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 11th 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)
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