making a list (and checking it twice)
I’ve been reading High Fidelity and it has reminded me of the simple, boyish pleasure of compiling “top 5″ lists. At the end of every year I like to try and pick the best books, movies and music I’ve discovered that year. But until the other day I had turned my nose up at all the “top 50 whatevers of the decade” lists that were popping up everywhere I looked. I like end of year lists and I like all time lists, but decade lists just seemed unnecessary and random.
But then I read Zoomtard’s delightful romp through his favourite movies of the last decade. And it got my list-maker whirring. And I realised on reflection that decade lists make more sense given the way I now engage with pop culture. When I was a student, I tried to keep up with new music and movies as they came out, and my end of year lists would have consisted mostly of newish releases. Now, with a house full of kids, I catch up with new albums and new films just whenever I can get round to it, which is sometimes two or three years later. So looking back on the “best of the decade” suits my middle-aged, behind-the-times, consumption of pop culture.
So first, here are the movies (I’ll do the music tomorrow). I tried to be honest and left out critically adored movies which I appreciated but didn’t love (like No Country For Old Men, The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation). These are the ten movies which I loved most deeply, which really stirred me and delighted me and floored me, and lingered in the memory. I haven’t tried to rank the ten so the order is chronological:
Memento (2000)
Traffic (2000)
The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Hidden/Caché (2005)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
Juno (2007)
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
There were some brilliant documentaries which kept trying to force themselves into the list, so to keep them quiet I made them their own list. My five favourite documetaries from this decade:
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Spellbound (2002)
The Fog of War (2003)
Grizzly Man (2005)
King of Kong (2007)
I’ll be happy to make a passionate defense of my choices if you want to question my taste and cultural illiteracy and lack of basic human decency. But I’d also like to hear what you would include that I’ve left out. I’m aware that there are some widely-praised movies I haven’t got round to seeing yet, including Children of Men, The Lives of Others, Gran Torino, and The Dark Knight. What other gems have I missed out??
WhyNotSmile says:
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Shrek
Sarah Matichuk says:
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:38 pm
hmmm. Interesting list. I agree with you on the Royal Tanenbaums and Lost in Translation. Both interesting, I appreciated them, but did not love them. Memento and Traffic: both great, but they would definitely lose out. Brokeback Mountain had some good stuff but overall was kind of too melodramatic for me. I did love Lars and the Real Girl, Juno, and and the Lord of the Rings. The jury is still out on Eternal Sunshine. Will have to check out the others.
Top ten of the decade would be a good project though I definitely have lots to catch up on.
Here are some of my favorites that would at least make it to the short list: Monsoon Wedding (2001), Spanglish (2004), Mostly Martha (2001), Pieces of April (2003), Whale Rider (2002), Gosford Park (2001).I would probably have to include either Zoolander or Shaun of the Dead. Movies that make me laugh that much are needed in my life.
jaybercrow says:
December 26th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
WhyNotSmile – I’m tempted to do another separate list for kids’ movies and animations, since I’ve probably seen more of those recently. Off the top of my head, great kids’ movies of the decade included Shrek, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Curious George and Horton Hears a Who. I haven’t seen Wall-E or Ratatoille yet though.
Sarah – loved hearing your thoughts, and I love how personal responses to movies can be. I liked Monsoon Wedding, Whale Rider and Gosford Park but none of them would trouble my top ten. I hated Zoolander. And I haven’t seen the others yet. I have to get round to watching Shaun of the Dead soon…
Onefineday says:
December 27th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
JM,
Some nice choices there. Not always obvious either, which makes for some interesting consideration. The question rearing it’s ugly head is with regards to Brokeback – the film for me looked beautiful, it was heartfelt but somehow left me cold. Perhaps I have a lot of evangelical, middle class baggage which pre-conditioned my judgement, though we’ll never know.
Anyways, I have included some foreign language wonders, lo-fi gems and independent diamonds for your consideration…
This Is England
Junebug
Lonesome Jim
The Class
The Station Agent
Munich
Nothing, earth-shattering, but exquisite in their own right.
Peace at the end of 2009.
Mark says:
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:20 am
Yes you should for sure check out Shaun of the Dead and probably Hot Fuzz as well, although it’s probably not quite as good.
you’ve got some great movies there – particularly memento and lars and the real girl – also how about these for contenders – Best in Show, Amelie, Walk the Line, Little Miss Sunshine
and i’ll try and refrain from telling you all to please stop enjoying the Lord of the Rings movies and go read the book – like Peter Jackson should have done.