In the past 10 years I have managed to see about, ballpark figure, 350 movies per year. That means, again ballpark number, 3500 movies in the decade. Twenty movies in the past 10 years have affected me in ways that I will always remember.
Here are the top 30 movies of the decade, with the top 10 spelled out.
A Serious Man
Amelie
Synechdoche N.Y
The Departed
Juno
Elizabethtown
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Adaptation
V For Vendetta
Sideways
Sin City
Crash
The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio
Spiderman 2
May
25th Hour
The Pledge
About A Boy
American Splendor
The Man From Elysian Fields
That leaves 10 movies that I feel are the best films of the last decade. A brief note, for my hardcore film buff friends: Yes, my list is light on foreign films, in fact both foreign films on my list, Amelie (listed above) and A Very Long Engagement (listed below) are directed by the same man, Jean Pierre Jeunet. It's not for a lack of love for foreign films but rather a bias toward films I have been able to see on the big screen. We don't get enough foreign films here in the Midwest; I wish we could see more.
With that caveat out of the way, on to my 10, technically 12, favorite movies of the decade.
10. Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2: Count them as one film or two, it made sense to me to rank them together. The full flower of Quentin Tarantino's genius comes into view in these manic, blood-soaked revenge fantasies that combine Tarantino's stunning eye with his hunger for culture, Asian and American. Twin triumphs of cinema and pop culture, it is a crime that we have yet to see the two films brought together on one DVD.
9. Memento: It's easy to get caught up in Memento as a gimmick, a movie played out in reverse but repeat viewings reveal something so much more interesting. The thrill of Memento is interactivity, the way Director Christopher Nolan and star Guy Pearce invite the audience to play along, making us co-conspirators in a game of reverse cat in mouse. So many films that don't play in reverse have attempted the same interactive feel and failed miserably.
8. The New World: Director Terrence Malick only makes movies when he is truly inspired and that only seems to happen once a decade. His inspiration this time was the story of the founding of America in love, in fear, in betrayal and discovery. And while the story of The New World is compelling, it is the images that Malick captures that stay with you. The New World was arguably the most beautiful film of the last decade.
7. The Dark Knight: Call it the maturation of the fanboy, the comic book movie came of age in this decade and took its place as a genre and an artform. Director Christopher Nolan never betrays his thrills for artfulness but never loses his filmmakers eye in favor of simpleminded eye candy. There is a deep and glorious humanity buried not so deeply beneath the veneer of The Dark Knight's crowd pleasing adventurism.
6. Rachel Getting Married: For all of the praise being showered upon James Cameron for his Avatar, I would love to see him even come close to matching the emotional experience that is Rachel Getting Married. Folks, you can have your CGI 10 foot aliens and 3D dragon fights, I'll take just a few minutes with the family at the heart of Rachel Getting Married and I guarantee I will have far greater rewards in the end.
5. Once: The best musical of the decade is not some showy bit of Hollywood bombast but a tiny, independent Irish production featuring a pair of actual singers who tell a heartbreaking love story in just a few songs and a few fleeting glances.
4. Waitress: The spirit of writer-director Adrienne Shelly will be with us always thanks to this wonderfully warm, sweet, romantic and delicious little movie.
3. A Very Long Engagement: While most would argue, quite fairly, that Jean Pierre Jeunet's true romantic masterpiece is Amelie, my choice is his far more ambitious and equally romantic A Very Long Engagement. Audrey Tautou plays a French farm girl waiting desperately for her love to return from World War 1. Though told that he has died she refuses to believe and goes on a journey to find him. The tragedy of war and the rewards of love are all here along with some of the finest cinematography of the decade.
2. Almost Famous: The finest Rock n' Roll movie ever made.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and High Fidelity: Sorry, I just couldn't choose one. Both of these films capture a piece of the person I believe that I am. The snob, the lover, the heartbroken, the forgetful, the hopeful and the open-hearted. These two movies reached into my very soul and reflected something within me. Longings, desires, loves, obsessions. I will live with a love these two movies for the rest of my life. Could you ask more of the best films of the decade?
BYLINE:
Sean Patrick Kernan is a film critic. Check him out at: http://www.myspace.com/number1ramjamfan.
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