15 Best Films Of The Decade (So Far)

2. The Skin I Live In

For decades Pedro Almodóvar has been at the forefront of Spanish cinema, consistently delivering films that rightfully earned him a reputation as one of the country's finest auteurs. Rather than letting that lead to stagnation, the 2010s have seen him spiral off in more adventurous directions, with mixed results. 2013's I'm So Excited was an lacklustre comic tale, with much of the humour not translating all that well. Still, while certainly a mis-step, it hardly registers thanks to The Skin I Live In. At its heart the film is a constantly unfolding mystery, but the only detective is the viewer. Showing lengthy vignettes that jump around in time before finally revealing the the gruesome connective tissue, you feel almost voyeuristic watching events unfold, accentuated by the way Antonio Banderas (an actor who so often slips into dependability, here in a brilliant turn) is himself watching his captive/daughter on a big screen. With the slightly off-kilter near-future, this all builds to make an experience that's impossible to pin down until the credits finally roll. Ostensibly a psychological thriller that swings through various genre styles before locking in as an all-out horror in its final act, the film is the director delivering something unique to both his filmography and modern cinema at large. The visceral horror it presents is incredibly raw, dealing with a violation so invasively brutal the sheer notion and its emotionalrepercussions will haunt you long after the movie's finished.