Best 2010s Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of 2010s cinema — measured across 1,608 indexed frames from 17 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
2010s films over-index on debris, microphone and necklace — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
I Saw The TV Glow (2024)
Jane SchoenbrunDP Eric K. YueIMDb 5.8TMDB 6.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate Maddy introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
- 2
Back to Black (2024)
Sam Taylor-JohnsonDP Polly MorganIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →
The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.
- 3
I'm Still Here (2024)
Walter SallesDP Adrian TeijidoIMDb 8.2TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →
A woman married to a former politician during the 1971 military dictatorship in Brazil is forced to reinvent herself and chart a new course for her family after a violent and arbitrary act.
- 4
Uncut Gems (2019)
Benny Safdie, Josh SafdieDP Darius KhondjiIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →
Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) is a once successful New York gems dealer whose gambling addiction has left his family and career in shambles, and him hundreds of thousands in debt. Always looking for the next big bet, Howard thinks he finally hit it big when he discovers a rare uncut rock of Ethiopian gems, with a very interested high-profile buyer. But the closer Howard gets to finally winning big, the more he is forced to realize he can't keep running from the consequences of his actions.
- 5
Red Rocket (2021)
Sean BakerDP Drew DanielsIMDb 7.1TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Finding himself down and out in Los Angeles, ex porn star Mikey Saber decides to crawl back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas, where his estranged wife and mother-in-law are living. Just as this dysfunctional family seems to be making things work, Mikey meets a young woman named Strawberry working the cash register at a local doughnut shop. He falls right back into his old habits.
- 6
Akira (1988)
Katsuhiro OtomoDP Katsuji MisawaIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →
2019. 31 years after being destroyed during World War 3, Tokyo (now 'Neo-Tokyo') has been rebuilt and is a thriving metropolis. Shotaro Kaneda is the leader of a biker gang. His friend Tetsuo is injured in an accident and taken to a top-secret government facility. He develops telekinetic powers but decides to use them for evil rather than good. He has the same powers as Akira, the force that destroyed Tokyo in 1988, and now it appears that history will repeat itself.
- 7
She Said (2022)
Maria SchraderDP Natasha BraierIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →
New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break one of the most important stories in a generation — a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood.
- 8
Blade Runner (1982)
Ridley ScottDP Jordan CronenwethIMDb 8.1TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →
In the early twenty-first century, the Tyrell Corporation, during what was called the Nexus phase, developed robots, called "replicants", that were supposed to aid society, the replicants which looked and acted like humans. When the superhuman generation Nexus 6 replicants, used for dangerous off-Earth endeavors, began a mutiny on an off-Earth colony, replicants became illegal on Earth. Police units, called "blade runners", have the job of destroying - or in their parlance "retiring" - any replicant that makes its way back to or created on Earth, with anyone convicted of aiding or assisting a replicant being sentenced to death. It's now November, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Rick Deckard, a former blade runner, is called out of retirement when four known replicants, most combat models, have made their way back to Earth, with their leader being Roy Batty. One, Leon Kowalski, tried to infiltrate his way into the Tyrell Corporation as an employee, but has since been able to escape. Beyond following Leon's trail in hopes of finding and retiring them all, Deckard believes part of what will help him is figuring out what the replicants wanted with the Tyrell Corporation in trying to infiltrate it. The answer may lie with Tyrell's fail-safe backup mechanism. Beyond tracking the four, Deckard faces a possible dilemma in encountering a fifth replicant: Rachael, who works as Tyrell's assistant. The issue is that Dr. Elden Tyrell is experimenting with her, to provide her with fake memories so as to be able to better control her. With those memories, Rachael has no idea that she is not human. The problem is not only Rachael's assistance to Deckard, but that he is beginning to develop feelings for her.
- 9
2012 (2009)
Roland EmmerichDP Dean SemlerIMDb 5.9TMDB 5.9See in full on FrameThrower →
Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.
- 10
Challengers (2024)
Luca GuadagninoDP Sayombhu MukdeepromIMDb 7.0TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →
From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, "Challengers" stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist of "West Side Story"), Tashi's strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick (Josh O'Connor of The Crown)--his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself what winning will cost.
What 2010s films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a 2010s frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — debris is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- debris2.7×
- microphone2.6×
- necklace2.4×
- book2.0×
- glasses1.6×
- table lamp1.6×
- sofa1.5×
- neon sign1.5×
How 2010s films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate 2010s from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 84%eye levelvs 69% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Lords Of Salem (2013) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,608 frames from 17 films carrying the 2010s label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/2010s
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