Greetings, Faithful Readers! 2009, a year which has brought us lots of
tragedy (
The Orphan and
The Box) and a few gems (
Every Little
Step and
I Love You, Man), is drawing to its close and I am just one
month away from giving you my full assessment of the year that was. So, in
preparation for the forthcoming BEST OF LIST, I decided to recap for you some
of my favorite films of the past decade (not including 2009, of course, because
the jury is still out and, in some cases, trying to see through those blasted
3-D glasses). Now, I realize fully that some of you out there value my opinions
while others think I am full of the proverbial steaming heap that hit the fan. But
nevertheless, here goes. I hope, at the very least, that you give the titles
unfamiliar to you a shot. They are spectacular!
2000
Unbreakable (Buena Vista)
In 1999, Bruce Willis and a mind-blowing twist-ending to The Sixth
Sense put M. Night Shyamalan on the map. One year later, the director many
compared to Alfred Hitchcock, made his best movie, Unbreakable, and
Bruce Willis once again climbed aboard the train. And a train is exactly what
causes Willis’ character, David Dunn, to give into fate. After surviving a
horrific train crash that claims a hundred lives, David learns that fate has a
very important and noble role for him.
2001
Moulin Rouge (20th Century Fox)
Baz Lurhmann’s dizzying spectacle revived and reinvented the
movie-musical, a Hollywood art form that had, for all practical purposes,
flat-lined! Throw in a sexy and sultry Nicole Kidman, the surprising golden
tenor of Ewan McGregor and an all-you-can-eat-buffet-of-a-soundtrack and you
have movie magic!
Memento (Newmarket Films)
Long before The Dark Knight, writer/director Christopher Nolan was
a force to be reckoned with. And his screenplay for this head-scratcher is one
of the most original works I have ever seen. Guy Pearce stars as brain-damaged
Leonard Shelby, a man who must rely on notes, photos and tattoos to reconstruct
the memory of how his wife was murdered.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line
Cinema)
Peter Jackson’s epic endeavor gave us three straight years of Rings,
Towers and Kings. Jackson’s
Middle Earth masterpiece is engrossing, magical, mystical, and suspenseful. I
have said this on my radio show, The Screening Room, repeatedly and I
mean it. Movies haven’t been the same since Frodo Baggins and his pals left the
cineplex.
2002
Road to Perdition (DreamWorks)
For all its Mafia-inspired intensity and suspense, Sam Mendes’ masterful
crime drama is really a story of a father and his young son and the learning
moments they share while on the run for their lives. Tom Hanks, Paul Newman,
Jude Law and Daniel Craig shine. For me, this is a perfect film.
2003
Whale Rider (Newmarket Films)
Niki Caro’s tale of a young tribal girl (played sensationally by Keisha
Castle-Hughes), who fully realizes her destiny and becomes leader of her Maori
people, is one of the most uniquely inspirational films I have ever seen and it
sports one of the best performances by a young actress ever caught on tape. This
is a truly triumphant film for all ages and will make you weep with both
sadness and joy!
Kill Bill: Volume One (Miramax)
No one tells a story like Quentin Tarantino and this is his BEST story. Uma
Thurman stars as a bride gunned down on her wedding day (I hope she didn‘t
spend a lot on a caterer!). The assailants, her ex-boyfriend Bill and his band
of deadly assassins, leave her for dead. But she’s alive and scribing a hit list
and checking it twice. She’s going to kill those who’ve been naughty instead of
nice. This is raucous fun! **Also watch the fabulous conclusion: Kill Bill:
Volume Two.
In America
(Fox Searchlight)
With this semi-autobiographical film, director Jim Sheridan (The
Boxer, In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot) gives us his most complete,
moving and powerful work. The story of an Irish immigrant who moves his family
of four to Manhattan so he can pursue his dream of becoming an actor is as
reverent to the “American Dream” as it is realistic about it. In America’s plotlines
are simple and familiar. This is a film every American can relate to.
2004
Closer (Sony)
Warning! This is not a date movie! Don’t curl up on the couch with
popcorn and a lover and expect to enjoy this. Mike Nichols’ in-your-face expose
on the pitfalls and myths of true love will challenge you and force you to
examine the nature of your own relationships. Clive Owen, Jude Law, Natalie
Portman and Julia Roberts (in her best performance) serve up brutal honesty
about relationships, infidelity in them and the terrible things humans will do
and say to people they supposedly love.
2005
Crash (Lionsgate)
Director Paul Haggis’ interwoven study of race relations in Los Angeles is a
masterpiece. It’s a star-studded social commentary that is gritty, disturbing
and painfully politically-incorrect. No movie this decade challenged my
personal belief systems more. The performances (specifically by Matt Dillon,
Michael Pena and Sandra Bullock) are superb and the film contains one scene so
harrowing that it truly made my heart stop beating.
Broken Flowers (Focus Features)
Bill Murray is at his best in writer/director Jim Jarmusch’s quirky story
of a womanizer who learns that one of his former girlfriends gave birth to his
son some twenty years ago. Playing the old flames . . . Frances Conroy, Tilda
Swinton, Jessica Lange and Sharon Stone. Subtle humor, subtle performances and
pitch-perfect delivery make this one of the funniest movies of the decade.
2006
V For Vendetta (Warner Brothers)
I’ve never seen a movie quite like James McTeigue’s V For Vendetta. Penned
by the famed Wachowski brothers (who gave us The Matrix), Vendetta paints
a portrait of a world crippled by a culture of fear. Plague has wiped out the
United States. England is the world’s new super power and, consequently,
civilization’s greatest oppressor. One man, V (played by Hugo Weaving), vows to
bring Parliament to his knees and does so in a triumphant display of fireworks,
rebellion and freedom.
2007
Zodiac (Paramount)
David Fincher’s study of the San Francisco Valley’s famed Zodiac Killer
proves that he is the master of the psychological thriller. Jake Gyllenhaal,
Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. shine in this unrelenting hypothesis about
the true identity of a killer never captured. John Carroll Lynch, who steals
the show as creepy prime suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, gives the most frightening
portrayal of a psychopath since Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence
of the Lambs.
2008
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Miramax)
I am rarely stunned and NEVER speechless. But, when the credits rolled on
Mark Herman’s powerful adaptation of John Boyne’s novel, I was both stunned and
speechless. This harrowing tale of friendship set against the backdrop of a
concentration camp in Nazi Germany tells its story through the eyes of a child.
Young Bruno (Asa Butterfield) has no concept of the atrocities being committed
by his Nazi father and the other soldiers around him. But that’s the point. Most
adults can’t conceive such horrors, so how could a child?
