Top 5 Movies of The Decade

It's also the end of a decade. It's interesting to look back and examine the last 10 years. A measurement of how much I've grown as a cinephile. I entered the "aughties" as a wide eyed 19 year-old and I'll be leaving it as an optimistic yet realistic 29 year-old. My taste in movies have changed over the years. In this decade, I've learned to not pass judgement on a movie after only one viewing. Movies, much like people, deserve second chances. I call this "The Magnolia Rule" (For obvious reasons). I present to you, my top 5 movies of the past decade.

5) Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings (Trilogy) (2001, 2002, 2003)



What more can be said about these films? It's an accomplishment in filmmaking, special effects, performance capture, set design, costume design, sound, editing, acting and so on and so on and so on. This is a labor of love and it shows on the screen. Peter Jackson is a master filmmaker and these three films are his master works. I know, it's a cheat to put three movies as my number 5 pick, but how can you just pick one of these movies. All three were made at the same time just released one year after another. It's rare in a trilogy where there are no weak films. All three films build upon one another. It would be like taking an important scene out of a movie then expecting to play as well to an audience. I mean, what you The Godfather be without the (spoilers ahead) Sonny getting brutally murdered scene? Or Titanic without the (again spoilers ahead) ship hitting an iceberg scene? Or Star Wars without the (spoiler alert!) Death Star blowing up scene? All three films are NEEDED to fully enjoy this journey.

4) Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation (2003)



This film accomplishes something that a lot of film in the "aughties" do not, a sense of tone and pure emotion. This is the sophomore effort from writer/director Sofia Coppola and let me just say, there is no slump here. Lost In Translation transcends the typical movie going experience, it creates a sense of dizzying joy with heartbreaking moments. What do you do when you enter a relationship and the love is almost gone? What do you do when near the end of a relationship and you try to remember what made you whole? You go on a perfect night on the town and just feel like everything doesn't need an answer right now. The important thing isn't to choose floor samples sent to you via FedEx, the important thing is to love. Everything can wait and we only have these small moments live. That's what I think Bob Harris whispered into Charlotte's ear at the end of the film.

3) Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009)



Like I mentioned in my previous post on my Top 5 movies of 2009, Inglourious Basterds is a film that will be discussed (and fought over) for many years to come. It is truly a wonderful pastiche of cinema at its best!!

2) Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007)



We are privileged to bear witness to two great filmmakers in cinema history this past decade. Their names will be uttered in the same sentences with the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Robert Altman, one being Quentin Tarantino (who I talked about with my #3 pick) and the brilliant, Paul Thomas Anderson. He delivered a very special film in 2007 called There Will Be Blood. A film that is so exacting, so meticulous and so uncompromising that audiences and critics just had to pay tribute to it. Daniel Plainview, played masterfully by Daniel Day-Lewis, is probably the most interesting American character since Orson Wells' Charles Foster Kane (Citizen Kane). He imbues the exact characteristics of an great American, hard working, driven and unrelentingly cruel. Daniel Plainview's motives are not charitable or noble, they are of money and greed. And this is the type of interesting character we look for in American cinema.

Paul Thomas Anderson does more in the first 20 minutes of the movie than any other filmmaker can do with 2 and a half hours. Thinking how far he came from his first movie, Sydney/Hard Eight, to now, There Will Be Blood. Not only can he tell a great story with very little to no dialogue, he does so with such ease and suspense it's no wonder the very end of the movie fulfills the title of it.


1) Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru) (2000)



The last film from a true artist, Kinji Fukasaku died only days after finishing the final cut of the film. Battle Royale is his masterpiece! It plays on so many levels from straight-up, non-stop, kids killing kids violence to smart and daring social commentary. From the opening scene of the news media and paparazzi gathering together to get the first glimpse of the winner of the past battle to the lyrical beauty of the island the "contest" is set upon. Fukasaku plays with tone in such a masterful way. Is it torture porn or satire? It's still shocking to me that this film has not received a proper DVD release (which it deserves, can you hear me Criterion?) in The United States after all these years. This is a movie that comes up in practically every conversation I have when I meet someone new. This film is truly legendary. Everyone who was coming of age in this past decade remembers the exact moment they first heard of this movie and also remembers the first time they actually saw this movie. It's a piece of taboo cinema which gains in notoriety year after year. A true gem to anyone who dares to see it.



Honorable Mention:

Mary Harron's American Psycho (2000)
Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men (2006)
Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000)
James Cameron's Avatar (2009)
Brad Bird's The Incredibles (2004)
Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)