Blog Search

Categories

• Film Production (3)
• Movie Reviews (12)
• Team Journal (7)
• Tips & Tricks (1)

Archives By Date

• May 2011 (1)
• March 2010 (1)
• January 2010 (1)
• December 2009 (3)
• November 2009 (5)
• October 2009 (5)
• September 2009 (3)

Archives by Blogger

• Amelik (3)
• Enrique (2)
• MiamiMovieCritic (12)
• Tim (2)

Links

Follow Us

Subscribe

The Best Movies of the Decade (Part I)

December 15th, 2009 by MiamiMovieCritic in Movie Reviews

Roger Ebert once said, “I know that to get a movie made is a small miracle, that the reputations, careers and finances of the participants are on the line, and that hardly anybody sets out to make a bad movie.” To make a great movie is an even bigger miracle. While the ‘00s may have been the decade of Bush, war and Hollywood remakes, we still have blessings to count. Here are 50 of them.

50. Frailty (year of release: 2001, director: Bill Paxton)

Bill Paxton directed and starred in this harrowing, sick-comic horror movie about an ordinary man who receives a message from God, commanding him to kill demons. Has he snapped, or is he simply doing the Lord’s work? Brent Hanley’s brilliant screenplay kept me guessing until the very end. My only complaint is that the movie should have been called GOD’S HANDS.

49. Grindhouse (2007, Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino)

As separately sold DVDs, PLANET TERROR and DEATH PROOF might not be so sweet they make sugar taste just like salt. But back in the spring of ‘07, when they were spliced together in an orgiastic 3-hour theatrical cut (along with a handful of fake exploitation trailers), these two sensationally directed horror movies had more action, gore, hilarity and sex appeal than you could possibly hope for. This was easily the decade’s most entertaining night at the movies.

48. Jimmy and Judy (2006, Randall Rubin & Jon Schroder)

NATURAL BORN KILLERS for the YouTube generation. Two young lovers go on a killing spree, recording their exploits on digital video. We never see anything except the footage they shoot, and the effect has an unsettling, can’t-tear-your-eyes-away-from-the-screen immediacy. Another amazing performance by Edward Furlong, who’s had quite a career when you think about it: TERMINATOR 2, LITTLE ODESSA, PECKER, AMERICAN HISTORY X, DETROIT ROCK CITY, ANIMAL FACTORY and now this.

47. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009, Wes Anderson)

Wes Anderson’s lovingly handcrafted family film feels like an instant classic, a twenty-first century “Charlie Brown Christmas” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Holy cuss, it’s good!

46. Wet Hot American Summer (2001, David Wain)

Funnier than BORAT, ANCHORMAN and BEST IN SHOW combined. Okay, maybe not. But still very, very funny.

45. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, Andrew Dominik)

An electrifying mix of sight and sound. Nick Cave’s music, Roger Deakins’ cinematography and Hugh Ross’ narration combined to create a hauntingly evocative Western like no other. In a superb, Oscar-nominated performance, Casey Affleck played an obsessive young fan who figures the best way to get famous is to shoot his hero in the back of the head. The film’s themes are relevant right up to today’s headlines.

44. Across the Universe (2007, Julie Taymor)

Julie Taymor, one of the true geniuses working in the visual arts today, brought 33 Beatles songs to rapturous life in this gorgeous, exhilaratingly iconoclastic ‘60s musical. “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” rarely sounded so good… and never sounded so sad.

43. Monsters, Inc. (2001, Lee Unkrich & David Silverman)

For the record, my favorite Pixar movies are (in order of preference): TOY STORY 1 & 2, A BUG’S LIFE, MONSTERS, INC., WALL-E, THE INCREDIBLES and FINDING NEMO. I don’t really care for CARS, RATATOUILLE and UP.

42. Amélie (2001, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

Found this review online: “Please go out and watch this, It’ll make you a better person!” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

41. Little Otik (2000, Jan Švankmajer)

Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer – the surrealist master behind ALICE and FAUST – was in top form with this satirical, frequently hilarious nightmare about an infertile couple caring for a voraciously hungry tree-child.

40. Persepolis (2007, Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud)

Adapted from Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel, this totally punk-rock animated film tells the life story of an Iranian girl who loves Bruce Lee movies and heavy metal music. By filtering out the propaganda, PERSEPOLIS revealed that “the enemy” is just like us.

39. Inglourious Basterds (2009, Quentin Tarantino)

Like every Quentin Tarantino movie, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS displays an intense amount of film-geek love. But this supremely enjoyable WWII epic was the first one to show us how cinema could be a force for good in the world – a force so powerful it could blow up a theater, sending Hitler, Goebbels and all those other Nazi bastards down to hell in a handbasket.

38. Brick (2005, Rian Johnson)

The most astonishing thing about BRICK is the way its film noir trappings – the labyrinthine plotting, hard-boiled dialogue and femme fatales – fit perfectly into the world of a high school movie. A revelatory work by Rian Johnson.

37. The Host (2006, Bong Joon-Ho)

After the American military dumps 100 bottles of formaldehyde into the Han River, a monster emerges to terrorize a South Korean family. Bong Joon-Ho, the director of MEMORIES OF MURDER, MOTHER and this perfectly awesome monster movie, is one of the guiding lights of the Korean New Wave.

36. Ichi the Killer (2001, Takashi Miike)

I usually watch Takashi Miike movies with my eyes shut (see – or rather don’t see – AUDITION and IMPRINT). But I couldn’t get enough of this dazzling manga movie, about an unstoppable killing machine named Ichi. That’s not to say the film isn’t sickeningly violent; in one scene, a gangster is suspended from a ceiling with metal hooks through his back. It’s just that this is the most violent and stylish live-action cartoon since David Fincher’s FIGHT CLUB.

35. Zodiac (2007, David Fincher)

The Zodiac Killer was never caught, leaving behind at least five bodies that were discovered in Northern California in the late 1960s. David Fincher’s great 2007 thriller – one of the most meticulously researched true crime movies ever made – focuses less on the victims than on a handful of obsessed men who never stopped trying to catch the Zodiac. The period details are staggering, the performances uniformly excellent – including Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo.

34. All the Real Girls (2003, David Gordon Green)

David Gordon Green is one of the most exciting filmmakers of his generation. From 2000 to 2007, he directed GEORGE WASHINGTON, ALL THE REAL GIRLS, UNDERTOW, SNOW ANGELS and PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. They’re all must-sees, but ALL THE REAL GIRLS remains his best work to date – a story about young love that’s so real it hurts.

33. Battle Royale (2000, Kinji Fukasaku)

Unlucky teens get dropped off on an island, where they’re given weapons and told to pick each other off one by one. Rumored to be banned in the United States (it’s not), this audacious Japanese jaw-dropper has to be seen to be believed.

32. Let the Right One In (2008, Tomas Alfredson)

This is one brutal Swedish vampire film, almost Bergmanesque in its sense of melancholy, but also surprisingly touching. Oskar and Eli – two outsiders just trying to find a place to hide – cling to each other in a wintry Stockholm suburb. Just don’t expect any vegetarian vampires with bad skin and commitment issues; Eli likes blood. The streets in this movie run red with it.

31. Grizzly Man (2005, Werner Herzog)

Look out man, that’s a goddamn bear behind ya!

30. Death Trilogy (2002-2005, Gus Van Sant)

Three experimental, deliberately distant art films by Gus Van Sant – GERRY, ELEPHANT, and LAST DAYS – each inspired by a true story: the death of David Coughlin at the hands of his best friend, the massacre at Columbine High School, and Kurt Cobain’s suicide. Van Sant lets his characters set the pace, often following them from behind as they walk away from the camera and toward death.

29. 25th Hour (2002, Spike Lee)

In the future, when people want to know what it felt like to be an American in the months after 9/11, they’ll watch Spike Lee’s 25TH HOUR. Here was the spirit of America – not exploited or commercialized, just presented with an inestimable amount of pride.

28. The Rules of Attraction (2002, Roger Avary)

I love you, Roger Avary. Now quit tweeting from jail, dumbass.

27. Yi Yi: A One and a Two (2000, Edward Yang)

The late, great Taiwanese director Edward Yang’s penultimate film achievement.

26. Requiem for a Dream (2000, Darren Aronofsky)

Darren Aronofsky’s devastating follow-up to PI gives you the sensation of falling in a dream. Its structure is merciless: the summer, fall and winter seasons pass and the rebirth of spring never comes.

A 2000 comedy-drama is my Number One pick; click here to view my list of the Top 25 Films of the Decade!!