Films of the decade: an introduction

As we get closer to the end of the decade, I've been thinking about movie best-of lists. Many various outlets have been putting together lists of the best and the worst movies of the decade. My friend Paul is working on his list and I know we will have a lot of similar ones. I want to do this, to get myself writing about film more, and because it's really one of the few things I can claim to know anything about anymore.

As I've said before, I never really know what exactly a top film list means. Is it made up of the ones I enjoyed the most or is it the ones that I think are the best artistically? Are those two the same thing? I don't think they are; I can admit to loving horrible films and being bored by ones that I know are great. Bill Simmons, ESPN's Sports Guy, is having people vote for the most memorable films of the decade, which is a nice way to narrow down things.... but I can remember lots of movies and that can take things in another direction. (I.E. I'll never forget The Wicker Man remake, just for the sheer anger I felt at Nicolas Cage.)

I guess I'd like to do something that has my favorites that I truly believe are great and fit this decade. These are the films I will remember - for being good - and films that influenced me into going to LA and trying to work on/with movies and such.

As I do this, I've been thinking about the state of film and how it has maybe gown downhill a little. Has television surpassed it? I think so. Patton Oswalt recently said that the most memorable movies of today are TV shows, and that television has reversed from movies. He said that some channels are acting like movie studios in the 70's, where they let the rules go and tried to be different, while the big studios (owned by big companies) only want to bank on sure things, so they take on Transformers-like crap or name stars, while the indie movies try to fit some kind of pattern (quirky for no reason, road trip, misfits that get girls, etc.). I've heard this from other people, and from my experiences at work, it seems to be the case. No studio wants to take chances, but there are so many networks, some of them have to experiment to get ahead.

It is interesting, looking over my rough list, that most of my favorites are in the early part of the decade. Were movies really better then? Does it take longer for them to seem important to me? Am I remembering things wrong? It seems skewed. But while I have very few entries in 2005, 2006, and 2008, I have a ton from 2007. I don't know what that means.

I'm hoping to post one everyday for the rest of the year. I probably can't match that exactly, but I will have 50, maybe 100 if I can't cut enough. I invite everyone to get involved, debate, ridicule. This is a major project that I will be working hard on for the next few weeks / months and I hope to inspire... something.

Here's a few notable ones that did not make my list:

Lord of the Rings (any of them) - I know, I know, they were all well made. I just don't care about Tolkien.

Star Wars (either of them) - ....or Lucas.

Paul Haggis' Academy Award Winner Crash - everyone realizes this was a horrible mistake, right?

Freddy Got Fingered - I love it, it's one of my favorite comedies of the decade, it has brought joy to a lot of people, but is it truly a good movie? I still say no. It's lovable in its deranged state, but I can't argue its value to everyone.

Pootie Tang - same as above. It would be even weirder and better if the studio let Louis C.K. alone.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - one of the funniest of the Apatow collection, but not a lot of story.

Super High Me - Doug Benson's doc is funny with some decent stand up parts, and surprisingly insightful on the weird process of legalized marijuana in this state.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - too silly, and too abrupt of an ending, but a nice way to get people interested in Douglas Adams. Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, and Martin Freeman were still relatively unknown, and this helped out.

Southland Tales - you laugh, but this is one of the movies I'll always remember for this decade. It's weird, the jokes don't land, and the acting is mostly bad, even disastrous in some points, but it captures some of the zeitgeist for the post-9/11 Patriot Act era. If Richard Kelly had made this right after Darko, it wouldn't seem so ridiculous. I mean, it would still be so, but not as much. Maybe if he hadn't set it in the very immediate feature and used some real names and events mixed in with false ones, it would come off better. But he did, and when it finally came out in 2007, it was already dated. This is spastic, but it fits the times. You'll never find a better assortment of pop culture icons for this decade. This is a movie for the oughts if there ever was one.



WOW! So much to think about. I'm hoping I can come up with a list soon.