The 2010s saw the release of some mind-blowing movies like Parasite, Gone Girl, and Arrival. Given the pedigree of such company, it’s only natural that many movies released within the same decade didn’t get their due and were overshadowed by the brilliance of their contemporaries.
That being said, the 2010s was a great decade for movies andthrillers in particular. Apart from the aforementioned blockbusters, the decade ushered in an array of underrated gems, that only seem to grow better with age. So without further ado, get some popcorn, fix yourself a drink, and get ready to be swept away by these following gems.
10 Searching (2018)
While seeming like a typical missing person-type of thriller on paper, Searching is so much more due to its treatment and cinematic style. Led by a brilliant John Cho, the film has him play the role of a father that goes through a digital maze of screens and tabs to look for his missing daughter.
Director Aneesh Chaganty’s film sidestepped going down the gimmicky route by aiming for genuine emotions rather than cheap thrills, thereby creating a film that’s not very original, but the effort is laudable.
9 You Were Never Really Here (2017)
The 2010s saw Joaquin Phoenix temporarily transform into a dysfunctional man-child of sorts with films like Inherent Vice, Joker, and Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here. Out of touch with the modern-day functioning of the world, Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a staple byproduct of toxic masculinity, rendering him traumatized and confused about his situation. Add to this, the violent nature of his job and a little girl that gets sucked into a child-trafficking scandal, and you’re left with a violent thriller, tethered to the goodness of humanity.
Lynne Ramsay’s modern-day take on Taxi Driver is a mood piece that’s nothing like the original, but still a fun film to watch.
8 Headhunters (2011)
When a corporate headhunter moonlighting as an art thief steals a valuable painting from a former mercenary, he sets in motion a deadly game of cat and mouse that sets his world spinning. Endowed with a nail-biting climax and a tinge of dark-humor thrown in, Headhunters is one of the best films to have come out of Norway in the 2010s, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Aksel Hennie ably leading the film.
7 Blue Ruin (2013)
The revenge thriller genre sees a dozen entries a year. For a film to make a name in the genre, it has to stand out from the mediocrity of its contemporaries in some way or another. Blue Ruin does that, as it paints a realistic picture of revenge, that transcends beyond rage and violence into logic and practicality.
Messy and filthy, Jeremy Saulnier’s film has all the workings of a revenge thriller, embodying the rage of losing a loved one, along with the ineptitude of murder, culminating into a film that’s serious with intention yet clumsy with execution.
6 71 (2014)
71 takes place in 1971 Belfast, where British soldiers go in to suppress riots between catholics and protestants. After being forced to pull out of the mission, one soldier is left behind by his unit, leaving him to fend for himself against the backdrop of a bloody riot. Instead of going the Rambo route, 71 throws light on the human side of a soldier, exploring the sense of fear and abandonment, meditating on the frivolous nature of violence and those that are affected by it.
5 The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
Based on the real-life experiment conducted by Stanford University professor Philip Zimbardo, The Stanford Prison Experiment takes a close look at the dynamics of power and the effects it has on the individual. For his study, the Zimbardo divided his students into prisoners and guards and observed how the position of authority, or the lack of it, impacted the students.
By no means an easy watch, Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s film is an unpleasant experience, unearthing the dark side of humans along with the darker side of power.
4 The Vast of The Night (2019)
Going against the grain of big-budget alien projects, The Vast of The Night leverages a taut script, a small scale, and some brilliant performances, as it presents a fresh take on the alien invasion genre. Set in New Mexico during the ’50s, the film follows a switchboard operator/DJ that picks up strange sounds in the area which eventually turn out to be something far scary and sinister. Andrew Patterson’s debut feature is very reminiscent of the Amblin-type movies, with some great one-shot sequences along with a steady stream of atmospheric tension.
3 Wind River (2017)
Part social commentary, part thriller, Wind River sees Elizabeth Olsen’s FBI agent Jane Banner team up with a wildlife tracker, Cory Rambert (Jeremy Renner), to solve the mysterious kidnappings of a few Indigenous women.
Taylor Sheridan’s film neatly integrates structured crime into an important conversation about the ill-treatment of the Indigenous people and the loopholes in the law that govern them. Led by a palpable double-team engine of Olsen and Renner, Wind River is one of the most underrated films of the 2010s.
2 Burning (2018)
Lee Chang-dong’s Burning doesn’t flow, it burns. Constantly piling up moment after moment of unease and paranoia, the film starts out as a creepy story about ghosting before finally culminating into a murder mystery. Rather than treating the film as an all-out thriller, dong approaches the film with a poetic gaze, touching upon themes of love, loyalty, and social standing in the modern world.
1 Good Time (2017)
Good Time is a testament to Robert Pattinson’s pedigree as an actor and the Safdie brothers’ pedigree as directors. For a film made with such limited resources, Good Time plays out as an acid trip gone south, with Pattinson’s Connie Nikas being at the center of the downward spiral.
Along with Pattinson’s watershed performance, The Safdie brothers flex their cinematic muscles as they use various techniques from long zooms to jarring handheld shots to further accentuate the sense of paranoia.
