As we step into the new decade I thought it would be nice to look at the past ten years and take a little time to remember the best of the best. Here’s what I think are the 50 best movies of the 00′s.
Plot: Two boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Essi’s note: The critically acclaimed City of God is a Brazilian crime drama film. It tells a true story of crime and redemption in the streets of the world’s most notorious slum, Rio de Janeiro’s “City of God”. Most of the cast were real street kids and had not acted before. A very powerful film.
Plot: Cornered by the DEA, convicted New York drug dealer Montgomery Brogan (Norton) reevaluates his life in the 24 remaining hours before facing a seven-year jail term.
Director: Spike Lee
Essi’s note: After 9/11 film makers were a bit timid to make movies about the subject or even show the two towers in their work, but not director Spike Lee. 25th Hour is based on David Benioff’s novel by the same name and it tells the story of a convicted criminal’s last day of freedom. Well written, intelligent film with amazing performances from Edward Norton and Barry Pepper.
Plot: After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days.
Director: Chan-wook Park
Essi’s note: Oldboy is the second installment of Chan-wook Park’s The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. Oldboy is clearly the high point of the series with it’s a beautiful, but brutal revenge story. It’s a movie that will stuck with you, even if you wouldn’t want to.
Plot: In the middle of her family’s move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and monsters; where humans are changed into animals; and a bathhouse for these creatures.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Essi’s note: Hayao Miyazaki is truly one of a kind when it comes to animation. His ability to combine a good fantastical adventure story to the most beautiful animation and characters is just unbelievable. The thing about Miyazaki is that the amount of heart and soul that seems to go into the productions, make them feel like labors of love each time. Doesn’t matter if you are young or old, Miyazaki enchants every seat in the house.
Plot: A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
Director: James Cameron
Essi’s note: For me Avatar was the movie experience of 2009. Maybe not the best movie script-wise, but an overwhelmingly beautiful and ground breaking 3D movie. It felt like watching Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones for the first time as a kid. The undeniably beautiful world, enhanced with the 3D technology Cameron had perfected for years, made the movie one of the most mind blowing and ground breaking of the decade.
Plot: The last six weeks of the life of the Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands.
Director: Steve McQueen
Essi’s note: Hunger is the directorial debut of Steve McQueen. It is the perfect debut film, meaning that it shows the director has vision and most importantly something meaningful to say. Based on the true story of the 1981 Irish hunger strike when ten men died during the seven-month strike. Michael Fassbender gives the performance of his life as the Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands.
Plot: A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Essi’s note: Memento is the breakthrough directorial debut of Christopher Nolan. It uses a unique two narrative story telling to unfold the bigger picture – one in color, and the other in black and white. Memento is a complex, original and very clever movie with an extraordinary way of story telling. When the movie came out it felt new and fresh, and boosted Nolan into one of the most interesting film makers in the world.
Plot: A Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” He is arrested under suspicion of cheating, and while being interrogated, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.
Director: Danny Boyle
Essi’s opinion: Slumdog Millionaire took the house down at the 2008 Academy Awards by walking away with 8 Oscars, including Best Picture. The movie’s story is structured trough flashbacks from the main character, Jamal’s, past as they slowly unfold the reasons why Jamal is able to answer all the the questions correctly. In the core of the movie there is a love story, but it also takes a look at the hard conditions of Indian street kids. A fantastical, but brutal story with one of the best soundtracks of the decade.
Plot: A man and a woman move in to neighboring Hong Kong apartments and form a bond when they both suspect their spouses of extra-marital activities.
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Essi’s note: Wong Kar-Wai is one of my favorite film makers and In the Mood for Love is one of his best work. The cinematography with the film noir approach and the beautiful music gives this unconventional love story a rich and unique feel.
Plot: In his first mission, James Bond must stop Le Chiffre, a banker to the world’s terrorist organizations, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.
Director: Martin Campbell
Essi’s note: Casino Royale is one of the best action movies of the past ten years and the perfect re-boot to the 007 saga. Not an easy thing to do, but they did it. Also casting Daniel Craig as James Bond was a stroke of genius. Unfortunately the quality couldn’t be upheld in the sequel.
Plot: In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Essi’s note: Y tu mamá también is a hot and sexy road trip and coming of age story. The movie that made me really take notice of Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal. Their chemistry is pure magic on the silver screen.
Plot: The film follows a man who arrives in Helsinki and gets beaten up so severely he develops amnesia. Unable to remember his name or anything from his past life, he cannot get a job or an apartment, so he starts living on the outskirts of the city and slowly starts putting his life back on track.
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Essi’s note: The Man Without a Past is Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s masterpiece. It is the second part of Kaurismäki’s “Finland” trilogy. The movie was nominated for an Academy award for Best Foreign Language Film and won three awards in Cannes film festival, including Best Actress. I have often said that Kaurismäki is to Finland what Almodóvar is to Spain. They both paint a very stylized image of their home country that is both in line with the real culture and full of their trademark humor.
Plot: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Essi’s note: Inglourious Basterds is daring, original and very entertaining film, especially for movie nerds like myself. In every frame you can see and feel Tarantino’s true love for movies. It is the perfect combination of a spaghetti western, war movie and revenge story with the perfect (and long anticipated) alternative ending to history.
Plot: In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child’s birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Essi’s note: A grim perception of a dark future where women have lost the ability to give birth to children. Great cast combined with the perfect cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, that is not only the best of the year, but also the decade. Definitely one of the best shot movies I have ever seen.
Plot: A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Essi’s note: Synecdoche, New York is a surreal trip trough a mans life. I love how it plays around with time, dream and reality. Charlie Kaufman is one of the best writers of all time, and I guess it was just a matter of time when he started directing himself. I thought he did a brilliant job with this movie and it stayed in my mind as one of the most original films of the decade.
Plot: Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child.
Director: Jason Reitman
Essi’s note: Juno was a breath of fresh air when it was first released in 2008. I had already liked director Jason Reitman’s previous film Thank You for Smoking, but after Reitman collaborated with Diablo Cody, they just hit the nail on the head and everything came perfectly together. As a result Cody took home an Oscar for best script. A warmhearted, colorful drama comedy filled with snazzy dialogue. Also Ellen Page rocks in this movie.
Plot: At a turning point in his life, a former tennis pro falls for a femme-fatal type who happens to be dating his friend and soon-to-be brother-in-law.
Director: Woody Allen
Essi’s note: Match Point is Woody Allens best work in years! This movie came about very unexpectedly from Allen who has mostly done romantic comedies all through his career. Also for some years now, he hadn’t been on his best game anyway. Match Point is the perfect thriller, it is incredibly stylish, well written and the suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat all through the movie.
Plot: A lovelorn screenwriter turns to his less talented twin brother for help when his efforts to adapt a non-fiction book go nowhere.
Director: Spike Jonze
Essi’s note: Another perfect script from writer Charlie Kaufman and this one is as personal as it can be. The main character is a screenwriter and Kaufman has written himself as the main character. There is a feel that fiction and reality are mixing all the time. Nicolas Cage has a double role in the movie both as Charlie Kaufman and his brother Donald Kaufman. Cage gives one of the greatest and memorable roles of his career.
Plot: In a small village in the Shire a young Hobbit named Frodo has been entrusted with an ancient Ring. Now he must embark on an Epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it.
Director: Peter Jackson
Essi’s note: Peter Jackson managed to do the impossible task in adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s world famous novel The Lord of the Rings to the silver screen. Although I liked this first part of the trilogy best, I have always considered all three movies as one long story so the other two parts are included here as well.
Plot: A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado town. In exchange, she agrees to work for them. As a search visits town, she finds out that their support has a price.
Director: Lars von Trier
Essi’s note: I fell in love with the originality of the movie, that can be seen in the stripped down theatre like set where the movie is shot. But even in a setting like that director Lars von Trier was able to make the audience forget that you were looking at an obviously fake set where the walls were just painted lines on the floor and invisible doors were opened only with the help of sound effects. Dogville’s story is very pressing and sad, just like in most of von Trier films.
Plot: Eric a football fanatic postman whose life is descending in to crisis receives some life coaching from the famously philosophical Eric Cantona.
Director: Ken Loach
Essi’s note: Looking for Eric is an uplifting feel-good movie, mixed with serious drama. The film is moving, funny and serious all at the same time. I loved the script, cast and especially Eric Cantona who is so awesome in this movie I can’t even tell you. Also great performances from the whole cast. An absolutely perfect film and the must see movie of the year 2009!
Plot: A young woman’s quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.
Director: Pascal Laugier
Essi’s note: I´m still in a state of shock of how great this film was. Definitely one of the best movies of 2008 and a true gem of the horror genre. I loved the script, it was cast perfectly and with this movie director Pascal Laugier lifted himself among the most interesting film makers of today. A highly brutal and graphic movie with a fantastic script.
Plot: A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.
Director: Michael Haneke
Essi’s note: This is my favorite Michael Haneke movie of all time. It is not easy to watch, but it’s all worth it at the end. A powerful and very disturbing movie.
Plot: A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23.
Director: Anton Corbijn
Essi’s note: An amazing directorial debut from Anton Corbijn, who is mostly known for his photography work and his music videos. It was the perfect match of mixing his passion for music and beautiful pictures together. The movies is shot beautifully in black and white, but the real power lays in the performance of Sam Riley whose portray of Ian Curtis is one of the best and most memorable interpretation of a real person.
Plot: A horrific car accident connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life’s harsh realities, all in the name of love.
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Essi’s note: Director Alejandro González Iñarritu’s internationally acclaimed debut film recounts three tales that unfold and intertwine on the brutal streets of Mexico City.
Plot: Rob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.
Director: Stephen Frears
Essi’s note: High Fidelity is one of my favorite romantic comedies. The movie is clever, funny and filled with wonderful music. Based on a book by Nick Hornby.
Plot: A film poem inspired by the Peruvian poet César Vallejo. A story about our need for love, our confusion, greatness and smallness and, most of all, our vulnerability. It is a story with many characters, among them a father and his mistress, his youngest son and his girlfriend.
Director: Roy Andersson
Essi’s note: Roy Andersson is sort of the Terrence Malick of Scandianvia. He has done a long career, but not that many movies. He is also just as respected for his incredible visual style. Sånger från andra våningen is a very modern film that is constructed on one shot scenes, where the camera doesn’t move at all and everything happens in that one frame. This is Andersson’s trademark in his new work.
Plot: A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe.
Director: Richard Linklater
Essi’s note: There are two things that makes this movie extraordinary. First being the unique animation technique used in the movie and second is the exceptionally smart script. This movie is a dream.
Plot: Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by an anarchist mastermind known only as the Joker, as it drives each of them to their limits.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Essi’s note: In The Dark Knight Nolan finally found the essence of Batman, which is a much darker take on the character. Heath Ledger gives the performance of his too short life for which he received an Oscar posthumously. A masterpiece among the superhero movie genre.
Plot: A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
Director: Mary Harron
Essi’s note: American Psycho is a film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel of the same name. The film stars Christian Bale who does the role of his career as the homicidal Patrick Bateman. I think it is one of the best black comedies ever made. Disturbingly funny.
Plot: Two men from opposite sides of the law are undercover within the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when discoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy’s identities.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Essi’s note: The Departed is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. It is once again proof that Scorsese is the uncrowned king of crime cinema. He finally got his belated directorial Oscar for the movie.
Plot: A San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac killer.
Director: David Fincher
Essi’s note: Zodiac was definitely one of my favorite movies of 2007. Every little detail was perfected and thought trough. In my opinion David Fincher directed his best work apart from Fight Club. I loved the length of the film, because the theme of the movie is obsession and you could really feel the the effect of something just going on forever. This is my kind of movie.
Plot: An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when one of their member announces he has a terminal illness.
Director: Wes Anderson
Essi’s note: The Royal Tenenbaums is director Wes Anderson’s best work to date. His unique style is best seen in this corky and funny movie. Amazing ensemble cast makes the visions come to life.
Plot: A movie star with a sense of emptiness, and a neglected newlywed meet up as strangers in Tokyo, Japan and form an unlikely bond.
Director: Sofia Coppola
Essi’s note: Like daughter like father. With Lost in Translation Sofia Coppola proved herself as a talented and well deserved heir to the Coppola crown. A story of unlikely friends as they learn a thing or two about life and each other by spending time together in Tokyo.
Plot: A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.
Director: Richard Kelly
Essi’s note: Donnie Darko is the amazing directorial debut from Richard Kelly that instantly became a cult classic. It was also the breakthrough performance for Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie is so good in fact that Kelly has had problems upholding the quality of his first masterpiece in his later work.
Plot: Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman’s daughter, who is at a crossroads in her life.
Director: Ang Lee
Essi’s note: Anyone who has seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon can agree that the movie is one of the most visual and beautiful movies of the decade. The movie won 4 Oscars in 2000, including Best Foreign Language Film.
Plot: Amelie, an innocent and naive girl in Paris, with her own sense of justice, decides to help those around her and along the way, discovers love.
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Essi’s note: Amélie is the breakthrough performance for Audrey Tautou who enchanted audiences all over the world as the title character. Amélie is one of the most memorable character of the decade. I also think it is a crime that the movie didn’t win Best Foreign Language Film, although it was nominated for the award.
Plot: Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire.
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Essi’s note: Let the Right One In is the best Swedish film I have ever seen and maybe even the best movie of 2008. It is unique, beautiful and the mood of the film is absolutely wonderful. A masterpiece among the vampire genre.
Plot: Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
Director: Gus Van Sant
Essi’s note: Elephant is very much in line with director Gus Van Sant’s own unique style. His way of telling stories is very poetic and for him to take on a subject of school shootings was the right thing to do. The movie received the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot: A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets in this stylish musical, with music drawn from familiar 20th century sources.
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Essi’s note: Moulin Rouge! is director Baz Luhrmann’s masterpiece. His overly romanticized and visual style worked beautifully in the movie. We also got to see a new side of Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman who played the star-crossed lovers in the film.
Plot: Based on the ‘E. Annie Proulx’ story about a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys and their lives over the years.
Director: Ang Lee
Essi’s note: Brokeback Mountain blew me away with it’s beautiful and touching story of forbidden love and prejudice. A subject I feel very strong about. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were the perfect casting and they worked together sublimely. I have seen the movie a dozen time and it continues to make me cry each time.
Plot: A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Essi’s note: It almost didn´t feel like watching a movie, it felt more like watching the real life of Randy “The Ram” Robinson. The Wrestler is raw and stripped down to the minumum starting from the cinematograpy and editing, which have usually been Aronofsky´s calling card in the past. That was definitely the right choice from the director. The story itself is (almost) solely carried by the leading man, Mickey Rourke, who is absultely brilliant in this film!
Plot: A couple undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with.
Director: Michel Gondry
Essi’s note: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a romantic drama starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet and it has one of my favorite scripts of all time. Written together with Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth for which they won and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Plot: In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Essi’s note: Pan’s Labyrinth is the most visual and creative work of Guillermo del Toro. It is a horror fantasy with a very sad story.
Plot: Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Essi’s note: Although the Coen brothers have quite an impressive track record of great movies, No Country for Old Men is their most mature and best work to date. The Coen Brothers have found a perfect match with Cormac McCarthy’s novel by the same name. Their adaptation of the praised novel is a masterpiece! Also the performance given by Javier Bardem as the murdering maniac Anton Chigurh will haunt me for the rest of my days.
Plot: Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order.
Director: Gaspar Noé
Essi’s note: Irréversible is a movie that after watching it for the first ten minutes, I hit the pause button and almost gave up. I felt sick and my head was banging. This is because the movie has the most pressing and disturbing opening scene in the history of cinema. But luckily I continued watching, because all of that is rewarded in the end. Irréversible is one of the most original films I have ever seen and also one of my favorites of all time.
Plot: The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control.
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Essi’s note: In my eyes director Darren Aronofsky can’t do no wrong. I had already fell in love with his unique style with his debut film Pi, but after I saw Requiem for a Dream it became clear to me that Aronofsky is one of the most brilliant film makers in the world. Amazing performances from the whole cast, groundbreaking editing and a music score to die for.
Plot: An east European girl goes to America with her young son, expecting it to be like a Hollywood film.
Director: Lars von Trier
Essi’s note: Nothing bad ever happens in musicals. Well not according to director Lars von Trier. Dancer in the Dark ripped my heart out with it’s sad story and rawness of the dogma-style shot cinematography. Amazing role from Björk.
Plot: After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesic, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch
Essi’s note: I remember seeing Mulholland Dr. for the first time back in 2001 and the feeling I had when I was walking out of the theater. The experience was life changing and I almost couldn’t believe how good it was. It felt like all the experience of Lynch’s career came together in this one perfect mixture. In my opinion it is the perfect movie and Lynch’s best work.
Plot: A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Essi’s note: When I started to think about this list, it was clear to me from the start what movie was going to be number one. For me There Will Be Blood is not only the best movie of the decade, it is also one of the greatest movies ever made. I can’t even write about it without getting the shivers. Ominous, beautiful and dark drama with an amazing performance from my favorite actor Daniel Day-Lewis.
Special mention in alphabetical order:
Almost Famous (2000)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
In Bruges (2008)
Grizzly Man (2005)
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
Mary and Max (2009)
Minority Report (2002)
Moon (2009)
Sin City (2005)
The Squid and The Whale (2005)
Talk To Her (2002)
Up (2009)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
WALL·E (2008)
What do you think? What are your favorites from the past decade?
