The Best of the Aughts

Posted by Jason Ihle | 16 Comments

Sometime back in, I don’t know, 2002 maybe I threw together a list of my 50 favorite/best films of the 90s. I never considered it to be perfectly in line with what I would have considered the best films, but rather a combination of films I greatly admired on a personal level, thought were at least very good on a technical level and thoroughly enjoyed watching and would gladly subject myself to repeat viewings.

As an aspiring film critic I wrote it up with the hope that one day I might post it to a website of my own. Alas, that project was delayed and delayed and then put on indefinite hold when I moved to Spain.

Another decade has just ended and last month critics everywhere revealed their lists of the best of the decade. I am now working out my own list, which I begin presenting here and now. Like the list I created for the 90s, these films are those I enjoyed most the first time around and either have watched repeatedly or can imagine watching repeatedly. I don’t always have time these days to devote to repeat viewings like I did ten years ago.

So here I present, in no particular order, the first 6 on my list. The list of 50 films is not even finalized yet, but these make the cut without a doubt.

WALL E (2008) – dir. Andrew Stanton – Pixar has had a string of computer animated films that have not only made lots of money, but also been adored by critics. This one was, for me, the pinnacle of their filmmaking. It contains an opening 40 minutes that owes a great debt to silent film comedy. The titular garbage disposal robot even bears a passing resemblance to Buster Keaton. Even beyond the bravura filmmaking of the first act, the film manages to create a love story with characters you truly care about. I was amazed from start to finish.

Caché (2005) – dir. Michael Haneke – Austrian filmmaker Haneke has made a name for himself as a somewhat controversial individual. Some of his films are difficult to stomach, but they are always challenging, often deeply so, as is the case with this one. The story is a mystery centering on a family that receives a strange video that seems to show nothing but the exterior of their house for several minutes. The mystery deepens as the father investigates. Like the other Haneke film I have on this list, you can not go into this one hoping for easy answers or a tidy resolution. It is deeply puzzling and troubling, reaching deep into the nature of voyeurism. This film contains what I consider to be the most shockingly chilling scene I’ve ever witnessed.

Kill Bill (2003/2004) – dir. Quentin Tarantino – I choose to count this as one film given the fact that Tarantino originally envisioned it as one 4-hour epic before the studio put its foot down and forced him to turn it into two 2-hour films. Tarantino is part of an exclusive group of people who have an encyclopedic knowledge of Asian kung-fu cinema and he puts it on glorious display here. For anyone well-versed in Asian cinema, this film offers more Easter Eggs than you can keep track of, but for anyone else it is still a rollicking good ride of an action, martial-arts, philosophical, revenge plot, road movie, romantic drama. I didn’t fully appreciate Volume 1 until after having seen Volume 2 and getting the chance to see where the story was meant to end up. Neither film can really be watched on its own. They must be taken together. And when you do, it’s just so much fun.

L’Auberge Espagnole (2003) – dir. Cedric Klapisch – This film about a young French university student who spends an Erasmus year in Barcelona was probably the major impetus for my going to live abroad. He lives in a student Erasmus flat with a cross-section of European nationalities. During his adventures he has an affair with an older married woman, learns to speak Spanish, relishes the beauty of the city and its culture, and has what will probably be some of the most memorable experiences of his life. Seeing it made me ache for his experience. Living abroad for several years has only enriched my appreciation for the film after having experienced a whirlwind of activity and excitement during my first year in Seville.

25th Hour (2002) – dir. Spike Lee – This is perhaps one of my absolute favorite films of the last decade and without a doubt my favorite Spike Lee film. One of Edward Norton’s best performances as a drug dealer who has 24 hours before his prison sentence begins. This was the first major film to deal either directly or indirectly with a post-9/11 NYC. The opening credits montage features the WTC spotlight towers as seen from various places all over NY. The disaster sits like a cloud over the film, leaving the impression of an uncertain future for the city, much like Monty’s uncertain future in prison and then after his release one day. In addition to Norton, Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman (as always) give great performances.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – dir. Peter Jackson –This trilogy of films could very easily be considered as one film. However, the second and third chapters in this saga were not nearly as gratifying as the experience I had seeing this first one in the cinema. I was not familiar with the stories, never having read the books. I had no idea what to expect. Suffice it to say I was thoroughly enthralled from start to finish. I should also point out that I had no idea that the three books tell one story. I was expecting the ring to be destroyed at the end of this first film and that the following two films would involve some other adventure. So when the end came with Sam and Frodo walking off on their own toward Mordor and the image faded to the closing credits I was simultaneously disappointed and mesmerized. What I love about this first film that I feel is sorely missing from the next two is the sense of friendship and bonding, a fellowship between the characters. It is a road movie, a hero’s journey, classic in its presentation. The big action set pieces including the battle in the mines against the cave troll and then Gandalf’s battle with the Balrog, finally culminating in a closing battle with the Uruk-Hai were thrilling and spine-tingling in all the ways a fantasy adventure should be.

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