Earlier today I happened to see a post on MSN Movies in which three of my former movie-reviewer colleagues from Willamette Week - Dave McCoy, Kim Morgan and David Walker - picked their top ten movies of the decade. Dave McCoy picked No Country For Old Men as tops, not a surprise given he picked another Coen Brothers movie, Miller's Crossing, as his top pick for the 1990s. Kim Morgan picked Battle Royale, and David Walker picked Oldboy.
It has been about three and a half years since I gave up movie reviewing. Sometimes I miss it, particularly when certain really inspiring films come along. Other times I don't miss it at all, like when I see another stupid teen movie coming out that I very well might have been stuck writing about, or when I drive past another antiseptic Regal Cinemas multiplex. I also haven't been prolific about seeing movies since giving up reviewing them. There are tons of promising movies from this decade that I haven't seen.
That said, I give you my tentative list of the top ten movies from the 2000s decade:
1. The Royal Tenenbaums
2. Mulholland Drive
3. Lost In Translation
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Memento
6. What Time Is It There?
7. In the Mood for Love
8. The Dark Knight
9. The Filth and the Fury
10. Old Boy
*Note: I did not include the film Beau Travail, because IMDB lists it as having been made in 1999. But it opened in Portland in 2000, and I would list it as my #3 film if it were eligible, right Between Mulholland Drive and Lost in Translation.
HONORABLE MENTION (in alphabetical order): American Psycho, The Barbarian Invasions, Before Sunset, Casino Royale, City of God, Collateral, The Deep End, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Donnie Darko, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Good Night and Good Luck, Goodbye Dragon Inn, Gosford Park, Grizzly Man, Hot Fuzz, I'm Going Home, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Last Days, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Man Without A Past, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, My Architect, Punch Drunk Love, Shaun of the Dead, The Squid and the Whale, Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Team America: World Police, Tropical Malady, 28 Days Later, Under the Sand, Waking Life, War Photographer, When the Rain Lifts, Winged Migration, With a Friend Like Harry, Zodiac