Films of the Decade

As we globally stumble towards fall, for most, 2009 cannot end fast enough. In a year best described as a have-not according to the ledgers of most businesses, the year has had, not completely unsurprisingly, several bright spots for cinema.

Art traditionally shines brighter in tougher economic times, though to be fair, most art forms do not view 30 million upfront as a detriment to the overall projection of success versus failure.

With no shortage of material to work from, the first decade of the Twenty-First Century has turned out more than its share of ‘classics’, and in the next few months I will be posting the candidates for the ten greatest Films of the Decade, from obvious to obscure long-shots, before rendering a more definitive list towards the New Year.

With no specific rhyme or reason to how I post the candidates (not by year, or genre, though themes will emerge I'm sure), I welcome all comments and suggestions, which will be taken into account as the quest for cinema superiority reaches its conclusion.

Specific criteria that, for me, make a film critical to the overall, historical film canon will be explored within the postings for the candidates themselves.

Code Unknown – Michael Haneke
2000, France, Germany, Romania

Fresh off the Palme D’Or for his latest, The White Ribbon, Haneke has quickly become a European favorite for his intellectually challenging, confrontational brand of cinema. In Code Unknown, a young disenfranchised teen named Jean runs away from his father’s provincial farm in the hopes of staying with his older brother in Paris. When his brother’s girlfriend (Juliette Binoche) informs him of his brother’s assignment in Kosovo, and attempts to pacify him with a snack, Jean obstinately tosses his garbage in the face of an older woman begging on the street corner. When a young black man comes to the defense of the panhandler, and winds up being hauled off to the station (along with the woman who finds herself deported), the incident sets in motion a course of action for each of the principle characters, starkly illuminating the societal inequalities all around us.

Many films have focused on cultural assimilation, or lack thereof, as its central premise, however Code Unknown succeeds because Haneke treats the subject matter the way most of us do, as an unfortunate reality or inconvenience that we glance here and there on our way to the office or while stopped at a traffic light. Yet Haneke never feels the urge to play judge or jury himself. He bookends the film with a group of deaf children acting out scenarios that the rest of the group must decipher: when they cannot, we, the audience, are left with our most clear understanding of the accompanying two hours.



25th Hour – Spike Lee
2002, USA

Spike Lee’s output has realistically produced a few candidates this decade (Bamboozled, Inside Man, When the Levees Broke), but it’s his 2002 effort, 25th Hour, that struck me as his most polished, tightest film of the past ten years.

What could have been little more than an Edward Norton vehicle in other hands, becomes Lee’s sweet serenade to NYC after the 9/11 attacks. Norton plays Monty Brogan, a low-rung drug dealer headed to jail in 24 hours, and wanting to tie up the various loose ends in his life before he goes, including discovering who set him up. But unlike most films where the protagonist rabidly and robotically searches out his mole, Norton seems halfhearted about his mission, almost reluctant to learn the truth, fearing what it may mean, and what further questions it will force him to face.



Ten – Abbas Kiarostami
2002, France, Iran, USA

Having recently revisited Ten on this very blog (click here), I will be brief. Ten is cinema stripped of all its frills, which generally points us in one of two directions: pretentious sermonizing, or neo-realist classic.

The film follows one Iranian woman as she travels around Tehran conversing with her various passengers, including her less-than-loving son, opinionated sister, and a variety of strangers, who shed light on what it means to be a woman in 21st Century society, regardless of the location, or government thumb they happen to be under.

Gosford Park – Robert Altman
2001, UK, USA, Italy

I have found that Gosford Park has polarized most viewers, the majority of which falling under the ‘It’s good because of who made it’ banner, not necessarily because of the film itself.

Sure, Robert Altman always deserves a look just because…but Gosford Park feels unbelievably authentic, holds up on repeated viewings, and doesn’t contain a frame that doesn’t feel completely necessary, or at the very least, pleasing – always a contentious issue with me when I’m watching movies.

Altman himself described the film as a whodunit in which the whodunit doesn’t matter. And much like Code Unknown and Ten, we find ourselves in an examination of the value and importance placed upon societal rituals and customs, and the meaning they hold. More specifically in this case, the pillars of strength they represent for the upper crust; Columns, literally holding up the castles their inherited money erected. Think Buñuel played straight.

Duplicity – Tony Gilroy
2009, USA, Germany

Remember when movies were fun? (I’m looking at you, Hitchcock!)

Through the reluctant, albeit eventually encouraged, division of studio and independent pictures by Hollywood’s movers-and-shakers, many of us have found ourselves left out in the cold: having to choose between ridiculously exploitative studio fare, or the horribly downtrodden ‘no-one-understands-me’ indie.

Now, a third, heretofore hard to imagine category has emerged: Julia Roberts’ pictures that nobody went to see. How many 100 million + stiffs has she slept walked through over the years that had no end of public support? And now, she brings her A-game to an out-an-out winner and her once adoring fans give it a miss. I’m chalking it up to Clive Owen overload. Think Jude Law, Clive…slow down!

Harking back to classics like Charade, Duplicity is an A-list Hollywood winner, blending charm and suspense around an air-tight screenplay, with Paul Giamatti as an all-time great dupe, rivaling Joey ‘Pants’ in Bound. Seriously, watch Giamatti closely during his speech to the stockholders…mad chops.