2000-2009 TIME CAPSULE PART ONE: The Most Honorable Of Honorable Mentions

Where do I even begin?

While recently watching the blessedly revamped "At The Movies" with film critics Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott, I was a little taken aback that the two were beginning to compile their favorite films of the decade. Surely, this period of time isn't coming to a close already?! So, for the past several weeks, I have watched them reveal their choices and it has certainly made me begin to think about what I would put into a cinematic time capsule if I could. I will try my best to not allow this listing to spiral onwards through the NEXT decade but I will also not limit myself to just 10 picks. It will be a multi-part listing, delivered in sections as to not overwhelmen you dear readers. My official selections features 25 titles (to be revealed soon) and the first two sections will be devoted to the films and filmmakers that didn’t quite make the top 25 but deeply deserved recognition, respect and continued revelry.

As I compiled my listing, I tried to think of several factors which indeed confused my wife a little bit. You see, I do tend to make a “Favorites Of The Year” list each year around Oscar time and she felt that I should just review my old listings, pick the features that ranked #1 and that would ultimately be the ones for the time capsule. I explained to her that it wouldn’t and couldn’t quite work like that as there are some films that I did love during a particular year that I have not seen since and simply do not plan on doing so. They seemed to be the best of its particular moment in time and perhaps not quite the ones that would be preserved in my own film-going history. So, I thought of the films that may have been game-changers and ground breakers. I tried to think of the films that have continued to resonate and reveal themselves to me. I tried to think of the ones I keep returning to, the ones that altered my perceptions, the ones that at times made me almost forget that I was even sitting in a movie theater.

Remember, I am not claiming these as "THE BEST" or "THE WORST" with any authority as I have not seen every film released over the last ten years. these are just what affected me most in my journeys as a viewer.

Without further hesitation, I am happy to present to you…

A COLLECTION OF MOST HONORABLE FILMS & FILMMAKERS FROM 2000-2009

THE FILMS OF CLINT EASTWOOD

I had to start strong with this section of honorable mentions and it is difficult for me to think of too many filmmakers more honorable than Clint Eastwood who, at the age of 80, is making what I feel to be are the very best films of his life! Once my final listing of 25 films is revealed, it may seem strange that not even one of his films is represented. This is simply because I just could not think of which film affected me more than another. To me, 2003’s “Mystic River,” 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby,” 2006’s dual World War II features “Flags Of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima,” and 2008’s twin successes of “Changeling” and “Gran Torino” are all of a piece. (I still have not had the opportunity to see “Invictus” yet.)

With this collection, Eastwood has beautifully continued to explore the history and cycles of violence (while also toying with the history of his own violent film personas) to a near Shakespearean level of pathos and tragedy. He has continued to posses one of the surest and strongest cinematic hands working today through his always fair-minded conviction in his stories as well as his deep trust in his actors and stories. He never overplays his hand or allows melodrama to weigh down the material. His clear-headed storytelling style should be studied by all young filmmakers, especially as we live in a cinematically hyperactive “Transformers” era.

Clint Eastwood remains a filmmaking giant as this body of work proves.

“REQUIEM FOR A DREAM” (2000) Directed by Darren Aranofsky

This film didn’t make the final 25 just because it is an experience so unpleasant that I know for certain that I will never put myself through it ever again. That said, I cannot deny its power and cinematic brilliance. Aranofsky’s tale of addiction doesn’t break new ground as far as being a cautionary tale of the most brutal order but its commitment to its idea on a visual level is unrepentant in its urgency and unlike any other film released this decade. The film’s final third, entitled, “Winter,” (and set to a grinding score by The Kronos Quartet) is harrowing to an almost unwatchable degree. Special mention must be given to Ellen Burstyn for her fearless swan-dive of a performance as a woman addicted to diet pills in order to fit into a certain dress for a hoped-for television appearance on a game show and ultimately falls into madness as she is haunted by terrifying hallucinations and finally, subjected to nightmarish electro-shock therapy. For anyone who has suggested that this film glorifies drug and alcohol usage, they have not seen this film. You don’t even want to ingest caffeine after seeing it.

“SCHOOL OF ROCK” (2003) & “BEFORE SUNSET” (2004) Directed by Richard Linklater

Over the last ten years, Writer/Director Richard Linklater has continued on his journeyman path between studio films, independent features and even forays into roto-scoped philosophical features (“Waking Life” from 2001 and “A Scanner Darkly” from 2006) The two films featured here are my favorites from this era.

“School Of Rock,” while being a tour de force for Jack Black as well as a love letter to rock and roll, transcends its formula not only by being fall-down funny, but also by giving us a terrific ode to the art of teaching and education. Linklater suggests that the best teaching experiences are the ones that are shared between teachers and students, and the high style and energy between Black and his merry band of would-be rock stars is infectious to a near euphoric degree.

“Before Sunset” is Linklater’s elegant sequel to his 1995 European set love story, “Before Sunrise.” Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their roles (and even co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater), as star-crossed lovers Jesse and Celine, now in their 30s, as they meet again in Paris after their blissful Viennese night together ten years before. The gaunt features of their bodies and the lines in their faces say it all as the youthful dreams of the 20’s have led to 30’s realities, romantic disappointments and confusion as well as a near midlife malaise. After a film so briskly and effectively told, I am hoping that Linklater, Hawke and Delpy occasionally reprise their roles in the future and report back to the audience the triumphs and frailties of their advancing ages.

THE FILMS OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

What an audacious talent we have in this filmmaker! He boldly arrived, seemingly from the ether in the year 2000, with a brilliantly conceived and executed thrilled called “Momento,” a film presented backwards chronologically and through the perceptions of a haunted man with short term memory loss.

From there, Nolan has been continuing to alter our perceptions of how rousing, electrifying and vividly intense films can be, not through an over reliance on special effects, ADD influenced editing techniques and a punishing soundtrack, but through carefully stylish directions and endlessly inventive storytelling. These films would not be worth re-visiting without the grounding of their excellent screenplays of which Nolan has always written or co-written. Nolan would earn his place on my list with only his revolutionary re-invention of Batman with “Batman Begins” (2005) and “The Dark Knight” (2008), but he has also delivered with two unusual thrillers this decade. “Insomnia” (2002), stars Al Pacino as Detective Will Dormer who is sent to Nightmute, Alaska—where the midnight sun never sets—to investigate a murder potentially caused by Robin Williams, in a rare dark turn. And we also have been blessed with “The Prestige” (2006), the disturbing tale of dueling magicians played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman.

Based upon the hair-raising teaser trailers for his summer 2010 feature, “Inception,” I am hoping Christopher Nolan will continue to blow my mind for the next decade but for this decade, it has simply been a gift to sit through his motion pictures, one of which has earned a high ranking slot on my top 25!

THE FILMS OF M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN

I think M. Night Shyamalan has been treated quite unfairly since his arrival into our cinematic consciousness with 1999’s juggernaut “The Sixth Sense.” He has been painted as wholly arrogant, in love with his storytelling techniques and now, with only one major box office success since, (“Signs” from 2002) he has thus been branded a one-trick pony, forever in a stranglehold by his own surprise endings. For me, Shyamalan has been so much more than his surprise endings. Yes, the ending of “The Sixth Sense” was a doozy to say the least and I just deeply appreciated how this man was able to weave a tale so effectively that I could not see what was dangling right in front of my eyes. But, what that film also presented was an emotional tale about how the threads of communication need to always be tended and nurtured between us if we are to ever fully understand and empathize with one another.

This dual level of storytelling has continued through his films ever since and while people are trying to outfox him by searching for that surprise ending—sometimes there hasn’t even been one—audiences and critics, who have been reviewing a perceived personality at that, have often missed what is happening in front of their eyes.

“The Lady In the Water” (2006), what was Shyamalan has always said it would be: a fairytale. While dark, it was a sweet fantasy to return a water-nymph to her home as well as an impassioned plea for community. Unfortunately, that sweetness was sabotaged by an ad campaign making it appear to be the scariest film since “The Exorcist,” which it wasn’t and audiences supremely stayed away.

“The Happening” (2008), was Shyamalan’s ecological horror film and first R rated movie, (yet as R rated movies go, it was a soft R) whose overall thoughtfulness was ignored as well the skill in which it was executed. For all of the flash and desensitizing carnage depicted in modern day torture porn features, perhaps Shyamalan’s visions seem comparatively quaint. But for me, in “The Happening,” the sight of a tear in a car roof, or the otherwise commonplace image of wind rustling through the trees did trigger a certain sense of fear that while not overwhelming, was indeed primal.

Shyamalan’s very best features of this decade were also extremely underrated. 2000’s “Unbreakable,” starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, was one of the three best comic book films of the decade (and I would also say that the terrific television series “Heroes” owes that film a tremendous debt). But, I would say that his much maligned “The Village” (2004) just may be the most resonant of the decade as it is ultimately a chilling story about the nature of fear itself, how fear is utilized, how fear can be used to control others and how it can dominate oneself. This film was released at the emotional height of the Iraq War and the pain and justified paranoia of 9/11 remained at the forefront of our collective cultural consciousness. It was difficult for me to not divorce the messages of this film from what was happening politically in our society and I found “The Village” to be a daring statement made during a time when such statements were vehemently discouraged..

M. Night Shyamalan once alluded that his filmmaking style is perhaps like enjoying a certain flavor of wine that no one else enjoys. I know that while watching his movies, I enjoy similar cinematic flavors. I am not one for horror films, and I don’t necessarily like being scared in movie theaters but I do thoroughly enjoy the way Shymalayan plays with my mind and his directorial hand has continued to remain steadfast. I believe he is making the films he wants to make, in the exact way he wants to make them and that should be commended in my eyes.


Stay tuned for the continued listings of the Most Honorable of Honorable Mentions coming soon...