Thomas Matich

Initially, I had compiled a list of 20 or so films that I considered the best of this past decade. But that seemed a little boring and besides, I still haven't seen everything that has come out this year (Uncut Gems) and there are a few films from this decade that I have missed. So rather than attempting to quantify a list of the best films from the last ten years, I'm offering up the best in certain cinematic categories, many of which I have invented.

Best Ass Kicking:
The Raid 


Before there was Keanu Reeves kicking ass as John Wick, there was Iko Uwais blasting through an drug den gauntlet in a close quarters combat bonanza.

Best Anxiety Attack:
Border crossing scene - Sicario


The tension is lit when Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benecio Del Toro are attempting to smuggle a cartel member back across the Mexico-US border and spot some hostiles with itchy finger triggers.

Best Social Thriller:
Gone Girl




Many argue that David Fincher's The Social Network is one of the finest f…

My musical memories of the aughties were defined by undergrad, DJing (college radio, small gigs in Detroit area clubs) and as a writer/music editor at Real Detroit Weekly, an alternative weekly that eventually merged with the other Detroit paper, the Metro Times, in 2014. In this last decade of the 2010s or twenty-teens (what are we calling it, anyway?), I have admittedly become less prolific of a musical listener and writer as I was before. Last weekend, my cousin asked me what I was listening to lately and I replied that I was working on organizing a playlist of all of the music I've been listening to in the last decade, and then I launched Spotify to rattle off some records I had been digging.

In this past decade I began working in healthcare, moved to Chicago in 2017 and am completing grad school at The University of Chicago. All of which I can imagine have influenced my tastes in music and culture at large. In the last month during my daily walks to campus, with my ears cudd…