Whether or not people are aware of it, movies are one of the ways in which they mark the passing of the years. They speak for the moment, serving as time capsules for what was going on and how audiences felt about it, in all the glory and disdain those moments deserve. These films each broke through in the years of their release and have had a profound effect on the canon of cinema.
2010: The Social Network
Circa 2010, Facebook had about 500 million users and was just starting to buy out apps and experiment with news. Somehow, David Fincher's The Social Network - with a masterful script by Aaron Sorkin - managed to bottle the essence of what the social media Goliath would become ten years later.
The film, which chronicles the painful birth of Facebook, buzzes with angst and paranoia thanks to an iconic score and a career best performance by Jesse Eisenberg. The Social Network was well regarded, but it lost best picture to Tom Hooper's The King's Speech in one of the most egregious examples of the Academy not being able to distinguish the relevant movie from the proficient one.
2011: Bridesmaids
It's easy to discount how rare and important a movie like Bridesmaids really was. Men have been making gross out comedies with big studios' blessings on the regular for decades. Women occasionally get to play a part in the debauchery, but usually as the sex object. Bridesmaids flips the raunchy comedy ratio upside down.
Its six female leads wring maximum hilarity out of every moment they're on screen, but they're also adept at using humor to explore the many shades of female experiences and relationships. Bridesmaids let women laugh out loud about things they've always found funny in private, and it paved the way for new types of roles for female comedians.
2012: The Avengers
Avengers: Endgame is the box office record holder, but it wouldn't have been so if The Avengers hadn't landed its direct hit on American culture. The success of Iron Man went a long way toward establishing the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a force to be reckoned with, but the first true team-up movie of the MCU secured the franchise's dominance.
Moviegoers were already excited to see not one, not two, but six heroes fight alongside each other. They, along with critics, were genuinely surprised by how good the movie was. The Avengers contains the kind of over-the-top action set pieces that audiences now expect from superhero movies. However, it's the heartfelt performances that made these superheroes something special.
2013: The Wolf of Wall Street
The Wolf of Wall Street does what Scorsese movies do best; it provides a window into the mind of a terrible man. Male anti-heroes aren't Scorsese's invention; they've long been a subject of fascination in literature, TV and film. Though Scorsese's known for his gangster movies, The Wolf of Wall Street - with its frantic pace and dark comedy - has more bite.
The movie was controversial, but it's gray area take on ethics and the economy were a case of right-time, right-place after the Great Recession, not to mention, Leonardo DiCaprio's work was great fodder for meme making.
2014: American Sniper
Clint Eastwood has spent the latter part of his career efficiently making raw but artsy movies. Many have had political overtones, but American Sniper is the one that cemented him as a divisive figure.
It tells the story of late veteran Chris Kyle, who, much like the war he fought in, has a complicated legacy. The film is more nuanced than both its conservative champions and liberal detractors tend to remember. It became the highest grossing movie of 2014 because people from all over the political map chose to see it, perhaps for Bradley Cooper's multilayered portrayal of the Navy SEAL.
2015: Mad Max: Fury Road
In 2015, movies like The Big Short and Spotlight wanted to say something about corruption. Mad Max: Fury Road wanted to show instead of tell. It had been 30 years since George Miller had made a Mad Max movie. This one was so ambitious - in storyboard, stunts and grand themes - it just as easily could've killed its actors or bombed at theaters.
Instead, Mad Max: Fury Road fires on all cylinders. It retains everything that makes the franchise unique, then improves upon it with a well-spent bigger budget and a celebrated cast of actors. The fourth installment is as literary as it is in-your-face, which is as difficult to pull off as a two-hour, 200 vehicle car chase through the desert.
2016: Moonlight
Regrettably, Barry Jenkins' superb Moonlight is often remembered for the flub that incorrectly awarded its best picture trophy to La La Land. That piece of trivia cheapens the movie's value. Moonlight is a lyrical portrait of a character that audiences don't get to see very often in media.
The images it strings together are unforgettably beautiful. The performers - especially Mahershala Ali - are trandescent and more vulnerable than people in movies usually get to be. Moonlight's most important artistic contribution is one of representation, not just of a gay African American living in poverty, but also of aspects of masculinity that movies hadn't, until then, dared to explore.
2017: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Jordan Peele's Get Out is probably the best movie of 2017, but Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi is by far the most talked about. Fans were clearly expecting something akin to Episode VII but with slightly fresher material. What they got was an auteur's version of a franchise movie.
It's visually stunning with the battles in Snoke's throne room and on the salty surface of Crait making amazing use of color and contrast. It's also playful and political as was the Original Trilogy. But The Last Jedi is, above all else, subversive, which is not something Star Wars is known for. Some fans loved it, some rejected it and the studio continues to struggle with how much authorship to give their creators.
2018: Black Panther
Black Panther was Marvel's best hope at finally winning the Best Picture Academy Award. Ryan Coogler co-wrote and directed it, coming off of the success of Fruitvale Station and Creed. His frequent collaborator, Michael B. Jordan, co-starred, giving easily the best villain performance in the MCU. The film's worldbuilding and mythmaking is also among the strongest Marvel has ever put forth.
While it didn't win the ultimate prize, Black Panther can claim the distinction of best reviewed superhero movie ever and highest grossing one-character superhero movie of all time. Even better, it accomplished it all with a diverse cast and crew that features a much higher than usual percentage of African Americans and women.
RELATED: Knives Out & Parasite Prove Audiences Want Original Stories
2019: Parasite
An obscure (to start) South Korean film about income inequality was the Cinderella story of 2019. The Oscars and the world fell for Parasite and its lovable director, Bong Joon Ho.
Parasite is a perfect example of a piece of art that is greater than the sum of its parts, and those parts - fantastic actors, incredible sets, hard-to-predict twists and urgent themes - are great to begin with. Its message - that it's easy to point a finger in blame, no matter where one is on the economic spectrum - will always be true. It broke the glass ceiling for international films, overcoming the one-inch barrier of subtitles.