2. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker unlike any other in the world right now and is one of very few true landmark directors working now. He may have burst onto the international scene with Pulp Fiction(my personal favorite film) but it's movies like Inglorious Basterds that will cement his reputation as one of the greatest directors of his generation and quite possibly one of the greatest ever. Tarantino's war film disguised as a spaghetti western is a brilliant deconstruction of both of those genres, while also exploring hyper violent exploitation film themes in truly unique ways. The way the characters come to life on the screen through Tarantino's writing is a massive benefit to every film that he makes and here he is able to establish a whole jubilee of memorable characters and intersecting plot lines to keep them constantly interesting. Arguably, the greatest character that Tarantino has ever written is Hans Landa, The Jew Hunter, played to perfection by Christoph Waltz. His performance in Inglourious Basterds is one of the greatest displays of acting in the last 30 years and will be one of many factors that help cement this film as one of the most singularly unique of this decade, and any decade for that matter.