Top Movies of the Decade

Trying to cram all the best movies of the past decade into a single top 10 list is a completely futile exercise. After all, we're talking about a decade that comprised the entirety of my high school and college years, when I first began seriously watching movies. If I'm being honest with myself, most of my favorite movies come from the '00s (just click my info for proof). But being the crazed list-maniac that I am, I couldn't help but try anyway after reading so many others. Plus, what else am I supposed to do on a bus ride home for the holidays?

Now, it would seem the easiest way to do this would be to look back on my #1s from the past 10 years. But I quickly realized that some years are just stronger than others. If you're curious, here's what I picked at the time:

2000: Almost Famous

2001: Memento

2002: Punch-Drunk Love

2003: Lost in Translation

2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2005: Munich

2006: Children of Men

2007: There Will Be Blood

2008: The Dark Knight

2009: Still deciding between The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air

Anyway, it was clear I had to go a little deeper. But since I'm too indecisive to stick to 10, I cheated and slipped in 5 more.

15. The Departed

How often do you find a remake of a foreign film that so perfectly Americanizes it that both still stand as independently great movies? More importantly, The Departed was a return to the kind of hugely entertaining crime movies that made Scorsese a name, and deservingly won best picture in one of the '00s strongest years (2006 is well-represented here).

14. The Incredibles

No list of the best of the '00s could be complete without a Pixar movie, and I've got two. With such strong attention to story and character, Pixar's technological achievements are the last thing anyone talks about. But it wasn't until The Incredibles that I realized Pixar was more than kids' stuff. A mid-life crisis movie that borrows from Watchmen and features a joke about drinking games, The Incredibles proved Pixar's audience is well beyond the Happy meal crowd.

13. Punch-Drunk Love

One of P.T. Anderson's shortest movies, and also one of his least appreciated. Yet it features some truly odd and memorable moments (many involving a miniature piano), a career-best performance from Adam Sandler, and a love story that helps ground what could otherwise have just been too out there.

12. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2

The decision to split the movie in two may have seemed like pure Tarantino hubris at the time, but it's amazing how well they hold up as separate movies. Vol. 1 features quite possibly the best action sequence of the decade and is dripping with Tarantino-trademarked cool, while Vol. 2 ups the ante by giving the Bride a name and a more complicated relationship with her target. Along with Inglourious Basterds, Kill Bill ensured Tarantino would have nearly as much influence on the '00s as he did on the '90s.

11. Pan's Labyrinth

A movie so good I saw it twice in Spanish without subtitles. The visuals are so impressive you can understand why Peter Jackson would trust Guillermo Del Toro with The Hobbit, but it's the juxtaposition of a child's imagination with the horrors of the sadistic Capitan that make the movie so powerful. Plus an ending that even the Brothers Grimm would find dark.

Ok, now for the real top 10:

10. Talk to Her

It's odd that the only Pedro Almodovar movie on my list is one of the least intrinsically Almodovarian movies of his career. But Talk to Her proved he understands lonely men just as well as women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. And if the relationships of the central characters aren't enough for you, how about the cheekiest silent movie never made?

9. Mulholland Drive

Who knew a network passing on a pilot could be such a blessing to cinematic history? The first two hours play like Twin Peaks set in Hollywood, and make for David Lynch at his most accessible. Then the last half hour completely fucks with your mind. The result is one of the decade's most entertaining brain-teasers, and hopefully left ABC kicking itself for the bad call.

8. Memento

There's a lot of trends in '00s filmmaking that Memento has a hand in: stories told out of sequence, anti-heroes, characters with memory problems, and the reemerence of neo-noir. On its own, it's the best kind of cult movie, completely sucking you in while leaving you guessing til the very end (or beginning). To call it The Usual Suspects for the '00s is as appropriate a compliment as I can find.

7. Wall-E

If The Incredibles showed Pixar could make movies equally for kids and adults, Wall-E seems more just for the adults. How else to explain a movie that's largely silent for its first two acts, that heavily uses 1960s musical Hello Dolly, and that contains one of the most unusual and heartwarming romances of the decade? The last act is criticized by some, but it still strikes me as one of the most creative dystopian scenarios that writers have come up with. Who knew a cartoon could make one of the biggest statements of the decade?

6. There Will Be Blood

Daniel Plainview may be one of the most despicable characters of the decade, yet he's also the center of P.T. Anderson's epic. His complex relationship to his son (paternal love or business tool?) keeps us behind him as he ruthlessly buys up land and picks fights with the local preacher just because he can. The oil tower meltdown is a pretty incredible image, but the movie will mainly be remembered for its horrific ending. Don't try to drink his milkshake.

5. The Lord of the Rings

Peter Jackson took the most read and beloved pre-Harry Potter books of all time and turned them into three of the biggest movies ever made. If I had to pick just one it would be The Fellowship of the Ring, as Jackson and his co-writers actually improved on the text by cutting the long forest section and adding on Boromir's death for a better ending. But I'd prefer to honor it as a single achievement, successfully fusing action and character to create a satisfying visualization of what we all imagined as kids.

4. The Dark Knight

One of the most promising trends of the '00s was putting well-respected indie directors in charge of big blockbusters. Sam Raimi got Spider-Man, Bryan Singer got X-Men, and Christopher Nolan got Batman. He did the superhero justice in Batman Begins, but The Dark Knight elevated Batman well beyond his comic book roots and into the category of epic crime classic. And there's no way to deny Heath Ledger's Joker as the villain of the decade.

3. Almost Famous

At the time, this was considered the personal movie Cameron Crowe got to make as a reward for Jerry Maguire. Yet who today doesn't see this as his superior film? Almost Famous may not have the same filmmaking showmanship of There Will Be Blood, but as a celebration of rock's golden age and the best coming of age movie I've seen, Almost Famous is the movie that gets the most play in my DVD player.

2. Children of Men

Alfonso Cuaron was already having a good decade, between Y Tu Mama Tambien (which barely didn't make this list) and the third Harry Potter movie (which is still my favorite). Children of Men is so much more than a sci-fi film or a dystopian movie. Those two one-shot scenes have been studied more than anything else this decade, and great actors like Clive Owen, Michael Caine, and Chiwetel Ejiofor got to do some of their best work. By infusing every shot with the problems of today without the speeches a lesser movie would use, Children of Men proved the ideal model of what a political allegory should look like.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I know, I know, it's a totally predictable choice for best of the decade, but there's a reason: cause it is. Charlie Kaufman showed his chops at brainy screenplays in Being John Malkovich and Adaptation (which would have been my #16), but here he went the extra distance by giving it heart. Just try to hold it together when Joel loses Valentine at the end of their first memory, or when they decide to give the relationship another try. Eternal Sunshine brings together many themes of the '00s (ill-fated romances, time-jumping, etc.), but does it so much better than the rest that it's secured as a classic for the decade.

Obviously there's a ton I've left off of here (my first list was 29 movies), and I'd give strong honorable mentions to Adaptation, Garden State, Before Sunrise, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, No Country for Old Men, and The 40 Year Old Virgin.

Now your turn. What am I leaving off? And what were your favorites from the decade?

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2008

Ok, I realize this list is coming about a month and a half (or more) too late for anyone to really care. Even with the extra time I still didn't get to every movie on my to-see list. This may not be among my strongest top 10 lists, but those top four can hold up to any other year. Let's get to it.

1. The Dark Knight
The Academy may have dropped the ball, but The Dark Knight is still the movie of 2008. Sure, Heath Ledger's Joker is already one of the greatest movie villains of all time, and yes, Christopher Nolan managed to make perhaps the most politically resonant movie of the year using comic book characters. But the real reason The Dark Knight is my #1 is because when you rewatch it, and see how all the instantly iconic scenes build and build for two and a half hours, it's clear what the movie is: a classic.

2. Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog may just be the straight-up most enjoyable movie of the year. Blending Dickensian storytelling, Bollywood dancing, and just the tiniest dash of neorealism, it ends up transcending all labels. All those torture and eye-removal scenes just make the fairy tale ending all the more satisfying.

3. Wall-E
The other brilliant blockbuster of 2008, Wall-E somehow managed to be a biting critique of civilization while simultaneously showing hope for humanity...and did so with robots in love. With only a few well-placed "Waaaall Eee"s and "Eeeeeeevaaaas" for dialogue, Wall-E and Eve were the most touching couple of the year. Pixar has animated many things - fish, cars, toys - but it was the low-vocabulary robots that really came alive.

4. Milk
How often does a movie make you want to go out and take action at exactly the right moment in history to do so? The passing of Proposition 8 may have given a somewhat tragic air to Milk, showing how little has changed in the past 30 years. But there's just so much hope, and belief in the power of the political process, that you know Harvey Milk's story isn't over yet.

5. The Wrestler
For me, The Wrestler is at its most powerful in that final scene. We've gotten to know Randy so well and seen so much of his life in the past two hours, that we know exactly what that final Ram Slam means to him, heading into that heartbreaking Springsteen title song. A look at the fakery of pro wrestling and a career-best Marisa Tomei add to the movie's greatness, but it's Mickey Rourke's incredible performance that anchors it.

6. Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road may be the anti-Titanic, bitterly showing the dissolution of love instead of its beginning, but what better way to take advantage of the chemistry between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet? Forget Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt, this was the powerhouse acting battle to watch in 2008. With beautiful production values and a scene-stealing turn by Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road shows how to turn an unadaptable literary novel into a great film.

7. Synecdoche, New York
This movie is so deeply flawed that I can't wholly stand behind it. The second half doesn't even make any sense. But the parts that do work are just so brilliant that it's impossible to ignore. Whether a surrealist comedy, a serious meditation on life and death, or a brainteasing puzzle, Synecdoche, NY was easily the most original movie of the year. And confusion goes down a whole lot easier with such a talented ensemble cast.

8. Rachel Getting Married
It's not just the handheld camera that makes you feel like you really attended this wedding. As dysfunctional as it may be, the family feels more believable than in any Hollywood wedding movie I've seen. Black sheep Kym could easily shatter that authenticity, but Anne Hathaway plays her so genuinely that you believe every drug-addled story about her you hear. Playing against type never felt so good.

9. Frost/Nixon
The better of the two theatrical adaptations, Frost/Nixon wins by taking advantage of the screen. The "how he did it" before the interview is engaging enough, but it's the key moment when Nixon falters that makes the movie. Like all good history tales, it works past and present: Frank Langella will make you completely rethink Nixon while letting you imagine what it would be like if someone nailed Bush the same way.

10. Burn After Reading
The Coen Brothers love to play with old Hollywood genres, replacing Bogart with The Dude in The Big Lebowski. Well, here the concept was "what if we took a spy movie and made the McGuffin worthless?" Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and the rest of the top notch cast take that concept and run with it, making for one of the Coens' funniest movies. CIA Chief JK Simmons' line pretty much sums it up, "Report back to me when it...you know...makes sense." That wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Best Picture: The Dark Knight
Runners-Up: Slumdog Millionaire, Wall-E, Milk

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Runners-Up: Sean Penn, Milk; Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road

Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Runner-Up: Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Runners-Up: Emile Hirsch, Milk; Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Runners-Up: Samantha Morton, Synecdoche, NY; Viola Davis, Doubt

Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Runners-Up: Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight; Gus Van Sant, Milk

Best Original Screenplay: Rachel Getting Married
Runners-Up: Milk, Wall-E

Best Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Runners-Up: The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon

Best Animated Film: Wall-E

Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Runners-Up: The Dark Knight, Milk

Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire
Runners-Up: The Dark Knight, Wall-E

Best Original Song: "The Wrestler," The Wrestler
Runners-Up: "Down to Earth," Wall-E; "Jai Ho," Slumdog Millionaire

Last Post of the Year

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! On my last post of 2008, I thought I should do some kind of reflection on the year. I have to see a few more movies and catch up on a few more shows before I can do my top 10 lists, but they are coming. As for what else is coming up: tomorrow is blog resolutions, Friday is a midseason TV preview, and next week will be season premiere recaps. Now back to 2008:

It's a really good thing Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, since that's about the only thing that kept it from being The Year That Sucked. Just look at today's news stories. In real news, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has come back full force, and controversy over disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich's senate pick will spill far into 2009. In entertainment news, a Viacom/Time Warner dispute could mean no Daily Show for the forseeable future, while a SAG strike is still a possibility. And that's just this week.

Here's just a few things we've dealt with this year: the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the fall of Wall Street, the beginnings of the fall of Detroit, record-high gas prices, terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Russia's invasion of Georgia, the Eliot Spitzer scandal, the Rod Blagojevich scandal, a writer's strike that led to one of the worst TV seasons in memory, and a very weak year for movies.

But there were some bright spots, mostly in the election. From the epic Hillary/Obama primary battle to the conventions, debates, and Sarah Palin, the 2008 election was THE entertainment event of the year. People who never voted in their lives were suddenly political junkies, checking daily poll results and tracking debates like play-offs for the World Series. The election even spilled over to real entertainment, giving The Daily Show and The Colbert Report tons of material, and revitalizing Saturday Night Live with Tina Fey's instant-classic impersonation of Sarah Palin. And best of all, it had a happy ending.

While the overall field of movies and TV shows this year may have been weak, the best were comparable with any other year. The Dark Knight was the best superhero movie ever, one of the best crime epics ever, and featured one of the best movie villains ever. Wall-E was so much more than Pixar's best film, being as well a definitive look at our era. Slumdog Millionaire's frontrunner status for best picture may come out of lack of competition, but it would be at the top in any other year too. I'd put these three above my top three movies from last year, easily.

As for TV, I may not have added any new shows to my dvr in 2008, and a lot of my old favorites may have disappointed, but that didn't stop shows from continuing to wow. Lost, already the best tv show ever, proved it more by changing up the formula with flashforwards. Mad Men avoided a sophomore slump by going even deeper into its characters in year 2. And Dexter showed it could still be suspenseful without as compelling a central device as the Ice Truck Killer or the Bay Harbor Butcher.

So 2008 wasn't ALL bad, just mostly bad. On January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama gets sworn in as president. I certainly hope that means my final post for 2009 will be very different from this one.

Oscar Preview

With the election now behind us, we can focus on a far less significant contest: the Oscars. While it's far too early to know what will hold up and what will crash and burn, here are the movies I think will hold up enough to be the best picture nominees this year.

My first pick: The Dark Knight. Many won't consider it because it's a comic book movie. But what they feel to realize is that it's the best comic book movie ever. It's also so much more than that, as an instant crime classic that looks at darker themes than even the real serious Oscar bait. Besides, Heath Ledger's Joker is the best villain since Hannibal Lecter. So comic books or not, I still think this is the one to beat for the win.

Next, another movie I've already seen, Slumdog Millionaire:



This is probably an even safer bet, as it's hard to imagine anyone not loving this movie, least of all Oscar voters. It's an epic, it's heartfelt, it's uplifting, and most of all it's really, really good. Acting, writing, directing, story, music, it all works together for one of the most enjoyable movies of the year. The only thing working against it is that about a third of the movie is in Hindi. It comes out November 12th, so make sure to go see it.

Another strong contender for a win (if good) is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:



First off, the trailer looks pretty amazing. A beautiful looking film about a guy who ages backwards set against a long period of time? That sounds like Oscar territory. But add David Fincher as director, who hasn't made a bad movie since Alien 3 (Panic Room doesn't count), and Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett giving what look to be strong performances, and I'm sold too. I just hope it lives up to the hype.

The last of my solid predictions is Milk, another one you can see before December:



Director Gus Van Sant has recently just done dull experimental films (Elephant, Paranoid Park), but he showed with Good Will Hunting how well he does mainstream. Sean Penn sometimes overacts, but this part seems like a good fit for him. The supporting cast is very strong, with Josh Brolin, James Franco, and Emile Hirsch. And after the passing of Proposition 8 in California, a film about the first openly gay elected official in San Francisco's Castro region could not be more relevant. With all the early reviews raving, this one looks like it's in.

But while I feel good about the above movies' chances at this early point, there are a lot of movies that could fill the fifth slot. My current pick is Revolutionary Road:



Revolutionary Road is straight-up Oscar bait. Former winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty) is directing in familiar terrain. There's a Titanic reunion for Oscar favorites Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It's based on a classic novel. And it is extremely reminiscent of Mad Men, which won the Emmy for best drama. But as obvious as its Oscar aspirations are, this is one I'm actually excited for. Not only am I a fan of the book and Sam Mendes, but the trailer looks pretty fantastic. Nobody's seen it yet, but if it's as good as the trailer it will definitely be a contender.

There's also two movies based on highly respected plays, Doubt and Frost/Nixon:





Both feature great actors likely giving great performances, and each will take up many acting slots. Of the two, I'm more excited for Doubt. Part of that is because I'm more familiar with the play. But I'm also really unimpressed with the Frost/Nixon trailer. Frank Langella in his Tony-winning role doesn't seem to resemble Nixon at all. The movie seems to paint the interview as an underdog triumph, the Mighty Ducks of journalism films. The Academy does love subpar Ron Howard movies though, so certainly don't count it out. As for Doubt, it's probably too small-scale for best picture, and early word has been mixed. Both might have to settle for the acting nods.

Last of the major contenders is Australia:



Australia seems likely to either be great or terrible. It's got an old Hollywood, epic style that Oscar voters love. Baz Luhrmann seems just the director to take this kind of period piece and make it feel modern. Yet I can't say I'm too excited. With the culture clash romance, a war, and something about Nicole Kidman helping Australian kids, I don't really know what the movie will end up being about. Until anyone sees it, this remains a mystery.

Beyond those eight, there are a number of other movies still in the running. Gran Torino is the second Clint Eastwood movie this year, Changeling's bad reviews probably keeping it out of contention. You can never count out Clint Eastwood, but the trailer made it look more like a stupid action movie where an old Eastwood goes around with a shotgun killing young people for making too much noise. It looked pretty silly to me, but you never know.

The Reader has the Holocaust, Kate Winslet, and Ralph Fiennes, definite Oscar checkboxes. The trailer also looks surprisingly good. But the behind-scenes drama between the producers may be enough to sink it.

The Wrestler has mostly gotten attention for Mickey Rourke's lead performance. But after Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky has shown he's got what it takes. And people who have seen it have loved it.

Going back further, there's also arguments to make in favor of Wall-E, Rachel Getting Married, The Visitor, Changeling, Che, Defiance, Nothing But the Truth, and Seven Pounds. Something else could also surprise (Valkyrie?). I'll know better once I've seen more. But if you're looking for what to watch in preparation over the next few months, the list above should help you be well prepared when it's time to make your Oscar pool.