By Ross Bonaime, Staff Writer
This past decade was a huge one for film. It’s hard to believe, but before the last decade, superhero movies were considered risky ventures, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings were just books and the most successful films in 3D were Jaws 3-D and Friday the 13th Part III.
So with that, let’s look back at the 2000s for the top five films of the last decade.
This is my last column for Broadside, so I would just like to say thanks to anyone who took a minute to read my articles each week.
5. The Royal Tenenbaums
The decade was ripe with quirky comedies like Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, but Wes Anderson’s take on family dynamics was borderline perfection.
An incredible cast featuring Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Luke and Owen Wilson in their greatest roles has a style all its own and its views on love, relationships and growing up in mayhem make it a fantastic comedy.
4. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
The 2000s were also about breaking down the norms, something Quentin Tarantino does better than the rest.
Tarantino split up his four-hour film into two perfectly matched parts — one high in action, the other ripe with his trademark dialogue.
Tarantino brought action back to the big screen that was exciting, yet still had substance.
3. Memento
Before Christopher Nolan directed one of the most successful films of the decade, The Dark Knight, he made Memento, only his second film.
Memento is a modern day film noir told in revolutionary ways. The style that Nolan cultivated in the film highly influenced his later movies, such as his take on the Batman franchise and The Prestige.
With his masterful work in the last decade, Nolan instantly became one of the great new directors.
2. WALL-E
Animation was one of the most successful styles of film in the 2000s. While DreamWorks had some success with Shrek, Pixar owned animation.
Their style of taking simple stories told from new viewpoints with humor and large emotional impact culminated with one of their finest films, WALL-E. The story of the trash-compacting robot was incredibly daring.
The movie broke the rules by telling the first 20 minutes of the story with no dialogue. Featuring a strong anti-consumerism message and important lessons about how we treat the earth, WALL-E was groundbreaking and will stand in history as one of the greatest animated films of all time.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is quite possibly the greatest example of film perfection in the 2000s.
The film featured the decade’s most accomplished screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, one of its most adventurous directors, Michel Gondry and masterful performances by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
This story of love lost but hopefully not lost forever was touching and spellbinding in a way that was a revolutionary look at the contemporary love story.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind could easily be the most important film in terms of message, story, substance and style in the entire 2000s.
Comments