The “Best” of the 2000s
City of God — Lil Ze? There is no such thing as redemption. Depressing as hell. But perfect.
Zoolander — Ben Stiller’s Citizen Kane. Timeless and arguably Will Ferrell’s best work. Multiple quotable lines, and Billy Zane. Bryan mentioned a few weeks ago that it came out around 9/11, and that in certain pictures of people walking around lower Manhattan, you can see ads for it at bus stops in the background. I don’t know what to make of this juxtaposition of the absurd and the unreal, except that it broke my brain.
LOTR — Not one complaint from this nerd, from the adaptation from book to screen. The real fellowship was that most non-nerds appreciated the movies as much as Tolkien diehards. The Battle of Helms Deep sequence = epic win. Forgotten in all the current hype for Avatar is how Peter Jackson and Weta Workshop were the fx pioneers of the 2000s, and that Andy Serkis should have won an Oscar for his CG-assisted Gollum. It’s like DMX and Ja Rule all over again. Screw you Sam Worthington.
Maqbool — A bloody MacBeth adaptation (is there any other kind?) set in the Bombay underworld, with all the heavyweight actors of Hindi cinema. Rising above his co-stars however, is Irfan Khan, who rocks this movie with his mastery of the title character. A fantastic masala tadka on top of the Bard’s work (and no Aram, there are no ravens shooting laserbeams out of their eyes).
Infernal Affairs — I’ll leave the description of this one to what Marc wrote earlier; likewise, the ending caught me completely off guard. One of the best “ohhhh SNAP” moments of the decade. More thrillers movies like this need to be made.
Inside Man — My favorite NYC movie of the 2000s. While 25th Hour captured the uncertainty immediately following 9/11, Inside Man is the first post-post-9/11 movie. The characters are all New Yorkers, and each has an edge that goes beyond the nervousness and fear. It’s as if Lee is saying, “ok now, let’s live with it and move on,” and then pulls off a whipsmart heist movie. Denzel gets to play his most subtle character in his best work of the decade, and Jodie Foster as a “cleaner” that does work with the bin Laden’s of the world is a reminder of the realpolitik of the NYC elite.
Wall-E — Cartoons should not make you cry. Dammit Pixar for making possibly the best movie of the year every year. Damn you Academy for not giving them their due.
The Royal Tenenbaums — Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This entry could have been Rushmore, but while I love it, I find the 2nd act of Schwartzman and Murray trying to murder each other a smidgen too dark. In Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson annihilates the notions of family expectations and responsibilities with brutal honesty, and somehow gets away with it by covering it up as a comedy (it might be because of Gene Hackman). The sequence of Luke Wilson playing tennis after he discovers Margo’s relationship with Bill Murray is possibly the best take of a tennis meltdown, fictional or non-fictional. Ben Stiller’s Chaz and his emotions as he deals with the death of his wife are a little too accurate. One of the many things I love about this movie is how it was clearly set in NYC, but there is not one hint or reference to it. The movie also gets bonus points because Ryan and I were sitting behind Monica Lewinsky (and her family?) in the theater.
Jackass: The Movie — Not a movie in any sense except for it was shot on film and had a theatrical release, but whatever, the same can be said about The Core, Snow Dogs and Traffic. Funnier than Borat. Steve-O is our generation’s forgotten genius of physical comedy.
Gangs of New York — Along with The Aviator, and No Direction Home, Gangs makes up the trifecta of other Scorcese films of the 2000s that crush The Departed. I’m a sucker for olde-tyme NY movies (Taxi Driver, Once Upon a Time in America, etc.) but what makes this one Scorcese’s best of the decade is the acting — Daniel Day-Lewis (our most slept-on actor) and his mustache crush it as Bill the Butcher, and Leo finally puts his talents together as the headliner. Marc doesn’t like Cameron Diaz but I thought her character added another level of tension to the story.
No Country For Old Men — Said Steven Witt, “this movie has the best sound effects of all time, make sure you watch it in a theater where noone in the audience will say anything.” Think of the scenes where the lack of dialog or a soundtrack ratchets up the tension — Chigurh walking down the motel hallway in his socks, or the shootout with Woody Harrelson — using silence as a score. And what of the story? Perhaps it can be distilled by Tommy Lee Jones’ final monologue. But who really paid attention to it on first viewing (I sure didn’t), or were we all waiting for their final showdown?
Honorable Mentions
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — Women that kick a–, and Chow Yun Fat.
Mulholland Drive – I still don’t get it. But, I imagine that alternate universe me — a UCLA film school graduate making indie flicks and commercials in Brooklyn — has it in his top 3 movies of all time. Of course, in this parallel dimension, David Lynch makes summer popcorn blockbusters, therefore alternative me never sees Mulholland Drive because it never exists. QED.
Anchorman
Borat — After Jackass, the movie where I’ve laughed the hardest — maybe would have been funnier had I seen it in an audience in theatrical release rather than bootleg on my computer, but as the other great Brit satirist Ricky Gervais put it:
Duce Bigelow: European Gigolo — Eddie Griffin’s best work
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — up there with Leaving Las Vegas as one of those, I’ve-seen-it-once, I-don’t-need-to-see-it-again-for-a-long-time, movies. It should probably be in the section above, but I still haven’t been able to steel myself to watch it again.
Little Miss Sunshine
Fog of War
Johnny Depp’s continuing “critique of modernity” series
Clint Eastwood’s “crusty old man with a soul” series
2046 — luscious
The Transporter — a pleasant surprise of the decade was the return of ludicrous action movies, a genre which died for no good reason in the 90s. The Transporter was the best of these flicks (huh-yooge mea culpa here - I still haven’t seen Rambo).
Rocky Balboa
Memento/21 Grams/Insomnia — The same movie, really.
Kung Fu Hustle/Shaolin Soccer
Worst Movies:
Star Wars; both of them — F-you, George Lucas.
Matrix Revolutions — they should have stopped after the first one.
Spider Man 2 — I saw this movie in Bombay. The ticket equivalent was $1.50. Complete waste of my money, what a turd.
Crash — walked out.
Vanilla Sky — walked out.
Sideways — loathsome characters who don’t change. This is considered to be character development?
Transformers — Michael Bay has made two good movies ever. If not for The Rock and Bad Boys, I’d have him flogged out of Hollywood. The original was better and had more emotional resonance for me as an 8 year old and as a 30 year old.
The Hangover — If there was an anti-Judd Apatow fan club, I would run for President, even though in this case he’s only guilty by association. Vegas buddy movies generally suck, and Vegas movies in general. Check out this list of Las Vegas movies; you can count the good ones on one hand.
Mexcellent call on Jackass. Inside Man I think is a little too inside NY-ey — like when they solve something (the Grand Central riddle, I think) and everyone starts arguing at the end. But it’s undeniable that it was a “Screw it, 9/11 is over” movie, and that’s something I hadn’t thought of. Good stuff.
I’m not as big a Gangs of New York as the others. I guess I like it, but it’s still hard for me to see Leo as an Adult, though Blood Diamond went a long way toward it.
The Matrix — they did stop after the first one. THEY DID, RAVI.
Us anti-Hangover types need to stick together- like Tupac (and a friend), it’s us against the world.
Solid under-the-radar call on D-Big Euro Gig, but having recently seen Undercover Brother for the first time, as well as Urban Justice (Griffin as the bad guy against Seagal), declaring Griffin’s best work is no longer as easy for me as it once was. Goodness, what a dilemma.
Oh, and Matrix should have stopped BEFORE the first one. That would have been good.
I was going to big-up your Hangover talk (its presence on my list is more novelty), but never speak ill of the Matrix again. That’s all.
I think if Gangs was Leo putting it all together, then The Aviator was his first all-star performance (I thought it should have won Best Picture, though a lot it’s excellence is due to Cate Blanchett), though he was also terrific in Catch Me if You Can. I never really felt like with him it was a growing up thing, I just always thought he picked terrible movies. Haven’t seen Blood Diamond, guess I’ll have to procure it.
great call on deuce biggggggz. recently watched it again, holds up quite well.
HOWARD LET’S GO FLYING