The Best Films of the Decade (aka "The Naughties")

BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE (aka THE NAUGHTIES)

From Alex & Terry

List # 1
By Alex Simon

When Terry and I initially discussed writing these lists, I had a tough time thinking back on 20 films over the past decade which I was really taken with, thinking that movies have sunk so low over the past ten years, that even choosing a dozen would be a short-order job. Thirty minutes into it, my list had nearly 60 titles! After much cutting, pasting, and re-cutting and pasting, here are my top 20 films (in no particular order) of the first decade of the 21st century, dubbed by many as “the naughties.” --A.S.

1.No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers, 2007) An elegiac blend of stark beauty and full-throttle despair from two of our finest filmmakers, set in the contemporary American West. Every frame is damn near flawless, and would have been an even more perfect vehicle for the late Sam Peckinpah.



2.The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007) Another elegiac, spare study of the American West, this time during the 19th century, and the birth of the celebrity outlaw. Brad Pitt has never been better and Casey Affleck makes your skin crawl portraying what might be the first celebrity stalker in history. Criminally overlooked by Oscar and the public alike.



3.Letters From Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood, 2006) Epic, elegant portrait of the battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese point of view, with the great Ken Wantanabe magnificent as a Japanese officer struggling with a crisis of conscience. Eastwood’s master’s hand is evident throughout.



4. Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006) Even if it weren’t (arguably) the best entry in the most successful film franchise of all time, and Daniel Craig didn’t brilliantly reinvent a character who had become a stale relic of the Cold War, Casino Royale would still stand alone for what it is: one of the greatest, toughest action thrillers ever made.


5. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006) Haunting portrait of the 1980s-era East German secret police (the Stasi) and their surveillance techniques, buoyed by an unforgettable performance from Ulrich Muhe, who died just after the film’s release.



6.4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Christian Mungiu, 2007) Another bleak portrait of life behind the Iron Curtain, this time in mid-80s Romania, following 24 hours in the life of a young woman trying to obtain an illegal abortion. Reminiscent of the best films of the Italian neo-realists and French New Wave.



7. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) I didn’t think it was possible to have an original take on the vampire myth until this near-brilliant tale of a young outcast and his undead best friend arrived, a chilly gift from icy Sweden. Think The 400 Blows meets Nosferatu.



8. Good Night and Good Luck (George Clooney, 2005) Co-writer/director/co-star George Clooney’s wise, witty take on pioneering television journalist Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn, excellent) and his war of words with demagogue U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. Not only captures a bygone era flawlessly, but cleverly draws parallel lines between McCarthy’s 1950s and George W. Bush’s early 21st century.



9.28 Days Later... (Danny Boyle, 2002) A completely original take on the zombie genre, with residents of the UK fighting for their lives against those infected with a “rage” virus that turns them into superhuman, flesh-rending monsters. One of the most frightening, and thought-provoking, films ever made. Its sequel, 28 Weeks Later, is nearly the equal to its predecessor.

10.Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002) It’s not easy to make a science fiction film feel real, but Steven Spielberg succeeded with this suspenseful take on a future where law enforcement officials are aided by telepaths who can predict a capital crime before it happens. Tom Cruise gives one of his best, most restrained performances in the lead.



11.The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007) True story of French Vogue Editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who, after suffering a stroke, can only communicate through blinking his left eye. A triumphant synthesis of cinema and human biology.



12.Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, 2005) George Clooney again co-stars in and produces one of the best films of the decade: a tableaux-like tale of the politics of petrol in the Middle East, written and directed by Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghan. Fine support from Matt Damon, Christopher Plummer, and William Hurt. A tough, uncompromising film that pulls no punches.



13.Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) Adapted from an award-winning British miniseries, Steven Soderbergh's film takes an unapologetic look at the drug trade and the supposed “war” that the United States government is fighting against it. A rare “all-star cast” movie that is also a powerful social/political statement.



14.The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-03) Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classics is a landmark in moviemaking: three cinematic spectacles that should be counted as one breathtaking film, much as the first two Godfather films are. Literate, thrilling, hypnotic, and thought-provoking, a true testament to the power of cinema, and Jackson’s mastery of it.



15.Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino, 2008) Fact-based, modern day Machiavellian story of Guilio Andreotti (played to perfection by the brilliant Toni Servillo), whose rise to power in the Italian Parliament from its inception in 1946 to the present day is a virtual road map of bribes, blood and bodies. A cinematic tour-de-force on every level, writer/director Sorrentino has crafted a masterpiece that ranks among the greatest films of all time. Sorely overlooked on this side of the pond, but justly hailed overseas (it won the Jury Prize at Cannes, 2008).



16.Watchmen (Zack Snyder, 2009) The long-awaited adaptation of the groundbreaking graphic novel that reinvented the super hero genre and the myths that give it life. Zack Snyder faithfully keeps the novel’s spirit alive in this epic, awesome film that will surely grow more appreciated over time, and become a classic in retrospect, just as 2001 and Blade Runner did, when their audiences finally caught up with them. Jackie Earle Haley gives an Oscar-worthy turn as Rorschach, one of fiction (and now cinema)'s great anti-heroes.



17.Martyrs(Pascal Laugier, 2008) A young girl takes violent revenge against the family whom she claims kidnapped and tortured her…but that’s just the beginning. Nearly indescribable and unrivaled in terms of its level of brutality—some have said it even surpasses Pasolini’s notorious Salo in terms of its sheer ferocity—it is also a film that will stay with your head, heart and gut long after you see it—which will likely only be once. Not for the faint of heart, but not to be missed, either.



18.Memento(Christopher Nolan, 2000) Intricate, expertly-plotted puzzler told in reverse about an amnesiac (Guy Pearce) who carries clues to his violent and mysterious past through tattoos on his body. Watch it in its original cut, then in Nolan’s chronologically-correct re-edit that’s on the special edition DVD.



19.Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006) Brilliant blend of phantasmagorical fantasy and historical drama. A young girl in Franco-era Spain escapes the brutality of the civil war and her sadistic stepfather (Sergi Lopez) by stepping into a netherworld of grotesque, amazing creatures who launch her into a literal and metaphorical battle against good and evil. A stunner.

20. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) If Lord of the Flies had been set in a futuristic Japan with Beat Takeshi as the leader of a government agency that sends hard-case teens to an isolated island to fight it out amongst themselves…you get the idea, sort of. This was director Fukasaku’s swan song (he died shortly after beginning work on the film’s 2003 sequel, completed by his son), and what a way to go! Kinetic blend of bloody action, coming-of-age pathos, and political allegory. A brutal, ballsy masterpiece.

Honorable Mentions (aka the top 50): Michael Clayton, Into the Wild, An Inconvenient Truth, Fahrenheit 9/11, Gomorrah, City of God, Children of Men, The Dark Knight, The Incredibles, Lost in Translation, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Munich, Sideways, Far From Heaven, Downfall, The Queen, Black Book, The Last King of Scotland, Team America: World Police, Idiocracy, The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum, The Motorcycle Diaries, Grizzly Man, Bloody Sunday, The Proposition, Milk, Mystic River, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, American Psycho, The Departed.

List #2: My Top 20 Films of 2000-2009

By Terry Keefe

I must start by saying that my Top 20 list of films is effectively my favorite 20 films of the decade. Sure, I could go through the decade’s list of titles and find a number of films which are probably “better," or more important, in certain respects than some of the films here. But that feels disingenuous as I didn’t love those other films more than the ones on my list. These are the films that I loved most from the decade and which were the most important to me. With that, here we go:

1.The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001): I can’t say much that hasn’t already been said about The Lord of the Rings films, and all three probably deserve a spot on this list. But Fellowship has the very difficult task of effectively being the first act of the story and that means setting up the entire world of Middle Earth, the history of the same, the Quest for the Ring, as well as a slew of characters and races. Peter Jackson made it look effortless, but it is anything but. The opening 30 minutes where we are introduced to Middle Earth and all of its visual iconography was breathtaking for me the first time I saw it. Pure cinematic joy.

Favorite Lines - Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened." Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." I have recited those lines to myself many times since 9/11.

2.Almost Famous (2000): The autobiographical tale from Cameron Crowe is easily his strongest work of the decade, not to mention some of the strongest of the decade from a host of actors including Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup (who does appear in two other films on this list), Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Frances McDormand, Fairuza Balk, Noah Taylor, and Jimmy Fallon (!). The film also effectively introduced Zooey Deschanel, and contains some of the best work of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s career as famed rock writer Lester Bangs. In fact, no one gives a bad performance in Almost Famous. Cameron Crowe has to be given a big piece of the credit for that. A classic.

3.Watchmen(2009): Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel left many bewildered when it was released, although I believe that it will be ultimately remembered as one of the all-time fantasy classics. Time will tell on that count. For me, the film wonderfully weaved together a number of hero origin stories and contained terrific performances from Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Crudup, and Patrick Wilson, amongst many others. The film effectively retells the history of the entire 20th Century in an alternate universe where super heroes are real. It had me from that opening montage which sets up this new universe, and contains the famed “Times Square Kiss” from the World War II victory celebration re-envisioned as a smooch between the iconic nurse and a leather-clad lesbian super heroine. Gold.



4.Sideways (2004): Speaking as a man, Sideways is both hilarious and painful to watch for the same reasons. I know the characters played by both Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church all too well. Tight script and direction from Alexander Payne. Classic Line from Church to Giamatti, as he is about to go home with a corpulent waitress: “You understand wine and literature and movies….but you don’t understand my plight.”


5.Zodiac(2007): David Fincher’s film about the search for the Zodiac killer takes its time, which is maybe why it has never received its due from those who didn’t see it in a single sitting at the theater. As the killer is never caught and the decades drag on, the film ultimately becomes largely about the tedium of obsession, something which is lost watching this on cable or in increments on DVD. You’ll never listen to Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” again. John Carroll Lynch is incredibly creepy as the most likely Zodiac suspect, the “banality of evil” personified.



6.City of God (2003): When I saw this Brazilian masterpiece by Fernando Meirelles for the first time in the movie theater, I sat riveted to the screen in a manner I haven’t since I was a child. The use of a novelistic structure, in which characters are introduced in passing in one scene, only to have them become the lead an hour later…combined with the cinema verite-on-amphetamines visual style, built around three decades of history in the favellas of Brazil…there had never been anything like it before. A true original.


7. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001): Dense with characters and plot which intertwine and play-off each other seamlessly, Wes Anderson started off the decade strong with his story of a family of failed geniuses and their various hanger-ons. Tenenbaums contains a terrific performance from Gene Hackman, who sadly has chosen not to work since Welcome to Mooseport in 2004. Some of the best work career-wise from Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Luke Wilson.



8.X2: X-Men United (2003): With the origin story out of the way, director Bryan Singer was able to cut loose in this sequel and the result is a picture that many justifiably regard as the best super hero film ever made. The plot of X2 was not actually its strong suit, but it contains one fantastic super hero set piece after another. In this case, that proves more than enough. The pace of the film starts to pound when Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine takes on the government soldiers who raid the School for Gifted and Talented Youngsters and it doesn’t let up right through the final battle. Then in X3, Brett Ratner took over and dropped the ball entirely. There were enough great stories and characters in the X-Men canon to make another 20 films like this one.

9. Where the Wild Things Are (2009): Spike Jonze took the classic, although very slight, children’s book from Maurice Sendak, and spun it into a larger journey examining themes and concepts such as family, independence, interdependence, codependence, and growing up...all while remaining faithful to the spirit of the book. Like the life journey itself, the film is joyous and sad in parts…and at once.

10. Batman Begins (2005): The Dark Knight received far more acclaim, but Batman Begins has a much stronger plot and achieved the difficult task of re-launching a very tired franchise. Liam Neeson is great as the possibly immortal baddie Rah’s Ah Gul, and Cillian Murphy is genuinely disturbing as the Scarecrow, possibly the first time I’ve ever been really freaked out by a super hero villain.

11. Big Fish (2003): When Tim Burton sticks to a great script, as he did with Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski’s Ed Wood in 1994, and as he did here with the screenplay by John August, he can make magic. When he is left to his own story devices, he makes Planet of the Apes. The final scene where the dying Albert Finney, a life-long teller of tall tales, requests that his son Billy Crudup tell him a tall tale of his own as a sort of send-off into the next life, is a tearjerker.


12.Catch Me If You Can (2002): A film from Steven Spielberg which has sort of been forgotten in the years since, but which contains performances by Leo Dicaprio, Tom Hanks, and Christopher Walken which will be remembered as some of their very best. Amy Adams shines as well in one of her first roles as a sweet Southern nurse who Dicaprio seduces. It’s also the last time you will see Leo getting away with playing a high school student, and it is a worthy send-off to the boyish looks which he would eventually rough and buff up a bit in order to be believable as a tough guy in films such as The Departed. The true story of the master con man Frank Abagnale, played by Leo, is light on its feet and very fun in its use of early 60s hipster iconography and locations, but it also subtly injects the undercurrent of the loneliness which drives Abagnale to keep doing his cons, forever running, as well as the equally lonely obsession which drives Hanks’ G-Man to keep chasing him. A gem.


13. Minority Report (2002): A great year for Spielberg, 2002 was. Minority Report is only hampered by the somewhat happy ending tacked onto this bleak action story which has wrapped about it complex thoughts about civil liberties and the effects technology will have on them in the future. Despite the then still-strong star power of Tom Cruise, the film felt overlooked upon release. It isn’t quite Blade Runner in its futuristic visuals, but its themes are equally powerful. Samantha Morton has never been better, or creepier, as the psychic Agatha.

14. Max (2002): Noah Taylor plays a young Adolf Hitler, and John Cusack is a Jewish art dealer named Max Rothman, who takes a somewhat interested eye to Hitler’s painting. The film received criticism from those who thought it tried to make Hitler sympathetic, which is not the case at all here. Taylor’s Hitler is someone who makes everyone around him uncomfortable, including himself, and he is never once likeable. What the film very successfully does is make this version of Hitler understandable. There is a huge difference. The film presents Adolf Hitler as someone who was obsessed with fame and power, and who first tried to obtain those goals through painting, where he did have some skill. But he wasn’t willing to put in the time that was necessary to become a great painter, and so took a far easier route to fame and power via his then-stronger abilities in the realms of public speaking...and hate mongering. I believe there is danger in the desire not to examine the human side of figures like Hitler. For one, it lets them off the hook by just calling them "monsters." A monster cannot help themselves for evil actions. A person can. Secondly, if we can understand figures like this from our past, we might better identify their ilk in the future. Hitler, as presented in Max, had certain choices he could make in life, as we all do. He made all the wrong ones. And then some.

15. The Incredibles (2004): Although it cribbed heavily from the plots of both the Watchmen graphic novel and The Fantastic Four comics, The Incredibles was a far superior Fantastic Four film to either of the dogs that 20th Century Fox put out, the game performance of Michael Chiklis as the Thing in those films not withstanding. The film’s invention of the term “monologue-ing” to mock the genre standard scene of the super-villain explaining his dastardly plot has made it difficult to take those types of scenes seriously every again.


16. The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003): In a series of interviews, documentary pioneer Errol Morris captures a near apology, in not so many words, from the late Robert S. McNamara, the U.S. Defense Secretary during the lead-up to the Vietnam War. McNamara, who knew as much about the machinations and politics of war as anyone alive at the time, essentially warns future generations that anything can happen in “the fog of war,” including nuclear annihilation, and not to follow your leaders too blindly because they don’t always know much more than you do. Considering that he was once one of those leaders, the warning speaks volumes.

17. Gladiator (2000): It hasn’t aged as well as I expected, but this is still Russell Crowe at his most movie star badass of the decade. Joaquin Phoenix is great as the fey, cowardly, and calculating Emperor Commodus. Classic Line from Commodus: “Why is he still alive? It vexes me. I am terribly vexed.”

18. Sexy Beast (2000): Who knew that Ben Kingsley could be so terrifying? Ray Winstone plays an ex-British gangster named Gal who is happily retired and gone soft in Spain, until Kingsley’s Don Logan arrives on his doorstep to convince him to take on one last job. And Don Logan doesn’t take “No” for an answer in this subtly, and often not so subtly, homoerotic tale of gangster love gone awry. Classic line from Logan to his former pal: “Why should I let you be happy?!”


19. Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003): Occasionally heartbreaking documentary about L.A. DJ Rodney Bingenheimer and the pitfalls of celebrity, and celebrity-chasers. Both a cautionary tale and a pop culture history lesson, from director George Hickenlooper.

20: 24 Hour Party People (2002): Director Michael Winterbottom’s film on the real-life story of Tony Wilson, who became convinced that the music scene of Manchester, England was the most important in the world, created Factory Records, and changed the face of popular music by launching acts such as Joy Division. For my money, a far better version of the Joy Division story than Control, which seemed to forget to include the undeniably great thrill of becoming rock stars in its DNA.

Runner Up:Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008): This documentary by Chris Bell is on one level a story about his own family, and the obsession of he and his two brothers with becoming as physically big and muscular as possible, from their childhoods onward. On a larger level, the film is about America itself and our own preoccupation with always being the biggest and the baddest, no matter what the cost. Bell and his two brothers, one of whom has passed away since the film was shot, grew up in the 80s and their heroes were the musclebound American archetypes Sly Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger (via Austria, technically), and Hulk Hogan. One of Bell’s brothers becomes a power lifter who continues to take heavy steroids as an adult, and the other becomes a failed professional wrestler, who still is overly preoccupied with fame as an adult, eventually attempting suicide when he doesn‘t become a star. Both seemed tragically locked in the mid-80s American mindset that if you just pump enough iron, kick enough ass, and become famous, everything will be just fine. I don't want to make the film seem like a downer because for the most part, it actually is a lot of fun to watch and is hysterical in its satire of American culture at times. But as with the best comedy, there is a darker layer underneath the laughs when you give the themes of this film some real thought.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

Kill Bill I & II, The Proposition, Dogtown & Z-Boys, Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, The Wrestler, Iron Man, Up in the Air, Zoolander (Seriously. The “Walk-Off” scene between Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson alone is fantastic.) Tape, Old School, The 40-Year Old Virgin, Pan’s Labyrinth, Unbreakable, Shaun of the Dead, Zero Day (A harrowing micro-budget feature based on the Columbine killers. Far superior to much better funded features on the same topic. From director Ben Coccio.), The Kid Stays in the Picture, Walk the Line, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Road to Perdition, Up, Whale Rider, American Splendor, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Mean Girls, Napoleon Dynamite, Adaptation, Garden State, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Grizzly Man, V for Vendetta, The Queen, Apocalypto, Casino Royale, Michael Clayton, Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (One of the best political documentaries I have ever seen about late Republican political mastermind Lee Atwater.), 8 Mile, Capote, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Let the Right One In, Coraline, Stardust, Hustle & Flow, Dig! (Great music documentary about the competition over a decade between two bands: the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre.), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Synecdoche, New York, Memento.

There we are. Bring on the next decade. Thanks for reading. - T