45. Cast Away
Tom Hanks gives one of the best male performances of the decade as Chuck Noland, the Fed-Ex worker stranded on a Pacific island for 5 years. I'm always shocked when I see the running time of 143 minutes. It feels at least 30 minutes shorter, mostly due to Hanks's commanding performance. Composer Alan Silvestri puts in career best work and this is Robert Zemeckis's best-directed film - gimmick-free, mature, and honest.
44. The Aviator
Does what every Oscar-baiting biopic should do: it informs, entertains, and challenges. Set against the backdrop of Howard Hughes's early adult life, Martin Scorsese shows the formation of the airline system and provides the second best Congressional hearings scene ever (hard to beat Frank Pentangeli). He also dabbles in CGI for a change with 2 of the best airplane wrecks ever captured on screen. Leonardo DiCaprio, Alec Baldwin, John C. Reilly, and Alan Alda contribute terrific characterizations - especially DiCaprio who's convincing as Hughes when he's in charge, when he's crazy, and everything in between. The decidedly open-ended last scene is refreshing.
43. Mystic River
The explosive Sean Penn leads an all-star cast (Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney) and Clint Eastwood's sparse, but symbolism heavy direction perfectly suits the story of 3 childhood friends going their separate ways as adults, each responding to a tragedy differently.
42. Black Hawk Down &
The Constant Gardner
Ridley Scott's fact-based account of the brief 1993 Somalia skirmish remains the best film about modern war. Technology can only take you so far. Somehow, Scott clearly shows the logistics of the entire operation and the all-star male cast (Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard, and Tom Sizemore) put a human face on the accidental battle. It's a technical marvel from the cinematography to the sound to the editing. Favorite moment: the look on Sizemore's face when someone tells him he shouldn't go back into the battle.
The Constant Gardner is another film I initially forgot and fits in best here since both of these films take place in modern day Africa. The plight of the black man is viewed through the eyes of white people. While the characters in Black Hawk Down are fighting for their own survival, here, Rachel Weisz is fighting for the survival of the local African people. Her passive green-thumbed husband (Ralph Fiennes) is forced to action, nicely leading to all kinds of reconciliations and revelations.
41. Munich
When it's good, it's superb. When it's bad, it's unintentionally funny. Trying to be a more positive person (No, really!), I choose to focus on the cinematography, dialogue, action, philosophical discussions, and acting. Let's just forget about the gooey sex scene and Spielberg's musical choices (never his strong suit) - although Daniel Craig singing "Papa was a Rolling Stone" is pretty great.
46. The Wrestler
47. Gosford Park
48. Kill Bill
49. You Can Count On Me
50. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
51. 21 Grams
52. Ratatouille & WALL-E
53. Road to Perdition
54. Billy Elliot
55. The Royal Tenenbaums
56. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
57. Downfall
58. Hot Fuzz
59. The New World
60. Knocked Up
61. Inland Empire
62. United 93
63. Babel
64. Pan's Labyrinth
65. In the Bedroom
66. Monsters, Inc.
67. The Pianist
68. Batman Begins
69. 3:10 to Yuma
70. King Kong
71. In Bruges
72. No Direction Home
73. Intolerable Cruelty
74. Little Children
75. Gangs of New York
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Best Films of the Decade 45-41
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5 comments:
doc, i'm enjoying your list and starting to work on my own, although my aspirations are significantly smaller (I think I'm going to limit to 25), but then again I haven't seen nearly as many films as you.
to lawyer, i'm enjoying yours, too, but it's hard to follow as a post after docs (and with commentary on docs). are you going to post it continuously at some later point, perhaps in a few chunks? it will be easier to read and, honestly, the amount of time it takes to consider this many films, it probably deserves to be somewhere besides in comments.
I'll post it separately - Please compile your top 25 - its great to compare notes.
Mine:
45. The Notebook - Great performances by Gosling and McAdams is my favorite romantic film of all time (small list). Some cool images and an emotional coda. Bring it on.
44. Zodiac - A really good film with good performances. Doc loves it, I just can't connect with it.
43. In the Bedroom - Echo Doc's comments. Tomei and the great Nick Stahl are both great.
42. Hotel Rwanda - Terry George nimbly maneuvers around African conflict with a brilliant performance by Don Cheadle. The feeling of anger and responsibility I felt after my first viewing of this was intense.
41. Revolutionary Road - Mostly ignored last year, this is an unflinching study of marriage and adulthood. Great, great performances all around and quality direction from Sam Mendes.
Yours:
CA - I left this out. I love this one too - I could watch it over and over. Zemeckis should stick to live action, where it actually works.
Aviator - I like this, but don't love it. The airplane building was a little much and it felt forced - love Alda.
Mystic River - I have this a little bit higher on my list.
BHD - Need to watch again.
CG - Coming up.
Munich - Better than I admit, but still not something I want to watch again.
I will not judge you for the notebook, although it is not in my top 200 films of the decade, and i watched it IN AMSTERDAM with amsterdamica, which is giving it as much of a chance as possible. but, i do love the moulin rouge, something i know you can't comprehend.
The Notebook is a good movie, but the only scene I remember is the one in the rain. I'll try it again if I run across it on cable.
You like super-heavy dramas (like Hotel Rwanda) more than me and I like the fast-talking, self-conscious dialogue much more than you. I didn't really like most of the characters in Rwanda and Cheadle didn't draw me in for some reason. Maybe the event was too recent and I kept it at arms length on purpose. I'll have to give it another chance.
Revolutionary Road is in my #80-85 range. I'll post a revised list to 100 on the final post.
I forgot to mention Howard Shore's score for The Aviator which is a masterpiece (a term i rarely use). I'll admit Scorsese doesn't seem to completely embrace the material (like he did with his other 3 titles on this list - #75, #72, and one upcoming). His heart has always been with street-level people trying to get by (and rock 'n' roll) and not uppity billionaires. Still, his genius fingerprints are all over the place.
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