Perhaps it’s a sign of my age – I turned 33 on the thirteenth – but movies just aren’t that good anymore. I grew up loving going to the theater and to this day the actual experience is something I still enjoy but I rarely go anymore because akin to showing up after 7 p.m. on a Friday night to your local mom & pop beta rental in the ‘80s – there isn’t a whole lot to choose from.
I blame the nerds; they decidedly took over in a bloodless coup de théâtre and their Cheetos-stained grip on the marquee shows no sign of loosening. What's coming soon to a theater near you? More comic book adaptations, franchise installments, prequels, sequels, reboots, and remakes – that’s what!
Furthermore, what isn’t filmed in gimmick-rich headache-inducing 3-D these days? (If you answered pornography rest assured my friends the Japanese are on top of it).
So, where’s the challenge? What happened to the interest? How is this stimulating?
To be fair, nerd surplus is what is in high demand right now and in a failing economy that houses an industry that’s been in the red for years and caters to a demographic whose collective attention span gradually dims with each passing decade it’s understandable what led to this crescendo of largely insipid cinema notwithstanding the occasional fully realized gem a la Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of the immortal 1933 classic “King Kong.”
OK, fine – I admit I also enjoyed “Piranha” (2010): both a remake of the equally cheap (but also likeable) 1979 “Jaws” rip-off and presented in 3-D.
Again, there are exceptions, but the over-saturation of these films and their ilk is nothing short of onerous.
So what does the future hold? Obviously I don’t need to elaborate – you can sort of do the nerd arithmetic for yourself – but you can expect more of the same. Does “Spider-Man” really need a reboot? Does “Top Gun” really need a sequel? Does “The Wizard of Oz” really need a prequel? And do we really need a remake of [insert film title here]?
If you answered no to any of these questions: Too bad, we’re getting them anyways…
Ah, but like The Cos didn’t go all the way to Toronto just to talk to his “Bill Cosby: Himself” (1983) audience about narcotics and dentistry the preceding rant isn’t why I’m here, either. In fact, I’m here to discuss the cinematic highlights of the last decade; the best of the aught's, if you will.
And despite a noticeable abate in truly memorable films over the last decade that hardly means there weren’t any, either.
In fact, these are my favorite films of the aught’s. They might not be the best films of the decade, per se, but they are all great in their own right and films I have revisited since their initial release and have held up (in some cases only gotten better on repeat viewings). What follows is an alphabetical list of titles and brief proclamations of my love for them. My hope is this list will serve as proof not is all lost and there are still challenging, creative, and insightful minds working in film industries around the world in the new millennium.
Plus, it should help debunk that ugly charge that has followed me around for years that I pan anything and everything contemporary.
If you have no further vested interest in reading beyond this point other than to see me worship at the foam-rubber boots of “The Dark Knight” (2008), I profusely apologize ahead of time for any confusion.
(500) Days of Summer (2009, USA)
A romantic comedy-drama that isn’t heavy-handed, manipulative or saccharine and told with deference to the male perspective? To that end it’s almost one-of-a-kind. Only an overly precocious Hollywood kid sister rings false here.
Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (2001, USA)
Out of respect for Stanley Kubrick’s unrealized robotic “Pinocchio” director Steven Spielberg practices some long overdue self-restraint (notwithstanding Robin Williams’ cameo) – going so far as to ape the original auteur's technique – and as a result we get what is probably Spielberg’s most beautiful, emotionally chaotic, and thought-provoking offering since “Schindler’s List” (1993).
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Great Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006, USA)
It’s nice! Great success! High five!
Capturing the Friedmans (2003, USA)
Andrew Jarecki’s intransigent documentary is almost “Blue Velvet” (1986) brought to life: lurking underneath the white picket fence and green grass of this typical middle class suburban home is a nauseating secret brought to the surface over Thanksgiving dinner but what happens next is hardly an open and shut case: Did the dad do it? Did his youngest son do it? Did they do it? Is the dad guilty? Is the son guilty? Are they both innocent? Is being so clearly guilty of one crime automatically mean you’re guilty of a subsequent crime? Ironically, perhaps no documentary in the history of a medium bent on agendas has demanded such an open-mind from its audience (read: the Friedman’s public jury); however, it’s almost beyond reproach that the home video footage the Friedman boys took of their family as it literally imploded in front of their very eyes will leave audiences emotionally rattled.
City of God (2002, Brazil/France/USA)
Brazilian neo-realism (if there is even such a thing) at its unyielding best.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005, USA)
Watching Alex Gibney’s glossy non-fiction expose on Enron, one of the most exasperating examples of corruption, fraud, and greed in the new millennium that overnight became synonymous with all three at the corporate level, is like becoming privy to the hundreds of thousands of pounds of documents the infamous Houston-based energy/commodities/services company shredded as the walls were literally coming down around them and then having the data neatly organized and elaborated to you in layman's terms.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, USA)
Charlie Kaufman, one of the most pleasingly off-kilter screenwriters working today (“Being John Malkovich,” “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Adaptation.”) surmises if you had the chance to erase that one soured relationship from your memory would you really want to even if it meant curing unbearable heartache?
In the Mood for Love (2000, Hong Kong/France/Thailand)
Wong Kar-wai’s unofficial follow-up to 1990’s “Days of Being Wild” is another art house gem about complicated romance. Equally complicating is deciding what your favorite Wong Kar-wai film is now: “Days of Being Wild”? “Chungking Express”? “Happy Together”? “In the Mood for Love”?
Let the Right One In (2008, Sweden)
With the runaway (and equally unnerving) success of the “Twilight” saga one might feel compelled to throw-in the towel but Sweden’s “Let the Right One In” proves there is hope in this world for aesthetically striking and meaningful young adult vampire films.
Lost in Translation (2003, USA/Japan)
Sophia Coppola’s directorial fluke also happens to be the best of Bill Murray’s dramatic turns in this quasi-romance.
Memories of Murder (2003, South Korea)
By the mid-1980’s, the term serial killer had already been coined and articulated through a number of high profile cases in the United States, but South Korea never reported having one until 1986, when a phantom strangler moved in and around the countryside of Hwaseong targeting females indiscriminately. Based on a popular play, “Memories of Murder” chronicles this period of unrest seen through the eyes of local authorities bent on making evidence stick to convenient suspects to appease the public and a veracious detective on loan from Seoul regularly at odds with his peers’ rural methods of interrogating suspects and solving crimes. The film’s final moments unfold over a decade later at the site where the first victim was discovered as a local school girl chats with the former lead detective who is rocked to his core (and so are we) by a sudden realization before breaking the fourth wall with only a single haunting silent stare into the audience that has never truly evaporated from my subconscious.
Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001, Japan)
Once a generation – if that – a fantasy comes along that effectively captures the spirit of the immortal, perennial “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) and Hayao Miyazaki's “Spirited Away” is that rare film.
Mulholland Dr. (2001, France/USA)
The ‘90s weren’t exactly David Lynch’s but then again the macabre virtuoso’s filmography is too controversial to concede definition and as such is left to the eye of the beholder. “Mulholland Dr.” ameliorates on previous misfires and is an amalgamation of the best elements from Lynch’s past work crafted into a single haunting reality turned fantasy turned nightmare.
No Country for Old Men (2007, USA)
An excellent return to form for Joel and Ethan Coen following back-to-back duds (2003’s underwhelming “Intolerable Cruelty” and 2004’s vexing “Ladykillers” remake) that breaks all the rules (brilliantly I might add) in this nihilistic modern western. Javier Bardem, who co-stars as a laconic sociopath, is unforgettable much like the film itself.
No End in Sight (2007, USA)
Whether you supported the war effort in Iraq or are still lamenting the United States’ decision to go to war is a moot point in Charles Ferguson’s exploration of every disastrous decision the Bush Administration made in Iraq once Coalition forces touched ground via not the War’s many outspoken critics, rather, by the decision-makers themselves.
A Prophet (2009, France/Italy)
After HBO’s “The Sopranos” ran its course the mob genre unofficially went into a refractory period before the French coaxed it out and made this nearly perfect film.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, USA)
To date, the best (in a lovely filmography) of Wes Anderson’s retroactively dressed wry comedies.
Sideways (2004, USA)
Director Alexander Payne really emerged in the new millennium as a master craftsman of comedy-dramas following his 1999 political satire turned bona fide cult classic “Election” with “About Schmidt” in 2002 and then with his best offering to date 2004’s Napa Valley buddy film that makes light of male vices without bowing to them.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (2003, South Korea/Germany)
Director Kim Ki-duk is known for some of the South Korean new wave’s darker and more visceral entries (“Address Unknown,” “Bad Guy,” “The Isle”) occasionally earning Kim comparisons to controversial Dutch filmmaker Lars von Trier. “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring” proved a significant departure; a beautiful allegory for Buddhist philosophy told through the seasons circumventing the life of a monk, alpha to omega. Regardless of your religions affiliations – or lack thereof – Kim’s poetic masterpiece shouldn’t be missed.
Taxi to the Dark Side (2007, USA)
Few Americans lost sleep over the possibility that detainees at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo Bay and other CIA-sponsored detention centers were being tortured because we were led to believe these military prisons were only housing captured al-Qaeda operatives, Taliban combatants, and 9/11 conspirators. Alex Gibney’s “Taxi to the Dark Side” wasn’t the first (or last) documentary to challenge this assumption but it’s probably the most exigent of the bunch. In the end, we learn that the film’s human subject (an Afghan taxi driver with no links to terrorism) didn’t die at the hands of his interrogators as the result of an egregious error. In fact, the various mental, physical, and sexual tortures he succumbed to are standard operating procedure for incoming detainees of which it is now believed only a mere one percent are linked to terrorists. This leaves little doubt who these detainee’s family, friends, and loved ones will align themselves with despite no previous anti-American sentiment. Mission Accomplished.
Traffic (2000, Germany/USA)
Director Steven Soderberg tosses a rock into the War on Drugs and we watch the ripples contract, overlap, and eventually run aground.
Tupac: Resurrection (2003, USA)
There’s been at least a half-a-dozen documentaries made about Tupac Amur Shakur, if not more, but “Tupac: Resurrection” is the only one that really made a name for itself as a solid non-fiction film. Rather than cash-in on conspiracy theories revolving around his murder or produce a straight-to-video fluff piece director Lauren Lazin attempts to understand the wounded boy that lived inside the troubled entertainer resurrected through a specious voiceover narration re-edited from available interviews and sound bytes allowing the deceased icon to guide the audience through his contradictive iconography and even reflect on his own death, post mortem.
WALL-E (2008, USA)
The antithesis of Kubrick’s seminal “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) – man is in fact in control of his own destiny – unfortunately for Earth our insatiable appetite for over consumption and growing torpor compounded with Corporate America’s reckless indifference to the environment has turned the planet into a garbage dump incapable of supporting life by the year 2805. The film’s hero WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Litter-Earth class) is the lone trash compactor left on the planet who discovers life in the form of a seedling which begins a chain reaction that will eventually bring hope to both Earth and mankind (now living exclusively on a spaceliner diseased and morbidly obese). The film’s first 20 minutes are a lovingly tacit tribute to the silent era of filmmaking but it’s the romance between the adorable title character and an evil robot he slowly softens through benevolence that makes “WALL-E” one of the new millennium’s most affecting pictures.
Waltz with Bashir (2008, Israel/France/Germany/USA/Finland/Switzerland/Belgium/Australia)
Memory, over time, becomes a canvas you paint your reflections on and as such this Israeli docu-drama is animated in faux rotoscope until the film’s final moments when the truth surfaces and actual footage taken from the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon closes Ari Folman’s cathartic exercise in coming to grips with his (and Israel’s) culpability in the 1982 atrocity.
Zodiac (2007, USA)
Robert Graysmith, the political cartoonist cum amateur sleuth wrote two books on the Zodiac, the megalomaniacal serial killer who terrorized the greater San Francisco area during the late ‘60s before entering dormancy and vanishing. Despite being accepted by some as the utmost authority on the subject, Graysmith probably got just as much right as he did wrong (including but not limited to who he believed was the infamous killer) but that aside, David Fincher’s “Zodiac” (based on Graysmith’s books with some additional liberties taken for the sake of a compelling “All the President’s Men” narrative) is sort of how those affected by the horrific unsolved crimes felt at the time (recreated through an all-encompassing soundtrack that acts as a clothesline Fincher hangs his unsettling big screen adaptation on). And while “Zodiac” narrows its focus over its multi-decade trajectory it does at least explore other avenues of possibilities without definite conclusions as well as end with the understanding that there are still more questions than answers for the most infamous unsolved serial killings in American history despite following suit and also pointing fingers at Graysmith’s suspect.
