Per usual, we’re kind of late to the game here. I mean here we are a week into the new decade and the Third Row is probably the last movie web site on the planet to get around to releasing our favorite films of the past ten years – but it’s because we’re thoughtful (or indecisive; semantics). Picking our favorite ten films over such a long stretch of time is not something that we take lightly. Not to mention it’s damn near impossible for 7 people to all agree on the correct titles; much less the order in which they should be displayed.

But here we are with quite the stunning list of films, essentially coalescing the last 3650 days into 20 fantabulous hours of cinema. Over the next ten days or so each of the contributors to this list will release their personal choices for best on the decade. Here’s to another 10 years of greatness in film and life and blog.
Cheers!

10) Silent Light (2007)
dir: Carlos Reygadas
– This tragically underseen, sober opus to the complexity of love is in a word, Glorious. It is a masterfully portrayed world of contrasts, light and dark, beginnings and ends, life and death. In slow-churning visuals of modest country life the film entreats us to a thought-provoking piece of voyeurism into the private lives of a man, a wife and his lover. This immediate narrative is nestled within a larger cosmic one that evokes the mystical interconnectedness of life, all things enveloped by the eponymous silent light. In every shot light behaves with a knowing purpose as if cognizant of the drama it encloses. Its physicality is hard to overlook, often stark and flaring, it bleeds into the actors on all sides. The drama is forever punctured by this cosmic subtext: the film begins and ends with the rise and fall of the sun, and in the long still passages of landscape the spiritual is assumed, a chorus known to the audience yet hidden from the tragic figures onstage.

9) Little Children (2006)
dir: Todd Field
– Todd Field’s movie is elliptical. An ensemble of characters popping in and out despite focusing more attention on the characters of Sarah and Brad, it’s one of the more in-depth studies of human behavior and their foibles in a gated community. These type of stories are usually rife with situations ready to be explored; passions and dangerous people converge in ways that are completely believable. This is a movie that doesn’t side-step its themes, and is a textured film that features nuanced performances by its cast — notably Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson who play well with each other. The greatest thing about Little Children is that it doesn’t turn all of its drama into soap: people realize that they’re caught in a predicament, but don’t create over-the-top scenes; instead, they react in unpredictable ways, sometimes even with compassion. It’s the type of story that doesn’t reduce its players to simply plot movers but actual people — you could be witnessing the documentary of a suburb. That’s good storytelling.
– - “We’re all miracles. Know why? Because as humans, every day we go about our business, and all that time we know… we all know… that the things we love… the people we love, at any time now can all be taken away.”

8 ) Primer (2004)
dir: Shane Carruth
– If there is one movie of the decade that will likely take more than one viewing (or six) to really wrap your head around, it’s Primer. Made for mere pennies, Primer has got to be one of the most interesting and mind-bending films about time travel ever constructed. It may not look slick and snazzy and ranks at about a zero in the special effects department, but great sci-fi is rarely about looks and more about an idea; and writer/director Shane Carruth takes this idea and runs a full 101 yards and straight into the endzone. If you missed this little gem (which if you blinked you probably did), catch up with now; any way you can.
– - “You got anything to eat? I haven’t eaten anything since later this afternoon.”

7) Zodiac (2007)
dir: David Fincher
– For the first time, Fincher handles a true story, and a pretty dark one for that matter. Sure it’s a serial killer thriller, but this story has little time for the actual murderer. Instead we focus on the killer’s relationship with law enforcement and media. Like Se7en, Zodiac is a tale of obsession, of how one man indelibly affected four people who spent most of their lives trying to solve one of the USA’s greatest mysteries. Fincher’s meticulous attention to detail is mandatory as we are offered as complete of a recollection as there can be of the facts; spread over 160 minutes that never feel stretched or boring. The story hooks the viewer right from the get-go and never releases its grip; its content being too unsettling and important to be ignored. Fincher considers his sixth film “the definitive serial killer film”. He has got a point: by giving no real answers or glimpses of optimism he sets Zodiac apart from traditional thrillers, which will all seem like fairy tales in comparison. The real thing is much more complex and painful, but also, in the end, far more compelling than the usual mainstream product. An astonishing achievement, and one of the year’s truly unmissable movies.
– - “I… I Need to know who he is. I… I need to stand there, I need to look him in the eye and I need to know that it’s him.”

6) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
dir: Andrew Dominik
– Huge fan of contemporary westerns here at RowThree. Huge. But we’re also fans of slow burns, arthouse cinema and Terrence Malick. So go figure that Jesse James, which incorporates the essence of all of these elements, was on just about all of our top ten lists in 2007. Casey Affleck blows the camera away and Brad Pitt sheds his super star status for a much more restrained role in which his mere presence commands the screen. The supporting cast (including Sam Rockwell, Sam Sheppared and Jeremy Renner) is superb as well. With Roger Deakins helming the visual duties, every aspect about this film is a feast for the eyes and a cinematic treat on every level. An earnest look at the unhealthy proclivity to hero worship through the eyes and ears of the 19h century. A gorgeous and engaging piece of film making that exemplifies all that is right about cinema.
– - “Can’t figure it out. Do you want to be LIKE me or do you want to BE me?”

5) The New World (2005)
dir: Terrence Malick
– Poetry on screen. A visually stunning film with a wonderful, almost ambient score to back it up, The New World showcases a very realistic vision of what life must have been like to early settlers in what eventually became known as America. With little dialogue (especially for a 150 minute running time), the film speaks directly to one’s senses, as every great film should do. Malick’s brilliant sense of time and place makes the environment the most important character in the entire film. The green of the vegetation, the brown of the soil, the sound of the birds, etc.; these things communicate the kind of complex language that no amount of words could convey. Bale and Farrel might’ve been the initial draw for American audiences, but it is newcomer Q’Orianka Kilcher, who at age 15 is tremendous in her role as Pocohontas, that leaves that lasting impression. A strikingly beautiful young woman, her non-verbal acting is truly something to behold. Not the film one would just pop in a whim, but prepared for Malickean goodness, one could argue that this is one of the most superbly crafted films of the decade.
– - “I thought it was dream… what we knew in the forest. It’s the only truth.”

4) Inland Empire (2006)
dir: David Lynch
– After experiencing Inland Empire (and that is the correct word), one conclusion bubbled up to the surface: The films of David Lynch, darn near all of them, could get by entirely on mood alone. For nearly three hours, dread and creeping uneasiness are sustained effortlessly, only punctuated on occasion with moments of absurdity or black humour. Like many a Lynch joint, it oozes with primordial cinema matter, comments bitingly on Hollywood and is also a multi-nested loop of films-within-films. It talks to you without talking at you. Even if yesterday is tomorrow and tomorrow is yesterday and characters overlap in and out of the film within the film and the whole thing navel gazes in the way films made about making films so often do. If there is a case for narcissism being a good thing, then David Lynch has made it quite convincingly. For those that obsess on all things Tinseltown, this film is (to borrow a Twin Peaks concept) the Black Lodge version.
- – ” I figured one day I’d just wake up and and find out what the hell yesterday was all about. I’m not too keen on thinkin’ about tommorow. And today’s slipping by.”

3) Mulholland Dr. (2001)
dir: David Lynch
- Mulholland Drive is many things: a dreamscape and a nightmare of mythical Hollywood; an attack on the Hollywood that David Lynch so often crosses horns with; a reverie on love, betrayal, loss, and identity; a mystery that refuses to answer all ambiguity; and probably the one film by Lynch that is both quintessentially Lynchian and relatively accessible. For those reasons, and probably more besides, Mulholland Drive made the list of our favorite 2001 films almost unanimously. Naomi Watts is a revelation as optimistic Betty Elms, arriving in a sunny, too-good-to-be-true Hollywood to make her way as an actress. When she meets Rita (Laura Elena Harring), an amnesiac after an accident on Mulholland Drive, the two girls embark on a Nancy Drew-esque attempt to discover Rita’s true identity – but end up discovering, well, something else entirely. The film consumes the viewer and teases with notion making some sort of rational sense – not only does it make you think and try to unravel everything (something that is not necessarily worth the time), but it overcomes you, fills you up, and refuses to let you go, even after the credits have faded, the lights gone up, and you are trying to stumble to your car. That, ladies and gentlemen, is great cinema.
– - “I just came here from Deep River, Ontario, and now I’m in this dream place. Well, you can imagine how I feel.”

2) 25th Hour (2002)
dir: Spike Lee
– This 2002 “joint” was one of the first to dive head-first into artistic post-9/11 fray. I still believe that Lee has made the definitive statement (if not the most subtle) on the subject; and this from a film released a mere 15 months after the towers fell. How is that for ‘too soon’? Perhaps this is why 25th Hour seemed to be completely ignored or written off at the time of its release as a bit of a curio: A Spike Lee Joint starring mainly white people (not to underestimate Rosario Dawson’s massive presence here) that takes place over a single day. With knock-out performances, the cast here is really all in peak form as the story centers around the lead up to a night in an upscale New York Club, the ensuing party within the club and the aftermath of the party, with each of the characters going through a tough journey; mainly through David Benioff’s stellar dialogue adapted from his own novel. The fact that you can watch this film 10 times and take 10 completely different things away from it is a testament of why this film should be re-evaluated. Something that I’ve noticed happening over the past several years now. The 25th Hour is a remarkable achievement.
– - “We say nothin’. The guy’s going to hell for seven years, what are going do wish him luck?”

1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
dir: Michel Gondry
– This sophomore effort solidified Gondry’s name as a film maker that will forever get people (well, those of us not stuck in the main stream current anyway) in the theater seats unconditionally. Coupled with the likes of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and we get arguably a genius team that takes a run of the mill love story and injects it with science fiction, tall tales, humor, style and imagination. No other film of the decade has the same charming resonance that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind had upon its viewers. The idea of destiny and memory intertwine into something unlike anything we’d ever seen before. And let’s not forget the superb cast (Winslett, Wilkinson, Wood, Ruffalo) – even Carrey as the introverted nice guy coincidentally makes us immediately forget about Lloyd Christmas or Ace Ventura. Joel is a complete character; brought to like by Carrey. This is a rare and moving picture that takes a beautiful slice from Kaufman’s wonderland of a mind and makes something perfect. Yes, even its flaws help contribute to its perfection.
– - “Can you hear me? I don’t want this any more! I want to call it off!”