The most important movie in the last 5 years, and why?!

My pick is ....

The Pursuit Of Happyness




Just so many reasons why this movie's important today. Anybody that ever has been terrified of raising kids this true story will show what a focused decisive hard working mind is capable of. Imo should be required viewing in high schools especially since so many teenagers today get pregnant, and the tiniest fraction of them will be real parents.

The movie never pulls any punches, shows what a thorough grind parenting can be, and can literally motivate you in this most desensitized age. The movie shows thru hard work & diligence happiness is attained, sacrifice unavoidable, and shows a normal ungifted man in how he did it with strength.

Could you explain what "most important..." is supposed to mean. Like, important for whom or for what?

Just a little unclear... I have heard the expression but never truely got what it meant other than "important to the world of film". Mind explaining?

Actually thats up to you. Some may wish to say somethings important to cinema, some may choose one most important to them, and some may try an one-up my post, or yours, or who knows?! It could be something not thought about. Its more fun if your unhindered.

I thought the movie pulled several punches, by not showing the guy's drug habit and what a neglectful father he was in real life. But it depends how accurate you think movies should be to real life.

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I think Tetro is important, because it shows that artists with integrity do still work in the film industry. Although it isn't a commercial success, I think it will be recognized for its achievements a few decades from now.

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Yep required viewing there

An interesting question, Tongo; I'm sure lots of folks who are really into the latest movies will come up with some interesting suggestions.

As most participants know, modern films aren't exactly my forte. But off the top of my head, I'd say the most important film in actually going beyond the usual Hollywood box and generating discussion of an important subject in our culture would be Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Certainly it had to be the most discussed film in the last 5 years. Personally, I didn't care for it. Seemed to move at a glacial pace, but maybe that's because the story and characters didn't engage me. That the two main characters had a homosexual relationship didn't bother me; that they couldn't get me to care what happened to them did. The switch-hitter was particularly irritating to me. I mean, get in one line or the other, fella! I've always suspected that folks claiming to be bi-sexual are trying to legitimize the fact they'll f**k anything that moves. They'd do a snake if someone would hold it steady for them.

My own favorite film of the last 5 years was Mama Mia! in 2008. I never cared for Abba when they were getting all that earlier radio play, and I hate disco. So it was a pleasant surprise that I throughly enjoyed this movie. It's importance to the history of film was non-existant; and it didn't have a damn thing to "say" to movie goers. So, shoot me, I liked it.

Maybe it was because six of the main performers on screen were at least close to my own age--and looked it. Now it was a rare movie in that sense!

Without question the answer is...


Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Besides starring the greatest comic genius of this or any era, Rob Schneider, it is the finest example of refined comic wit since Oscar Wilde croaked. I'm sure it will be a template used by scholars and critics for decades to come of exactly what cinema is capable of at its loftiest heights.

Huzzah!

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I'm going to say Moon. It is an ambitious story with little to no cgi special effects done old school with a tiny budget. Also Sam Rockwell gives a phenomenal performance.

I'll go with The Fall. Directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Lee Pace and the amazing Catinca Untaru this is a visually the best movie I have ever seen. It's one of those movies where you have to see it in the theaters cause your tv can't do it justice. Plus, it has no special effects in it, which makes the visuals all the more amazing. I have a feeling Avatar will be a good contender when it comes out, but till then, The Fall wins in my book.

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Important? I'm not sure about that but two of my favorites were Up! and Gran Torino, for showing that you can't always judge a book by its cover, and people's capacity for change.

I realize that this is a question open to ridicule because how can anyone look down at the current state of filmmaking (from a God's Eye View) and look into the future to decide what films could be the most-significant and perhaps the most-important of the last five years? I tend to look to animation as being the guiding force for new things, but I have to admit that I don't believe that any of my fave animated films actually really punctured the envelope of filmmaking in the last five years. I know that there are those who believe that The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford qualifies as visionary filmmaking, but to me it was all done about 35 years earlier by Sam Peckinpah in half the time, and personally, I didn't really think that much of it then either.

Mel Gibson even got to stick his nose into this situation, no matter what you think of him as a human being. His Apocalypto was just as unique as his The Passion of the Christ, even if it doesn't have to carry as heavy a cross as the box-office behemoth. Look, whatever you think of Gibson, there's no way he could orchestrate a "racist snuff movie" into one of the most-popular films ever made all by himself. Now, Apocalypto could also be considered to be something very similar, even if the alleged S&M rituals have been turned into a historical fiction adventure, but this time, Native Americans are on Gibson's side.

My brother's mind was blown by P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood and it is a highly-individual, completely-unpredictable experience, basically about the American Dream. The lead character seems to know that he needs to have things, income in lieu of any human communication, although there are a few moments where that seems to not be the case.

Now, maybe that's very significant, but what about Paul Greengrass's United 93? Greengrass is already accepted as an action/thriller specialist with the last two Bourne flicks, but the most significant date of our new millenia is 9/11 and United 93 paints it in a completely new way, fitting for the 2000s. I realize that some people cannot bear to watch it, but I find it difficult to believe that a more honest and searing film about 9/11 will ever be made, so maybe ya'all should take a look at it. Our very own MovieForums is overrun with threads which seem to lead back to 9/11 and what this film details as an incident, if not an actual rationale, is both moving, thought-provoking and apparently about the new American Dream (the idea that we don't have to worry about terrorism).

Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men certainly presented film as an extended medium. The movie contained so many long shots (albeit they were augmented with digital F/X to seem even more spectacular) that it did present itself as a calling card for a new way of telling a story. Being sci-fi, the film seemed to carry the concept of 9/11 and AIDs/new diseases into the future where the world may well very be at total war against itself and incapable of reproducing a single human child. Once again, unpredictability rules the day, although since we spend our time in Great Britain, that nation's prog rock (King Crimson and Pink Floyd) seem to have the most power.

Historical war films can also be seen as visionary during the past five years. Pan's Labyrinth seemed to tell a completely new fairy tale where little girls have to grow up before they can even grasp what it is to learn how to do what's right. The aftermath of the Spanish Civil War seems to disrupt the innocent life of a young girl who completely lives a life of fantasy, at least until she's forced to do what's right for her family. The story isn't really all that shocking for people who remember how horrible Grimm's Faerie Tales truly are, but considering the fact that the tragic ending of the film is shown right at the very beginning, what chance does our newer generation of children have to ever be able to stay children long enough to learn what they need to fight the real monsters, let alone the fairy tale kind?

Another visionary film based on wartime reality was Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima. This was intended to be the latter-half of a diptych including Flags of Our Fathers, but Iwo Jima is far more artistic in its use of faded cinematography, making an American film completely in a foreign language (oh wait a sec, Gibson did that with his last two films!), trying to tell the story of an "enemy" (although people who consider Japan an enemy of the U.S., other than financial, which is our own fault, need to get a grip). Now, I'll be the first to say that I do not believe that Eastwood was trying to trailblaze a genre where Americans try to placate our current enemies (post 9/11), but I'll be the first to say that if it were possible to win hearts and minds by filmmaking propaganda to NOT become violent and kill, then I'll applaud Eastwood and some of these other filmmakers listed here. Remember, I've heard for years how all the negative propaganda works, so you tell me, why won't positive propaganda work towards the opposite outcome?


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Well, I've been babbling for quite a while now, so what do I believe is the most-important film of the last five years? If push comes to shove, I believe that I'll have to go with a film which taught mainstream filmmakers and mainstream filmwatchers to appreciate a story told in a completely unconventional way, at least as long as it grabbed you by your human throat and made you feel for the person you were watching. That film would be Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Maybe this is a film which had to be based on a true story because the human mind outside of this specific situation could never grasp what such a person would have to go through to try to communicate. It's amazing how what seems to be so anti-cinematic can be turned into something so amazingly new and real in cinema. I have to admit that I don't even like Schnabel's other films, but here he proves himself to be the right person to make a film about the right person, no matter how hopeless the whole thing seems to be. I applaud all those involved in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for having the guts, the heart and the spirit to make a movie which will undoubtedly influence many filmmakers in the future and make it easier for those who are truly visionary to get their ideas across to a larger audience. I pick this film because I still believe that the individual is the basis of a free society and therefore obviously the strongest building block to keep us free, not only as individuals but as a society.

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Great post Mark. My choice for the best film of the last five years goes to There Will Be Blood, but as for most important that depends as what is considered important changes from person to person. Your choice is a pretty good one, by the way, and your reasons fit the topic.

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Yes it was a great post Mark. United 93 is on my short list to see. I can't wait.

Well, since Lynch`s Mulholland dr. is 9 years, old, I will have to chose the infamous ( and gruesome to the french critics ) von Trier`s Antichrist. Some of you are still thinking, why the hell would someone mention this movie again ? Well, it is very contraversial, insulting, disgusting, pure evil, and those are the main reasons why I like it, and why I think it`s the most important film in the last 5 years. Now, I can`t remember when was the last time that a film like this was shown at any major festival, when somebody had the nerd to record a film so creatively and so freely like von Trier did in Antichrist. Maybe, and I hope it does, this film will be a breakthrough and inspire filmmakers, young and old, to make like they would like. Yeah, I`m a bit and optimist, but I hope that films in the future will be better, and more like the works of old filmmakers, back like in the days, films were trying to make a point.

The Dark Knight = Looks Beautiful , Acting is suberb (heath ledger) , No Special Effects

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Up and Gran Torino were two of the newer movies that I also liked very well, Prospero. Good choices you made there.

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The Dark Knight for me. As good as Batman Begins was I think the Dark Knight completely rebooted the Batman franchise and showed us that Comic book/ Superhero movies can have a certain level of realism and relevance, particularly in the post 9/11 climate. Not too mention the fact that it gave us Heath Ledger's Joker.

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In terms of importance, as in, everybody should watch and try to understand the film - A History Of Violence. I can't think of any other film that has given such an accurate, disturbing and poignant depiction on the nature, hierarchy, cause and effects of violence. The film does in 90 mins what Michael Haneke has been trying to do (unsuccessfully) in a decade. It completely changed how I perceived violence and it's that type of reading that can be applied to any contemporary topic or even your own lives. How necessary is violence given the situation?

This is tough because there have been very few good “big” films released in the past five years. Fewer still are new films of artistic value that contribute to overall film making evolution or that are socially important films. Those that are among the best are also those with the smallest budgets – and many I am sure I have not discovered as of yet.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – nough said.

Bronson (2008) – for its significant display of an abusive prison system in a supposedly civilized country. Bronson is a film that can be watched now, fifty years from now, five hundred years from now – and still have something significant to say on a social level.

The Fountain (2006) – for those who love the esoteric. I consider this to be a significant work of art both visually and intellectually.

Cloverfield (2008) – for its “fresh” application of the video documentary gimmick and just because it was so damn well done.

Sin City (2005) – for artistic value and advances in film making technique.

I would list The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). I loved the photography in this movie, but that is not why it is important. It is important because of its original psychological caricatures of Jesse James and Bob Ford. This, however, seems to only be important to about a dozen people or so (judging from sales). The script is what actually makes this film an important artwork – the visuals are simply beautiful and not necessarily important.

The Fall (2006) – looks very interesting. I will have to buy that one. I have not seen it yet, but it looks both visually stunning and to have a really interesting tale to it. Furthermore, how this film was made makes it important; shot out of pocket by the director and filmed in over 20 countries in a four year period. Sounds like a pure work of art to me.

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