Decade In Review: 10 Best Movies, the Top Five.

Continuing from yesterday’s 10 thru 6, here’s the remaining top five, which was harder than ever for me to figure out:

5) Sexy Beast (Dir. Jonathan Glazer, UK, 2000)

Gandhi was a very important film for me. I remember it being the first time I saw my parents cry in a theater, and watching the film was a meaningful reminder of the sacrifices that the people of my motherland made for independence. It was my first introduction to Indian history, and in my head Ben Kingsley was the Mahatma, the embodiment of ahimsa and non-violence. Imagine then my sheer terror as I watched Sir Ben snarl like a rabid pit bull in Jonathan Glazer’s gangster masterpiece Sexy Beast. Kingsley delivers one of the most terrifying performances ever committed to film, ranting like a marauder who deep down just wants to be hugged. Glazer, who made his mark as an ace music video director, plays his gorgeous imagery down in favor of performance, and it pays off in spades. Equal to Kingsley’s ferocity is Ray Winstone’s paucity as a bloated ex-gangster who wants to bury his dark deeds in a pitcher of sangria with his porn star wife. This is the psychology of gangland and power, and an absolute fucking thrill ride to the core. A flawless film.

Don’t you dare call me Mohandas, you fucking ponce you.

4) City of God (Dir. Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, Brazil, 2002)

Electricity on film, this was Slumdog Millionaire without the cute factor, and is a brutal, unflinching and absolute powder keg of a movie. Filmed on location in the favelas of Rio De Janeiro, the film follows the disparate paths of two boys as they try to deal with the crushing reality of poverty and marginalization. Told with an unprecedented visual flair and authentic to the bone, City of God is the greatest organized crime film made since The Godfather, Part II. The film hits every emotional note perfectly and lucidly, and it wrangles immense beauty from the absolutely grotesque. It also features one of the most terrifying sequences I’ve ever seen, a massacre at a brothel wherein a young boy comes to terms with- and eventually embraces- his sociopath nature. A true punch in the gut.

The have and the have-nots.

3) Le Fils (The Son) (Dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Belgium, 2002)

Nobody does cinema verite like the Dardenne Brothers. Their ability to capture the heart of the struggle for everyday existence is unparalleled. In a time when the term ‘documentary style’ is qualified by the use of a shaky handheld camera, the Dardennes are the definition of the style, capturing life in its most authentic, raw and mundane form. Le Fils is their crowning achievement (a bold statement considering the quality of their other films Rosetta and L’Enfant), a tale of coping with loss and the struggle to find meaning after all hope has been crushed. The Dardennes place the weight of the world on actor Olivier Gourmet’s broad shoulders, a trade center carpenter who insists on mentoring one specific boy. Gourmet is a revelation, playing a man with a singular determination to build structure in his life like the wares he creates. The ending of the film is taut and riveting, as chilling as any classic horror film, and made more so powerful by the fact that these are completely normal, real people dealing with the horrors of the human heart. Essential.

2) Zodiac (Dir. David Fincher, USA, 2007)

David Fincher is one of those directors who can seemingly do no wrong. The man rarely makes a misstep because of his meticulous nature, and while The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and likely The Social Network will garner the most awards and nominations for Fincher, it is Zodiac that is his true masterpiece. Set against the backdrop of the Zodiac Killer murders in 1960, Fincher could have just as easily tread down the similar path of his other masterwork Se7en and delve into the machinations of a serial killer. But Fincher pushes the envelope futher by not making Zodiac about the killer, but rather about the nature of obsession. The film is a true police procedural (one of my all-time favorite genres), and the cat-and-mouse game between the killer, the police and the press reveals the destructive potential of the human ego. Lives are destroyed not just by the murders, but by the dogged pursuit for justice. Fincher and ace cinematographer Harris Savides blanket San Francisco in dread and paranoia, using razor-sharp camera moves and impeccably lit set pieces. The film is a technical gem, but the real highlight is the performance of Anthony Edwards as a police detective who slowly realizes that the killer is getting the best of him He must make the important decision to continue with his pursuit or save his family and his soul. Edwards plays the role with deft vulnerability and honesty, and his journey reflects the true collateral damage of combating an agent of chaos. The film also is relevant in these times of extreme paranoia and protectionism, and rather than make a preachy statement on xenophobia, the film simply lets us experience it.

Catch me if you can.

And finally, my number one film of the decade:

1) There Will Be Blood (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 2007)

P.T. Anderson did the impossible. He out-Cormac McCarthy’d Cormac McCarthy himself in the capturing of nihilism. While No Country for Old Men was a brilliant film in its own right, There Will Be Blood nudged it out by a hair in its relevancy to our current times. The film is one of the most scathing critiques of the American Dream and capitalism, and it puts our self-anointed manifest destiny under the most unflinchingly brutal microscope.

Daniel Plainview embodies all that a capitalist strives for - expansion of wealth, the building of an empire, and cunning free enterprise. But just as communism never accounted for the reality of the human desire to prosper, so too does capitalism fail to recognize one of the dark tenets of humanity - that when given choice, we don’t want to share what we earned. Giving unconditionally is a Biblical myth, a ideal that only works with the cane of guilt rapping at our knuckles. Anderson adapts the Upton Sinclair story “Oil!” with the bleakest of bleak perspectives on the nature of the American Dream, which is to succeed at all costs. And to remain successful, not only must you grow, but you must destroy the prosperity of the challengers around you. Free enterprise becomes the building a monarchy.

If you don’t believe this, take a quick look at the kings of the current American economy - Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Halliburton, Wal-Mart, fossil fuel companies, Chinese oligarchs - all of whom have succeeded by crushing free enterprise through the bureaucratic, political and economic shuttering of all gateways to entry. Want to start a small hardware store? Try beating Home Depot and Wal-Mart’s prices. Want to expand your wealth? The best way to do that is invest in stocks like Goldman and Apple and make them even more rich and politically influential than they already are.

It’s an exceptionally bleak take on humanity and commerce, and There Will Be Blood captures it all with blinding ferocity and ruthless determination. Daniel Plainview won’t just stop when he’s knocked you down and out of the way, he’ll bury you and spit on your grave just to make sure you’re never going to be a threat to him. His hatred and distrust of the human race only fuels him more. He becomes so powerful that the only real threat to his empire and person is he himself, punctuated by the final line of the film - “I’m finished!”

Multiple viewings of the film bear chilling parallels to the modern American landscape - the rape of the Earth for resources (Sarah Palin’s shrill screaming of “Drill Baby Drill!” has become the porn mantra of the GOP), the perceived benefit of corporate cooperation (let me drill and take your livelihood, and in return I’ll build you a school and roads - the “gifting” of unalienable rights), and the sacrifice of the American family for the pursuit of individual glory. While Cormac McCarthy philosophizes about the death of the human soul, P.T. Anderson reveals it in our everyday existence. Natural selection and capitalism can’t work in harmony, and this is the grand, chilling revelation of the film.

There Will Be Blood is the Citizen Kane of our generation, a cautionary tale of selling our souls to the Devil to fill the hole in our hearts with material excess.

Honorable mentions that didn’t make the cut: “Tropical Malady” (Apichatpong Weerasethakul), “Antichrist” (Lars Von Trier), “The Fog of War” (Errol Morris), “WALL·E” (Andrew Stanton), “Primer” (Shane Carruth), “The Devil’s Backbone” (Guillermo Del Toro) and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Julian Schnabel).

See, I told you this was hard. :)

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bigdaddykase said: Excellent list bro. I have to say I would put City of God at number 1. I first saw it in Portuguese and I speak zero Portuguese and I thought it was a beautiful work of art. And alltime great. But where is Children of MEN? That movie was superb!
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jefflyall94 said: Good picks, especially sxy beast!
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cryptocleveland said: I agree with your #1, but apart from #7 I haven’t seen the rest. I guess I have some catching up to do.
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get behind this…
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