The Top 50 Films of 2000-2009:#10-1

10. Almost Famous (US, 2000)

"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool," Lester Bangs advises William Miller in the latter stages of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous.  It’s the lesson William slowly comes to terms with as a faux-journalist covering 70’s rock-and-roll band Stillwater.  Most of the film’s genius stems from Crowe’s adept script, which seamlessly combines the playful elements of the coming-of-age story with a “Behind the Music”-esque rock storyline.  With this development, Crowe is able to stimulate intriguing parallelisms between the desperation of being cool in both stages of life.

In many ways, the story of a group of immature musicians trying to become gods of their industry is the perfect metaphor to coincide with a teenager’s experience with his own growing pains.  Almost Famous is a glorious nostalgia trip, based on Crowe’s personal experiences on the road as a boy, and clearly takes a sentimental approach to a bygone era in rock mythology.  It’s a thoroughly entertaining ride, full of memorable moments, unforgettable performances, and loaded with charm and charisma.

Memorable Moment: The entire cast belts out the lyrics to “Tiny Dancer” while riding on the Stillwater tour bus.

Photo from Scene Stealers

9. Waltz w/ Bashir (Israel, 2008)

One would think that the horrific memories of war would never leave the minds of the men who experienced them first hand.  For Ari Folman, a former soldier in the Israel Defense Forces in 1982, his memories of the Sabra and Shatila massacre are boiled down to one continuously haunting image that he can’t understand.  And he can’t remember anything else.  Setting out to converse with fellow comrades, Folman slowly pieces together what happened that day through an animated documentary filled with talking heads interviews and vivid flashbacks.

Almost entirely conceived in animation, Waltz with Bashir’s non-fictional storyline seems initially devalued by the vibrancy of the film’s colorful moving images.  When a sudden change in form occurs at the end of the film, however, and the real life images are juxtaposed with the initial imagery, the results are staggeringly illuminating.  As the Iraq War moves further and further from the front page of the newspapers, it’s important that films like this one remind us that these kinds of conflicts have consequences.  To forget is to lose what makes us fundamentally human.

Memorable Moment: As Folman’s memory comes full circle, the film makes a startling transition from animation to real documentary footage.


Photo from Reverse Shot

8. The Royal Tenenbaums (US, 2001)

Wes Anderson is a creature of paradox.  His films are such elaborately whimsical constructions - vibrant, colorful, and distinctly photographed - that sometimes his gorgeous aesthetics overshadow how powerful a command he has over emotionality.  The Royal Tenenbaums is his most ambitious production, his most elegantly adorned offering, and his most weighty thematic work.  The family drama is populated by a daunting ensemble cast of characters with all sorts of quintessential quirks and eccentricities.  The real beauty for Anderson is how he is able to make us care what happens to these people. 

His typical creative flourishes are evident throughout (sweeping camera movements, a 60’s rock soundtrack), but they’ve rarely been used with such purpose and intensity.  Devout fans may miss a bit of the whimsy that is replaced by the film’s darker subject matter, but The Royal Tenenbaums is such a perfectly balanced mix of comedy and pathos that it’s hard not to see it as anything other than the most audacious entry in one of cinema’s most audacious bodies of work.

Memorable Moment: A narrator’s opening montage introduces us to members of the Tenenbaum family.

Photo from Slant

7. City of God (Brazil, 2002)

You don’t have to be a film enthusiast to recognize early and often while watching City of God that its wide-ranging, highly ambitious narrative structure is propelled by a tour-de-force visual style.  What’s most shocking is that it never feels showy or unmotivated.  Director Fernando Meirelles is in such powerful command of his storytelling strategies that every tracking shot, quick pan, and frenetic cut feels absolutely essential to plot and character.  It’s an exhilarating rush, and one of the decade’s most welcome surprises.

From the chaotic opening sequence to the jaw-dropping conclusion, City of God is in a league of its own.  Its graphic portrayal of drug violence may not be for everyone, but those wiling to experience the beauty involved in its presentation will be handsomely rewarded.

Memorable Moment: The opening sequence, a frantic chicken chase, sets up the world, the pacing, and the energy of the film.


Photo from We Are Film Geeks

6. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (New Zealand, 2001-2003)

I’d be hard pressed to come up with a more influential group of films over the last ten years than Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy.  Setting the stage for hundreds of big budget wannabes with CG armies and “We have to save the world” plotlines, there’s no doubt in my mind that The Lord of the Rings changed the way movies were made in astronomical ways.  Just take a look at the trailer for the remake of Robin Hood for glaring evidence.

There are many reasons why these movies are important historical documents and dollar signs are only a fraction of them.  Jackson was able to keep the spirit of the original Tolkien mythology while at the same time carving a distinct identity for his own work.  The films are impeccably crafted with minute attention to detail, meticulously composed and irrefutably iconic.  Character names like Frodo, Gollum, and Gandolf are as readily recognizable as any other name and it’s rare for me not to hear someone making Smeagol impressions amongst friends (“The precious!”).  Then again, I hang out with a bunch of nerds.

Memorable Moment: Frodo tries to leave on a boat with the ring without Sam, but the stubborn hobbit makes a teary promise to never leave his side.


Photo from Free Webs

5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (US, 2004)

For a brief moment in time, two of the most innovative and unique artists collaborated on a project so breathtaking it’s a shame that the tandem never worked together again.  I’m talking of course about screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry and their masterwork, Eternal Sunshine.  Gondry was the perfect choice to helm Kaufman’s quirky, highly imaginative pages about a man who seeks an appointment to erase the memory of his ex-girlfriend from his mind, has the procedure, and then desperately tries to prevent its execution after realizing he had made a mistake.

Headed by glowing performances by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, the film is one of the greatest screen romances of all time.  Gondry and Kaufman continue to work on projects separately from each other, still showcasing their tremendous individual talents through solo projects, but they severely lack the immediacy of their past work (see Kaufman’s overwrought Synecdoche, NY or Gondry’s wandering The Science of Sleep).  Let us hope that the day will come when they decide to rekindle their creative duo’s spark.

Memorable Moment: Joel and Clementine lie down on the ice and point out the constellations.


Photo from Ed Harriss

4. There Will Be Blood (US, 2007)

The best way to approach Paul Thomas Anderson’s inexplicable creative anarchy expressed through There Will Be Blood is to break it up into smaller pieces and dissect their value.  For starters, the film contains two of the most over-the-top ridiculous acting performances of all time.  Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano are clearly striving for something new here, unrealistic and unclassifiable.  The score composed by Jonny Greenwood (lead guitarist for Radiohead, the decade’s best rock band) is the decade’s most inspired soundtrack, so essential to creating the film’s menacing tone and maintaining a sense of pace.  Greenwood is constantly cuing us that we are watching something important.  Then there’s the cinematography by Robert Elswit, who manages to photograph Anderson’s insane script with one of the most virtuoso displays of mise-en-scene I’ve ever witnessed.  These sentences may seem like strained hyperbole, but after watching There Will Be Blood, it’s impossible not to speak about it without using extremes.  It’s an exciting, bold mess of experimentation that brings to mind the ambitions of a young Orson Welles.  Daniel Plainview may not be Charles Foster Kane, but he’s pretty close.

Memorable Moment: Daniel is baptized at the church.  He admits to abandoning his child.  Scary veins show up on his forehead.


Photo from Giant Bomb

3. No Country for Old Men (US, 2007)

If we’ve learned anything from the events of 9/11, it’s that the most horrifying villains are the ones we don’t understand.  Their evil stems from a worldview we cannot comprehend, absent of logic and clear motive.  Anton Chigurh, the antagonist in the Coen Brothers’ film No Country for Old Men is a living, breathing embodiment of this kind of evil and the sheriff in town (Tommy Lee Jones) knows it.  According to him, this is a new brand of killer, one that cannot be interpreted under normal terms.  Even though he’s investigating the case, we get the sense early and often that the sheriff feels overmatched.  To catch a killer, you have to think like one.  But what if the killer doesn’t think?  What if he just acts?

The Coen brothers seem fully aware of the relevant themes that emerge from their subject matter.  Reorienting Cormac McCarthy’s original novel from its more explicit Vietnam War perspective, the filmmakers tone down the temporal referencing to make their narrative more relevant to modern times.  In many ways, their western is a war film, consisting of many battles with little progress.  After all, you can’t win a war when you don’t know what you’re fighting.

Memorable Moment: Chugurh flips a coin with a gas station attendant.


Photo from Scanners

2. Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico, 2006)

It’s awfully hard not to get lost in the imagination of Guillermo Del Toro.  Pan’s Labyrinth, a hauntingly violent horror fairy tale for adults, is unlike any other film I’ve seen.  It has no peers.  It has no contemporaries.  Instead it is entirely independent, on its own, void of derivation.  The fact that the film’s themes of anti-authoritarianism and free-mindedness coincide with that description makes for some delicious analogies.

Otilia, Del Toro’s protagonist, is an unstoppable force, a refuser that rejects the circumstances of her claustrophobic surroundings.  With her in the lead, Pan’s Labyrinth is ultimately a film about rebellion, whether it be physical or spiritual, and Del Toro’s central female is a leader of her mind’s own imaginative revolution.  The director is also a renegade.  His film’s tone is so oppressive it’s a testament to his artistic vision that the it never falls under the weight of his overbearing ambitions.  His resistance to telling his story any other way other than his own vision is something that can be admired and replicated. 

Memorable Moment: Otilia defies the rules of the fawn and eats some food off the table, awakening a terrifying monster.

1. United 93 (US, 2006)

To select a film with a direct 9/11 relationship as the defining film of the decade seems like a bit of a cop out.  Yes, choosing the decade’s defining moment as subject matter for a potent action packed thriller is something of an unfair advantage.  I don’t care.  Paul Greengrass, the decade’s great action director, set out to create a film that accurately portrayed the events of that day in a way that would pay tribute to those who died while at the same time captivating audiences with a visceral docu-drama.  It’s a success in all areas.

Greengrass’ dedication to accuracy is unparalleled.  He wrote the script based off of interviews with the families of the victims.  He also populated his cast with people who were connected to the real event (Ben Sliney, the FAA operations manager on 9/11, plays himself in the movie).  In a decade where “realness” became the chief mode of storytelling (reality television, The Office-style faux documentary, and The Hurt Locker all being accurate examples) United 93 stands out as the tallest representative artifact of its time.

The decision wasn’t just a cultural one.  United 93 is also decisively well-made.  It turns the phrase “on the edge of your seat” into a recognizable reality.  Greengrass doesn’t embellish a thing.  He doesn’t need to.  All he does is tell the chaotic story of a chaotic day with controlled precision, assured camerawork, and breakneck pacing.  There are no sub-plots.  There are no main characters.  The film lives entirely within the moment.

No film left a larger emotional impact on me.  Repeated viewings do nothing to dull my response.  It remains a stunning reminder of the power movies have in bringing us together to share ideas and memories, moments in time that directly/indirectly impact us all.  The goal of this list was to promote that dialogue.  United 93 is the keynote speaker.

Memorable Moment: American Airlines Flight 11 disappears off of an air traffic control specialist's radar.

Photo from The New York Times

The Top 50 Films of 2000-2009:#15-11

15. Grizzly Man (US, 2005)

The thought of Timothy Treadwell as a real life entity makes me cringe.  However, as the main subject of a documentary helmed by Werner Herzog, a director obsessed with the destructive nature of the relationship between nature and man, he is something of a Greek god, a fascinating focus for an unparalleled character study.  Harping on the same themes that have existed throughout Herzog’s filmmaking career, Grizzly Man is great filmic mythmaking.  Transforming hundreds of hours of raw footage into a coherent narrative, the director pays tribute to a fallen artist’s delusional vision while at the same time communicating with his own distinctive creative voice.  The documentary isn’t just about a guy who spends his life living amongst bears.  It’s about two filmmakers’ shared love affair with the power of the moving image.

Memorable Moment: During one of Timothy’s last recorded videos, he stands in front of the bear that might have ended up being the one that took his life.  We get the sense that he feels the end is near.

Photo from the Guardian

14. Y Tu Mamá También (Mexico, 2001)

On the surface, Alfonso Cuarón’s beloved coming-of-age tale about a duo of sex obsessed teenage boys seems like an immature, pointless piece of soft-core pornography.  In reality, that initial perception is a misguided one.  The film is a hilariously honest portrayal of novice lovers and their slow progression from boyish, masturbatory runthood to a more introspective and adult take on sexuality and companionship.  The journey, a free-spirited road trip with an experienced romantic, is unforgettable, filled with valuable, unflinching truths that will strike a poignant chord with anyone who remembers what it was like to explore these unknowns for the first time.  Some pinned the film’s notorious openness to showcase its sexuality bluntly as overkill, but they’re missing the point.  Openness is what makes the film uniquely honest, vibrant, and enthralling.

Memorable Moment: Julio and Tenoch reunite in a diner after years apart.  They have since grown up, matured, and no longer have the same connection with each other.   A narrator clues us in on the change between them.

Photo from Listal

13. Mulholland Drive (US, 2001)

I did a complete 180 degree turn with David Lynch’s widely lauded critical darling.  My preliminary take on the film was that it was an ambitious mess, an elaborate yet flawed stroke of genius that proved the director was enormously talented but also compulsively deranged.  Nothing about my initial perspective has changed, but my affection for the madness has continually grown on subsequent viewings.  Aside from the core narrative of the film, a complete deconstruction of the Hollywood dream and the illusion of glamor and success, absolute clarity and cohesiveness take a backseat to aesthetics.  No film of the past decade has proven to be more challenging a viewing experience. Yet as the film ages, its mysteries only become more engrossing and its self-indulgent tangents only become more endearing.  Only David Lynch really knows what’s going on here, and that’s exactly where the audience should be positioned: In the dark, within the realm of someone else’s twisted imagination.  It’s hard not to get lost in it.

Memorable Moment: Betty shows off her acting chops during an audition for a role in a soap opera.

Photo from Graeme Mitchell

 

12. Capturing the Friedmans (US, 2003)

Every family is at least a little dysfunctional, but no family can match the insanity of the Friedmans, the subjects of the decade’s most comprehensive and thought-provoking documentary.  Interviewing immediate family members and using footage shot by the family during crucial moments in their many public controversies, the filmmakers are able to both shed light on one of the most infamous suburban tragedies in American history and complicate its mysterious gray areas.  Just when you start to lean one way on a particular issue, a key interview or piece of new information forces you to question your original conclusion.  The real life narrative behind Capturing the Friedmans is far too complex to allow you to draw your own conclusions.  As with any strong observational piece, the art is in the questions , and this particular film asks meaningful ones.

 

Memorable Moment: In a home video, Jessie Freidman dances a jig outside a court house during his ongoing trial.

Photo from Documentary Review

 

11. In the Mood for Love (China, 2000)

Director Wong Kar Wai is modern cinema’s most lyrical auteur.  The plot of his film, In the Mood for Love is so miniscule and irrelevant that it takes a backseat to its stunning aesthetic achievements. It’s the kind of film where sensuality is best expressed through the subtle sway of a crimson curtain or the sparkling pitter-patter of raindrops on a roof.

One might consider it to be a rather erotic film, although its overt sexuality is never acted upon since neither of its romantic leads remove a single article of clothing.  The film’s romantic narrative is instead unfolded through various scripted diversions such as repeated scenes, alternative realities and tightly cut transitions.  Not a single moment is wasted.  As the title suggests, this one is all about the hypnotic tone it projects and nobody is more prepared to direct that romantic haze than Hong Kong’s native son.

Memorable Moment: So, the female lead, role-plays with Chow, practicing the process of confronting her husband after learning he is having an affair.

Photo from Berkshire Review

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The Top 50 Films of 2000-2009:#20-16

20. Lost in Translation (US, 2003)

Romance comes from the most unexpected places.  For Bob and Charlotte, that place is a grand hotel in Tokyo.  They are two people in different stages of their lives (one has reached the twilight of his career, the other is just beginning a new life), but their emotional malaise has turned them into kindred spirits.  As the characters roam the chaotic cityscape, the audience learns the kinds of details and eccentricities in character not typically found in romantic dramas. Their exploration of the foreign world is filled with whimsy and good humor.

Sophia Coppola is the perfect choice to helm the fun.  Her assured direction is all about mood and tone.  There’s something unceasingly gratifying about the process of watching these two lost souls, complete strangers, confiding in each other.  Their conversations exhibit some of the most mature and honest dialogue between two adults I’ve ever heard on the screen.  In the end, we know their bond is strong, and that they love each other, even if they don’t end up together.  Sometimes the greatest love stories are simply short term connections, bittersweet entanglements of unrequited passion.

Memorable Moment: Before leaving for good, Bob whispers something in Charlotte’s ear while standing in a Tokyo crowd.  We never hear what he said. 

Photo from Scanners

19. Amores Perros (Mexico, 2000)

The great thing about the interrelated plotlines within Amores Perros is that their relationships don’t feel forced.  The past decade was ripe with scripts that tried to use temporal bounces and interconnectivity to make some sort of weighty statement about our world (See Crash and it’s preachy “We’re all a bit racist” sloganeering). Perros, by comparison, is an unpretentious compilation of three character pieces all revolving around a single car crash, but the real connections exist almost entirely within the thematic realm.

The film’s main focus is on telling three captivating tales of heartbreak and loss through a wide variety of styles and techniques.  Whether it’s the kinetic, fast-paced opening sequences or the more stagnant, claustrophobic second act, Perros shows off the talents of its director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and writer, Guillermo Arriaga, in consistently engaging ways. Iñárritu’s subsequent films (Perros is the first film in a loose trilogy) would later showcase the director experimenting further with form and expanding his command over technique with more authority, but his debut remains his most vibrant and cohesive work.

 

Memorable Moment: Valeria, a supermodel severely injured in an accident, watches in disbelief as her billboard advertisement is removed from a post outside her window.

Photo from Slant  

 

18. Road to Perdition (US, 2002)

 Easily my choice as the most underrated film of the last ten years, Road to Perdition is a lost masterpiece condemned by reputation and expectation.  Critics cited a supposedly shallow narrative as the main source of weakness and unfairly compared Sam Mendes’ sophomore effort to his debut, 1999’s American Beauty. In some ways, I think it’s an improvement on the Best Picture winner.

Far removed from more plot-driven, gangster-film classics like The Godfather or Goodfellas, Road to Perdition exists entirely in a world of mood, tone, and theme.  The film is photographed by Conrad L. Hall, one of the greatest cinematographers in cinema history (and my personal favorite).  His unusual command over composition, camera movement, and depth of field elevate a poignant father/son road movie to mythic proportions.  Hall died shortly after shooting ended (he would eventually win an Oscar for his work posthumously), but not before leaving us with his most ambitious achievement yet.  One could take any scene from the film and teach a course on visual storytelling.  At the very least, Road to Perdition is a museum gallery, a monument to one of cinema’s greatest creative spirits.

Memorable Moment: Michael Sullivan guns down John Rooney’s henchman one by one in the pouring rain.  Rooney remains motionless as the camera sweeps by his fallen comrades.  “I’m glad it was you,” he tells Michael, tears in his eyes.

Photo from Film School Rejects

 

17. Ratatouille (US, 2007)

Who knew one of the decade’s greatest tribute to the arts would come from a Pixar film about an animated rat?  Brad Bird’s tale of a rodent with dreams of becoming a culinary artist is a delightful appreciation of high art.  Remy’s passion for food and how it’s prepared could stand in for similar obsessions we have for music, literature, or painting.  Its basic coming of age story aside, the film is a winning metaphor for Pixar’s standard for creative excellence.  No production company has served its audiences with a more consistently appetizing menu.  The ultimate example of how high art and large-scale commercial enterprising can intermingle, Pixar’s output over the past decade has offered a filmography nothing short of astounding.  Ratatouille is its signature dish.

Memorable Moment: At the end of the film, food critic Anton Ego writes a review of his experience eating Remy’s cuisine and reads it aloud to the audience.

Photo from New York Magazine

16. Caché (France, 2005)

While watching movies, we are so used to knowing what we are supposed to be looking at. With Michael Haneke’s Caché, a psychological mystery thriller that deconstructs virtually every rule in the film grammar playbook, the focus of our gaze isn’t always so clear.  All of Haneke’s films engage the viewer to be more active in their viewing experience, but with Caché he takes those creative aspirations to new heights of craft.  If you don’t pay attention to detail (I didn’t the first time around and quickly dismissed the film as boring), the movie’s complex ideas will pass you by.  Its imagery is violent and disturbing, haunting and unquestionably unique.  Add in a dose of Hitchcockian themes of paranoia and voyeurism, and you may have a more twisted, modern, and pretentious version of Rear Window.

Memorable Moment: Georges has disturbing flashbacks to a traumatic childhood experience involving another young boy. 

Photo from Guardian

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The Top 50 Films of 2000-2009:#25-21

25. Million Dollar Baby (US, 2004)

He may be one of Hollywood’s greatest acting icons, but after two decades of directorial work, Dirty Harry’s greatest legacy will be his efforts behind the camera.  With a filmography that includes Mystic River, Unforgiven and Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most consistently engaging artists.  No other filmmaker balances between the visceral and the sentimental better than him.  His understanding of the Classic Hollywood tradition is so refreshing and full of life that it’s hard to realize he’s doing anything traditional at all.

While discussing Million Dollar Baby, people focus so much on the controversial third act they forget what makes the film’s final moments so unforgettable: The culmination of the elaborate interweavings of characterization and narrative.  The characters are so clearly established in script and on screen that the final-act shocker ends up not being so shocking at all.  It’s just what these interesting people would do in that situation.  Through a well-paced, rhythmic technique, Eastwood is able to turn something very real and horrifying into something honest and beautiful.

Memorable Moment: As Frankie drives Maggie to a boxing match at night, their faces fall in and out of shadows as Maggie discusses their friendship.

Photo from Reeling Reviews

24. Let the Right One In (Sweden, 2008)

The resurgence in the popularity of vampires in cinema and television is something I haven’t really been able to get behind.  While this may have something to do with the fact that I’m not a thirteen-year-old girl (sorry, that’s kind of a cheap shot, fans, please forgive me), I think it has more to do with the fact that most of these offerings lack anything of real substance aside from sex (whether its repressed in Twilight or widely exhibited in True Blood), blood, or fangs.

Let the Right One In is something entirely different and unique.  It’s a horror film with a strong heart and emotional backbone.  Yes, it’s about boy who befriends a girl vampire in his apartment complex, and at its core it’s definitively a love story, but the film is ultimately a powerful tale of loneliness, companionship, and growing up.  The relationship between the children is beyond endearing and provides some of the more poignant moments I’ve ever seen in a movie of this kind.  The mixed genres of horror and romance are perfectly intertangled here.  Richly photographed with beautiful, arresting night cinematography, Let the Right One In is visual and narrative storytelling at its most balletic.

Memorable Moment: Eli takes Oskar’s bullies for a swim in the pool.

Photo from The Film Stage

23. Knocked Up (US, 2007)

Team Apatow was the gold standard for comedy during the aughts.  Even when he wasn’t helming projects himself, the characteristics that have come to define his brand of comedy have surfaced in films he was only involved with tangentially.  Now any movie that uses “from the producers of Superbad” in the trailers has become the focal point of all comedic discussion.  His influence is unparalleled.

It may not be the funniest film to spawn from the Judd Apatow comedic canon, but Knocked Up may be his most representative entry.  It includes the majority of the major players (Rogen, Hill, Rudd, Mann) found in his films and it skillfully blends his juvenile stoner humor with adult related themes with a more consistent balance than his other creative efforts.  It also offers non-stop laughs.

Memorable Moment: After Debbie suspects Pete of cheating on her, she takes Alison and Ben to investigate, only to find that Pete was secretly attending a fantasy baseball draft.  “I got Matsui!” gloats Pete.

Photo from Film On Air

22. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (US, 2005)

If every company’s CEO was forced to watch this documentary upon its release in 2005, I’d be shocked if the 2009 financial crisis still would have occurred.  At the very least, it would have made them all look in the mirror.  Destined to be inserted into business ethics seminars for eternity, Enron chronicles the story of one of the largest financial scandals in history with painstaking focus and attention to detail by its chief informative players.  The story is told in such an engaging, controlled way that the chaos feels organized, seamlessly cataloged for people of all different backgrounds.  It requires multiple viewings to gain a firm grasp on just how troubling the events of this case were, but you don’t have to be a Wall Street dweller to feel its impact.  You just need to have a soul.

Memorable Moment: Video footage of a share holders meeting in which top Enron executives tell employees to buy stock in the company.

Photo from Documentary Review

21. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Romania, 2007)

Perhaps the most emotionally exhausting film of the decade, 4 Months follows the trials and tribulations of college-aged heroine Otilia as she attempts to help her foolish friend receive an illegal abortion in 1980’s Communist Romania.  It’s far from being a popcorn flick, but this winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes is a filmmaking marvel.  It’s heartbreaking and painful, but a stunningly beautiful work of art.  Shot almost entirely in stilted, desaturated long takes, the film is an experiential wonder.  Director Cristian Mungiu wants us to suffer through the process just as much as the girls involved with the procedure.  Instead of handling the film’s delicate subject matter with a heavy hand, he paints his canvas with delicate brush strokes.  He places the focus on the friend, not the girl having the abortion, which allows us to see the emotional effects the process can have on anyone involved.  In the end, it’s not a fetus that is lost, it’s humanity itself.

Memorable Moment: In a long take, Otilia sits in anguish at her boyfriend’s dining room table as his family humiliates her.  The phone rings in the background, but she can’t answer it.

Photo from Film Confessional

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The Top 50 Films of 2000-2009:Introduction, #50-26

Welcome to Decade Week!

Over the next few days, I’ll be counting down my picks for the greatest films of 2000-2009.  I’ve been making lists of this variety for several years now.  It’s my favorite thing to put together and the thing that usually takes me the most time to write.  I take the list-making process way too seriously, as if my selections offer a helping hand in the progression toward world peace or ending world hunger.  I think they’re a great way to share ideas and new perspectives.  It’s also a way to see what people are passionate about.

There were a lot of lists at the end of 2009.  With the decade of the aughts coming to a close and another year hitting the books, nearly every publication or blog had some form of a “Best of” list.  Around December, I started working one of my own.  I looked at my old compilations and tried to remember the films I had the strongest connection to over the past ten years.  After a while, I started to realize there were still so many significant titles I had yet to see and the titles I had seen, I hadn’t seen for a while.  So instead of throwing together a list haphazardly, I decided to turn what was originally a two-week speed write into a six-month passion project.  My goal was to see as many different kinds of films as possible so I’d come up with something significant.  Basically what I’m saying is that I didn’t get out much.

My approach was comprehensive.  I examined hundreds of compiled lists from sources like Film Comment and Filmsite.org as well as individual lists from some of the top critics in the country.  I asked for recommendations from friends and updated my Netflix queue daily.  I also did some research and took a look at some of the more popular titles of the period that I may have missed.  At the same time as I was searching for new additions, I also revisited old favorites and well-respected films I had dismissed during initial viewings. Potential candidates were posted on a bulletin board and arranged by rank.  Over the course of six months, the board was constantly changing.  That’s the way it should be.  Something like this could never be set in stone.  Opinions change over time, the mind evolves, and the heart wanders.

One of the more difficult aspects of the project was developing criteria for how to approach the decade in film.  After all, what exactly constitutes a “great” movie?  Cultural significance?  Critical response?  Box office intake?  I considered all of these factors during the process, but I ultimately opted for something more personal. There’s one thing all of my listed films have in common: they all get me excited about the art of cinema and how films are made.  I’ve grown an emotional attachment to many of the titles because that passion is contagious.  You and I may not agree on whether a film is “great” or whether it’s one of the “best,” but no one can deny the fact that all these films aspire to be something artful, for better or for worse.

It’s also important to note that there were lots of factors outside of the arts that stimulated implicit and explicit creative responses within the movies.  Any good list should consider their influences as well.  9/11 cast its heavy shadow over the majority of the moviemaking output, but so too did events such as the Iraq War, the Bush presidency, Hurricane Katrina, the birth of social networking, the growth of reality television, the financial meltdown, and Obama’s election. The decade also saw the development of several growing film genres:

1) Torture Porn – Horror films that focus more on blood, guts, and gore than on stimulating, less visceral scares (the Saw films, Hostel).

2) Bro-mantic Comedies – Films centering on a faux love-story between two male leads, usually starring Paul Rudd or Seth Rogen (I Love You, Man, Superbad).

3) Doom Docs – Documentaries outlining a supposedly unforeseen problem and its effects on the world around us (An Inconvenient Truth, Food Inc, The 11^th Hour).

4) Hyperlink Films – Dramas that highlight the interconnectivity of man through large ensemble casts that bump into each other (Traffic, Crash, Love Actually).

I’ve watched a lot of movies, but not nearly enough to write something as diverse and wide ranging as I’d like it to be.  The best lists come from the combined efforts of several gifted minds calculated together.  As I said before, I’m only one person.  My list leans heavily toward American cinema simply because I’ve seen more American films.  That being said, I think I’ve seen most (if not all) of the notable titles from around the globe.  In a dream scenario, in a world without deadlines, I’d be more than willing to sit down and scan through the filmographies of foreign auteurs like Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Cristi Puiu, Claire Denis and Jia Zhangke.  A handful of those titles might even bump a few off my list, but unfortunately there are simply too many movies to watch. 

In conclusion, I hope the next few days stimulate some thoughtful conversation.  Every single choice on the list was made consciously and for good reason.  Rankings, although admittedly arbitrary, were selected deliberately.  Feel free to post your own lists and make comments about my picks.  What follows is an honest attempt by me, an avid film enthusiast, to define the decade in movies through my own admiring eyes.  Enjoy.

#50-26:

50. Jesus Camp (US, 2006)

49. The Descent (UK, 2005)

48. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (US, 2006)

47. The Dark Knight (US, 2008)

46. Persepolis (France, 2007)

45. No End in Sight (US, 2007)

44. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China, 2000)

43. 28 Days Later (UK, 2002)

42. 500 Days of Summer (US, 2009)

41. The Diving Bell & the Butterfly (France, 2007)

40. The Hurt Locker (US, 2009)

39. Once (Ireland, 2007)

38. Inglourious Basterds (US, 2009)

37. Sideways (US, 2004)

36. Bloody Sunday (UK/Ireland, 2002)

35. The Pianist (US, 2002)

34. In Bruges (UK, 2008)

33. Zodiac (US, 2007)

32. Spirited Away (Japan, 2001)

31. Children of Men (US, 2006)

30. Wall-E (US, 2008)

29. Paradise Now (Middle East, 2005)

28. Memento (US, 2000)

27. Atonement (UK, 2007)

26. Chop Shop (US, 2007)

#25-21


Photo from Daily Mail