The Ten Films of the Decade

Writing out a top ten list for the best films of a year is a fairly simple process. Most of the choices are fresh in your mind, and most of the time you know which films are exceedingly better than the rest. A top ten of the decade though? A much more difficult process. It's not about choosing which films are great, but which films defined the decade in which we lived, which ones stood out the most. At least, that's how I feel. Yes, they have to be pretty good as well.
Before I get to my top ten, here are the ten that just missed the cut. In my opinion, this would have been a damn fine top ten as well.

20. Requiem for a Dream - Darren Aronofsky. 2000. Aronofsky's second feature is a bold creation of life consumed with drugs. Ellen Burstyn is haunting.

19. Letters from Iwo Jima - Clint Eastwood. 2006. Telling WWII from the side of the Japanese, Eastwood shows us with painstaking detail that sometimes, war has no enemy.

18. The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow. 2009. Not just the best film made about the war in Iraq, but a heartbreaking tale of the courage to survive.

17. Adaptation. - Spike Jonze. 2002. Hilarious but at the same time terribly sad, Jonze's feature is a refreshing look at the worn down idea of writer's block.

16. Memento - Christopher Nolan. 2000. Nolan may very well be the best director of the naughties, and it wouldn't have happened without this little gem.

15. The Departed - Martin Scorsese. 2006. A thoroughly entertaining mob story from the man who knows mob films the best.

14. Milk - Gus Van Sant. 2008. Although not possible without Brokeback Mountain, Van Sant's film gives us hope for a change in America's mindset.

13. No Country for Old Men - Joel and Ethan Coen. 2007. Haunting. Thrilling. Thought-provoking. Obscure. Brilliant.

12. 25th Hour - Spike Lee. 2002. Many filmmakers thought it was too early for films to comment on 9/11. Lee takes it head on with a brilliant look at a man on the brink.

11. Elephant - Gus Van Sant. 2003. Winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or, this little masterpiece takes only eighty minutes to haunt our minds, and break our hearts.

And now, the top ten.

10. Up in the Air - Jason Reitman. 2009.

Reitman's masterpiece is a film for the blue-collar American. Anyone who has lost anything during this recession can identify with so much of this film. Using actual unemployed people for several scenes, we understand that the emotions they show are not a form of acting, but their own feelings about their lives. Shying away from what could have been a conventional, cliche film, Reitman pulls a 180, and continues to surprise us throughout.

9. Wall-E - Andrew Stanton. 2008.

Pixar had the best decade of any film studio. Continuing to shelve out hit after hit, they had their best success here. Not just a great kids movie, the film is a also a terrific comment on today's society, with its vision of humans using robotic chairs for their daily purposes. Nothing short of brilliant.

8. The Pianist - Roman Polanski. 2002.

One of only two of Polanski's films of the decade, it proves to us that he is still a master filmmaker. Despite his shortcomings, he is still one of the best auteur's alive. Brody is on screen for much of the film by himself, walking through the wastelands of his hometown helpless. Having some of the most haunting shots of the decade, the film is difficult to forget quickly.

7. Rachel Getting Married - Johnathan Demme. 2008.

If any film has made you wish you attended a wedding, it would be this wedding. Demme's documentary style filmmaking brings these characters to life. The tagline for the film was "This is not your family, but this is your family." No truer tagline has ever been conceived. We may not know people exactly like this in our family, but we can find similarities, and that alone makes it brilliant. The film's subtle hints of these characters past is real, and makes them all the more fascinating.

6. Children of Men - Alfonso Cuaron. 2006.

This is not a film to view if you are looking for a hopeful future. Cuaron's bleak tale of a future without the ability of reproduction has stayed in my mind in the three years following the first time I saw it. Coming back to it again only resonated those thoughts even more. His quality and attention to detail is stunning, his thoughts on the human condition in the sight of apocalypse is haunting.

5. Lost in Translation - Sofia Coppola. 2003

What is it like for two people finding themselves in a completely new environment, alone, with no one to turn to? Who do they talk to when no one is there to listen? Coppola answers these questions with terrific quality and a great eye for minimalist scenes. These two characters are unforgettable, made so by the terrific performances from Scarlett Johannson and Bill Murray. Murray is still able to bring the laughs, but he is able to tell us so much about his character from his facial expressions. No other actor can do it quite like Murray can.

4. Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee. 2005

Ang Lee's 2005 masterpiece was a groundbreaking moment in cinema. It made gay and lesbian themed films relevant in mainstream media, which is mostly thanks to the A-list cast, headlined by its two heterosexual leads, Ledger and Gyllenhaal. But the standout is Ledger. His Ennis Del Mar is easily the most fascinating character of the decade. A married family man, he's torn about his feelings for Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist, and what it could mean if their secret was revealed. Del Mar wants to look like the tough guy cowboy of the west, with his rage exploding at various points. But he lifts our hearts in the films final scene, one of the most hopeful moments film has ever given us.

3. In the Bedroom - Todd Field. 2001.

Field is able to build a mountain of tension throughout the film that makes it almost too unbearable to watch. Yet we cannot take our eyes away from it. Set in the beautiful lakeshore homes of New England, the film is gorgeous to look at just for its set pieces. Yet underneath that lies a terrible secret that this family is forced to bear. Field doesn't do much flashy in his first feature, but the film didn't need that. The story and acting drives this film, and the camera is simply there to follow.

2. There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson. 2007.

An American tragedy through and through. Daniel Plainview is one of the most haunting characters ever put on film. His greed and lust for oil is something that can be identifiable in today's society. Working very much like a classic silent film, it is perfect in every sense of the word. Plainview never looks for sympathy, but at times we can see twinges of it in his soul. The baptism scene is the best pure cinematic scene of the decade.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Michael Gondry. 2004.

Timeless and pure. A joy to watch. Gondry's masterpiece is something that almost anyone can enjoy. Not necessarily fully comprehendible on a first viewing, it is the most well made film of the decade. Gondry went for an unconventional style of storytelling that paved the way for numerous films throughout the rest of the decade. He wasn't the first to do it this decade, but he did it the best. It is always a joy to come back to, and will be a timeless film in the decades to come.

So there you have it, my favorite films of the decade. I found this to be a surprisingly terrific decade for high end films. Here's to hoping the '10's are even better! What do you think? What are your ten favorites?