#1 — No Country For Old Men (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2007) After all the words I’ve tapped out in the name of this ongoing project, this public exercise in grappling with the films that have meant the most … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number One
#2 — Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006) “Every edit is a lie.” That assertion is famously credited to filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. I referenced that the first time I wrote about Children on Men, but I can’t resist returning to … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Two
#3 — Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007) With Zodiac, David Fincher stakes out the compelling argument that if a true-life story is worth telling in the first place, it doesn’t necessarily need embellishments and alterations. Biopics and docudramas routinely hammer fact and … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Three
#4 — The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is a powerhouse, a movie that announces itself immediately as unusually kinetic and dynamic. One of the earliest sequences sets the tone as the film rushes through the development of … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Four
#5 — Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney, 2005) The year that Good Night, and Good Luck. was released, George Clooney used his ample personal funds to get particularly fitting and telling Christmas gifts for many of his friends. He bestowed upon them personally selected DVD collections, assembling 100 films, predominantly released between 1964 and 1976, that he considered essential. Clooney included titles like All the President’s Men, The Candidate, Shampoo, and, of particular interest, The Front, Martin Ritt’s 1976 drama about Hollywood writers blacklisted alleged Communist sympathies. Like these, many of the films were resolutely political while still … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Five
#6 — The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001) Forget for a moment the Oscar attention, the box office tallies, and the awestruck acclaim from unlikely quarters. Think instead about the context when The Lord … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Six
#7 — Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004) Movies often trade in cataclysm and heartbreak, sending characters sprinting down rainswept streets chasing after that one urgent moment destined to change everything. That’s certainly stirring, but there’s also an inherent phoniness to it, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Seven
#8 — The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004) Those whose entire knowledge of superheroes derives from visits to the cineplex–and I still find it remarkable that a working background acquired through such means could be so much more thorough that I ever would have imagined ten years ago–can be forgiven for not realizes precisely how much Brad Bird’s The Incredibles is indebted to The Fantastic Four. This assertion is in reference to the comic book stories crafted by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby beginning in the early nineteen-sixties and extending across more than a hundred issues into the next decade. The … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Eight
#9 — Up (Pete Docter with Bob Peterson, 2009) Let’s start where everyone starts in discussing Up, with the sequence that seemingly inspires universal agreement about its excellence. With just a few minutes of screen-time, Pete Docter and Bob Peterson … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Nine
#10 — Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000) It’s all about those records under the bed, a treasure trove of rock ‘n’ roll left by a departing sibling with the promise that there are life-changing notes contained within the collection. When young William Miller finds them, he flips through the strange squares carefully, lightly passing his hands over the surfaces of the worn cardboard covers as if they’re something mystical. The reverence that Cameron Crowe instills in this moment can almost make you believe that listening to The Who’s Tommy by candlelight is the surest path to enlightenment. That, above all … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Ten
Coffee for Two 