Best of the Decade: Romantic Comedies

Imagine my surprise when I had no trouble whatsoever compiling a top 10 list of romantic comedies from this decade. Because honestly, I don't watch that many, and feel like I hate the ones that I do happen upon. But here they are, 10 films that all pretty fairly fall into the category, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed - four of them in theaters. If there's a trend to be found, it's that most of these came from well established directors, often known for their work in other genres. And since I claim no expertise in the genre, I'll spare you any further introduction. Here's 10 romantic comedies at least one guy found totally bearable.

10. Lars and the Real Girl (dir. Craig Gillespie)
Lars and the Real Girl as a concept has no business working as a feature length film. And yet it does, which is really a credit to Ryan Gosling who mines genuine feeling from a character that could have been a running joke in your standard indie film these days. A great film it may not be, but I was pleasantly surprised. Also, Emily Mortimer needs more work.

9. Love Actually (dir. Richard Curtis)
The ensemble is splendid - a perfect mix of romantic comedy mainstays (that would be you, Hugh Grant) and welcome faces from Bill Nighy to Billy Bob Thornton (who is always best in small doses) that keep things a little more amusing than your average rom com. It's also perhaps the best Christmas movie of the decade, which is a small honor, but I'd rather pop this in around the holidays than Fred Clause.

8. Paris, Je T'aime (dir. the cool kids at the art house table)
It may have placed higher had every segment sparked like those from the Coen brothers (Steve Buscemi looking for love at the metro station), Alexander Payne (Margo Martindale's earnest account of the city she's fallen for), or Alfonso Cauron (father and daughter play out family drama in a single shot). True, there's a few bad apples. But they don't spoil the bunch, not by a long shot. The collected shorts make for an enchanting portrait of love in the city known for it.

7. Enchanted (dir. Kevin Lima)
I love Amy Adams. That is all.

6. High Fidelity (dir. Stephen Frears)
So this is basically what I do all day anyway, just with movies instead of music. I sit around making pointless lists and finding ways to assert my cultural superiority. Sadly, I'm not John Cusack (or maybe not sadly, he's not had a good run lately) and this is unlikely to win me the kind of romantic escapades he spends most of the movie analyzing. Still, the film's a lotta fun, the writing is sharp, and the soundtrack of course is spectacular.

5. Shopgirl (dir. Anand Tucker)
Steve Martin adapts his own novella into this classy and surprisingly sweet film that soars thanks to one of the more unlikely love triangles seen lately - unlikely mostly because Jason Schwartzman is an incredibly awkward man, but we love him for that. Claire Danes especially is excellent, and I wish she'd get more interesting roles like this.

4. Vicky Christina Barcelona (dir. Woody Allen)
In many ways, I had anticipated this film long before it came out. I recall actually making a declaration somewhere around 2006 about how if ever Scarlet Johansson and Penelope Cruz had a sex scene together in a film, I'd be first in line to see it. Well, much to my surprise, that day actually came - though it's worth noting that my appreciation for Scarlet has been in steady decline for some time, while Penelope Cruz has ended up being perhaps my favorite actress of the decade. And she's definitely the best part about Vicky Christina Barcelona, but the whole film is pretty marvelous anyway. Yes, I include in the the pitch perfect narration that you probably hate, and Rebecca Hall never got nearly enough credit for her part in it all so let me single out her as well. It's my favorite Woody Allen film since Bullets of Broadway and I'd be tempted to boost it even higher on this list, expect I think I'd catch too much flak for boxing out any of my top 3. Funny, sexy and delightful, exactly like any rom com ought to be.

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry)
Jim Carrey reminds us why we don't take old dogs out and shoot them. And Kate Winslet is weird and irresistible, although that's because she is in a Charlie Kaufman movie, where weird is pretty much par for the course. But it's funny and bittersweat and as I realize right now, surprisingly hard to write about. Which is meant as a compliment.

2. Punch Drunk Love (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Eternal Sunshine reminded us that Jim Carrey was a good actor, which we already knew thanks to The Truman Show, but Adam Sandler's performance in Punch Drunk Love comes entirely out of left field. I mean, I've spent years loving to hate the guy and then he goes and then with a little help from PTA gives one of the most genuinely moving performances of the decade, of a totally hapless man struggling with love, family and the phone sex industry. And he's perfectly paired with Emily Watson - which again I'd never thought I'd say - but through all his troubles, they're a couple you're genuinely rooting for to find love.

1. Amelie (dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Regardless of how much foreign cinema I drown myself in year upon year, I will always have a soft spot for Amelie, the first French film I ever saw, and still one of the best romantic comedies I've seen to date. Jeunet's style is enchanting - surprising since it's not all that different from his previous films, Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children - but of course we have Audrey Tautou to carry us through and she couldn't have done a finer job. It's visually arresting without sacrificing the endearing story of a girl who can make love happen for everyone in her life except for herself.

Overall, I like this bunch. What others have I been missing out on?

Best of the Decade - Horror

The horror genre has had a particularly anemic decade. Vampires - which starter the decade on a strong note during the heyday of Buffy - now occupy the shameful realm of teen heartthrobs. The trend of remaking horror classics that Gus Van Sant pioneered in 1999 with Psycho bravely marches forward, having claimed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Omen, The Wicker Man, The Hills Have Eyes, House of Wax and many many more as victims (on the upcoming slate is Suspiria, and for that I'll have to cut a bitch.) Worse still, Hollywood has found a way - dozens really - to make zombies lame. Oh, and torture porn has achieved mainstream respectability, which I'm sure art house theaters would have loved to see happen 35 years ago when it was actually kind of interesting.

And that's why it was almost impossible for me to find 10 films from these last 10 years worth singling out for my column de jour. In fact, the bottom 5 on my list I don't find scary in the slightest, which I would normally consider criteria for great horror films to be. Hell, #10 is practically cheating, but there really was nothing else I would have felt OK with filling its spot with. Not surprisingly, the majority of this list is foreign. Only 3 of the 10 are American, and one of those comes from an Austrian director remaking his own film in specifically to lash out at American audiences. I could bitch and moan some more about how this batch just doesn't stack up to what my 10 from the 60s or 70s would look like, but in all actuality, there's some damn fine films here. Something for everyone, at that. Even you torture porn fanatics.

10. Shaun of the Dead (dir. Edgar Wright)
Cheating, I know. It's got as much place on a best horror film list as Young Frankenstein, but the thought that my 10th spot might have to go to The Ring was scarier than these ten movies combined, and frankly I couldn't handle that. So instead, as a compromise, I'll give credit to one of my favorite comedies of the decade and get my obligatory zombie movie out of the way straight off the bat. Hot Fuzz is still better, maybe even scarier, but at least here we get to see Harry Potter's guts get tossed around like a kid discovering spaghetti for the first time.

9. The Orphanage (dir. Juan Antonio Bayona)
Ok, again not so scary, save for a handful of memorably creepy images like Little Baghead above. But holding the film together is a gripping ghost story that doesn't take the easy way out. And ghost stories are never scary anyway, so I had my expectations in check right from the start. Totally worth checking out, regardless if you're a horror fan or not.

8. Trouble Every Day (dir. Claire Denis)
Two of the scariest things I can think of are cannibalism and Vincent Gallo. And here the two are perfectly paired, except of course that means we have to watch Gallo slunk around Paris at length and he's just uneasy on the eyes. But by chance he crosses paths with a sexy lady cannibal and it's like a match made in a Peter Greenaway film. That's right, cannibal erotica. The pacing is comparable to watching blood red paint dry, which means you'll probably fall asleep before anyone starts gnawing on each other, but it's certainly stuck with me and I'm happy to give it a spot on this list.

7. Shadow of the Vampire (dir. E. Elias Merhige)
A revisionist take on F. W. Murnau's production of the classic to end all horror classics, Nosferatu. The supposition is a simple one - what if Max Shreck, legendary portrayed of Murnau's Count Orlock, was really himself a vampire? As crew corpses start turning up, suspiciously sucked dry, the production woes pile higher and deeper. It's a blast to watch, especially for those familiar with the original Nosferatu or Werner Herzog's equally creepy 1979 remake.

6. The Host (dir. Bong Joon-ho)
I probably could have kicked this a few notches higher. I think it may be a better film than the next three to follow, but I'm critiquing fright value here to some degree and this doesn't get under my skin like quite like any of the top 5 do. Instead, it's a delicate balance of horror, comedy, family drama and environmental commentary that works against all odds.

5. Funny Games (dir. Michael Haneke)
There's no natural place on any list for Funny Games, in either incarnation, to show up without seeming a little out of place. Maybe though, a list of horror films is its most natural habitat. Because it's nothing if not deeply terrifying, largely because it doesn't play by the rules. Like in the way Brecht didn't. It's more an experiment on the moral threshold of audiences than a film as we perceive it, and having already seen the German original (Haneke's earlier film, which he remade here shot for shot) I was all to eager to catch this in theaters, just to see how an actual audience would react. Stunned silence might be the term for it.

4. Audition (dir. Takashi Miike)
Along with the entry to follow, Audition is the worst date movie humanly imaginable. It's not boring, but the whole affair is most definitely a slow burn. It all builds to an excruciating fireworks show of bodily mutilation, and is pretty much guaranteed to stifle your Asian fantasies for at least a few months.

3. Antichrist (dir. Lars von Trier)
What's scarier than possessed woodland creatures? Satan. What's scarier than Satan? Willem Dafoe. Scarier than Willem Dafoe? Willem Dafoe's bloody penis. Scarier than the bloody penis? Women. Yeah, that's pretty much how this one goes. It's oddly less effective than von Trier's best films this decade, but it does the job. Scary as hell.

2. Bug (dir. William Friedkin)
Miss-marketing caused a host of problems for this film in the first place, but even if the general public wasn't quite sold on the horror inherent in Bug, there's no film from the past 10 years that makes my skin crawl quite like this. It's a portrait of mental deterioration of the caliber of Repulsion, and it may even be Friedkin's best film to date. The intensity of the final act is a thing of wonder.

1. The Descent (dir. Neil Marshall)
Six women descend into a cave, where they battle claustrophobia, an army of Gollums (is that the plural of Gollum? Who knows?) and their own primal instincts. You can actually feel the rock walls closing in around you, the air growing stale, and the raising fear and tension among the girls. It's the single most terrifying film to come out of the last 10 years, and I realize that's not saying much, but it's at least worthy of being mentioned in the same gasp as the likes of The Thing, Suspiria and The Shining. Sadly, I see that a sequel is in the works. Sigh.

Best of the Decade - Documentaries

And the lisztomania begins. It's part of my new year's resolution to update this lovely little corner of the interweb a little more frequently, and it also serves to kill some time before my top 50 films of the Naughts list is ready to go public. My goal is to post my ranked favorites among the typical range of performances, genres and technical categories, and while I'm at it for screenplays and directors, before capping it all off with the big movie list. There will be commentary where I'm moved to do so, but some of these categories inspire far less words.

I'll launch things with my genre awards, and in this first decade of the 2000s, not all genres are created equal. Horror films have never been in such a sorry state. Musicals are back, except really, they're not. Animation is changing, for better and for worse. Fantasy has gained respectability, and with it, has produced as many god-awful failures as it has near-masterpieces - quite a number more, actually. And the only genre I intend to cover that I think has had a fantastic past 10 years is documentary. For that reason, let's go ahead and start with that one. Because today my glass is half full.

10. Encounters at the End of the World (dir. Werner Herzog)
There's no one working in Documentary - nor in the filmmaking business in general - who can see the world quite like Werner Herzog. That's of course why he's all over today list. And aside from Encounters marking a personal milestone for him, he's the only filmmaker to have made a film on every continent, it's also a gorgeous and haunting exploration of the furthest corner of the world. Plus, it's a giant bitchslap to March of the Penguins and how could you not love that?

9. Bowling for Columbine (dir. Michael Moore)
Michael Moore strikes the perfect tonal balance that he managed in Roger and Me, and it's a shame his comic stunts have driven his more recent films further away from the effectiveness that Bowling For Columbine had.

8. The Beaches of Agnes (dir. Agnes Varda)
For the eyes of those familiar with the French New Wave only, but it's a lovely watch if you've had the pleasure. Varda recreates dream images on a picaresque beach and explores her history, so inextricably tied to that most famous of film movements. Her introspection comes off far better in this context than in her earlier The Gleaners and I.

7. Man on Wire (dir. James Marsh)
How marvelous that this single act of a death-defying tight rope walk across the Twin Towers can hold such taught anticipation through a feature length film. Marsh builds suspense through the almost-as-impressive story of how such a feat was planned, and the extended segment of the crossing dares you to blink. Michael Nyman's collection of Peter Greenaway scores are recycled to arresting results.

6. The Fog of War (dir. Errol Morris)
Robert S. McNamera ruminates on camera for an hour and a half and we hang on every word. His wisdom is often as frightening as it is enlightening, and Errol Morris puts us face to face with this giant of the cold war in one of the most intimate documentaries ever made. The Philip Glass score sets a bleak mood.

5. Capturing the Friedmans (dir. Andrew Jarecki)
The film that first introduced me to the power that a well-made documentary can really have. It penetrates a family torn apart by multiple incidents of child molestation and masterfully guides the viewer to inevitable conclusions. Troubling, but powerful.

4. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (dir. Seth Gordon)
Continuing the idea of what unexpected things documentary can accomplish, how about The King of Kong? A humble suburban dad vying for the title of highest score in the arcade classic Donkey Kong is thrown into a classic battle of good vs. evil as he faces of with hot sauce mogul Billy Mitchell, the reigning champion who comes complete with nerd minions. The story may be shamelessly manipulated, but you'd be daft not to know that from the get-go. There's still a place for great story-telling in the world of documentaries. A fictional adaptation could never be quite as fun as this.

3. Grizzly Man (dir. Werner Herzog)
It's no surprise that Timothy Treadwell, ranking among the most batshit crazy human beings to ever declare war on the laws of nature, drew Werner Herzog to his story. He falls right in line with every classic Herzog protagonist from Aguirre to Fitzcarraldo. His end is tragic, if inevitable, but Herzog for once comes across as the voice of reason, indicting Treadwell's delusional lifestyle and calling for us to do the same.

2. My Winnipeg (dir. Guy Maddin)
Not a documentary, you say? I respectfully disagree. Sure, Guy Maddin's darkly humorous essay on his hometown is built around fabrication, but he's just telling tall tales, and they all have roots in the colorful stereotypes that one can't help but laugh about from their childhood surroundings. We see Winnipeg as Maddin recreates it for us, and if it's not a documentary on the city itself, then it still accounts for us the impression it left upon him. Murky territory I suppose, but many of my favorite docs push the definition of the genre (F For Fake, Sans Soliel, Koyaanisqatsi) and this falls right in their company.

1. The White Diamond (dir. Werner Herzog)
Yes, Werner Herzog rightly deserves his three spots on this list, and the best of his documentaries practically stands as one of the best of his films period. More uplifting than Grizzly Man, The White Diamond still chronicles one man's obsessions while adding in a longstanding quite for atonement. A scientist helms an expedition of the South American tree canopy with his shining white airship, designed with the exploration of a secluded waterfall in mind. Few images from the past decade leave the impression of the airship drifting through the misty air, or of one member of the crew gracefully moonwalking on a ledge above the falls. It's as powerful as any film I've seen, fictional or documentary, and even coming out of a strong decade, this was handily my top choice.

Best of the Decade - Albums

Coming up with favorite albums of the decade turned out to be far easier than songs. Choosing between one song and another often seemed arbitrary, but albums aren't as fleeting, and the following all left quite an impression on me. I was going to go with 25, but apparently I can only upload 20 pictures per post, so 20 entries it will be.

Without further ado, my 20 favorite albums of the last ten years.

20. Saturdays = Youth
M83













19. Santogold
Santogold












18. Electric Version
The New Pornographers













17. The Fame Monster
Lady Gaga











16. Ágaetis Byrjun
Sigor Rós













15. The Execution of All Things
Rilo Kiley












14. Speakerboxx/The Love Below
Outkast













13. Let's Get Out of This Country
Camera Obscura












12. Beirut
The Flying Club Cup













11. Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend












10. Home
Dixie Chicks













9. The Reminder
Feist












8. Kala
M.I.A.













7. Oracular Spectacular
MGMT












6. Extraordinary Machine
Fiona Apple













5. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Neko Case












4. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips













3. Challengers
The New Pornographers












2. Funeral
Arcade Fire












1. Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
PJ Harvey

Best of the Decade - Songs

Poor planning on my part landed myself right in the middle of a top 100 films project in the midst of any listophiliac's virgin spring - the closing of a decade. That's a once in a blue moon excuse to pound out lists on the best (and the worst, why discriminate?) of everything the last 10 years have served up. So while I'll deliver false promises to you about my diligent work on my Top 100 films, the truth is that I've not been rewatching much of anything lately. Instead, I've been catching up on my cultural blindspots of the aughts (That is what they are, these past 10 years. Or maybe not, but I've gotta stick to something).

And contrary to past history, this blog is about more than just movies. Or at least I founded it on those pretenses. Ostensibly, I listen to a whole lot of music, and television and I are on better terms than we used to be (only on dvd though). Ergo, I have an excuse to post my favorites of the aughts, across all mediums - except books 'cause I read old shit - and you can skim through these boring paragraphs and get right to the rankings, because honestly that's all any of us care about anyway.

Note, however, that only my opinions on movies are infallible. And we'll be starting with music, so feel free to register your disapproval on this one. Positive feedback is acceptable as well, but far more boring to read.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade

50. Island in the Sun - Weezer
49. All The Single Ladies - Beyonce
48. Rockin' the Suburbs - Ben Folds
47. The Fear - Lily Allen
46. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here - She & Him
45. Time to Pretend - MGMT
44. Portions For Foxes - Rilo Kiley
43. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
42. Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz
41. All For Swingin' You Around - The New Pornographers

40. Through the Wire - Kanye West
39. Strange Overtones - David Byrne & Brian Eno
38. Love Today - Mika
37. Fidelity - Regina Spektor
36. Jesus Etc. - Wilco
35. O Saya - A R Rahman & M.I.A.
34. I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
33. Let's Get Out of This Country - Camera Obscura
32. If the Brakeman Turns My Way - Bright Eyes
31. Good Fortune - PJ Harvey

30. Disturbia - Rihanna
29. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
28. Pavlov's Bell - Aimee Mann
27. My Girls - Animal Collective
26. Las De La Intuicion - Shakira
25. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
24. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire
23. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
22. Dog Days Are Over - Florence and the Machine
21. Lights Out - Santogold

20. Missed the Boat - Modest Mouse
19. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1 - The Flaming Lips
18. Your Cover's Blown - Belle and Sebastien
17. Come into My World - Kylie Minogue
16. A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
15. The Bleeding Heart Show - The New Pornographers
14. 1234 - Feist
13. French Navy - Camera Obscura
12. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
11. Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case

10. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
Like Gaga herself, a work of abstract art. Baroque, beautiful and utterly infectious.

9. Hounds of Love - The Futureheads
The best cover song of the decade? Not just that, the vocal play going on is nothing short of incredible.

8. Digital Love - Daft Punk
Eerily appropriate for a decade under the influence of digital pursuits.

7. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem
Somewhere between graduating and growing up in general, this song attained an unexpected level of significance to me.

6. Rebellion (Lies) - Arcade Fire
It's a murky plunge into the band's greatest aural tour-de-force.

5. Travelin' Soldier - Dixie Chicks
Heartfelt, graceful, and absolutely the best American song of the decade. Sorry haters.

4. Electric Feel - MGMT
A sublime and hallucinatory experience. A song fueled by so many drugs that even the most casual listener will be whisked along on the trip.

3. Hey Ya - Outkast
Try as they might, no amount of radio saturation can kill this groove.

2. Myriad Harbor - The New Pornographers
A love letter to New York as great as any of Woody Allen's finest.

1. Paper Planes - M.I.A.
It feels both personal and universal, the beat is damn-near unstoppable, and having so firmly embedded itself into the culture of these last few years, there's no song more deserving of the top honors. I welcome this song anywhere; on an iPod, on the dance floor, or in Slumdog Millionaire. It could hold its own against my favorites from any other decade, so that's a sign that this is the right choice.


I'd have to guess that my choice for #10 will raise the most eyebrows. Anyhow, fire away.

Chaos Reigns in the Fantastic Mr. Fox!

Hello my (theoretical) readers,
I've been away for some weeks, finishing up the dreaded graduate school applications, and so progress on my top 100 and posting all together has come to a screeching halt. But it's over now, and I wasn't being entirely productive, because I still managed to squeeze in a bounty of 2009 releases, the quality of which I will update you on...now:

Bright Star
Bright Star is the story of John Keats - before death made him poet extraordinare - and the woman who through no particularly remarkable qualities informs and inspires his work up until death. Tenderly made and carried by two evocative performances by Abby Cornish and Ben Whishaw, Jane Campion's latest has one unfortunate blight upon it, and that would be the bombastic Paul Schneider. Of course, I realize that's just how his character was, but he intrudes upon almost every scene of the film and he's just too insufferable for me to find the slightest pleasure in these (many) moments. He is loud and boorish, and never comes to a satisfying end, and the film is much worse for his presence. But...the film does enough else right for this not to be a total drag. Recommended, but with just the one notable reservation.

The Limits of Control

Jim Jarmusch sends Isaac De Bankole on an assassin's odyssey by way of a series of representatives of an enraged art community. At least that's the idea I got from it all, and I was thoroughly enjoying myself right up to the end - when of all things - I think Jarmusch gives us one line too many towards a possible elucidation. But the whole ordeal is pretty fascinating, and though very little happens in the way of plot, every odd rendezvous was interesting enough on its own terms. If I stop short of loving it, it's because for all the intrigue, I'm not convinced there's a whole lot going on here. Still, there's worse things to be than slight, and if you generally like what Jarmusch serves up, you won't be wasting your time here.

An Education
It's an absolute delight through and through. The story comes out of Britain in the early 1960s and centers on a sharp young girl with her sights set on Oxford. The unforeseen obstacle here becomes the nearly 30 year old man she meets and begins seeing, seducing her with the aristocratic tastes and charms she's always dreamed of. Carey Mulligan is magnetic and sophisticated and lovely without being some model for perfection. I do think when my mind's at last made up that she'll have given my favorite performance of the year. The film wouldn't be the joy that it is without her presence. But everyone else does admirably as well. Alfred Molina, Peter Sarsgaard and Rosamund Pike all deserve loads of credit, but the best supporting performance is easily Olivia Williams as the icy, but well-meaning, school teacher. Seeing this during the final throes of my grad school application process was perfect timing, and the whole film is smart, stylish and kind of invigorating. Among the finest I've seen thus far in 2009.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox
And today I got around to my long-anticipated next installment of Wes Anderson's oeuvre. I loved it, not as much as The Royal T's, but loved seems an appropriate word. The voice-work is uniformly excellent with my favorite turns coming from Jason Schwartzman and Michael Gambon. Clooney is great, and not distracting at all, considering you know it's his voice propping up the character. The single best thing the film has going for it though is Anderson's style, which slips right on into the animated world quite effortlessly. From the camera movements to the music, it's the same Wes we know from before, and how great his style looks in stop motion! So The Fantastic Mr. Fox will be the third animated film this year (after Ponyo and Coraline) that I'm rooting for to kick Up's ass in the animated feature category at the Oscars. And unlike the other two, this may actually have a chance at doing just that.