I have a fun little project for you over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Why don’t you try condensing 10 years of movies you love into 1 column (or if you want to cheat like me, make it 2 columns). Go on, I dare you. In the meantime, here’s my list for you to dwell on and inspire you. Now to be clear, this is not my list of what I think are the 10 best movies of the decade. You can look to Roger Ebert and his brethren of critics to inundate you with such lists between now and the end of the year. Instead, this is a list of the movies that I know I will still be watching and re-watching 10 and 20 years from now whenever they show up on cable. Oh wait, apparently cable TV won’t exist anymore in 10 years, so let’s just say these are the 10 movies that I will beam directly into my brain when I want some 00’s nostalgia and just want to be entertained and captivated by a movie. So here we go.
10. Superbad (2007) – 
Let’s face it Judd Apatow has dominated the 00’s comedy movie scene like no other writer/director/producer/mensch out there. I mean multi-hyphenate doesn’t even cover it when you consider everything he has brought to the table since his feature film directorial debut “The 40 Year Old Virgin” (a very very near miss to this list by the way). And yeah in case you were wondering, Judd also wrote and produced that one too. But anyway, thanks to Judd’s mentoring of a funny/furry young actor/screenwriter named Seth Rogen (another multi-hyphenate who in the next decade will add superhero to his name when he stars in “The Green Hornet”, which he also is writing/producing) and Judd’s newfound power in Hollywood, ‘Superbad’ was born. And in the process so was the defining high school comedy of the 00’s, a worthy successor to any of John Hughes 80’s classics – but without a doubt, raunchier and funnier than those films which seem almost chaste in comparison. A simple tale of some high school buds trying to buy liquor and lose their virginity, what the film lacks in originality (I think I pretty much just summarized the plot of every high school movie ever made including High School Musical – if High School Musical was made by any other studio besides Disney that is), ‘Superbad’ makes up for with its heart and its realistic depiction of two best friends’ bitter-sweet realization that things may never be the same when high school ends. And oh yeah, did I mention the blisteringly funny dialogue and spot on performances by a great cast on display? Well, for all of the above reasons, “Superbad” will live on and on. And if you want a fun double feature recommendation, watch “Superbad” back to back with “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (another all-time classic high school flick that has heart to go with its wit) and witness a high school world before cell phones and the internet, and where high school seniors looked like they were 30 (yes, Judge Reinhold, I’m talking about you).
9. Into the Wild (2007) - 
Sean Penn may have closed out the decade winning a Best Actor Oscar for “Milk”, but to me his finest work of the 00’s was this film where he stayed very much behind the camera. Based on a best-selling non-fiction book by Jon Krakauer , “Into the Wild”, written and directed by Penn, tells the heart-breaking true story of one young man’s journey to find himself. This woefully underrated film was released at a time when such darkly cynical films such as “No Country For Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” were dominating pop culture and the awards circuit. But for me, “Into The Wild” stands on equal ground with those two aforementioned films (which both were also very near-misses to this list). What sets this film apart from those 2 films to me is that it is a film full of beauty and life, and one which packs an emotional wallop that gets me every time I see it. Emile Hirsch leads a stellar yet quirky cast that includes Katherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart (yes everyone Bella from Twilight!), Hal Holbrook, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Jena Malone and “The Hangover“‘s very own Zach Galifianakis. Add in a hauntingly beautiful and sparse soundtrack by Eddie Vedder, and this completes a film that never fails to captivate nor move me.
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) – 
Who would have thought a Jim Carrey movie would make this list and it wouldn’t involve him talking out of his butt? Seriously, Jim Carrey made quite a few movies where he tried to take his career in alternate directions during the 00’s, but to me the only film of his where he truly got that mix perfectly right is the beautiful, emotional, inventive (insert your own adjective of praise here because believe me they all apply) film, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. There is no way I’m going to try to summarize the plot of this movie, and the fact that it can’t be described in a typical 30 second Hollywood pitch is very much part of what makes it so special. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” rewards multiple viewings, in fact they are almost essential. The second time you see this film, it’s a much different experience, which only leaves the viewer appreciating the film even more. But the film has so many layers and the lead performances by Carrey and Kate Winslet (playing Carrey’s maybe soul mate) are so wonderful that even upon the 10th viewing, you still make new discoveries and get pulled in by the originality and brain-busting nature of the film’s concept. We can thank Charlie Kaufman, one of the decade’s most original screenwriters (and then later, directors) for this amazingly special film. If “Eternal Sunshine” didn’t make this list, the Kaufman written, Spike Jonze directed film “Adaptation” very well might have.
7. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) – 
Wes Anderson seems in many ways to me like a kindred spirit to Charlie Kaufman. Such an auteur, his films’ unmistakable style render them immediately distinguishable from works by anyone else. Even the recently released stop-motion animated film “Fantastic Mr. Fox” can sit side by side all of Wes Anderson’s other films and look like it is part of the same world. And this is a film with fox puppets! But if you think about it, the characters in Anderson’s films are always his puppets – part of a unique, visually inventive world that Anderson meticulously builds piece by piece. It is for this reason all of his films are eminently re-watchable and rewarding upon multiple viewings, and The Royal Tenenbaums does not disappoint in that regard. This film came out at the beginning of the decade and most definitely has already stood the test of time in my world. The characters in this film are so enjoyable to follow, especially because each has their own little quirky idiosyncrasies and a distinct visual style. It’s certainly not an accident that all of the members of the Tenenbaum family now annually serve as inspiration for Halloween costumes. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen this film, but if I’m channel surfing and I come upon Royal Tenenbaum and his clan of brooding geniuses, I immediately put the remote down and get lost in Anderson’s fantastic world. I can’t wait to get lost there again.
6. Any Pixar animated movie – 
Ok, I’m cheating here as I’m not going to just name one Pixar film (though if you forced me to choose I would probably pick this year’s academy-award contender, “Up” (2009), “Finding Nemo” (2003), or “The Incredibles” (2004) – see you force me to choose and I still pick 3! That’s how good Pixar is!). As the 2000’s come to a close, computer animated films are de rigeur, with every major Hollywood studio and many indie studios releasing such films (some more successfully than others). But if you think back to the ancient days of 2000, Pixar was basically the only game in town (Dreamworks had released Antz in 1998 and was prepping Shrek for a 2001 release which would soon finally give Pixar some worthy competition). You might think a studio with essentially no competition could possibly get complacent or release substandard product and take advantage of an audience hungry for computer animated fare. Not Pixar. And movie lovers everywhere are the winners in this case. Each of Pixar’s animated films are incredibly re-watchable and every film they released this decade was revolutionary in its own way – so honestly, just insert your designated Pixar choice here. These movies are all instant masterpieces not only because of their visual inventiveness and creativity, but because at the heart of every Pixar film is good old-fashioned story-telling that connects and stays with the viewer on an emotional level. These films truly play to an audience of any age, and without a doubt will continue to play on and on to new generations of film goers. They are the new Disney classics. For more on “Up” which was recently released on dvd, see my musings in my first “Smart Pick of the Week” column from a few days ago.
Ok, that will put a capper on Part I. Stay tuned to this space for the rest of the top 10 as well as a list of some near misses. If you have any questions or comments, please drop me a line at smarthollywood@gmail.com or find me on twitter @smarthollywood.
Until next time.
JF
