Culture Blues

The Best Movies of the Decade: 35-21

As pop culture aficionados, your friends at Culture Blues are not immune to the end-of-decade lists currently overwhelming the internet. As the year comes to a close, and we get progressively lazier, please enjoy Listmania, where Culture Blues ranks their favorite shit in a bunch of different categories.

Welcome to our ongoing discussion of the best films of the decade, where every movie on our list will be praised by one writer, and then torn down by another. Catch up on entries 50-36 here.

PRO: The gritty, violent struggles of Mexico’s varying social classes are at the heart of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 2000 masterpiece, Amores Perros, but surprisingly, the ruthlessness and the violence are often the least appealing aspects of the film. The movie follows three separate story arcs (all dealing with dogs) that eventually connect as a result of coincidence, and some would argue, fate. If it sounds like a familiar--even tired--technique at this point, it’s because Iñárritu would employ similar management of characters and plots in his next films, 21 Grams and Babel.  But Perros is far harsher and more visually aggressive than those. The characters are developed around the violence, not in spite of it. After the explosive success of Pulp Fiction nearly a decade earlier, moviegoers seemed determined to discover a Quentin Tarantino for the new millennium; and filmmakers seemed determined to copy his style. Amores Perros is in the Tarantino mold perhaps more than any other film of the past ten years, but it’s stylized enough to seem wholly unique, and far less derivative than anything Tarantino has ever done. (Burgman)

CON: It’s in Spanish. (Jeremiah)

PRO: Kung Fu Hustle is just about perfect! Stephen Chow hit a high mark with this fantastical story of a loser turned kung fu master. Incredible action, comedy, music and dance! This movie is a smorgasbord of over a hundred years of filmmaking in one magnificent feature. Borrowing heavily from the kung fu classics from Hong Kong, with a Tarantino-esque wit, Mel Brooks’ slapstick and Busby Berkeley’s flair for the spectacular, Kung Fu Hustle is a startling and surprising masterpiece. Although, a mainstay in the Hong Kong film industry with a plethora of great films under his belt (ie: Shaolin Soccer) Chow has yet to deliver another film on this level. We can only hope that Chow (writer, actor, director and kung fu master) will do another soon. (Carl)

CON: I love Kung Fu movies. I love Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer. But, if I had to give a tagline to Kung Fu Hustle it would be: Kung Fu meets So You Think You Can Dance.  Not what I am looking for in a Kung Fu flick. If I want martial arts and dancing in my movies, I’ll go watch Only The Strong with the underrated Mark Dacascos for the 500^th time. (Cheese)

PRO: Christian Bale’s performance as an axe wielding, chainsaw chucking mad man rightfully earned him a spot on our 16 Biggest Badasses of the Decade list. I suppose it’s not all that hard to channel when you’re a raging lunatic in real life. If Bale is anything short of a 10 in this role, American Psycho falls flat on its face. But it doesn’t because he nails it. Look at that badass picture! Bale as Patrick Bateman is animalistic and murderous, but at the core, insecure and sad. What’s truly scary is that I feel like we all know someone exactly like this. Or maybe it’s just me. And maybe I’m just specifically thinking of this one guy. Yikes. (Jason)

CON: American Psycho amounts to little more than the idea that the materialistic and narcissistic 80s could create an introverted sociopath like Patrick Bateman. Bale’s willingness to dive in with reckless abandon pays off and there are some amusing riffs on corporate culture and 80s excess (the business card scene is a classic), but the movie never forms an engaging narrative, never offers any genuinely interesting characters and, beneath the sex and gore, is very shallow.  (Jeremiah)

PRO: You'd have to go all the way back to Michael Roemer's The Plot Against Harry to find another comedy as unjustifiably dismissed and forgotten.  Nevertheless, Idiocracy remains the essential document of American life during the seemingly endless two-term reign of Dubya.  And, as the inexorable rise of Sarah Palin proves, Idiocracy is just barely science fiction, which makes it as disturbing as it is funny.  The cast is uniformly excellent, particularly Terry Crews ("Break it down, Camacho!") and Maya Rudolph.  The greatest revelation, though, is Luke Wilson, whose sheer blankness serves the plot perfectly.  There's no doubt that Mike Judge's anti-corporate streak isn't doing his career any favors, and it's undoubtedly why the film was buried, but in a world (yes, I'm slipping into movie trailer-speak here) where rampant commercialism is the norm, his willingness to bite the hand that feeds is an absolute joy.  This is truth to power on a level we haven't seen since Stephen Colbert spoke at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.  To top it all off, the soundtrack prominently features Buck Owens - so how can you go wrong?  A truly remarkable achievement.  Even if no one else does, I genuinely care whose ass it was and why it was farting. (Kieran)

CON: How like the Liberals to portray America as a country slowly circling the drain while they turn on the faucet. To paint Americans as dumb, crude and fat all while their fascist, communist regime led by a black muslim conspires to turn us into dependent, overgrown toddlers nursing at the teat of big government.  Indeed, the great irony of this Idiocracy, is that it could only be the result of a liberal run America. We would never be reduced to such a crippled state in a free market freedomocracy where undeniable facts and inherent forces of nature like trickle down, the invisible hand, manifest destiny and distrust of black people would lift us up to prosperity. Shame on you, Mike Judge. (Rush)

PRO: You don't always have to leave a theater feeling good about a movie for it to be great. In fact, in the case of Requiem for a Dream, you may walk out of the darkness feeling, gross, disturbed, and downright sick to your stomach. Taking place over the span of three seasons, Requiem for a Dream depicts the ruin of addiction and self-delusion on a cross section of individuals ranging from friends to lovers and family. It’s a movie about drugs, consequences, and (aptly) dreams that does not try to redeem itself, nor its characters; instead it compels you to watch as an elderly widow deals with dementia and dysmorphia... As a junkie loses his arm to amputation... And, of course, there is always the whole ass-to-ass bit. Requiem keeps your knuckles white, your jaw tight, and maybe, just maybe, it will scare you away from heroin. (Giovanny)

CON: No. No thank you, never again. I won’t challenge the artistic merits of Requiem for a Dream, but I’d rather get addicted to heroin and lose my arm than ever watch this movie again. It’s a brutally unpleasant viewing experience not for the faint of heart, and I am the faint of heart. I’m just going to chill out and listen to my 30 Seconds to Mars albums, if that’s cool with everybody. (Jeff)

PRO: Man, that is some bleak shit! There is no rainbow at the end of The Proposition, a movie about an outlaw brother, played meticulously by Guy Pierce, caught between the choice of killing one brother in order to save the life of his other brother. Bleak, I say! This film was shot in the desolate Australian outback and set in the late 1800s when Australia was teeming with degenerates and still in the early stages of taming the land and its people. From dreary shots of the outback at dawn to the raw acting from a superb cast, everything in this movie follows the grim theme to a tee. Nick Cave had a great decade and his screenplay for the Proposition was perhaps his highest point. (Carl)

CON: The Proposition starts with a premise that promises loads of drama and conflict, and then quickly stumbles into dull and forgettable territory. With too much aimless soul searching and not enough outlaw action, The Proposition is mostly praised because hipsters refuse to accept that musician Nick Cave isn’t a master screenwriter yet. It’s not that The Proposition is a bad movie, not at all. But it did nothing to separate itself from similar prestige westerns of the decade like Open Range, Appaloosa and 3:10 to Yuma. (Jeremiah)

PRO: Like any Romanian abortion movie, Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is hardly a pleasurable viewing experience.  It's the story of Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) helping her college friend Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) arrange an illegal abortion in Communist Romania during the 80s.  Obviously, lots of bad things happen along the way.  What makes this a great movie is that it does not pander to many Western conventions of filmmaking.  There are no big plot twists.  The girls do not tearfully proclaim their friendship to one another.  Instead, Mungiu serves us up long sequences of post-rape vagina washing and post-abortion fetus disposal.  This is simply a portrait of human misery (and ultimately, survival) under the kind of oppression that we Americans can luckily only vaguely understand.  Fueled by Anamaria Marinca's unflinching, remarkable performance (something that the likes of Nicole Kidman could only dream of), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is awkward to watch, but not easy to forget.  Bring a date. (Bill)

CON:  It’s in Romanian. (Jeremiah)

PRO:  Synecdoche, New York is a chronicle of the remainder of a man's life after his wife unceremoniously leaves him for a more glamorous life and takes his daughter.  It is a movie so ambitious that I almost believe that (writer and director) Charlie Kaufman simply adapted every thought he's ever had into a movie.  Above all else, this is a movie about the human experience.  Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is an everyman, experiencing an augmented version of what everyone goes through.  Kaufman tells the story through dream logic, which makes it both goofy and devastating.  Led by Phil Hoffman and supported by a Fellini-esque "dream team" of actresses (Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Dianne Wiest, Emily Watson, Hope Davis and Jennifer Jason Leigh), this is simply a wet dream for anyone who loves great actors. While this is a great film, it is certainly not a film for everyone.  It will confuse and annoy anyone who sees movies primarily for entertainment.  As it should.  If you are able to suspend reality, however, and open yourself up to seeing dark sides of yourself reflected on the screen, it will exhilarate and devastate you.  (Bill)

CON: I have a theory that people like to watch Charlie Kaufman movies because it makes them feel smarter than everyone else. I know people who have seen Synecdoche, New York ten times and do you know why? Because they still haven’t figured out what the fuck is going on. If you have two and a half hours of your life that you can devote to feeling morose and suicidal then this is your movie.  By the way, the title is pronounced Schenectady and not Syn-e-douche like I thought it was until 3 days ago.  That right there should tell you how pretentious this movie is.  The “Charlie Kaufman is a genius” train went off the tracks shortly after Being John Malkovitch and has not made its way back. (Cheese)

PRO: When Spider-Man hit theaters, the modern age of super hero movies began. Sure, X-Men came first, but Spider-Man is what made true believers out of fanboys and civilians alike. Sam Raimi was the perfect man to give Spidey the charming mixture of camp, irreverent humor and, ultimately, gravitas. He delicately balanced respect for the source material with decisions that moviegoers could swallow (be real, NO high school student could design Spidey’s “webbing”). Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe were more than capable of lending humanity and vulnerability to their characters, not only without their costumes, but in spite of them. Their rooftop conversation is a high point of the film, the series, and the current crop of comic book movies. With an established director new to blockbusters, and the ability to tell a meaningful story while still offering all the sheer entertainment expected of a summer blockbuster, Spider-Man paved the way for the likes of Batman Begins and Iron Man. (Jeremiah)

CON: This movie was just not memorable to me on any level. I saw it as a freshman in college, so that probably has something to do with the fuzziness. But if you’re going to be this high up on a list of movies spanning an entire decade, I should at least be able to remember something. I got nothing.  (Jason)

PRO: Although people generally assume that the Batman movies are filmed in New York City, much of The Dark Knight was filmed in Chicago- some of it very close to my apartment. Sure this makes me a little biased (nothing like being able to point out Bruce Wayne’s penthouse condo… down the street), but I think it’s safe to say that this movie earned this spot, and perhaps belongs significantly higher. Christopher Nolan’s gritty take on a deeply conflicted superhero who doesn’t win is refreshing and well done. Anything that could be said about Heath Ledger’s once-in-a-lifetime (literally) performance was laid out by commenter John P here. I’ll concede that it’s maybe a little far-fetched to think that Bruce Wayne would be in love with Maggie Gyllenhaal, but Katie Holmes sucks at life so I’ll deal. (Jason)

CON: I don’t get it. Really? People like this? I mean sure, everybody digs explosions and fight scenes and car chases, but what makes this one better? Heath Ledger? Yeah, he’s pretty good at playing a make-up wearing creep with a lisp (and a gay cowboy), but is that enough to make this movie good? My first big problem is with the scene at the end on the boats with the prisoners and guards. C’mon? This is supposed to be some morality tale but fails miserably through its ridiculousness. And what about where Batman and Commissioner Gordon, after invading the rights of everyone’s privacy to stop a terrorist (think Patriot Act), they then decide the public is too stupid to know the truth about Batman not being a bad guy? Huh? This reeks of some bullshit right wing rationalization that Limbaugh, Beck and O’Reilly scream about daily. But I guess most vigilantes are douchebags. Whatever, you can only take a comic book superhero movie …so serious. (Carl)

PRO: Usually, I like my movies topping out at around 86 minutes. Anything longer than that just becomes a chore. That’s why my love for The Assassination of Jesse James, Andrew Dominik’s 160 minute follow-up to the much more economical Chopper (also good), is so bizarre. Jesse James is a gorgeous film with a slow-burning plot that will likely turn off viewers who enjoy their westerns with a little more punch and a lot less navel-gazing. It was a good decade for westerns; movies like the aforementioned The Proposition, Appaloosa, and 3:10 to Yuma all helped reignite a flagging genre. But none of those films deconstructed the genre with such precision. As usual, Casey Affleck is brilliant, but he is outshone by a tightly-wound Brad Pitt who eschews his usual goofy charm for a portrayal of a paranoid, sociopathic Jesse James for whom violence always seems a hairsbreadth away. The inevitable confrontation between Pitt’s James and Affleck’s Ford was one of my favorite film moments of the decade. (Jeff)

CON: This is a gorgeous film, but it is a classic case of style over substance.  The script is dry and lifeless.  The film is unbearably slow.  The actors do their best to make it worthwhile (especially Casey Affleck), but ultimately this is an excruciating and unrewarding viewing experience. (Bill)

PRO: Amelie is a movie that dares you to not be a cynical asshole for 122 minutes. Directed by French genius Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen and the amazing City of Lost Children), Amelie is the wondrous story of an introverted Parisian with an overactive and delightful imagination. Over the course of the 2 hour-plus journey through her life, we are treated to a tale full of warmth, love, and the foibles of eccentricity. Dizzyingly directed, populated by a motley of French fascinations, and wonderfully scored by Jan Tielsen, Amelie is full of the sort of moments that make you consider just exactly how dead you are inside, but still has you leaving the theater with an appreciation for the smallest glories of existence. Something must also be said about the timely nature of its November 2001 release date, as this movie seemed to be the perfect distraction from the concerns that were gripping our nation. (Giovanny)

CON: It’s in French. (Jeremiah)

PRO: Popcorn entertainment at its best and most artful. While so many blockbusters in the past decade have relied on over the top action, ridiculous CGI and thumping pop soundtracks, Ocean’s Eleven is better than them all with flawless direction, smooth, witty dialogue, cool as hell performances and an expertly told heist story. It’s a near perfect example of giving the audience all the right information at all the right times, never showing or withholding too much. A pure heist movie that doesn’t attempt to be something more or to push an agenda, it is simply the story of a bunch of professional criminals taking down the house. The joy when they get away with it is as affecting as any teary eyed confession in a somber indie drama, and as they all leave the fountain one by one, it’s so bittersweet that it’s impossible to not want to see this gang ride together again, even though all that’s waiting is Ocean’s Twelve (vomit) and Ocean’s Thirteen (pass). (Jeremiah)

CON: Why does this movie exist?  It's not the worst thing ever, but it's at best a mediocre, obnoxious, circle jerk-y waste of time.  (Bill)

PRO: Full of colorful characters, snappy dialogue and delightful British accents, this movie is unique in a clearly manufactured and yet not at all irritating way. It’s got all the eccentric hoodlums, tangled storytelling and simultaneously humorous and unsettling violence of so many inferior films. What separates Snatch is the way that director Guy Ritchie pushes the manic energy to the breaking point, and somehow manages to hold it all together. It’s essentially a never ending series of encounters between disparate unsavory elements. No character, dynamic or set up is lingered on long enough to wear out its welcome, and by the end you are left with memorable characters, lines and situations numerous enough to rival the Coens’ landmark, aimless caper The Big Lebowski. (Jeremiah)

CON: Jason Statham’s dopey character in Snatch makes him totally unbelievable as badass Frank Martin in The Transporter series. That pisses me off. Also, you have to watch Snatch with subtitles just to understand what the hell Brad Pitt is saying. That’s actually kinda cool, but it makes me think about how Hero didn’t make the list and that REALLY pisses me off.  (Jason)

PRO: Finally the Oscars got it right! After years of the best films being ignored, the Academy pulled its collective head out of its collective ass and in 2007 gave the best picture award to the actual best picture. It was a confounding moment for sure. The same group of people who think Reese Witherspoon is a good actress actually liked this complex morality tale told with perfect ease from the Coen Brothers. No Country for Old Men is good on so many levels but it has to be Javier Bardem’s performance that is the most memorable. The Coens have been consistently delivering great movies for decades now, and although No Country is not my personal favorite of theirs it is nice to see them get some much deserved and long overdue recognition. (Carl)

CON: The fact that the Coen brothers made me hate this movie pisses me off. The hype surrounding their movie was inescapable; there were Oscar nominations (it did win Best Picture), it was number one on numerous lists (thankfully not this one), and it was being parodied everywhere you looked (a true sign of relevance in America). In the end, however, the level of disappointment I experienced as the credits rolled was downright infuriating. Unlike some of the classic Coen films (most notably the Big Lebowski), this movie is the very opposite of satisfying, and not in some head-scratching, there's-a-twist, makes-you-think fashion, but in a "Why the fuck did they ruin their movie in the last half hour fashion"? It parallels the ending of The Sopranos... Lazy and unforgivable. (Giovanny)

We dig in to the Top 20 with 20-11.

Tagged as: 4 months 3 weeks 2 days, amelie, american psycho, amores perros, best movies of the decade, best satire ever, idiocracy, kung fu hustle, long movies, no country for old men, ocean's eleven, pretentious, requiem for a dream, snatch, spider-man, synecdoche new york, the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford, the dark knight, the proposition