BEST MOVIES OF… the decade!
Yeah, another decade is coming to a close. It seems like that tends to happen: days come, they go, and they come again. Like the tide, right, or some other tired awful metaphor. At the end of the day we all give thanks for what fortunes befell us and what evils we managed to avoid, among those being the films we watched. It being the end of another damned ten years of films, some terrible, some brilliant, some totally forgettable, I figured I should, like any passionate critic, release the official WELLS OLIVER BEST OF THE 2000s. The aughts. That’s what we’re calling them, right? The aughts? Anyway.
Choosing this list was hard, narrowing it down harder. It started as an email thread among myself and a couple of good friends. I had 22 films at first cut, then down to 14, then to 11 and I couldn’t cut the final one. Just couldn’t. But, like a champion, like the tireless fighter I am, I managed to size it down to just ten. And, because the people demanded it, here they are.
10 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Charlie Kaufman sort of won the decade as the Most Talked About Writer (though perhaps the honor should have gone to Guillermo Arriaga) – and he cerainly did a lot of good work, some of it rendered very well (Adaptation) and some of it handled poorly (Human Nature), but the director of the latter joined with him again to create one of the most memorable films, well, ever. I must confess that I do very much buy Jim Carrey as the everyman – I saw Truman Show seven times, could see it again – and he’s wonderful(ly restrained) here. His bottled mania conveys some genuine sadness and at times desperation, and teamed with Kate Winslet, one of the best actors around, the two romp through this hazy, melancholy dream of Gondry and Kaufman’s.
9 Memento
For some this film took a stylistic choice into the realm of gimmick, but for my money it’s one of the more creatively told stories we’ve seen on film and gave unto the world a fine talent in Christopher Nolan. There’s also something horrifying and existential at work here in Leonard’s daily struggle to find a sense of self that undercuts everything in the movie and elevates it far beyond a simple story of revenge. This thing would have given Kafka chills. It’s this particular vibe/theme that has held in my mind for months, even years after seeing the film- still, almost ten years later, I find myself thinking over Leonard’s terrible dilemma.
8 The Pianist
OK I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is by far the best movie about the Holocaust. Adrien Brody is absolutely brilliant, haunting- basically, deserved of every kind of critical cliche you could throw out there, and the world Roman Polanski creates here is unrivaled. And yeah, while you throw the Holocaust into any movie and it will surely grab the attention of the Academy – look at the success of The Reader – this one’s truly a beautiful and lasting movie.
7 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Before No Country for Old Men, this was the first Cormac McCarthy movie made. Not that it was based on any book of his, but it captured the spirit of so many: a lonely quest for redemption in an unforgiving landscape. I think this is the best story by Guillermo Arriaga, who also penned Amores Perros, Babel, and 21 Grams. This deserves all the recognition of those better known films, if not more. Superb direction and performance from Tommy Lee Jones as well, who is no stranger to McCarthy. Trailer.
6 Donnie Darko
This was the second best debut by a promising filmmaker we saw this decade- though if Southland Tales and The Box are a sign of things to come, maybe it’s a fluke. It perfectly captures and distills the essence of the best 80s movies while weaving together an incredibly original story of teen angst, time travel, and the motherloving apocalypse. Just pitch-perfect. The only caveat here would be avoid the director’s cut: it reintroduces unnecessary elements and changes the music, which really alters some of the brilliance of this picture.
5 Cache
Haneke manages like no other to make your skin crawl while maintaing the most austere, almost nihilistic tone. He did it with Code: Unknown in 2000 and here perfects it with Cache. A married couple receives video after video of what essentially is surveillance of their own home. What follows is a quiet treatise on the consequences of what we keep to ourselves. Haneke’s new film – The White Ribbon – looks like a marked departure in what’s become his trademarked style. Here’s hoping it’s an evolution in this brilliant career. Trailer.
4 Oldboy
This DVD sat around my apartment for almost a month before I finally watched it and I can’t tell if I was missing out or saving up. This is one of the more insane quests for revenge you will ever see. It’s part two of Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy, and certainly the best. A man is imprisoned without reason and after fifteen years manages to escape. What follows can only be described as the most bad-assed lunacy you will ever witness on film, anchored by a relentlessly intense performance from Min-sik Choi. It’s totally captivating. The sad part of this film is that’s being remade by Hollywood, and so likely ruined. SEE THE ORIGINAL. You will not regret it- in fact, see the whole trilogy. Trailer.
3 George Washington
I guess the knock on David Gordon Green is that he’s (just) the Terrence Malick of our generation (Pineapple Express notwithstanding). This doesn’t sound like much of a knock to me. Certainly George Washington borrows from Malick’s quiet discomfort, but it’s something all to itself as well, and Green will be hard-pressed to top his debut. A sad, surreal tale of figuring your way in the world, if it’s at all possible. Trailer.
2 City of God
One of the best executed films, well, ever, and probably the second best adaptation of a novel (bowing only to The Shining). Combines the dazzling story of rival crime bosses in the slums of Rio de Janeiro with the story of one of its residents, a kid by the name of Rocket who watches it all go down through the lens of his camera as he dreams about a better future. It’s one of those films that elevates its locale to a character all to itself, and the life and times of the Rio slums are not something you will ever forget. This is a crime picture to rival the best of Scorsese, De Palma, and anyone else.
1 Mulholland Drive
Almost indescribable. Part fantasy, part nightmare, every bit David Lynch’s best work. I saw this movie shortly after moving to Seattle in 2001 and I still recall walking home from the Landmark Guild on 45th in a haze that wasn’t just the fog. David Lynch doesn’t worry about making narrative movies- he does with film what the greats seem to do with music: he hits you at some level beyond what language can articulate. With scenes like this and this, Mulholland Drive is just something you will never forget, and a film that will be very hard to top. In fact, just now writing about this movie is making my soul go all funny.
Honorable mention
Man on Wire, Talk to Her, Tarnation, A Serious Man, Brick, Inglourious Basterds, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Eastern Promises, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.