Aerothorn on 4/12/2009 at 20:31

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It's most definitely a British thing. Never heard anybody in the USA say this and haven't read it in any American publication but I've heard it a fair bit during my time over here.

If they call it anything, Americans are more likely to just say "the zeroes" (or "the 00s" in text form).

Also, I am willing to accept henke's argument because I'm bored out of my mind, so a list is forthcoming. Knowing me, this will take at least an hour.

demagogue on 4/12/2009 at 20:59

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Ok, let me look back over my list. I don't feel like ranking them, so I'll just list my favorites in alphabetical order. Number one is The Prestige, though.

Amélie, Chacolat, Eternal Sunshine..., Everything is Illuminated, Eurotrip, Gladiator, Goodbye Lenin, The History Boys, Hotel Rwanda, King Kong, Little Miss Sunshine, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Lives of Others, Lost in Translation, Match Point, Memento, Molière, Mulholland Dr., No Country for Old Men, The Painted Veil, Pan's Labyrinth, The Prestige, Shaun of the Dead, Spirited Away, Syriana, The World's Fastest Indian

Aerothorn on 4/12/2009 at 21:47

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I'll preface this only by saying that this is intended as a list of my subjective enjoyment more than any sort of objective quality. Rankings are at least somewhat arbitrary as I love all these films. I'm doing twenty because this is more about highlighting films than simply naming the cream of the crop. Without further ado:

20. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer: I was greatly surprised by how much I liked this. Visually spectacular, particularly the "realistic" portrayals of the slums of Paris, engaging performances, and an absolutely perfect ending. The closest thing to a traditional horror film to appear on this list.

19. The Weather Man: Most of the films on this list I've seen multiple times; this, I have only seen once, and thus should really view again. It's hard to say why I liked it as much as I did, as it's a relatively traditional family draw, yet it somehow managed to be (to me) quite poignant. The pitch-black humor and Nicholas Cage actually getting a role that suits his talents are both bonuses.

18. The Woodsman: I've never seen the play this is based on, but I can only imagine this does it justice. A very risky film that manages to thoughtfully engage the viewer on a subject (pedophilia) that is emotionally loaded to say the least. Great performances all around, but the surprising standout is Mos Def as the protagonist's parole officer. Ambiguous enough to reward a second viewing and a great conversation starter.

17. Paranoid Park: I've never seen any other Gus Van Sant film, though this is now something I plan on correcting. I generally don't take as well to slow, understated art films as most film buffs I know, but this cuts right through the pretension normally associated with such affairs, and is almost like a present-day incarnation of Italian Neorealism, with the film shot on location using (with one small exception) a cast of non-professional actors. The decision to go with a 4:3 aspect ratio is a brave one and ultimately a good call. This film does everything it needs to do without being a minute too long.

16. The Man Who Wasn't There: I've known a number of people who didn't like this film at all. I can see why, but I've always loved this. Apart from standard compliments (great performances blah blah blah) I've never quite been able to explain why this captured me as much as it did, so I guess I'll just let this one sit here.

15. The Specials: A radical departure from the art-house type films ranked lower on the list, but no less awesome. This is basically the film that Mystery Men wanted to be. An excellent ensemble comedy that combines just the right amount of gross-out humor (Thomas Hayden Church's speech descripting a metaphorical urination in a prostitute should go down as one of the great scenes in cinematic history) with a suprisingly level of warm gooey feel-goodness comradely about BEING SPECIAL. Also, <3 Paget Brewster.

14. Best in Show: I can't honestly pick my favorite of the decade's three Christopher Guest comedies without viewing them back-to-back, but rightly or wrongly I remember this as my favorite. Dog shows are the perfect target, and Fred Willard and Jim Piddock are the best comedy team since....since I don't know who.

13. Adaptation: A film that never *quite* meets its ambitions, but gets pretty damn close. This tries to be a lot of things at once: a dry comedy, an adaptation of The Orchid Thief, an accessible Hollywood movie, a parody of the advice of Robert McKee. In the end it works better on a meta-level than a straight viewing (particularly the finale), but is still a blast. Before this film, I wasn't sure Nicholas Cage could really act: he put that doubt to rest with his brilliant double-role in this. And then proceeded to do a string of mostly awful movies. Le sigh.

12. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: This was met with a fair bit of dissapointment, both by critics and by fans of Wes Anderson's previous work. And I really think I get why. For various reasons, I don't think it's his good as his first three films. But at the end of the day I'm an Anderson whore, I love what he does, and this films has so many visual splendors, quotable lines, and outright awesome scenes to make me still love it. Ping Island Lighting Strike reminds one of my favorite pieces of film music.

11. Spirited Away: A somewhat Disneyfied dub aside, I still feel (against all arguements to the contrary) that this is a marvelous family film in the true sense of the word. It manages to have a lot of content/ideas that are really weird to Western audiences (all the Shinto spirits etc.) yet remains accessible. As with all Miyazaki films, the artwork is beautiful. Bonus points for the soot balls.

10. Millenium Actress: I need to give this a second viewing before I can really run it head-to-head with Spirited Away, so they end up next to eachother here. It has a fairly serious flaw in that the middle third stretches too much; it gets an idea and proceeds to pursue it rather reptitively for 40 minutes. This turned off the people I was watching it with. I get why. But I still think it's immense fun, has a great sense of humor, and serves as a brilliant ode to/parody of Japanese cinema through the ages. One of my favorite film scores.

9. Fantastic Mr. Fox: Prior to seeing this, I'd seen all of Wes Anderson's five films multiple times. I thought I knew what to expect. But it surprised me in a lot of ways, not least of which being the creative ways it straddled the line between "comedic family film" and "adult family drama." At the end of the day it's not a huge change for Anderson, but is a definite improvement over The Darjeeling Limited and an excellent entry point to Anderson's work. The fact that it (in my humble opinion) improves on its source material while staying true to its spirit makes this a throughly successful adaptation. Beautiful animation and some refreshing out-right weirdness round out this gem.

8. Lost in Translation: I get the impression that this has experience something of a backlash since it became the critical darling of 2003; why this is, I'm not quite sure, though I suspect that it has to do with a fear that many would try to emulate the film's style (as Coppola herself did somewhat in Marie Antoinette). This film is elevated from being simply a very good film by two things: Bill Murray, and the fact that this film avoids the obvious and tempting ending.

7. O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Strangely, more successful as a soundtrack than it was as a film. And make no mistake, the soundtrack is truly phenomenal, but this is also the Coens at the top of their game, and everything that applies to their best films can be said about this one. No scene is wasted, no laugh unearned.

6. Bubba Ho-Tep: I am delighted that Bruce Campbell had a vehicle good enough to earn itself a place on this list, but he was ultimately outstaged by a truly phenomenal performance by then-85 Ossie Davis. Thank god he told his agents to fuck off when they tried to prevent him from doing this "degrading" picture. Successfully takes the best of the many genres it occupies and has the perfect balance of camp and verisimilitude, a seeming contradiction.

5. A Serious Man: The film most likely to move around on this list, given that I only saw it a little over a month ago: I need a second viewing to fully appreciate it. As much as I enjoyed it in the theatre, I liked it more and more as I thought about it. I hate to describe a film as "deep," particularly one as overtly philosophical as A Serious Man, but I don't really have a better word for it. One of the few Coen Brothers films that defys genre, and ultimately for the better. Combines a memorable opening with a memorable ending.

4. Ghost World: Something of a touchstone for me in terms of both indie cinema and adaptations, as this is one of the only things I can think of where the film is not only as good as the book, but compliments it rather than simply overriding it. People rightly took notice of Scarlett Johanssen with this film, and it's unfortunate she hasn't ever had a chance to do a comparable role. Something I want to share with all my girlfriends. Wow, that doesn't sound right.

3. Primer: The kind of the puzzle film, and the greatest argument I know of against the idea that one needs a big budget to make a good movie. Commenting on the film's $7000 budget, Roger Ebert wrote: "The movie never looks cheap, because every shot looks as it must look." The fact the Shane Carruth not only wrote such a brilliant script but also played the central character and composed a surprisingly good score is enough to shrink my ego a few sizes.

2. Donnie Darko: If anyone is going to spend the time to argue with my picks, I suspect this will draw the most ire. Donnie Darko has had quite the backlash in recent years, as people have focused largely on the angst and (supposedly unearned) pretension of its plot. This was not helped by Kelly's director's cut, which shoved supernatural meta-babble in the viewer's face; nor by his unpopularar successor films and the subsequent overexposure of Jake Gyllenhaal. Ultimately, I feel that these people are missing the boat; the time-travel is a red herring, simply a fanciful device to make a combo coming-of-age film/80s cultural examination. To me, this is an eminent example of dramedy, where the humor and the pathos blur to the point of being inseperable (A Serious Man also does this very well). Holmes Osborne plays quite possibly my favorite film dad.

1. The Royal Tenembaums: Did I say Donnie Darko would be the most contentious choice? What was I thinking? This is truly a love-it-or-hate it film. It's been my favorite film for years, and so I could write a lengthy essay on what I think it does right. But to put it shortly, I love this film on a micro level as much as a macro one. I love every shot, every line of dialog. There are no missteps for me, and this is the closest thing I've seen to some sort of platonic ideal of The Perfect Film. This is not to announce it as an objective masterpiece: it, even moreso than Anderson's earlier films, is not for everyone, or perhaps even most people. It's quirky, it's maybe even twee; the fact that it doesn't have a strong narrative thrust in the traditional sense doesn't help. But at the end of the day, this film can do no wrong in my eyes: the fact that I consider Gene Hackman's performance as Royal to be one of the great performances of cinema is simply icing on the cake.

Aerothorn on 4/12/2009 at 22:31

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Man, do we have to do this in this thread? The whole "the things you like are objectively bad what is wrong with you" song and dance? I mean, sure, that's standard fare in TTLG opinion-swapping, but this topic seems more geared towards positive experiences with films of the decade, maybe even some recommendation swapping (though I thought my caveat made it clear that that's not what I was doing).

I mean, if we're going to get critical, there's a big difference between breaking down your own negative experiences with the film and throwing around terms like "lazy writing." The drive-by nature of your post indicates you don't really give a damn - so why post it at all?

Aerothorn on 4/12/2009 at 22:47

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Oddly enough, I've owned that film for a full year now without having seen it. I fully expect to enjoy it; it just seems like the sort of film best watched with company and it seems that everyone I know has seen it.