best of the decade

everyone seems to be not only making their 'best of the year' lists, but since its '09 already, there are also a ton of 'best of the decade' lists as well. i figure i should get in on this action and make a 'best of' list as well. my criteria is not set in stone. some of these movies are my favorites of all time, but others are just ones that i love and would gladly sit down and watch almost any day of the week. some you might agree with, other choices might make you reevaluate my opinion on films altogether. this list isnt meant to be an end all be all of good movies for the decade, in fact some of these movies i havent seen in many years, i just have a very fond memory of them when i saw them and the experience has stuck with me.

now, i know its a cop out, but i'm not putting these films in any particular order, so its not ranked 1-10 or anything. so here it is, my list of the best movies of the decade:

unbreakable (2000)-
back when 'the sixth sense' was still a fresh memory and the director m night shyamalan was heralded as the next big thing he released this gem. its an intimate story of a man who survives a train crash. when he returns home he and his estranged wife decide to take this as a sign and once again work on fixing their relationship. the fact that he survived the accident unharmed starts to raise questions in his mind and through the prodding of an art dealer, he begins to investigate his own past. why did he survive when no one else did? he starts to realize that he actually had never been injured. ever, in his whole life. through out the course of the film he begins to realize that he might very well be invincible. how this affects his wife and his son is played out with such delicate storytelling and honest searching is why this movie is so amazing. watching the story unfold in slow folds, and the budding romance once again welling in he and his wife is what makes the characters and the little moments between them so moving. how bruce willis and robin wright didnt get oscars for this is a travesty. i know i said this list isnt in any order, but this film is by far my favorite of the decade.

memento (2000)-

an amazing start to what would soon become an outstanding career, this is the first film by christopher nolan (who went on to make 'the prestige' and 'the dark knight'). the most startling this about the film is its structure. the story is of a man trying to catch the killer of his wife. the problem, though, is that he has a mental condition where he has no short term memory, so he can only remember stuff that happened to him before his wife's murder and only about the last five or ten minutes. in order for us, the audience, to understand the challenge of not remembering what happened, nolan forces us to not know what happened by mixing up the order of the film. it starts at the end of the story and goes back, in five to ten minute blocks, back to the beginning. this makes for a very disorienting viewing- we dont know what happened that got us to the point we are at now, just like the main character. as a way to try and remember some of the important details about who killed his wife, he tattoos clues onto his body. as the story plays out (backwards), the revelations keep coming. the ending (or should i say beginning) is highly unexpected and makes this film one that you want to watch again immediately after you finish your first viewing.

matrix reloaded (2003)-

a lot of people seemed to be disappointed by this film because it was not as groundbreaking as the original. i didnt feel that way at all. i thought they did a wonderful job of fleshing out the world they created in the first film, and expanding it into a full fledged epic. if the first film took us down the rabit hole, then this one showed us what marvels were down there- a real glimpse of wonderland. i rewatched it and reviewed it earlier this year, you can read that here.

serenity (2005)-

my love for this movie is deep. mostly that is because of the television show that it is based on: 'firefly'. i came very late to the game on this one, when i first saw previews for this film i went and picked up the series on dvd. i quickly gobbled up all 14 episodes and fell in love. it is a sci-fi western (kinda wierd, i know) that follows a rag tag crew as they travel the universe trying to stay out of trouble, but always seem to get in it anyway. the cast is loveable, and the stories are fantastic. the show was cancelled after only one season on fox. the dvds sold so well that they actually made a feature film based on the show. the world is created and written by joss whedon, who is geek royalty. when given the go ahead on a feature length film, he threw together all the ideas he had in store for the show if it had had a second season. therefore this film is, in essence, a greatest hits collection of what would have been the second season of the show. the character developments in the show were so strong that the movie is able to do a lot without having to spend too much time on setting things up (an uncommon privilege for a first movie). all the story points are wonderful as we see each character grow and change. there are a bunch of character payoffs that had been layed down during the television series, and also some tragedies that hit hard because of our developed relationship with these crew members. a fantastic story that i could watch often (and have!).

primer (2004)-

could time travel really happen? that is the question that this film daftly answers. this independent film, made for just a few thousand dollars, deals with two guys who happen upon a strange discovery: they have figured out how to really travel through time. they then have to deal with the sticky problems it brings. as unbelievable as the premise is, the writers have dealt with time travel in a way that makes sense. the logic behind it is almost air tight, and thats why things become so hard to understand. there are limits, there are rules, and there are consequences to time travel in a way i had never thought of. we see these two guys try to deal with it even as they begin to turn on each other. the story gets confusing at the end, but that just makes it more compelling. when i saw this film the first time, i started it again immediately after i was done. and then i watched it a third time. it confused me, it exhilarated me, and it drew me in. its an odd little film and i love any chance i can get to show it to someone new and experience it again for the first time.

once (2006)-

the music. oh, the music! i was lucky enough to see this film in the theater (twice) and be swept away by the melody it brings. its a simple story of a man who loves to sing. his path crosses with a foreign woman who talks with him and plays music with him. their stories, music, and hearts intertwine for a short time, but it is magic to behold. the film is, in essence, a musical. the great thing though, is that it is not a traditional musical where the characters are talking and then break out in song and dance, rather the characters in it sit down and sing. they make music together as musicians, which leads them to a recording studio and briefly into each other's souls. its a love story, but more a love story about the love of music than any romantic type of love. soon their paths take them in different directions, but the music they shared and created continue to exist even after their time together. i must admit that immediately after walking out of the theater the first time i saw it i went straight to the store to buy the soundtrack- its no wonder that the ballad from the film won an oscar for best original song!

crank (2006)-

there's violence, there's gratuitous violence, and then there's crank. the story, starring one of my favorites jason statham, follows a guy who wakes up poisoned by a gang who is trying to kill this hitman. the poison is going to kill him once it reaches his heart. the only way to keep it out of his heart is by keeping his adrenaline up. basically, its 'speed', but without the bus! the story is over the top, the action is non-stop, and the style is ludicrous. which makes it all the better! everything in the film is done with a fun 'devil may care' abandon that allows us to see this terrible man and all the terrible things he has done, but still root for him none the less. there is a giddy playfulness in the violence that makes it so you cant help but root for him. as far as guilty pleasures go- this is the guiltiest. and the most pleasurable!

traffic (2000)-

when i first saw this movie i was just starting to learn that life was not black and white, rather, there are grays everywhere. this film is a collection of different stories that all deal with the difficult topic of drugs. one character is trying to fight the good fight by standing up against corruption in the police force in mexico, another is trying to bring a drug boss to justice, one is trying to bring the real problem to light in our nations capitol, even has his daughter is beginning to be sucked in by this dark underworld. the stories overlap and play into one another. the stories arent easy, no one has a clear decision to make. but each of them deals with the reality of the drug world and how it can and does effect those around them. the most daring part of the film is that it doesnt give any answers. it comes to this honest truth: will we win the war on drug? no, but we have to keep trying.

hellboy (2004)-

as a lover of comic books growing up, i always dreamed of my favorite characters making it to the big screen. by the time it actually happened, i wasnt really into those comics any more. spiderman? pass. x-men? maybe when i was 14. superman? lame. but there was one comic book that i loved that i never got tired of: hellboy! i had read everything that had been written with him in it. the art was amazing- i spend many a night recreating those images from the comic into my sketchbook. my love for shadow and black spaces in art comes directly from the amazing artwork by mike mignola (the creator of hellboy). i also had fallen in love with the directing of guillermo del toro after seeing 'the devil's backbone', and 'blade 2'. and then to hear that del toro was making hellboy? oh, it was just too much! and to top it all off, ron perlman was going to play the big red guy?!? i hardly needed to even see the film to know it was going to be fantastic! and when i saw it it was just as much fun, just as graphically amazing, just as weird and funny as i hoped it would be. this is a case of fanboy love, high expectations, and exceeded expectations. i went to go see this one 4 times in the theater, bringing everyone i knew with me each time- and always having a great time!

grindhouse (2007)-

this one is a bit unusual. its actually two movies, and has been released on dvd as two separate movies: planet terror, and death proof. while each of these movies by themselves are by no means the best movies i have ever seen, it the experience that puts in on this list.

the directors of the two films wanted to recreate the experience of a grindhouse theater in the 1970's where you could go see a double billing of two exploitation films back to back. that is exactly what happens in this movie. when we went to go see it, the movie starts with some cheesy 70's 'feature presentation' graphics, then cuts to 'planet terror', a cheesy zombie movie. the film is presented to look like it is on grainy film with hairs stuck in the projector. in fact, there is a whole portion of the movie missing- it just shows the film burning off the projector, a sign that reads 'reel missing', and then cuts right back into the film, which is right in the middle of an action scene! we missed a good 15 minutes of the film! after the credits roll on planet terror, we are shown a bunch of previews for more grindhouse style films- but the kicker is that none of these previewed films actually exist. then its back to the second film, another poorly projected movie called 'death proof', which is about a killer car driver.

now, keep in mind, i'm not saying that either of these movies are particularly good, its just that the presentation and the experience lift this up to be one of the most fun experiences in the theater i've had in 10 years.