It appears to be list day. The Row Three best of the decade was a strange and varied consensus, namely that few lists looked alike over the 10 year span.
I don’t think it is possible to rank these films; simply here they are:
In The Mood For Love
25th Hour
There Will Be Blood
Enter The Void
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The New World
City of God
The Prestige
Miami Vice
Gerry
And 10 More:
Birth
Code 46
Synecdoche, NY
Zodiac
Paprika
Inland Empire
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Fountain
Lady Vengeance
Primer
Is In the Mood for Love your #1? I’ve got to get around to watching it. I finally watched Chungking Express a few months ago and LOVED IT.
Miami Vice! Ballsy choice and spot on. Love that movie. Granted it took more than once or twice to see the greatness, but now I do. Awesome.
Pretty Much, yea. But really they are fairly interchangable (obviously, I quite love them all).
After seeing the results of this decade list, I’ve learned that I’m a sucker for slow paced and/or romantic mood-pieces, and oddball science fiction genre mashers.
And I am an absolute sucker for ‘big-budget art films’
You’ve definitely got me curious on “Enter The Void” – who knows when I’ll get a chance to see it though.
Otherwise, I find very few issues with your list sir! Uh, except for “Miami Vice”. It simply didn’t work for me on any level. However, given your passionate defense of the damn thing, when I stumbled across a cheap copy ($3!), I picked it up and will at some point give it another chance.
Some great choices there, I’d have In the Mood For Love somewhere in my list too. There are 3 in there that I would disagree with though. I’m with Bob on Miami Vice, it didn’t do much for me. Maybe a second viewing is in order. The same goes for Synecdoche, NY, I found that to be great at times, but over-sprawling and a bit messy. I was quite hungover when I watched it though so again it deserves a re-watch.
Code 46 though I really didn’t like. I struggled to sit through it, finding it pretentious and dull. It’s been a while since I saw it, but I remember going with about 5 film-loving (and filmmaking) friends who all felt the same.
“, but over-sprawling and a bit messy.”
That sir is one of the key joys of Synecdoche, NY.
True I guess. As I said, it probably deserves a re-watch.
the ballsiest choice on the list is Birth.
seriously There Will Be Blood can fuck right off. What is the fascination with this trite film?
Was tempting to put Sexy Beast in there as well. I do heart Glazer’s stuff and anxious await his third film.
On There Will Be Blood, well, the film has impact to me – furious impact.
I’m making Matt’s “god damn no” noise in my head as I read the words “Miami Vice”
nice to see In The Mood For Love and Miami Vice on your list. i really need to revisit these.
furious impact!
holy shit!
lol
Really, the whole rape of the land, ignoring the gifts of family (his son), and the eventual ugliness of unfettered capitalism in the shell of the bombastic DDL performances, it was certainly one of the big treats of the aughts for me.
I need to revisit In the Mood For Love, while I enjoyed it I never got the greatness everyone seems to see in it.
@ Really, the whole rape of the land, ignoring the gifts of family (his son), and the eventual ugliness of unfettered capitalism
yer talkin about Avatar, amirite?
Very nice list. Props for putting The Prestige and City of God on there. I recently double-dipped and picked up The New World on blu-ray (for like 10 bucks on amazon, no less) and, let me tell you, it kicks booty.
Would love to hear your opinions on The Twilight Samurai and Master and Commander, Kurt, as these are a couple of my standouts of the decade that I haven’t seen on anybody’s lists.
Twilight Samurai I only just liked (and let me tell you that my viewing conditions of that particular film were far from ideal…If I’m not mistaken, Jonathan B. is the resident champion for Yôji Yamada), but I adore Master & Commander (and for that matter Peter Wier in general). M&C suffers on smaller screens however, I still keep that one theatrical screening embedded in my noggin. It was a great film, and pretty worthy of decade-end recognition.
Also, The New World has to look like Gangbusters in Blu Ray, if only because Malick shot most of the film in that oddball 65mm film stock (Also used in Brannaugh’s HAMLET). Even though I only saw that one in a normal theatre, it had a unique look to the scenes and overall movement of the camera, I’m thinking mostly due to that higher resolution filmstock. It adds to the overall alien-ness of the film.
I think very highly of Twilight Samurai (and its follow-up The Hidden Blade). Both have a very genuine humanity invested in them with very strong and honourable main characters.
Yamada’s catalog is immense – most comprised of the 48 episodes of Tora-san spread over almost 3 decades. He also recently directed the filming of a live Kabuki performance that was quite beautiful (he didn’t add much flash to it – just let the performance do its job).
Oh yeah, I think Yamada could be up for the “best director of the decade” award easily, between The Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, and Love & Honor. Three gorgeous, distinct, almost haunting films. I’m actually considering revamping my list to sneak Twilight Samurai on there, it’s been bugging me so much.
So I watched the New World. Yeah. I wont be going back to anymore Malick now.
I have no idea what you guys see in Malick, everything is terrible, just a bunch of people wandering around staring at each other unnaturally with embarrassingly horrible voiceovers, a score that always sounds like its warming up for something better. the way this story is treated i’m surprised this story is even a legend at all. less then a few minutes in of course theres long shots of reeds blowing in the wind. pretentious boring bullshit.
Then you’ll hate the finest directed piece of film making last year, Silent Light.
does it have 2 hours of frolicking in the woods to shitty music?
just read about Silent Light. I dont know. We’ll see.
I will from now on though treat someone calling a movie “poetry” with suspicion.
Goon,
I agree that New World is one note film. But if you get through the frolicking in the woods TTRL is actually a really good war film with probably my favorite battle scene of all.
He also employs an innovative and unique editing style that’s very evocative in TTRL, but by New World it’s played out.
People like New World because they enjoy Malik’s aesthetics but it’s obviously his worst film. In some ways it’s the same thing as the transformers defense, “I don’t care if it’ a well made movie, I just want frolicking in the fucking woods!”
Having just re-watched Soderbergh’s SOLARIS (2002), I’m tempted to update my list with this entry. What a fabulous film that completely was ignored upon release. An interesting (and somewhat subtle probing of spirituality and morality amongst a pretty compelling love story. After several re-watches I’m convinced that Soderbergh actually outdid Tarkovsky with this film.
controversial.
I think I liked Thin Red Line even less, but at least it wasn’t all frolicking. Still a lot of reeds blowing in the wind.
In particular I resent the way it stuntcasts every role only to not take advantage of any of their talents, or just have them in passing roles and then stick them on the poster. I mean Clooney has one of the top billings, and he’s not in it until the last 10 minutes and its not really an important role at all. I even saw TTRL as part of a 3 disc “George Clooney collection” set – what a joke.
To like New World I think I’d need it to lop off at least a half hour of its (theatrical) cut, rid itself of its narration entirely, and either use real dialogue or actually require its actors to (when not frolicking) ACT and show a facial expression beyond their vapid soulless trance. A friend remarked that the whole fucking thing was like a perfume commercial, and I’d have to agree.
@ I think I liked Thin Red Line even less, but at least it wasn’t all frolicking
There’s a whole world to that film that doesn’t come across in the first viewing.
OK, where do you two stand on Days of Heaven and Badlands?
I like ‘em. Days of Heaven more so. For reason I like Badlands more while looking back on it and less while watching it.
I think they’re pretty different than his newer films.
What I refered to as Malik’s “innovative and evocative” editing style is employed as a useful storytelling device in TTRL whereas in New World it’s kind of just there. Relentlessly there.
If there were anything in New World that compared to the hour long seige on the hill then I’d probably reverse my opinion.
“There’s a whole world to that film that doesn’t come across in the first viewing.”
I dont care to give it or any other Malick my time at this point. I’m done. Kurt, this is all that I’ve seen, and seriously, I quit.
I’m not passionate about any of them, but I have definitely liked or borderline loved all of Malick’s films. They’re gorgeous.
I’m just very excited that IFC picked up ENTER THE VOID. Probably only screen in NY, but it may mean a kickass criterion dvd and blu.
Do they have any release dates yet for Enter the Void? If it plays LA, I want to see it for sure.
Nope, nothing as of yet. Not sure how IFC rolls out their films outside of their own screens in NYC.
Pontypool did creep into some screens in the US, despite IFC not even playing it in their prime venue in NYC, and I have no idea how highly they regard this rather strange film from Gaspar Noe. It has popped up on at least a few top 10 lists this year (including our own men from MAMO!)…..which is nice.
Fernando Meirelles’s City of God chronicles the protagonist Busca-pe’s experience living in City of God, which is a notorious Rio de Janeiro favela. Through Busca-pe relationships and interactions, the audience sees the harsh realities that people face in favelas, which include extreme levels of crime and poverty. The film shows that favela’s inhuman and dangerous characteristics are not attributed to one element; instead, the problems faced in favelas are due to the combination of many elements. Meirelles shows the combination of inefficient and corrupt law enforcement, the profitability of drugs, lack of economical resources, and glorification and protection of gangsters and criminals. The government, the police, gun manufactures, the favela residents, and the Brazilian middle and upper class all contribute to Rio de Janeiro favela’s current problems. Meirelles is able to effectively show the favela’s problems with the film’s realism. The film does contain some fabricated aspects, but those are used to establish a cohesive plot and not to exploit the harshness of slum life. For the most part, Meirelles manages to address the problems in the favelas realistically.
The film shows City of God to be a setting that is overpopulated and is composed of poorly constructed shanty homes. The film focuses on the aspects that contribute most to the dangerous nature of the settlement. In the 1970’s, the main period of the film, favelas such as City of God had become dangerous places. For example, City of God continues to be so dangerous in real life, that it “…proved far too unpredictable and dangerous for shooting the film” in the favela. The dangerous aspects of City of God are so profound that police and journalists do not dare venture into the settlement. Hence, Busca-pe becomes desired by newspapers for his abilities to penetrate City of God and capture its violent aspects. The journalist’s wariness to venture in to favelas is grounded in truth; many journalists have been kidnapped and tortured, while trying to investigate inside favelas. A notable case occurred in 2002 when “…Tim Lopes, a well-known reporter for the O Globo television network…had been tortured to death—beaten, then cut into pieces with a samurai sword, then burned—by a Red Command gang leader and his men.” The film’s depiction of large police units is realistic, in order to avoid criminal ambushes; criminals can come into sight in close range due to settlement’s erratic and tight structure. For instance, Busca-pe constantly ends up in unavoidable dangerous situations. When, the police, journalist, and filmmakers are afraid venturing in favelas, it indicates that the crime is out of hand. The prevalence of violence in the favela has completely hampered the community. How can there be investment in a place where one constantly fears of being violently attack?
The prevalence of violence can be attributed to the thriving illegal drug industry, revolving mainly around cocaine. The film depicts the growth of the drugs to occur the nineteenth seventies. The growth of the drug market is due to its illegal nature and to it being addictive, which forces addicts to resort to gangs for their supply. Not only do favela gangs supply drugs to the favela dwellers, they also “…supply drugs to adjoining prosperous quarters.” The Brazilian middle and upper class’s addiction to drugs is a significant source of income for the gangs. In the film, Busca-pe has middle class friends that constantly venture into City of God to buy drugs. Meireles ends up showing that the drug business profitability stems from the gang’s monopoly on drugs. The only drug competition that gangs have is with themselves. One can see the similarty between present day Brazil’s cocaine market and the nineteenth thirties America’s alcohol market. Both become huge profits for gangs because they are the only ones who are able to supply the demand of the public. Meireles also shows that drugs have become an important part of society has become part of daily life; people are shown openly consuming and selling narcotics in public. Even Busca-pe, who tries to avoid gang and criminal associations, ends up partaking in the drug culture. Though drugs are technically illegal, they are an integrate part of City of God. In City of God there is a difference between written law and community law.
The criminal monopoly on drugs fuels competition and leads to constant violence between the gangs. The drugs fueled violence has made Rio de Janeiro notorious for its crime. “Between 2000 and 2006 the city of Rio averaged one murder every 3 ½ hours,” mentions the article “Fight in the favelas.” In the same vain as drugs, other criminal activity has become an integrated part of the community. When murders and robberies occur, Busca-pe and his peers simply observed the event and then continue with their daily life as if nothing happened. Katia Lund’s interviews of favela dwellers reveal that people do not fear crime. A huge portion of the population is desensitized to violence. It is reasonable for people to become desensitized to violence, since it is daily occurrence. As long as the violence does not affect someone personally, it is simply an mundane act. Busca-pe, the hero of the film, intimately knows Benny and Lil Ze who are the drug lords of the favela. At first glance, Lil Ze appears to be unrealistic because of his serial outbursts of rage and fear: he openly kills and rape without mercy. Yet, there are many Lil Ze-type gangsters in favelas. For example, Anderson describes the crime lord Fernanando in a similar manner to Lil Ze. The violence has resulted in the people being constantly wary of their actions and their surroundings in order to survive. A simple mistake can result in tragedy.
Drug dealing is not the only cause of violence in City of God; gun dealing is another major source of violence in City of God. Many crimes are fueled by criminals’ access to weaponry. Lil Ze and fellow gangsters obtain illegal guns from the police. However, in real life, most of the illicit gun trade does not involve corrupted police officers. Instead, most of the illicit weaponry arrives from various other sources, such as businesses and foreign trade. The gangsters are shown to prefer foreign weaponry over domestic weaponry even when it is harder to obtain. This is a realistic portrayal since many criminals do have an appetite for foreign weapons. The UN estimates that the “…foreign manufactured firearms constitute over one third of all seizures.” It is evident that foreign countries, such as America and Switzerland, make huge profits with their weapons ending up on the Brazilian black market. Helio Luz, Rio de Janeiro’s police chief, points out the hypocrisy that exists between laws regarding drugs and laws regarding weapons. He comments that foreign countries blame and force drug producing countries, such as Brazil to deal with the drug problem. Foreign countries do not want drugs to end up in their country. Luz sees this as being hypocritical because foreign nations do not have the same stance when it comes to producing weapons that ends up in developing nations. He concludes that foreign nations turn a blind eye on gun manufacturing because of the monetary gains and because it does not affect manufacturing countries directly. However, arms dealing contribute to the problem as much as drug dealing. They are both dependent upon each other, which can be seen when gang Lil Ze becomes indebted from a gun purchase. Thus, in order to curve crime one needs to prevent both domestic and foreign weapons from being distributed in society.
The film shows that people resort to becoming part of the drug and criminal business due to the lack of economical opportunities. Brazil is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. However, Brazil is also known to have some of the largest economical inequality in the world. The film shows the economical inequalities with its wide shots that show the juxtaposition between Rio de Janeiro’s tourist area and City of God; from the hilly parts of city one can also see Rio de Janeiro’s tourist part. Due to the prevalence of violence and lack of proper infrastructure, the favela settlers are forced to commute far from their homes. Only petty jobs, such as grocery and bus work, are offered to settlers,. Not enough money to escape City of God. Drug and criminal activities are lucrative because they produce quick cash. Keith Land’s interviews with favela residents reveal that people can make more money on drugs in a week than they can from working for a month in a legitimate job. Busca-pe’s brother makes a similar case by neglecting his father’s fishing business because it offers substantially lower pay than does robbery. For many people, illicit activities become the most attractive option, since legal jobs do not offer enough monetary gain and there is little hope for moving up in the social and economical ladder. To reduce crime, there needs to be job oppurtinities that at least affords the ability to fulfill minimal living conditions and offer a few luxuries.
One of the film’s most striking elements is its depiction of child crime. Almost all the children in the film stop going to school and end up partaking in criminal activities. The film shows children that have not even reached puberty commit murder. In fact, almost all the film’s gangsters are in their adolescence or younger age. At first it appears that the filmmaker is exaggerating the problem to shock the audience. However, this not the case: it is a common sight for youngsters to practice criminal acts in favelas. “Every year, the gangsters [get] younger; now some [are] as young as ten,” states John Lee Anderson on the demographics of favela criminals. What makes children become criminals? Meirelles shows that gangsters are the celebrities of the community everybody in City of God knows Benny and Lil Ze; top gangsters obtain power and recognition from the community. As Jon Lee Anderson describes the phenomenon, “[it’s] a way to become a man.” It better to idolize an individual to defies law enforcement and gives aid to the community then an individual who has to work a mundane, poor paying job. In addition, it is more appealing to spend time indulging in chaotic and rebellious activities than to go to school. The impact of having young citizens partake in criminal activity is that it dooms the future generation. There cannot be any improvements in the reduction of crime on expansion of education when the children are criminals. To make improvements in the favela, authorities most create jobs and education appealing.
Not only do people have to worry about criminals and gangs, they also have to worry about law enforcement. The police are shown to exercise excessive brutality and corruption; the police do not treat the people as citizens, but as worthless objects. Some of the police actions shown include fabricating criminal charges, shootouts in open public, illegal gun dealing, and engaging in briberies with gangs. Although the film depicts all the police to be corrupt and inefficient, some of the criticism directed at law enforcement is accurate. The police brutality found in the film corresponds with Anderson’s statistic on police brutality, in which “Rio police are among the most brutal in the world. [In 2003,] more than 1,000 people in the state died at their hands…” The article “Fight in the Favelas” supports the film’s depiction of police corruption by indicating that “labor codes” have made it difficult for the government to control police corruption. The wicked nature of law enforcement leads to the favelas dwellers to have minimal dependence and disrespect with the law. “…Busca-pe…is trapped between an army of menacing gun obsessed characters on one side and a number of questionable law enforcement officers on the other,” comments Marcio Siwi on the intense situation which Busca-pe and many other City of God residents are constantly faced.
Due to the corrupt nature of law enforcement, most citizens in the film side and protect the gangsters; gangsters provide services and goods to the citizens, such as stolen gas tanks. The citizens’ protection of criminals is seen in the documentary News from a Personal War, which shows that many people support criminals because they provide welfare to the community and treat them better than the police. The support of criminals and the disregard of law enforcement indicate that the community is on the brick of being lawless and a chaotic state. People can constantly break both laws and human rights with little chance of getting caught. Luiz Eduardo Soares, a former Rio de Janeiro official, states, “…only 3% of murder suspect are ever brought to trial.” However, even though it appears to be a lawless community it is not; the community manages to survive by practicing flexible, unwritten rules. Though there are intense bursts of violence and rampage, the settlers continue with their daily life because they have adapted to deal with both criminals and law enforcement.
Though the film does not directly give solutions the problems faced by Rio de Janeiro favelas, the film does accurately reveal common problems faced in the favelas. The film succeeds in bringing the issues into the public to the extent that even “Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s new president, is very much aware of this-so much so that during his presidential campaign in 2002, after watching City of God, he brought the issues raised in the film to the forefront and challenged his opponents to do the same.” President Lula knows that in order for Brazil to fully become a developed nation, it needs to curve the problems that plague favelas. Brazil is not the only Latin American country that is facing obstacle with dealing shanttywton realted problems with countries such Mexico and Columbia facing similar problems.
ah I think we got a spam problem, or Antho can really write fast.
No spam…I am just posting some of my poorly written class assignments.