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The 20 Most Controversial Films of the Decade

From "A Serbian Film" in 2010 to "Joker" in 2019, these are the movies that had everyone talking in the 2010s.

The 20 Most Controversial Films of the Decade — Indiewire

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Controversial films ever made — "Blue Is the Warmest Color," "Joker," "Ghost in the Shell."
IFC/Warner Bros./Paramount

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Movie controversies began the 2010s on a volatile note with the release of “A Serbian Film,” in which baby pornography is a plot point no one should ever have to experience. The decade ended with “Joker,” the Warner Bros. revisionist comic book drama that sparked a worldwide conversation about the capacity of films to encourage and incite violence among audience members. To the shock of nobody, the years in between were full of movie uproar over un-simulated sex scenes, whitewashing, blackface, and more. In a decade defined by the rise of social media, one thing became clear: Studios were being held accountable more vigorously for irresponsible content, polarizing talent hires, and so much more.

Below is a list of the 20 most controversial films of the 2010s. The films have been listed in alphabetical order.

“Aloha” (2015)

Image Credit: Neal Preston/Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock

Cameron Crowe’s “Aloha” became one of the decade’s most prominent examples of Hollywood whitewashing when it cast Emma Stone as a character who is meant to be of one quarter Chinese and one quarter Hawaiian descent. The Media Action Network for Asian Americans publicly spoke out against the movie and accused Crowe of whitewashing Stone’s character, an Air Force pilot named Allison Ng. The controversy followed Stone around throughout the decade, so much so that host Sandra Oh made a joke about “Aloha” whitewashing at the 2019 Golden Globes. Emma Stone was in attendance and shouted, “I’m sorry!”
“The Birth of a Nation” (2016)

Image Credit: Test Byline/Kobal/Shutterstock

“The Birth of a Nation” won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was supposed to be one of the year’s top Oscar contenders and a major breakout moment for actor-director-writer Nate Parker. None of those expectations were met after Parker’s 1999 rape trial resurfaced just a few weeks before Fox Searchlight’s October theatrical release. Parker and his “Birth” co-writer Jean McGianni Celestin were accused of raping a student at Penn State. Celestin was convicted of sexual assault but the decision was overturned on appeal in 2005. Parker maintained his innocence as the “Birth” release date drew closer, but his thin apologies only stirred up more outrage from the public. “Birth” went from expected Oscar darling to a quickly forgotten footnote in Fox Searchlight’s history.
“Blue Is the Warmest Color” (2013)

Image Credit: Alcatraz/Canal+/Kobal/Shutterstock

“Blue Is the Warmest Color” made history at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival when Steven Spielberg’s jury awarded the Palme d’Or to both the director, Abdellatif Kechiche, and the film’s two actresses, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. The movie’s extended graphic sex scenes were always going to prove controversial to audiences (especially in America), but the film found itself in an explosion of controversy after Seydoux and Exarchopoulos went on record saying it was a grueling experience filming the sex scenes and vowing never to work with Kechiche again. Seydoux later clarified her position on the film in 2014 by saying she supports “Blue” despite the work that went into making it.
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” (2014)

Image Credit: Kerry Brown/20th Century Fox/Scott Free Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

Ridley Scott’s biblical epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings” courted controversy for casting white actors in nearly every major role. The social media movement #BoycottExodusMovie took off in the weeks leading up to the film’s release. Scott cast white actors Christian Bale and Sigourney Weaver as major characters and hired actors of color to play the slaves, servants, and civilians. Bale starred as Moses and Joel Edgerton as Ramesses II, but neither actor was of Egyptian descent like their characters. “Exodus” opened ahead of “Aloha” and “Ghost in the Shell” and was one of the first major Hollywood films of the decade that ignited serious conversations about the severity of whitewashing.
“Ghost in the Shell” (2017)

Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock

Paramount Pictures had high hopes for Rupert Sanders’ live action “Ghost in the Shell” remake, but the $110 million production bombed at the U.S. box office after a whitewashing controversy involving Scarlett Johansson. The actress was cast as the film’s lead Motoko Kusanagi, who is traditionally animated as a Japanese woman in both the manga series on which the film is based and the 1995 anime movie. Johansson and the filmmakers tried to spin the casting decision as justified since Johannson’s character is a cyborg and thus does not belong to a specific ethnicity, but that was a soft excuse for what became one of the most egregious examples of Hollywood whitewashing this past decade. Johansson’s casting pushed the conversation around whitewashing to the forefront of Hollywood.
“The House That Jack Built” (2018)

Image Credit: Zentropa/Kobal/Shutterstock

Did Lars von Trier’s “The House That Jack Built” really cause hundreds of walkouts at its Cannes Film Festival world premiere? While many critics in attendance deny this fact, that initial rumor branded “Jack” as 2018’s most controversial film. Never one not to shock, von Trier included scenes of a duck’s leg being cut off (PETA had to clarify this was done with a prop and a not a real animal) and a moment in which the main character uses a sniper to murder two young children. Throw in extreme violent acts committed against women (a woman’s breast gets cut off) and what you get is one of the decade’s most shocking movies.
“The Human Centipede 2” (2011)

Image Credit: Six Company/Kobal/Shutterstock

Two years after introducing “The Human Centipede,” writer-director Tom Six kicked off the decade with the body horror sequel “The Human Centipede 2,” a stomach-churning descent into violence that proved more sickening than its predecessor. The meta sequel follows a mentally impaired man (Laurence R. Harvey) who becomes so obsessed with the first movie that he decides to embark on his own mission to create a 12-person human centipede. The movie was banned and/or censored in various marketplaces around the world, with many critics calling it one of the most reprehensible films ever made.
“The Hunt” (2019)

Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Craig Zobel’s “The Hunt” was pulled from its September 27 theatrical release by Universal for two separate controversies that found themselves getting intertwined in the national conversation. The first was that the film’s promotional campaign had to be suspended by the studio after the mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas. In the wake of mass violence, many moviegoers wondered if “The Hunt” might have a negative impact because of its gun-heavy violence. The second controversy centered on the film’s plot, which the trailer set up as battle between “elites” and the unsuspecting Americans they gather up and hunt for sport. This controversy became a national firestorm after The Hollywood Reporter revealed the script referred to the hunted as “deplorables,” the word Hillary Clinton infamously used to describe Trump supporters. Conservatives lashed out against “The Hunt,” with Donald Trump even weighing in and calling “The Hunt” “very dangerous to our country.” The film was removed from the release calendar and has yet to be given a new date.
“I Love You Daddy” (2017)

Image Credit: TIFF

Louis C.K.’s “I Love You Daddy” was one of the more controversial films at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival because of its divisive storyline in which a 17-year-old girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) begins a relationship with a much older director (John Malkovich) who has been accused by the media of being a pedophile. The age difference at the heart of the story initially turned heads, but “I Love You Daddy” was thrust into even more controversy after C.K. admitted to sexual misconduct, which included a history of masturbating in front of female comics. As a result, distributor The Orchard pulled the movie from its release just a week ahead of its debut. “I Love You Daddy” never saw a theatrical or streaming release.
“The Interview” (2014)

Image Credit: Snap Stills/Shutterstock

It was inevitable that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s “The Interview” would be controversial considering its plot centered around two American journalists (played by Rogen and James Franco) who set up an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Randall Park) and then get recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. The political plotline was destined to ruffle feathers, but then “The Interview” became the subject of the infamous 2014 Sony Pictures hack. The general consensus around Hollywood is that North Korea hacked the studio in reaction to “The Interview.” Sony pulled the movie’s nationwide theatrical release and opted to put it on VOD instead (some indie movie theaters were able to show the film).
“Jeepers Creepers 3” (2017)

Image Credit: American Zoetrope/Kobal/Shutterstock

“Jeepers Creepers 3” courted controversy in 2017 for the mere reason that it was directed by Victor Salva, who was convicted in 1988 of sexually molesting the 12-year-old star of his movie “Clownhouse.” Salva videotaped the sexual act and was also convicted of possessing commercial videotapes and magazines containing child pornography. That Salva would be able to direct and release a new film ignited backlash across social media, made more extreme by the fact that Salva referenced molestation in his film script.
“Joker” (2019)

Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Was there a more controversial comic book film this decade than “Joker”? Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix’s revisionist comic book drama turned heads by winning the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Film Festival and then endured months-long controversy over its depiction of both the Joker character and graphic violence. While Phillips maintained that showing the bloody ramifications of violence was important (he suggested PG-13 films do more damage by showing bloodless massacres), many critics were left wondering whether or not “Joker” would encourage viewers to commit acts of violence themselves. Some critics blasted “Joker” as irresponsible due to the way it creates sympathy for its main character, and at least one showing of the film in Los Angeles was canceled over opening weekend due to a legitimate threat. Ultimately, “Joker” overcame its pre-release anxieties to earn over $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
“Love” (2015)

Image Credit: Wild Bunch/Les Cinema De La Zone/Rt Features/Kobal/Shutterstock

Gaspar Noé makes controversial movies (see 2002’s “Irréversible” and its 10-minute rape scene), so when word got out that he would be bringing an erotic drama to the 2015 Cannes Film Festival everyone in the industry was expecting outrage. Unsurprisingly, Noé did not disappoint. With “Love,” the director crafted prolonged unsimulated sex scenes made all the more shocking by being presented in 3D (and of course that means a penis ejaculating at the camera in 3D). “We’re not doing anything that’s perverse,” Noé told The Guardian amid debates over what constitutes film and what constitutes pornography. “We’re not doing anything strange. Everything in the film, all the sex, it seems natural, to me at least.”
“Mektoub, My Love” (2017, 2019)

Image Credit: Venice

Abdellatif Kechiche followed one controversial movie (see “Blue Is the Warmest Color” above) with another courtesy of “Mektoub My Love,” which was released as a two-part movie (the first debuted at Venice 2017, the second at Cannes 2019). Both films created controversy over Kechiche’s male gaze, which leered upon his actresses to include gratuitous shots of their bodies. Like “Blue,” “Mektoub” featured several graphic sexual acts (one oral sex scene lasts nearly 15 minutes) and not all of them were allegedly performed with consent. One person on set alleged Kechiche went to inappropriate lengths to ensure his actors would consent to unsimulated sex scenes, including giving them alcohol so they would be drunk. Neither “Mektoub” films received U.S. releases.
“mother!” (2017)

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Darren Aronosfky pulled a fast one on Jennifer Lawrence fans with “mother!,” which became one of the 2017 fall movie season’s most controversial movies the minute after it world premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The final 20 minutes of the movie attempted to reenact all of human history inside the confines of a single house, resulting in one of the most love-it-or-hate it sequences of the decade. The movie’s brutal treatment of Jennifer Lawrence (who is repeatedly shown getting beaten up and kicked) also caused backlash. A poster for the film featuring Lawrence’s bruised face was widely critcized for using violence against women to market the movie.
“Nina” (2016)

Image Credit: RLJ Entertainment

Cynthia Mort’s 2016 biographical drama about musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone caused a storm of controversy for casting Zoe Saldana and darkening her skin color so that she would appear more like Simone. The decision was met with severe backlash from moviegoers and fellow musicians such as Grammy winner India Arie, who wrote a damning op-ed for The Hollywood Reporter about the film’s use of blackface. The movie was also rejected by Simone’s estate in ruthless fashion. The estate’s social media pages messaged Saldana and told the actress to “please take Nina’s name out your mouth. For the rest of your life.”
“Nymphomaniac” (2013)

Image Credit: Zentropa Entertainments/Kobal/Shutterstock

Any list of the most controversial films is bound to include at least one Lars von Trier movie (this one includes two). The filmmaker started off the decade with the Cannes controversy involving “Melancholia” (he made jokes at a press conference related to Nazism and Adolf Hitler), but his erotic epic “Nymphomaniac” proved far more controversial as a film itself. Released in two parts, “Nymphomaniac” courted backlash for a series of unsimulated sex scenes and one graphic abortion sequence that caused some moviegoers to faint at the Berlin Film Festival.
“The Predator” (2018)

Image Credit: K French/20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

Shane Black’s “The Predator” reboot unexpectedly became one of the decade’s most controversial studio tentpoles when actress Olivia Munn came forward just before the movie’s TIFF premiere to reveal that Black had allowed his friend Steven Wilder Striegel to star in a minor role despite knowledge that Striegel is a registered sex offender. Striegel plead guilty to “enticing a minor by computer” in 2010 after attempting to start an online relationship with a 14-year-old girl. Munn went public with Striegel’s history and turned the release of “The Predator” into a media circius, one in which Munn would not be publicly supported by her co-stars. Despite Striegel’s history as sex offender, Black had cast him in small roles in “The Nice Guys,” “Iron Man 3,” and “The Predator.”
“A Serbian Film” (2010)

Image Credit: Contra Film/Kobal/Shutterstock

Srđan Spasojević’s exploitation drama “A Serbian Film” kicked off the decade in controversy as one of the most brutal and revolting films ever made. The story centers around a porn star who agrees to act in a new art film in order to make money, but the movie is ultimately a snuff film with pedophilic and necrophilic storylines. Nothing is off limits in “A Serbian Film,” from pornography and necrophilia to rape and child sexual abuse. One sequence in which a newborn baby is raped stands as cinema’s most vile moment of the decade.
“Zero Dark Thirty” (2012)

Image Credit: Jonathan Olley/Annapurna/Kobal/Shutterstock

Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” sparked a national debate over the U.S. military and the CIA’s use of torture during terrorist interrogations. The film depicts scenes of waterboarding and other forms of torture in graphic detail and positions these methods as one of many steps the CIA took to figure out the whereabouts of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The debate ignited a firestorm of controversy over whether or not “Zero Dark Thirty” endorsed the use of torture. Some journalists slammed the movie for being pro-torture (The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald called the film “pernicious propaganda”). Many Oscar pundits believe the controversy derailed the film’s awards chances.

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