Inspired by The Onion AV Club’s lists of the last decade, I thought I’d record my favourite films of the last ten years. I’m sure I’ll miss some, but that’s the nature of the beast. They’re not the best, necessarily, but the ones I remember fondly and will watch again. In no particular order but with Pixar first:
Up (wonderful, a 3D marvel)
Wall-E (genius on many levels)
Ratatouille (just brilliant, happy making cinema)
Children of Men (in which Clive Owen is good)
Memento (twistedly good)
The Lord of The Rings (yes, all 3, extended editions)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (oddness goes mainstream)
Amélie (joy)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes! You Rock!)
The Life Aquatic (Wes!)
Sunshine (a modern day Silent Running — track that down if you’ve never heard of it)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen in Europe!)
Wonder Boys (so many great elements)
Sideways (for re-inventing American Indie films)
Michael Clayton (George Clooney and Tilda Swinton in fine form)
Burn After Reading (The Coens can’t fail)
Lost In Translation (so slight, but the memories are happy)
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (unusual, beautiful)
Stranger Than Fiction (surprisingly enjoyable)
The Barbarian Invasions (a superb film about death after life)
and the worst I had the misfortune to see:
King Arthur (in which Clive Owen is not good and the direction is staggeringly bad)
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (so bad we turned it off; the highlight is in the extras where the director is proud of the largest set ever made that houses two full-size galleons in one shot, and then the effects guy casually mentions that they mostly painted the second boat out)
Transformers 2 (abysmal, awful, horrible)