To check out numbers 176-200, go here.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas. My Christmas gifts this year included a Criterion Collection edition of Bottle Rocket, with new hand-drawn cover art (a la The Savages). Speaking of The Savages, I'd like to direct your attention to a short post on the best movie posters of the decade, at the following link:
I don't necessarily agree or disagree with anything they list there. Most of them are pretty solid. But it does seem like an egregious oversight to leave any Joker-related Dark Knight posters off that list.
And in honor of Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson's first feature, today's portion will include Anderson's first appearance on the countdown.
Let's continue:
175. The Station Agent (Thomas McCarthy, 2003) - A lot of people might say McCarthy's follow up, The Visitor, was better than this, but I haven't seen it. And this is the only movie I've ever seen not to exploit little people, but rather to pose them sympathetically. Peter Dinklage is pretty superb, you try to overlook his physical traits and say, "Hey, this is a normal guy, trying to live a normal life." It's a very well-made film, with a good story by someone who has a fantastic grasp on human relationships.
174. Things We Lost in the Fire (Susanne Bier, 2007) - A movie that clearly sets out to destroy your emotional balance. There are lots of swings in the storyline, ups and downs, where you both cheer for and are sickened by Benicio del Toro's character, a recovering junkie who moves in with his best friend's widow and children. It's a plot designed to make you angry, and it does, only not without tip-toeing along the line between moving and wretched. Grave and not flashy, but very worthwhile. Halle Berry seems to be getting the hang of "broken woman".
173. Star Trek (J.J. Abrams, 2009) - Just the opposite of the previous movie, Star Trek is a completely box office-driven summer spectacle. Chris Pine is spot on as the new Kirk, and Zachary Quinto is characteristically weird as Spock, but it's the full-boil action and sharp dialogue that made this movie entertaining. I'm not particularly a Star Trek fan, but it was good, just so long as they don't beat it to death with a series of fifteen installments.
172. Kinsey (Bill Condon, 2004) - The subject himself made this movie interesting, and surprisingly enough, I find it's been the role most comfortable for Liam Neeson to play. He's a natural. But it's strong performances by Laura Linney and Chris O'Donnell that I think carry this movie from "watchable" to "good". Odd to be saying that about O'Donnell at this point in his career, but I think he should embrace the task of serviceable support, since he never really caught on as a lead.
171. Monsters, Inc. (Peter Docter, 2001) - I think of all the top animated hits of the decade, I think Monsters, Inc. might be the one adults are most embarrassed to admit liking. Possibly because a featured character is a young girl named "Boo". But the cast here is dynamic. I love Goodman and Crystal, and their analogs on screen pop with chemistry. It may not provide the one-liners of Shrek or the visual beauty of Wall-E, but it's a darned fun movie to watch.
170. Seven Pounds (Gabriele Muccino, 2008) - Will Smith and Muccino, back in the act. I'm not even going to list The Pursuit of Happyness here, so it's a nod to the duo that their follow-up effort is improved. Even though this movie might have cheated a little with emotions, I still found it to be compelling and well-done. I remember it having a terrific trailer, and even though it didn't get a lot of critical acclaim, I wasn't disappointed with it at all.
169. High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000) - What better movie to appear on this list than a movie about lists? It's weird to me that a movie written and directed by Englishmen could be so American at heart--a coming of age story about a thirtysomething and his pitfalls in love and his love of rock music. I'm a big John Cusack fan. I think he's solid. And this movie is entertaining and easy to identify with. My favorite Nick Hornby adaptation to date.
168. Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch, 2005) - This is Bill Murray in the jaded stage of his career, as I mentioned before with Lost in Translation (#201). And I think he's right on point. He matches well with Jarmusch, a man whose writing has always been sharp and melancholy. Maybe it wasn't the critical success it seemed destined to be, but I thought it was amusing and thoughtful, with particularly entertaining performances by Jeffrey Wright and Mark Webber.
167. Unknown White Male (Rupert Murray, 2005) - Controversial. Period. I believe this is the first documentary on my countdown, though the "document" part of it could be argued, I suppose. It's a story about a guy living in New York who wakes up one day on the subway and has his memory just wiped clean. He doesn't know his name or where he is or what he's doing with his life--and his friend decides to make a documentary about it. Really compelling, but some of the things are so unbelievable it's hard to throw yourself behind the story 100%. Maybe it's a fake, maybe it isn't, but I know that after I got done watching it, I went straight to Google and started looking up as much as I can. It works. It works damned well.
166. Charlie Wilson's War (Mike Nichols, 2007) - An all-star cast including Tom Hanks and director Mike Nichols, and yet, after the initial splash this movie made, it sort of faded away with ease. But Aaron Sorkin's return to the big screen after 10 years of television was really solid. I think timing-wise it was terrific, and even though it wasn't a secret to anybody, relating the Iran/Afghanistan situation to modern day was really enlightening to me, somebody who didn't live through it the first time around. Hanks is a little odd, not his greatest performance. But Philip Seymour Hoffman is absolutely fantastic, proving that he's one of the best in character roles.
165. Old School (Todd Phillips, 2003) - This was the movie that started it all when it comes to the decade of Frat Pack comedies. And I think it still stands up to the rest, because it has both a solid number of laughs and a well-crafted story to keep the momentum rolling between the high points. Unfortunately it was Luke Wilson's last hurrah, it seems, which is a shame because I always liked him. But you know you've already incorporated so many of these lines into your dialect that you probably forget where they came from. He gonna do one!
164. X Men (Bryan Singer, 2000) - A decade that was smothered with comic book movies might never have been if not for this one. It was modern, it was sleek, it was exciting, it was everything that a superhero movie should have been, and the incorporation of the mutants into today's society made it accessible and fresh. As a whole it might have been more flawed than some of the films to follow it, but you have to give credit to the predecessor, and X Men was a definite winner. Just look at Hugh Jackman's career, and try to imagine what it would be without this break.
163. Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003) - I have a negative bias towards this movie, but that shouldn't take away from how successful it was. Charlize Theron was fascinating, but all of the incredible press she received from this film I thought was a little bit misdirected--her acting was good, but not world-class, she just happened to have a good make up artist. Still, the movie receives plenty of bonus points for the originality of the story (true or not) and the movie-making conventions it socked in the face.
162. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006) - Linklater has essentially become the master of dialogue, with Before Sunset and Before Sunrise, and now has crowned himself master of rotoscope with this Philip K. Dick adaptation. This film was immensely intriguing from the first preview, and while it didn't hit as many peaks as I would have liked it to, it was still an inventive take on the grisly story. To do it well in live action would have required too much CGI. I give Linklater a lot of credit for releasing an adult-themed animation, definitely the best angle for his interpretation.
161. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring (Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul guerigo bom) (Ki-duk Kim, 2003) - About as tranquil a movie as you can get. Its direction is like a slow interpretive dance, telling the story of a young Korean boy who learns at the feet of a Buddhist monk at a floating temple. It is breathtaking and precise, the kind of movie that leads to a lot of introspection, and leaves you with a lot of respect for the life that the old monk chooses to lead. Certainly not flashy, but a higher level art form.
160. Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, 2007) - It's a surprise to me that I'm ranking a Ben Affleck-directed movie, but alas, here it is. His choice of Casey as the lead, while obvious, was the right one--I personally think Casey is the superior actor, much more relatable to viewers. Again based on a Dennis Lehane novel, this was a pretty natural follow up to Mystic River. Similar themes, similar Boston locations, similar accents. And like Mystic River, it was a gripping story with strong characters, and in this case it was bolstered by Morgan Freeman and a fantastic turn by Amy Ryan as the drug-addicted mess of a mother.
159. Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch, 2003) - Nearly back-to-back appearances by Jarmusch on the countdown, Coffee and Cigarettes is a series of black and white vignettes revolving around the titular cafe items that took some 17 years to put together. My personal favorite scenes include The RZA, The GZA and Bill Murray; Jack and Meg White; and the fantastically funny piece with Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan. If you haven't seen this movie at all, it's worth a view, particularly because you don't even have to watch the whole movie at once, since the scenes are only a few minutes long.
158. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001) - Yes, it might set the stage for one of the most successful movie trilogies of all time. But it's almost as if they know they have you hooked for the entire ride, so they put little effort into making the first one exciting. Lots of people count this one as their favorite, don't include me in that group. It's beautifully shot and outlines a flood of character arcs, but unfortunately the snooze factor puts it at the bottom of the trio.
157. Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, 2004) - Don Cheadle's chance to shine. He had gone for years as a hailed supporting actor, always turning in strong performances, and Hotel Rwanda gave him the opportunity to lead in a very politically relevant film about the massacres in Rwanda. Unfortunately I don't think it had the gravity that they wanted it to have, perhaps because it seemed to be shot in a detached way, unlike the gritty realism a lot of third world-set films have adopted.
156. The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002) - I don't see a lot of horror movies. I much prefer thrillers (like Seven), but I took the bait and saw The Ring on Halloween night when it opened. I don't care what you say, The Ring was the definitive horror movie of the decade, and even set the stage for the slew of creepy kid stories that followed it (the single most abused theme in modern horror). I was scared, for sure, but also impressed. Verbinski does not dedicate himself solely to horror (he did the Pirates movies) and his ability to produce coldly chilling images went a long way in this one.
155. Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001) - Linklater again, rotoscope again (or should I say first?). Waking Life is a very abstract story about dreams and the perception of reality. It's a movie people like to talk about afterwards, very thought provoking, his attempt at big screen philosophy. The tale is told vignette style, jumping story to story, which keeps the content fresh and doesn't rely too heavily on one facet.
154. In the Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis, 2007) - Haggis is known as the king screenwriter of the day, but he's not too poor of a director (with this and Crash under his belt). One of the many Iraq-war related movies to come out in recent years, it's shouldered by Tommy Lee Jones in a strong and emotional performance. I think the "military coverup" angle is nearing saturation, but at the very least it sets up a decent amount of intrigue and drama, the backbone this story rests upon.
153. The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007) - It took me a while, but I finally got there. Wes Anderson's first (of several) appearances here is his latest live-action film, featuring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzmann as three brothers traveling India by train after the death of their father. As he gets older, I think Anderson's movies get more poignant and introspective, but they lose a little bit of the sharp wit and creativity he's made his name on. It's still a good movie, don't get me wrong, but I do believe I was disappointed with it, the first time I think I can so say about one of his films. There's still hope he returns to form (and I have yet to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox).
152. Walk the Line (James Mangold, 2005) - For someone who is, at least to the general public, a relative no-name, James Mangold has made a surprising number of appearances on my list. Joaquin Phoenix was superb, in my estimation, which makes his decision to go insane and quit acting all the more unbelievable. But at least he produced this movie, which I think sensationalizes Johnny Cash's life a little much, nudging it a bit from expository towards entertaining. Phoenix's singing, though, is uncanny.
151. Millions (Danny Boyle, 2004) - Supposedly a fantastical family movie, Millions is actually a smart picture that anyone can appreciate, regardless of age. Seemingly an odd follow-up to 28 Days Later, Millions tells the story of an unpopular and imaginative boy (Alex Etel) who finds an enormous bag full of money while playing near the train tracks outside his family home. The concept is well-devised, situated around the transfer of Pounds to Euros and how the boy and his family play modern-day Robin Hood for a short time. It's a pretty moving story about togetherness, with or without the magical realism of miracles. Well done and hits on a lot of points you might not expect for a "family" film.
Well. There you have them. #175-151. Nothing too sensational, with the exception perhaps of Lord of the Rings. If you haven't seen some of the movies I've listed here and are the least interested, I definitely suggest checking them out.
It's taking me a while to rank these, but hopefully I'll get #150-126 out soon, before the decade really is over.
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