Stevo3001's Top 100 of the 00s

For the 90-100 range, I have put in ten movies I don’t necessarily think are really amongst the best of the decade, but which I like too much not to mention. Unlike the rest, this mix of guilty pleasures, underrated gems, personal choices and super-rewatchable films has not been ranked in order of quality.


91T Beowulf
... Grendel eating heads, ripping people in half...


91T Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
... would have liked the Simpsons movie to deserve this spot, but instead the only Futurama DVD movie that lives up to the great series takes it...


91T Ghost Dog
... the fourth best soundtrack of the decade and the closest thing to a good Wu-Tang Clan movie yet...


91T Interstella 5555
... the third best soundtrack of the decade...


91T Jurassic Park III
... witty and exhilirating and atmospheric, an action movie that, unlike most (and unlike the first two JP films) I can watch over and over...


91T Kansen
... Infection's oozing, sleepy creepiness, with the doctors asleep in the next room narrowly beats out Suicide Club's gleeful student suicides...


91T Looking For Eric
... the nature of self-worth, the importance of football, the meaning of Cantona...


91T My Son My Son What Have Ye Done
... because I met my favorite director after seeing this at the festival... oh and it's some minor but still distinctive and superbly acted Herzog madness...


91T One Week
... Toronto native responds to a diagnosis of cancer and a 10% chance of survival with immediate treatment by buying a motorcycle and heading west across his melancholy, beautiful nation...


91T Planet of the Apes
... I love great apes and could not resist any film in which the evolved chimp marks his assumption of political power with a dominance display... messy, badly acted and saddled with a stupid ending, this is still fun and the most ape-y of ape movies...

The best 90 films of the decade to come...

not judging your list or anything, but i just wanted to ask, isn't ghost dog 1999?

also could you elaborate on what you mean by "closest thing to a good wu tang movie yet."? mystery of chess boxing aka ninja checkmate is pretty cool.

It was released in some places in 99, yes, but others (including the US and the UK, where I was living at the time) in 2000, and I felt that was enough of an excuse for me to sneak it in.

What I meant with 'good wu-tang movie' was 'good wu-tang clan movie', ie the rappers (and to me, that's a really great thing as they are one of the best/most important- and my favourite- bands of the last two decades and they have a distinct identity that always seemed as if it would lend itself well to cinema). Not only is it a fine film with a great soundtrack by the head of the Clan, RZA, it's got that off-key, cold invention and beautiful yet grimy violence of the best Wu-Tang music.

90 Memento
... a good concept, well-thought-out, promising so much more than the director has since delivered...


89 Wo Hu Cang Long
... good enough to open a hemisphere for a genre...


88 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
... Peckinpah with a soul?...


87 Shrek II
... Donkey and Puss are such a hilarious pair of annoying talking animals...


86 Sideways
... 'Don't go over to the dark side'...


85 Un conte de Noël
... The Royal Tenenbaums, if the characters were intriguing, the script witty and there was a palpable sense of unease...


84 Elf
... I love Will Ferrell (shut up!) and Zooey Deschanel and this Christmas candy is one of the very few really good films either has been in...


83 Good Night and Good Luck
... I would love to still believe that there are still journalists heroically dedicated to the truth for truth's sake...


82 Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
... the horror of the Bush administration's torture policy reduced to a cockmeat sandwich...


81 Cars
... next in the long line of Pixar miracles: making Larry the Cable Guy adorable...


80 Nurse Betty
... you'd never imagine from the poster just how nasty and funny this is...


79 Sånger från andra våningen
... the title alone is almost worth a place (Swedish is my favourite language for films), but this is also one of the most memorable oddities of recent years...


78 Siu Lam Juk Kau
... football as a kung-fu loonie genius imagines it could be played...


77 Yi Yi
... one of the most finely crafted movies of recent years, and full of heart too...


76 Monsters Inc.
... just another wondrous film from filmmakers too inspired and conscientious to put a foot wrong...


75 Bowling for Columbine
... Moore's angry incredulity and stunts are perfectly suited to a film on the absurd American gun culture... my favorite of his wildly patchy and often repetitive film and TV output...


74 Napoleon Dynamite
... happily watched this several times trying to decide whether I liked or not, and then I realised I had watched it happily several times and so I must like it... sweet and unique...


73 Moolaadé
... attacking a horrible custom with a caring, human portrayal...


72 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
... running to hold onto memories...


71 Gake no ue no Ponyo
... the toy boat...


70 Zui Hao De Shi Guang
... gorgeous, especially in the snooker hall of the first part...


69 Rois et Reine
... Mathieu Amalric is one of my favourite actors of the decade...


68 Mary and Max
... 'Mary Dinkle's eyes were the colour of muddy puddles. Her birthmark, the colour of pooh.'...


67 Sharkwater
... Rob Stewart really loves sharks and wants to help them, and hopes that if he films them lovingly and tells you as much interesting stuff about them as he can, you'll love them and want to help them too... it's incidental and accidental (unlike the artificial, shallow and self-congratulatory The Cove) that the film becomes a rousing adventure too ...


66 There Will Be Blood
... there's something missing here, perhaps in the story development or the other characters (the middle of the film loses me every time), but the central performance h as such power, and the film just looks so epic, that it keeps me returning and hoping it is better than it is...


65 Happy-Go-Lucky
... ‘how was your driving lesson?’ ‘dark’...


64 Secretary
... 'seven peas and all the ice cream you can eat'...


63 The Saddest Music in the World
... Winnipeg, the 'world capital of sadness'...


62 Ten Canoes
... ribald and evocative and uncommercialised Aborigine legend...


61 The Queen
... immaculate recollection of a time when the British public lost its mind and the Queen refused to follow suit...

60 Zatoichi
... sometimes euphoric swordplay...



59 American Splendor
... 'they're quite nice, and very authentic-tasting.'...



58 The Road to Guantanamo
... in the 00s, innocents could be arrested; stolen away to another country; tortured; and held in a horrific extralegal prison without trial for years on end- by the United States...



57 Gegen Die Wand
... starts with a full-speed car crash into a wall and doesn't really slow down, thanks to a woman who slashes her wrists at the drop of a hat... wild and sexy...



56 Das Leben der Anderen
... a Stasi agent unwittingly finds his humanity...



55 Vals Im Bashir
... shockingly immediate war scenes mixed with regrets and a desire to remember something better left forgotten... an ending to stop you in your tracks...



54 Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about his Father
... an unbearably intimate look at the impact of unfathomable evil, this is the most devastating film in God knows how long...



53 Brokeback Mountain
... the mountain; a seductive, protective escape from a ******, oppressive reality...



52 Finding Nemo
... 'You think you can do these things, Nemo, but you just can't!'... Pixar's prettiest film... Dory is fantastic...



51 Gosford Park
...Altman's style proves a perfect match for the old country house murder mystery genre...



50 Bubba Ho-Tep
... after he and his fellow nursing home resident black JFK defeat the soul-sucking mummy, a dying Elvis watches the stars spell out 'All is well'...



49 L'Enfant
... how can you sell a child?... the film convinces you that there really could be a character who'd say 'why wouldn't you?'...



48 Hunger
... fearless and adventurous, puts you inside the person of someone starving to death in support of murderers...



47 Longford
... the great Jim Broadbent plays the courageous and compassionate and possibly rather stupid Lord Longford... Longford was one of the most pilloried public figures of my childhood and one I couldn't help sympathising with...



46 Lilja 4-Ever
... Lukas Moodysson has a serious reaction to creating two of the most uplifting films ever, creates two more superbly drawn and loveable characters but this time puts them through all sorts of hell... one of the few things more depressing than this film is the knowledge that some real people suffer like poor Volodya and poor Lilya...



45 Dead Man's Shoes
... Paddy Considine exuding charisma...

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44 Cidade de Deus
... spectacular filmmaking in a spectacular city...


43 The Princess and the Frog
... stunning return to form for regular Disney, joyous all-round entertainment to rank with Lion King and the earlier classics...



42 In The Loop
... 'That’s enough of all the ****ing Oxbridge pleasantries...' 'What's 'Oxbridge' about saying 'hello'?' 'SHUT IT LOVE ACTUALLY!'...



41 Los Lunes al Sol
... Javier Bardem, in his best performance, dominates the screen and his friends as the unmoored but dangerously charming bully Santa, seriously failing to cope with the closure of the business where they all worked...

40 Team America: World Police
... freedom costs a buck o five...


39 Volver
... Penelope Cruz stops all the madness to sing, beautifully...


38 No Country for Old Men
... Bardem... Jones... the ending...


37 Maman Est Chez Le Coiffeur
... terrific acting from the children in the main roles in a pure heartbreaker about a family falling apart when the mother leaves...


36 Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
... almost as good as the shorts, which makes it an outstanding feature... is Gromit the best silent comedian since Keaton?...


35 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
... that old Miyazaki magic...


34 Slumdog Millionaire
... bursting with great ideas, moving at a breakneck pace in an ingenious structure... didn't miss the big Bollywood number...


33 Hauru no ugoku shiro
... yeah I like it better than Spirited Away...


32 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
... it was always obvious that Sacha Baron Cohen had balls and huge talent, but it would have been hard to guess that he'd make his biggest mark with the character that provided no more than filler on his Channel 4 show... one of the performances of the decade- courageous and funny as hell..


31 Der Untergang
... uncomfortable real-feeling portrayal on one of the last places on Earth you would ever have wanted to be, a hell where the Nazis deserved to end up...

+ rep for Team America: World Police and Downfall.

Hey Stevo I'm loving you to pieces for the inclusion of Los Lunes Al Sol, what a brilliant film that is. Bardem is a bear of a man in that.
Also will hug you for having Volver, and The Lives of Others and Bashir, jeez that would've been in my top 100 had I seen it before I made that...that goes for Hunger too. Glad you like Yi Yi too, such a good film.

well done, looking forward to seeing the rest!

30 L’Emploi du Temps
... scary, desperate, thought-provoking tale of a man who cannot admit he lost his job...


29 Sexy Beast
... the best villain in years, Ben Kingsley's persistent Don Logan, raises this mixed bag of a film several levels above every other film in the last 25 years in the godforsaken subgenre called British gangster films...


28 Mulholland Drive
... Lynch near top form...


27 Idiocracy
... a broken, unfinished film, but totally convincing, great satire and quite possibly the funniest film of the decade... jampacked with hilarious moments: 'Welcome to Costco. I love you.'...


26 El Laberinto del Fauno
... the moment when we see the unborn baby, with- is that a smile?; the only moment of peace in a horrifying fairy tale within a horrifying reality...


25 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile
... puts you right in the middle of moments you wish weren’t happening, and will forever wish didn’t happen...


24 Habla con Ella
... creepy and odd and impassioned and delicious: pure Almodovar...


23 Deep Water
... a man puts his (and his family’s) livelihood on the line with his confidence he can win the first round the world yacht race... the documentary follows an absoluty astounding true story unfolding with clear and endlessly cruel logic...


22 Chingoo
... the most exciting gangster movie since Goodfellas...


21 Best In Show
... ‘Pistachio nut. Red pistachio nut. Natural, all natural white pistachio nut.’...



I've raced through most of the films today. But for me, the top 20 films of the decade are far ahead of the field, so I'll go through them a little slower, starting tomorrow.

I went to IMDB to look up L’Emploi du Temps and, under 'Fun Stuff' was this:

Yeah, real 'fun'.

I forgot Ten Canoes- I've edited it in and Murderball drops off.

20 Fa yeung nin wa
Summed up in any of the shots of Maggie Cheung in those dresses, this is a gorgeous film of serious sexiness, painful repression and intense longing.


19 Up
Makes you love two characters, and then breaks your heart, within minutes. From then on it's sweet, funny, wonderfully observed and so touching. Such heart, such imagination.


18 My Winnipeg
Guy Maddin creates a deep portrait of a city's soul through a mix of real history, bull****, genius imagination, his trademark warped recreation of half-forgotten film styles and a lot of sleaze. Personal like few films are, and utterly fascinating. The picture above is of Winnipeg's longest running daily TV series, Ledge Man, in which a man threatens to jump to his death in every episode, only to be talked out of it by his mother, played by Guy Maddin's mother, played by Ann Savage (Detour).


17 Atanarjuat
Timeless legend shot on the stark tundra feels like you are looking through the mind's eye of a pre-Western-contact Inuit storyteller. Rude, crude, authentic and totally epic.


16 In the Shadow of the Moon
Mankind's most amazing achievement has never been portrayed more successfully than this; exquisitely edited footage of the Apollo missions along with fascinating stories told by the men who went to the moon. The tone is humble, lighthearted. Nobody needs to add any extra razzle-dazzle or hype because the facts themselves are awe-inspiring.


15 Ratatouille
Pixar's most intellectual film is a great food movie and a smart comment on criticism all wrapped up in entertainment that's a load of fun for anybody. It also has their best villain and their best single moment (the one with the years and bitterness falling away).


14 Kung Fu
Stephen Chow handles a much bigger movie than usual and does so perfectly. Built around a mad logic, this is irresistibly charming entertainment all the way through, from the dancing to the fights to the stoopid comedy to the enlightenment.


13 An Inconvenient Truth
A presntation of the facts on the most serious issue the world faces. Immense power, masterful execution, and gets extra credit for triggering the most inevitable and utterly pathetic backlash ever seen.


12 Shi mian mai fu
If In the Mood for Love isn't the most beautiful movie of the decade, this is. The ultimate incarnation of the Wuxia movie. Love the dirty trick that finally fells the seemingly indestructible heroine.


11 O Brother Where Art Thou?
Can't think about this movie without smiling. Great characters, witty and wonderful dialogue, a real feel for time and place, and the second best soundtrack of the decade.

10 Y Tu Mama Tambien
Fresh, seductive and dangerous, this is bravura filmmaking that makes its points subtly while concentrating on a mad, life-changing romance.


9 The Hurt Locker
Grabs you physically and leaves you shaken- and that's not just hype. As tense, lean and brilliantly constructed an action movie as has been made in ages. Very much in the mould of, and worthy of comparison to, The Wages of Fear.


8 Wall-E
A silent movie from the future spanning the solar system and featuring the most charming couple ever put on screen. A remarkable achievement and an insanely loveable film.


7 Cowards Bend The Knee
Maddin's masterpiece is a remarkably filthy, unhinged and hilarious silent peepshow installation about a hockey player (or is he just a sperm?) who, rather callously, absconds with the daughter of an abortionist he has just met while his girlfriend lies in front of them having an abortion. Nobody else, not even Lynch, could make anything like this. It's totally entrancing.


6 All or Nothing
Very convincing portrait of a family. Funny. Extremely touching. When I say that it has Timothy Spall giving his best performance in his best role in his best film, you should realise that this is very special indeed.


5 Grizzly Man
Herzog finds the story of one of his most fascinating mad heroes in remarkable nature documentary footage shot by a man talented enough to get shots few others would have thought of and reckless enough to get shots no-one else would have dared attempt.


4 Shotgun Stories
A downbeat but humane, spare and ultimately wise Greek tragedy about a Southern family feud. Perfect storytelling. I love every quiet moment of this film.


3 Tillsammans
From the time SOS kicks in at the start to the time it returns at the end, this earns its incredible uplifting power through utterly brilliant characterisation. The ending is one of the best ever filmed.


2 The Incredibles
An unbelievably sustained rush, this is always captivating, from the lighter moments (the Underminer's cameo, for example, and the irresistible Edna Mode) to some shockingly harshly human ones (I find the plane scene with Helen begging for the missiles that threaten her children to be called off almost unbearably tense). What a great, convincing portrayal of a family. As always with Pixar, it's built on great characters and acute observation, on genius, craft and love.


1 Lost in Translation
It is a perfect film and by far the most resonant I have seen from the decade. (Oh and it has the number 1 soundtrack too.)

Interesting list, some films listed have me cringing, others have me smiling. Gonna check out Shotgun Stories in the near future, thanks.

__________________
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."