A decade's worth of movies: #9

The show At the Movies was once a favorite show of mine. It is of course the show that started as Siskel and Ebert and then became Ebert and Roeper at the movies. When Disney wanted to mess with it and make it more about entertainment, they hired two douchebags and I stopped watching. Realizing their mistake Disney went back to what worked and hired two great film critics and took the show back to really reviewing movies. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of The New York Times are two of my favorites to read and they were my two favorite guest hosts with Ricard Roeper, so my excitement level for At the Movies went right back up. Starting this past week, the show is going to feature each man unveiling one movie a week in their top 10 of the decade.

A few months ago Robbie approached me with the idea of coming up with a best of the decade list and it kind of festered in my mind, but a few weeks ago I started to really think about it. I rewatched a bunch of movies and thought long and hard about it. Then I watched At the Movies this weekend and it clinched it for me: I needed a list. So, Saturday night I started a list. It started at 50 movies, then I got it down to 33. Monday the list got whittled down to 25 and finally yesterday afternoon I got the the list all the way down to my definitive top 10.

Before I unveil how this is going to work, I need to talk about how I decided on these 10 movies. It is a combination of things and different aspects are weighed differently. I wasn't sure if I should do just the ten best, or most replayable, or maybe 10 movies I felt defined this decade of film making. Should I look at them for what I felt at the time of their release, or movies that hold up over time? Eventually I came to the conclusion that it should be a bit of all of that. So my list will incorporate a lot of those aspects for different movies.

Alright, so the plan is this, for the next ten weeks I will release 1 movie on my list to coincide with At the Movies. I will also list each of those guys' pick and talk about for a brief second. This might turn out to be a colossal disaster and it is very time consuming considering I have like 4 people who actually read this, but I think I want it for me, so here we go!

Number 9


Michael Phillips: Gosford Park- I have not seen this movie so I cannot judge it. I would not really think about seeing it either, except it is on this list. I wanted to watch it this week to prepare it for this list, but with my Netflix suspended and no money to rent it, I was screwed. I apologize.

A.O. Scott: 25th Hour- I really really like this movie and I like it more each time I watch it. It made it to my final 30, but that was it. There is strong writing in this movie and some amazing performances. One of the downsides to the story is that some of the pure post 9-11 stuff feels forced into the movie. Edward Norton, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper do some seriously excellent work and the script is peppered with these long gorgeously foul mouthed monologues about life, race, love and hatred, but at times the visual palette is too muddled with colors that bleed in and out of the picture. I think this movie should be studied in film classes, especially classes looking at a post 9-11 America, but it just does not cut it into my own personal top 10. I do strongly recommend it, though.

My pick: Superbad- The comedy landscape shifted in the later half of the decade and I really felt compelled to put one of those movies on this list because it helps define a big voice of this decade. Judd Apatow and his cast of characters really owned comedy and the reason I went with this one is it has the most staying power, in my opinion. The jokes do not get less funny and I think it is a movie generations of young people will admire and love. The "Bromance" was made popular by this group of people and I think Superbad speaks best to the idea of two male friends really needing and loving each other. It has an iconic character in McLovin and set Michael Cera up to be a sort of new generation John Cusack. I know I can put this movie and laugh my ass off, but at the same time wish my high school experience was shared with such a close friend. I really think this movie will stand the test of comedy time.