Top 10 Lists

(Quick note before I conclude my rundown of the decade’s best films: In addition to this list and my compendium of the Best Performances of the 2000s, I also considered compiling a list of the decade’s best individual scenes. I worked on this briefly before determining such a monumental task to be untenable. First of all, while these superlative-style lists tend to focus on recognizing excellence – hence the moniker “Best of” – even bad movies have good scenes (see: this scene in Crash), making such a catalog somewhat incongruous. More importantly, while I’m reasonably confident that I can remember all of the great movies I’ve seen over the past 10 years, I’m equally confident that in no way can I recall every great scene. I’ve just watched too many films, meaning I’d inevitably leave out a terrific set piece, and then I’d hate myself. So, no dice.

I can, however, with absolute certainty, declare what would have been my number one choice had I followed through and created such a list. It’s this one. Nothing else even comes close.)

Alright, in the words of Kurt Russell in Tombstone, let’s finish it. If you missed Part I, revealing slots 11-25, check it out here. And now, for the Manifesto’s 10 Best Films of the 2000s: Read More

Well, that was grueling.

Alright, in case you missed it, my Best Performances of the 2000s post articulated my attitude toward lists, namely that they’re inherently absurd but also compulsively readable. That list was also incredibly difficult to make, but compared to my next task, it was easier than playing Seeker while high on Felix Felicis. A top 10 list of the best movies of the entire decade? Now that’s intense. In terms of the most nerve-wracking, pressurized, “I feel like Ron Burgundy reading the news without a teleprompter” moments in my life, creating a list of the decade’s 10 best films fell somewhere between “Taking the LSAT” and “Shooting two free throws with my team down two and no time left on the clock”.

And I failed. Miserably.

I’m sorry, I just couldn’t do it. I can’t precisely quantify how many movies I’ve seen over the past 10 years, but I’m guessing the tally is around 800. Do you honestly think I can coherently assemble a compendium representing the best 1.25% of those films? It would be like being tasked with choosing the 10 best baseball players of all-time, or the 10 best Emma Watson moments in film history. You can’t possibly do it without omitting contenders that merit a mention. It would be a moral violation of all things just and true. Read More

I considered devoting a detailed post to the recent Oscars telecast, but there’s really no point; while I’m more than happy to convey my esteemed thoughts on movies, TV shows, and other forms of populist entertainment, I can’t quite motivate myself to write about an awards ceremony. In terms of my predictions, I correctly hit 14 of 21 categories for a score of 67% – not terrible, but certainly not good, especially in a year with an established frontrunner. Most of my upset picks in the technical categories proved to be more idiotic than sneaky; I won’t beat myself up over the Sound categories or Departures winning for Foreign Language Film, but going with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button over Slumdog Millionaire for Original Score was just wishful thinking, and I missed on both big 50-50 areas (Actor and Original Screenplay). Poor form.

(On the plus side, multiple people informed me that the Manifesto helped guide them to strong finishes in their respective Oscar pools. I’m happy to provide assistance, but they obviously must have made some shrewd adjustments to a few of my more dubious selections. In my own pool with weighted scoring, I finished seventh out of 12 and lost to my sister by one fucking point. Seriously poor form.) Read More