My favourite films of the 21st Century
Submitted by khriz on Tue, 02/24/2009 - 13:18
Tags:
- Werckmeister harmóniák - Béla Tarr (2000)
- Memento - Christopher Nolan (2000)
- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind - Michel Gondry (2004)
- Mulholland Dr. - David Lynch (2001)
- Fa yeung nin wa - Wong Kar-Wai (2000)
- There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson (2007)
- 2046 - Wong Kar-Wai (2004)
- Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman (2008)
- Enter the Void - Gaspar Noé (2010)
- Inception - Christopher Nolan (2010)
- Irréversible - Gaspar Noé (2002)
- Moon - Duncan Jones (2009)
- Requiem For A Dream - Darren Aronofsky (2000)
- Children of Men - Alfonso Cuarón (2006)
- Brick - Rian Johnson (2005)
- The Departed - Martin Scorsese (2006)
- Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola (2003)
- 21 Grams - Alejandro González Iñárritu (2003)
- Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky (2010)
- (500) Days of Summer - Marc Webb (2009)
- Adaptation. - Spike Jonze (2002)
- Un prophète - Jacques Audiard (2009)
- The Ghost Writer - Roman Polanski (2010)
- No Country for Old Men - Ethan Coen & Joel Coen (2007)
- Cidade de Deus - Fernando Meirelles (2002)
Author Comments:
Amores Perros needs a rewatch, it's going on here somewhere.
Just noticed they're all American. Would like to see this extended.
Will likely extend this given time. Got a bit on at the moment. It is likely that Requiem For A Dream will be on here but below some others. The highest foreign film on here probably would be Irreversible. In The Mood For Love will probably get on here but I still haven't seen the end of it. Likewise with Werckmeister Harmonies but that has more chance from what I've seen. I think I've seen most of what are supposed to be the best scenes of the latter. City Of God and Amorres Perros would be on here if I extended it a fair bit also.
Some good stuff here. Particularly liking the Tarr, Wong, Inarritu and Lynch selections... I need to give the Gondry another glance. I remember liking it a lot but it's too foggy a memory. I'd recommend Syndromes & a Century, Elephant, The Weeping Meadow and possibly Climates.
What's the big deal about The Departed -- do you think it's up to par with his older work such as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, et al? I like the director and cast in general, find it to be a fun flick; but it didn't resonate at all with me.
I have seen the final 15 minutes or so of Elephant. Don't know if that will spoil the film when watched in full but knowing what it is based on I guess means it doesn't come as much of a surprise.
I think it is actually better than Mean Streets which on last watch I found to be good but not great as I previously thought. It was certainly surprising to me that Taxi Driver, which I consider his best, was made by him only three years later. For what it was trying to portray I think The Departed managed it very successfully. In fact, for what is essentially a plot based film I'm kind of surprised it worked as well as it did. I haven't actually seen the film that it was apparently pretty much a reworking of though I've heard the execution of that was far more cheesy.
Have you seen Shutter Island yet? I was hoping for a stunning psychological thriller comaparable to The Shinning (though I know you're not a fan of Kubrick) but from what I've heard I fear that's not gonna happen.
I'm not sure how much it would ruin the film, given that it's based on the Columbine shooting, but I guess if you're not too familiar with the event then maybe. I was really impressed with how intelligent it was, both formally and narratively.
I'm surprised you like it more than Mean Streets, which although I don't find to be a masterpiece, I do feel is the far richer film of the two. The gritty character study is pretty damn dense, and there are some stand-out sequences. The one that instantly comes to mind is the silence that follows the crash, really great stuff. Both good movies, though. I haven't seen Infernal Affairs either.
Shutter Island was enjoyable, a pretty fun flick. It's finely constructed, he develops a rich atmosphere throughout and manages to extract some good performances; sure there are some lapses in logic and plot holes, but nothing too detrimental. It's very predictable, but Scorsese still manages to make it fairly compelling by not simply building the the film up to a climax (a trap many thrillers fall into). He definitely proved he still has the chops; despite some unevenness that surfaces, particularly towards the end. It's not a profound treatment of the subject at hand, but he makes it work. Throw any hopes for psychological depth out the window, though, you'll only wind up disappointed.
Seen any Almodovar?
Funny you should ask that, I've got Talk to Her on the dload as I type this. I'll tell you what I think.
Talk to Her is a solid film that has an interesting emotional spin on it. I saw it on the same day as The Rules of the Game and 8½ so I guess it hasn't made the largest impact, especially compared to the latter, but I enjoyed it so I'll check out some of his other work at some point.