14. Closer (Best of the Decade)

Closer (2004)

Closer is a brutally honest albeit heightened examination of two couples (four couples?) in modern London. The film is about dialogue and relationships—about the difference between what people say and what they do. There are four main characters: two Englishmen, played by Jude Law and Clive Owen; and two American women, played Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman. Each character says precisely what they want to say, even if it isn’t precisely what they mean to say. Director Mike Nichols has helmed many great movies. His most famous is probably The Graduate (1967), and if you remember the ending of that movie then you have an idea of the complexity of relationships he works with. Originally written for the stage, Closer is exactly what you expect in terms of verbal sparring. The characters speak realistically, and nothing is held back. Each of the four actors holds their own, giving the slight edge to Portman and Owen, whom were nominated by the Academy for their performances.

15. Zodiac (Best of the Decade)

Zodiac (2007)

Much like Fight Club, David Fincher’s Zodiac was not given the recognition it deserved upon its release. Though it’s only been a few years, I already find that people are beginning to discover how brilliant and important this film is. Jake Gyllenhaal portrays Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist working at the San Francisco Chronicle who becomes obsessed with the letters and ciphers the Zodiac killer sends to the paper in the 1960s and 70s. Robert Downey, Jr. plays journalist Robert Avery and Mark Ruffalo portrays Dave Toschi, both men looking to solve the murders. The film is long and brooding, dark in tone and color, and patient. It is not about sensationalizing murder but instead about solving a puzzle, about mind games, about obsession by both a murderer and the people trying to catch him. It will have you on the edge of your seat more than once.

16. Requiem for a Dream (Best of Decade)

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Requiem for a Dream is a disturbing look into the world of addiction. From heroin to diet pills to television, Darren Aronovsky’s follow up to his break-out success Pi portrays hopeful people plummeting into physical and emotional depravity. The film follows a family of sorts: a mother (Ellen Burstyn) who spends her time watching T.V. and becomes hooked to diet pills and speed in hopes of looking good when she appears on her favorite show; her biological son and heroin addict, who steals her prized television to score a fix (Jared Leto), and his girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) and best friend (Marlon Wayans), both addicts. The film’s score is brilliant and instantly recognizable to anybody who has seen any number of trailers in the past decade. Aronofsky’s use of fast-cutting and what he calls hip-hop montages make for a fast and confused movie, as if he’d injected all 35mm with a cocktail of drugs himself.

17. Traffic (Best of the Decade)

Traffic (2000)

Steven Soderbergh kicked off the decade with a bang. With Erin Brockovich he directed Julia Roberts to an Academy Award, and he was nominated for Best Director for both Brockovich and Traffic, winning for the latter. Traffic is the better of the two, and it’s no surprise that a decade later many filmmakers are still trying to emulate Soderbergh’s unique photography. The film is set in Mexico and California and Washington, D.C. and Ohio, following the illegal drug trade from the cartels of Mexico and into the streets and homes of the United States. The interlocking stories work well, and there are great performances by probably a dozen actors, each with enough to do in a film with a lot of speaking roles and no clear protagonist. The best performance is by Benicio del Toro, who stood out in both The Usual Suspects and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but won an Oscar and a career for his role as Javier Rodriguez, an honest Mexican cop.

18. Moulin Rouge! (Best of the Decade)

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Moulin Rouge! kick started the current musical trend, and no other musical in the last decade had as much emotional impact or innovation. The film stars Ewan McGregor as Christian, a down-and-out writer in turn-of-the-century Paris who falls in love with a dancer at the Moulin Rouge, the beautiful Satine (Nicole Kidman). From the opening seconds of the film, we realize this is no ordinary musical. First, it is fast and confusing and about as avant-garde as mainstream films get. Second, the musical numbers are all pop songs infused into a foreign time and place. Moulin Rouge! was Baz Luhrmann’s follow up to Romeo + Juliet, another film that blurred the lines between what you see and what you hear. With Moulin Rouge! he not only gave us the best musical of the decade, but one of its best films. The Roxanne Tango is one of the best edited sequences I’ve seen on film.

19. The Aviator (Best of the Decade)

The Aviator (2004)

One of the best films of 2004, The Aviator was overshadowed by the overrated Million Dollar Baby and the awful Ray. Leonardo Dicaprio should have won an Oscar for his portrayal of Howard Hughes, the tortured drill bit magnet and filmmaker whose love of aviation and hatred of germs led to scrutiny by the media and the federal government. Martin Scorsese wisely focuses on Hughes’s genius and celebrity. Decades before he was the old recluse in Las Vegas, Hughes was the playboy of his generation, a pioneer of aviation, a fearless filmmaker, and a cutthroat businessman. Cate Blanchett won an Oscar for her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn, and key supporting roles by Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, and John C. Reilly fill out a terrific ensemble cast.

20. Amores perros (Best of the Decade)

Amores perros (2000)

Amores perros is a tour de force of love, loss, and redemption. The film contains three stories, each connected to a single car cash, and each including dogs as a central symbol of brutality and innocence, stability and fragility. The title is loosely translated as “Love’s a Bitch,” but I suspect it was unchanged for American release because that doesn’t sum it up as nicely as “amores perros,” which translates poorly and sounds mysterious to us English-speaking folk. The film is the directorial debut of Alejandro González Iñárritu, who completed his “trilogy” of films with 21 Grams and Babel. Iñárritu and his fellow countrymen Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro have secured modern Mexican film a place in the global film industry with regard to both artistic achievement and critical acclaim. Cuarón’s Y tu mama también and Children of Men and del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth are all contenders for many critics’ best of the decade list. However, I consider Amores perros the best of the bunch, and it is (regrettably) the only foreign-language film on my list.