An Alternate Top 10 of the Decade

[Chac Mool]

Or rather ten (or so) movies that, without making too many waves, have withstood the test of time better than some of their more lauded contemporaries.

These mayor may not be the best films of the decade, but they're the underdogs that stuck with me.

Without further ado (and in no particular order):

One Missed Call
Takashi Miike, 2003

http://www.avistaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/one-missed-call-2.jpg

During the past decade, the J-horror genre has gone from subversive and (let's admit it) genuinely scary to an embarassement. The initial movies addressed notable social issues -- our addiction to technology, the dissolution of the family unit -- and, crucially for audiences tired by the excesses of the 1990s, used mystery and the unexplained rather than blood and gore to scare. However, the inevitable remakes jettisoned both the subtext and the technique and relied only on cliches (the long-haired girl, the haunted picture) that, when stand-alone, look silly.

Takashi Miike's One Missed Call is brilliant because it is aware of this transition. It`s chock-full of references and cliches, but they`re used to effectively play on audience expectations -- what another film may have used as a big scare, OMC uses as a set-up to an even bigger one. There are also healthy servings of subtext and wry humour, making for a complete package.

As both a response to an over-populated genre and a genuinely good entry in the same, One Missed Call deserves recognition.

[Chac Mool]

Spartan
David Mamet, 2004

http://www.independentcritics.com/images/spartan%20SPLASH.jpg

The decade also saw a shift in action movies, towards tautness and realism. The Bourne movies are obviously the most successful examples, but my favorite entrant is perhaps David Mamet's thrilling Spartan.

Mamet's scripts are tight at the best of times -- this one is practically pared to the bone. Dialogue consists of terse exchanges. Events move at breakneck pace. There is no exposition.

The direction and acting are similarly restrained, with a visual palette of blues and grays, a muted electronic soundtrack and compact (but terrific) performances.

Finally, many supposedly-realistic action movies still require suspension of disbelief, with the human protagonists achieving arguably super-human feats. Spartan stays firmly rooted in reality, and is all the more impressive for that.

[Chac Mool]

Love Exposure
Sion Sono, 2008

http://19.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt16my2nv71qzqfaoo1_500 .jpg

Japan's Sion Sono is a strong candidate for most interesting new director of the decade. His movies span genres and mix extremely provocative images of violence and sexuality with beautiful aesthetics. He can create moments of genuine poetry, and to a fault, his movies always offer food for thought.

Had he not been listed as director, I would likely not have gone to see a four-hour romantic comedy from Japan. But I'm glad I did, because Love Exposure is (1) the best movie I saw in 2009, (2) a great movie in its own right and (3) a huge amount of fun.

I won't go into description or analysis, because this is a movie you have to see for yourself, and the less you know, the better. I'll simply say that it's laugh-out-loud funny, affecting, disgusting and perverted, intelligent, provocative, earnest and (ultimately) very human. And it's not a second too long.

[Raiders]

I need to see a Sono film. Not sure Suicide Club is really my sorta thing, but I am very interested in Love Exposure (though the length is somewhat terrifying) and particularly Noriko's Dinner Table.

[Grouchy]

I need to see a Sono film. Not sure Suicide Club is really my sorta thing, but I am very interested in Love Exposure (though the length is somewhat terrifying) and particularly Noriko's Dinner Table.
Actually, I think the best one is Strange Circus.

[Chac Mool]

Gerry
Gus Van Sant, 2002

http://thecia.com.au/reviews/g/images/gerry-3.jpg

A 103-minute movie about two guys walking though the desert sounds almost unbearably pretentious. So why, then, is Gerry so good?

First, because it is about something and, through exceptional framing, pacing and music, every shot encourages thought or suggests deeper meaning. What it is about is up for debate.

Second, because it is beautifully made.

Third, because Matt Damon and (particularly) Casey Affleck give unaffected, honest performances, and come off as individuals rather than characters.

Fourth, and most important, because it is different. The great majority of films, whether commercial or arthouse, local or foreign, bad or good, are similar. They tell different stories in the same way. Gerry doesn`t. Like only a handful of movies the past ten years (Tropical Malady, Love Exposure), it tries to find a different way to communicate -- and it succeeds.

[Sven]

Man... Spartan love is so confusing. Cool list so far, though.

[Chac Mool]

Actually, I think the best one is Strange Circus.

It's my second-favorite, but I have to admit that some of its moment are near unpalatable.

[Rowland]

Strange Circus is my favorite of Sono's (haven't seen Noriko's Dinner Table or Love Exposure), Suicide Club is underrated, and Exte: Hair Extensions is a better takeoff of worn J-Horror tropes than One Missed Call.

[Chac Mool]

Hero
Zhang Yimou, 2002

http://us.ent4.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/miramax_films/hero/jet_li/headband6.jpg

As a huge fan of Zhang Yimou's period pieces, I was worried to see him go modern at the end of the 90s and then --heresy!-- commercial during the 2000s. A director of great refinement and sensitivity (as well as a visual master), he seemed particularly ill-suited to martial arts epics.

That's okay, though, because Hero is not really a martial arts epic. Nor is it a mystery to be unfolded, a la Rashomon. It is a conceptual, almost abstract film in which the fight scenes are expressions of ideas and emotions related to war, sacrifice, and the greater good.

And, of course, it may just be the most visually astonishing movie of the decade.

[Chac Mool]

...Exte: Hair Extensions is a better takeoff of worn J-Horror tropes than One Missed Call.

One Missed Call is a much more direct send-off, borrowing actual scenes from J-horror lore (the shower stall, the darkened house, the family backstory, the abandoned hospital) and using them to confirm or confound audience expectations.

Exte is great, great fun but to me, it's another example of Sono doing his own thing, far outside of convention.

[Sven]

Hero works better now for me than it did the first time I saw it, wherein I was appalled at its rallying for blind nationalism. I also thought (and still think) the CG is balls. Everything else is ridiculously awesome.

[Chac Mool]

More to come later.

[Rowland]

Exte is great, great fun but to me, it's another example of Sono doing his own thing, far outside of convention.That's probably why I liked it more. One Missed Call, while doing what you say, veered a little too close at points to being just another J-horror to really be as effective as I felt it may have been.

[Raiders]

I'm not a huge fan of the floating, ballet-like wuxia films. Probably a cultural thing, but they are rather dreadfully dull to me. Hero was a film I guess I just missed the boat on. It's Rashomon-throwback plot was stale and its near performance-art fight sequences pretty but also irritating after a while.

Though, compared to the garish pageantry of Curse of the Golden Flower, the style of Hero is certainly preferable.

[Chac Mool]

Hero works better now for me than it did the first time I saw it, wherein I was appalled at its rallying for blind nationalism. I also thought (and still think) the CG is balls. Everything else is ridiculously awesome.

I don't think there's anything blind about it's call for nationalism. If anything, it emphatically encourages thought before action, and rational decisions in favor of the greater good rather than ideological fervor.

I also think the (second-to-last?) shot is often overlooked -- after everything is finished, the Emperor is left alone in his hall. Yimou's camera tracks out but holds the image, which I've always taken to suggest that the power for doing good or evil now rests in his hands, and only he can give meaning to or take meaning away from the sacrifices. Yimou thus encourages unity and pride in one's nation without condoning the actions of any one particular ruler or party.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Strange Circus is my second favourite Sono. I like all of his films I've seen, though, I think Love Exposure is miles ahead of anything else he's done.

[Ezee E]

Spartan was pretty awful I thought. All good movies otherwise.

[Bosco B Thug]

One Missed Call
Takashi Miike, 2003

As both a response to an over-populated genre and a genuinely good entry in the same, One Missed Call deserves recognition. Thumbs up.


and Exte: Hair Extensions is a better takeoff of worn J-Horror tropes than One Missed Call. But is it the better film? ;)

[Spinal]

Hero was thoroughly misunderstood upon its release, in my opinion. Your defense is excellent, or rather, how I interpreted the film.

[Chac Mool]

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring
Kim Ki-Duk, 2003

http://www.barrdomain.com/wxmobi/images/Spring_Summer_Fall_Winter_and_ Spring_12.jpg

Kim Ki-Duk's film is like green tea for the soul: a quiet masterpiece about living in harmony with oneself, with others and with nature. Like the titular seasons, it flows with near-silent consistency, and the narrative-driven scenes are dispersed among the day-to-day life of the temple monks, with the latter being, in retrospect, the more memorable.

There's little I can say that hasn't already been said about the confidence of the filmmaking, but I will say this: for all of Ki-Duk`s metaphors about man's passage from the mundane to the sublime (Dream, Breath, 3-Iron, The Isle), it`s his most earthly film that achieves transcendence.

[Chac Mool]

Vanilla Sky
Cameron Crowe, 2001

http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/Vanilla%20Sky%20pic%202.jpg

Maybe the great misunderstood film of the decade -- Cameron Crowe takes the striking plot and psychological explorations of Alejandro Amenabar`s original and adds layers of subtext about how our upbringing and our culture affects our perception and our world-view.

Many complained about "Hollywood-ization", but the pop-culture references are integral to both the plot and the themes: the "life" of Cruise's characters is (like all lives) defined by the events and the culture in which we live. Many also derided Cruise for "playing himself playing a character", but don't those very words describe the story? Finally, to those accusing the film of being a jumbled mess, I say watch it again. Repeated viewings bring out hidden association, and the beautiful craftsmanship of Cameron Crowe's script and direction.

[Chac Mool]

Taken
Philippe Morel, 2009

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/01/30/alg_taken.jpg

If you were to ask me what the defining action movies of the decade are, I would list three. The first --and best-- is The Dark Knight. It's thrilling, full-blooded and thought-provoking in a way few films are. The second (ready your pitchforks...) is Michael Bay's Bad Boys 2. I won't waste my credibility arguing that it's a good movie (though I inexplicably like it), but in terms of budget, body count and stunning lack of morals, it's unsurpassed. The third is Philippe Morel's Taken, a near-perfect genre film whose individual components (acting, pacing, script) are simple but artful, and ruthlessly calibrated to produce maximum thrills for the audience.

[Raiders]

For Besson-penned/produced actioners this decade, I'll definitely take Danny the Dog over Taken any day.

[SirNewt]

The male leads in Vanilla Sky struck me as too slick. They were just too movie-ish or something. They're the kind of guys every popular 18 year old girl wants to "get with". Frat house douche bags but somehow expanded for the silver screen. Otherwise, I enjoyed just about everything else about the movie.

[Melville]

Very interesting list. I'd go with the Bourne films as the pinnacle of the action genre in the last decade.

[baby doll]

Yeah, I dunno about Vanilla Sky, dude. Since it's almost exactly the same film as Amenabar's, the added pop culture references seem to me like Crowe was simply doodling in the margins, rather than being a thematic revision that some how transforms (or at least enhances) the overall experience and meaning of the movie, which in terms of plot follows the original scene for scene. But then, I'm pretty shallow (as everyone around here knows).

I walked out of Taken after twenty (by the numbers) minutes. (My picks for the best action movies of the decade would be Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Domino, Indigènes, Minority Report, and We Own the Night.)

Gerry was interesting up to a point but somewhat monotonous. (I prefer Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting (gotta problem with that?), Elephant, Last Days, and Paranoid Park.)

Spartan, like Heist, was decent enough but entirely forgettable. Certainly no House of Games, or even State and Main.

The only other films I've seen on the list are Hero and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring.