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Here is the conclusion of the decade's best in motion pictures.
25. About Schmidt (2002)
Jack Nicholson finally plays someone his own age. This remarkable film shows Nicholson with an amazing range as a recent widower embarking on a journey in the lead up to his daughter's wedding to a man he definitely does not approve of. While Kathy Bates, Hope Davis and Dermot Mulroney all provide great performances, this movie is all Jack's as he searches to matter and leave an imprint in this world.
24. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
This film did the unthinkable. It made people interested in Who Wants to be a Millionaire? again. The movie, about 18-year-old Jamal Malik being on the verge of winning 20 million rupees and recounting his life story and how he knew the answer to each question, is amazing enough especially with Danny Boyle behind the camera. But the story of how it finally got released is amazing too and the fact that it ended up winning eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, makes it all the more unbelievable.
23. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
To say this movie is simply about a girl who boxes misses the point entirely. Eastwood's character reluctantly takes Maggie under his arm and trains her into becoming one of the best boxers out there. But the film takes an unexpected turn and ends up going in a completely different direction, but one that we want to keep watching with. Clint gives one of his best performances ever and Hilary Swank again shows that no one plays a butch, white-trash woman like she does. Morgan Freeman also delivered with his role that finally netted him an Oscar.
22. 25th Hour (2002)
This is easily Spike Lee's best film since Do the Right Thing with Edward Norton as a drug dealer living his last 24 hours in Manhattan before having to start serving a seven year prison sentence. Supporting performances from Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rosario Dawson round out the cast and Spike Lee really makes the film remarkable with his frank and honest depiction of post-9/11 New York. Brian Cox's final monologue as Norton's father is one that resonate long after the credits roll.
21. Wonder Boys (2000)
After playing dark roles for way too long Michael Douglas jumps into the likable role of a writer, who after the wild success of his first book, finds himself struggling with his newest project seven years later. As he navigates his journey, he takes in a loner student (Tobey Maguire) and is tormented by his flamboyant editor (Robert Downey Jr.) as well as dealing with the fact that he's sleeping with his boss's wife. A refreshingly funny movie with great dramatic moments, this film is magnificent in almost every way.
20. The Hours (2002)
While some people view this movie as completely depressing, I view it as a feel-good movie. I say this because this movie always reminds me that my life could be worse and that my problems are really petty by comparison. While the debate rages on whether Nicole Kidman deserved the Best Actress Oscar for her performance, she definitely does well as Virginia Woolf and her fellow leads in Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore are flawless. Stephen Daldry does amazing in bringing what was thought to be an unfilmable novel to cinematic perfection.
19. Milk (2008)
The story of Harvey Milk has had many failed attempts in becoming a big screen story. But 30 years after his assassination, his story was finally told. Gus Van Sant's direction, along with Dustin Lance Black's Oscar winning script, not only do a marvelous job of telling Milk's personal story but also in laying out the context of what life was like for many gay people in the late 1970's. Sean Penn's perfect capture of Harvey is amazing and James Franco plays a very important part as his lover Scott Smith.
18. Mulholland Dr. (2001)
I watched this movie with my mother and at the end of the two-and-a-half hours, she turned to me and simply asked, "What the f*** was that movie about?" With this movie it is a very good question, but David Lynch does what he does best in using deep symbolism and metaphors to dive into his perception that there is always more than what there appears to be. Naomi Watts had her breakout performance as a struggling actress in this movie.One can only wonder what Lynch is like as he writes these insane mystery-dramas.
17. Talk to Her (2002)
Pedro Almodovar is able to make great movies with such consistency that one must wonder if he has inked a deal with the devil for his kind of talent. With Talk to Her he focuses on the story of two men who form an unlikely friendship after both have women that they care about become comatose. Almodovar's amazing wit and storytelling earned him an Oscar for the screenplay. One of the crazier and more memorable moments of this movie is when one of the men talks to his comatose women about a silent film he had seen the previous night about a shrinking man and that's all I can say about that here.
16. Adaptation (2002)
Charlie Kaufman took on the establishment trying to bring the book The Orchid Theif to the big screen with just the book without using any Hollywood cliches. But in realizing there is no actual story and conflict in the book he goes crazy trying to write this movie and ended up writing a movie about trying to write this movie. With Nicholas Cage as Charlie and Donald Kaufman, Meryl Streep as author Susan Orlean and Chris Cooper (in an Oscar winning role) as orchid cloner John LaRoche, this delightfully insane movie brilliantly shows the realities of wanting to keep true to one's core values in a city where you must lose them to get ahead.
15. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Seeing this movie in the theater is definitely an experience, considering that the entire first third of the movie is out of focus with the camera constantly moving around loosely. But in doing this, director Julian Schnablebrilliantly portrays what it must have looked like for Jean-Dominique Bauby when he awoke to find he had "locked-in syndrome" after suffering a massive cerebral stroke. The film is a brilliant account of triumphing over the most aggressive obstacles, but never feels hokey and sappy.
14. Lost in Translation (2003)
It is what it is. That would be the best synopsis for Sofia Coppola's sophomore effort which became easily one of the best of the year. Bill Murray stars as a faded movie star in Tokyo to shoot a liquor ad more a huge paycheck. While there he connects with a young woman (Scarlet Johannson) whose husband is off doing a photo shoot. The simple story of these two sharing time together and connecting is simply joyful to watch. But Murray really steals the show whether it's him getting stuck on a treadmill or trying to deny the services of a Japanese prostitute, Murray proves that the Academy should have rewarded him instead of Sean Penn.
13. Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
Clint Eastwood continues to be one of the most amazing filmmakers in this day. In 2006 he made two movies about Iwo Jima showing each the conflict from each side's perspective. With >Letters he shows the battle from the perspective of the Japanese and shows our enemy not as barbarians, but as dedicated fighters protecting their home and as very respectful of their enemy, even when an American is captured in the movie's most moving scene. Ken Watanabe shines as the skilled general who leads his troops.
12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
After a bad breakup, erasing a person's mind to rid them of the memories they had with the lover they just lost. What an ingenius concept. From the sound of it, I was surprised that this concept had not been turned into a cheesy romantic comedy of some sort. But writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry take things to a new level with Lacuna Industries, a service that erases your memory of a past lover. Jim Carrey, in the best performance of his career, and Kate Winslet star as the recently split couple and Gondry does an excellent job navigating Carrey's mind as the memory erasing happens. Kaufman finally won an Oscar for scripting this work.
11. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Ang Lee showed that classic martial arts epics could still be profitable with this modern masterpiece. With fight scenes choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, who had just come off doing the scenes from The Matrix, the fact that no one seems to obey the rules of physics and gravity is something the audience just does not seem to care about. Plus, there is nothing quite as entertaining as seeing Zhang Ziyi fight the patrons of an entire bar and come out on top. Talk about female empowerment.
10. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Director Darren Aronofsky claimed his tale of addicts in Brooklyn was not a drug movie but rather about addiction itself. Whatever the case, this film is one of the most brutal depictions of drug addiction ever shown. Ellen Burstyn gives the performance of a lifetime as a Jewish widow getting hooked on diet pills in the aspirations of appearing on a television show. Along with amazing performances by Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans, amazingly filmed fantasy sequences and an iconic score by Clint Mansell, Requiem is a disturbing film worthy of repeat viewings.
9. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
When most people first heard about this movie, the jokes would not stop coming especially when rererencing South Park's joke about all indie films being about "a bunch of gay cowboys eating pudding". But when the Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal romance hit theaters, it was obvious that this film would be destined to become one of the most tragic love stories of American cinema. Ang Lee's direction, along with a masterful script by Diana Osana and Larry McMurtry, shows us as a society how far we have come and at the same time how far we still have to go in order to confront intolerance and hatred.
8. Crash (2005)
When this film defeated Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture at the Oscars, I had a lot of my friends screaming and infuriated. I, however, thought the Academy made the right choice and awarded that Oscar to what was the best movie of 2005. This tale of racial tensions over 24 hours in Los Angeles forces us to look at ourselves and how we view the world and asks us to evaluate how we may reflect the world.
7. No Country for Old Men (2007)
When a Texas hunter finds $2 million dollars from the scene of a drug deal gone wrong, he finds himself being chased by the ultimate killer. This suspenseful drama from the Coen Brothers is an amazing allegory for good and evil that never ceases to keep you pinned to your seat with your eyes on the screen. Javier Bardem brilliantly channels the ruthless killer Anton Chigurh with a striking attitude that will probably haunt you for years to come.
6. Moulin Rouge! (2001)
A reviewer described this movie as "a movie lover's movie" and this reviewer could not have been more right. Eighteen months before Chicago had us dancing in the theaters, Baz Luhrman's pop-musical tale of love between a poor writer and a high end courtesan is visually stimulating with every detail that you see on the screen. But as with any decent musical, the singing must be great as well and Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent and the rest of the cast match the visual dazzle with a soundtrack that is just exhilerating.
5. The Pianist (2002)
Roman Polanski may be closing this decade out with more echoes of his crimes from the late 1970's but the early part this decade saw him deliver his most personal and one of his best movies to date. The Pianist follows reluctant survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman who was pulled away from his family while the Warsaw ghetto was being shipped out to camps and survived for years by hiding in occupied countries. With direction that could only have been pulled off by someone who survived these atrocities and a powerhouse performance by Adrien Brody, this film is easily the best portrayal of the Holocaust since Schindler's List.
4. WALL-E (2008)
Wall-E is the kind of character that everyone likes. An underdog who may not be the strongest, we always find ourselves rooting for such a figure but with this little robot, it has never been more enjoyable. The way this character seems to invoke the images of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd only endear him more to the audience and we find ourselves identifying and sympathizing with this character when he emits a mere sigh. I have seen the movie eight times and to be honest, I could watch it every month and still find myself smiling and quietly cheering by the end and especially throught the space dance scene between Wall-E and EVE.
3. City of God (2003)
If a film uses tricks in editing and cinematography most people will be amazed but very often it does not move our story forward. City of God uses all these insane techniques to show us the story of the City of God right outside Rio in Brazil. Rocket is a kid who doesn't aspire to be one of the top gangsters in the City of God. Instead one day he receives a camera and suddenly he realizes his ticket out of the slum. By documenting the activity of the slum, since most reporters refuse to go there for their own safety, Rocket is able to get himself out of there. But the real star of this movie, is the camera because you'll never cease wondering how this camera got so many crazy shots under it's belt.
2.. Memento (2001)
With backwards storytelling and an amazing script, Christopher Nolan (along with his brother Johnathan) crafted an amazing story that makes people jump up and go, "WHOA!" the first time they see it. With it's stylized cinematography and elusive characters that only seem to draw you in further to the mystery of a short-term amnesiac searching for his wife's killer, that seems to be the best piece of modern noir in quite some time. Not much else can be said without giving crucial bits away and for the seven people who have yet to see this film, I won't spoil it. And when you do finally watch it, you can thank me later.
1. United 93 (2006)
The events of September 11, 2001 were easily the most single defining moment of the decade. But this film is not in the top spot simply because it shows the events of what happened that day. Director Paul Greengrass was very careful in making this movie to make sure it all felt real and it certainly did. Instead of a recreation of the events that's filled with melodrama and overacting, Greengrass showed us something that was like film recovered from the flight's wreckage. Along with casting many real life people as themselves Greengrass cast unknowns in all the roles and the result was something that no one could have expected. In watching this movie, I was overcome by a feeling that I had never felt through watching a movie, whether it was in a theater or on a small screen. This film captures a moment in history unlike any other non-fiction film and tells an amazing story of these courageous human beings. It's with all of these factors combined that make United 93 the single best film of the past decade.
