My Ten Favorite Films of the Decade (Part 2)

And here's part 2 of the countdown...

Five: The Dark Knight (2008)

I’m pretty sure only some crazies down in the backwoods cooking meth and Sarah Palin’s comrades up in the arctic missed The Dark Knight when it came out in 2008. Everyone I talked to waited in utter anticipation all summer, slaving away at bad internships and shitty restaurant jobs, for this movie to ease the pain. Seeing this on DVD would have been rewarding, but seeing it on opening weekend in a theatre full of wacko fans was something out of this world. I’m not a big believer in that whole religion thing, but I know when I sat in that theatre in July 2008 and watched Batman and the Joker chase each other through the streets of Gotham, I felt the Lord’s presence in the Manhattan AMC. Rarely have I seen a movie actually get a five minute standing ovation.

It takes a bold person to tell you that The Dark Knight is overrated—simply, it isn’t. It’s the best superhero film of all time, superbly cast and surprisingly well-scripted. It is to its genre what Rocky was to sports movies: The Dark Knight transcends the label of “ good superhero movie” without a doubt. In the dawn of the 21^st century, we hadn’t ever witnessed spectacles like Heath Ledger’s sadistic take on the Joker or Christian Bale’s whole new interpretation of the comic book legend. For once, it looked like the creators of this film, director Christopher Nolan notably, weren’t just trying to make Batman into glossy, throwaway entertainment. This is a dark picture that manages to strip away the camp factor of the earlier movies without sacrificing a bit of excitement.

Four: Match Point (2005)

I really didn’t know anything about Woody Allen when I saw Match Point: it could have been directed by Michael Bay and I would have dug the film. But, after really getting acquainted with the director’s career, you can see that (a) the flick is trademark Woody Allen; and (b) he’s one of the best filmmakers of our time. If you ever saw Bananas or Sleeper, you’ll know that Woody Allen can do slapstick, semi-lowbrow humor better than most. If you’ve seen Annie Hall, you’ve seen what I think is the funniest movie of the last few decades. If you can hang with Manahattan or Hannah and Her Sisters, you know Woody Allen can seamlessly meld humor and drama.

Of course, Match Point bears only marginal resemblance to most of his catalog (excluding the obvious comparison, Crimes and Misdemeanors), not least of all because it’s set in London. Woody Allen, before this, hadn’t made a really good movie since Husbands and Wives with perhaps one exception. Struggling with lackluster scripts populated by boring characters played badly by the likes of Jason Biggs and Helen Hunt, it was time for Woody’s return to form. We got just that in Match Point.

This film tells the story of a former tennis pro (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) who marries a woman, but soon after falls for his brother-in-law’s smoldering fiancée (Scarlett Johansson). They have a passionate affair, but when his mistress threatens to go public, he starts scheming a way to undo the predicament without altering his very comfortable lifestyle. The solution, if you know anything about Woody Allen, is obvious, but the execution is pitch-perfect. Match Point deals with the director’s typical themes like guilt, lust, greed, death, etc., but this pic’s something a little bit different—it doesn’t go for many laughs. This is a straight-up drama/film-noir that holds your attention from the first scene to the credits with little dead space to spare. It’s too bad the 2000s saw Woody Allen tackle only three projects above the sub-par level. But, with its fresh writing and inventive directing, Match Point will not soon be forgotten.

Three: American Psycho (2000)

If you were my friend in college, you quoted American Psycho like you drank Evan Williams—there wasn’t a day that went by when either was missing from your life. American Psycho is a wildly dark and daring film that probably will never receive enough credit because it deals with heedless violence, money, power, cocaine, $4000 suits, and fucking without loving. And all in about 93 minutes. Some people have told me they find this movie stupid or offensive. I think they are nancies.

Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that the movie version of Psycho doesn’t hold a candle to the book by Brett Easton Ellis. But, it’s still beyond awesome. I can remember the first time I saw American Psycho and realized that I’d probably never laughed for that long and hard without being as high as fucking Apollo 13. There are bundles of quotes (“I can do over 1000 now”, “That’s a very fine chardonnay you’re not drinking”, “Don’t touch the watch.”), Paul Allen’s untimely demise-by-axe synched with a Huey Lewis tune, the infamous business card scene, the epic monologues that punctuate the satirical screenplay, the even more famous “Sussudio” portion, and a hilariously brutal conclusion. Bateman’s emotionally empty stockbroker (“I’m into murders and executions mostly.”), played flawlessly by Christian Bale, is a real-life symbol of the overwhelming greed of the 1980s. If someone were to make a film about investment banking and bond trading today, I’m not sure the result would be too much different. The story’s stood the test of time.

I’ve forgone any plot summary, but this is what I will say—if you read what’s above and decide Psycho is likely to offend your impeccable taste, you’re obviously not a golfer. Besides being one of the funniest pics of the decade, it’s also a clever skewering of an industry populated by people collecting fat paychecks for producing very little. Bateman’s life is defined by his shell: he’s judged by others on the quality of his suits and the restaurants he dines in. In his office, he spends time listening to “Lady in Red” on his Walkman and drinking mineral water. Does he ever do real work? Who cares? Simply, there’s no denying that if you graduated from college in the past ten years, this was a staple in your movie rotation.

Two: The Departed (2006)

Martin Scorsese is without a doubt the most accomplished and revered American director in the last fifty years. And I think it goes without saying that The Departed is, against some critics’ judgments, one of Scorsese’s best pictures, ranking alongside (but certainly not outshining) Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Raging Bull. It is, to use the cliché, a tour-de-force, a movie that every self-respecting man should own. It has all of the director’s typical trade marks: a great central performance (Jack Nicholson, in this case), insane amounts of blood and violence, hilarious supporting turns (Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg are amazing), profanity (“fuck” is uttered at least two hundred times), layer upon layer of plot developments, and an unbelievably tight script.

The Departed, a crime saga based on a 2002 Hong Kong film, is easily better than anything Scorsese put up on the screen in the 2000s, including the boring Gangs of New York and The Aviator. Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, a corrupt cop working for mobster Frank Costello (a brilliant, totally bug-fuck Nicholson performance). Enter Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan, an undercover officer who goes inside the mob to get the necessary evidence to bring Costello to trial. As Costigan slowly loses his grip on reality and Nicholson struggles to find the rat in his mob, things get preposterously out of hand. The film ends in a bloodbath a-la Goodfellas, first with an enormous police shoot-out, and then with a couple of interesting plot twists that carry this thing to an excellent conclusion.

Basically, it comes down to this: The Departed is rampantly violent and side-splittingly funny. Scorsese, even when he’s making us laugh, or when he’s showing us an atrociously violent act, never sacrifices character development. It really is a picture for the ages—I must’ve seen The Departed two dozen times. After that many viewings, it’s clear: Scorsese truly deserved his Best Director nod for this bad boy.

One: Almost Famous (2000)

There are few films in the entire world that you get emotionally wrapped up in, but Almost Famous certainly does a damn fine job of making you really care about its characters. This movie, like a fine wine, only gets better with each passing year. You’ll really like this movie if you appreciate classic rock, but to watch these performances and hear this dialogue is to be transported elsewhere. Get on the bus—when you pop Famous in, you’re with the band.

Besides “Tangerine”, Todd Rundgren, and Thunderclap Newman gracing the soundtrack, the screen is full of Oscar-caliber performances. While I adore Jason Lee’s narcissistic and over-the-top lead singer character, Jeff Bebe (“That is the fucking buzz!”) and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lester Bangs, the screen really belongs to the three leads: Patrick Fugit as William Miller, a 15-year old journalist for Rolling Stone, Russell Hammond as a Don Henley-Jimmy Page hybrid guitarist for Stillwater, and Kate Hudson as a ‘band aid’ looking for Russell’s undying love. Frances McDormand is also great—she steals nearly every scene she’s in, cautiously treading the line between hilarity and poignancy to make her character actually seem real (“I’m sorry, I can’t concentrate. Rock stars have kidnapped my son.”)

And that’s where the beauty lies in Famous. Because you get caught up in each character’s struggle, the laughs are never cheap. Though the “Real Topeka People” party scene is undeniably the easiest to chuckle at, there are quieter moments. One in particular, where Penny Lane (Hudson) finds out Russell sold her to Humble Pie for $50 and a case of beer, is perfectly done. You'll both smile and tear up while she asks William, “What kind of beer?” What’s not to love?

The first time I saw Famous in 8th grade, I was in my girlfriend’s basement trying to feel my first boob. Of course, I was only a year younger than the film’s protagonist who himself was modeled after the director, Cameron Crowe. But when I traded in the Sum 41 for some of my parent’s vinyl, I came to appreciate this movie like William Miller came to love rock music. For me the choice is easy: this is my favorite movie of the decade, and perhaps of all time.

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That's the top ten. Tomorrow: ten other movies worth checking out if you're unemployed like me and have a few hours to kill.