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The Best Movies of the Decade (Part II)

December 15th, 2009 by MiamiMovieCritic in Movie Reviews

The Top 25! Click here to read Part I…

25. Waking Life (year of release: 2001, director: Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater’s dreamy ode to intellectual curiosity – wonderfully written, performed and animated.

24. Dogville (2003, Lars von Trier)

In which Tea Party activists and birthers receive their just desserts.

23. Memento (2000, Christopher Nolan)

Most movies can’t tell a good story from beginning to end. Christopher Nolan told a great one – about a man with short-term memory loss searching for his wife’s killer – from end to beginning. As good as BATMAN BEGINS, THE PRESTIGE and THE DARK KNIGHT are, Nolan set the bar pretty high with this one. It may turn out to be his PULP FICTION.

22. Y tu mamá también (2001, Alfonso Cuarón)

Alfonso Cuarón’s groundbreaking teen comedy – sexy, eye-opening and achingly real.

21. City of God (2002, Fernando Meirelles)

The GOODFELLAS of Brazilian crime dramas.

20. Mysterious Skin (2005, Gregg Araki)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet were heartbreaking as Neil McCormick and Brian Lackey, two Kansas teenagers who share a terrible secret. Gregg Araki’s fearless adaptation of Scott Heim’s novel felt emotionally authentic the whole way through, from its surreal opening frames to the very end, when “Samskeyti” by Sigur Ros takes over the soundtrack and Neil and Brian magically disappear.

19. Oldboy (2003, Park Chan-wook)

The best, most popular part of Park Chan-wook’s mind-blowing Vengeance Trilogy – preceded by SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and followed by LADY VENGEANCE.

18. The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003, Peter Jackson)

I don’t know what Frodo would have done without his Sam.

17. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee)

Only one of the greatest wuxia films of all time.

16. The New World (2005, Terrence Malick)

The story of Pocahontas and John Smith gets the Terrence Malick treatment in this impossibly gorgeous romantic epic. I know many people find the film boring; it’s certainly indifferent to the average moviegoer’s attention span. But if you keep an open mind, I promise Malick will hand you a ticket to nirvana.

15. Punch-Drunk Love (2002, Paul Thomas Anderson)

A love story by, for and about people who are complete and utter lunatics.

14. You Can Count on Me (2000, Kenneth Lonergan)

“Remember when we were kids? Remember what we used to say to each other?”

13. Kill Bill (2003-2004, Quentin Tarantino)

Dear Quentin,

Any plans to release KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR on DVD? When you do, could you please take out that part where The Bride is talking to the camera before the massacre at Two Pines? That’s the only scene that doesn’t really work for me. Thanks!

XOXO,
MMC

12. The Devil’s Backbone / Pan’s Labyrinth (2001/2006, Guillermo del Toro)

These two dazzling fantasy/horror films by Guillermo Del Toro form an anti-fascist masterpiece about the Spanish Civil War. If you love PAN’S LABYRINTH, do yourself a favor and watch THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, which is different in that it’s a ghost story, but similar in its theme: the triumph of the imagination over evil.

11. Wonder Boys (2000, Curtis Hanson)

Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr. and Katie Holmes were all comic gold in this hilarious adaptation of Michael Chabon’s 1995 novel. Remember how good Katie used to be before she met Tom? (See THE ICE STORM, GO, THE GIFT and PIECES OF APRIL.) WONDER BOYS is my favorite college comedy ever – it captures campus life perfectly.

10. In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar-wai)

If asked to explain what this visually spectacular film is about, I’d say it’s about three important things: finding someone you love, listening to Nat King Cole, and having good fashion sense.

9. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, Wes Anderson)

There’s a terrific scene in Wes Anderson’s new animated film, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, in which Mrs. Fox tells her sullen son Ash, “You’re different. We all are. But there’s something kind of fantastic about that, isn’t there?” That idea never seemed more fantastic than it did in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS.

8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry)

Charlie Kaufman, the genius behind BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION and SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, drew a map of the human heart with this completely original sci-fi/romance. Directed by the incomparable Michel Gondry, the movie is about a cartoonist (Jim Carrey) who gets his heart broken by a free spirit (Kate Winslet) and volunteers to have her scrubbed from his memory. Kaufman and Gondry are perceptive enough to realize that while many of us would elect to do the same thing, it wouldn’t necessarily be a good idea.

7. Children of Men

Alfonso Cuarón’s bleak vision of the future is the most amazingly shot sci-fi/action movie ever.

6. Spirited Away (2001, Hayao Miyazaki)

Since 2001, the beloved Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has given us three masterworks: HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA, and this magical film – one of his best – about a little girl who enters a spirit world. Even if you don’t like anime, you’ll like this. It serves up a feast for aesthetes.

5. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001, Steven Spielberg)

Stanley Kubrick shelved this sci-fi dream project in the 1990s and then died of a heart attack before he could complete it. Steven Spielberg – a friend of Kubrick’s – picked up the baton, and the result was an emotionally draining magnum opus that combined Spielberg’s childlike awe with Kubrick’s chilly observations about human nature. Divisive, singular, never less than technically stunning, A.I. is going to age beautifully, just like any other Kubrick production.

4. There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson)

“Now if you had a milkshake… and I had a milkshake… and I had a straw, you see? Watch it. My straw reaches acrooooooss the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I. DRINK. YOUR. MILKSHAKE! *makes slurping sound* I DRINK IT UP!!”

3. Donnie Darko (2001, Richard Kelly)

Richard Kelly’s apocalyptic coming-of-age film – about a time-traveling teen and a giant bunny rabbit named Frank – was the decade’s most cherished cult hit.

2. Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch)

Aaron Keeling of FetusFilmsInc on David Lynch: “I think what inspires us most about him is the fact that he does what he wants, how he wants, and doesn’t seem to mind if others don’t like it or disagree. He is completely original and his films are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. One of our favorite movies is MULHOLLAND DRIVE. We love it. It’s so complex, so confusing, and strange, and beautiful all at once. It’s hard to describe.”

1. Almost Famous (2000, Cameron Crowe)

For my Number One pick, I wanted to single out the movie that makes me feel the best. Cameron Crowe’s cinematic self-portrait – about the days he spent as a teenage rock journalist for Rolling Stone – just makes me feel groovy. If you’ve ever been in love, had a great conversation, or felt like a piece of music was speaking to you and only to you, then you’ll absolutely love this movie. Even if rock ‘n’ roll can’t save the world, maybe ALMOST FAMOUS can.

Honorable mentions:

Brokeback Mountain, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Songs from the Second Floor, Ghost World, Gangs of New York, House of Flying Daggers, Lake of Fire, The Triplets of Belleville, The Proposition, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Unbreakable, The Way of the Gun, I Heart Huckabees, I’m Not There, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Tags: '00s, almost famous, best movies, decade, lists