No Country For Old Men: Easily one of the finest American films ever made. Flawless delivery, cool plot, great ending. If you want to see how a film should be made, this is essential viewing not just for cinematography and camerawork but for the use of sound too… friendo
Mulholland Drive: Lynch’s masterstroke. Despite the trademark strangeness it is one of the most affecting films I’ve seen. Brilliant soundtrack. Perfect performances. This film may have influenced me more than I realise.
The Wrestler: The most gritty and believeable role of the decade. So much more than a wrestling film. Probably strikes a chord with anyone who goes through the mill but doesn’t wallow in self pity. And Marisa Tomei looking that great in her 40s is simply marvellous.
There Will Be Blood: Maybe the coolest character of the decade played by the greatest actor around. Criticisms of its length and lack of dialogue at the start are mere trivialities. There’s been many a night since where after excessive drinking I would find myself digging through a garden or a field looking for an ocean of oil. This film should be a part of any repsectable course on American Studies.
Borat: The best comedy of the decade. Gets better with every viewing. It even made two naked men rolling around together great entertainment. Should also be shown in American Studies classes.
INLAND EMPIRE: A most rewarding endurance. Lynch + no script + cheap camera + ‘The Locomotion’ = A headfuck to be thankful for. Another brilliant soundtrack. Maybe the best film made on DV yet.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: What could have been a perfect film was only hampered by Brad Pitt being Brad Pitt instead of Jesse James. This is the other film with Roger Deakins to thank for. Methinks a bit too underappreciated. Hopefully that will come right in the future.
The New World: While it’s no ‘Days of Heaven’, it still is a wonder to watch, a meditation of sorts. Impeccable production, maybe the story falters a bit. However you do come away from it feeling better, like a head massage.
Downfall: A worthy WWII film, maybe the best. Faultless for the most part, it has also given us the Hitler/Bruno Ganz meme on youtube (that guy can complain about anything!). Best portrayal of the utter folly of totalitarian arrogance.
Grizzly Man: More than just a fool with fetish for bears. Weird, funny, tragic and weird again. Also think it shows just how silly some environmentalist/naturalist types there are out there. It’s a documentary that if it was made by anyone but Herzog it wouldn’t be half as enteraining.
On a side note two of the most overrated films ever came this decade too with ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ & ‘Slumdog Millionaire’… the latter is a real stinker.
You forgot ‘There Will Be Blood’, a dark fire and brimstone masterpiece with historical themes that were actually pretty relevant to some of the major issues of the past decade.
[reply]You forgot ‘There Will Be Blood’, a dark fire and brimstone masterpiece with historical themes that were actually pretty relevant to some of the major issues of the past decade.
Did I?[/reply]
lol WHOOPS! Massive blunder! Epic fail! Sorry about that!!! I’m deleting my original post.
all fantastic movies… I don’t know… I try to avoid the best movies lists because there are movies that are phenominally excellent such as requiem for a dream, for example, but i’ll be damned if it’s a movie I am going to sit down and watch on a regular basis. you know? then there’s a movie like high fidelity, which isn’t a big major movie, but a good comedy that I’d watch every time I come across it on tv without getting sick of it.
I agree with pretty much everything Mick said, all those films are high quality. I would also add Amelie, and Let The Right One In to that list for the foreign flicks.
Casey Affleck really surprised me in The Assassination of Jesse James, a fine performance plus Nick Cave being in it was a plus.
No Country For Old Men: Easily one of the finest American films ever made. Flawless delivery, cool plot, great ending. If you want to see how a film should be made, this is essential viewing not just for cinematography and camerawork but for the use of sound too… friendo
Mulholland Drive: Lynch’s masterstroke. Despite the trademark strangeness it is one of the most affecting films I’ve seen. Brilliant soundtrack. Perfect performances. This film may have influenced me more than I realise.
There Will Be Blood: Maybe the coolest character of the decade played by the greatest actor around. Criticisms of its length and lack of dialogue at the start are mere trivialities. There’s been many a night since where after excessive drinking I would find myself digging through a garden or a field looking for an ocean of oil. This film should be a part of any repsectable course on American Studies.
Borat: The best comedy of the decade. Gets better with every viewing. It even made two naked men rolling around together great entertainment. Should also be shown in American Studies classes.
INLAND EMPIRE: A most rewarding endurance. Lynch + no script + cheap camera + ‘The Locomotion’ = A headfuck to be thankful for. Another brilliant soundtrack. Maybe the best film made on DV yet.
Downfall: A worthy WWII film, maybe the best. Faultless for the most part, it has also given us the Hitler/Bruno Ganz meme on youtube (that guy can complain about anything!). Best portrayal of the utter folly of totalitarian arrogance.
On a side note two of the most overrated films ever came this decade too with ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ & ‘Slumdog Millionaire’… the latter is a real stinker.
‘Cache’, ‘The Incredibles’, ‘Children Of Men’, ‘City of God’, ‘Rescue Dawn’ were all cool too. A little Romanian film called ‘Katalin Varga’ I saw this year was v. good too. ‘The Lives of Others’ was also worthy.
‘Slumdog’ was complete balls Toot. It looked like the hallucination of the greatest wuss on earth. Nonsense it was, I say.
Also Die Hard 4? I thought that was a massive let down, but not as bad as the last Indiana Jones film. [mad]
I think my favorite film this decade was Lost In Translation
Fucking terrible movie!
I am still compiling my list, but I dare say ‘Inglorious Basterds’ is gonna be on there, as well as ‘Ghost World’ (because I am a sucker for Steve Buscemi).
Decade’s a long time, some of the ones I really loved:
INLAND EMPIRE (favorite Lynch)
Solaris (Soderbergh Version, beautiful ending - I love how all three Solaris stories have endings that show the author’s view of the unknown)
Spider (the most European Cronenberg movie, understated and devastating)
Science of Sleep (saw it on my anniversary and cried like a baby)
Revenge of the Sith (I’d been waiting 20 years for all my action figure fantasies to play out on the big screen)
Taste of Tea (surreal Japanese movie, brilliant from every angle - the director’s amazing)
Ping Pong (another great Japanese movie, can watch it again and again)
Milarepa (best spirit summoning scene in any movie, slow moving, lush with beautiful scenery of Tibet)
Full Frontal (Another unpopular Soderbergh movie that I adored)
Cache (nice oblique mystery play with a cold, strange ending)
Adoration (Best Egoyan movie since Sweet Hereafter, extremely affecting)
I’m sure there are others (especially from the first portion of the decade) but that’s what I can think of right now.
I’d have to add Sideways in there. Certiainly not epic in any manner, but a great and entertaining film.
Wall-E is my most underrated film of the decade.
Some great choices but I gotta say Pan’s Labyrinth most definitely deserves a spot in the top 10.
Also Chris Nolan’s Batman films, though maybe not top 10 material are certainly two of the finest comic book movies ever made. The Batman films, District 9 and Drag Me To Hell would at least have to be in the top 20.
Eternal Sunshine and Lost in Translation are way overrated, IMO. Watchmen was okay, but it didn’t hold a candle to the graphic novel
