top 100 films of the 2000s: 50-41

50. Slumdog Millionaire, 2008, UK
Dir: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto



Starting off my top 50 films of the 2000s is a movie that was a huge unexpected hit with audiences everywhere back in late 2008/early 2009. It wound up winning 8 Oscars, including one for Danny Boyle. Of course, what do accolades such as those mean? That the film will forever be branded as "overrated." And why is that though? While the movie may be guilty of having a happy "Hollywood ending," the majority of this movie is gripping, heart-breaking, suspenseful, violent, and intense. Sure, the whole game show format may be seen as gimmicky, but I've always found it as a very clever way of telling Jamal's story. I'll admit that it's a bit cheesy, but there's a lot of cheesy elements to this movie, but that doesn't mean it can't work. A large amount of it does. The simple fact of the matter is that this is a great film and the scenes with Jamal and his brother when they were kids is just a marvel to watch, honestly. They are so impeccably filmed and wonderfully acted that I feel it really gives the film heart. In fact, this is a film that wears its heart on its sleeve. That may be a turn off to a lot of people, but I admire the way the film's story unfolds and how it leads to a wonderful, happy conclusion.

49. District 9, 2009, USA/New Zealand
Dir: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope



Time has allowed me to appreciate this film even more which is why my little top 10 lists can be kinda unreliable and often only reflect my opinions on said films as it stands on that given day. I know that kinda makes it hard to take my opinion seriously, but honestly, if a film is in my top 10 list of the year, chances are I'll value one film more than another when judging it in a larger group and that's probably why when you look at my top 10 of each year, especially 2009, you might find some inconsistencies with this list. But, my mindset was different when I was approaching the construction of this list and... well, I'll explain later.

But time has allowed me appreciate District 9 a lot more than the first time I saw it. And believe me, I loved it the first time I saw it, but it was a sci-fi film, a seemingly big budget film produced by Peter Jackson... even though it wasn't really... and I've started to realize that the more I think about it. That there's more to this film than what initally appears. There's so much to this film that I loved that I couldn't capture it all the first time I saw it. I love the way this film starts unfolding as a documentary until Wikus starts transforming. I love how the ET race seems so mean and violent at first, but begin to have more character toward the end of the film. I love the end of the film! Yes, I think that this will be a film that people will cherish even more than they do now. The excellent makeup and visual effects in this film is just amazing. The action and violence is brutal and remains pretty brutal all the way to its end. You never really know how much you love a film until you give it a chance to breathe inside your head. It's been almost half a year since I first saw the film and I feel its position here on this list is completely justified.

48. Wall-E, 2008, USA
Dir: Andrew Stanton
Voices: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight



...That being said, Wall-E has kinda suffered a bit ever since I first saw the movie. There's nothing really wrong with the movie as a whole and there's still plenty that I love in this film. But I feel that my ultimate problem with this film is that it's not the complete masterpiece that it could have been. Still, it's very damn near being Pixar's ultimate masterpiece and I can't fault Pixar for aiming high and not quite succeeding. They succeeded enough. Wall-E is a tremendous visual spectacle and it says more about relationships, love, and loneliness than with many films contain human main characters. The first half honestly cannot be touched and it was really what sent me over the moon for the movie after I first saw it. I actually enjoyed a lot of the 2nd half of the movie and still do, but subsequent viewings has made me realize that it doesn't quite move me as much as the first half does. But, as I've said with other films, that only keeps it from being an all-time favorite of the decade to being right smack in the middle of my other favorites that I may not be as emotionally and personally attached to.

47. Letters From Iwo Jima, 2006, USA
Dir: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya



Clint Eastwood will always be known as a legendary actor and he was definitely known as such before the 21st century. But boy, something inside him seemed to snap as he now makes films in a even faster pace than Woody Allen does these days... and Eastwood is four years older. But to be honest, it wasn't until Letters From Iwo Jima where I really started to take notice of Eastwood's directing chops. The problems with Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby, for me, was that they ultimate tried too hard to tug at the heartstrings and the end result felt more like the result of manipulation than any sense of real emotion. But Letters From Iwo Jima showed that Eastwood can make really beautiful movies. Letters is a very wonderful and enlightening look at the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese side and there's an overall sense of humanity that really struck a chord with me while watching this movie.

46. Before Sunset, 2004, USA
Dir: Richard Linklater
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy



Richard Linklater's sequel to the wonderful Before Sunrise is actually better. Perhaps it's because we already know these characters from the first movie and now the second movie gives us more to offer and it feels as natural as the first one, but more emotional. Here's a man and a woman who found a wonderful bond between them when they met in Vienna nine years before. Since then, they've gone their separate ways, but have always remembered the time they spent together. Ethan Hawke's character Jesse is now back in Paris promoting a book he wrote concerning the brief encounter he had with Celine (Delpy). Then after the book promotion, he comes across Celine again and there's lots to talk about between the two, but so little time left! This brief 80 minute movie makes you look at your watch... not because you want the movie to end, but because you're wondering how much longer these two have before they have to part ways. It makes for a more urgent and wonderfully fulfilling watch as we see just how these characters have evolved since the last time we saw them. And at the end, we wonder if life really has to draw these two apart again. I mean, the man Jesse has clearly been obsessed with Celine since their one encounter, is it so wrong for him to be with her now that he's finally found her? I guess you can be the judge.

45. The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001, USA
Dir: Wes Anderson
Cast: Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller



The Royal Tenenbaums is Wes Anderson's finest work as a filmmaker. Make no mistake about its placing here on this list as I'm really fond of this movie and of Wes Anderson and it probably would have been a lot higher even two or three years ago. Nevermind that. The Royal Tenenbaums is Wes Anderson at his most focused, most detailed, and most emotional. Each character in this movie is so distinct and different from each other, they were wonderfully fleshed out by Wes Anderson and his writing partner and actor in the movie, Owen Wilson. And keep in mind this is just a two hour movie. And the character motivations and actions just become funnier and more interesting when you watch a second or third time because you begin to understand and care more for them. While they are presented in a shallow and flat manner, the Tenenbaums are neither shallow or flat, they are just a broken family that had slowly torn themselves apart simply because of the random directions that their lives lead to. The end though provides a bit of hope - that this family will remain as one unit thanks to its head honcho, Royal Tenenbaum. I'd give anything to see Wes Anderson delve further into this type of cinematic territory again. He has a lot of pure filmmaking talent and they shouldn't be wasted on his little quirks and idiosyncrasies.

44. Adaptation., 2002, USA
Dir: Spike Jonze
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Nicolas Cage



Speaking of quirks and idiosyncrasies, here's a film that was written by Charlie Kaufman! I'm sure you were wondering where/if one of his films would make this list and indeed at least one has and that's the wonderful, clever movie Adaptation. Adaptation primarily and initially deals with the plight of Charlie Kaufman. The man in charge of trying to adapt Susan Orlean's novel The Orchard Thief. The only problem is that he can't adapt it the way he wants to so he reluctantly gets his twin brother, Donald, to help. What follows is a clever way of bringing both Charlie and Donald's interpretations and personalities right into the film and you're sitting there and watching a film almost literally as Donald Kaufman is writing it. I don't even know if that's the right way to interpret this film, all I have to say is that if you complain about this film ending in a rather conventional, Hollywood way... well you just didn't get it.

43. The Squid and the Whale, 2005, USA
Dir: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney



The Squid and the Whale is Noah Baumbach officially starting a new chapter in his filmmaking career. This Noah Baumbach, in contrast to his '90s oeuvre, is more introspective, inward-looking and what comes out in this 2005 family drama is a wonderful, boldly realistic portrait of a family that is about to change dramatically due to a parents' divorce. It's not just the events surrounding the divorce that makes this film so great to watch, it's the effect it has on the kids that really makes this film easy to relate to for anyone who has dealt with these issues. Noah Baumbach has discovered a new side to his craft that he'll probably continue to explore for a large part of his career. His detailed observations and realistic portraits of characters may be off-putting to some because the characters he portrays have so many flaws. Baumbach seems to be interested in exploring those flaws and it makes people seem uglier than they really are, when in reality, they're just as human as the rest of us.

42. In Bruges, 2008, UK
Dir: Martin McDonagh
Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson



In Bruges really is a fantastic film and the biggest reasons for that is the impeccable acting provided by both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. But furthermore, it's the ingenuous plot and sense of humor that really drives this movie home. Yes, In Bruges can be considered a comedy even though some may not see it that way upon first viewing. But it deals with two hitmen who have been sent out to Bruges after a job went horribly array thanks to Ray (Farrell). This film is so good because of the interaction between Ken (Gleeson) and Ray and it's with these interactions where the humor can ultimately be found. These are two very different men who are forced to remain partners. Ken is truly trying to enjoy Bruges and his vacation whereas Ray is not so enthusiastic. Initially we find Ray to be a bit of a dick, but once we realize what Ray is currently up against, we may not be so quick to judge. Let's just say these guys weren't left in Bruges just for a vacation. And what follows is an interesting study on friendship as well as life and death. In Bruges is a carefully constructed movie and one of Britain's finest offerings of the last decade.

41. Into the Wild, 2007, USA
Dir: Sean Penn
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden



Taking the best pages, perhaps, out of Terrence Malick's book. Sean Penn has created a very lovely looking movie about a college grad who has decided that he wants to explore the world. This is a man who doesn't want to be stuck living life the way it's expected of him and instead he wants to really see what life is like outside of his comfortable world. Sean Penn did a great job of capturing the book the movie is based on into film. It's a movie that makes you wish you could be as free and daring as Chris McCandless (Hirsch), while at the same time, reminding you to cherish all the wonderful things that you do have in life. I guess it's really more about that than it is about the former. It's not that the film is saying Chris's choices are the ones everyone should be making, in fact, the film proves that not every choice he makes is the smart one. The way of life Chris has ultimately chosen is a lonely and dangerous way of life and he comes across so many different people. Some people who enjoy traveling around the world and others who haven't had the chance to. But the one thing they both desire and cherish the most is... each other. And that is the main thing that Chris McCandless has simply forgotten to consider. There is a particularly heartbreaking scene near the end between McCandless and Ron (Hal Halbrook). Ron is a elderly man who lives alone and is not very well-traveled. Sure he lived a long life, but he's old and alone. When he comes across Chris, it's like he had another son. But Chris is stubborn and wants to continue his journey and the movie ultimately makes us wonder what this journey was all for. I think a great movie can be made about a man we may not necessarily like and admire. There are many things that I disliked about Chris McCandless. I admired what he initially set out to do and his persistence in doing those things, but there really didn't seem to be much of a point to the life he chose to lead. And that will just remain something we'll always wonder about him. Into the Wild presents us with those questions and presents Chris the way he was. And it leaves us wondering what to make of everything that we saw and being in awe of how beautiful the world is and how much potential we have in our own lives.