Well, it looks like ten years have passed, and with it, a cornucopia of great cinema. These are the films I felt were some of the best during the 2000-20009 decade.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
The 40 Year Old Virgin
8 Mile
Avatar
Batman Begins
Be Kind Rewind
Big Fish
The Bourne Ultimatum
Bowling for Columbine
Casino Royale
Children of Men
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Finding Neverland
Gladiator
Half Nelson
Hotel Rwanda
The Hurt Locker
In America
Juno
King Kong
Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
Knocked Up
Lost in Translation
Michael Clayton
Monster's Inc.
Mystic River
O Brother Where Art Thou?
The Pianist
Star Trek
Toy Story 2
Traffic
Tsotsi
United 93
Up
The Visitor
20-11
20. Gangs of New York
19. Paranoid Park
18. WALL-E
17. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
16. Pan's Labyrinth
15. There Will Be Blood
14. The Savages
13. Inglourious Basterds
12. No Country for Old Men
11. Where the Wild Things Are
The Top Ten
10. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Danny Boyle is an amazing director, and it was nice to see him get his due for this stylized view of the slums of India, his story of brotherly love, and a fairy tale romance. All revolving around well edited flashbacks, a police interrogation, and two episodes of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".
9. Zodiac (2007)
There have been many attempt to try and make a film that would be as a riveting, and suspenseful, and watchable as David Fincher's masterpiece crime drama. It's fair to say that Fincher knows how to make a movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat (Seven, Panic Room, etc.) and that is especially true for this story about the most elusive villain of all time.
8. Memento (2001)
This film was nominated for two Oscars (Original Screenplay, and Film Editing respectfully.) It lost both, but deserved both. Christopher Nolan started his amazing career with his thrilling tale of amnesia, revenge, a small town, and a Polaroid camera.
7. Elephant (2003)
There are many interesting qualities about Gus Van Sant's reincarnation of the Columbine massacre. Between the fact that it tells the same story between characters and all around differing perspective, the long single shot dreamlike sequences, the fact that the cast is so interesting to watch despite having a cast that is predominately non actors, and that the dialogue is so authentic It made for one of my most favorite films of the decade.
6. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
How can anyone deny that this is arguably the greatest film series of all time. It has visual effects that, like the first Star Wars trilogy or 2001: A Space Odyssey, still holds up really well. It has themes and ideas that are universally relevant. Sets and costumes completely relevant to the setting of the film that are convincing and beautiful. It has a plot that is interesting, suspenseful, and at the end of the day is quite satisfying. The music is beautiful. The cast is diverse and great performances all around, particularly from Sir Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, and Andy Serkis. It's well edited and shot. If there are any movies that will be remembered from this decade, it will be The Lord of the Rings.
5. Shattered Glass (2003)
This film is like my generation's "All the President's Men." A journalism mystery drama with a hard boiled writer (Peter Sarsgaurd) trying to get to the bottom of Stephen Glass' (Hayden Christensen) fabricated tales. I love this movie because of how cool it is to watch Peter Sarsgaurd unveil Glass's lies, and how Sarsgaurd's character is on his own team, alone, while everyone else is too busy being charmed by Christensen's Glass. While you know what eventually happens to Glass (it is revealed that more that half of his stories are fictional, and is eventually fired from The New Republic magazine) it's interesting to watch him go down his slippery slope, and it made for great film.
4. Into the Wild (2007)
While some people will say this movie is boring, or that Christopher McCandles was crazy and spoiled and sort of careless, and while all that is true, I find it admirable that someone would ditch everything to pursue their dreams. There is so much to love about this film. It has several great performances (most notably from Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, and Catherine Keener.) It has some of the best cinematography I've seen, and is edited accordingly. Eddie Vedder provides an ever fitting score and soundtrack with songs as upbeat as "Hard Sun" and as soft as "Guaranteed." It's a movie that is a tragedy, but in a way, a sort of triumph.
3. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
How can you deny that this film was one of the most well written, and well acted of the decade? Between the dysfunction and the Volkswagen, and the funny dialogue, and the good feeling you get at the end, one of the best movies of the decade.
2. The Dark Knight (2008)
Christopher Nolan continues his amazing and rising career by giving us the epitome of the super hero genre. It is an unarguable fact that this is the best comic book film of all time. Anyone who claims that those honors go to "Ghost World", "Road to Perdition", "Sin City", "Iron Man", or even "Dick Tracy", or whatever, they're probably wrong. It has great editing, and is well written and directed. Gotham is creepier than ever with its great art direction, and it's great cinematography. And like everyone else will claim, the greatness of the film will be mostly due to Heath Ledger's dark portrayal of The Joker, and is no doubt the best performance of the decade. The cast is good and can keep up with Ledger, but not nearly as fun to watch as him. Beyond that, the film is riveting, and has themes applicable to modern times, and is the best crime film of the decade.
1. Once (2007)
This film is great due to its simplicity. It is a film that anyone could have made out of their bedroom. It was made for very little, and is a perfect encapsulation of what an independent film is. It has two amateur leads that still put out fine performances. It's directed well, and written well. But the movie is most great because of the music, which is what it's about. This film will go down in history as one of the best film soundtracks of all time. Especially with songs like "Falling Slowly", "If You Want Me", and "When Your Mind's Made Up." It's a perfect union of cinema and music. I believe that this Irish indie musical is the best film of the decade.
Best Picture
1. Once
2. The Dark Knight
3. Little Miss Sunshine
4. Into the Wild
5. Shattered Glass
6. The Lord of the Rings
7. Elephant
8. Memento
9. Zodiac
10. Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director
1. Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight and Memento
2. Sean Penn for Into the Wild
3. Martin Scorsese for The Departed and Gangs of New York
4. Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
5. Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds
6. Gus Van Sant for Elephant and Paranoid Park
7. Spike Jonze for Where the Wild Things Are and Adaptation
8. Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire and Millions
9. Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men and O Brother Where Art Thou?
10. David Fincher for Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Actor in a Leading Role
1. Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson
2. Daniel Day Lewis for There Will Be Blood
3. Leonardo DiCaprio for The Departed
4. Bill Murray for Lost in Translation
5. Emile Hirsch for Into the Wild
6. Guy Pearce for Memento
7. Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scottland
8. George Clooney for Michael Clayton
9. Jack Black for School of Rock
10. Phillip Seymour Hoffman for The Savages
Best Actress in a Leading Role
1. Ellen Paige for Juno
2. Kate Winslett for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Helen Mirren for The Queen
4. Laura Liney for The Savages
5. Marketa Irglova for Once
6. Toni Colette for Little Miss Sunshine
7. Scarlett Johansson for Lost in Translation
8. Uma Thurman for Kill Bill
9. Meryl Streep for Doubt
10. Cate Blanchett for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tie)
1. Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
1. Peter Sarsgaurd for Shattered Glass
2. Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
3. Alex Frost for Elephant
4. Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine
5. Steve Carell for Little Miss Sunshine
6. Benicio Del Toro for Traffic
7. Robert Downey Jr. for Zodiac
8. Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild
9. Dev Patel for Slumdog Millionaire
10. Sean Astin for The Lord of the Rings
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1. Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine
2. Frieda Pinto for Slumdog Millionaire
3. Carrie Ann Moss for Memento
4. Catherine Keener for Into the Wild
5. Ari Graynor for Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist
6. Miranda Crosgrove for School of Rock
7. Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton
8. Allyson Janey for Juno
9. Helen Mirren for Godsford Park
10. Kate Hudson for Almost Famous
Best Original Screenplay
1. Memento
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Once
4. Little Miss Sunshine
5. Elephant
6. Almost Famous
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Juno
9. The Savages
10. Lost in Translation
Best Adapted Screenplay
1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. The Lord of the Rings
3. The Dark Knight
4. Into the Wild
5. Paranoid Park
6. Zodiac
7. Traffic
8. Persepolis
9. Shattered Glass
10. Where the Wild Things Are
Best Ensemble Cast
1. Little Miss Sunshine
2. The Lord of the Rings
3. Elephant
4. The Dark Knight
5. Into the Wild
6. Traffic
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
8. Inglourious Basterds
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. The Departed
Best Foreign Film
1. Once
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
5. Persepolis
6. The Barbarian Invasions
7. The Lives of Others
8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
9. The Sea Inside
10. Apocalypto
Best Documentary
1. Murderball
2. Bowling for Columbine
3. The Fog of War
4. Man On Wire
5. At the Death House Door
6. Sicko
7. An Inconvenient Truth
8. No End in Sight
9. Promises
10. Paperclips
Best Animated Film
1. Monster's Inc.
2. Persepolis
3. Up
4. Spirited Away
5. WALL-E
6. Coraline
7. Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit
8. Finding Nemo
9. Toy Story 2
10. The Incredibles
Best Film Editing
1. Memento
2. Into the Wild
3. The Dark Knight
4. Slumdog Millionaire
5. The Departed
6. Elephant
7. No Country for Old Men
8. Zodiac
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
10. The Lord of the Rings
Best Cinematography
1. The Dark Knight
2. Slumdog Millinoaire
3. The Lord of the Rings
4. Memento
5. Into the Wild
6. Elephant
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Paranoid Park
9. Where the Wild Things Are
10. Pan's Labyrinth
Best Art Direction
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. Pan's Labyrintth
3. Chicago
4. Gangs of New York
5. The Dark Knight
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7. Where the Wild Things Are
8. Avatar
9. Paranoid Park
10. Inglourious Basterds
Best Costume Design
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. Marie Antoinette
4. The Duchess
5. Chicago
6. Where the Wild Things Are
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
8. Gangs of New York
9. Zodiac
10. Inglourious Basterds
Best Visual Effects
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. Avatar
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Transformers
5. Spider Man 2
6. Star Trek
7. The Golden Compass
8. District 9
9. King Kong
10. Pan's Labyrinth
Best Make Up
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. Star Trek
5. The Dark Knight
6. District 9
7. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
8. La Vie En Rose
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
10. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Best Original Score
1. Once
2. Into the Wild
3. The Lord of the Rings
4. The Dark Knight
5. Slumdog Millionaire
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. Little Miss Sunshine
8. Memento
9. Up
10. Where the Wild Things Are
Best Song Used in a Film
1."Falling Slowly" Once
2."'Til the End of Time" Little Miss Sunshine
3."Jai Ho" Slumdog Millionaire
4."Guaranteed" Into the Wild
5."The Hands That Built America" Gangs of New York
6."All is Love" Where the Wild Things Are
7."Into the West" The Lord of the Rings
8."Little Person" Synecdoche, New York
9."Such Great Heights" Garden State
10."Paper Planes" Slumdog Millionaire
Best Sound Mixing
1. The Dark Knight
2. The Lord of the Rings
3. Star Trek
4. The Bourne Ultimatum
5. The Departed
6. Where the Wild Things Are
7. King Kong
8. Slumdog Millionaire
9. WALL-E
10. Elephant
Best Sound Editing
1. The Dark Knight
2. The Lord of the Rings
3. Elephant
4. King Kong
5. The Bourne Ultimatum
6. Where the Wild Things Are
7. WALL-E
8. Slumdog Millionaire
9. Memento
10. Paranoid Park
