Critics Poll: best films of the 2000's

[noodles_leone]

Yay! Lists! Lists! Lists!

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2020/5/jfj030p0dzlzh0u97m5btusmavghk4?fbclid=IwAR1JPMf6w9r0UN9L4KsLSMb0pPzZJHACmbnlOoWERiVIbspviF2j8fPC5_s

Here is the top 10 if you don't want to dig further away:

1) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
2) There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3) Zodiac (David Fincher)
4) In the Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai)
5) No Country For Old Men (Joel Coen)
6) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron)
7) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry) 
8 ) Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
9) Yi Yi: A One and A Two (Edward Yang)
10) Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)

I'm pretty much ok with that top 10. Sure, I'd alter the order and make room for the departed and a couple of others ones, but that's a good list. I wouldn't kill the guy coming up with that list, which, when it comes to film lists, is a pretty great achievement.

[cigar joe]

I'd go these...

1) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
2) No Country For Old Men (Joel Coen)
3) Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) (Sidney Lumet)
4) Zodiac (David Fincher)
5) Requiem For A Dream (2000) (Darren Aronofsky)
6) Journey to the End of the Night (2006) (Eric Eason)
7) The Missing Person (2009) (Noah Buschel)
Too Late (2015) (Dennis Hauck)
9) Auto Focus (2002) (Paul Schrader)
10) Dark Country (2009)(Thomas Jane)


11)The Lookout (2007) (Scott Frank)

[dave jenkins]

My top 10, not ranked, in chronological order:

Ghost World (2001)
Clean (2004)
Casino Royale (2006)
NCFOM (2007)
TAoJJbtCRF (2007)
Zodiac (2007)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Summer Hours (2008)
A Serious Man (2009)
The Informant! (2009)

[noodles_leone]

CJ, Too Late was released way too late to be from the 2000"s!

DJ, are there any other Bond films you consider as masterpieces or near masterpieces?

[stanton]

OK 50 films:

1   Mulholland Drive (Lynch)
2   Oldboy (Park)
3   Irreversible (Noe)
4   Quantum of Solace (Forster)
5   Inglourious Basterds (Tarantino)
6   Elephant (van Sant)
7   Los abrazos rotos (Almodovar)
8   Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park)
9   Gegen die Wand (Akin)
10   Kill Bill (Tarantino)

11   Lucia y el sexo (Medem)
12   Eine Stadt wird erpresst (Graf)
13   Death Proof (Tarantino)
14   Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (Tykwer)
15   Lost in Translation (Coppola)
16   Antichrist (von Trier)
17   No Country for Old Men (Coen Bros)
18   Bin-jip (Kim Ki-duk)
19   Interview (van Gogh)
20   Hable con ella (Almodovar)

21   Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (Weingartner)
22   Er sollte tot (Graf)
23   There Will Be Blood (Anderson)
24   In The Mood For Love (Wong)
25   Kalter Fruehling (Graf)
26    Die Freunde der Freunde (Graf)
27   All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (Levine)
28   Hero (Zhāng Yimou)
29   Traffic (Soderbergh)
30   Batalla en el cielo (Reygadas)

31   Martyrs (Laugier)
32   The Ring (Verbinski)
33   Hotte im Paradies (Graf)
34   Vicky Christina Barcelona (Allen)
35   Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry)
36   La mala educacion (Almodovar)
37   Memento (Nolan)
38   El secreto de sus ojos (Campanella)
39   Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park)
40   2046 (Wong Kar Wai)
41   Match Point (Allen)
42   Across the Universe (Taymor)
43   Bittersweet Life (Kim)
44   Familienkreise (Krohmer)
45   Un prophete (Audiard)
46   XXY (Puenzo)
47   Melinda and Melinda (Allen)
48   La fleur du mal (Chabrol)
49   Inside Man (Lee)
50   21 Grams (Inarritu)

[dave jenkins]

DJ, are there any other Bond films you consider as masterpieces or near masterpieces?

I wouldn't call any Bond a masterpiece, but I like the Connery Bonds, and also OHMSS.

[stanton]

I'm pretty much ok with that top 10. Sure, I'd alter the order and make room for the departed and a couple of others ones, but that's a good list. I wouldn't kill the guy coming up with that list, which, when it comes to film lists, is a pretty great achievement.

Yes, but it is an list made mainly by Americans. But then, I assume a list made by Europeans would not be that different.

The only mediocre film in the top 40 imo is the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that is so badly directed and narrated that I can't believe when it features in such lists. Well, and I still don't know why The Dark Knight is so often praised that much.

[noodles_leone]

I still don't know why The Dark Knight is so often praised that much.

It showed mainstream audience that you can make "intelligent" blockbusters. In 2008, it already seemed pretty unique. In today's landscape, where even Spielberg has been eaten alive by the marvelisation of big budget Hollywood, Nolan is really the last man standing. And I don't even really like his films.

[T.H.]

5 Dark Blue (2002)
4 Almost Famous (2000)
3 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
2 Memento (2000)
1 Zodiac (2007)

[noodles_leone]

Hey! A true AI lover! Those are rare. What?s your review?

[stanton]

It showed mainstream audience that you can make "intelligent" blockbusters.

I know, that's what people say, only that I don't see that "intelligence" in TDK. There are some basic approaches towards "intelligence", but Nolan prefers not to develop them, instead he stays with surprisingly conventional elements. I like Nolan, at the moment more than 10 years ago, but his Batman trilogy was for me always minor mainstream stuff in his ouevre.

I also don't see why TDK should be better than TDKR. Both have major flaws, but TDKR is more fun to watch.

[noodles_leone]

The dark knight rises is EVIL. Everything is wrong about it. It?s Nolan?s only real turd.

I think we agree on The Dark Knight. It?s watchable but puts more work into showing it is intelligent than into actually being intelligent. We got the exact same thing with Joker recently, and people in the message boards in 2030 will be having the exact same discussion about it.

I still think these movies (Joker and the dark knight) are a blessing. People think they are ?intelligent? AND they are huge box office successes. Great. They?re the reason why some crazy studio executives sometimes give money to Gravity, Fury Road and BR2049.

[stanton]

Ha ha, but for me Joker is an intelligent film, and I really enjoyed it. Deserved its success.

What's wrong with TDKR compared to TDK?

[noodles_leone]

I just wrote a rant about it a few hours ago somewhere else but the main point is that all the characters in that movie take stupid decisions out of nowhere all the time. It's a real case study, rarely have I seen a movie like that. A few examples (I haven't seen the movie for years):

- Catwoman is bad then good then bad then good for no reason. There is usually nothing for her either way. And she seems to even dislike the betrayal part. But the plot needs her to do so, hence, she does.
- What is the plan of the bad guys exactly? Seriously, what are they trying to achieve except working reeeeeally hard to convolute and obscure everything... and then blow up the place anyway, without even warning anybody? Who wants to go into the trouble of creating a whole new society if you want to destroy everything anyway?
- Why does Bruce Wayne admits he is Batman to the first ever guy who asks him the question? A guy whose only "evidence" is "I feel like Batman is probably an orphan or something like that, just like you, me, and the hundreds of kids I was in school with, just on the top of my head, but we can probably find thousands of other orphans in Gotham anyway, lol."
- Why does Gordon's colleague, who's afraid of fighting... Finally turns up and fight?
- Why does Alfred, who's main characterization is faithfulness, patiently waits for decades for his beloved Bruce Wayne to be in the worst position he's ever been into... to bail out?
- Why do the policemen charge right in the middle of the street toward big machine guns (they don't know they will be destroyed before they reach them)?
- Why does anything happen at any point in this movie except that C. Nolan decided he needed to make a point?

I can live with Nolan's pretentiousness and the over-seriousness that transpires through every single scene and line in his bland characters filled movies as long as they kind of make sense. I'm not very difficult with "plot holes" and stuff. But he went wayyyyy too far with this one. And we're not talking about "regular plot holes", where, usually, the audience can think of a smarter thing to do than one the characters are doing. Like:



No, we're talking about "Wait, why would that guy even THINK to do that? What's in it for him? Why the hell.. Why is any of this happening?" kinda plot holes.


Also, the action sequences are all particularly slow and soft. There is no energy to them. It's pretty obvious to me Nolan didn't care for any of them but was more into what they meant for Batman's character arc.

Last, Nolan's irrational hate for CGI, which lead to some fine scenes in TDK, semi ruined one of the only average to good scenes of the film: the stadium. Nolan refused to duplicate extras in CGI like you usually do in these scenes so in the wide shots he only put one extra every 4 seats. Which makes the stadium look very, very empty. Admittedly, that's a small detail but once you see it it's dumb and ridiculous.

[dave jenkins]

I still think these movies (Joker and the dark knight) are a blessing. People think they are ?intelligent? AND they are huge box office successes. Great. They?re the reason why some crazy studio executives sometimes give money to Gravity, Fury Road and BR2049.

Not a bad point.