As chosen by Lars Bastholm and Adam Wohl, January 5, 2010.
LARS:
The Naughties were a great decade for film. That made it exceedingly difficult to narrow it down to just 10 films. In the end, I went with the method of browsing my DVD shelf. There I picked films that I’ll watch over and over again. They are films that stand the test of time, which is why most of them are from the beginning of the decade. It doesn’t get more subjective than this. These are not necessarily the artiest or “best” films made in the last 10 years, but they are all films I love unconditionally.
Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) I defy anyone not to fall in love with Amelie, both the film and the character. If someone ever needs to mount a Supreme Court case in defense of the word “quirky”, this film will be Exhibit A. Neither Jeunet nor Audrey Tautou has ever been better.
The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004) Pixar had an unprecedented run of awesomeness this decade and picking just one Pixar movie for this list is a little like having to nominate one of your kids to be your favorite. But for me Brad Bird’s hilarious take on a dysfunctional family of super heroes narrowly beats out Wall-E and Up. Very narrowly.
Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003) Yes, yes, I know it’s 3 movies, but for the full experience, you really need to watch them back-to-back. Then Jackson’s spectacular accomplishment in turning the unfilmable books into great entertainment becomes clearer than ever. Guillermo del Toro has his work cut out for him on The Hobbit.
Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002) Anyone who has ever tried to create anything of substance knows how heartbreaking the process can be. Charlie Kaufman’s script and Jonze’s direction capture the agony and the humor of trying to accomplish the impossible. This one just edged out Where the Wild Things Are from this list. We’ll see how WTWTA stand up over time.
Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001) People tend to either adore or hate this one. To me it’s like an absinthe-fuelled fantasia of a time and place that never existed. It’s an epileptic music purists worst nightmare, but the big finger Luhrmann extends to everything and everyone is what makes this flick so much fun. Here we are, now entertain us.
Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino, 2003-2004) This isn’t so much a film (well, two films, strictly speaking) as it’s a series of screen dumps from the world of entertainment filtered through Quentin Tarantino’s brain. It is film as candy-colored cupcakes. Not necessarily good for you or the world at large, but, oh, so enjoyable, with endlessly quotable lines and Uma Thurman’s best performance ever.
Amores Perros/Love is a Bitch (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000) Not only is he the filmmaker with the hardest name to spell, Iñárritu also delivered a Mexican take on Altman’s Short Cuts, only better, with Amores Perros. Its three intersecting stories are gritty, dirty, depressing, hopeful and all about what we will do in the name of love. Alongside Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, Iñárritu put Mexico on the map as a filmmaking country to be reckoned with in the Naughties.
Harry Potter 1-6 (Various, 2001-2009) OK, I admit it; this is a total cheat to list as one film, but no other franchise has delivered more consistently enjoyable films throughout the decade. The five different helmers on the series have created a fantasy world for the ages (with a wee bit of help from J.K. Rowling) and the films have actually gotten better as the series progressed as opposed to any other franchise I can think of. I can’t wait for the final two installments and a full 8-film marathon to see Harry, Hermione and Ron grow up in front of my eyes.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2000) When the Coen brothers are at their funniest, they elevate great comedy to great art. For my money this is their best flick of the decade. Like a couple of too-clever-for-their-own-good high school kids, they decided to turn Homer’s Odyssey into a 1930s set comedy about 3 escaped convicts. Oddly, it worked. This movie turned me into a Dapper Dan man and makes me pine with nostalgia for the beginning of the decade, when I still had hair to speak of.
Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001) Everyone favorite weird uncle didn’t have a great decade overall, with his only other contribution being the nearly unwatchable Inland Empire. However, Mulholland Dr. manages to be both one of his most accessible and most convoluted movies, and it rewards repeat viewings like few other films. I’ve heard both insane, inane and whoa, dude interpretations of what’s actually going on in the film. Also it has hot lesbian sex scenes. Just saying.
ADAM:
Where the 90’s were dominated by a seemingly endless barrage of one-off disaster movies, the ‘00s were about tent-pole franchised series and comic book movies – films about heroes that could save us from disaster. Personally, I liked the 90’s offerings better, but there still were a lot of quality films to choose from in this past decade, which made picking ten very hard, and thus I had to add a few honorable mentions. Like Lars, I’m going with the best of the movies I found myself watching over and over. Some of them are just plain fun, some are just my cup of tea, and some have defined or redefined a genre in my opinion.
Like Lars, I did throw a movie series in, counting it as one, and let it be known that I’m a fan of all of his choices as well.
What pleases me more than anything is this: After agreeing on all the films we’ve attended together this winter and having discussed some of our favorite films of the past 50 years recently, I feared we’d never disagree on anything, which would be a bore for anyone who reads this blog. The fact that we have NO films overlapping on our lists is in my opinion a great thing, and should provide a little fodder for each of us as we examine each other’s favorites…
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007) I don’t know if any women saw this film. Wait, Clooney’s in it, so they must have. This is in essence a cooler, darker, guy’s guy version of Erin Brokovich. And for me it delivered on every level. The performances are stellar, the tension is ever-present and the pace perfect. Tony Gilroy had already proven he could tell a story with words (he wrote all of the movies in the Bourne Series). With this film he proved he could tell a story with the camera as well.
Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006) I feel like I’m writing a advertising case study…but let’s go with it…The problem: a nearly 40-year old beloved action hero had gone the way of the wet, stale potato chip; uninspired scripts, implausible action situations, over the top villains and horrible acting. The solution: Keep a director who understands the genre (Campbell, who directed Goldeneye); hire an actor who few know and who doesn’t fit the mold, but who people will be charmed by once they have the chance to see him in action; get a good script that’s a remake of a proven story, and blow the living shit out of every possible dissenter with a exhausting fifteen minute opening sequence. The success of this film was vital to the franchise, which was more than on life support – Bond was literally brought back from the dead. And you know, you only live twice.
The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) Marty has it rough. Everyone wants to work for him, so he gets the cream of the actor crop. He has a tremendous way with creating a setting, mood and characters who we invest in, even if they’re the heavies. This film was no exception, and gave Jack Nicholson a chance to act more like the degenerate he probably is in real life than any other, and allowed us to see three young talents in DiCaprio, Damon, and Wahlberg in some of their best work yet.
The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006) Don’t get me wrong – the outfits are great; Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and the incomparable Stanley Tucci turn in good performances, but this review could really just be ‘Meryl Streep’ written a hundred times. It’s arguably her least sophisticated film ever, and yet it may be her greatest performance. How do I justify that? Imagine if…Christine Baranski had landed the part of Miranda Priestly. Not that there’s anything wrong with Baranski. But imagine it. Despite what was good source material, this should have been a cute and forgettable movie; Streep turned it into one of the most profitable films of the year and an Oscar nomination for herself.
The 40 Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow, 2005) I’m sure I’ll get grief over this choice. But this film was the true launch of what has become it’s own genre – the “honest” broad comedy. Unlike the majority of the Adam Sandler Films or Will Ferrell films that are true ‘stupid’ broad comedies, Apatow chose to explore feasible problems (albeit sensitive, personal, crude ones no one wants to talk about, but most think about). Here he asked the question “What if this really happened?” while indirectly exploring the idea of present day sex and dating. It’s also the movie that launched acting careers – Carell was on The Office, but this film solidified him; Seth Rogen started his career on TV with Apatow, but this performance and his gain in popularity from it gave Apatow the confidence to give Seth a leading role in ‘Knocked Up’; Paul Rudd was better than ever, and it was the first time many of us saw Elizabeth Banks for the first time.
The Bourne Films (Doug Liman, 2002, Paul Greengrass 2004, 2007) Okay, this is my series, and it’s not all about the fisticuffs. A thinking man’s action movie, to quote Paul Rudd in ‘Virgin’: “I though Damon was a total Streisand, but, he’s really rockin’ the shit in this one!” And yes, Damon takes more abuse than a first person shooter game with unlimited lives, but I don’t care; he’s America’s answer to James Bond, and I’ll take him. This is all popcorn for me. Naturally, unlike Bond, Bourne is fighting the corrupt American system that begat him and is following the trail to find who pulls the strings. And whoever decided to cast Brian Cox and Joan Allen (who both starred in Michael Mann’s ‘Manhunter’ from 1987) in the Bourne Supremacy gets an additional clappy-clappy from me, as Mann’s masterpiece from yesteryear will always have a special place in my cine-heart.
Layer Cake (Matthew Vaughn, 2004) Finally, something small, a veritable indie movie, maybe even a movie that someone reading this might not have heard of. It gives me goose bumps. The idea that I might be able to introduce this movie to people gets me excited. This modern gangster tale from the UK follows a drug dealer with no name (played by Daniel Craig, who at the time was virtually unknown outside the UK, other than a small role in Road to Perdition) as he’s forced into a noir-like set-up reminiscent of a Raymond Chandler story. Great performances, a solid script, written by J.J. Connolly based on his novel and adept direction by Vaughn, who was a producer on ‘Snatch’ and ‘Lock, Stock and two Smoking Barrels.’
Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) Another smaller film, but one most have heard of and seen. And another noir-type story, this one using a device that could have easily failed and been a total disaster. But Christopher Nolan, who would later write and direct both Batman films, made it work, and it’s unlike any other film I’ve ever seen. A character (played brilliantly by Guy Pearce) with no memory beyond a few moments who must leave himself notes (sometimes on his own body) is at the center of a crime that even he may have committed. He slowly puts the pieces together at the same speed of the audience, through yet another device that works – the use of two stories told intermittently – one in color (the present) and one in black and white (the past, leading up to the present). The TV show Damages used the same strategy in their first season with success. They have this film to thank for the inspiration, I’m sure.
Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007) The first time I saw this movie, I liked it, but didn’t love it. Maybe I was too old or too deaf not to catch every nuance, every joke, every newly-fashioned word or phrase by Diablo Cody. But DVD and cable has changed that, and made me a lover of this film. It defines today’s younger generation and is a wake up call to the older ones too. I remember ten years ago thinking kids are starting algebra a few years earlier than I did; now teens are forced to grow up faster than ever, dealing with pressures and problems I never had to face at that age. And they may be handling these issues better than any of us grown ups can.
In Bruges (Martin McDonagh 2008) Those who follow my tweets know what a fan I am of this tale of gangsterism, morality and reluctant sightseeing. With a poignant, brutal yet darkly comedic script from McDonagh and great acting from Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Finnes and an unbelievable turn from Colin Farrell (who I normally do not care for) but who gives his best performance ever.
And my Honorable mentions:
Brick (2005)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2005)
Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
