So, you don’t wanna talk about Spencer Tracy or James Brown? Okay, fine, be that way. I see now that the crew over at Time Out New York has posted its Top 50 Movies of the Aughts, so now’s the time, as Charlie Parker would put it, when I might as well counter with my own list, and create what some call “added value” by citing 20 more than 50, because why the hell not.
I will try to be more aphoristic and less portentous than the TONY crew in my film assessment. I don’t mean that as a slam against the TONY crew’s summings-up. Believe me, I know what a drag it can be to write those 50-to-120 word capsules, particularly if you’re trying to get across why the films “mattered” or were “important.” It was, quite frankly, really tiresome to have to strike those poses back in the Première days. Now that I’m my own boss, my own capsules will be…well, whatever they will be. Another liberty I take is in not ranking—who am I tallying up ballots against, anyway?—but rather listing the films in possibly imperfect alphabetical order. Shine sweet freedom, etc…
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001): A heartbreakingly fractured fairy tale. If you think its final 20 minutes constitute a happy ending, watch, and think, again.
Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002): The Charlie Kaufman-scripted upending of Hollywood convention isn’t quite the coup-de-grace it’s meant to be, but it still delivers a potent viral load of satirical venom.
The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, 2004): The maestro’s sweeping Hughes biography is a much-misunderstood study in obsession, and how failure never stops haunting success. The color manipulation is brilliant too.
Burn After Reading (The Coen Brothers, 2008): A really superb live-action cartoon. Reviewed here.
Che (Steven Soderbergh, 2008): Pace, Steven, this was not a mistake. Not at all. Some thoughts on it here.
A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin, 2008, pictured): A superbly multi-faceted film that genuinely suggests where cinema can, and should, go in the next century.
The Circle (Jafar Panahi, 2000): Women’s oppression in Iran. A beautiful new manifestation of the neo-realist ethos.
Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, 2006): It took me a while to come around to this extraordinary film…and I’m glad I did. I walked out on it first…now I feel I could watch it three times a year, at least. The first key to appreciating it is to stop seeing Costa as some sort of, shall we say, “liberal.” It’s deeper, way deeper, than that…
The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007): Well, yes, it is about the plaints of white people who are visiting India. And your point is? My initial thoughts here.
Demonlover (Olivier Assayas, 2002, pictured): A perhaps alarmist portrait of capital in the cyber age. But a swift, effective kick in the balls in any event.
Éloge de l’amour (Jean-Luc Godard, 2001): Profoundly problematic Godard, yes. And no less great for that.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004): Another magnificent Kaufman script given preternaturally empathetic life by director Gondry.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, 2009): Reviewed here.
Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001, pictured): An appropriately twisted vision about the catastrophe of erotic awakening.
The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky, 2006): “We rented that, and we saw they quoted you on the box cover,” some friend of a friend told me at dinner recently, “and you said it was ‘fascinating and amazing.’ I’m amazed the stupid thing ever even got made!” I get this a lot. And still insist. Review here.
The Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel, 2008): His ghost story, with effects straight out of Melies/Franju. An incomparable atmosphere.
Gangs of New York (Scorsese, 2002): Decidedly imperfect, with moments of epic greatness that is dares subsequent films to come near.
The Girlfriend Experience (Soderbergh, 2009): Yeah, The Girlfriend Experience. What about it?
Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, 2003): I love all of this director’s films, but really, this is his most haunted and haunting experience, a must-see for everyone.
The GoodTimes Kid (Azazel Jacobs, 2005): Another particularly sui generis thing, this from a genuinely adventurous American independent. Crazy, anguished, visually controlled and deft.
Good Morning, Night (Marco Bellocchio, 2003, pictured): A painfully nuanced film about the Red Army and Moro, from a politically and emotionally engaged director who’s been in there pitching since well before the event depicted.
Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008): Reviewed here.
Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005): Reviewed here.
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008) Reconsidered here.
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2006): One of Cronenberg’s slyest not-quite-pastiches. FULL of unnerving acting.
I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell, 2004): Improbably enough, my original review is still preserved here.
I’m Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007): I didn’t entirely get this picture at first. And then, I got it much better. It’s that kind of movie. I’ve seen it three times. Gets more interesting.
The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004): Is The Incredibles.
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009): Reviewed here. Tub-thumped further here.
L’Intrus (Claire Denis, 2004): One of the great Denis’ most daring and transportive (in more ways than one) films.
Invictus (Clint Eastwood, 2009): I can’t really talk about it yet, but yes, I think it’s that good.
In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2001): An apotheosis. Reviewed here.
The Lady and the Duke (Eric Rohmer, 2001, pictured): Rohmer’s experiment with digitally-created backdrops adds a daringly beautiful dimension to his mise-en-scene. The writing and acting are unusually sensitive.
The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch, 2009): Too hip? Gotta go? Not by my lights. 100% beguiling.
Looney Tunes Back In Action (Joe Dante, 2003): A meta-movie that really knows its business. Reviewed here.
Lorna’s Silence (The Dardenne Brothers, 2008): A lot of critics thought this was more, and less, of the same from the filmmaking team, but its concentration, and discovery of the iconic Arta Dobroshi, make it my favorite Dardennes. First considered by me here. And again here.
Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola, 2006): A splendid cinematic intoxicant, and not stupid. Reviewed here.
Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, 2004): A lot of people still enjoy trashing this picture, and truth to tell, a lot of its imperfections are legitimate chum for the breed of moviegoer Hitchcock called “the Plausibles.” And for all that it still wrenches your gut when you actually watch it. Reviewed here.
Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002): A truly visionary work from a truly visionary director…who hasn’t made a feature since. What the hell is wrong with the world? Reviewed here.
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001): Ah, I’ll never forget David Lynch at Première’s party at Prego in Toronto, chomping on a Sicilian slice with Watts and Harring flanking him, and booming across the floor, “Thanks for the four-star review, Glenn! Great pizza!” From said review: “Roberto Rossellini once remarked of Chaplin’s A King in New York, ‘It is the film of a free man.’ Mulholland Drive is the film of a slave — a slave to his own, undying obsessions. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
Ne touchez pas
le hache (Jacques Rivette, 2007): I prefer the evocative French title to the plainer The Duchess of Langeaise. A wonder, first reviewed here.
Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo, 2008): For my money the Korean director’s funniest, most audacious work. Reviewed here.
Notre Musique (Jean-Luc Godard, pictured): War and provisional peace, enraged and enigmatic.
No Country For Old Men (The Coen Brothers, 2007): A lot of folks are already pissed that this was entirely snubbed by the Time Out New York panel. As in, didn’t get a single vote. I reserve comment on the matter. I have written about the film here and here.
Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki, 2009): Simplicity and wonder. Considered here.
Red Cliff Parts 1 & 2 (John Woo, 2008): Epic moviemaking like you thought they didn’t/couldn’t do anymore. Considered here.
Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel, 2005): You say you wanna revolution…Garrel’s uncanny evocation of May ’68 melds the political with the personal until the political becomes…something else.
The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001): Anderson really let fly with his baroque side here, to dazzling and heartbreaking result.
Russian Ark (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2002): This one-take wonder is more than an amazing technical achievement, and more than an arty promo for The Hermitage. It’s a restless treatise on art and intimations of immortality.
A Serious Man (The Coen Brothers, 2009): Reviewed here. Sorry about the critic-baiting therein, but what am I gonna do, pretend it never happened?
Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004): You don’t have to be an alcoholic to love this picture…but it helps! But seriously. I compared it to Renoir when it first came out and I stand by that.
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001): One of the master’s most complex, enigmatic, and haunting works.
Star Spangled To Death (Ken Jacobs, 1957–2004): Jacobs’ epic assembly, a jitter-and-laughter inducing anti-ode to the notion of American exceptionalism. Just because you’re paranoid, etc. etc…
Still Life (Jia Zhangke, 2008): The most visually spectacular and mesmerizing work from the Chinese maverick yet.
The Story of Marie and Julian (Jacques Rivette, 2003): In a weird way, I feel as if I am somehow always writing about this film. See here. I consider it in an upcoming Salon mini-feature also.
Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas, 2008): Never trust a film critic who tells you he or she doesn’t care for pictures about “rich” people.
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2005): Weirder and less on-the-nose than Oldboy. I didn’t review, but I got into this online fracas about it, one of the most memorable in the genre.
Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2008): Beautiful, droll, difficult to summarize, one of the most specifically poetic films ever made.
Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008): I liked it so much, I was a DVD extra on it! More thoughts here.
Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002): A peak moment, a summation and an expansion of everything the filmmaker has stood for.
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007): Damn. Further thoughts here and here. And here. This sure was a fun film to argue about.
Three Times (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2005): A remarkably delicate, ages-spanning anthology film. Every shot a beauty.
Tokyo Sonata (Kiroshi Kurosawa, 2008):A beautifully calibrated vision of dread. Reviewed here.
Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis, 2001): A sui generis splatter/art film. Harrowing, merciless, strangely tender.
25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002, pictured): A beautiful sprawl.
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, 2009): Reviewed here.
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009): Funny; I’m still kind of on the fence about the content of this picture, but I’m so impressed by its formal excellence in every respect that it dogs me, and strikes me as a genuinely major work.
The World (Jia Zhangke, 2004): Life as a theme park. Not as funny as it sounds. But wonderful
Yi yi (Edward Yang, 2000): The Taiwanese pioneer’s last film, alas, a snappy, beautifully detailed family saga, each scene as vivid and true as the last or the next.
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007): Head-spinningly masterful, a redefinition of the policier, an obsessive film worth obsessing over. See here.
And there you have it. You?
A really nice list Glenn, though I feel I must give shout out to the delightful The Band’s Visit, the epic The Best of Youth and the poetic Werckmeister Harmonies, all on my personal top 10 for the Decade.
Not to discount the eternal struggles of filmmakers to get quality on the screen, but I think your list (and other decade lists out there) prove that we DO live in an exciting time to be a lover of cinema, contrary to what many say.
A truly impressive list of truly impressive films. Some of the films others have maligned I’ll second you on– The Aviator and Gangs of New York are both terrific in my estimation, as is Marie Antoinette, while Inglourious Basterds is really the best film I’ve seen in a long long time– and some left me cold but I’m going to give a second look on the strength of your endorsement– A.I., The Fountain, The 25th Hour, Sideways.
Of those not on your list, my own would include Brad Bird’s Ratatouille (of course), Spielberg’s Munich (a return to form, I think, after too many sappy films), Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited and Life Aquatic (sadder, funnier, and more accomplished films, I think, than Royal Tennenbaums), Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (because that’s just the kind of fanboy I am) and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (humour, sentiment, characterization, style, drama: classic Spider-Man for modern times), Andrew Bujalski’s Mutual Appreciation (it’s a film that rewards multiple viewings), Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending (well, *I* think it’s funny and sharp, and its longuers really let you soak in the characters)…
…and Tom and Mary Russell’s Son of a Seahorse. Yes, Tom and Mary Russell’s Son of a Seahorse– what of it? 🙂
You had me up until LOONEY TUNES BACK IN ACTION. I mean… seriously?
Yeah, seriously. You’d prefer maybe “The 40-Year-Old Virgin?” I note also that Manny Farber saw fit to include a Charlie Dog Looney Tune in his roundup of the best films of 1951.
One of the reasons one does these lists is to be reminded of the great stuff he’s left out. “Munich,” “Werckmeister,” heck yeah. “The Band’s Visit” is indeed estimable. More, more…
I also owe AI another viewing. And, Glenn, I have to confess, I half-hoped to see Speed Racer on your list.
Don’t you just hate it when you think of something else five minutes after posting a comment?
– David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees. Mercilessly funny, with wit and invention to spare.
– Josh Bernhard’s The Lionshare. A slender and rewarding gem of a 65-minute independent film, available for free online. In my review, I compared it to Forman’s The Fireman’s Ball, and I was not being facetious or cheeky.
– Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises. I really like that bathhouse fight scene especially. I’ve seen it enough times, what with Mrs. Russell rewatching it on an endless loop for hours on end.
– Jeunet’s Amelie. An effortlessly entertaining bauble, and proof that baubles are worth making.
– P.T. Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love. A great romantic comedy that says even screwed-up people can find someone. See also: Secretary, Birthday Girl.
– Yes, Birthday Girl. Actually a really great film.
– Into Great Silence. Probably my favourite film of all, now that I think about it; it is an experience wholly unlike any other. My only regret is that I saw it on DVD and not projected. If you have a chance to see it in either form, then do so without hesitation.
(And I do want to stress that my list is just the films I didn’t see on Glenn’s; I don’t see the need to simply parrot a huge chunk of his list, and this also allows me to paper over all the foreign language films I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet.)
Okay, so, I’ve seen…some of these. I love that BURN AFTER READING is on there. The people who hate that film baffle me. Never crumble, Glenn!
I haven’t seen SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY – well, I watched some of it, but my attention span was failing me, I’d had it too long, so I mailed it back to Netflix – but I did see TROPICAL MALADY, and I’m a bit surprised to see it left off your list. I thought it was stunning, and talk about specifically poetic. The last half hour (or so) is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. Part of me feels like any attempt on my part to talk up the genre roots, or turn-towards-genre, of that last bit would be to horrible reduce what Weerasethakul pulls off there, but even so: the genre hound in me loved the pure otherworldly horror (yeah, you heard me!) poetry of that film.
Regarding MILLION DOLLAR BABY – Look, you know I love Clint, and I’ll back you up on GRAN TORINO any day of the week (CHANGELING, too), but at some point complaining about the “the Plausibles” only goes so far. At a cerain point, some films do cross a line beyond which, plot-wise, you can’t buy what they’re selling, and I don’t think that those who take issue with MILLION DOLLAR BABY, moving as it is (and it is), are off-base. The film crumbles as a story, much as I wish it didn’t.
For the record, I’m with you on NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, ZODIAC, THE DARJEELING LIMITED, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (and I would add THE LIFE AQUATIC), A SERIOUS MAN, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (the best of the lot, quite possibly…I don’t know), SIDEWAYS, AI, GANGS OF NEW YORK, TROUBLE EVERY DAY (possibly – I don’t know the film as well as you do), GRIZZLY MAN, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, and THE INCREDIBLES.
I would add GOSFORD PARK (your hatred for that movie truly baffles me) and A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, PUNCH DRUNK LOVE, KILL BILL, MUNICH, WAR OF THE WORLDS (for the parts that work, anyway – which for me is most of it), SPIDER (I think…need to watch it again), SPARTAN, A MIGHTY WIND, TEAM AMERICA, PAN’S LABYRINTH, THE WRESTLER, UNITED 93, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, MASTER AND COMMANDER, LORD OF THE RINGS (throw them all in, though I really mean the first one), DOGVILLE, THE MIST, GONE BABY GONE, BUG (maybe), BROKEN FLOWERS, maybe GOMORRAH, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, maybe THE DESCENT…
Clearly, my grasp of contemporary foreign cinema is not at all what it should be. I’m working my way back to front in that regard, though I do own a copy of the Dardennes’ THE CHILD, which I plan on watching over the holiday. So that’s one…
And ELEPHANT.
Oh, and Shyamalan’s Signs, and Whoever-That-Guy-Is’s Freddy vs. Jason, and Leigh’s Vera Drake, and Altman’s The Company.
I *think* I’m done for a while.
Hell yes “Looney Tunes: Back in Action.” I’ll stand in front of a packed, hostile house defending that film frame-for-frame until Doomsday takes us. Glad you love it too, Glenn. I’d forgotten you did.
Thanks for the compelling list, Glenn. I commend your choice of alphabetical ranking over qualitative ranking – the numeric, for lists like this, always invites way more inane quibbling than even cinema obsessives should indulge in. Also, some very nice encapsulations – I think your description of Syndromes and Century (also one of my faves) is the pithiest and most precise that I’ve seen. More than anything, though, the list is further encouragement/insistence to see some of the films and directors that I’ve been putting off, like Garrel.
Now that we’ve passed the salad course, on to the beef: I don’t get, won’t get, your (and the legion of others) preference for recent Eastwood. As far as I care, he should have hung it up after Unforgiven, an indisputable masterpiece that he will never come close to matching, no matter how many heartstrings he yanks from now till he turns 135.
Somehow I missed out on the TWBB debates, which film will go down in my book as Most Frustrating of the Decade. As a true-blue Anderson fan, I was sorely disappointed, and damn it, and I will still rip off that scab and go toe to toe with anyone who thinks it’s great! Please – take off the blinders and wake up to the fact that Punch Drunk Love beats it by a country mile.
And, finally – no Assassination of JJ by etc, etc.??? Are you taking Crazy Pills? I half-jest, though – I know this one is still controversial, which is just how I like it – which doesn’t change the fact that it’s the best American film of the decade, hands down, go home, over and out.
Oh, and to end on a high note: incisive, again, and right as rain, for comparing Sideways to Renoir.
Thanks for this list – some great rental ideas.
I’m going to agree with Robert about “Werckmeister Harmonies” – the first (and still the only) Bela Tarr I’ve seen. Not like any other movie I know of – no doubt a function of the limits of my viewing experience, but no movie made in this decade affected me so profoundly as “Werckmeister.” I have yet to take the plunge on “Satantango.” I have the impression you are a Tarr man, Glenn. Was the omission of “Werckmeister” an oversight or deliberate? If the latter, I would be highly interested to read whatever reservations you have about the film, should you ever have occasion to address the subject.
I loved “A Christmas Tale,” and loved “Kings and Queen” as well – another interesting omission on your list.
If I was compiling a list like this, I’d probably try to find room for Rivette’s “Va Savior” and Rohmer’s wry “Triple Agent.” And Haneke’s “Cache” as well.
I’m encouraged by your inclusion of “Invictus” – I was thinking the trailer was maybe not so hot, so your hint is really welcome.
Oh, Pan’s Labyrinth and Dogville! Thanks, Bill! I’d also back you up on Gosford Park. (Also: Dancer in the Dark. That and Dogville are the only two Von Trier I can stand.)
I also tried to get through Syndromes and found that I could not, despite my best efforts. And since it was so heartedly recommended by some of my twitter posse, I was extremely disheartened. Another film that I might give a second chance due to your esteem, Glenn.
“Spider”!!!! Yes!!!! “Assassination of JJ”!!!! Yes!!!!
I may have to post an addendum.
A few that would make my top 70 that haven’t been mentioned: BRICK, WAKING LIFE, and ANCHORMAN (which comes as close to capturing the anarchic Marx Brothers spirit as any movie of the last 30 years).
Oh, and THE NEW WORLD. Hello.
Also – as good as THREE TIMES is, FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON is better.
Seconding Bill on Master and Commander. Also: Cinderella Man. Oh, and don’t forget Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers (Letters From Iwo Jima left me pretty darn cold). And… jeez, once you get going on this, it’s really hard to stop, and so I better. It is, indeed, a great time to be a cinephile.
Tom, I can’t stand DANCER IN THE DARK. I liked ANTICHRIST, though! But yes, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, too…
I’m removing that “maybe” from in front of GOMORRAH. I don’t know what that was doing there to begin with. It’s a great film.
Oh, and Bamboozled. Masterpiece.
And I see how my juxtaposition of “back you up on Gosford Park” and “(Also: Dancer in the Dark)” left something to be desired. I should have tied my Dancer remark to the Dogville part of the sentence instead of waiting until after Gosford. My apologies for any confusion.
Thank you thank you thank you for recognizing Yi Yi, which is easily my top film of the new century. It’s too bad more of Yang’s work isn’t available on DVD.
@ Daniel: Yi Yi is a great movie. Rumor has it that Criterion is bringing out A Brighter Summer Day – possibly in 2010.
This is it for now:
BLACK HAWK DOWN
24 PARTY PEOPLE (except that goddamn “Che Geuvara” line really sticks in my craw, but that’s me)
TRISTRAM SHANDY (not sure about the ending, but getting there was great)
SWEENEY TODD
THE PRESTIGE (probably the blackest, most unnerving, and most deeply intriguing big summer movie of the whole decade)
DOWNFALL
UNBREAKABLE
I’m also tempted to add BIRTH, but I REALLY need to see that one again.
Love the list, Glenn. I’m with you on a ton of these, most notably (and recently) “The GoodTimesKid”. Holy shit. What a film. I watched it based on your recommendation way back, so thanks! Huge call on “Goodbye, Dragon Inn”, too.
But seriously, I can’t believe you left all those classic Swanberg movies off the list.…(obvs JK, though I might legitimately consider “Mutual Appreciation”…).
Other thoughts:
‑No love for Reichardt? “Old Joy” and “Wendy & Lucy” were damn good, no?
-“Elephant” was mentioned above, but I think GVS might deserve something in there, specifically “Paranoid Park” if only for the Chris Doyle shit going on.
‑What about “24 Hour Party People”? Or is it too much Brits/not enough Pere Ubu for you?
‑Any love for the recent Romanians? I found “Death of Mr. Lazerescu” and “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days” particularly good.
-“Werkmeister Harmonies” broke my heart, and that’s not just b/c Tarr broke down crying before the screening I went to in Chicago. Unbelievable.
There’s probably a million others. But yeah, great work. Look forward to seeing the many I’ve yet to see.
Neil Burger’s The Illusionist, a truly great and romantic film, exploding with beauty and mystery. I especially love Paul Giamatti’s look at the film’s conclusion; compare with the similar scene in The Usual Suspects and you can see how much more fun it is to be joyful than cynical.
Wow – it’s surprising to realize how many great films were released this century. Right now I’m just besotted by the titles so many of you mention, I’ll wait to add some of my own when the fever’s down. Then again…
* George Washington, anyone? It is largely an over-staurated digi-remake of Killer of Sheep, but still felt mighty distinctive at the time it came out.
* Two of which made it onto the TONY list, but no love for nothing outta Romania, consistently (for three or so years there, I guess…) releasing some of the best cinema in the world with Four Months &c., Death of Mr. L., 12:08 East of Bucharest? Nyet, nyet, y nyet, Glennya?
* Y Tu Mama Tambien – its late-capitalist (hi, Bill!) focused narration transcends the ready potential for the film degenerating into the arthouse Losin’ It in Mexico condition it could easily have teetered into. It’s stayed with me these many years and not exclusively for the torch I will carry eternally for Maribel Verdú.
* 2046 – I saw In the Mood for Love just prior to getting a root canal and agonizingly pain is not the condition under which I’d recommend seeing any Wong Kar Wai film. That said, I far prefer this stranger, more oblique, more melancholy sorta-sequel, and not exclusively for the torch I will carry eternally for Zhang Ziyi. Or Li Gong. Or Cheung Maggie.
* Half-Nelson – was just thinking about this film yesterday. Rack it up as a two-fer with The Believer (the most Sam Fuller-esque film made since the mighty Amerindie auteur’s death) as a reminder of the hopes we had/may still have for the considerable promise of Ryan Gosling as an actor, delivered on at least twice in these uncomfortably memorable films.
* Frozen River – maybe the least of my list, and the most conventional, but brilliantly performed (see above in re: non-exclusive in re: torch in re: Melissa Leo) and ever-so timely in its socio-economic agon during Depression 2.0.
Lastly, Mystic River – overrated performances (esp. Tim and Sean and not at all including the absurdly underrated Kevin Bacon) but whose indelibly dark-toned narrative and cinematographic palette lingers long in the memory. In this wise, let me note how much I actually dig late Eastwood as well, and here a good bit more than Unforgiven, easily Clint’s most overrated film, and whose status as a masterpiece I will happily dispute, Zach. Or not… :}
Werckmeister or no Werckmeister, a fine list. Seen exactly 40 of the 70. I would’ve probably gone with Oldboy over Lady Vengeance, but that might just be because the former has the distinction of rocking my adolescent world when my film-love was still in a larval stage rather than because it’s actually a better movie. I think Kings and Queen, 2046, INLAND EMPIRE, and Kill Bill are about as great as A Christmas Tale, In The Mood For Love, Mulholland Drive, and Inglourious Basterds. Agreed w/Tom re: Mutual Appreciation. And I don’t know if it qualifies as it hasn’t gotten a US release yet, but I know that Love Exposure is going on my eventual list. I’m only being slightly hyperbolic when I say that it might be the real-world equivalent of the lethally entertaining movie from Infinite Jest.
No Memento? Actually, no Christopher Nolan of any kind? Not sure how I feel about that…
I do not like HALF NELSON at all…hi, James!
Also, Chabrol’s FLOWER OF EVIL. I feel like, at this point, I’m just mentioning every film from the last decade that I liked, but if I were to construct my own, well-considered list, other films I’ve listed here would be cut before FLOWER OF EVIL.
The two films that I would put high up for the decade that haven’t been mentioned yet: “OldBoy” and “Children of Men”. If I had a list that went to 70, I’m pretty sure I would include every Park Chan-Wook film this decade except for “I’m A Cyborg”.
Glenn, the problem with A.I.‘s coda isn’t that it’s a “happy” ending (it’s happy only for David, albeit in a very twisted way), but in how Spielberg chooses to portray it. You basically have a robot sit down on his bed and blurt out a bunch of exposition, after we’ve already had the Blue Fairy do the same in the previous scene. If Kubrick actually had ended the film this way plot-wise, there’s no way he would have done it in such a ham-fisted way that drains the mystery and energy out of the film right before it ends.
Having said that, the film is amazing anyway, and certainly deserves inclusion on your list, and I’m glad you also included Scorsese’s messy, reach-for-the-sun masterpieces from this decade as well.
And of course, The Story of Marie and Julien can never get too much praise.
Of the ones I’ve seen, I can’t agree enough with “The Fountain” and “Looney Tunes” (in fact I 90% agree with you on the ones I’ve seen, and I’m glad to hear “Invictus” is good), but this is the Internet, and dissent drives traffic. So let’s argue about two of your selections.
“I Heart Huckabees”: Not that it’s a bad picture, but the message of the movie is deeply crippled by Russell’s failure to develop Jude Law and Naomi Watts into anything other than strawmen. Russell wants to say something profound and instead he says something you can hear in any dorm room in America on a Saturday night, and he’s annoyingly fucking smug about it while doing it. The only thing that saves it is that occasionally there are some truly inspired comedic bits.
“Zodiac”: I’ve aired my opinion of this elsewhere, but I may as well just state that I got nothing out of this movie. It was a technically accomplished, utterly handsome A&E reenactment; I felt no insight, and most damningly no curiosity. Any feeling and emotion comes from the actors, and you can Robert Downey Jr. flipping Fincher the bird and doing his own thing (and God bless).
What would I propose for replacements? Well, far be it from me not to give anybody who disagrees with me plenty of ammo to work with:
Ang Lee’s “Hulk” and “Anti-Christ”, the latter if for no other reason than Lars Von Trier failed right into making the kind of dramatic horror film I’ve been wanting to see for years.
@ James Keepnews – A second on Y TU MAMA, and we might as well throw in CHILDREN OF MEN, as long as Cauron is getting some love.
As far as an Unforgiven debate – the ball’s in your court. What’s wrong with it? I’ve never doubted Eastwood’s technical mastery – the man knows how to tell a story, but his films usually rise or fall on the strength of his collaborators, and there aren’t many better living screenwriters than David Webb Peoples – and Unforgiven has to be one of the best American screenplays of the past half-century, never mind the nineties. It would be overstating the case to say that with that script and those actors (Eastwood included) a monkey could have directed it, but, well, I’d give the monkey a shot.
Dan – How can you say there’s no curiosity in ZODIAC? The film’s practically brimming with it, to the point that curiosity becomes obsession. I’d try to make my argument stronger if I had any idea where you were coming from.
However…I’m actually with you on Lee’s HULK. The only reason I didn’t mention it myself is because I experienced a moment of cowardice.
Ooo, Zach, many balls now tossed into my court! I haven’t seen Unforgiven since I talked myself into not walking out of the theater now almost two decades ago, but my memory of the screenplay is, to put it extremely mildly, far less convinced of its half-century-towering status. About the most I can say is the mess that the will to violent vengenance wreaks in the lives of the characters is a notable break with Hollywood tradition – and thus Clint’s oeuvre – but what of it when it’s otherwise surrounded by cliches everywhere else? Overlong set-pieces, unconvincing characters/comeuppances portrayed by Jaimz Whomever and Richard Harris, and I also found the ending (spoiler alert!) intimating Munny’s success post-climax to be anticlimactic at best and emerging from nothing more than your sainted Mr. Peoples’ (not many better living screenwriters? Ummmm, Richard Price? Robert Towne? Rudolph Wurlitzer? Tarr/Krasnahorkai? Do you, pace The Roots, want more?) will to forced irony?
You’ve certainly explained your opinion where Mr. Peoples, monkeys, and some aspects of the last half-century or so are concerned – now flip your first question around and tell me what’s right with Unforgiven?
& quickly: Yay Werckmeister, Yi Yi, Éloge, Eternal Sunshine, Synecdoche (“Die”!!!!), the obscenely underappreciated Limits of Control, Tenenbaums (yay, moreover, Gene Hackman’s greatest/funniest late-period performance), Che, Demonlover, Children of Men, Zodiac, doubtless many others!
Great list – the only one missing that I really wanted to see here was MEMENTO, as devastating a depiction of the nature of memory as ETERNAL SUNSHINE. Please tell me you’re not one of those people who think the backwards-moving plot is just a gimmick. I don’t think I could handle that.
I’ve always found MEMENTO to be a textbook case of the law of diminishing returns. Which, not coincidentally, I think is true of all of Nolan’s movies to date.
I largely agree with your choices, GK! However, not unlike a few others, I prefer Punch-Drunk Love over There Will Be Blood and INLAND EMPIRE to Mulholland Dr.
I’d just add the strangely unloved When Strangers Appear and The Good Girl as a couple of my own faves.
Perhaps, maybe, potentially, In America.
Lee’s HULK was the first date me and the missus went on. I think it really would have been a good film without the stupid action sequences, which, to my mind, interrupted an actually compelling plot. And the Uber-Nolte finale is unforgivable.
I sheepishly see that a couple of the films I added that weren’t on your list were on your list after all, Glenn; please chalk that up to my bad memory, as I am, after all, an old man of 27.
Loving Jia and Claire Denis, I am with you, cheering, that far on this list. But along with the petitions above for MASTER & COMMANDER, NEW WORLD and at least four Romanian films I can think of, I want appreciation for ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES… and Martel’s THE HOLY GIRL– can’t think of a list constricted-enough for them not to be included. That’s not a bad decade you got there, buddy.
@bill
” How can you say there’s no curiosity in ZODIAC? ”
I meant on the part of Fincher. He shows us the events but he has no interest in telling us why he bothered showing us these events, at least to my mind. Mileage, obviously, varies. Fincher is a pretty cold director to begin with, but in this movie he practically becomes Arctic. It doesn’t help that his message about obsession is obvious and tiresome to me, but Fincher isn’t one in the Deep Thoughts department.
@Tom Russell
“Unforgiveable?” Are you kidding me? It’s an action sequence that has actual dramatic weight and meaning. It’s not just a plot climax: it’s a CHARACTER climax. That alone puts it in a class by itself. Part of the reason I love “Hulk” is that it’s not afraid to be both an action movie and an art movie.
Although it is extremely interesting, the cult that’s formed around this movie. It makes me wonder if a reappreciation of it will happen at some point. I hope so.
A great list. But am I really only the second person in this thread to question the exclusion of The New World?
I’m not kidding; I think the Nolte-turns-into-electric-storm-man-thing was kinda ridiculous. Granted, I haven’t seen the film since it came out, but my experience with it was– wow, this is really interesting, oh, here comes the Hulk to punch something. Oh, it’s interesting again, I want to find out what’s behind that door– oh, let’s turn into the Hulk for twenty more minutes.
I greatly appreciate the film’s ambition, but I don’t think it quite pulls it off.
You almost lost me with A.I., Looney Tunes and The Fountain…but then you cite Lady and the Duke (!), The Incredibles, and the only Wes Anderson flick I’ve been able to sit through without fidgeting, The Darjeeling Express. Nicely done.
Glenn,
So happy to see A CHRISTMAS TALE and WHITE RIBBON on your list. But I echo Zach’s incredulity earlier, no NEW WORLD?
Bill, great movies all (especially MASTER AND COMMANDER), but you lost me on GOMORRAH. Good, yes, but great? As I stated in my own review earlier this week, I’m not even sure it’s Criterion worthy.
@Dan – How exactly should Fincher have portrayed his own, personal curiosity, as opposed to the curiosity of his characters, which I think he gets across beautifully? At its core, ZODIAC is a procedural, which calls for a certain cold remove on the part of the filmmaker.
@Tony – Well I thought so. It’s possible I’m overstating things, but in general I’m a sucker for multi-narrative films, and GOMORRAH was an insidiously bleak and haunting crime film version of that, so I was pretty much in the bag for it before it even started.
Niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
@ James Keepnews: My advice is, see Unforgiven again. If you still think there’s a cliched scene (that doesn’t add layers of irony and revision) or character, then I don’t know what else to tell you. If you don’t care for Harris or “Whomever” (Woolvett) – and I’m not sure if you mean the acting or the characters or both – then you and I have very different ideas about what constitutes good acting and screenwriting. What UNFORGIVEN does right is fuse (with amazing facility) the story conventions of the Western revenge tale with the revisionist leanings of modern history. It’s about the soul-eating effect of violence, yes, but it’s also about the instability of narrative – the stories we tell about ourselves, whether personal or historical, and how contingent they are. Overall, it’s a hell of a good yarn, and one that engages expertly with issues of morality, politics and psychology.
Whereas, say, Mystic River is a solemnified B Movie about why child abuse is bad.
As far as screenwriters go: you’ll notice I didn’t say Peoples was the Best, only that he is one of the best – I agree that Towne certainly is up there, along (maybe) with Price, although Price’s best stuff, in my opinion, is on the Wire. As far as the other guys – well, I’ve seen one Bela Tarr, and it wasn’t the script that stood out. Wurlitzer – I’d have to see more. If he can match “I even thought I was dead myself – but it turned out I was only in Nebraska” then maybe we can talk about him.
Loved the list (it’s the short comments that make a list interesting, as opposed to just egotistical). I loved to chart the course of my cinephelia through it. Great, great, great variety, quality in all different shapes and sizes.
The Fountain?! A tribute to the colossal shininess of Yul Brynner’s space age head. Wow. I knew that Aronofsky was obsessed with wanting to pulverise the human body to the point of abstraction. Even ‘The Wrestler’ is fascinated with bodies. I do think that Soderbergh surpassed both Mann and Fincher as the best American film maker at work today.
How can you make this list when you haven’t seen PRECIOUS yet?!?!? (I am only 60% joking)
Actually, I’ve spent much of the decade catching up on all the great films of the previous nine decades. Still was I the only person who liked “A Very Long Engagement”? (Oh wait, there’s Charles Taylor.)
Long live “Russian Ark”.
Richard Price is a much (much much MUCH) better novelist than he is a screenwriter. He freely admits that he doesn’t even really care about writing screenplays. They’re a paycheck, for which he will do the best professional work he can, but he cares about his novels. And his novels are magnificent.
Zach: “Whereas, say, Mystic River is a solemnified B Movie about why child abuse is bad.”
Cute as punchlines go, but I’d suggest inaccurate as criticism. Since I’m leaving work now and can’t expand too far in this wise, let me suggest: the look on Laura Linney’s face on the parade sidelines at the end? That was coming from a solemnified B movie appreciation of child abuse? Or, as I might suggest, that there’s more at work in this drama than the single readily identifiable theme in this not-exactly‑B movie?
I’ll re-watch Unforgiven if you’ll re-view Mystic River. Regardless,
we likely have different opinions about great acting and unquestionably about great writing – e.g., I’m reasonably confident even Joe Ezsterhas (sp?) could come up with a more trenchant line than “I even thought I was dead myself – but it turned out I was only in Nebraska”. Wurlitzer, better? Repeatedly (and, candidly, not always) – I’d recommend his rarely discussed collab with Robert Frank, Candy Mountain, as a good place to hear mo’, + betta…
How is the ending of A.I. ham-fisted if nobody got the ending? I’m even thinking you didn’t get the ending, Lazarus…
Nice list. Thanks for enriching my Netflix queue in the process.
This list could use some cheer. So, two especially joyous films that match nicely: LINDA LINDA LINDA and HAPPY FEET.
And someone needs to mention the one-of-kind TROUBLE THE WATER.
Chavalier, it’s ham-fisted because you have two characters giving monologues of exposition at the end of the film. I thought I was pretty clear. I “got” it, though I can’t speak for all the morons who thought they were going to see something like E.T. At least when Kubrick does exposition-heavy scenes (like the pool table one between Pollack and Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut), he does something interesting with it.
Zach: “If he can match “I even thought I was dead myself – but it turned out I was only in Nebraska” then maybe we can talk about him.”
If I’m not grounded pretty soon, I’m going into orbit.
A personal favorite.
And Ang Lee did in the last ten years make a great film that brought together arthouse and action, far better, I think, than he did in HULK; that film, of course, was 2000’s CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, a sad, wondrous, strange, and beautiful deconstruction/reconstruction of wuxia.
And while we’re at it, Zhang’s HERO is a sumptuous collection of puzzle-boxes and legends.
Wonderfully interesting post, which again reminds me that I really did used to see newer movies pre-kids. Gotta get back into that. An inclusion that particularly warmed my heart: Yi-yi, which has the kind of deep, layered character development one associates with a good long novel.
A big 2nd by the by, to Zach and his applause for the alphabetical structure. And your short comments are delicious. My favorite line in this whole piece, which I intend to quote (with proper credit) the first chance I get: “Never trust a film critic who tells you he or she doesn’t care for pictures about ‘rich’ people.”
I prefer Wall*E, an unapologetically romantic, anti-utopian fantasia that Chaplin would have deeply appreciated, to The Incredibles, which I didn’t much like. That’s the only quibble I’m gonna make. I’m just going to update my Netflix, as soon as I have reliable Internet.
P.S. Zach is also right about Unforgiven. But Glenn is right about Million Dollar Baby. 😀
I like what everyone is offering so far. A few I would add to the conversation that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
Kill Bill
Redbelt
Le Fils
The Weatherman
Spartan
Traffic
Shotgun Stories
Minority Report
Solaris
Auto Focus
In Bruges
Undertow
I’m sure there are hundreds more…but those are a few off the top of my head.
Some others I haven’t seen mentioned too much here:
American Psycho
Ghost World (this is maybe my favorite film of the decade)
Lilya 4‑Ever
Shaun Of The Dead
The Prestige
The Lives of Others
Frownland
Let The Right One In
Adventureland
Shit…LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Of course.
Hi Glenn,
Actually first time commenter, but long time reader – and listing is too much fun to stay in the shadows. Your list is great, particularly because there’s so many films I haven’t seen. I’m participating in a large poll on the Top 100 of this decade, so I’ve collected and listed by Top 50, and for the sake of discussion, I’ll share it here – eventhough it can’t match yours in… distinctiveness.
1. LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY, THE
2. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
3. GEGEN DIE WAND (HEAD-ON)
4. LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN (LET THE RIGHT ONE IN)
5. YI YI
6. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
7. LEBEN DER ANDEREN, DAS (THE LIFE OF OTHERS)
8. MULHOLLAND DRIVE
9. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
10 SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON (DIVING BELL AND BUTTERFLY)
11. LILJA 4‑EVER
12. ADAPTATION.
13. VOZVRASHCHENIYE (THE RETURN)
14. WO HU CANG LONG (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON)
15. CACHÉ (HIDDEN)
16. PARANOID PARK
17. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
18. LOST IN TRANSLATION
19. ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, THE
20. FREIE WILLE, DER (THE FREE WILL)
21. REPRISE
22. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE
23. SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
24. 25TH HOUR
25. DARK KNIGHT, THE
26. KILL BILL VOL 1. OG 2.
27. RULES OF ATTRACTION, THE
28. OLDBOY
29. PIANISTE, LA (THE PIANO TEACHER)
30. HUNGER
31. FINDING NEMO
32. AMORES PERROS
33. REQUIEM FOR A DREAM
34. INLAND EMPIRE
35. AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE (THE EDGE OF HEAVEN)
36. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (…AND YOUR MOTHER TOO)
37. FABELEUX DESTIN D’AMELIE POULIN, LE (AMELIE)
38. FILS, LE (THE SON)
39. ZODIAC
40. MARIE ANTOINETTE
41. HOURS, THE
42. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
43. MOULIN ROUGE!
44. GRIZZLY MAN
45. CONTE DE NOËL, UN (A CHRISTMAS TALE)
46. BEFORE SUNSET
47. ETRE ET AVOIR (TO BE AND TO HAVE)
48. BOURNE ULTIMATUM
49. LYKKENS GRØDE (HARVESTING THE WASTELAND)
50. GLADIATOR
Yep, that’s it.
Great list Glenn. I loved your championing of A.I. in Première and it’s heartening to see you still feel the same way 8 years on. You’re bang on about the last 20 minutes, one of the bleakest in cinema. Time to dig out the DVD…
@Karsten: Vozvrashcheniye (The Return)- what an incredible piece of filmmaking, Lilja 4‑Ever too. Interesting list, thanks for sharing.
I only discovered this blog sometime in early 2009 and it remains the only film blog I revisit almost daily… and this list verifies why.
An interesting, varied list that includes many of the films that really struck me (Eternal Sunshine, No Country, Huckabees, Grizzly Man, etc) right away, films that I thought were unfairly criticized and ridiculed (AI, the Fountain, etc), things I disagree with (I remain largely alone amongst my filmfan friends in mostly hating David Lynch – and Mullholand Drive was the flick that sealed this opinion for me, altho I do like Straight Story) and things I either haven’t seen yet but want to or would never have thought to see in the first place.
In short, it’s thought provoking, challenging, and even more often than it might be occasionally snide or have the “predictable film snob” bent, includes some truly heartfelt picks and points.
Glenn, thanks for a great list and a great blog.
Great list. I especially like seeing SUMMER HOURS and MARIE AND JULIAN on there. SH is one of the few films I would absolutely compare to Renoir without reservation.
I second the love given to JESSIE JAMES, RATATOUILLE, GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE NEW WORLD, KINGS AND QUEEN, and LORD OF THE RINGS. My appreciation for LOTR may be partly colored by the fact that it came along and gave my fanboy heart a new trilogy to embrace just as Lucas was stoking my rage.
I’d also recommend Philipe Ramos’ CAPTAIN AHAB. It hasn’t been released in any reasonable way in the states but I was fortunate enough to catch it at a festival and it has stayed with me like few films I’ve seen of late.
@ Dan- there is a huge cult forming around Lee’s HULK. I’ve found it fascinating to watch even though I pretty much can’t stand the film. Short version: I think the panels gimmick totally fails to do anything interesting with comic book grammar and the story stupidly foregrounds all the subtext that works so well in good superhero comics when it’s allowed to remain sub. But then my top 70 list for the 00s would probably find slots for MIAMI VICE and DOG SOLDIERS. I will go down swinging on both of those but I’d also admit my opponent was largely correct as he was helping me up. Then I’d offer to buy the first round.
Finally, the print of TROPICAL MALADY that showed up at my local arthouse was sans subtitles. A theater full of people sat in respectful silence and listened to dialogue we couldn’t understand for twenty minutes, secure in the knowledge that all would be revealed in time, until a manager noticed the snafu. Reminiscent of the time I caught a print of HENRY FOOL that was framed just poorly enough in the projector to allow a boom mike into one scene. I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out what Hartley was “saying there”.
Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut is worth a mention too. I couldn’t stand the film in the cinema but absolutely adored the longer home video version. Weird.
Master and Commander might be the most ridiculously entertaining film I saw this decade. I really didn’t think they knew how to make ’em like that anymore.
Big thumbs up for AI too, for someone who seems to have had a happy childhood Spielberg never shies away from the dark and messy side of family life. But while I know the ending isn’t “happy” (everybody’s dead!) I still have trouble with it, as was said above I just think it’s badly handled, all that ridiculous exposition about cloning. But Spielberg seems to have trouble ending his movies these days (eg: War of The Worlds and Minority Report with their too-neat tying up of plot strings into pretty bows)
Keepnews – I’ll admit, my quip about MYSTIC RIVER was cheap – what can I say, I got carried away in the moment. Still, while deeper than my gloss, I still think it’s an inferior work to UNFORGIVEN. And the “Nebraska” line was, y’know, kind of a joke, although I think it stands as a great line than Joe “QUIT RIDIN’ ME, MAN!!!” Esterhas ( who cares about sp.) could only dream of writing.
I’ve heard many a good thing about Candy Mountain, and will be checking it out.
As far as Apichatpong goes – I actually prefer BLISSFULLY YOURS to TROPICAL MALADY, but think that both belong in the top 20 or so, right along with SYNDROMES.
Also for the mix: JUNEBUG – surprised this hasn’t come up yet; SEXY BEAST (does 2000 count?) and, for my out-of-left-field choice, Henry Bean’s (another excellent screenwriter, btw) NOISE.
I actually sort of agree with Soderbergh that “Che” is the first movie of his in a long time to feel like work-for-hire. It’s got plenty of lovely moments, but the film he described in interviews is still more interesting than the film that ended up on the screen.
But I also think that “Full Frontal” is hands-down absolutely the best American movie of the decade, so I may be clinically insane: http://thatfuzzybastard.blogspot.com/2008/12/full-frontal.html (the video essay at the top is probably more entertaining than the text that follows). Like I said in my best-of, it’s the movie that makes me feel like Martin Donavan in Surviving Desire: You don’t think it’s the best movie ever? Then watch it again, and again, until you do.
What’s surprising about these lists is that they don’t for most part include any shorts or experimental work. Sure, there will be a token mention of Ken Jacobs here and there, but nothing about Lewis Klahr or Peter Tscherkassky or any number of other important people.
Another pet peeve: Jia Zhang-ke appears to stand in for all of China.
I’m sure Mr. Kenny would gladly and openly admit his blindness in certain areas, and defer to those critics with a more vested interest in the avant-garde and national cinemas. But it still seems worth making the distinction that Glenn’s list, and the lists of other individuals and groups that are appearing on the web, are best *feature* film lists. One could go even further and say that this is a list of the best commercially released (in the U.S.) feature films. Even Pedro Costa (who’s getting a Criterion release) and Philippe Garrel (FRONTIER OF DAWN is handled by IFC) are no exception.
So it’s sad that commerce still reigns, and that these lists become a reflection of the market rather than of filmmaking and its larger sensory, political and cultural aspects.
I love Tscherkassky’s work, Gabe. But one problem with ranking/assessing experimental work such as his is that it’s kind of hard to see. The discussion over at Dave Kehr’s site at the moment, jumping off from his review of the new Kino “avant-garde” collection, touches on this concern. For all that, I think you’re right, and it might have been nice to make the distinction you mention explicit rather than tacit. I certainly do have my blind spots—what critic doesn’t?—but by the same token sometimes the chips will fall where they may. Jia Zhang-Ke’s works certainly isn’t the only Chinese cinema I’ve watched over the past ten years, but those films of his that made my list are the ones that made the biggest impression on me. Similarly, sort of, I honestly haven’t been crazy about anything Kiarostami has done since “The Wind Will Carry Us.” This sort of thing is part of why I termed the list “My Greatest” instead of “The Greatest,” although of course there’s a larger principle behind that decision too.
A very good list, Glenn, and I’m not just saying that because it includes LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION (won’t show up on my list – Jenna Elfman gets nothing to do, which is a bad idea – but a joy to watch, and one that erases all memory of the smarmy SPACE JAM. If only this had been marketed to adults rather than kids) and GOOD MORNING, NIGHT (overshadowed by other political films that year – SYRIANA and MUNICH, both of which I liked a lot – but just as good). Of course, I have some differences – I prefer MYSTIC RIVER to MILLION DOLLAR BABY, though I do like the latter, I’m afraid I simply didn’t find BURN AFTER READING funny enough, and I found DEMON LOVER and THE FOUNTAIN more self-indulgent than illuminating – but still a good list.
The most fun (and valuable) “best-of” lists to read are the most highly personal and idiosyncratic ones and yours, Glenn, definitely fits that bill. You caused me to add about a dozen more titles to my netflix queue!
I agree with quite a few of your choices (Three Times, Zodiac and In the Mood for Love are my own favorites of the decade) but here are my ten favorites that didn’t make your list:
1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
2. Failan (Song)
3. Moolade (Sembene)
4. Ten (Kiarostami)
5. Avalon (Oshii)
6. Time Out (Cantet)
7. Black Book (Verhoeven)
8. Mad Detective (To)
9. Letters from Iwo Jima (Eastwood)
10. JSA: Joint Security Area (Park)
A few of mine, and really nothing more than the top 2 films of each year for me personally:
Almost Famous, Requiem For a Dream, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Mulholland Drive, Gangs of New York, 25th Hour, Mystic River, All the Real Girls (the first real mumblecore movie), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Oldboy, Memories of Murder, The New World, The Aassassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, There Will Be Blood (god ’07 was a stellar year), Rachel Getting Married, Public Enemies.
I’m sort of surprised that my Top Ten had so many movies that weren’t on other people’s, actually. But in the spirit of the comments board:
‑Full Frontal (Soderbergh)
‑Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr)
‑Mulholland Drive (Lynch)
‑The Gleaners and I (Varda)
‑A Mighty Wind (Guest)
‑Up (Docter)
‑The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Jackson)
‑Y Tu Mama Tambien (Cuarón)
‑The Man Who Wasn’t There (Coen)
‑A Prarie Home Companion (Altman)
Honorable mentions: Spirited Away, Donne Darko, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Grizzly Man, My Winnipeg, Spider (much more uncompromising than A History of Violence), The Incredibles, Lost In Translation, Waking Life, The Hurt Locker
Of course, it’s easier to assess experimental work now as opposed to any other time in history thanks to DVDs and the internet. A savvy critic without the resource to travel to festivals has less and less of an excuse. My problem is with critics who keep shrugging off experimental films – and even straight narrative films that are culturally coming from a place that makes them difficult to understand – because they simply don’t like them, as if the pursuit of criticism was ever just about staying inside one’s safe zone, or that the pursuit of art appreciation was about fast, gut-level arguments like “it’s too abstract” or “it’s too conceptual”.
I’d just like to point out one other thing: it’s not only an experimental bias; it’s the entire short film world that gets demoted. (The Sight and Sound poll in ’02 is the most obvious example of this critical hegemony…)
I like the way MILLION DOLLAR BABY just sort of fades away; Eastwood’s character is destroyed by losing his “daughter” again, and there just ain’t gonna be any redemption for him. It’s a 1940s Warner melodrama–with all the associated plot implausibilities–with an unhappy ending. (I’m with Keepnews on THE UNFORGIVEN, I don’t get the classic status of it. I like it when Eastwood takes a less expansive approach: THE GAUNTLET or GRAN TORINO, for example, or LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA over FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS.)
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and 2046 are two of my faves, and very different experiences. IN THE MOOD zips along at 98 minutes, breaking your heart scene by short scene as the characters contain depths of emotion in the face of a smothering social fabric; 2046 drifts along at over 2 hours, as if the characters had all the time in the world (which they don’t) with the dreamy sci-fi sequences adding to this drift, before the devastating end. I’d make room for both.
I’d add DOGVILLE, ITALIENSK FOR BEGYNDERE, KILL BILL, LOST IN TRANSLATION, THE GLEANERS AND I, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE.
I’ll also put in a boost for A MIGHTY WIND. Aside from being funny as hell and having decent “fake” folk music, it builds to a peak of real emotion–and then pulls the rug out from under that feeling.
Add FANTASTIC MR. FOX to my list.
Thank you for the list Glenn and for starting this conversation. Shortening one’s DVD queue is the hardest thing in the world.
My decades-best list has maybe 15 films on it but I’ve seen only about half of yours. My additions: Before Night Falls, Bright Star, Brothers of the Head (for it’s best-ever capturing of rock ‘n roll ambience), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Ghost World, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, L’Enfant (my favorite Dardennes), The Lives of Others, The Piano Teacher, Secret Things, Shotgun Stories.
Sharply written, well acted, deftly executed, incredibly entertaining movies that weren’t quite art for some reason: An Education, Batman Begins, Casino Royale, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Devil Wears Prada, Duplicity, High Fidelity, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Ripley’s Game.
It was a good decade for: Anne Hathaway, Catherine Keener, Charlie Kaufman, Christian Bale, Cillian Murphy, documentaries, Julian Schnabel, Laura Linney, Matt Damon, Paul Giamatti, South Korea, Tilda Swinton, Tony Gilroy, William Hurt.
It was a bad decade for: Ben Affleck, Kari Wuhrer, Leslie Mann, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Will Smith, Larry Wachowski.
I hate to be the kind of internet poster that responds negatively to an article, but I’m afraid I have to be that kind of internet poster in response to this.
– The perceived value of a list of ten movies is much higher than a list of 50 or 70. 50 movies is boring. Add another 20 just for the sake of more content and it’s like forcing a ninety minute film to run 2 and a half hours.
– Anyone that includes Gran Torino on any kind of top of the year/decade list really hasn’t watched Gran Torino, or at least paid attention.
– It does’t behoove you to start out an article with “So, you don’t wanna talk about Spencer Tracy…” No. I do. I would much rather talk about Spencer Tracy than have to go through this list. Why tease us with a more interesting topic in the first sentence only to juxtapose it with a far less interesting one, a top 70s list of the decade that includes films like Gran Torino.
I’d like a refined list of the top ten films of the decade from you. Also, I’d like an article about Spencer Tracy from you. I also want you to rewatch Gran Torino.
“I’d like a refined list of the top ten films of the decade from you. Also, I’d like an article about Spencer Tracy from you. I also want you to rewatch Gran Torino.”
Which should he do first?
And can he have a couple weeks, or do you need it now?
We’re compiling a similiar list on our site. One contributor has already put up his list, but we’re also after everyones else opinions.
we have a poll if anyone wants to vote for there’s
or leave a comment. Any help you’d be appreciated
Are you making the other kids redo their lists, Mike, or just Glenn?
Mike, you know, you could read the Spencer Tracy article that’s just a couple posts down, if you wanted. I know it’s a few days old at this point, but maybe it’ll tide you over.
And anyone who talks about GRAN TORINO the way you’ve been doing needs to watch it again. Or is just a plain ol’ jackass.
Maybe Mike got bent out of shape because his scroll key wasn’t working.
But I’m sure Glenn is now convinced to start tailoring the content of his blog to Mike’s standards.
Not having seen Invictus, I can’t comment on that, but if it’s anything like Million Dollar Baby or Gran Torino, easily two of the worst films of this or any decade, this should’ve been an Eastwood-free list. I have no idea what the plausibility concerns are with MDB; my problem with the film is that it’s a heaping pile of grossly manipulative, poorly told dreck. Sam Mendes in Revolutionary Road, or even Todd Field in Little Children, masterpieces of asinine contemptuous caricature, have nothing on the scene where Ms. Swank’s family just had to stop by Disney World before dropping by to rustle up some money from their paraplegic daughter. And the whole movie’s like that (see the Cowardly Boxer who could’ve been great but hangs out in Clint’s gym and picks on retarded people), when it’s not busy offering up insipid homilies to the virtues of lemon meringue pie, or trite little scenes about the big holes in Morgan Freeman’s socks, or sucking the life out of your brain with aforementioned’s ridiculous narration. On top of that, there’s never been a worse-paced movie made. Nearly an hour of Swank begging Eastwood to coach her (sort of reminiscent of how Jolie spends two thirds of Changeling repeating the line, ‘where is my boy’), followed by a 20-minute meteoric rise to the top of female boxing – I can understand scrimping on the boxing scenes, but what about the agents, the fame, the money, or a relationship or friendship or acquaintance with anyone but Eastwood – followed by over an hour of hospitalization that drags and drags and drags. As for Gran Torino, I forget the name of the critic who said that the thing was an unholy fusion of the grumpy gramps from Dennis The Menace and Paul Haggis’s Crash, but he was on the money. If you had screened clips from the first half hour for me and told me they were an SNL parody Eastwood had done of his own terrible acting and directing, I would’ve believed you. The laughable simplemindedness and miserable craftsmanship of the whole thing (and of all Eastwood movies in the past 10 or so years) is perhaps best summed up in this bit of dialogue between Walt and his granddaughter:
Ashley: I never knew you had a cool old
car.
Walt: It’s only been in here since
before you were born.
Ashley: So, what are you like going to do
with it like, when… you die?
Walt: Jesus, Joseph and Mary.
Ashley: Then what about that super cool
retro couch in the den, I’m going
to State next year and I don’t
have, like, any furniture?
No kid in America is that boorish (to her own grandfather on the day of his wife’s, and her grandmother’s, funeral, no less), or talks like that.
“Sam Mendes in Revolutionary Road, or even Todd Field in Little Children, masterpieces of asinine contemptuous caricature, have nothing on the scene where Ms. Swank’s family just had to stop by Disney World before dropping by to rustle up some money from their paraplegic daughter.”
Dude, there are people like that.
Hell, there are people IN MY FAMILY like that.
my god, it’s full of…movies.
One film maker from this decade who I don’t believe has been mentioned either by Glenn or anyone else is Bong Joon-ho, whose “Memories of Murder” and “The Host” can slot themselves comfortably into my top 70 flicks of the new century.
Continuing NickonSunset’s “it was a good decade for” theme, Johnnie To continues to crank out an impressive product. While it can be argued that he hasn’t quite produced an out and out masterpiece (though I’ll go to bat for “Exiled”, which would make my top 70), he does, every other year or so, direct a damn fine film.
Along with To, it was a good decade for French Horror. Along with Glenn’s astute choice of “Trouble Every Day”, those cheese eating surrender monkeys gave us “In My Skin” and “Inside” (top 70) along with a gaggle of deeply flawed but fascinating films, at least for horror buffs (“Martyrs”, “High Tension”, “Them”).
What a marvelous list, Glenn. Sure, I’d add my voice to the chorus on behalf of “Werckmeister Harmonies,” but the rollcall is quite estimable even without it.
I’ve given “Goodbye, Dragon Inn” two spins (one on screen at TIFF, a second time on video) and I just find it so.…slight compared to other Tsai. But this line of argument quickly devolves into a religious debate, one I’ve had with many folks since its release. (FWIW, my favorite Tsai overall is “The River,” and my favorite Tsai of the 00s would probably by “The Wayward Cloud,” although I have “Face” right here on my desk and haven’t yet found the time.)
maximilian: Good call on Bong Joon-ho. MEMORIES OF MURDER is in my top ten for the decade, yet I somehow inexplicably left THE HOST off the top 100 list I made for another forum. Looking forward to MOTHER.
Un Prophete
Top of the list for me is the absolutely breathtaking UNITED 93.
I totally agree with the poster who mentioned ANCHORMAN (didn’t take note of your name, sorry). For me it goes hand in hand with another gem, ZOOLANDER.
Thought the first twenty minutes of The New World was the best first twenty minutes of any film ever made with the exception of 2001 A Space Odyssey.The rest of the film is problematic. But it does deserve mention.
‘Silent Light’ by Carlos Reygadas?
Good to see some love for REGULAR LOVERS… But Glenn, let me get this straight, you prefer MARIE ANTOINETTE to LOST IN TRANSLATION?
“But Glenn, let me get this straight, you prefer MARIE ANTOINETTE to LOST IN TRANSLATION?”
I can’t speak for our host, of course, but I myself prefer MARIE ANTOINETTE to LOST IN TRANSLATION; the former has more verve, humour, style, and just plain personality. It’s an audacious, if not entirely successful, piece of filmmaking, anchored by strong and idiosyncratic performances. Bill Murray is fine in TRANSLATION, sure, but Scarlett Johannson’s vacantness– even if said vacantness is kinda the point– grates on me to no end.
Surprised not to see “Spider” on this list, since, if I’m not mistaken, it was your #1 film of whatever year it came out back when I still got Première magazine.
@ Scott. An unforgivable omission. I address it here:
http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2009/12/because-100-is-a-nice-round-number.html