This has been an interesting decade for film. Comic book films really came into their own, the Bromantic comedy was born and a new generation of filmmaker brought their stories to live to entertain millions. Sequels, Prequels, remakes and “reimaginings” (god, I hate that word!) flooded our theaters every summer; their numbers growing by leaps and bounds ever year. Ticket prices soared as did film budgets. But the indie world still managed to show us that you don’t need big budgets and big stars to make great films.
I’ve sifted through the good, the bad, and the god awful and whittled it down to my top ten favorite films of the 2000’s. I hope you agree.
10. Inglorious Basterds
Tarantino started the decade with the epic two part revenge story Kill Bill, he followed that with the fantastic (but sadly, poorly received) Death Proof (his half of the Grindhouse double feature.) But he really finished the decade off with a bang with fantasy war film about a bunch of Jewish soldiers who succeed in killing Hilter. Basterds is choke full of Tarantino’s classic dialogue and no on in this film delivers it better than Christopher Waltz as Standartenfuhrer Hans Landa. From his opening monolog he demands your full attention and puts you on the edge of your seat. Every one of his scenes is wonderfully tense and for these alone this film makes this list. Lucky the rest of the film kick ass too!
9. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Who could have ever guessed that Fire Marshal Bill will end up starring in a visually stunning, psychological romance? Jim Carrey broke his mold with films like The Truman Show and Man On The Moon, but Eternal Sunshine will easily go down as the high point of his acting career. Director Michel Gondry brought is wonderfully unique cinematic style to Charlie Kaufman’s brilliant script and we were all convinced that Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet should have their happily ever after.
8. Sin City
Robert Rodriguez must be the luckiest guy in Hollywood, ever since he made El Mariachi in 1992 with $7,000, he’s always been able to make the films he wants, they way he wants (minus, perhaps one or two films early in his career). When he decided to bring Frank Miller’s gritty film noir comic to life, he decided to do it his way, even getting kicked out of the Director’s Guild for making Miller a co-director. A jack-of-all trades, Rodriquez writes, directs, shoots, edits and even scores his own films. After convincing Miller he could bring the comic to life, he managed to bring in a fantastic cast including Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Benicio del Toro, Rosario Dawson and Mickey Rourke (relaunching his career) amongst others. The computer generated sets looks just like the comic brought to life and the acting was wonderful, especially Rourke.
7.Requiem For A Dream
Rarely has a film shook my as violently as Requiem shook me. For some that would make them hate the film, but I pulled into it’s darkness. Hubert Selby, Jr.s story is brutal and very hopeless, but very riveting at that same time. Add to that Darren Aronofsky lush cinematic style and fantastic dramatic performances from Ellen Burstyn (who was robbed of the Oscar!), Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and, yes, even Marlon Wayan. This story of drug addiction is not an easy film to watch but if you can stomach it, it’s quite the cinematic treat.
6.I ‘Heart’ Huckabees
Being the only film to appear on both this list and my top ten comedies of the decade, it’s obvious I love this film. I’ve already gushed about it enough in my other column, but I’d just like to reiterate how hilarious this film is. Mark Wahlberg gives one his finest performances and it’s one of the smartest films I’ve seen in a long time.
5.The Royal Tenenbaums
Wes Anderson is easily one of the greatest filmmakers to emerge in the last decade. As far as I’m concerned he’s yet to make a bad film. His most recent Fanatastic Mr. Fox was amazing. But hands down the finest film of his thus far is The Royal Tenenbaums Perhaps this should have been on my Comedy list as well, but any film with a attempted suicide doesn’t really fall into that genre. Regardless, everyone in this film delivers fantastic performances and Andersons unique film style shines brighter here than ever before.
4.City Of God
I was working at a movie theater when Cide de Deus was released and I was so blown away by it that I brought as many people as I could back to see it again. This coming of age story set in the slums outside Rio de Janerio is brutally realistic and has some of the best child acting I’ve ever seen. There are many uncomfortable moments in the film to be sure, but the story of Rocket and how he escaped the world of organized crime that surrounded him to become a newspaper photographer is an inspiring one.
3.No Country For Old Men
I wasn’t won over by Fargo like most people were. In fact, I hated it the first time I saw it (these days I just don’t like it much). For me it was The Big Lebowski that turned me into a Coen Bros. fan. I quickly went back and watched every one of their films and found that while I enjoyed most of their dramas, it was really their comedies where they shined brightest. All that changed with No Country.
2.The Departed
Scorsese has been making incredible films since the 70’s but he final got the right ingredients need for an Oscar winning film. With a great story, great writing and some of the best performances of the decade, this film is very easily a contender for the number one slot. And with so many great performances it’s impressive that Mark Wahlberg stole every scene he was in.
1.The Dark Knight
I have to admit I used to really dislike Heath Ledger. When it was announced that he would play The Joker I cringed, but figured Chris Nolan knew what he was doing. After all, Batman Begins had been brilliant. It was only after seeing Brothers Grimm and I’m Not There that I realized his potential and began to grow excited about the Caped Crusaders next big screen adventure. Little did I know I’d be seeing one of the great films ever. Nolan once again brought us into his stunning vision of Gotham. With fantastic actors, a great script and fantastic action sequences, Nolan continued his story of Bruce Wayne. And while every level of this film is wonderful, it really is Ledger’s performance as The Joker that really puts it over the top. Nolan once again raised the bar for all other comic book films. Sadly, we’ll never see Ledger grace our screen again as his maniacal villain.
