will likely achieve a status similar to the original Blade Runner as visionary exploration of what it means to be, unambiguously, the simulacrum in a world of unrestricted construction and reconstruction. For all its bio-natalist obsessions, 2049 ultimately feels like it’s far more invested in the possibilities of genuine empathetic connection than it is in determining whether robots have souls. Genuine empathy—the kind tied to caritas—is the one thing that can’t be fabricated, but it may be generated by the experience of love. In the bewildering, gorgeously-realized panorama of substitutiary devices that replicate adoration or submission, to feel loved is a gift of hope that demands sacrifice in return. That sacrifice is an act of faith in a world that actively resists it. Powerful stuff.

Honorable Mention: Wonder Woman (d. Patty Jenkins, 2017)

Three people, more than most, deserve credit for Wonder Woman being the single best superhero film of the decade. Zack Snyder has gotten a lot of crap over the years (and I’ve flung some of it), but some of his instincts are incredibly sharp, especially characters design and who should play them. His casting choices for the DC Universe have been visionary, and the distinctiveness of his vision in his often execrable DC films has given other artists a shockingly prodigal creative baseline for the spin-off films. Patty Jenkins made the most of that, and she distills the origin story blueprint into something really special: a bona fide old-fashioned adventure with the rousing spirit and light touch of vintage Indiana Jones and his serial forebears. The final piece of the puzzle is Gal Gadot, a perfect collaborator for Jenkins. Like Harrison Ford, she performs to her best advantage with a crackerjack director, and Jenkins has obliged her—and the rest of us—with a heroic myth that makes the most of superhero tropes and the gifts that a performer like Gadot brings to the screen.

Categorical Reflections

Both of these films obviously fit the parameters of the category, but as I was writing about them, I realized that both are, oddly, about… love as a motivating force for change? Not just romantic love, but outward-directed love for all, even the undeserving. Which is all of us, isn’t it?☕️