3. Carol
Because: It's one of cinema's great love stories. An utterly meticulous, aching, melancholy rumination on forbidden passion. Told with furtive glances and framed through windows and doors, Carol is surely one of the great love films of the decade. Not content with grand displays of emotion or declarative outbreaks, Todd Haynes masterful picture instead keeps the angst primarily internal, conveying it mainly through slight touches and surreptitious glimpses. From the moment Carols (Cate Blanchett) eyes meet Thereses (Rooney Mara) across the floor of a 1950s New York department store, Haynes sends the pair on a clandestine journey, one which mushrooms until the love is too hard to handle or hold back. Set against a lovingly rendered NYC backdrop (meticulous in its design), Carol is a true romantic classic, shunning the whole will-they-wont-they-and-eventually-they-do approach for something deeper, something a little more ephemeral. The last shot, of Carol staring at Therese across the crowded party, is one of the great closing frames of the decade. Expertly performed by Blanchett and Mara, Carol and Therese are one of cinemas great gay love affairs, and the film itself would make a sublime double feature with Ang Lees equally stunning, Brokeback Mountain.