The Ten Best Films of the Noughts
By Adrian Barnes
It's a pretty silly task, trying to pick the top ten films from a decade. A few notes on my methodology, such as it was: first off, there are so many films to choose from (even if one can discount 95% of them right off the bat) that creating a short list is nigh on impossible. In light of this, with one exception I restricted myself to North American (okay, American. Sorry Canada, I can't like art patriotically—I'm just not that much of a CanCon Stalinist) releases because these films are the one most likely seen by readers of this newspaper.
Next, I tried to focus only on films that have stayed with me and remained vivid in my mind as 'complete' movie experiences that combine storytelling, a solid visual aesthetic, and some sort of relevance to the crazed and crazy times we're currently living through. And they had to be fun.
Given those criteria, I quickly found myself with a fairly subjective but complete list. In no particular order, the winners are....
Ghost World (2001). Terry Zwigoff followed up his incredible Crumb (one of my top five of the 90s) with this sad, touching comedy about a world (ours) where nothing much ever happens. Released shortly before 911, this movie about two teenage girls teetering on the brink of whatever adulthood is supposed to be seems almost nostalgic. As they face the undead non-options adulthood presents them with, our heroines rightly treat their options with withering scorn. The notion of a static, blasé 'ghost' world is now gone: we're stuck with our new, constantly changing (in a hopeless way) world of terrorism, economic collapse, and impending environmental apocalypse.
Grizzly Man (2004) The story of Timothy Treadwell, a wannabe documentarian/Crocodile Hunter who filmed himself during his solo summers spent 'protecting' and living among the grizzlies of Alaska over the course of twelve summers. Then the bears ate him. Until then, Treadwell's archives, edited into a feature film by the great Werner Herzog, took footage that revealed incredible amounts about Treadwell, about the complexities and contradictions of human nature and about the gulf between man and animal that humans relentlessly romanticize. You've never seen anything like this and you never will again. Treadwell was brave and stupid, kind and cruel, honest and grasping, strong and weak. In short, a human being just like the rest of us.
Gran Torino (2008) I'm not a fan of Clint Eastwood, movie director. Not at all. Every time I see one of his films (Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Mystic River) I get the feeling that he's trying to achieve a certain type of classic Hollywood movie, but, thanks to his self-conscious efforts, failing to do so. In short, a mimic, not an original. Last year, however, in his mid-70s, Eastwood finally got it right. Gran Torino is a western set in a suburb. It's a legitimately classic tale of a man embittered by life and personal failings who rises to one last challenge: the challenge to both show some compassion and stand up to a terrible wrong. This is what movies are supposed to be. My kids watched this powerful morality tale and it left a mark on them. On me too.
No Country for Old Men (2008). The Cohen Brothers are, for my money, the best film directors in the world and have been for over twenty years. Everything they produce is worth seeing and in my snobby universe you can't call yourself a film buff unless you've seen every movie they've ever made. As for No Country for Old Men—the title sums it all up. A dark vision of an America well past the end of its tether. Death, in the form of a coin tossing psychopath, is stalking the highways and those who still believe in right and wrong are a very rapidly dying breed. It's no accident this film is set in 1980—the year Ronald Reagan took over the White House. In it, everything is reduced to the new common denominator: money.
Kill Bill (2003-4). Released as two films over two years, Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill was designed to be one film but its director knew the public would never accept a four hour feature film, so he hacked it in two. Uma Thurman in yellow leather, Japanese school girls wielding swords, David Carradine wielding strange peace and wisdom: it's an amazing blend of the trivial and the profound, of action and anime, beauty and horror, pulp and profundity. I could go on. It's a movie that stays with you.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). All hail Ang Lee. The Ice Storm, Remains of the Day, the Hulk! Um.... Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a fairy tale in Mandarin, an ethereal story of love, honour, and martial arts. Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh are amazing in the lead roles and the film plays itself out as a series of scenes that stay with you like dreams, years after the credits have rolled.
The Dark Knight (2008) Maybe it's the advances that have been made in special effects, or maybe it was the career-making performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker, or maybe it was the script, but somehow all the elements came together in this film—easily the best super hero movie ever. Not camp, not corny, The Dark Knight manages to somehow tread a fine line: it's a serious film and a fun one. There's something epic and important about the idea of a super hero that's deeply buried in our culture. This is the first film that managed to bring this sense of mythic importance to the forefront and to hold it there for two and a half hours. It's a film that will be remembered.
The Wrestler (2008). Darren Aronovsky may turn out to be the great director of the next decade. His career began with two fantastic films, Pi and Requiem for a Dream, faltered with the Fountain, then got right back on track with The Wrestler. In this film Micky Rourke plays America—a bloated, steroid-fed has-been who loves the limelight more than he loves his daughter or himself. He's also oddly lovable for all his pathetic failures; the genius here is that Aronovsky makes you root for Rourke even as you despise him. And what does that say about us all? Big questions, delicately handled. And did I say Rourke was 'America'? I meant Canada too...
Spirited Away (2001) Hayao Miyazaki created this rarity: an animated film that created its own, self-contained and fully-realized world. Chihiro, a sulky young girl wanders away from her family and enters a world of spirits and ghosts. This world operates according to non-logic that would make Lewis Carroll proud. As the viewer, you are as disoriented and amazed as Chihiro is as she wanders through her fantastic new reality. You can dissect it in search of 'meaning' if you want—I prefer to accept it as an amazing adventure: the meaning seeps through regardless. For what it's worth, this film overtook Titanic in Japan, becoming that country's highest-grossing film of all time. There's something pure here that cannot be denied.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-3) I remember going to the opening night of the Fellowship of the Ring in some trepidation. I'd never been a Tolkien fan and don't like fantasy. I sat in my seat waiting for a parade of midgets with hairy latex foot extensions. I came away enchanted. Peter Jackson did an astounding job of creating a romantic fable for the ages here. Wonderful direction, writing, and acting, all in the service of a noble quest: an attempt by humble hobbits to destroy 'power' itself. A message that will still be relevant when your grandchildren watch the films: The Lord of the Rings films are keepers.
There you have my thoughts. Did I miss anything?
