The MoFo Top 100 of the 2000s Countdown

There you go. Activate head shaking.

Oh and you were soooo close, man. So pair that head shaking with a bit of boogie for two great guesses

Thank you Jesus. We are starting to gain traction here.

Mystic River was my number 2, and one of my favorite movies of all time. We started to gain some ground when Fantastic Mr. Fox and yes Quills showed (even though I still have it grief when it placed), but this has elevated it to a whole new level of goodness.

Strange I didn't think of Serious Man, because I've seen it before but it wasn't fresh in my head.

While I generally love The Coens, A Serious Man is far from a favorite of mine. I’ve seen lots of their movies several times but this one only once. So I’m definitely gonna give it another go down the line…

I remember really liking Mystic River, but it’s probably one of the first Eastwood-directed films I saw. Currently I’m on a road to complete all of his directorial work, so I’ll probably end up revisiting this one at some point. I didn’t vote for it, because it’s so vague in my memory (that is, vague as a film and not vague as a memory. I definitely remember some things from it because it’s so dark and filled with emotion).

Anyway, I’m glad to see Clint on the list. Always. To me, he’s one of the biggest in cinema history. How he became so respected as an actor AND as a director, having made several pictures in both categories. That’s beyond admirable. What a legend.

I truly love Clint. I’ll be very sad when he pass away. While it has mostly happened in my later years, Clint has officially become “my Arnold” or “my Stallone”. You know… that one actor that is the star of the picture in such a way that you are willing to watch anything with the guy. He IS the movie. That’s how it is for me and mr. Eastwood. What a screen presence.

Sorry for rambling, especially since he doesn’t star in this entry. But I’m sure he’ll pop up as an actor on this list as well. And hopefully as a director too. One’s not enough.

I haven't seen Mystic River, but I have seen A Serious Man and that film was #7 on my ballot. Here's what I wrote on it a while ago:

This film opens with a prologue set sometime in the 1800's. In it, a Jewish man returns home to tell his wife that he met one of her acquaintances named Reb Groshkover during his trip home, only to learn from her that he's been dead for some time. Reb shows up at their house and is questioned by both of them only to get stabbed by the wife as he walks away into the darkness. Is he really dead or was the wife mistaken? Like the film which succeeds this scene, we get no clear answers. In this film, physics professor Larry Gopnik's life begins to unravel due to a number of misfortunes and incidents. He sees several rabbis in the hopes that they can provide him with answers but even they can't help him. This makes the film a parallel to the Book of Job as both characters question why they're being punished. Unlike Job, however, Larry is unable to find any answers to his misfortunes. Due to this, the film becomes much more than a simple allegory about faith in God and more so about the uncertainty in whether Larry's misfortunes were caused by God or if they were just a series of coincidences. If you apply the Schrodinger's cat paradox which Larry touches on during one of his lectures, both of these are possibilities since there's no evidence to back up either of them. Uncertainty also resides in many of the trials he encounters throughout the film. For instance, did Clive really bribe Larry or did the money get on his desk another way? Is Arthur as useless as he seems at first glance or is he really a misunderstood genius? Is Sy the one who wrote the defamatory letters to the tenure review board or is someone else responsible? Larry doesn't know the answers to any of these questions. All he can do is guess. Once things begin to look up for him near the end, the film suddenly delivers an unexpected curveball to the audience at the end, one that lingers long after the credits. It's anticlimactic, but intentionally so. Overall, this is a smart film which elevates the simple faith in crisis premise to a much more transcendent level.

1. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (#78)
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7. A Serious Man (#66)
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23. Sunshine (#88)
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25. The New World (#99)

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Hint breakdown...

Ta-ta

Just the one doughnut for me to munch down today as I'm pretty sure I've never seen A Serious Man. I have seen Mystic River though and it was another that was briefly in contention for a spot on my ballot.

Seen: 23/36 (Own: 17/36)


Faildictions (millennial edition v1.01):
64. The Pianist (2002)
63. Synecdoche, New York (2008)

I watched Mystic River for a Hall of Fame (Personal Recommendation maybe?) awhile ago and I thought it was really good. It was on my shortlist initially, but my "shortlist" was something like 130 movies long and since I'd only seen it once (maybe twice? I'd seen at least some bits and pieces prior to that) it got cut pretty early on.

I haven't seen A Serious Man and can't say I have any real desire to change that.

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