Top 100 of the Decade

I believe the first half of a list that pretends to look into ten years of film work, and my personal view of it, should have its "longruns" into blocks because who on earth can really judge different merits between number 73? (Me, You and Everyone we Know) and 72? (Volver).

#100-81

American Psycho

A.I. - Artificial Intelligence

Bright Star

Fish Tank
Gladiator

Goodbye Lenin

The Host
J'ai Tué Ma Mére

Juno

El Laberinto Del Fauno

Let The Right One In

Marie Antoinette

Million Dollar Baby

Minority Report

SidewaysSpider Man 2

Summer Hours

The Squid and The Whale

Up

#80-61

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Bourne: "Supremacy" & "Ultimatum"

Bloody Sunday

Capturing the Friedmans

Che

Finding Nemo

The Fountain

Kill Bill

Lavoura Arcaica

Me, You and Everyone We Know

Milk

Onibus 174

Paradise Now

Ratatouille

Se, Jie (Lust, Caution)

Synecdoche, New York

Volver

Zodiac
Wendy & Lucy

60. The Dark Knight

I was skeptical at first. Heath Ledger's legendary closing curtains act as The Joker stole my mind and heart, but I was not sold in the movie. I saw it 5 more times since them, and it only grows in me. It has to mean something other than a tightly constructed watch of a action movie.

59. Shrek

58. Inglorious Basterds

57. The Incredibles

56. Capote

55. Shortbus

I was shocked when I saw it. Was it an sad excuse for porn? No... there was something touching about it. something real about people connections and truthfulness by sex and relationships. It still does in the most irreverent way.

54. Gerry

I saw this movie again last year. Thank God. Had I not it would not be on this list. What other movies can handle a devastating story about wandering in the desert with a friend? and making his name a meaning adjective by the way?

53. Russian Ark

Not the most engaging movie -emotionally- but hell, what a technical and intellectual marvel of a track shot as time travel through russian history.

52. The Pianist

51. Hero & House of the Flying Daggers

50. The Hours

This movie hits all of the right dramatic marks, a meditation in the perception of society and life by and for women of the 20th century, since they placed themselves now as never before in history. A great cast.

49. The Dreamers

48. Babel

47. Dans Paris & Les Chansons D'Amour

I keep this films as similar in my mind, although they are completely different in approach tone. One is a dramatic re-imagining of the french new wave, and the other a modern take on french musicals. But both deal with issues about love and loss in a very sensitive and authorial way, and were my first impressions of a new french director, Christopher Honoré.

46. Far From Heaven

45. Gryzzly Man

44. Hunger

Steve McQueen's input into the cinematic realm brought a charge of visual mastery and dark sensitivity to the theme of injustice and struggle for freedom in the Irish X British face off in the 80's.

43. The Hurt Locker

42. La Pianiste

Isabelle Huppert's subdued and full of rage performance led this movie into unexpected heights. What a decade has Michael Heneke had? All of his original films are present on this list (excluding the american remake of Funny Games) and this is the lowest in placement.

41. Yi Yi

30. Traffic

39. Mullholand Drive

I confess I am not at all that fan of David Lynch, although some of my own works share a level of psychological crisis and surreal texture with the author. This is for me (an everyone else, it seems) his masterpiece of the decade, but I judge it not for what it is trying to say (is it saying anything at all?) but for the total imerssion into the horror and fear of "bad" and big dreams.

38. Billy Elliot

37. Monsters Inc

36. Wes Anderson Films

(aka as the "Royal Tennenbaums, Life Aquatic, Djeerling Lmt. and Fantastic Mr. Fox").

In my yearly Top Tens I never knew how to place Wes Anderson's films, somehow they always ended up in the 11th or 12th spot (one of the year's best but not quite there). Every time I watch a work of his I am completely amused and feel I am taken into a unique ride, but the question that remains is also "what for?". I acknowledge that his singular as an author that inspired a new generation of "quirk" production that range from "Where the Wild Things Are" to "Juno" and "Little Miss Sunshine" but this movies end up lacking a deep connection with the human emotions. Visually and rhythmically genius, thematically lacking.I recognize Tennenbaums as his best in all levels of film: visual, acting and writing. But my favorite "guilty pleasure" one is Life Aquatic. So I saw fitting to title 34 as "Wes Anderson Films". As a range of work they have a special place in the decade, better located than in singular effort, but I would not be able to choose one to stand alone.

35. Avatar34. Les Ivasions Barbares

33. Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon)

32. Bowling for Columbine

31. 4 Luni, 3 Saptamani si 2 Zili
30. Santiago

and now the films that don't need explanation to be. All of them incredible crafts and emotional journeys that are going to be seen by people time and time again....

28. Un Prophete
27. Children of Men

26. Ireversible

25. Almost Famous

24. Antichrist

23. Sen Chichiro no Kamikasushi (Spirited Away)

22. A History of Violence
21. Amores Peros

21. Cache

20. Requiem for a Dream

19. A Serious Man

18. Before Sunset

17. Brokeback Mountain

16. Habla con Ella (Talk to Her)

15. Memento

14. Dancer in the Dark

13. Wo Hu Cang Long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

12. Y Tu Mama También

11. No Country for Old Men

The combination of the Coens' tight-fist control over film elements with McCarthy's dry prose made this the most poignant insight into the uncontrollable randomness of greed, violence and death in american society and made possible a new -and giant- leap into the Coen's search for the elements of life that are inevitable.

10. Wall-E

If this was the decade of Pixar's revolution over animation, than this has to be considered their masterpiece. The most complex and adult take on subjects that range from human responsibility over the earth to the should through robot romance, half of it without any dialogue...

9. Elephant

The only film in Cannes history to have been awarded both the Palm D'or and the Directorial prize -and I can't think of a more worthy prize winner. An audacious meditation, a-moralistic too, about rejection and conections in the face of internal devastation, emptiness and death.

8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I confess I didn't get this movie at first. The audience at the theater, mostly of teenagers, did't help me engage either. I just asked too much of it. Only when I watched it again, and again, and one more time did I feet the romantic punch. Such an audacious take and a mind fucker of a screenplay about what else? Love (with capital L)-- Meet you in Montouak.

7. The Lord of the Rings

What is there to say of the biggest, boldest accomplishment in film production? For what was deemed an unfilmable novel the filmmakers made quite a job didn't they? I just re watched the last installment (the first is still my favorite...) and it is as good and thrilling as when I first saw it. This movies will surely stand the test of time.

6. Cidade de Deus (City of God)

I never thought a filmmaker from my home country would be able to break from our country's pretentious new wave (mind you: new from the 60's- "cinema novo") or get over the economical turmoil of the 90's to deliver a film so exciting, technically progressive and important at the same time. Goodfellas on brazilian drugs.

5. Lost in Translation

There is a lot to love in this movie. It is all about senses and small moments that you cherish. It is a quiet rain, that becomes a storm and grows into a massive hurricane of feelings that you take home afterwards when talking about it with close friends, family and the ones you love. For at least a few days you behave differently and sees the world in a new angle. More observant. It makes your life lighter and better. What more can you ask of a film experience?

4. Moulin Rouge!

"So fantastic it will play for 50 years." The most cinematic of all of the movies this decade. I remember when I first watched it, on DVD (like most of the people on earth- why didn't we go to theaters for it??). A movie so good, and so over the top in energy and emotions that earned its place in the public consciousness. It was no small feat to "bring musicals back". Pitty that it is the only one of the genre worthy taking note for the time being...

3. There Will Be Blood

This movie is so good, so intense, so audacious and technically thrilling with so many sinister and seismic moments that I too was surprised that the ground dind't just open up while I was watching it and dragged me to hell with Daniel Plainview. "Im finisheeed".

2. Dogville

The best take on human behavior I ever saw put on film. Also a movie that takes place on an empty black stage for almost 3 hours. Whoa! It gets you by the balls only to say: "we are worse than dogs, they at least deserve to live". I love that Lars Von Trier plays so well with our emotions that it becomes justifiable to kill a whole village because they "just" broke the protagonist's fragile toys. And we love her bloody thirst for it! -Talk about making your point by kicking down the 4th wall- That it also stars the best act of the best actress of the decade is also a plus.

1. Fa Yeung Nin Wa (In The Mood for Love)

It is difficult to put on words the effect "In the Mood for Love" had on me as time went by. Some of the films above broke genre and technical barriers, some were deep intellectual insights on human kind and race, other were traditional "hero" stories about aliens, robots or a boy who just wanna dance. This one is about two lost souls, and their momentenous -if irrelevant- connection captured in a way that only film allows. It is not about big emotions, or achievements, but the small, beautiful sad moments that we crave to live for. In the first of these last 10 years it already embodied what I feel this decade was all about: unmeasurable loss and realization that we are here waiting for a couple of moments that makes the breathing efforts worth it. All hands down to Wong Kar Way for being this sensitive and visionary.

.Bravo.