I've noticed that just about everyone and their sister is compiling lists of "Best Films of the Decade", since 2009 closes out the first ten years of the new millennium. The Cap'n thought this seemed a bit foolhardy at first, but in the spirit of keeping up with the Joneses, I started making a list of movies I thought were very good, great, had some personal impact on me, or were simply films I've seen repeatedly since their release in 2000.
After filling up the back of two envelopes with just what I had in the Apartment That Dripped Blood, I decided it was in fact a foolhardy notion. Considering how many of these lists are already out there, it seemed best to just abandon the idea altogether. But then again, I had those envelopes, so why not salvage something out of them?
What I came up with are ten movies that I'm pretty sure aren't on any other "Decade's Best" list, but that should be considered anyway. All of them are included strictly for personal reasons, but if you haven't seen any of them, I recommend you check each out.
In no particular order, my top ten films from 2000-2009 No One Else Is Going to Mention are:
Lost in La Mancha - A thoroughly captivating documentary about the making and unmaking of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. At times painful to watch, as nature and bond companies slowly destroy Gilliam's dream of making his re-imagining of Cervantes a reality. After La Mancha collapsed, Gilliam made the heavily re-edited Brothers Grimm, the darkly inaccessible Tideland, and despite the death of Heath Ledger, he completed The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which is opening soon.
(Other documentaries worth checking out: Dark Days, The Kid Stays in the Picture, Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, The King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters, and Hell's Highway.)
Spider - Lost in the shuffled between eXistenZ and the career resurgence of A History of Violence and Eastern Promises is a great little character study from David Cronenberg. Ralph Fiennes is a muttering, shuffling ball of schizophrenia in the story of a man trying to recreate a murder from his past. The only problem is keeping straight what's real and what's conflated, a challenge for Fiennes and for the audience, but one worth taking on.
(Other brain benders worth pursuing: The Prestige, Birth, The Chumscrubber, and INLAND EMPIRE.)
In Bruges - Still a criminally underseen film from 2008, In Bruges manages to switch from an amusing - if vulgar - comedy to a much more emotionally resonant film, due in no small part to the pairing of Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. Ralph Fiennes also appears as a force of nature crime boss, and when his orders aren't adhered to, Bruges lights up with profanity and gunfire. Also the sort of film where every incidental detail has some bearing on the plot, which is not spoiling anything.
(Other crime movies you might dig: Sexy Beast, The Departed, Collateral, and Snatch.)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Shane Black's return to Hollywood after a self imposed sabbatical brought about one of the purest and most enjoyable neo-noir detective films in the last ten years. Too bad nobody saw it. Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer are at the top of their game in this twist on detective films, one that is as frequently hilarious as it is randomly violent. Few films can make not one but two great jokes out of losing a finger, and that's but one of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang's many charms.
(Other neo-noirs worth pursuing: Brick, The Ice Harvest, The Lookout, and The Man Who Wasn't There.)
May - Lucky McKee's debut film was so far beneath my radar that until a chance encounter with the dvd in Hollywood video, I didn't even know May existed. I suspect it remains that way for many of you, but Angela Bettis' May is one of the great characters of the last decade, in a film which is disturbing, sad, and darkly funny in equal measures. Some people take issue with the last few moments of the film, but I can't imagine this fractured fairy tale ending any other way.
(Other under-the-radar horror films worth your time: Roman, Bubba Ho-Tep, Black Sheep, Slither, and Fido.)
This Film is Not Yet Rated - Kirby Dick's expose on the practices of the MPAA's arbitrary rules for how a movie earns its ratings had an impact beyond informing the viewer of a hidden Hollywood practice: the MPAA subsequently took strides to be more transparent in their ratings systems, and loosened the criteria for appealing NC-17's. Like Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, This Film is Not Yet Rated actually translated into a change in the way businesses operate. Plus, it's a great documentary.
(Other, additional, documentaries in need of seeking out: In the Realms of the Unreal, Harlan Ellison: Dreams with Sharp Teeth, Not Quite Hollywood, and Stephen Toblowski's Birthday Party.)
O Brother Where Art Thou - The Coen Brothers movie I saw four times in theatres. I dragged everyone I knew to see this film, in Cary and in Greensboro, and I can't tell you how many times I've watched it since. O Brother is a joyous film, one that weds Preston Sturges to The Odyssey in a sensible and entertaining way, one with music that outlasts the "bluegrass revival" fad that sprung up in its wake. I'm convinced that without this combination of George Clooney and The Coens, we might not have the goofy, affable alternative to his otherwise serious and politically conscious films.
(Other films that owe their existence to O Brother Where Art Thou: Leatherheads, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Burn After Reading, and Intolerable Cruelty)
Ginger Snaps and Ginger Snaps: Unleashed - A one-two punch of revisionist werewolf lore that films like Twilight could learn a thing or two from. The premise of Ginger Snaps, that lycanthropy could parallel the beginning of menstrual cycles, could have fallen flat on its face, were it not for the utterly believable bond between Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins as sisters Ginger and Brigitte. In the rare instance of a sequel as good, if not better, than the original, Unleashed shifts the metaphor from puberty to drug addiction, leaving Brigitte's transformation - punctuated by ghostly visits from Ginger - to the realm of a lucid nightmare. The final moments of the film (which situate Ginger Snaps: The Beginning firmly in the realm of fairy tale) take Unleashed beyond mere sequel and into the canon of great horror films.
(Other trope-shifting horror films you ought to seek out: Martyrs, The Orphanage, Let the Right One In, and The Mist.)
Primer - Made for next to nothing, Primer is a well thought out science fiction film about the paradoxes of time travel, constructed in such a way that the audience is constantly one step behind the narrative. What makes primer so special is how conceivably realistic the film is, even when the apparent hazards of time travel manifest themselves towards the end. It spawned a series of other imitators, but for my money Primer is still the king of the mountain.
(Other science fiction films you may have missed: Timecrimes, Serenity, A Scanner Darkly, and Moon.)
Blood Car - I include this because sometimes a film so embodies pure anarchy that it must be included on a "Best Of" list. Blood Car has something to offend everyone - vegetarians? check. people who love animals? check. fans of My Girl? check. people squeamish around blood? check. people who consider themselves to like children, the disabled, the elderly, are prudish about sex, who think gas prices are too high? something to offend everybody. And Blood Car does it gleefully. A genuine example of "cult" movie, one so difficult to find that people are clamoring to review Terminator: Salvation for an extra copy I have. Not since early John Waters have I had so much fun having my senses assaulted.
(Other movies like this: There aren't any. Just rent Blood Car.)
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