thomstark.net
staring down the abyss
staring down the abyss
Well, we’ve about completed the first decade of the third millennium CE, and it hasn’t been a bad decade for movies, although there have been better. Anyway, I’ve made a little list of some of the great movies from this decade — 200 movies you might not have seen but ought to. I haven’t included very many blockbusters, and I’ve had to leave a lot of great pictures out of the picture. I tried to stick with ones that flew under the radar but are at least good films, if not potential classics. Without further ado…
200 Movies You Might Not Have Seen This Decade But Ought To
From the Year 2000:
From the Year 2001:
From the Year 2002:
From the Year 2003:
From the Year 2004:
From the Year 2005:
From the Year 2006:
From the Year 2007:
From the Year 2008:
From the Year 2009:
December 29, 2009 - 10:10 AM
Here are a hundred of the titles I cut from my final list above:
All the Pretty Horses (2000)
Boiler Room (2000)
Duets (2000)
Gun Shy (2000)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Keeping the Faith (2000)
Panic (2000)
Red Planet (2000)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Steal This Movie! (2000)
Unbreakable (2000)
Chusingura 1/47 (2001)
Ichi the Killer (2001)
Iris (2001)
Mullet (2001)
Sex and Lucia (2001)
The Shipping News (2001)
Tape (2001)
Waking Life (2001)
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
Comedian (2002)
Love Liza (2002)
Naqoyqatsi (2002)
The Pianist (2002)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Secretary (2002)
Solaris (2002)
Unfaithful (2002)
Antwone Fisher (2003)
Anything Else (2003)
Elephant (2003)
The Life of David Gale (2003)
Monsieur Ibrahim (2003)
Mystic River (2003)
Ned Kelly (2003)
Northfork (2003)
Osama (2003)
Owning Mahowny (2003)
The Pentagon Papers (2003)
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
Saraband (2003)
Veronica Guerin (2003)
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (2003)
2046 (2004)
Control Room (2004)
Criminal (2004)
Death in Gaza (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Gunner Palace (2004)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Kinsey (2004)
Layer Cake (2004)
A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)
Peaceable Kingdom (2004)
Spanglish (2004)
Angel-A (2005)
The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The Descent (2005)
L’Enfant (2005)
Junebug (2005)
Lonesome Jim (2005)
No Direction Home (2005)
An Unfinished Life (2005)
Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary (2005)
Why We Fight (2005)
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
Winter Passing (2005)
Children of Men (2006)
Colour Me Kubrick (2006)
Fast Food Nation (2006)
Fay Grim (2006)
Fido (2006)
Game 6 (2006)
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
The Prestige (2006)
Slither (2006)
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (2006)
The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006)
Vitus (2006)
The 11th Hour (2007)
Battle in Seattle (2007)
Charlie Bartlett (2007)
Chicago 10 (2007)
Feast of Love (2007)
The Go-Getter (2007)
The Good Night (2007)
Grace Is Gone (2007)
The Hunting Party (2007)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Seraphim Falls (2007)
Sweeney Todd (2007)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Waitress (2007)
Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
Revanche (2008)
Smart People (2008)
The Informant! (2009)
December 29, 2009 - 10:17 AM
i loved Grizzly Man.
December 29, 2009 - 12:53 PM
Nice list. I added about 15 of these to my Netflix queue. Having just completed my songs of the decade list, I know this list must have taken hours!
January 3, 2010 - 7:55 PM
I should add Visioneers (2008) and In the Loop (2009).
January 10, 2010 - 9:22 PM
No Michael Clayton or 3:10 to Yuma for you, huh?
January 10, 2010 - 9:23 PM
And I quote: “I haven’t included very many blockbusters, and I’ve had to leave a lot of great pictures out of the picture. I tried to stick with ones that flew under the radar but are at least good films, if not potential classics.”
That said, I wasn’t terribly impressed with Michael Clayton.
January 10, 2010 - 9:30 PM
I have some more to add that I’ve seen since making this list. I would’ve put them on the big 200 if I’d seen them. These are all from 2009:
Sugar
Paper Heart
Bronson
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Brothers
January 10, 2010 - 9:32 PM
You’ll notice, Michael, I didn’t include Batman Begins or Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, etc. etc. Generally speaking, if everybody has seen it, I didn’t include it.
January 10, 2010 - 10:14 PM
Fair enough. I saw both of those movies long after they came out so I couldn’t remember how blockbuster they were or how they were received. Loved Joyeux Noel, btw.
January 10, 2010 - 10:28 PM
If you haven’t seen To End All Wars, you’d like that too, probably even more-so.
January 14, 2010 - 6:50 PM
Recently discovered your blog. Love it so far.
I have seen maybe 15 or so of the films you listed, and heard of many of the others. I’ll probably go through my Netflix soon and queue up a bunch of them.
Also, was “Antichrist” (2009) good? I’m really interested in seeing it but from what I gather, it is very graphic and controversial, and it receives very mixed ratings.
January 14, 2010 - 7:00 PM
P.S. – I’m sad to see that “The Fountain” didn’t make your reduced 100 list. In my opinion, it is one of the best films I’ve ever seen, and I believe that simply for its cinematic prowess, the innovation of its visual effects (barely any CG used at all) and Aronofsky’s general level of genius, it should be in the top five or ten of any film lover’s list of the past decade.
Also, I know you were going for “movies that one probably didn’t see,” but I also think that “Matrix Revolutions” would be at home on a list like this. And it may apply, since I think so few people actually saw it after losing interest after “Reloaded”. But despite its “mixed-bag” reviews, I find “Revolutions” not only to be easily the best film of that trilogy, but also literarily and symbolically so potent and vital that I actually find myself with tears welling for almost the entire last hour of that film. Perhaps your opinion of it is not as high as mine, but I just figured I’d give it a shout-out.
January 14, 2010 - 10:24 PM
props on War Photographer and I’m Not There.
January 15, 2010 - 5:15 AM
The Fountain is one of my favorites of the decade. I didn’t include it because I thought that should be obvious. Maybe not.
Anti-Christ is very graphic, very depressing, and relentlessly unredeeming. Von Trier’s view of the world on his worst days, Element of Crime or Europa representing him on his better days!
Everybody saw the Matrix trilogy.
January 15, 2010 - 8:28 PM
Ooh, I have “Europa” here from Netflix right now. Haven’t watched it yet.
I suppose you’re right about everyone seeing the Matrix. Maybe my view is skewed just by the fact that so few people ever even mentioned the last film and when they do, it’s just to talk about how “horrible” it was. I guess I just end up feeling like I need to spread the good word even though it’s probably true that most people saw it.
January 16, 2010 - 1:24 PM
And what about snatch?
January 16, 2010 - 1:29 PM
I don’t like Guy Ritchie’s movies. They’re cheap rip-offs of a style Tarantino invented and then left behind. They’re also contrived, shallow and self-conscious. Fun, I suppose, but ultimately not redeemable.
January 16, 2010 - 1:36 PM
David,
Europa is a masterpiece, every bit as good as his debut, The Element of Crime.