Films of the Decade - Part VII

Another round of nominees for the best films of the first decade of the 21st Century lines up some heavy hitters, including the Coen brothers, Spain’s most successful filmmaker of all-time, Pedro Almodóvar, as well as Taiwanese cinematic luminary Hsiao-hsien Hou.

To get up to speed: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V and Part VI.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcomed as the quest progresses, and will be taken into consideration upon tallying the results.

Ghost World – Terry Zwigoff
2001, USA, UK, Germany



Straight from the no-one-understands-me department, Ghost World is Terry Zwigoff’s follow-up, and first narrative, to his fabulous documentary, Crumb.

Enid and Rebecca are recent high-school grads displeased greatly by everything and everyone around them. Upon meeting a lonely, middle-aged record collector, the girls decide to play a prank that will lead Enid to an unlikely bond.

A true gem in its understanding of our collective psyche, as well as the motivations we all feel, and actions undertaken, at our most awkward moments.

Millennium Mambo – Hsiao-hsien Hou
2001, Taiwan, France

Millennium Mambo strikes that familiar, aimless chord most have felt: that twenty-something existence driven by boredom and cheap thrills, where everything smacks of completely misguided effort.

Collaborators since early in their careers, director Hsiao-hsien Hou, and writer T'ien-wen Chu, have etched out a particular place for themselves in the history of cinema. From biographical content, to the influx of Western ideals, the two have created a unique film canon together, one entirely personal that feels true and familiar regardless of where its being viewed from around the world.



The Man Who Wasn’t There – Joel & Ethan Coen
2001, UK, USA

The first Coen brothers picture to grace the list of nominees (though not the last, I’m sure), The Man Who Wasn’t There was a critical darling when it first appeared in 2001, though it is rarely mentioned by movie fans and Coen-devotees alike in a discussion of the Minnesotans’ better films.

Billy Bob Thornton plays Ed Crane, a barber waiting on the sidelines of life for an opportunity. When that opportunity presents itself in the form of a new invention called “dry cleaning”, Ed blackmails his wife’s boss, of whom he suspects of sleeping with the missus, in hopes of investing and moving from his suburban humdrum, onto easy street.



Lush black-and-white photography by Roger Deakins highlights the film’s bleak, noir quality.

Volver – Pedro Almodóvar
2006, Spain

As with the best of Almodóvar, Volver is darkly comic and beautifully stylized, even when dealing with the rougher elements of society and its inhabitants. Penelope Cruz stars as a mother who finds herself having to dispose of her husband’s dead body, killed by her own daughter, in a neighboring restaurant’s freezer, while opening the restaurant up for service to a film crew shooting in the area (this is one of the more straight forward plot lines in the film).



Pan’s Labyrinth – Guillermo del Toro
2006, Spain, Mexico, USA

A film that has literally everything, Pan’s Labyrinth won three Academy Awards, while racking up legions of fans for its visionary take on a historical, much-covered period.



A true fairy tale, the film follows a young girl forced to live with her mother’s wretched new husband, a captain in the Spanish Army, who escapes into fantasy the first chance she gets.

A parable of Spain during the fascist Franco years, Pan’s Labyrinth deals with the horrific reality the only way we can often understand, through the eyes of a helpless child.