It’s the top 25 films of the decade and it’s in the Times. Here you go.
Cinema is over. Haven’t you heard? Quentin Tarantino said so. The 63-year-old director of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction has stated that he hasn’t seen a good film “since the pandemic”. In a typically trenchant editorial in this month’s Sight and Sound magazine, Tarantino claims that most post-lockdown movies have been defined by “flaws, implausibilities, audience pandering, miscast performers or just plain stupid shit”.
He apparently admired Steven Spielberg’s workmanlike West Side Story adaptation and Kevin Costner’s extravagantly boring western double bill, Horizon: An American Saga . But Tarantino, who once claimed to watch up to three films a day, every day, says the output of cinema’s “sausage factory” is now so poor, he’d “rather read a book”. Putting his money where his motormouth is, Tarantino hasn’t made a film feature since 2019 (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and plans to direct The Popinjay Cavalier, an 1830s-set theatrical farce, in the West End.
In slamming modern films, Tarantino is simply adding himself to the roll call of big names, among them his Seventies Movie Brat heroes Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, who have decried the state of film-making. They have claimed that Hollywood is only concerned with churning out cookie-cutter “content” for streaming platforms, and that mainstream originality and invention belong to the giants of the past. To that, anyone who has kept even a casual eye on the gorgeously rich and varied quality of post-pandemic cinema can only really reply, “Au contraire…” Here — with a little help from some industry insiders — is our pick of the 25 best movies of this decade, from arthouse to blockbusters, rom-coms to horrors.
What’s your favourite on the list? What did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.
25. Sentimental Value (2025)
Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning
Alamy
It’s hard to approach the richness and human complexity of literary fiction in two and a half hours but this Oscar-nominated family drama by Norway’s cool dad director, Joachim Trier, is a great humanist novel of a movie. The characters — the obnoxious, visionary director Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard), who wants his resentful actress daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve) to star in his comeback film — are so tenderly written and performed. It’s a teary, morally serious tale but one that feels light and pleasurable to watch thanks to Trier’s luscious bourgeois sets and playful, Woody Allen-influenced storytelling style. Jeremy Irons, who picks it as his favourite film of the decade so far, calls it “an absorbing, beautifully written, acted and directed film. More, you couldn’t ask.” Mubi
Read our full review
Advertisement
24. The Wild Robot (2024)
Alamy
Think animated films are too cute, too safe, too obnoxious? Just watch Chris Sanders’s joyous and funny story about oddball parenting. Told through beautifully hand-painted imagery inspired by Monet, it centres on a robot named Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) who has to raise an orphaned gosling. What starts as a simple premise gives way to a poignant tale of parenthood, belonging and learning to care for someone entirely unlike yourself. By the end you’ll be wondering why more films, animated or otherwise, can’t be this good. Sky/Now
Read our full review
23. Weapons (2025)
Julia Garner
Shutterstock Editorial
The most explicitly Tarantinoesque film since classic Tarantino is this nonchronological ensemble thriller with complex character portraits and self-conscious splashes of extreme gore. It’s about a class of schoolchildren who mysteriously disappear from a small Pennsylvanian town, causing communal meltdown. It features gritty, grounded turns from Julia Garner and Josh Brolin, while the actor turned writer-director Zach Cregger probes deeply into contemporary obsessions with the dark forces that allegedly threaten all children all the time. Unashamedly audacious. Sky/Now
Read our full review
22. The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025)
Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan
Alistair Heap/Focus Features ©2
Possibly the greatest recent British rom-com, and certainly up there with Rye Lane and Finding Emily, this sleeper hit from last summer is about a lottery millionaire called Charles (Tim Key) who gamely attempts to reunite a former folk double act (played by Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan) for a one-off island concert. It is, according to the Four Weddings writer and rom-com king Richard Curtis, “a film full of grace, full of jokes, full of emotion. The perfect, small British film — perfectly acted, written, directed — a lovely little, subtle story set on a lovely little island about big things like music, love and loneliness. And yet so funny too.” Sky/Now
Read our full review
21. 20 Days in Mariupol (2023)
PBS Distribution/Courtesy Everett Collection
Filmed by three local Associated Press journalists at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and frequently from inside a battered hospital in the southern city of Mariupol, this is an immersive and unflinching portrait of political terror in action. At its most brutal, it is an unrelenting catalogue of bomb-blasted children dying on camera while the unbearable, soul-piercing screams of grieving parents fill the soundtrack. It rightly won an Oscar and was shown in September 2023 to the 78th session of the UN general assembly. Buy/rent
Read our full review
20. Anora (2024)
Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison
Alamy
One of only four films to win the double of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and best picture at the Oscars — the others being The Lost Weekend (1945), Marty (1955) and Parasite (2019) — Anora is the vibrant, hilarious and sad tale of a Brooklyn lap dancer (Mikey Madison) who gets chaotically involved with Vanya, an obnoxious Russian oligarch’s son (Mark Eydelshteyn). Full of rampant sex, dark comedy and great lines (“Here’s to having a hard-on and lots of money,” Vanya roars), it won an Oscar for Madison and four for Sean Baker, the writer-director-editor. The ending is a brilliant, poignant change of gear. Sky/Now
Read our full review
Advertisement
19. Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud
PA
Sandra Hüller had an incredible year in 2023, starring in The Zone of Interest (see below) and this intricate, cerebral and emotional courtroom drama from the French writer-director Justine Triet. Hüller is superbly sharp and brittle as a German writer on trial for the murder of her French husband (Samuel Theis), who plunged from a window of their house near Grenoble. Did he fall, was he pushed or did he jump? Psychologists, crash dummies and blood-spatter experts all come into play in a film that features a flashback to one of the most plausible and devastating marital arguments in cinema history. Buy/rent
Read our full review
18. The Power of the Dog (2021)
Benedict Cumberbatch, left, and Jesse Plemons
Kirsty Griffin/Netflix via AP
Benedict Cumberbatch is compellingly abrasive as a ranch owner in Twenties Montana in Jane Campion’s haunting and outlandish adaptation of the 1967 novel by Thomas Savage. Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee provide excellent support but this is the Cumbo show — the Old Harrovian gives a performance that crackles with malice and hints of vulnerability. He lost out to Will Smith at the Oscars but that was rather overshadowed by Smith lamping Chris Rock. Netflix
Read our full review
17. Sinners (2025)
Michael B Jordan, left, and Miles Caton
Courtesy Warner Bros via Capital Pictures
Michael B Jordan deservedly won an Oscar for the double role of the dapper gangster twins Smoke and Stack in this Thirties-set genre mash-up from Ryan “Black Panther” Coogler. A fearless combination of crime drama, period horror and fabulous roots music that was nominated for a record 16 Oscars, winning four, it uses vampirism and music as striking metaphors for how African-American, Irish and Native American people have defied oppression. A highlight is the time-travelling party sequence in which blues singers share a dancefloor with a modern DJ and a George Clinton-style funk god. Sky/Now
Read our full review
16. Triangle of Sadness (2022)
Charlbi Dean and Harris Dickinson
The “eat the rich” satire emerged with Get Out (2017), Ready or Not (2019) and Parasite (2019) but only fully flourished in this decade, in reaction to the global wealth disparity exposed by the pandemic. The genre includes The Menu and Glass Onion but reached sublime heights with this inventive takedown from Ruben Ostlund (The Square). Here a yacht-load of the uber-rich are shipwrecked on a desert island, necessitating a complete inversion of the class system. It’s thoughtful, precise and wickedly funny. BBC iPlayer
Read our full review
15. A Real Pain (2024)
Will Sharpe, left, and Jesse Eisenberg
Alamy
Jesse Eisenberg delivered his best work yet — and not just as an actor. His writing and directing here, in a rat-a-tat talkative treat, shows where his talent may lie in the future. Inspired by The Office, he mixes the macabre with mirth to blistering effect, telling the story of two American cousins tracing their Jewish roots in Poland. Stealing the show is Kieran Culkin, the neurotic antihero who questions whether the inherent pain of the Holocaust is distracting people from more resonant, pressing torments. Think Woody Allen at his peak and you get the gist. Disney+
Read our full review
Advertisement
14. The Zone of Interest (2023)
Sandra Hüller
Alamy
“Nazis in the Big Brother house” is how Jonathan Glazer described this astonishing portrait of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, who lived just yards away with his family. If Glazer’s words suggest jocularity, this is the opposite: a rigorously accurate depiction of blithe evil for which the actors were filmed by hidden cameras. We never see the camp, focusing instead on Höss (Christian Friedel), his wife, Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), and children in their stucco villa with its charming garden and swimming pool. “We have everything we could ever want on our doorstep!” Hedwig says. Over the wall come the sounds of machinery and gunshots and cries of pain. Buy/rent
Read our full review
13. Poor Things (2023)
Emma Stone
Searchlight Pictures/Entertainment Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com
The creative team of the director Yorgos Lanthimos and the writer Tony McNamara had a big pre-pandemic hit with the raunchy period drama The Favourite in 2018. They reunited five years later for an even more ambitious, anarchic and ribald picaresque, this time about a female Frankenstein’s monster from 19th-century London called Bella Baxter, who is played with some ferocity by the actress, producer and best actress Oscar winner Emma Stone. All involved — Lanthimos, Stone and co-star Mark Ruffalo — peaked here. Disney+
Read our full review
12. Aftersun (2022)
Frankie Corio, left, and Paul Mescal
Alamy
“If you want a progressive male sad character, I’m your guy!” So said Paul Mescal a couple of years ago when he stopped being one of the Normal People and became a superstar instead. Charlotte Wells’s sad dad weepie was Mescal’s calling card to a Hollywood future, a beautiful and immersive look at the last holiday a father spends with his child. His charisma makes it way more than just miserable, and you can see why Sofia Coppola is a fan — her dreamy DNA is all over the film-making. “I loved Aftersun,” she says. “It was touching, poetic and sincere.” Mubi
Read our full review
11. Sirat (2025)
Richard Bellamy, left, and Sergei Lopez
Alamy
This fantastically adrenalised Spanish road movie about desert raves in Morocco and the end of the world is Tarantino to the core. Remember the shock of Marvin’s head exploding in Pulp Fiction? That’s minor beans compared with the soul-shattering jolts Sirat delivers. The film, according to the Office co-creator and Fighting with My Family director Stephen Merchant, “gleefully ignores the ‘rules’ of classic Hollywood storytelling, providing minimal character backstory and wildly unexpected, darkly humorous surprises. Full of sweaty desert vistas and exhilarating sound design, it’s thrilling, visceral cinema.” Sky/Now
Read our full review
10. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Tom Cruise
Alamy
Almost four decades after the 1986 hit, Tom Cruise strapped back in, flashed that grin and, at 59, reminded us why we need the big screen. The ageless star took to the skies in real jets for the rare kind of fist-pumping blockbuster that means absolutely nothing and is all the more thrilling for it. A loud, silly and glorious tale about training a new generation of hotshots, this is a film that wants you to feel something in your chest rather than your head. Steven Spielberg said it saved cinema from the Covid doldrums. Hard to argue. Paramount+
Read our full review
Advertisement
9. Challengers (2024)
From left: Mike Faist, Zendaya and Josh O’Connor
Alamy
Tennis and film haven’t always been the best of friends — for every Match Point there’s a Wimbledon — but Luca Guadagnino’s romantic drama serves ace after ace. From A Bigger Splash to Call Me by Your Name, the Italian director specialises in turbulent summery sensuality and this is no different, with Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist forming a smoking-hot love triangle as players on the professional circuit. Amazingly, the tennis scenes are just as gripping as the off-court ones. Buy/rent
Read our full review
8. Oppenheimer (2023)
Cillian Murphy
Universal Pictures via AP
The fight in Hollywood these days is about how to deliver anything above the lowest common denominator. It is harder than when Tarantino started, when decent money was frequently chucked at challenging films. With that taken into account, what Christopher Nolan achieved with his nuclear bomb blockbuster is extraordinary. It is a largely black-and-white, knotty three-hour film about nuclear physics — and it made a fortune. Incredible, really, in these days of Captain America 37. Buy/rent
Read our full review
7. Conclave (2024)
Ralph Fiennes
Alamy
Modern movies, Tarantino says, are miscast. He couldn’t be more wrong. The cast here, in this faithful adaptation of Robert Harris’s papal thriller, is the thing. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini are so perfectly positioned that the director Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) simply stands back and builds an entire film out of two-shots, close-ups and knockout monologues. Fiennes, especially, is exceptional, giving what may be a career-best turn as the careworn and compassionate Cardinal Lawrence. He was robbed at the Oscars by Adrien Brody for The Brutalist. Buy/rent
Read our full review
6. Tár (2022)
Cate Blanchett
Alamy
The boldness of Todd Field’s majestic — nay, symphonic — fictional classical conductor masterpiece is clear from its opening scene, a lengthy onstage New Yorker Q&A that immediately separates the brains from the brawn. The rest of Field’s thriller — and it does indeed thrill — features Cate Blanchett having the absolute time of her life as Lydia Tár, doing her best to get cancelled in a world where art is seen as less important than opinion. Buy/rent
Read our full review
5. The Brutalist (2024)
Adrien Brody
Alamy
Go big or go home. That was the ethos of Brady Corbet as he directed an American dream, aka nightmare, epic. The story of the immigrant architect Laszlo Toth (Brody), who comes to America only to be figuratively and literally raped by the Man, is a relentless parade of indelible images. Indeed the film is a meta-commentary on its subject — this idea that we should strive to create the boldest thing possible despite the odds. Which is exactly what Corbet did, crafting a true great in an era when that is incredibly hard to do. Sky/Now
Read our full review
Advertisement
4. Past Lives (2023)
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo
Alamy
This debut feature from Celine Song emerged as the first great tearjerker of the decade and even now vies with Hamnet as the ultimate three-hankie weepie. It’s a quasi-autobiographical story about Nora (Greta Lee), a Seoul-born playwright living in Manhattan who is torn between her Jewish New Yorker husband, Arthur (John Magaro), and her Korean childhood sweetheart, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), who comes crashing back into her life. It’s often unutterably sad and reminds us of how the lingering wounds of childhood frequently live on in lovelorn adults. Mubi
Read our full review
3. All of Us Strangers (2023)
Andrew Scott, left, and Paul Mescal
Alamy
This heartfelt genre megamix is simultaneously a ghost story, autofiction, a romance, a mystery thriller and a fitful descent into madness, all courtesy of the impossibly talented British film-maker Andrew Haigh — see also 45 Years and Lean on Pete. We flit effortlessly between timelines, cultural eras and character perspectives as the lonely London screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott, impeccable) re-engages with the spirits of his dead parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) while falling slowly in love with his neighbour, the cheeky rapscallion Harry (Paul Mescal). A quiet marvel. Disney+
Read our full review
2. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Brendan Gleeson, left, and Colin Farrell
Alamy
This Oscar-nominated drama features an exquisite, hilarious script from the playwright turned film-maker Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), describing a destructive conflict between two former friends (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) on a fictional Irish island in 1923. The pair are a metaphor for the Irish Civil War, the references are Samuel Beckett and Ryan’s Daughter, and the film is really about mortality, home and the need to make art. It’s flawless. Disney+
Read our full review
1. One Battle After Another (2025)
Leonardo DiCaprio
Alamy
The huge haul at this year’s Oscars was well deserved: Paul Thomas Anderson’s febrile drama mixed the personal with the political for a very contemporary work. Nothing else came close to matching its scope, as Leonardo DiCaprio plays a doting if useless dad, trying to keep his daughter safe in this uncertain world. Who doesn’t that resonate with? And it had car chases! A big-budget film to celebrate, not criticise, before this sort of money is never given to original ideas again. Now/Sky