My Top 48 Movies of the Last Decade: Part I

Why 48? Why not 50 or 100 or just 10? Why even do one when there have been countless lists out there already?

Well the simple reason why I did it is because I just could.

I’ve been thinking about this list for the last several months. It is hard to come up with any list of your favorite movies. To me it was especially difficult coming up with just 48 of my favorite films of the last 10 years. And the keyword there is my favorite. I know the list won’t be to everyone’s taste but its the top 48 movies that have stuck with me these last 10 years. Enjoy.

Here’s Part I:

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48. Sin City (2005)
Director: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino/Writer: Frank Miller

Sin City has one of the best ensemble casts on my list. Starring the likes of Clive Owen, Benicio del Toro, Bruce Willis, Nick Stahl, Carla Gugino(‘s breasts), Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy and others, it sounds like co-directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez called in every favor they were ever owed. The stand out is of course Mickey Rourke, making this the first stop of his inevitable comeback. Rourke, starring in the best chapter of the film as the psychopath Marv, proves he’s one of the best actors around. He’s perfect here, even under the all that makeup, narrating Frank Miller’s book with the right amount of film noir gravel in his voice.

It’s hard to say if what makes Sin City the movie work has more to do with Frank Miller than Robert Rodriguez, but its Rodriguez’s technical savvy that helped make the transition from book to film so great. This is Rodriguez’s best movie and it’s no wonder that many films have imitated the look and the technique of it. It’s a great comic book movie and it turns out that it is also one of the most influential movies of the last decade.

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47. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Director/Writer: Andrew Dominik

I’ve only seen this movie once but it’s still inside my head almost 2 years later. Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances here as the legendary Jesse James, but its Casey Affleck’s performance as the coward Robert Ford that steals the show. Affleck’s Ford has way too many layers to decipher. Jealously, admiration, and overconfidence, Affleck says a lot just with that dopey grin when he first meets his idol Jesse James.

Even with the James’ fate right there in the title, the tension is still tremendous. James’ relationship with his soon to be killer is Shakespearean, down to their final moments together. And the film continues after the titular assassination, with the final years of the ‘coward’ Ford. It ends up as a truly tragic, as Ford’s quest for fame is anything but.

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46. Erin Brockovich (2000)
Director: Steven Soderbergh/Writer: Susannah Grant

This is my favorite Steven Soderbergh film, partly because it’s one of his simplest. Julia Roberts plays Erin Brockovich, the real life file clerk working for a law firm who begins a major lawsuit against a big corporation who’s been poisoning the water supply of a small town. Roberts earned a well deserved Oscar for her role here, proving that yeah she’s one of our greatest living actresses. The plot is a bit movie-of-the-week but Roberts elevates it with her performance. Soderbergh’s other movie that year, Traffic, felt to me a bit disjointed while Erin Brockovich on the other handled things with a surprisingly steady hand.

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45. Up (2009)
Directors/Writers: Pete Doctor and Bob Peterson

Coming up with this list I purposefully avoided putting many movies from 2009. With any great movie it should only get better with time. With Up I see it only get better with time.

From my Best of 2009 list:

“When a film can affect you emotionally within the first ten minutes then you know you’re dealing with something extraordinary. Call me weird but I’d rather see real human characters in real human situations (versus seeing fish or robots). Looking at an animated movie for real human emotion may seem silly but it’s definitely possible. Pixar movies this decade really made us care about CGI rendered humans on screen. Those first ten minutes of Up are designed to make up weep like a little girl, and if you don’t feel the least bit emotional then you are a heartless bastard.”

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44. Burn After Reading (2008)
Director/Writers: The Coen Brothers

There was a time halfway through the decade when the Coen Brothers took a dive into mainstream movies and did something we’re not use to them doing, fail. The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty were disappointments, financially and critically, and we were ready to count them out. But, then No Country For Old Men happened and shut everyone up. The Coens were once again on top. While No Country… was more in the vein of Blood Simple, their follow up, Burn After Reading, was like their more lighthearted (if you can call it that) work, Big Lebowksi and Fargo.

Like kids shaking an art farm, the Coens enjoy creating quirky characters then letting them loose, shaking the box and waiting for the inevitable chaos to erupt. George Clooney remains to be one of the brothers’ more reliable collaborators, and first timers Brad Pitt and John Malcovich fit in well in the Coens’ demented universe. With the cast, script, and direction, Burn After Reading continues to show The Coens’ are without a doubt two of the most talented filmmakers alive.

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43. Grindhouse (2007)
Directors/Writers: Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino

Watching the Rodriguez/Tarantino double feature in a half filled movie theater on a Friday afternoon turned out to be one of my favorite movie going experiences the last few years. And that’s where it will stay for the seeable future, back in the spring of 2007 in that movie theater. The version that I saw almost three years ago has not been made available as easily as it should. Each movie was released as two separate movies on home video and the fantastic faux movie trailers are now only found online illegally.

It’s a damn shame because the two movies and the trailers all benefit each other. Yes, Rodriquez’s film goes after the rails near the end and Tarantino’s film feels too Tarantino-esque, but combined with the brilliant trailers in the middle the whole Grindhouse experience amounted to a great time at the movies.

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42. Volver (2006)
Director/Writer: Pedro Almodóvar

Penelope Cruz works best when she’s speaking in Spanish. Here she’s absolutely perfect in this great Pedro Almodóvar film. The movie is about death as Cruz’s character first has to deal with a death as well as making a making sense of her mother that has reappeared after being thought dead for so many years. What’s amazing is that the film teeters back and forth from thriller to drama to comedy, and underneath it all is the theme of Death. Cruz touches all bases emotionally. The highlight is when Cruz’s balances joy and regret as she sings a song from her past at a party. It’s a fantastic performance from one of my favorite actresses and it’s an equally fascinating and intriguing story.

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41. Michael Clayton (2007)
Director/Writer: Tony Gilroy

George Clooney fits in perfectly as the lawyer/cleaner Michael Clayton and gives my favorite performance from the actor. Here he’s stripped away of the glossiness of the Ocean’s movies and more down to earth compared to his Coens’ films. His final confrontation with Tilda Swinton’s character should have helped earn him that Oscar if only a certain Daniel Day-Lewis hadn’t been in contention that year. Swinton too is great (although I was just as surprised of her Oscar win) and of course Tom Wilkinson is absolutely fantastic as the eye of the hurricane, a lawyer who’s profound moment of realization threatens to bring down a multimillion dollar corporation.

Bourne trilogy writer Tony Gilroy makes a perfect writer/director debut here as he films his story of corporate murder on the winter blue backgrounds of New York City. After first watching it and really not liking it, I’ve revisited the movie many times and went completely 180 on it. It’s a movie that gets better each and every time I see it.

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40. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Director/Writer: Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg’s first sci-fi movie of the decade is one of his most underrated. Working off a story idea from the late Stanley Kubrick the movie shares both great directors’ sensibilities. The cold distance future has shades of Kubrick’s 2001 and A Clockwork Orange, but this Pinocchio retelling still has the Spielberg overt affection. Sure the film’s ending has the heavy handedness that’s plagued a lot of his films, but for the most part the film is powerful. The Flesh Fair sequence has some not so subtle Holocaust imagery and Spielberg’s vision of the future is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Haley Joel Osmond gives his last great performance as a kid and Jude Law is perfect as a robotic gigolo. And the great thing is we only had to wait a few more years for another Spielberg futuristic sci-fi movie.

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39. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Director: Darren Aronofsky/Writer: Darren Aronofsky & Hubert Selby, Jr.

Perhaps the most imitated movie of the decade, Arronofsky’s look into the lives of drug addicts is the one film on this list I’ve seen only once and never really intend to see again. It’s that disturbing and so burnt into my brain that I can always recommend someone to see it only once. Whether it’s the surreal realism (makes sense doesn’t it?), the fast cuts, or the brilliant score of Clint Mansell; there’s a reason why after ten years we’re still feeling the effects of this NC-17 rated after school special.

This film is melodramatic at parts with a cast that’s not all that ideal (Damon Wayans and Jared Leto, really?) Arronofsky manages and makes it work. Arronofsky still hasn’t created his own signature style which really isn’t a bad thing. Drifting from effects driven sci-fi to grainy realism, each movie of his films are distinct visually and it’s refreshing that he never went back to make another film like Requiem for a Dream. The movie still remains one of the most original of the last ten years.

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38. Oldboy (2003)
Director: Park Chan-wook/Writers: Hwang Jo-yun, Park Chan-wook, Lim Chun-hyeong, Lim Joon-hyung, Garon Tsuchiya

Its crazy to think that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith were planning on doing their own American take on Oldboy. Going into detail about what would make an American version of this South Korean movie impossible would ruin the movie; just know that it goes into very dark territory. And that’s not all. Its hard to think anyone, even Spielberg, could top the well choreographed and sometimes graphic violence (a hammer is involved).

It is a revenge flick so our hero, played with enough insanity and anger by Choi Min-sik, beats the crap out of many. One sequence stands out. Min-sik’s Oh Dae-su takes on an entire gang by himself. Film in a single take, the camera follow Daw-su as he makes his way from one side of the frame to the other, meanwhile taking down all of his aggressors. It’s one of several amazingly shot sequences in the film and its one of many reasons it remains unforgettable.

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37. District 9 (2009)
Director: Neill Blomkamp/Writers: Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell

From my Best of 2009 list:

“2009 marked the return of the sci-fi movie. Among them were Moon, Star Trek, and Avatar. The one that topped them all though was District 9. In terms of just special effects it accomplishes more with the minimal budget than say a certain 400 million 3D IMAX movie. Not to knock Avatar, but what District 9 proves is that it’s all about the story. While Avatar was visually stunning, the actual plot was extremely predictable (it feels like a remake of Dance with Wolves and Last Samurai). District 9 is something I’ve never seen before. One of the things that blew me away was how the film abandons the normal faux documentary structure about thirty minutes in, becoming a full blown action movie.”

Like I said, District 9 does so much more with visual effects and story than any other movie last year and really a lot of the movies of the last decade. It has sci-fi classic written all over it.

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Next up:

My Top 48 Movies of the Last Decade: Part II

My Top 48 Movies of the Last Decade: Part III

My Top 48 Movies of the Last Decade: Part IV