A-List: The Ten Best Movies of the 2000s, Part Two

By Josh Spiegel

November 26, 2009

It's nice to get them started early.

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It's just about time for Thanksgiving. Just about time for some turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and all of the fixings. Thanksgiving is also a great time for family anguish and arguments to once again be brought up; thus, how better to spend Thanksgiving with the A-List than with a list that's bound to cause arguments? Yes, after only one whole week of waiting, it's time to reveal the top five films on my list of the top ten movies of the past decade. I know, I know, you were all waiting with bated breath, but I hope you managed to wedge in some quality time with your families, friends, and the common things like food and shelter.

As I mentioned last week, this is part of a four-week A-List series; this week and last week, I'm going over my picks for the top ten films of the past deacde. The next two weeks will go over my picks for the top ten television shows of the past decade. Also, as I mentioned last week, this list is representative of my opinion only. Next year, around this time, Box Office Prophets will present its own Best Of lists, which I'll be participating in; until that time, you've got these lists to tide you over, so any hate mail or e-mails of praise should focus solely on me. That said, I'm figuring it'll be more hate mail than anything else, but that's what you get for championing Steve Carell and Batman next to Alfonso Cuaron and Joel & Ethan Coen.




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I went over my list of movies on the honorable mention last week, but let's recap my numbers 10-6, in the following descending order: The 40-Year Old Virgin, No Country for Old Men, Children of Men, Ratatouille, and The Dark Knight. The top five films on the list won't really feature any seemingly outlandish choices, considering that you may consider Pixar or comic books outlandish. If, however, you consider arthouse classics as outlandish...well, the list may not please you much. I don't think there will be a lot of argument with some of these choices, but then again, you may prove me wrong. Hoping that I won't have to duck too many proverbial rotten tomatoes being lobbed my way, let's get into my picks for the top five films of the past decade.

5. Mulholland Dr.

Though it is not a film that marks the most accessible David Lynch can be, 2001's weird, wild drama Mulholland Dr. is easily Lynch's best film. Some may champion Blue Velvet, but there's something more haunting, more realistic, more dream-like here. First of all, if I may go out of my way to praise Naomi Watts; as Betty, the lead of Mulholland Dr., a prototypical starstruck farmgirl who's come to Hollywood to be a big star, Watts was a revelation to most American audiences. After this film, she became the star of such entertaining schlock as The Ring and King Kong, but for her best performance, demanding, difficult, and daring, Watts is best here. The plot is not only labyrinthine, but purposely strange; what starts out as a story of Betty trying to figure out the identity of the exotic woman with amnesia who just happened to land in her bathroom after a botched murder attempt turns very, very weird about two-thirds of the way through, right after the lesbian sex scene and before the kooky cabaret scene.


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