j.lowe : making and finding stuff

Critics are posting their top ten movies of the decade lists – and I’ll admit they are a little disappointing.

Did AO Scott really choose WALL E? 

Maybe the first 30 minutes or so belong on a top ten list, but I thought that film went downhill in its second hour. (A recent pattern with Pixar…the best part of UP, is a brilliant montage that is contained in the film’s first act. We see the characters Carl and Ellie grow up together, get married, and grow old together, and along the way we see their difficulties and disappointments. It’s a perfect little film within the film…but by the second act dogs are flying airplanes.)

Back to WALL E. Sure. It has an important message. It also is visually amazing and the first half of the film is pitch perfect (before the humans come in) – but is it really the best film to come out in the last ten years? Better than Memento? Better than Amores Perros? 

Maybe. Maybe not.

Certain films are bound to become classics, because they share truths about ourselves, or the world etc. If people had taken some of the messages in Fight Club a little more seriously, maybe they wouldn’t have bought large houses they couldn’t actually afford. Or been a little bit more aware of how their ego has a need to be special. I think that film will hold up well over time. Maybe Wall E will too.

Roger Ebert’s best film of the decade was Synecdoche, New York. He wrote a pretty great and unconventional review of it back in 2008 that is worth reading.

I think the best film of a decade should push the medium forward. A film like Pulp Fiction. Where suddenly the three act structure was out the window. Things happened you weren’t expecting. Music was used brilliantly. You laughed. You were shocked. You heard dialogue that sounded fresh. People watched that movie and wanted to become filmmakers. 

(The only disadvantage to something original coming out – is all the crap that comes out soon after trying to imitate it – I can name several wannabe Tarantino pictures. Or in the case of 90s music – you might have liked Pearl Jam when they came out, but what a shame it lead to shit like Nickelback and Creed! Look forward to lots of crappy Avatar like CGI 3D movies coming out soon since it’s making TONS of cash). 

I think Ebert made a good choice naming Synecdoche the best of the decade. It wasn’t may favorite thing ever. But it was mind blowing. I watched some of the behind the scenes footage on the DVD, and someone was talking about how difficult it was to shoot – because some scenes are in a warehouse, and some scenes are in the warehouse within the warehouse. Try organizing that shoot.

Ebert also included Juno on his list, a movie I found to be extremely over-rated.

To be fair he noted that he mainly picked the films that impacted him emotionally. People bring their own stories, emotions, feelings etc, to the cinema. They can watch the same movie and experience it differently.

Back to lists.

The only top ten list that would probably satisfy me is one I made myself – but I just haven’t seen enough of the great movies that have come out in the last ten years.

If you asked me what are the things I have seen that have truly blown me away in the last decade I would probably mention Requiem for a Dream, Amores Perros, Memento, Fahrenheit 9/11, Amelie, 25th Hour…

But it’s all subjective. I’m 28 years old. Requiem for a Dream came out 9 years ago. When you are younger you can mistake shock value for brilliance. I loved Requiem for its use of music, for how visceral it was…it pulled you through hell with the characters. But now I can see that the ending (in which Jennifer Connelly is getting penetrated with a dildo) goes too far. It’s almost trying too hard. 

I can name lots of movies I walked out of feeling wowed. The Others. Notes on a Scandal. Ghost World. Sexy Beast. The Princess and the Warrior.

But I’m not sure if any of them belong on a list. Or if it’s worth, say trying to figure out if No Country for Old Men is better than Brokeback Mountain.

Some stuff moves us. Some stuff moves lots of us. Some stuff will stay with us forever.

Like the last 5 minutes of the season finale to Six Feet Under. If you saw it, you know what I’m talking about.
It might have been the best filmmaking I saw the whole decade.

Maybe you saw it too. And weren’t impressed.

It’s all subjective.