As the 2010s draw to a close, I wanted to highlight some of the small moments, or full scenes, that have stood out to me over the decade now ending. These are in no particular ranking order, and I’m sure there will be more that will occur to me, but I hope this list will stand as a testament to the rich variety and impressive quality of cinema to which we have been treated during the last ten years…
A Field in England (2013) – Reece Shearsmith emerging from the tent
Ben Wheatley’s Civil War bad trip builds a curious, eccentric and unsettling atmosphere throughout its running time, but transcends to a whole new level with this unforgettable three-minute slo-mo shot of Shearsmith’s character emerging from a tent in which some unseen and unthinkable torture has taken place – his beaming smile and simpering walk, underscored with “Chernobyl” by blanck mass creates an indelible effect of the uncanny.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) – The bathroom fight
The Mission: Impossible series kicked off way back in 1996, giving Cruise’s Ethan Hunt a lifespan far exceeding any single James Bond actor. He shows no sign of slowing down, though. While this bruising fight sequence less over-the-top than his more obviously outlandish stunts (hanging off the outside of a plane, running along the wall of the Burj Kalifa, etc.) it is nevertheless meticulously choreographed and brilliantly shot and edited. I mean, how can you resist Henry Cavill COCKING HIS FISTS LIKE GUNS!?
The Death of Stalin (2017) – The funeral
As the pettiness and fragility of our world leaders plays out on the world stage, this was the perfect time for Armando Ianucci and team to mount a filmic adaptation of Fabien Nury’s graphic novel. The farcical tone curdles into something far more menacing by the end, but reaches its peak in this funeral sequence, where the pomp and ceremony are undercut by the various panicked main characters trying to outmanoeuvre each other.
Green Room (2015) – Negotiating through the door
Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room is a film whose grip just keeps getting tighter. A grimly effective pressure cooker thriller, in which a hapless young punk band attempt to battle their way out of the backwoods neo-Nazi compound in which they have played a gig. Saulnier has a real gift for mounting tension, and this grisly sequence is a nerve-jangling showcase for his skill. As the band on one side of a door attempt to negotiate with a chillingly calm Patrick Stewart on the other side, we all know something bad is going to happen. And then it does.
Moonlight (2016) – Learning to swim
Moonlight is about many things – sexuality, childhood trauma, black masculinity – but it is only ever ‘about’ them in the loosest sense. First and foremost, Moonlight is rooted in the personal, tactile, sensual details of its protagonist’s life and experience. Barry Jenkins’ almost impressionistic handling of this scene, in which Mahershala Ali’s Juan teaches young Little to swim has the immersive (sorry) beauty of a cherished memory. Nicholas Britell’s mesmerising score elevates it to an almost religious level.
The Social Network (2010) – Opening scene
Aaron Sorkin is easy to mock, with his hyper-articulate characters and all their snappy, sexy loquaciousness, but when he’s firing on all cylinders, as he is here, he can produce dialogue scenes that induce a state of deep joy in the viewer. As David Fincher’s prescient film opens, we meet Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) – who has turned out to be among the decade’s chief villains – at the moment his origin story begins. Rooney Mara dumps him with such aplomb and laser accuracy, that civilisation could only be destroyed as a result. Hell hath no fury like a fragile mansplainer denied.
First Reformed (2018) – “Can God forgive us for what we have done to this world?”
The 2010s has been the decade in which we have woken up (perhaps too late) to the imminent threat posed by climate change. Paul Schrader’s First Reformed is shot through with the worry and fear that many people are feeling as they learn about where things stand, and the entire film absolutely hinges on one man (Phillip Ettinger) credibly infecting another (Ethan Hawke) with the despair he is feeling. If this scene doesn’t work, nothing that follows makes sense. As it stands, the scene works all too well.
Hereditary (2018) – After the accident
[Spoiler] A pretty shocking thing happens about half an hour into Hereditary – it’s grisly, almost laughable in its unlikeliness, but it definitely happens. The absolute certainty of it is literally shown to us with a fairly graphic smash-cut, but before that we spend a minute just sitting in the aftermath of it. For a full minute, we simply focus on the stunned face of Alex Woolf, whose character Peter is very much responsible, and we see exactly what it looks like when everything – and nothing – is going through someone’s mind.
The Big Sick (2017) – The confrontation in the comedy club
Every standup comedian should be so lucky as to have their own personal Holly Hunter in the audience, as heckler insurance. Hunter is one of the many reasons to enjoy this beautiful and heartfelt film, in which she gets to show both her warm, affectionate side and her more prickly side. The latter is in full force here, as she gives both barrels to a racist dudebro who dares to heckle her daughter’s boyfriend during his set. Poor guy doesn’t stand a chance.
Hearts Beat Loud (2018) – The performance
As the bearded father of a teenage daughter who shares my musical inclinations, this film felt at times a little too close to home, as it manages to remain emotionally resonant without losing its core of sweetness and humanity. Nick Offerman and his screen daughter Kiersey Clemons make the most of their natural chemistry in this climactic scene as they finally unveil their music to the (kind of) masses.
Paddington 2 (2017) – Meet Knuckles McGinty
The Paddington films were one of the real surprises of the decade, taking source material that could feel quaint and outdated and making it feel extremely timely again, without having to resort to any of the wince-inducing wisecracks and pop culture references that can so often torpedo similar projects. Part of the films’ joy is in their supporting cast, with everyone from Nicole Kidman to Hugh Grant relishing sinking their teeth into larger than life characters without losing all sense of underlying humanity. Brendan Gleeson’s Knuckles McGinty is a real standout, from his introduction here as an intimidating hard-case to his gradual transformation into a sentimental softie.
Lady Bird (2017) – Clothes shopping
Greta Gerwig’s outstanding Lady Bird captures so many aspects of teenagerhood and family life with a casual perfection that makes so many other films feel overwrought and false. The film’s nuance is exemplified in this scene, where teenage Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) and her mother (Laurie Metcalfe) go thrift shopping. The microagressions between the two mount up until a blowout argument seems inevitable, but then in a small miracle the entire scene spins on its heel, the tension evaporates and the two are united again. (Scene begins at 2:03 in the video below.)
Captain Phillips (2013) – “You’re safe now.”
We hear a lot about Tom Hanks as Everyman, and here’s why. Very few actors could pull off what he does here – bringing the experience of trauma to the screen with enough control to keep it from melodrama, but with enough visceral emotion to put all of us, for a few minutes, in the shoes of someone who has narrowly survived a horrific ordeal. The interplay between Hanks and Danielle Albert (an actual member of the Naval Medical Corps who is ‘simply’ going about her usual duties in this scene) is incredible moving, as she guides him through the scene and snaps him repeatedly out of his state of shock.
Captain Fantastic (2016) – A silent family breakfast
I had issues with some of the turns it takes in its third act, but for much of its running time, Captain Fantastic is a rich and complex examination of 21st century parenthood. I say ‘complex’ because few films enable you to envy and pity the same set of characters so many times, often within the same scene. Most memorable, for me, was this choice of ending (perhaps inspired by a similar scene in the very different A History of Violence, also featuring Viggo Mortensen). So often in art, less is more – tranquillity and stillness can speak much louder than words.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) – Leap of faith
I had pretty much given up on superhero films – the overblown bombast, the ponderous lore, and the relentless, exhausting, deadening CGI battles in which everyone is indestructible and so nothing seems to be at stake. Then, along came Into the Spider-Verse, which ended up being one of my films of the decade. It has all the wit, energy and spark I had been missing, but above all, this thing moves. To this jaded cynic (“Do we really need ANOTHER Spider-Man origin story?”) the kinetic power and emotional impact of sequences like this one was nothing short of exhilarating.
Boyhood (2014) – Off to college
I still can’t quite believe Linklater pulled it off: shooting a film over twelve years with the same cast, give the audience a time-lapse account of the process of ageing and maturing, telescoping an entire adolescence down into just a few hours of screen time. And while the main focus is on Ellar Coltrane’s Mason, Patricia Arquette lands some serious emotional body blows in this scene where she realises out loud – with anger as much as sadness – that her life is flying past. Who among us didn’t wince in recognition when we heard her utter the immortal words, “I just thought there would be more”?
Take Shelter (2011) – “There is a STORM comin’!”
Nobody flips out quite like Michael Shannon. And I don’t just mean he brings the bug-eyes and the yelling – lots of people can do that. I mean that he somehow manages to mean it, to stay rooted in something real and human, so that even as he is visibly coming apart, the viewers retain a connection to the more subdued family man we have watched until this explosive sequence blew our hair back. The looks of stunned terror on the faces of everyone else in the room with Shannon could not be anything other than genuine.
The Master (2012) – Processing
Oh, nothing much, just a couple of world-class actors at the very top of their game. P.T. Anderson’s tour de force was not quite the takedown of Scientology and its founder than some had been expecting, but rather it is a character study of two stubborn, strong-willed but fundamentally different men locked in a power struggle whose shifting stakes could well end up being their very souls. This scene, where the confrontation is at its plainest, plays out as a weird cross between a Scientology auditing, a therapy session and a Speed Dating event.
A Ghost Story – The pie
One of the strangest scenes in a film with no shortage of strange scenes, this sequence – in which a bereaved Rooney Mara sits on her kitchen floor and, in one single unbroken shot, eats an entire pie while the ghost of her husband stands watch – nevertheless gets to the heart of something about grief. The rawness of it, the loneliness of it, the way it is both self-indulgent and self-destructive, the way other people seem to be going about their business (note the sounds of the outside world that filter in as we watch), and ultimately the purging that leaves us back where we started.
Shutter Island (2010) – Teddy’s dream
Dream sequences can go wrong in a number of ways, but the most common one is when they no longer feel grounded in something concrete. Dreams are disconcerting not because of their ‘weirdness’ but because of their sense of normality, their sensory specificity that fools you into accepting them as real. Scorsese nails that here, as well as the uneasiness of the shifting of space, the odd details (such as Michelle Williams’ wet hair) and the heightened emotion that characterise our most troubling dreams.
Small Moments in Big Movies 
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