Best of the Oughts
By I’m not in a productive mood as I’m just waiting around until it’s time to go see Slint. I doubt anyone cares much, but I’ve got my own top 10 movies of 2004 post pretty much ready to go, but it’s being held up until I see A Very Long Engagement and A Sea Inside, which I hope to see very soon (Ozu kept me busy). I think my co-bloggers and I agreed more than usual on film this year.
So while I’m we’re waiting, in the spirit of Scott’s top 10 films of the 80’s post a while back, I thought the midway point of our current decade (which, in the spirit of Grandpa Simpson, I insist on calling “The Oughts”) is as good a time as any to begin a discussion of the top 10 films of the Oughts, so far.
The following is entirely off the top of my head, and no doubt misses some films I’ll need to find room for. Anyway, here goes.
10. You Can Count On Me
9. Donnie Darko
8. Y Tu Mama Tambien
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6. 21 Grams
5. Yi Yi (A One and A Two)
4. Talk to Her
3. Mulholland Drive
2. Bad Education
1. In the Mood For Love
Honorable mentions/second tier honors go to The Circle, Kandahar, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Fast Runner, Man without a Past, Intolerable Cruelty, The Pianist, Ghost Dog, Beau Travail, and Spirited Away. I initially ranked In the Mood For Love as the 4th or 5th best film of the year, behind Yi Yi, Crouching Tiger, and a few others. I can’t explain exactly why the film has lingered so prominently in my mind, but it has. I’ve got the Criterion DVD on order, so I’ll soon find out if it holds up to my memory. As you can probably guess, I’m looking forward to finding out what Almodovar does for an encore. Maybe I’m just a structure for technical structural accomplishments, but I can’t figure out why critics didn’t get behind 21 Grams a bit more. I’m convinced Sean Penn deserved his 2003 oscar, but he got it for the wrong film. He was much, much better in 21 Grams than in Mystic River.