Movies!!!

Oh how I love lists! If some anonymous person felt like telling me what many of their favorite books or movies were, chances are that I would be pretty uninterested. But put 10 of them in numbered order of ascending greatness and I can't resist!!

The end of the year is a great time for lists, and the end of a decade is even better! Of course we will never again see the amazing list opportunity that was the end of the millennium, but we'll just have to make do. The song one from a couple months back was really fun, and it was so great to hear other peoples' ideas on that subject. I (and hopefully other people) ended up hearing a lot of great songs that might otherwise have been missed : )

I assume this movie one will probably be less like that since movies are much more universal and less particular to individuals, but Em & I still missed a lot of movies this decade due to other responsibilities (two cute ones in particular), so it will be interesting to hear what other people think as we move to the end of the 00's. By the way, here's a good list that I found from the AV club:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-films-of-the-00s%2C35931/1/


And I'm sure that there will be many others. So without further ado, the ten best movies of the 3rd millennium so far:

10. Juno (2007) - It was a good decade for funny movies, and this one was one of the funniest, without also being completely stupid (Knocked Up) and still having a great heart. Also, along with Superbad, a pretty accurate, if slightly depressing, picture of the younger generation. Michael Cera = Best new actor.

9. Lost in Translation (2003) - Bill Murray continued his great comeback from Rushmore (see also Dead Flowers - very funny), but also one of the only recent movies to make modern big city life seem at all appealing.




8. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) - So great to see a really good one from Woody after many eh's. Penelope Cruz was great & Javier Bardim may be the actor of the 00's for this one & No Country for Old Men (which was otherwise super over-rated IMHO)

7. Before Sunset (2004) - The Godfather II of Gen X slacker movies. Richard Linklater realized better than Quentin Tarantino that the good thing about Pulp Fiction wasn't the violence, but the great conversations.




6. Amelie (2001) - Overall, from what I saw, the 00's weren't as good for French movies as the 90's (see Un Cour en Hiver & Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud), but this was a great movie that revelled in its Frenchness & was definitely one of the most visually creative movies of the decade. Also so sweet & funny! ("The name you're looking for is Bredotteau, but it won't count if I say it because I'm senile.")



5. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)- Of course it wasn't the first movie to feature extreme martial arts choreography made possible with modern effects, but it was the first one that I saw, and on top of that, it was a pretty great story (none of the later Asian movies that raised the bar in effects were nearly as good). I remember seeing it with my family and everyone trying to run up the walls afterward!

4. Almost Famous (2000) - In some ways not a great movie (the story is a little absurd and, let's face it, Billy Cruddup is just wrong), but a film with some perfect moments - "Tiny Dancer" on the bus, Frances McDormand on the phone, every scene with Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs. Also a great love letter to 60's and 70's rock. One of the sad things about this decade has been watching Kate Hudson trash her career after this perfect debut.



3. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) - The good news about the 00's was that there were some really great movies. The bad news is that, on my list at least, seven of them were in the first four years of the decade! This one just made it in from 2000, but it is sooooo great!! Not only was it visually amazing and hysterically funny ("We...thought...you...was...a...toad"), but it did so much to popularize folk music and had Gillian Welch in a tiny speaking role! The last of the Coen Bros. really great movies (sorry No Country for Old Men), it probably goes to show how great the 90's were over the 00's, but at least it started the decade off really well!

2. Mullholand Drive (2001) - Em & I went to see this without having too much hope. David Lynch seemed kind of played out and anachronistic by 2001, but Mullholand Drive blew us away! Even though the story made no sense the first time through (I have since developed my own, probably completely wrong, theory about it), there were so many amazing set pieces - Club Silencio, the "man" behind Rock & Roll Denny's. We went to see it again soon after, and loved it even more! It showed us to not count David Lynch out just yet, and was really one of the great movies ever made about Los Angeles.




1. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - What can I say? Not only the best film made about the shortcomings of both the Baby Boomers and their children, but also just about the funniest movie of the decade ("Is that a Tic-Tac?"), heartbreaking ("Needle in the Hay" during Richie's attempted suicide - especially after Elliot Smith's real life one), and beautifully shot. Wes Aderson owes JD Salinger some royalties from it, but of all of the movies of the decade, this is the one that I could watch almost every night. The Darjeeling Limited was pretty good, but if Anderson ever makes a movie as good as The Royal Tennenbaums again, it will be a beautiful miracle. Best line of the 00's: when Richie confesses that he's in love with his (1/2) sister Margot, Gene Hackman remarks, "Well, it's frowned upon...but what isn't these days?" One of my top 5 all-time movies.

Honorable Mentions:

Napoleon Dynamite, You Can Count on Me, The Station Agent, Synecdoche New York, Adaptation, Superbad, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Burn After Reading, Primer, The Darjeeling Limited, Dead Flowers

Hope you enjoyed it & that you have a great week!!