My Favorite Movies of the 2000's
It may have been a bad decade for everything else, but the 2000's were a great decade for movies. I had a hard time picking my ten favorites, so I added ten more, and still had to leave great films like Mulholland Drive, Y tu mamá también, and Amélie off the list. I have not yet seen The Piano Teacher or Hurt Locker, so I couldn't consider them.
1.) There Will Be Blood (2007)
Haunting music by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood & Arvo Pärt, equally haunting cinematography by Robert Elswit, and a brooding, mesmerizing performance by Daniel Day Lewis made P. T. Anderson's epic interpretation of Sinclair Lewis's 'Oil!' my favorite movie of the decade.
2.) Donnie Darko (2001)
This psychedelic exploration of schizophrenia, death, and eighties music seems to divide people into "love it" and "huh?" I'm in the love crowd.
3.) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Wes Anderson's best comedy.
4.) Let The Right One In (2008)
A cold, atmospheric, yet strangely sweet movie about a child vampire. The antithesis of Twilight.
5.) Persepolis (2007)
A beautiful and faithful interpretation of Marjane Satrapi's comic book about growing up in revolutionary Iran.
6.) Children of Men (2006)
Wins the Blade Runner award for best dystopian SF tale of the decade.
7.) The Lord of the Rings (2001, etc.)
The best interpretation of Tolkein's world I could have hoped for. Unfortunately it partially overwrote the images of Middle Earth I made for myself as a child, and I doubt I can read the books again without picturing Peter Jackson's world.
8.) Shaun of the Dead (2004)
"As Mr. Sloan always says, there is no 'I' in team, but there is an 'I' in pie. And there's an 'I' in meat pie. Meat is the anagram of team... I don't know what he's talking about."
9.) American Psycho (2000)
"There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory."
10.) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
A brilliantly funnny retelling of the Odyssey set in the American southeast with great old-timey music.
11.) Ghost World (2001)
Disaffected teenage girls listening to great old-timey music. I'll watch it again and again for nunchuck man.
12.) Lost in Translation (2003)
A nearly-twee film by Sophia Coppola. It's so effervescent there's almost no there there, but Bill Murray saves it with a great performance as a world-weary traveler.
13.) Eastern Promises (2007)
After I saw this movie I felt certain Viggo Mortensen would win an Oscar for Best Actor. Then I saw There Will Be Blood. This movie should be watched with A History of American Violence since the Cronenberg/Mortensen pair explore the same moral territory in both films.
14.) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
A touching exploration of heartbreak and memory.
15.) Little Otik (2000)
One of Jan Svankmajer's most approchable films, like Lunacy, it uses his signature surreal stop-action technique for punctuation rather than hallucination.
16.) Fog of War (2003)
A fascinating and timely discussion about the moral calculus of war with the architect of the firebombing of Tokyo and the Vietnam War (not to mention the president of Ford Motor Company).
17.) Spirited Away (2001)
(Yet another) beautifully animated moral tale of respect for the environment by Miyazaki.
18.) Downfall (2004)
While watching Downfall I thought it would be the last WWII movie anyone needed to make. Indeed, I suspect the war is already three time longer on film than it was in real life, and after Bruno Ganz perfectly delivered a mad Hitler ordering around imaginary divisions while disintegrating in his bunker, what more needs to be said? We're now left with revisionist fantasies like Tarentino's somewhat awful Inglourious Basterds.
19.) JCVD (2008)
This movie was a complete surprise to me - a sly inversion of the action hero cliche.
20.) The New World (2005)
It opens with Powhatans swimming to the sound of Wager's opening water maiden scene from Das Rheingold, and only grows more achingly beautiful from there.