end of decade lists: films
Top 10 Films of the Decade: Aughts Edition
10.
Skip: They wanted it gone. You know, the pier has been here for over 40 years You know that's where I learned to surf, right over there. They look at the cover as a shit hole... I mean, thank God man, cause in winter this place goes off.
Jay: We had it all to ourselves.
Skip: We had it all to ourselves man, you're right. I have no reason to come here anymore...
Lords of Dogtown (Catherine Hardwicke, 2005)
Featuring: Heath Ledger, Emile Hirsch, John Robinson
This movie is very much a boys club, which makes it so fascinating that it's directed by a woman. I love Catherine Hardwicke and blame the infectious suck of Twilight for how terrible that movie was. This film has got a gorgeous sunny look and is full of hilarious lines that are still inside jokes with friends of mine. As gritty and bittersweet as it is irreverent and nostalgic, it feels like the span of a summer-- from bright hopeful June until dank, muggy August. I know shit all about skating, but the soundtrack and 70s feel of the film are fantastic. Heath completely disappears into his role as Skip Engblom and this was the first time I was properly aware of Emile as an incredible talent. There's this unbelievable nervous energy in Jay at all times, whether he is the focus of a scene or screwing around in the background and Emile inhabits that physically in the incredible way.
9.
Peter: She's right. He's gone.
Edmund: Then you'll have to lead us. Peter, there's an army out there, and it's ready to follow you.
Peter: I can't.
Edmund: Aslan believed you could. And so do I.
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrove (Andrew Adamson, 2005)
Featuring: William Moseley, Skandar Keynes, James McAvoy, Tilda Swinton
I was a fan of the books when I was quite young, but honestly this film is one of the few adaptations that is far superior to the book it's based upon. There's a depth and subtlety to the character interactions that was not present in the original source, something that I think can be credited in part to the terrific cast. It's still one of the most visually pleasing movies I've ever seen and my love for Edmund Pevensie still abides, going on 11 years now.
8.
Sirius Black: I expect you're tired of hearing this, but you look so like your father. Except your eyes. You have...
Harry: My mother's eyes.
Sirius: It's cruel that I got to spend so much time with James and Lily, and you so little. But know this; the ones that love us never really leave us. And you can always find them in here. [Puts his hand to Harry's heart]
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuaron, 2003)
Featuring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman
The Harry Potter series are the great love of my childhood. I'll never forget leaving school early and waiting in the theatre before they'd even set out an area to line up for this film. And it's truly a good film, something that can be argued for the other Harry Potter installments, but this one is head and shoulders above the rest. The look and feel of it is so dark and mature, an entity separate from, but still true to, the book. It doesn't hurt that Cuaron directed another film which had quite a different impact on my decade (being the first time I'd seen a man's penis or two men kissing haha.) I truly wish Cuaron had directed Deathly Hallows, I know he would've done an unbelievable job. My favourite Harry Potter adaptation for my favourite Harry Potter novel.
7.
Danny: Ten oughta do it, don't you think?
Rusty: [Stares of in silence, not looking at Danny]
Danny: You think we need one more?
Rusty: [Silence]
Danny: You think we need one more.
Rusty: [Silence]
Danny: All right, we'll get one more.
Rusty: [Blinks]
Ocean's Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001)
Featuring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, everyone awesome ever
When I was in high school and I'd wake up from my night terrors in the middle of the night, this was my go to film that I could watch to calm me down enough to go to back to sleep. It's got such a smooth, sexy rhythm to it and the warm hues and tones of the film are so comforting. It helps that the film is full of the best looking, most confident, horribly charming people ever. No matter how intense things get, they keep their cool and get out of it without a scratch. It's so witty and tongue in cheek and I'm such a sucker for heist films. I love that this film is a blatant excuse for a bunch of best friends to hang out together for months and it still managed to be a successful movie. Even though the second and third films in the series cannot compare, this one stands up well alone.
6.
Emily: Yeah, I mean what are you? Just sitting back here, hating everyone? Who are you to judge anyone? God, I really loved you a lot. I couldn't stand it. I had to get with people. I couldn't heckle a life with you anymore.
Brick (Rian Johnson, 2001)
Featuring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Meagan Goode, Emilie de Ravin
My introduction to film noir and more importantly, to JGL as a serious actor. Oh my godddd this film. It is perfection. Film noir set in high school, impossibly cool. The characters, all sexy noir archetypes with painfully honest twists, speak in hypnotic, rhythmic slang reminiscent of Shakespeare's iambic pentameter. The score is all hissing jazz and God, where do I begin with Joe or Brendan Frye. There are so few films today that have a heart, style, character, dialogue, and plot to boot. This film truly is the whole package. I had to watch it twice the first time just to properly follow the dialogue, but it's well worth it. This film sucks you into to Brendan's haunting, noir world and doesn't let go.
5.
The Joker: Oh, you. You just couldn't let me go, could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You are truly incorruptible, aren't you? Huh? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.
Batman: You'll be in a padded cell forever.
The Joker: Maybe we can share one. You know, they'll be doubling up, the rate this city's inhabitants are losing their minds.
The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
Featuring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine
This film is pretty recent and I'd generally rather let a film settle for a while before declaring it one of my favourites of the decade, but this should be on everyone's lists. What all superhero films now strive to be-- critically adored and a box office smash-- TDK was a multi-layered delight. Beautiful and moving as a film, pleasing to my geeky DCU fangirl, hilarious as meme fodder for ONTD, and featuring one of the greatest performances I've ever seen by Heath Ledger at the hands of one of the greatest directors working today. I'd rather they didn't make another one, because it simply doesn't feel natural to me. I hope Nolan holds out against the pressure for another film. Unforgettable in the truest sense of the word. It's always fascinating to be swept up in a phenomenon as it occurs.
4.
Damian: [Delivering candy canes] Taylor Zimmermann, two for you. Glenn Coco? FOUR for you, Glenn Coco! You go, Glenn Coco. And uh... ”Caddy" Heron. Do we have a "Caddy" Heron here?
Cady: It's Cady.
Damian: Oh Cady, here you go, one for you... And none for Gretchen Wieners, bye!
Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004)
Featuring: Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey
It was SO HARD for me to select a quote for this film. I literally don't go a day without quoting it and there have been so many hilarious macros and memes to come out of it. It's clearly the Clueless or Heathers of our generation and I love it for that. At times scarily accurate, but always hilarious, this is a film to watch with your friends, repeating the lines along with the characters because you've seen it so often.
3.
Matthew: I was one of the insatiables. The ones you'd always find sitting closest to the screen. Why do we sit so close? Maybe it was because we wanted to receive the images first. When they were still new, still fresh. Before they cleared the hurdles of the rows behind us. Before they'd been relayed back from row to row, spectator to spectator; until worn out, secondhand, the size of a postage stamp, it returned to the projectionist's cabin. Maybe, too, the screen was really a screen. It screened us-- from the world.
The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003)
Featuring: Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel
I wasn't a true film buff until about a year ago and I give a great deal of the credit to this film, which introduced me to 60s French New Wave and thereby, changed my life. It is a film for film lovers-- a story about young people who try to live through fiction rather than their own lives. They manage it, at least temporarily, and I envy them for it. The setting is my paradise, 1968, Paris during the student riots. The cast is gorgeous and spends about half the film naked, draped atop each other. It deals frankly and lushly with sex as well as some of my other fascinations, twins and threesomes. I wouldn't recommend this film to everyone, but if you love it, I know we'll get along wonderfully.
2.
Bobby: He's your brother? Well, shit, these are my brothers.
Keenon: [looks around] No, no: he's my real brother
Bobby: Yeah, these are my real brothers. I'm Bobby, that's Angel, Jack and Jeremiah.
Four Brothers (John Singleon, 2005)
Featuring: Mark Wahlberg, Garrett Hedlund, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Benjamin, Tyrese Gibson
Oh brothers. That never ending obsession of mine is satisfied perfectly by this movie. Funny, honest, violently, ugly, and with a little bit of sneaking tenderness. I always end up watching it around Christmas time, even though I know it's set around American Thanksgiving. I will probably never be over Jack and Bobby and I had the most embarassing, surprised reaction to a certain spoilery event the first time I saw the film. I'm so not the target audience for this, but I love it for different reasons, I think than most people do.
1.
Madeline Drake: This is all my fault.
Pyro: Actually they discovered that it's the male who carries the mutant gene and passes it on, so it's [he gestures to Bobby's father] his fault.
Madeline Drake: So you... you're all gifted? [to Bobby] Have you ever tried... not being a mutant?
X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer, 2003)
Featuring: Aaron Stanford, Sir Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, Hugh Jackman
When I first bought this film, it was on VHS and I watched it every night for two weeks straight. It was, until TDK's release, the best comic book adaptation. The use of mutants as a metaphor for homosexuality is brilliant and poignant. And god, do I love Pyro. This is just a fun, smart action movie which I know literally every line of. I could watch it a million times and never get tired of it.
Honourable Mentions:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001)
Murder by Numbers (Barbet Schroeder, 2002)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
Brokback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)
The Italian Job (F. Gary Gray, 2001)