Best of the 00s, A List of Films List Editions

Here's one post to rule them all!

2000
(Almost Famous, Best in Show, Battle Royale)
2001
(Shaolin Soccer, Spirited Away, Wet Hot American Summer)
2002
(Orange County, Infernal Affairs, Femme Fatale)
2003
(Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
2004
(Kung Fu Hustle, The Incredibles, Kill Bill, Vol 2)
2005
(Sin City, Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Serenity)
2006
(Thank You For Smoking, Crank, Pan's Labyrinth, Idiocracy)
2007
(Juno, Shoot 'Em Up, Bourne Ultimatum)
2008
(The Bank Job, Iron Man, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist)
2009
(Up, Zombieland, Up in the Air)

If I had to whittle this down to a top ten for the decade, I think I'd have to go with the following (not in order)

The Incredibles
Almost Famous
Iron Man
Pan's Labyrinth
Battle Royale
Kill Bill (Vol 1&2 combined)
Crank
Idiocracy
Thank You For Smoking
Serenity

While that may seem like a wild top ten, with not a lot unifying those pictures, there is one straight line throughout, strongly realized characterizations. Other lessons from this list, you can have an entertaining picture without strong characters, but it won't be one that keeps you coming back for more. Your film can be a bit insane, so long as the logic of the world created is consistent. Well portrayed action sequences can cover a multitude of other sins, but action alone won't make your film memorable.

Clearly, I'm not a fan of your typical serious 'Oscar-bait' type pictures, and I avoid biopics as if they were the plague (especially musician/artist centered biopics). You'd think biopics would be strong with regards to character, given they're based on real life, but instead the opposite is true, biopics usually offer up the most stilted, one note performances around, yet they keep getting made in the same predictable ways.

Looking back on the decade, while it seems like popcorn pictures have mostly been of the horribly disappointing Star Wars 'prequel' variety, it turns out there have also been plenty of quality big budget productions that deliver on all fronts. Comedies seem to be getting better, with intelligently made, yet still stupidly funny films getting released on a regular basis. Also, chick flicks, almost always suck, and suck hard.

I think the dearth of good smaller independent dramas is a reflection of the Sundance-ification of those films. 'Independent' films in the 00s are all designed to play at Sundance, develop buzz, and they all play the same notes with the same characters doing the same things. I'm just not into the ten thousandth variation of another my family sucks drama. I'm sorry your mommy and daddy didn't express enough affection for you when you were a child, my sympathy doesn't extend to watching another boring drama depicting scenes from a collapsing marriage.

As far as all the War on Terror flicks go, I don't think I'm alone in rejecting the slew of anti-war war pictures that Hollywood foisted on an unwilling public year after year after year. The monotony, the predictable way in which the subject matter was handled, and the inevitability that our troops and our government were always going to be portrayed as the only true evil on this globe was as unentertaining as it was unsurprising. Hollywood wants your money America, but they still hate you. Hollywood knows if they delivered an unambiguously positive about our military, action oriented drama regarding our recent conflicts, where we were the good guys and the bad guys turned out to be Islamo-fascist Jihadi nutbags, that picture would do huge business in the United States. Instead, we get pounded with the same stupid message. It's a case where show business puts ideology before profit, I guess cause any producer/director/writer who puts out a patriotic war picture wouldn't be allowed at the cool kids table anymore, that's why we haven't seen it get made. Or maybe I'm just suffering from HIPTSDARDOPTSD (Hollywood Induced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder After Repeated Depictions Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). A lot of talented actors, directors and writers have wasted a lot of time churning out flop after predictable flop, all to make the same point over and over.

Looking back, there are plenty of films to recommend from the past ten years, wouldn't say it's been a great decade, but it has had its moments. If more filmmakers besides those at PIXAR would remember to always put story and character first, at every step of development, maybe there'd have been a lot more pictures to recommend, but even if the crap outweighs the good stuff, there's still good stuff out there if you look for it.

Best of the 00s, 2009 Films Edition

2009 isn't over, and I haven't seen all I want to see given I wait for the home releases on a lot of pictures, lately. But I've seen enough to know what I've liked so far.

2009 Films

Films I liked;
Adventureland, Coraline, I Love You, Man, Observe and Report, Crank: High Voltage, Star Trek, Drag Me to Hell, The Hangover, Cold Souls, Inglorious Basterds, Broken Embraces.

Films I might like once I've seen them;
The Hurt Locker, Sunshine Cleaning, Bright Star, Funny People, Sherlock Holmes

Films that I could have liked a lot more if they weren't terribly flawed in some way;
Watchmen, District 9, Year One, The Brothers Bloom

Films that I have strong opinions about both positive and negative, yet don't feel like articulating;
Avatar

The tentative top three of 2009

Up
An amazing opening, a full life and decades' worth of loving and heartbreak unfold before your eyes. That alone makes it one of the movies of the year. Add to that remarkable images, solid use of 3D, talking dogs (and Doug), and great vocal performances from Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer, and you have yourself one fine picture.

Zombieland
I wanted to like this picture, and luckily the filmmakers delivered. It's really a typical indie sensitive boy becoming a man coming of age story, with zombies and gore splatter thrown in for good measure. Doesn't seem like two genres that would meld successfully, yet there it is up on the screen, being entertaining as hell. It's funny in smart ways, and smart in funny ways, so long as gore doesn't put you out, this is a must see film. Jesse Eisenberg might be playing the exact same character he did in Adventureland, but he's still excellent in both films. Emma Stone is her usual solid self, and Abigail Breslin seems like a kid actor who might be able to keep acting as she gets older. Woody Harrelson gives a strong and endearing comic performance as a sort of reluctant patriarch/Obi Wan Kenobi type character. Woody Harrelson!

Up in the Air
Clooney, playing Clooney, a less glamorous, more nakedly cynical Clooney than we are used to, but Clooney nevertheless. Jason Reitman delivers again. His third feature, and all three have made the top three in their given year according to me. I have a mancrush on his directing prowess, and I don't care who knows it. Less light than his other two pictures, and does get a bit heavy handed in spots, but the characters are so well conceived, their interactions so honest, and the way the story is spun out, so skillful, that it's easy to forgive the moments when Reitman chooses to hammer home a few points too forcefully. He even makes Vera Farmiga compelling. Vera Farmiga!

Best of the 00s, 2008 Films Edition

Another year, another year's worth of films to consider

2008 Films

A lot of almost films that year, Cadillac Records is almost great, but too much Adrien Brody. The Spirit almost has something, but lacks some a compelling center to drive the wild visuals. Burn After Reading is almost a solid farce, but the tone veers too much to be good. Hellboy II almost is a solid sequel, but is generally unsatisfying. Hancock is almost a strong superhero pic while also being a superhero parody, but instead gets muddled at the end. Wall-E has one of the greatest opening thirty minutes of any picture, but really doesn't hold together once it gets to the spaceship. The fine pictures, but not fine enough to top the list are, Dark Knight, which is solid, but over praised in my opinion. The Visitor which contains great performances, but is bogged down by the usual liberal preachiness on immigration matters. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is smart, funny, painful, and has both puppets and penises (though no puppetry of the penis). The Fall is one of the most beautiful travelogues you'll ever see, but there's no there there (still worth seeing). Kung Fu Panda is one of the best non-PIXAR computer animated kid flicks. You Don't Mess with the Zohan is good silly fun, one of the few Sandler pics that I actually like. Pineapple Express is a great stoner comedy, it's not such a great action picture, and it relies a bit too much on the action and not enough on the comedy. Tropic Thunder is another extremely funny film that spends a bit too much time rehashing action picture tropes rather than exploring and expanding on the funny. Slumdog Millionaire was what it was, entertaining, engrossing even, but ultimately a slight and melodramatic film that nevertheless has a great energy to it.

The Bank Job
A period (the period being 1971) crime drama/heist film that hits all the right notes. A genre that's often screwed up, this has the right pacing, cast, and direction to make it one of the best examples of this kind of picture made. Really surprising given that the director (Roger Donaldson) is bit of a hack.

Iron Man
Comic book/superhero action done right. Robert Downey, Jr. turns in a perfect performance as the boozy, talented, arrogant, yet charming Tony Stark. No preaching, no angst, no sturm, no drang, just a straightforward good guys battle bad guys while blowing a bunch of crap up picture. Just enough dramatic details to give you a reason to care, but not to the point where anybody involved takes it all too seriously. Could have tripped up in a dozen different places, but manages to avoid all the pitfalls these kind of films often find themselves trapped(both from being too heavy, and being too cartoonish). Light, without being insubstantial, kinetic without being frenetic, and manages to spin the creation myth organically from the story, rather than halting the action with endless exposition as is often in the case when Hollywood tries to launch a superhero franchise.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
A perfect and sweet little couple meets cute but hate each other at first while they endure an adventure together picture. It also serves as a nice little love letter to NYC night life in the 00s (think of this version of NYC as the fluffy bunny cousin of the terrifying rat version found in After Hours). Kat Dennings and Michael Cera hold this together, while the rest of the cast brings plenty of the funny. These kind of films usually have a false ring to them, and while the situations are exaggerated, and the plot feels slight to non-existent at times, the leads give this film a weight that keeps this floating into nothingness.

There were plenty of solid films released in 2008, and one horrible, childhood raping excuse of a film (Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull of Nightmarishly Bad Script Choices), but the films I think most worthy of remember are genre pictures that manage to transcend the genres that birthed them, while maintaining a fidelity to the form. It's easy to make a serious film with genre tropes (like Dark Knight), it's harder to make a genre picture and keep it light while at the same time taking it seriously (as in Iron Man).

Best of the 00s, 2007 Films Edition

A few more years to get out of the way, and then we are done with the 00s (I know that technically 2000 was part of the 90s, and 2010 is still part of the 00s, but since everyone treats decades as lasting from the 0-9 year rather than the 1-0 year like they should, I'm going with the flow)

2007 Films

I personally didn't like the two films from that year that you are supposed to like (There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men), I found both of them ultimately pointless and overwrought. As far as the almost making the list films, Smokin' Aces is surprisingly good for a film with Jeremy Piven in it, Zodiac wastes a lot of solid performances with a story that is spun out way too slowly, Spider-Man 3 deserves mention for strangely and inexplicably being half a musical (especially the bar scene with partially 'venomized' Peter Parker is secretly hilarious). Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has a few brilliantly surreal sequences while Cap't Jack is alone, but the overall picture is a failure. Knocked Up has a lot of good moments, but the whole is less satisfying than the parts. Superbad is one of the best teen comedies to come along in some time, but that's not saying much as it's a pretty crappy genre. Ratatouille is solid, but not great PIXAR-ness, so long as you can get over the whole rats in the kitchen angle. Rescue Dawn is a solid picture, that avoids a lot of the clichés you'd expect this kind of flick to contain. 3:10 to Yuma is solid as far as those kinds of pictures go. The Death Proof half of Grindhouse has some of the best car related stunt choreography on film, and since it's a Tarantino picture, strong women, and plenty of shots of bare lady feet.

Shoot 'Em Up
There's nothing not to love about this picture. Monica Bellucci as a lactating hooker, check, Clive Owen as a carrot chomping super assassin, double check, and Paul Giamatti as a shockingly menacing bad guy, triple check, and mate. A smartly put together dumb action picture that explodes every genre trope even as they milk them for all their worth. A really entertaining westernized version of the old Lone Wolf and Cub Samurai pictures

The Bourne Ultimatum
A rarity, an action film sequence that gets better as it goes along. Also, it's probably the only film to use the dreaded shakycam camera technique to good effect. So long as this film doesn't make you vomit, it's a great ride of a film.

Juno
Which one of these things is not like the other? Not quite the over the top action pictures like the other two best of 07 pics. Probably the most surprising film to gross in excess of $200M of the decade (this, and that Greek Wedding film). I guess I'm a sucker for Jason Reitman films, cause he manages to hit another homerun with this picture. Forget the backlash against it, this film really did deserve the positive regard that it received. The performances are great throughout, the characters are well conceived, and Ellen Page holds this together with an amazing lead turn. Another example of Jason Reitman tackling a scenario that Hollywood would usually ruin with polemics and posturing. He lets the characters tell their tale, and leaves the politics out of it (from both the left and the right perspective, which is probably why there was criticism, and praise, from both sides). Even Jennifer Garner is made to be warm and sympathetic in this one. Jennifer Garner!

Best of the 00s, 2006 Films Edition

Another post, another year of movies to discuss.

2006 Films

Not a terrible year for films, not great, but not terrible. There were some decent films

Thank You for Smoking
An entertaining dark comedy about lobbyist, doesn't seem possible, yet it exists. Most filmmakers would have turned these characters into cartoon villains, but Jason Reitman makes a much subtler, deeper, and more interesting film than the usual anti-corporate screed that you'd expect out of Hollywood. Aaron Eckhart is brilliant in the lead, Rob Lowe has a great supporting role, and even Katie Holmes is compelling in this picture. Katie Holmes!

Crank
A kinetic, crazed, insane action picture that was everything Snakes on a Plane should have been. Jason Statham nails the lead role, offering the right mix of menace, charm and physical presence. This rushes along from one crazed situation to another. Basically, it's a video game without the controller, but in a good way.

Pan's Labyrinth
A child's dream, and nightmare, filled with inventive images, and strong emotions. It's a powerfully told tale of once upon a time, with the real world action set during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. The intricate way the horror of the real world informs the terrors of the fantasy world is expertly done, and everything, from writing, to directing, to acting, to set design, to costume, are top notch.

UPDATE:

How could I have missed one of the greatest films of the decade? I guess this year will have to go up to four, since I don't feel like deleting what I wrote about the other three films, or figuring out which to knock out.

Idiocracy
It's the thinking man's stupid comedy of our times. Mike Judge has unleashed two of the best comedies of the last fifteen years (this one, and Office Space), yet both were massive flops on initial release. Funny as it is likely to be sadly prophetic.

Best of the 00s, 2005 Films Edition

Time to knock out the rest of these lists

2005 Films

2005 was a bad year for movies that appealed to me. The big prestige movies were all not my kind of films (Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Syriana, Walk the Line), the popcorn pictures were middling to Bewitched (that's synonymous with awful, see also; Herbie: Fully Loaded). It might make sense to not mention any films this year, and distribute those extra honorable mentions and top three films in the other years of the decade, but for consistency sake, there's got to be something here worthy of some recognition. Luckily there are three films that do matter to some degree, so the year isn't a complete loss. Flawed but interesting films that came out that year include, King Kong, which almost was brilliant, but just piled on the special effects sauce a bit too high, for too long, on to little of story.

A special dishonorable mention goes out to Crash, however. Easily the worst film to ever win Best Picture. Horrible film, filled with arch characters and every ridiculous liberal white guilt trope that Hollywood likes to shove down our throats. This film inhabits a cartoon version of Los Angeles that in no way resembles reality. Would be easy to turn that script into a knowing farce playing against all those ridiculous stereotypes, but unfortunately this film was played straight. The Brothers Grimm was almost up there with Terry Gilliam's best, but there's just a certain spark missing that makes the whole less satisfying than all the parts would lead you to expect that film to be. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy managed to lose all sense of what made the source material great, and tried to turn it into a standard comedic sci-fi pic, and it's a shame they so missed the mark. Wedding Crashers and 40 Year Old Virgin are both well done, but not great comedies. The Great Raid was a solid, old fashioned war picture, entertaining, but not essential viewing. Match Point was Woody Allen's best dramatic picture of the 00s, but it's not a great film. The Matador just misses the cut, it's a very satisfyingly put together comedy drama featuring an outstanding performance from Pierce Brosnan.

Now, the three most essential films of 2005 (not in order of merit)

Serenity
It's a brilliantly put together action sci-fi film that works on its own merits, even if you haven't immersed yourself in the TV series (Firefly) from which it came. I guess folks were put off by the "Space Western" aspect of the film (and series), but within the universe created for the show, it makes sense, and gives them opportunity to create fascinating visual, social and character juxtapositions.

Special bonus mention of the excellent commentary provided by Joss Whedon on the DVD/BluRay for this film. He engages fully (which in a lot of commentaries, isn't the case, you can hear the, 'I'm contractually obligated to sit in this both and say a few words, but I'm not going to like it' attitude of some directors/performers on those audio tracks) and pulls out details relating to both story and production that are worth hearing.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
All the Wallace-y and Gromit-y hijinx you had come to know and love from Nick Park and Aardman Animations, upsized to feature length. Luckily, these characters upsized well, and the charms of the shorts are maintained over the 85 minute runtime. Fun for the whole family, and not in the crappy way that phrase usually suggests.

Sin City
Not really fun for the whole family (unless you are an Addams, possibly), but a fun, violent, visually inventive, narratively flawed film. It takes the form of the graphic novels it's based on and successfully translates those images and that narrative style to a cinematic feature. No other film of this kind has been as successful in doing so. Episodic, without feeling scattered, the filmmakers managed to create an alive and vital world, that feels very organic, despite the highly stylized nature of the visuals. However, there needs to be a "Jessica Alba" rule established for all future films of this type. Any attractive young actress who signs on to a pulp-y R rated picture to play a stripper/hooker/pornstar must also agree to appear topless where toplessness would be expected for her character. Topful strippers in dive bars just doesn't cut it (even when portrayed by Jessica Alba).

That's the year that was, for films, all the best films had their start in other media, TV, shorts, and graphic novels, and owe their success for the developed nature of the characters as they were honed in those other outlets. The transition from one form to another is often screwed up, just see any video game inspired picture of the last two decades for examples of how horribly wrong these things can go. These three films serve as testaments to how best to adapt existing source material into feature films.

 

 

Best of the 00s, 2004 Films Edition

Only a few days left, so time to tackle the best of the 00s, Film, TV, and Music, three in each category should be sufficient.

2004 Films.

2004 was a pretty "meh" year for pictures (with a few notable exceptions). I can't really hate any of the crappy pictures enough to mention them dishonorably (not even The Day After Tomorrow, despite its obvious stupidities, has some charms, too), and the list of honorable mentions will be short, yet the top pictures are some of the best pictures the 00s have to offer, so it was a year of rare excellence coupled with mindnumbing mediocrity.

Comedies dominate the honorable mentions, with the ever rewatchable Anchorman and Harold and Kumar topping the, they aren't great but you really ought to own the DVDs of this picture if only so you can pop them in for a quick guaranteed laugh, list. Mean Girls just misses the top three, it's really a brilliantly written, wonderfully acted, solidly directed slice of American teengirl life. It's so sad to see what's happened to Lindsay Lohan since, but at least the other girls (and Tina Fey) have done well for themselves. Shaun of the Dead is another film that pains me to not name one of the top three, but when I see the three films I've picked, I can't justify taking any of them off, and elevating this in its place. Still, it's a near perfect comedy, and in large part responsible for the current zombie renaissance we are currently experiencing. Team America: World Police is another film that just misses, yet remains my all time favorite filthy puppet film and political satire. A special honorable mention goes to Downfall, both being an interestingly done serious drama revolving around Hitler's last day's in the bunker, and more importantly for inspiring a runaway, and funny the first few times, but after the fiftieth variation got tired, internet parodies (the original XBox Live banhammer edition, here).

Now, the three most essential films of 2004 (not in order of merit)

The Incredibles
The current best film company's (PIXAR), best film, delivers on all fronts. Story, character, and visuals combine to create a near perfect film. The message is surprisingly pro-libertarian, too, so there's no way I can't not love this incredible bit of entertainment. One of the most heartfelt paeans to the importance of family that has been committed to film (or assembled from terabytes of zeroes and ones).

Kill Bill Vol 2
More essential than the first chapter, while that had all the action, this had all the character development, and the final sequence is both heartbreaking, and an ode to the power of motherhood. The first volume's action sequences are fun to rewatch, but the story is kind of stagnant and is mere set up for what happens throughout this half of the two pictures. Not many actresses could be convincing in both the action scenes and the emotional scenes, yet Uma Thurman delivers a muscular, nuanced, and multi-layered performance that offers careful shading where most artists would have painted with bolder and broader strokes. Deserving a place amongst best films of the decade, if only for Thurman's performance and Tarantino's direction in pulling that out of her. Essentially, it's one long ass picture, though, so consider this placing Kill Bill Vol1&2, as a piece, on the list of top achievements in cinema for the 00s.

Kung Fu Hustle
Another Stephen Chow film makes the top three of a given year's films. This is a remarkable action picture, it's a hokey-old fashioned romance, and it's a pretty terrific Busby Berkeley style musical all wrapped up into one glittering package. All the various kinds of choreography (dance, fight, slapstick) are top notch, and it's an endlessly inventive film visually. It strikes a balance between comedy and drama (very light drama), action and character, fantasy and reality, that's very kung fu like. It's the perfect reconciliation of opposites, and kicks all sorts of ass, you really can't ask any more out of a picture than what this work delivers.

That's it for today, I'll finish up 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 tomorrow, and I'll hold off on 2009 until after Christmas and I've had a chance to see a few of the big holiday season pictures (Invictus, Nine, Holmes).

Best of the 00s, 2003 Films Edition

Only a few days left, so time to tackle the best of the 00s, Film, TV, and Music, three in each category should be sufficient.

2003 Films.

2003 was the year of the non craptacular blockbuster film. Half of the top ten grossers were good to excellent (LOTR:TROTK, Finding Nemo, POTC: TCOTBP, X2, The Last Samurai, which despite its 'let's focus on the white man in a non-white world' faults, isn't half bad) but it was a crappy year for 'prestige' pictures with one boring 'serious' film after another (Cold Mountain, Mystic River, Monster).

Dishonorable mention goes to The Wachowski Brothers for crapping all over their own Matrix franchise by releasing not just one, but two massively disappointing turds on an unsuspecting viewing public.

Honorable mentions go out to American Splendor for Giamatti's remarkable turn as Harvey Pekar, Bad Santa for Billy Bob's remarkably Bad Santa, The Cooler for remarkable performances from Macy, Baldwin, and Bello, The Core for being so ridiculously absurd, yet deceptively entertaining, Down with Love for being a strangely faithful remake of a Rock Hudson/Doris Day picture that never previously existed (complete with David Hyde Pierce as not quite Tony Randall), Kill Bill Vol1 for giving us Tarantino at his best, A Mighty Wind for delivering that Guestian groove with a bit more bittersweetness than previous efforts, Oldboy for delivering a pitch perfect revenge fantasy, Ong-Bak for introducing Tony Jaa to the world, School of Rock for giving us a likeable Jack Black character (a feat not since duplicated), and Lost in Translation for being one of the strangestly perplexing and satisfying movies to pop up in quite some time. It's a film you can love, or hate, or love AND hate at the same time, and that's pretty unusual.

Now, the three most essential films of 2003 (not in order of merit)

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Obviously, you aren't going to watch only the third film in a trilogy, so this is more a recognition of the entire eleven hours of narrative (assuming you pick up the full on extended editions). An epic, brought to screen in full detail, it's an accomplishment that hasn't been equalled before or since.

Finding Nemo
PIXAR doing what PIXAR does, with fantastic performances from Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks. Not sure I'd put it in my top five of Pixar films, yet it sits here as one of the top three films of 2003 (which demonstrates the amazing run of high quality pictures put out by PIXAR).

Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
This is an old fashioned swashbuckling action/romance mated to modern production values and special effects, and for this film, holds together for the entire picture. Expect vastly diminishing returns with regards to the sequels, but for this one picture Gore Verbinski captures lightning in a bottle and gets every note right, from Johnny Depp's invention of Jack Sparrow (never has an action picture role more deserved an Academy Award, yet those stuffy bastards didn't even nominate him, despite Depp winning the SAG Award for Best Actor), to Keira Knightly's plucky heroine, to Geoffrey Rush's scene chewing Barbossa. Disney took a huge gamble in making this picture, modern pirate movies have been amongst the biggest all time flops(Cutthroat Island most notably), a shame they had to screw things up so badly as they cashed in and turned it into a franchise.

Best of the 00s, 2002 Films Edition

Only a few days left, so time to tackle the best of the 00s, Film, TV, and Music, three in each category should be sufficient.

2002 Films.

No dishonorable mentions, all the bad films are obviously bad, and most of the acclaimed films deserved their acclaim.

Honorable mentions for the pretty damn good films of 2002, Chicago, Talk to Her, Undercover Brother (no, really), We Were Soldiers, 24 Hour Party People are a diverse group of films that represent some of the best of what that year had to offer.

Now, the three most essential films of 2002 (not in order of merit)

Orange County
Jake Kasdan helms this sweet film with a great supporting cast, a sharp script, and an endearing lead performance by Colin Hanks which turns a lot of the usual high school cliches on their head.

Infernal Affairs
This brilliant Hong Kong film was turned into an inferior (though Academy Award winning) Hollywood copy by Martin Scorcese. Taut, emotionally involving, and legitimately thrilling, a perfect example of both a crime-thriller, and a Hong Kong action-drama.

Femme Fatale
Pop trash, perfection, with Brian De Palma at his ersatz-Hitchcok best. Butressed by a wonderful performance from Antonio Banderas, and a surprisingly effective Rebecca Romijn, this film is far better than it has a right to be.

Best of the 00s, 2001 Films Edition

Only a few days left, so time to tackle the best of the 00s, Film, TV, and Music, three in each category should be sufficient.

2001 Films.

First up, the not quite dishonorable mentions, rather than well regarded films that don't hold up like in 2000, 2001 features some films that were almost something, but lack a key ingredient. AI, 2/3rds of a fantastic film, but the last third sinks that film. Josie and the Pussycats, there are some smart, satirical aspects to this film, but the overall execution doesn't rise to the potential, it really could have been great. Vanilla Sky, why oh why Cameron, why did you attempt to remake Abre Los Ojos?

Honorable mentions, these films are solid, but not up to the level of the top three. Y Tu Mama Tambien, Zoolander (yes, Zoolander), Waking Life, Ghost World, Metropolis, Millennium Actress, Monsters, Inc., and the Royal Tennenbaums are all solid pictures worth watching, there are others, 2001 was a good year for movies, but these are the ones that stand out.

Now, the three most essential films of 2001 (not in order of merit)

Shaolin Soccer
Stephen Chow's fantastic melding of sports and martial arts movies, this film defies description, but it's well worth seeking out if you haven't experienced it for yourself.

Wet Hot American Summer
Yes, I'm one of those people that think this film is brilliant. But the thing is, it really is a brilliantly put together dumb comedy. It's hard to execute dumb comedy smartly, and not become overly smarmy. This film goes back and forth between smart, dumb, and smarm, but put it all together and it's tremendously entertaining.

Spirited Away
Hayao Miyazaki's ode to childhood and Japanese folklore, is one of the best animated film of all time. It's a dream writ real, as long as you can accept the dream logic that drives what plot there is, it's a remarkable experience. The best work of one of the world's greatest filmmakers.

Best of the 00s, 2000 Films Edition

Only a few days left, so time to tackle the best of the 00s, Film, TV, and Music, three in each category should be sufficient.

2000 Films.

First up, the dishonorable mentions, films that back them seemed kind of interesting, but on repeated viewings, or attempted viewings, don't hold up. Dancer in the Dark/Requiem for a Dream/Quills/Traffic, all a bunch of self-important, depressing crap revelling in human misery, best left un-rewatched. Next up, honorable mentions, films just outside the top three. American Psycho, High Fidelity, Gangster No.1, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon are all worth a look if they show up on cable, but not necessary to have in your film collection.

Now, the three most essential films of 2000 (not in order of merit)

Battle Royale
Insane, kinetic, exploitative, violent, and maybe even just a touch thought provoking. It's hyperviolence, done right. I'm amazed there hasn't been a Hollywood remake of this yet (NewLine announced, then killed one a few years ago).

Best In Show
One of the most rewatchable films ever made. Still the blue ribbon winner amongst Christopher Guest made 'mockumentaries' (though not the best one he participated in, that remains This is Spinal Tap). There's something new to see each time you rewatch this, and the humor as outrageous as it is at times, seems purely organic, and true to the characters as they are presented. Could have easily been mean spirited and arch, but instead it's sweet, and true, though more than a bit exaggerated.

Almost Famous
A perfect film, there's not much more to say. Cameron Crowe mines details from his own life and comes up with a modern classic. He even gets a great performance out of Kate Hudson!