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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Top 50 of the "00s" Wrap-Up

Top 50 Recap

So here's a full recap of my favorite 50 movies of the "00s." Immediately, a few stats about my list...

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Mulholland Drive
3. Far From Heaven
4. Talk to Her
5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
6. Lost in Translation
7. Rachel Getting Married
8. Memento
9. Junebug
10. No Country for Old Men
11. Y Tu Mama Tambien
12. You Can Count on Me
13. Before Sunset
14. Gosford Park
15. A Serious Man
16. The Hurt Locker
17. Into the Wild
18. Wall-E
19. The White Ribbon
20. Up in the Air
21. Capote
22. Requiem for a Dream
23. Traffic
24. About Schmidt
25. The Lives of Others
26. The Class
27. Cache
28. Ghost World
29. City of God
30. Atonement
31. The Departed
32. Milk
33. Wonder Boys
34. American Splendor
35. Best in Show
36. Mystic River
37. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
38. Monsoon Wedding
39. 25th Hour
40. Once
41. Little Children
42. Pan's Labryinth
43. Ratatouille
44. The Royal Tenenbaums
45. Goodbye Solo
46. Little Miss Sunshine
47. In the Bedroom
48. The Constant Gardener
49. Wendy and Lucy
50. Crash

Here's where my list broke down my year:
6 Movies- 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007
5 Movies-2005, 2006, 2008, 2009
4 Movies-2003
2 Movies-2004

So, overall, it looks like the beginning of the decade was strongest, then a couple weaker years, then some pretty good years to end out the decade. Sounds about right as I look back on the decade.

By Language/Country:
Mostly "American" Movies: 35
Mostly British Movies: 4
Foreign Language Movies:11

I judged this fairly arbitrarily. Not by director, but by most of the actors and the general feel of the movie. For example, Altman is most certainly an American director but Gosford Park takes place in England and contains almost all British actors. This decade is really the first when I've seen a wide range of foreign films, and there have been some great ones. I'm almost surprised they didn't account for more than 11 on my list.

Directors who show up twice on the list:
The Coen Brothers- No Country for Old Men and A Serious Man
Michael Haneke- The White Ribbon and Cache
Fernando Meirelles- City of God and The Constant Gardener
Todd Field- Little Children and In the Bedroom

I was quite surprised that these were the only 4 who showed up more than once on my list. Todd Field is especially impressive. He's only made 2 films and they're both on my list. Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Ang Lee, and Pedro Almodovar all had strong decades, but they each only had 1 movie that cracked my top 50.

Actors who show up more than once:
Bob Balaban- Best in Show, Capote, Ghost World, Gosford Park
Don Cheadle- Crash, Traffic
Jennifer Connelly- Little Children, Requiem for a Dream
Hope Davis- About Schmidt, American Splendor,
Michael Douglas- Traffic, Wonder Boys
Vera Farmiga- The Departed, Up in the Air
Philip Seymour Hoffman- 25th Hour, Capote
Scarlett Johansson- Ghost World, Lost in Translation
Catherine Keener- Capote, Into the Wild
Laura Linney- Mystic River, You Can Count on Me
Kelly MacDonald- Gosford Park, No Country for Old Men
Bill Murray- Lost in Translation, The Royal Tenenbaums
Jack Nicholson- About Schmidt, The Departed
Sean Penn- Milk, Mystic River
Mark Ruffalo- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, You Can Count on Me
Tom Wilkinson- In the Bedroom, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Kate Winslet- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children

Who would have guessed that Bob Balaban would be my most honored actor? I certainly wouldn't have as he is not the star of any of his four movies. A dog therapist in Best in Show, a New Yorker editor in Capote, a befuddled father in Ghost World, and an American movie producer in Gosford Park. All small roles played with great strength. I guess it shows you what a hardworking character actor can do. Wait to go, Bob. If you don't recognize the name, I bet you recognize the face from Christopher Guest movies and many many other roles.


I'm probably missing a few. I was surprised by both who did and didn't show up on the list. I guess some of my favorite actors-Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington- give excellent performances without showing up in my very favorites. I was also impressed by the strengths of the casts of Eternal Sunshine and Mystic River. Both movies had 3 actors who showed up on my list.

Coming Up Next: Top performances of the "00s", along with an overview of Oscar's choices.

1 comment:

  1. This was a fun list and analysis to read! Three of your four favorite movie years correspond to years that you were in college...maybe you used movies to escape from life at St. Olaf :)

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