Countless people have been pimping their Best Films of the Decade lists for so long now it feels like I read the first one when Al Gore still had a shot at the presidency. Yet, I’m more cautious than most and held off until the ball dropped on 2009. In the age of Netflix streaming who knows what brilliant movie I could have stumbled upon during the last days of the decade? Maybe one that redefines everything I feel about cinema. You never know.
This isn’t a Top 10, or 25, or 100, or a 1,125 list. These select films are my essentials from 2000 through 2009. However, I’m not saying the following are the only masterpieces of the 00s. That’d be silly. Rather, these are only the films I had enough confidence in to pull together and refer to them as a list. I tried ranking movies, but after slot number 7 the list became as unmanageable as a ball of syrup. It was a 25-way tie for the 8th spot. So screw it. I’m not even going to bother with those films and I’m not going to bother with numbers, even though the final film mentioned is easily my favorite. Beyond that, let’s just say there were dozens of great movies released in the last 10 years — both studio and independently produced — and anyone who tells you different about this decade is a miserable crank.
So let’s get on with it. Let me know in the comments what your favorite films from the last 10 years were and whether or not I’m foolish in thinking any of the following movies deserve to be loved by any sane human being.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Plenty of movies examined capitalism and/or religion during the last decade, but none did so with such epic, scathing nihilism as Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis gave us the character and performance of the decade with Daniel Plainview, a vile embodiment of greed for greed’s sake – a prototype of the Gordon Gekkos of the world – and ultimately an allegorical Antichrist who corrupts and kills Christianity and replaces it with capitalism – America’s true religion. The film is a funeral song for America.
KILL BILL
Kill Bill (I think of volumes one and two as one film) is a love letter to cinema fanboys of the world. It’s a stylish, endlessly entertaining amalgamation of samurai/chop socky/spaghetti western/horror/female revenge genres. It’s arguably the most fun film of the decade. The brilliance of Tarantino’s Kill Bill lies not in its visceral fight scenes, but rather in how it transcends its roots and balloons into an utterly subversive yet earnest love story. The film would have cracked like a hollow stick if Tarantino failed at imbuing it with emotional resonance.
25TH HOUR
The characters, performances, writing, cinematography, pace, the extraordinary moving score, pretty much everything click together perfectly in Spike Lee’s 25th Hour. Here’s such a superb drama that the weakest scenes are still stellar and the finest scenes are works of art.
Most point to the infamous Fuck You monologue as the film’s supreme moment. Fair enough. It’s a showstopper, an utterly savage encapsulation of post-9/11 anxiety. Personally though, I feel the film hits its emotional pinnacle during the closing moments as Brian Cox delivers a 10-minute monologue (watch to the right) over a montage in which Edward Norton seems to go on the lam and start a new life out west. At first, it appears as if it’s really happening. Then Lee subtly begins layering the scene with idyllic Americana iconography that feels too perfect, too cinematic, too dream-like until we’re left with just a fantasy. A life that never happened. It’s a devastating conclusion.
THE FOUNTAIN
The Fountain is a visually gorgeous tone poem about love and death, and, correspondingly, it’s the most romantic film of the decade (the bathtub scene radiates with raw honesty before leading into outright sensuality). For reasons I won’t bore you with, the film loosely reflects certain aspects of my life and is very personal to me. I couldn’t care less whether Space Tom and Scientist Tom are the same person. What affects me is the extraordinary emotional catharsis the film delivers as Tom gracefully accepts death and finds himself in the embrace of everlasting love.
UNITED 93
It could have been a cinematic travesty if left to the normal devices of Hollywood. Yet, Paul Greengrass tastefully handled the ill-fated, yet heroic, story of United Airlines Flight 93 by circumventing nearly all the Hollywood conventions we’ve come to expect from films based on historical tragedy. The film forsakes any sense of retrospection or political grandstanding and exists squarely within the moment, thereby working as an emotional record of the decade’s defining event. On the most primal level, Greengrass crafted a visceral tour de force mainlining into the wounded nerves and gut-wrenching horror of 9/11. To watch United 93 is nearly akin to reliving 9/11. Nothing anyone wants to do, but if you truly believe we should “Never Forget,” then United 93 is the quintessence of the notion.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
As pure epic spectacle, nothing has come close to matching Peter Jackson’s thrilling adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I loathe the word awesome, but it’s the only word fit for describing the film’s immersive world building and massive action sequences. Yet, the greatness of Jackson’s masterpiece is not found in the money shots alone. Small, nuanced character moments establish the film’s foundation and tether the viewer’s emotional investment to the fates of Frodo and friends. The movie is a poignant drama as much as it is outright popcorn extravaganza. It’s The Wizard of Oz of our time, a perfect fantasy movie based on a beloved novel. And like Oz, the popularity of Peter Jackson’s adaptation will only expand as future decades come and go.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
Personally, I feel the film forces us to examine our own attraction toward badass heroes (the John McClanes, Rambos, Dirty Harrys, etc.) and ask whether their murderous nature is forgivable, much less admirable – irregardless of whether the hero is seeking vengeance or acting in self-defense. A History of Violence acts as mirror to our John Wayne culture. If we civilized human beings are supposedly so abhorred by violence, then why are we attracted to those who settle disputes through destructive means? The heart of the film pulsates with the disharmonious vibes those opposing notions create within the American psyche.
Again, that’s one superficial reading of the movie. Every time I watch it, my interpretation morphs. A History of Violence is simply the most fascinating film of the last 10 years. Of course, that’s just my opinion… Now it’s your turn. Don’t worry about rankings, just list your favorites from the last ten years and let the discussion take its own course. Do any of mine mesh with your personal lists and which films do you believe should go on being remembered for years to come?
