OK, the one movie I was waiting to see is Nobody Knows, especially since Hirokazu Koreeda's Maborosi might make a 90's top ten, but I'm probably not going to be emotionally geared up for that one for a while.
1. Mulholland Drive
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Yi Yi
4. In the Mood For Love
5. Eureka
6. There Will Be Blood
7. Inland Empire
8. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
9. You Can Count on Me
10. No Country For Old Men
11. Spirited Away
12. Before Sunset
13. Tropical Malady
14. Synecdoche, NY
15. The 25th Hour
16. Los Angeles Plays Itself
17. Devils on the Doorstep
18. I’m Not There
19. Zodiac
20. Grizzly Man
21. The Royal Tenenbaums
22. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
23. The Fog of War
24. Children of Men
25. Let the Right One In
26. Ghost World
27. Y Tu Mama Tambien
28. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
29. The White Diamond
30. Borat
31. The Best of Youth
32. Lost in Translation
33. Jackass Number Two
34. The Squid and the Whale
35. Memories of Murder
36. Kill Bill Vol. 1
37. Capturing the Friedmans
38. When the Levees Broke
39. All the Real Girls
40. WALL-E
41. Junebug
42. George Washington
43. Together
44. The Devil and Daniel Johnston
45. American Splendor
46. The Dark Knight
47. Gosford Park
48. Happy-Go-Lucky
49. In The Loop
50. Spider
Some stuff:
- I drove 45 miles alone in a snowstorm to Garrett County, MD to see Mulholland Drive the only week it played at that theater. There were 5 others in the audience – all women, three of whom walked out once the lesbian scenes started. One of the remaining pair said “Next time I pick the movie” as we were walking out. My head was swimming as I drove home and I nearly sped into a railing on the highway. It might have been my favorite moviegoing experience of all time.
- I’d definitely rank the top 6 or so of this list in a substantially higher echelon than the remaining 44. I might have to make some tough cuts to fill out a 70’s, 80’s or 90’s list but it took me a while to come up with 50 for this decade that looked like they belong. That’s right filmmakers, some of you barely pass muster to a guy sitting on his ass making lists and eating chocolate blueberries. What are you gonna do about it?
- The second time I watched it, Anchorman for me joined those ranks of comedies you feel like you’d been waiting for your whole life. It’s that high because I probably put a higher premium on laughter than any other film-generated response.
- I feel like Synecdoche, NY will one day be considered some kind of important landmark in the on-screen embodiment of crippling self-doubt, narcissism and depression. It will have the least sexy cult of any cult film; one that people somewhat grudgingly join by accident.
- On that note, the line “I don’t want to meet someone who shares my interests. I hate my interests” from Ghost World kind of uncomfortably summed up my life for much of this decade.
- The 25th Hour has my favorite ending of any film on the list. All the Real Girls might have my favorite opening.
- 4W, 3W, 2D came out here the same year as TWBB, No Country, and Zodiac and might have had a more unsettling villain than any of them.
- Lost in Translation is beautifully photographed, almost perfect fluff. All it asks of me is to hang out in Tokyo with Bill Murray, ogle Scarlet Johanssen’s ass, listen to My Bloody Valentine and not worry about some perfunctory plot. Someone out there gets it.
- I couldn’t in good conscience put both Jackass movies on here but I thought the second one really upped the ante. John Waters beams like a proud papa in his cameo.
- Memories of Murder tackled many of the same themes as Zodiac first and just as well. If you like one, I'd think you'd like the other.
- Roll your eyes at the Dark Knight if you will, but it was a straight-up blast in IMAX, and I thought it was solid enough to warrant inclusion.
- For the most part, Spider and A History of Violence should have met with exact inverse critical reception.
