The Best of The Decade
Still open to a little tweaking for what's left in the year, but I've seen most of what I wanted to and with only a month left, I thought it was time to break out the best the naughts have to offer.
It's been a pretty good decade, not quite on a par with the 90's, much better than the 80's. I'm looking forward to the 2010s. Many of the best new directors have come into their own and the old titans continue to make great films. The truly independent minimalist drama has re-emerged after 30 years as the best, perhaps defining, movement of the era. I hope the next decade gives rise to as many great debuts.
BEST PICTURE
1. Children of Men
2. High Fidelity
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Gomorrah
5. Up In The Air
6. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
7. Che
8. George Washington
9. No End in Sight
10. Gangs of New York
BEST DIRECTOR
1. Alfonso Cuaron -Children of Men
2. Paul Thomas Anderson -There Will Be Blood
3. Matteo Garrone -Gomorrah
4. Steven Soderbergh -Che
5. Martin Scorsese -Gangs of New York
6. David Lynch -Mulholland Drive
7. Richard Linklater -Waking Life
8. Fernando Meirelles -City of God
9. Steven Soderbergh -Traffic
10. Julian Schanbel -The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
1. Daniel Day-Lewis -There Will Be Blood
2. Daniel Day-Lewis -Gangs of New York
3. Benicio Del Toro -Che
4. Sean Penn -The Assassination of Richard Nixon
5. George Clooney -Up in The Air
6. Michael Douglas -Wonder Boys
7. Samuel L. Jackson -Black Snake Moan
8. Philip Seymour Hoffman -Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
9. Tom Wilkinson -In The Bedroom
10. Terence Howard -Hustle & Flow
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
1. Naomi Watts -Mulholland Drive
2. Charlize Theron -Monster
3. Kate Winslet -Revolutionary Road
4. Hilary Swank -Million Dollar Baby
5. Christina Ricci -Black Snake Moan
6. Halle Berry –Monster’s Ball
7. Michelle Williams –Wendy and Lucy
8. Ellen Burstyn –Requiem For A Dream
9. Ashley Judd -Bug
10. Julianne Moore –Far From Heaven
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
1. Benicio Del Toro -Traffic
2. Clive Owen -Closer
3. Heath Ledger –The Dark Knight
4. Michael Pena -Crash
5. Tim Robbins –Mystic River
6. Ray Liotta –Narc
7. James Coburn –The Man From Elysian Fields
8. Michael Shannon –Revolutionary Road
9. Javier Bardem –No Country for Old Men
10. Robert Downey Jr. –A Scanner Darkly
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
1. Anna Kendrick -Up In The Air
2. Natalie Portman -Closer
3. Susan Sarandon –Moonlight Mile
4. Kate Hudson –Almost Famous
5. Cate Blanchett –I’m Not There
6. Robin Wright Penn –Nine Lives
7. Taraji P. Henson –Hustle and Flow
8. Martina Gedeck –The Lives of Others
9. Amy Adams -Junebug
10. Johanna Wokalek -The Baader-Meinhof Complex
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1. High Fidelity -Steve Pink, D.V. DeVincentes, Scott Rosen, & John Cusack
2. Up in The Air -Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner
3. Syriana -Stephen Gaghan
4. The Departed -William Monahan
5. Wonder Boys -Steve Klowes
6. Gomorrah -Matteo Garrone, Maruizio Brauccio, Roberto Saviano, et al.
7. Vanilla Sky –Cameron Crowe
8. No Country for Old Men –The Coen Brothers
9. Revolutionary Road –Justin Haythe
10. Closer –Patrick Marber
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1. Adaptation -Charlie Kaufman
2. Brick -Rian Johnson
3. Memento -Jonathan & Christopher Nolan
4. Before The Devil Knows You're Dead -Kelly Masterson
5. Lost in Translation –Sofia Coppola
6. Almost Famous –Cameron Crowe
7. The Royal Tenenbaums –Wes Anderson
8. Igby Goes Down –Burr Steers
9. Talk To Her –Pedro Almodovar
10. The Man on The Train –Patrice Leconte
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
1. Gomorrah
2. Che
3. The Princess and The Warrior
4. Letters from Iwo Jima
5. City of God
6. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
7. The Baader-Meinhof Complex
8. The Lives of Others
9. The Man on The Train
10. Talk To Her
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
1. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
2. No End in Sight
3. The Garden
4. Fahrenheit 9/11
5. Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father
6. Bowling for Columbine
7. Why We Fight
8. The Fog of War
9. New World Order
10. Paradise Lost 2: Revelations
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
1. Waking Life
2. A Scanner Darkly
3. Up
4. Ratatouille
5. The Simpsons Movie
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. Children of Men –Emmanuel Lubezki
2. Russian Ark –Tillman Buttner
3. George Washington –Tim Orr
4. The Fall –Colin Watkinson
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford –Roger Deakins
6. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly –Janusz Kaminski
7. Gerry –Harris Savides
8. Nine Lives –Xavier Perez Grobet
9. Far From Heaven –Edwarch Lachman
10. Chingoo –Ki-Seok Hwang
BEST FILM EDITING
1. Che –Pablo Zumarraga
2. Black Hawk Down –Pietro Scalia
3. City of God –Daniel Rezende
4. United 93 –Richard Pearson, Claire Douglas, Christopher Rouse
5. Munich –Michael Kahn
6. No End in Sight –Chad Beck & Cindy Lee
7. No Country for Old Men –The Coen Brothers
8. Dear Zachary: A Letter to A Son About His Father –Kurt Kuenne
9. Traffic –Stephen Mirrione
10. The Hurt Locker –Chris Innis & Bob Murawski
BEST CAST ENSEMBLE
1. Traffic
2. Syriana
3. Revolutionary Road
4. Wonder Boys
5. Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
1. There Will Be Blood
2. The Fountain
3. Ratatouille
4. Wall-E
5. Mulholland Drive
BEST ART/SET DIRECTION
1. Children of Men
2. Russian Ark
3. The Fall
4. The Cell
5. Pan’s Labyrinth
BEST SOUND
1. Black Hawk Down
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Master and Commander: The Far Side of The World
4. The Lives of Others
5. Apocalypto
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
1. Waking Life
2. A Scanner Darkly
3. Sin City
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. King Kong
WORST PICTURE OF THE DECADE
1. Redacted
2. Cabin Fever
3. 2001: A Space Travesty
4. Enough
5. You Got Served
6. Grandma’s Boy
7. Eye of The Beholder
8. 3000 Miles to Graceland
9. Drag Me To Hell
10. Dragonfly
Chillin'
Good list.. you've actually reminded me of a few that I desperately need to watch. I can't believe the decade's almost over.
Great list. I'm shocked to see Up In The Air rise this quick. I may be seeing it on the 2nd at the E St. cinema in DC if I can get out of work early.
I need to check out Narc, The Fountain, George Washington and Brick at some point.
Awesome. Glad to see shout-outs to Linklater, Meirelles, Waking Life, Black Snake Moan, In The Bedroom, High Fidelity and Almost Famous - many of these will appear on my list as well. Very extensive work - good job! I'm gonna wait another month before making mine, though...!