Anyway, here are my top ten…nah, screw it—twelve favorite movies of the decade just completed, i.e., 2000-2009.

1. Dogville (2004)

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   Mike D’Angelo, The Man Who Viewed Too Much:

   Inevitably, von Trier’s spartan aesthetic has American critics citing Our Town, but in both method and spirit Dogville has much more in common with Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan (written in Denmark, ironically), another sorrowful disquisition on the mercenary aspects of human nature. Anything this ostentatiously artificial demands to be read as allegory, of course, and charges of anti-Americanism aren’t entirely groundless — certainly the film is very, very critical of the way that the U.S. treats its underclass, and to argue that Von Trier isn’t entitled to feel that disgust without having set foot in the continental 48 is patently absurd.

2. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

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   Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader:
   

   If Capturing the Friedmans were less shapely and less of a masterpiece, I’d find it less troubling. Both times I’ve seen it I’ve felt that by the end practically everyone associated with the film seems tarnished in one way or another: the ostensible subjects (the Friedmans, an upper-middle-class Jewish family in the Long Island town of Great Neck), the members of their community who helped destroy much of their lives, the filmmakers, and the audience. We’re all tainted by the graphic exposure of family wounds, diminished by what we think and feel–and by what we don’t think and don’t feel.

3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003)

   
   Trailers: Fellowship Towers Return
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   Jeffrey Chen, LVJeffrey’s Window to the Movies:

   Thinking about this trilogy, I ponder over the strange dynamics of its journey to the screen. Peter Jackson and his team of wizards had already set themselves up with the first two movies — they were instantly beloved, receiving more praise from critics and public alike than most movies could ever dream of having. Naturally, the demand would be for the third episode to match the same heights. Even if Jackson only needed to deliver a movie that simply met expectations, he’d already have to create something quite special. Thus, the successful effectiveness of the final film should be an astonishing feat — we anticipate nothing less. It’s like putting Jackson on a golf course and telling him 18 hole-in-ones is par for the course.

   But he did it.

4. Before Sunset (2004)

   
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   Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club:

   When Hawke first beckoned Delpy off the train in [this film's 1995 prequel] Before Sunrise, he lured her with a half-sincere, half-smoke-and-mirrors speech about how she should take a chance or else feel some doubt in her romantic future. Though it seemed like a harmless come-on at the time, those words carry an achingly ironic resonance in Before Sunset, when the renewed pleasure they take in each other’s company only deepens their regret about where life has steered them. Shooting in long takes, [director Richard] Linklater and his actors (who get co-screenwriting credit) allow the conversation to curlicue effortlessly from literate banter to matters of the heart, and sometimes to places in between. And, in the spirit of the original, Linklater closes with one of the best endings of its kind since George Romero’s Martin.

5. Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) (2006)

   
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   Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times:

   [Writer/director Florian Henckel] von Donnersmarck has set his film in the East Germany of 1984, five years before the Berlin Wall collapsed. It was a time when the terrifying Stasi, the secret police, made it their business to use an extensive network of spies and surveillance to know every secret thing about their citizens. Unlike other German films, most notably 2004′s landmark Goodbye, Lenin, Lives is hardly an exercise in what’s called “Ostalgia”–nostalgia for the good old days of the East. Instead it is an inside look at how a surveillance society, set up to discover and prey upon human weakness, has the ability to make everyone a potential suspect and destroy everything it touches. The Lives of Others does all this beautifully, but it is too well-acted a film, too meticulously plotted and carefully directed, to be satisfied with that alone. It’s also finally too smart to be content with telling anything like a familiar story.

6. Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mama Too) (2002)

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   Peter Rainer, New York Magazine:

   We’ve all seen (or consciously avoided seeing) plenty of Hollywood comedies about horny teens, but the two Mexican 17-year-olds in this film, Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael García Bernal), are perhaps the freest and most closely observed of their species to ever grace the screen. Y Tu Mamá También is like a Bill-and-Ted movie made by a true artist, and this in itself is a great joke.

7. Mulholland Dr. (2001)

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   Bryant Frazer, Deep Focus:

   Mulholland Dr. could be described as a movie about a dream about Hollywood. The audio design, credited to [writer/director David] Lynch, throbs with amplified ambient sound that suggests not just the ever-present noise of the city, but also, by literally surrounding the viewer, the expansive and unexplored spaces inside one’s own head. The helicopter shots peering straight down between skyscrapers as the booming sound of the city fills the movie theater are incredibly eerie, capturing the uneasy feeling of being alone, downtown, in the middle of the night.

   In collaboration with cinematographer Michael Deming, Lynch bathes his images in unease. His camera can best be described as floating, often moving vertically within a scene and looking down upon the characters, or sucking us forward into a point-of-view that we’re not sure we want to share.

8. Traffic (2000)

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   Jeff Vorndam, AboutFilm.com:

   What Traffic achieves, and what makes it a great, landmark film is that it acknowledges our culpability and how at odds we are with the avowed intent to eradicate drugs. Our society creates this problem with its insatiable demand for drugs, be they heroin, alcohol, tobacco, or diet pills. We love the stuff, and refusing to look ourselves in the eye short-circuits any plans to attack the side effects. One should ask, after viewing the film, if the side effects should be attacked at all, or if efforts are better spent treating the necessary ills that accompany our thirsts.

   I’m speaking in this broad sense because that’s where the film is strongest. I’ve read the complaints about the story timeline and the portrayals of certain characters, and they are not without merit, but in the end they make little difference to me because the totality of the film is so utterly moving. Some have said it’s not telling us anything we didn’t already know about the War on Drugs. Well, The Insider didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know about smoking–which is to say, it’s beside the point.

   Traffic isn’t a message movie, it’s a movie about a state of being. It’s about being hopelessly incapable of affecting real change. It’s a state of besiegement, frustration, and resignation. Finally, it is a state of dogged optimism.

9. Bloody Sunday (2002)

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   MaryAnn Johanson, The Flick Filosopher:

   On a gray January Sunday in 1972, in Derry, Northern Ireland, British soldiers opened fire with live ammunition on unarmed, peaceful demonstrators, killing 13. Shocking and visceral, writer/director Paul Greengrass’s documentary-style re-creation of the horrifying events of that day pulls no punches, bluntly depicting the powder-keg atmosphere of the city: the disquieting enthusiasm of the British troops on the streets, tired of taking the brunt of local ire and itching for a fight; the disdain of the British major general on the scene (Tim Pigott-Smith, weaselly perfection), dismissing civil-rights protestors as “hooligans”; the zeal of the people of Derry, led by the local MP (James Nesbitt, energetic and passionate), unwilling to back down in their own city.

10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

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    Vern, Then Fuck You, Jack: The Life and Art of Vern:

    To me the highly acclaimed picture Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not so much about fighting as it is about love and woman empowerment and graceful movement. It’s more like a musical or one a them tapdancing movies they made back then with all the singing and umbrellas and what not. And I ain’t making excuses like the other critics, because I’d RATHER say it was a kung fu movie, and I loved it. But facts are facts, and this is a tap dancing movie. I ain’t complainin though cause it’s the best tap dancing movies I seen in years.

    My man [Chow Yun] Fat gets to perform stunts like I never seen him before, because he’s doing all kinds of kung fu and great swordsmanshipping. In case you don’t know not all chinese dudes know kung fu, and I never seen Fat do it before. Always using guns. Maybe a punch now and then but very rarely kicking. Here he’s flyin around like a god damn superman, flippin the swords around like WHISH WHISH WHISH and who the fuck even KNOWS what some a those weapons are called that he’s using. These guys know how to USE the things, we americans can’t even NAME them. That’s how far ahead of us Fat is.

    But like I said, this is a tapdancing movie. Not a Badass movie. And Fat is one fuck of a tapdancer.

11. Almost Famous (2000)

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    Dana Stevens, New York Times:

    In Almost Famous, a loose, affectionate look back on his earlier career as a teenage music journalist, [Cameron] Crowe has devoted a whole movie to the love of rock ‘n’ roll. The soul he lays open — a sweet, forgiving and generous one — is his own. The movie follows the adventures of William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a San Diego 15-year-old whose fairy-tale ascendance from nerdy schoolboy to Rolling Stone reporter mirrors Mr. Crowe’s own life story. But Mr. Crowe is less interested in biographical or historical literalism — he freely mixes real and fictional characters and prefers period atmosphere to period detail — than in evoking the joyful, reckless, earnest energy of rock in the years between 60′s idealism and punk nihilism.

    He may be the least cynical director working in Hollywood today. In his hands this coming-of-age story is as much about the preservation of William’s innocence as its loss; the music William loves protects him even as his involvement with it introduces him to all manner of worldly corruption.

12. You Can Count on Me (2000)

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    Nick Davis, Nick’s Flick Picks:

    Have I failed at all to make You Can Count on Me sound like the warm, hilarious, moving story it is? It is the sort of film which I so poignantly hope people will see that I wish there were a sure-fire way to motivate you. I could go on about the wonders worked by [Laura] Linney, [Mark] Ruffalo, and even the young [Rory] Culkin, who is easily the least precious and therefore most winning of his brood. They disappear so completely into their gorgeously written parts that no one seems to be acting, just being. The cast is so confident with their roles that Lonergan, a playwright and screenwriter (Analyze This) making a very assured debut as a director, takes them everywhere with equally persuasive results: broad comedy, light romance, fisticuffs, apologies.

A Few Stats About the Top 12

• Movies released 2005-2009: 1
• Single year with most films on the list: 2000 (4)
• Movies in a language other than English: 3
• English-language movies by non-US filmmakers: 3
• Movies I currently own on DVD: 6
• Of those, sweetest and most tricked-out DVD: The Lord of the Rings Platinum Series (Special Extended Edition)
• Cheeriest: Almost Famous
• Least cheery: Dogville
• Most likely to have been seen: The Lord of the Rings
• Least likely to have been seen: Probably Dogville, and will probably remain so (see above, “least cheery”)
• Baddest muthafucka: Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Longest above-the-line name: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, writer/director of The Lives of Others
• How arbitrary the numerical rankings feel to me upon reflection: very
• Reportedly awesome 2000-2009 movies I haven’t seen: dozens
• Close, but no cigar: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Rachel Getting Married, A History of Violence, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, 25th Hour, No Country for Old Men, Memento, The Hurt Locker, Little Children, The 40 Year Old Virgin, All the Real Girls, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Letters from Iwo Jima, Brokeback Mountain

So, how wrong am I? How suspect is my taste? Lay it on me in the comments.

Before you start wondering how I could have been involved in yet another auto accident, let me assure you that I meant that last statement was only a metaphor (and a cheap little pun). To be more straightforward, among the previews before Inside Man was one for Universal’s United 93. If you haven’t seen it you can do so here.

As the trailer ended, I did something I don’t think I’d ever done (at least, not in public) in response to a theatrical preview: I booed. It was a sharp, disapproving boo, and fairly loud. I was a little disheartened that no others joined in, but I took some solace in the sprinkling of snickers my booing induced. I wouldn’t normally think of being snickered at as a desirable thing, but these were not snickers in the “can you believe that idiot?” vein – rather, they were ironic. They were snickers of recognition. (Mmmm… Snickers of recognition… [drool])

What I found boo-worthy was the idea of an action movie about the events of September 11. Before I go further into the issue, I feel that I should emphasize that I have no intention of passing judgment on United 93 as a movie, for the (hopefully) obvious reason that I have not seen it. What I have seen is the trailer, the content of which gave me every indication the movie will be, in my view, exploitative. Much of the media brouhaha over the past couple of weeks has centered around the question, “is America ready for movies about 9/11?” I suspect that many others essentially share the answer I would give, which is, “Movies about 9/11? Sure. An action movie about 9/11? Ugh… that’s not funny.”

The manner in which Universal and the film’s creators have been handling the imbroglio has only reinforced my distaste. First, the manager of the AMC Loews Lincoln Square multiplex in New York City stopped running the United 93 preview in response to the complaints of offended patrons. Notice, if you will, Universal Marketing honcho Alan Fogelson’s hedging assertion that the trailer is inoffensive because it accurately reflects the movie as a whole. The quote is formed a little strangely, making me wonder if what he said was taken out of context and pieced together. In any case his reasoning doesn’t wash, for a few reasons:

1. Since when have the studios given a rat’s ass whether or not a trailer accurately represents the movie it is promoting? Any somewhat attentive movie patron has caught on to the increasing number of previews that completely misrepresent a film’s actual content or emphasis in order to appeal to the broadest possible demographic. So what’s he even saying here?
2. OK, fine — let’s say the preview is true to the movie. If the movie itself is offensive, then the preview is offensive too. I found the preview offensive, so you’ll understand if I have a strong suspicion that the whole movie would make me feel more of the same.

More egregious is Fogelson’s equating the occurrence at Lincoln Square to one where a theatre removed one-sheets for The 40 Year-Old Virgin because of a customer’s complaint. As we say here on the internet, wtf? Let’s consider this: on the one hand, you’ve got perhaps a few sanctimonious prigs who are all bent out of shape over the assumption that Hollywood is mocking the notion of virginity. On the other hand, you’ve got a group of New Yorkers watching a preview that contains TV footage of one of the planes hitting the World Trade Center, and hurtles through a series of quick, action-packed cuts, underscored by ominous music and touting itself as being from the director of The Bourne Supremacy. Pretty much every American who was old enough to comprehend the events of that day is still powerfully moved by them; most also have deeply-held feelings about 9/11′s continuing aftermath. It’s just… kind of not the same as a few people’s belief that middle-aged virginity is comedically off-limits.

Subsequent press stories on the subject — like this one, for example — make a lot out of the fact that the families of those who were killed on flight 93 gave permission for the film to be made, and for its release. In fact, the studio and the filmmakers are taking moral cover behind the families. United 93 director Paul Greengrass describes how the very very very first step they took to make the movie was to seek the families’ approval, declaring that after all, the families are the only ones with the right to make a moral judgment about such a film being made. All of which is, of course, total bullshit.

OF COURSE they needed the blessing of the families to make the movie. DUH! What were they going to do — make the movie over the families’ objections, and get sued into bankruptcy? The approval and editorial oversight of the families is a peripheral detail. Make no mistake: a major Hollywood studio does not make a movie in order to cozy up to a single group of maybe a couple hundred people (the one exception being if group in question is the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). The only endorsement they care about is that of the conceptual Joe Moviegoer, expressed by his showing up and buying a ticket. Preferably during the movie’s opening weekend.

Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center has thus far provided less concrete fodder for speculation. In theory, it doesn’t sound like an exploitative premise, per se — two Port Authority cops fight to survive, trapped in the rubble of Twin Towers. To be honest, my first thought was, “Hmm… doesn’t sound particularly cinematic. Two guys trapped in one spot for days on end? Might work better as a play.” The movie’s long cast list on IMDB suggests that they went another way with it. The presence of Oliver Stone’s name on any movie is enough for many people to start prepping their ire hoses; presumably their ranks will grow when it’s a movie related to 9/11. I don’t share such apprehension: yes, Stone is a provocateur, but he doesn’t indulge in provocation for its own sake. Even films of his that I haven’t liked overall (Natural Born Killers, The Doors) demonstrate that he’s a filmmaker who can be counted on to have a distinct point of view. On the other hand, the release date of August 11th seems a little more than coincidental. I’m crossing my fingers that he and Paramount don’t trot out a cheesily manipulative preview, complete with some of that news footage of the buildings coming down. Just what we all need.