A-List: The Ten Best Movies of the 2000s, Part Two
By Josh Spiegel
November 26, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
As I mentioned last week, this is part of a four-week A-List series; this week and last week, I'm going over my picks for the top ten films of the past deacde. The next two weeks will go over my picks for the top ten television shows of the past decade. Also, as I mentioned last week, this list is representative of my opinion only. Next year, around this time, Box Office Prophets will present its own Best Of lists, which I'll be participating in; until that time, you've got these lists to tide you over, so any hate mail or e-mails of praise should focus solely on me. That said, I'm figuring it'll be more hate mail than anything else, but that's what you get for championing Steve Carell and Batman next to Alfonso Cuaron and Joel & Ethan Coen.
I went over my list of movies on the honorable mention last week, but let's recap my numbers 10-6, in the following descending order: The 40-Year Old Virgin, No Country for Old Men, Children of Men, Ratatouille, and The Dark Knight. The top five films on the list won't really feature any seemingly outlandish choices, considering that you may consider Pixar or comic books outlandish. If, however, you consider arthouse classics as outlandish...well, the list may not please you much. I don't think there will be a lot of argument with some of these choices, but then again, you may prove me wrong. Hoping that I won't have to duck too many proverbial rotten tomatoes being lobbed my way, let's get into my picks for the top five films of the past decade.
5. Mulholland Dr.
Though it is not a film that marks the most accessible David Lynch can be, 2001's weird, wild drama Mulholland Dr. is easily Lynch's best film. Some may champion Blue Velvet, but there's something more haunting, more realistic, more dream-like here. First of all, if I may go out of my way to praise Naomi Watts; as Betty, the lead of Mulholland Dr., a prototypical starstruck farmgirl who's come to Hollywood to be a big star, Watts was a revelation to most American audiences. After this film, she became the star of such entertaining schlock as The Ring and King Kong, but for her best performance, demanding, difficult, and daring, Watts is best here. The plot is not only labyrinthine, but purposely strange; what starts out as a story of Betty trying to figure out the identity of the exotic woman with amnesia who just happened to land in her bathroom after a botched murder attempt turns very, very weird about two-thirds of the way through, right after the lesbian sex scene and before the kooky cabaret scene.
Yes, lesbian sex scenes, kooky cabaret singing, and, oh, by the way, Billy Ray Cyrus in a cameo as a horny blue-collar worker. Did I mention that this is a David Lynch movie? What is most fascinating is that, originally, Lynch intended Mulholland Dr. to be a TV pilot for ABC, much like his initially successful TV show Twin Peaks. ABC passed on this, so Lynch added some material onto the end and turned it into the riveting classic it now is. Most of the movie doesn't make sense, because it's really not supposed to; I can't really explain the significance of the scenes with the hip young film director (played by Justin Theroux) who has to deal with a shifty-eyed and taciturn cowboy who seems to be in control of the movie business, but they're awful cool. If only for the convergence of Theroux and Watts meeting during her audition for his film, the film director's subplot is worth existing. If you have not seen Mulholland Dr., a movie so odd that Lynch demanded no chapters to split scenes up on the DVD, prepare yourself for a unique experience.
4. The Royal Tenenbaums
Yes, Wes Anderson is a divisive figure; some people love his quirk-filled work, and some people hate it. Moreover, having The Royal Tenenbaums on this list, while also acknowledging that I think it's far better than his critically loved Rushmore, may surprise more of you. It's hard to put into words what made this movie work for me, as I saw it during the 2001 holiday season; I was only 17, but something about the meeting of such elements as Robert Yeoman's cinematography, the instantly memorable soundtrack, and Gene Hackman's performance as Royal Tenenbaum, all worked wonders for me. Hackman has delivered great performances before, but in The Royal Tenenbaums, he's as good as he could ever be, as a prickly and selfish patriarch who tries to get his family back together, using his impending death as an excuse. But he might not be dying. Or he might be.
Whatever the truth of that is, the Tenenbaum family is fascinating, and fascinatingly described by narrator Alec Baldwin. There's Richie, the ex-tennis pro (Luke Wilson); Margot, the adopted daughter who's a would-be literary genius (Gwyneth Paltrow); Chas, the neurotic widower (Ben Stiller); and the matriarch, Etheline (Anjelica Huston). Other memorable supporting roles come from Bill Murray, Danny Glover, and co-writer Owen Wilson. Despite being fast-moving, throwing tons of random references at the audience, The Royal Tenenbaums is also fiercely moving, with a truly emotional finale. Here, as in few films of its kind, the tears are deserved. Wes Anderson hasn't hit the same highs since (though I did think The Darjeeling Limited was very underrated), but for The Royal Tenenbaums, he's got an eternal fan in this writer.
3. Pan's Labyrinth
When I first saw Pan's Labyrinth, the 2006 fairy tale/war film from Guillermo Del Toro, I was surprised, to say the least. I knew some of what to expect, mostly revolving around the fairy tale aspects of the movie. A girl named Ofelia, having moved with her pregnant mother to live with her stepfather, a harsh and forbidding captain in the Spanish Civil War, discovers a fantasy world right outside her door. It sounds cheesy, but then, if you're going into this movie expecting something suitable for children, you better run and run fast. Not only is Pan's Labyrinth not just about Ofelia's possibly real, possibly not fantasy world, but it takes a long and compelling look at the rebellion on the other side of the civil war. Pan's Labyrinth is a film of wonder, but it's also a film that remembers how scary and visceral the Grimm Brothers tales can be.
Here is a film that boasts one of the truly icky scenes in recent memory, and a well-earned one, at that: the villainous captain has to...stitch himself up. If you've not seen Pan's Labyrinth, I hesitate to go further, but, in general, this movie is not best for the squeamish. If you've got the stomach for some of the powerful and realistically captured violence, the experience will be worth it. Though Ivana Baquero, as Ofelia, is excellent, the notable performances come from Doug Jones, as the titular Pan and the Pale Man, and Sergi Lopez, as Captain Vidal. Neither are familiar faces or names, but both are commanding on-screen, and fearsome in ways that most movies can't properly get across to audiences. Pan's Labyrinth is joyful, stomach-turning, sad, haunting, exciting, and a movie that demands your immediate perusal, if you've still not seen it.
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Has Jim Carrey ever been better than he is here, in this 2004 romantic dramedy from writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry? What of Kate Winslet, as his romantic lead? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, like most of the movies on my list, is more often a painful experience, a story that yearns to dredge up those painful memories that make up our love lives. The plot is, as in any Kaufman script, unique and complicated; basically, Carrey and Winslet are romantically linked but decide to break it off. Both are so initially infuriated with the other that they separately go to a doctor to have any memories of the relationship erased. But what happens when they both go back through those seemingly unsatisfying memories and realize that they'd rather have the other around than be ignorant?
Carrey, looking surprisingly like Peter Krause with his lengthy haircut and stubble, is quiet and introverted here; later the same year, he'd star in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, in an extremely underrated performance as a wildly extroverted character. Of course, no Oscar love was sent his way. Luckily, Winslet, as the weird, frustrating, sexy Clementine, got an Oscar nod. Her feisty performance stands out not only in the film, but in her filmography. Sterling supporting work came courtesy of Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, and Mark Ruffalo, all of whom work for the medical company erasing the leads' memories; suffice to say, their love lives are as complicated and bitterly tinged. As a meditation on what love is, and whether it's worth all the turmoil, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a titan among films.
1. There Will Be Blood
Much has been appropriately made of this film's lead performance, an emotional, sometimes nutty, and vicious star turn from Daniel Day-Lewis, who appropriately won the 2007 Oscar for Best Actor. But I've seen this movie more than enough times to know it's about far more than just Daniel Plainview dominating everything and everyone; frankly, even the initial viewing makes it clear that writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has more in mind, focusing on religion, capitalism, fathers, sons, brothers, families, and more. What people may not have noticed is that There Will Be Blood also features the crispest, most involving cinematography, a pained lead character with far more depth than it would initially seem, an equally flawed but slimier antagonist in Eli Sunday (Paul Dano, in an underrated performance), and one-of-a-kind sequences. Milkshake, anyone?
Day-Lewis, as an up-and-coming oil magnate who says that all he wants is to make as much money as possible and squash all rivals, manages to bring out all the notes in a seemingly one-note character. Plainview, of course, wants what most people want: acceptance, love, and family, as is made clear during the subplot where he meets his long-lost brother, who may not be all he says. This plot ends violently, with one of the scariest shots of Day-Lewis, but there's a catharsis there in the form of tears; Plainview does something terrible, but does so because he's been lied to by someone who should have known better. He sees himself and his enemies in Eli, a preacher who's as much about money as Daniel is, he sees a potential heir in his adopted son, and he sees all of it fall apart. There Will Be Blood is Paul Thomas Anderson's crowning achievement; there's nothing more to say aside from the last line of the film: I'm finished.