My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2003 edition

Compared with the year that preceded it (and please feel free to look back at the first three installments of this series), 2003 was indeed a down year for movies, but that certainly didn't mean it still didn't have some real winners.

It was, in fact, a particularly strong year for documentaries. Two made the final cut you'll find below, and two just missed out: Jeffrey Blitz's "Spellbound" and Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's "Lost in La Mancha." Blitz, who also made one of my favorite movies of 2007 with the autobiographical and thoroughly charming "Rocket Science," is getting back in the documentary game next year with a movie about the lottery business, so keep your eyes out for it.

And, before we get to the main course, the other honorable mention movies for 2003 are: "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Chicago," "Swimming Pool," "Lost in Translation," "Pieces of April" and "The Station Agent."

OK, here goes, and as usual, please feel free to add any you think I might have wrongfully overlooked.

"Man on the Train"
I'll never understand why the French actor/singer Johnny Hallyday never became a big international star, because he's certainly got the charisma for it (although I suppose he's probably a bit too old now.) The best movie I've seen him in was this Patrice Leconte gem in which he plays a gangster who crosses paths with a retired school teacher played by the great Jean Rochefort, and then their lives start to merge. See it if you never have, and I guarantee you'll like it.

"Capturing the Friedmans"
A truly disturbing documentary, but filmmaker Andrew Jarecki was as fair as he could possibly be (many would say too fair) with the titular father and then son, who are accused and then convicted of truly heinous sexual acts involving children. As Jarecki delves into the case, interviewing the accusers as well as the family members themselves at length, the one fact that becomes clear is that "facts" and "truth" can indeed be elusive things.

"Dirty Pretty Things"
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou make an extremely unlikely but engaging pairing in this taut thriller from director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Steven Knight. It deals deftly with the complexities of immigration as it paints a perfectly seedy portrait of London's underbelly, and it and the comedy "The Snapper" (which certainly would have made this list somewhere if it hadn't come out way back in 1993) are my favorite Frears flicks.

"Bend It Like Beckham"
I suppose this is the "yes, really" entry on this list, but there really wasn't a more infectiously fun movie in 2003 than this one from director Gurinder Chadha. Besides, I just like movies about soccer ("The Damned United" will almost certainly make this year's list), and when you throw in a still fairly well-fed Keira Knightley and the real star, Parminder Nagra (who went on to have long run on "ER"), this makes for one I go back to once a year or so and still really enjoy.

"American Splendor"
By a fairly wide margin, this is my favorite movie of 2003, and still the only movie I've seen from directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (I really can't see myself watching "The Nanny Diaries" any time soon.) Harvey Pekar is probably the most unlikely pop culture figure ever, and Paul Giamatti just captures all his quirks perfectly. Fiction and reality blend seamlessly as we find out how Harvey's life as a VA file clerk was transformed by a meeting with R. Crumb that led him to create the titular cult comic book series and then by his endearing relationship with a Delaware comic book store owner, played by Hope Davis. And Judah Friedlander is just a hoot as his oddball buddy Toby.

"Fog of War"
In its own way, this Errol Morris documentary was even more creepy than "Capturing the Friedmans," mostly due to the candidness and stunning lack of remorse of its subject, former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. A similar approach was taken with one of my favorite films of this year, James Toback's "Tyson" (which is out on DVD now.) You'll feel extremely frustrated as you see McNamara's evident genius laid out but then see how it still left him with either a blindness or simply a lack of conscience as to what was really going on in Vietnam.

"School of Rock"
Another "yes, really" entry I suppose, but this flick from Richard Linklater and screenwriter (and very unlikely reality TV star) Mike White was the funniest movie of 2003 in my book, and really, what more can you ask for? Jack Black was far from the grating presence he often is now, and is instead just impish enough as the teacher who teaches his young band of followers to rock out. Just a great "comfort" movie.

"Shattered Glass"
It's really a shame that Billy Ray doesn't direct movies more often, because though he's certainly better known as a screenwriter, the two flicks he's helmed - this one and "Breach" - are real winners. What they share is a claustrophobic feel that perfectly fits this story about disgraced "New Republic" "journalist" Stephen Glass. And though it's a thoroughly depressing case for anyone in my profession, Peter Sarsgaard is particularly good as "New Republic" editor Charles Lane, as is Hayden Christensen (again, yes, really) as the titular shyster.

"The Triplets of Belleville"
Can an animated movie with no discernible dialogue (and not named "Wall-E") really be considered one of the best movies of the last 10 years? I'd certainly say yes in this case, because writer/director Sylvain Chomet's story about a Tour de France champion (named, of course, Champion) who is kidnapped by the French mafia and the grandmother who comes to his rescue is as equally abstract as the animation itself, which renders its characters as oddly shaped and sometimes indeed grotesque. It's a whole lot more charming than I'm making it sound here, believe me.

"Big Fish"
Though he's made some other great ones - and some real duds too - this has stood up through the years as my favorite Tim Burton movie. It's based on the equally good novel by Daniel Wallace, a Southerner with a genuine gift for storytelling, and it's mostly about exactly that - a son who has to sort through the various stories (and perhaps lies) his dying father has told throughout his life. In Burton's hands, and with a dynamite cast that included Ewan McGregor, Billy Crudup, Albert Finney, Jessice Lange, Helena Bonham Carter (of course) and even a young Marion Cotillard, this is a fantastic tribute to the power of the imagination.

And there you have it. Please feel free to add any you may wish to, and to check back Tuesday for a look at 2004. Peace out.

My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2002 edition

With many movie years, you have to choose between quantity and quality, but that was certainly not the case in 2002.

There were so many good movies that year that it really is a shame to cut it down to just 10, but those were the rules I established. However, in a nod to just how many worthy selections there were, here's the honorable mention first:

Peter Greengrass' "Bloody Sunday," Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia," "Mostly Martha," Nicole Holofcener's "Lovely and Amazing," Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," "Jack-Ass: The Movie," Curtis Hansen's "8 Mile," Phillip Noyce's "Rabbit Proof Fence," Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" and Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

And when it comes to "Jack-Ass," yes, really, because that movie just makes me laugh from start to finish, and you really can't ask for more than that sometimes. And it really was a banner year for Noyce, who will make another appearance below. Here goes:

"Gosford Park"
Being Robert Altman's last movie should probably be enough by itself to earn a spot on this list, but "Gosford Park" has a whole lot more going for it than that. Proving he could take his talent for weaving together many storylines to just about anywhere, Altman and screenwriters Bob Balaban and Julian Fellowes turned this into not only a solid mystery but also captured the mannered intricacies of the upstairs/downstairs culture.

"Monsoon Wedding"
Does Mira Nair keep having to make movies about Indian subjects for them to be great? Not necessarily, but it certainly seems to help. Two other of her flicks that almost perfectly capture that state of being both Indian and a citizen of the world are "The Namesake" and "Mississippi Masala," but the titular wedding here, which draws guests and chaos from around the world, is her best work.

"Y Tu Mama Tambien"
The runner-up for best movie of 2002 in my book, and only because this year also contains what is my best movie of the decade (you'll have to keep reading to find out what it is, but a few may know already.) The first Alfonso Cuaron flick I managed to see ("Little Princess" is great too, but I didn't see that until it hit video) is a great Mexican road movie, a charmingly twisted coming-of-age tale and - in its own way - a statement on the corrupt nature of Mexican politics. And, for the ladies, of course, it introduced the world to Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. A sheer delight.

"Nine Queens"
I believe this great Fabian Bielinsky heist movie was actually first released in 2000, but it didn't make it to the US of A until 2002, so here it is. Bielinsky, by the way, is a first-rate director, but sadly died at only age 47 and after only helming two movies, this one and "El Aura," a nifty twist on the traditional film noir. Both are well worth an immediate rental.

"Sunshine State"
This was the last time I really thought John Sayles used his storytelling talent to its full strength, and coincidentally enough, it comes 10 years after what for me is still his best flick, "Passion Fish." It probably helps that I had visited my brother in South Florida and got a feel for the murky world Sayles delves into here, but he really got to the crooked heart of it nearly perfectly. (His last movie, by the way, "Honeydripper," was just a real flaming turd in my book, so here's hoping Mr. Sayles makes a return to top form soon.)

"24-Hour Party People"
Michael Winterbottom makes far too many movies for them all to be great - or even good - but not coincidentally the best two put Steve Coogan front and center, this and "A Cock and Bull Story" (which may very well make an appearance on the 2005 list.) Coogan's flair for blustering ego combined with the improbably true story of the rise and fall of Manchester's Factory Records told with a winking wit make this a real gem.

"Super Troopers"
Is, on any possible scale, Broken Lizard's "Super Troopers" better than the 10 or so movies that only made this year's honorable mention? Probably only mine, but the guys made just about the ultimate "comfort" movie with this just wacky enough look at what really happens in the lives of highway patrolmen. Though "Beerfest" was fairly funny, I don't think they'll ever be as good as they were with this one, but here's hoping "Slammin' Salmon" both gets a wide enough distribution that I get to see it and doesn't disappoint. (Amazingly, it looks like there may well be a "Super Troopers 2" in 2011 .. bring it on!)

"City of God"
OK, I probably shouldn't reveal this only three years into the decade, but this Fernando Meirelles flick is, for me, the best movie of the last 10 years. None better combines simply dynamic storytelling in the saga of two boys growing up in the violent slums of Rio de Janeiro with stunning visuals that will stay burned on your brain, especially in a street party scene that's as electric as it is harrowing. This movie spawned both a Brazilian TV series and a sequel of sorts, both titled "City of Men," which are both worth watching but don't quite capture the unique magic of Meirelles' masterpiece.

"The Quiet American"
Occasionally, remakes can work just right, as is the case with Phillip Noyce's update on the Graham Greene novel about Vietnam. Well, update isn't really the right word, because Noyce keeps it right in the same time and place and brings along Brendan Fraser as the titular yank and Michael Caine as a wizened British journalist to tell the tale of how love, politics and intrigue all collide with more style and certainly more steam than the 1958 original. And Mr. Noyce, a definite favorite around here, may very well make another appearance on the 2006 list for "Catch a Fire."

"Talk to Her"
Even when he goes completely over the top, I almost always find something redeeming in Pedro Almodovar's works, but he's at his best as with "Talk to Her" when he takes things a little more seriously without losing any of his unique view of the world. I suggested this one as a Macon Film Guild selection (though I'm sure they had it on their list already), and was pleasantly surprised to find out no one complained, even when one of the two men at the core of this story finds himself shrinking and exploring his comatose lover's body until, inevitably I suppose, he ends up inside her vagina. Almodovar just has a knack for writing great roles for women, as he appears to have done again this year for Penelope Cruz, so I'll leave you today with what I think is the latest trailer for his "Broken Embraces," which is slowly building buzz and should be a strong awards season dark horse. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Happy turkey day from me ... and the Muppets!

In honor of America's most gluttonous holiday, I'm taking a break from the best of the decade project - today would have been 2002, so tomorrow will. I can tell you that there were 16 finalists, and only 10 make the final cut, so it was a real competition (although the original "Jack-Ass" movie, as much as I love it, was easily the first finalist to go.)

Instead today, it's all about the Muppets, and really, shouldn't every holiday be? I loved the Muppets more than just about any other pop culture creation when I was a kid, and still do, so it was a real joy to find out that through the power of HD technology and with the help of some enterprising folks, the Muppets now have their own YouTube channel, and this blissfully fun video of them performing "Bohemian Rhapsody" is easily the craziest and best thing on it.

Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller are supposedly still working on a new Muppet movie, though the details on its status are only in the pay section at the IMDB, so I guess it's not too far along. In the meantime, enjoy this clip. There's a lot to take in, but I especially loved Animal and how they avoided using the word "Beelzebub." Enjoy, and have a great turkey day. Peace out.



http://www.youtube.com/user/MuppetsStudio

My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2001 edition

I should probably just drop the years from this thing altogether, because today's list will actually contain not one, as I had hoped, but two movies that actually came out in late 2000.

My only two excuses are that I write this very early in the morning, and well, I sometimes confuse when a movie came out with when I actually got to see it. And, to paraphrase the great Lewis Grizzard when people complained about errors in the Atlanta Constitution, "hey, it don't cost but ... well, nothing."

Anyways, here are the nine movies that made today's list, and though that's only seven actually from 2001, I really love all of these, so enjoy, and please feel free to add any you think I may have overlooked.

"O Brother Where Art Thou"
I fluctuate from week to week as to whether this or "The Big Lebowski" are my favorite Coen brothers flick, but for now let's just put them both on top as co-conspirators. Thanks to Bob for politely pointing out this should have been on my 2000 list, because no other Coen brothers flick better combines their talent for establishing a strong sense of place with simply wicked (and in this case delightfully silly) humor. It's a major strength of this flick that, although it clearly pokes fun at Southerners, I have yet to meet one who doesn't look back on it with love.

"Memento"
Nothing like getting your errors out of the way right up front, so here's another one that was apparently released in late 2000 but was misplaced by me (though, in my defense, it didn't get its U.S. debut until the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.) You can trace all the themes from Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" to this mindbender starring Guy Pearce. I love a movie that I have to watch more than once just to make sure it all adds up (and there's another one coming later on this list), especially when it's good enough - like this gem - to make you want to invest the trouble of watching it again.

"Spy Kids"
Yes, really. Though the franchise got worse and worse with the subsequent movies in this series, the original from Robert Rodriguez was just great escapist fare for kids and adults - like me - who like to act like them fairly often. I haven't seen "Shorts" yet, but I will on video, because I just appreciate that Rodriguez - when he's not grindhousing out gloriously gross fare like "Planet Terror" - makes movies he thinks his own kids will enjoy.

"Amelie"
You can count Jean Pierre Jeunet as one of my very favorite directors in the world, and I was just a sucker for this lighter than air romance starring a simply adorable Audrey Tautou. I'm really hoping Jeunet's "Micmacs à tire-larigot," as best as I can tell a goofy tale about a group of misfits who band together to take on a weapons manufacturer, is somehow playing at the end of the year when I make it to New York City, because when he's on top of his game - as with "Amelie" - Jeunet just makes movies that look like nothing else you can find in theaters, and you really can't say that about very many directors.

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch"
I love movies in which the music is at least as good as the movie itself, which is clearly the case with this flick that John Cameron Mitchell wrote, directed and starred in - as the truly unforgettable creation Hedwig. Yes, if there's a scale of somewhat gay to extremely gay, this flick clearly belongs on the latter end, but it's also just a giddy punk-rock romp and tons of fun.

"Ghost World"
This has developed - along with "Office Space" and "Super Troopers" - into one of those movies I can pop into the DVD player after a nightmarish day at work to make it all float away. What in the world ever happened to Thora Birch, who as Enid just made the perfect (anti-?) heroine? I love that, to this day, if I find the right person to talk to, we can still debate just what happened to her at the end - AND IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS FLICK BASED ON THE GRAPHIC NOVEL BY DANIEL CLOWES, PLEASE SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH SO I WON'T SPOIL IT FOR YOU - in which I've always thought Enid commits suicide. No matter how you read it, this is just a bittersweetly askew view of the world, and easily one of my favorite flicks.

"Devil's Backbone"
I watched this Guillermo del Toro movie again this year for Halloween when I was petsitting for a friend of mine (yes, I have a rather boring life sometimes), and though it takes its time telling the tale, it's just a wickedly entertaining ghost story. On a side note, if you want to see a more recent horror flick endorsed by del Toro, please see Juan Antonio Bayona's "The Orphanage" ("La Orfanato") on DVD before it gets the inevitable English-language remake next year.

"Donnie Darko"
Will Richard Kelly ever make a great movie again? I sat through all of "Southland Tales" and this year's "The Box" simply out of love for this flick, but they were both just serious duds. "Donnie Darko," however, took me multiple viewings to truly appreciate, but as twisted tales go, this one about Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his giant furry friend Frank is as good and ultimately absorbing as the best work of David Lynch.

"The Royal Tenenbaums"
Nothing like saving the best for last. Though all these flicks are winners for me, the best movie of 2001 was also Wes Anderson's best (though by just a nose over his first two, "Rushmore" and "Bottle Rocket.") No other of his movies better combines his artist's eye for detail with a great knack for storytelling, here about the Tenenbaums, a family of doomed geniuses who live in some kind of alternate vision of New York City. From all I've heard, he and co-writer Noah Baumbach have recaptured this magic with "Fantastic Mr. Fox," which I can't wait to see this weekend. In the meantime I'll leave you today with one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a movie, Royal Tenenbaum's epitaph.

"Died tragically rescuing his family from the wreckage of a destroyed sinking battleship."

So there you have it. As I said, please feel free to add any movies you think I may have snubbed, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. As a bonus, here's the second trailer for "Youth in Revolt," which - despite the ridiculous voiceover pitching it as a routine teen comedy - I'm hoping will be one of my 2010 favorites, because the book by C.D. Payne is just a fantastic farce. Peace out.


Youth in Revolt Trailer #2

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2000 edition

Though I will confess I swiped the idea of picking the best movies of the last decade from somewhere in my morning Web reading, I promise you these choices are all my own (and since, I believe, only one of them from the first year received a Best Picture nomination, they're clearly not anything approaching consensus picks.)

The rules? Well, there aren't many. Simply that I limited it to 10 for each post (though that's a maximum, not a minimum), mostly because of the time it takes to do this. And beyond that, I only ask that if you want to ridicule my picks, please allow for the factors of time and space since they came out, and that these are indeed only MY favorites (and please, feel free to add your own.)

And, also please feel free to check back tomorrow for the 2001 list, and, interrupted only possibly by reviews of "Ninja Assassin" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox," then the best of every year through 2009 (so far, of course.)

OK, here goes: My best movies of 2000, in no particular order (though I will tell you the best in my book.)

"The Hurricane"
You know, I really dislike "Training Day," not only because I just find it to be one of the most overrated movies ever (yes, some hyperbole to start), but also because the Oscar it netted for Denzel Washington was clearly just awarded to make up for him being so egregiously snubbed in this and Spike Lee's "Malcolm X." Though a pretty straightforward biopic, Norman Jewison's movie about Ruben "Hurricane" Carter is anchored by a great, nuanced performance from Mr. Washington and just tells a tragic American story very well.

"Wonder Boys"
This is one that had to grow on me on DVD, but it pretty well captures the spirit of Michael Chabon's book, and besides, Michael Douglas, Frances McDormand, Tobey Maguire, Katie Holmes (yes, Katie Holmes), Robert Downey Jr. and even Rip Torn clearly just had as much fun making this Curtis Hanson flick as I did watching it.

"High Fidelity"
When I heard they felt the need to transport Nick Hornby's novel across the pond to make it into a movie, especially since it was being helmed by British director Stephen Frears (one of my favorites), I was certainly skeptical. It works, however, because of John Cusack and because Frears captured the obsessive rhythm of Hornby's work, and it's just one of my favorite romantic comedies.

"Chicken Run"
Though hardly anyone noticed, there was a Wallace and Gromit movie released on DVD this year ("Wallace & Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death"), and it's really good. And since children's movies actually aimed at adults are certainly in vogue now, why not go back and check out this masterwork from Aardman animation maestros Peter Lord and Nick Park?

"The Virgin Suicides"
I'm really looking forward to Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere," scheduled to drop sometime next year, because in my book she really needs a winner after the disaster that was "Marie Antoinette." However, three out of four ain't bad, and even better than her "Lost in Translation" was this debut flick starring Kirsten Dunst, which was just a perfect hazy dream to watch unfold. (And yes, in case anyone is wondering and bothers to pay this much attention, this movie is listed as being from 1999 at the Internet Movie Database, but I'm going with Movieweb for this list.)

"Almost Famous"
Man, what in the world ever happened to Cameron Crowe? I just hated "Elizabethtown" with a passion, but for proof that he was once a great writer and director, look no further than this autobiographical tale at least loosely based on his life as a scribe for the Rolling Stone. If the best test of a movie's merits is how often you go back to it, this is my pick for the best movie of 2000 (and by any standard, it is.) And in case you were wondering, all Crowe is down for now at the IMDB is a Pearl Jam documentary, which just makes me say meh.)

"Bamboozled"
I had to go back and look at his filmography to make sure, but this was indeed the last Spike Lee movie I saw in a theater that just blew me away ("When the Levees Broke," a real stunner, doesn't count, since I only saw it on TV.) Though it falls apart rather disastrously at the finish, Lee's "Bamboozled" still works very well as a scathing satire about race and entertainment, and Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson are just great in it. And if you want proof that Spike Lee can still make good movies, his take on the Broadway hit "Passing Strange," which you can watch On Demand (or whatever your cable services calls it), is exceptional.

"Unbreakable"
Yes, really. The last M. Night Shyamalan worth a spit in my book is, I think, actually better than "The Sixth Sense." I just wish M. Night had concentrated long enough to deliver a sequel based on Samuel L. Jackson's Elijah Price character rather than making two of the worst movies of the last decade (probably a much funner list, and one I may tackle later) with "The Village" and "Lady in the Water."

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
Yes, this is the only movie on this list that made the Best Picture slate, and it was well-deserved. I can still remember watching this movie in a New York City theater and then seeing it being played again later that same day on TV at Grand Szechuan. A rather amazing lesson in the power of piracy and also a great kung-fu epic from Ang Lee.

"Bring It On"
I should probably put some kind of asterisk by this one to denote it as a guilty pleasure, but I really don't feel remotely guilty about loving this extremely silly cheerleader flick that has spawned what seems like a zillion direct-to-video sequels. And yes, Kirsten Dunst really did make this list twice, which probably robs it of all credibility, but movies just don't get much more fun than "Bring It On," and I often don't ask for much more than that.

And there you have it. As I said, this is a ten-day project, though not necessarily on 10 straight days, so please feel free to check back for the next nine years, and of course, also please feel free to rain mockery down on my picks or offer your own.

And anyone who bothered to stick around that long today certainly deserves a reward, so here's what has to be the craziest short film I've ever seen about baseball but just a great little discovery, James Blagden's animated tale about Dock Ellis' no-hitter pitched under the influence of some rather seriously heavy drugs. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out