Shooting Down Pictures - Latest Comments in Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Selene Fierro — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:04:05 -0000

So here’s a list of the most likely English language films for me to
rewatch from 2000, and some acknowledgements of those who’ve already
endorsed some of the titles. Please vote for JUST ONE that you think is
most worthy of being on a top ten list of all films from this decade.
I’ll make a decision by the end of the week…

http://www.karmaloopcouponc...

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Car Insurance Comparison — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:17:40 -0000

Fantastic is the word, recently watched it and found it really very interesting, I would watch it again!

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Eric Eiserloh — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:17:26 -0000

Haven't seen House Of Mirth, and while I enjoyed most of the others to some degree or another (though perhaps not as much as Snatch), Dancer In The Dark is by far the most daring and original, and a film every film lover needs to see, and I'm not sure I can say that about the rest.

For foreign films in 2000, I would say definitely say that about Mood For Love, but was also very impressed by Amores Perros, and Code Unknown, and even Together, among others.... still hoping to to see Werckmeister Harmonies, and Yurika one day soon.....

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

alsolikelife — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:12:08 -0000

My personal favorite - and perhaps the only Von Trier film I'll stand behind at this point - is Breaking the Waves, for somehow managing to wield an unflinching critical faculty towards its own devastating melodrama even as it unleashes it on the audience. I suppose one could make the same case for Dancer in the Dark, but I mostly I remember the film drowning in a sea of gimmickry. The part where the cop gets bashed in the head with a money box was I guess the tipping point, never mind the 100 cameras (about 99 more than anyone really needs to make a masterpiece).

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

vadim — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:43:40 -0000

Mm. I guess I think that to categorize all of Von Trier's work as of one piece is kind of a mistake; I think Dancer in the Dark is fantastic, but find Dogville interesting only kind of abstractly. Dancer In The Dark is Von Trier's most viscerally brutal and effective movie, though in service of what is debatable. I'd take Zooropa (or whatever it's called these days) and The Kingdom over that first, honestly.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Matt Noller — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:10:02 -0000

Vadim: My vote is for Dancer in the Dark, as well.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

alsolikelife — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:24:52 -0000

I've lost enthusiasm for von trier over the decade. Dogville was a top ten of it's year for me but now I have no desire to revisit it. Same goes for haneke. But as always I'm open to persuasion.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

vadim — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:45:00 -0000

I'm the only person who'd even consider Dancer In The Dark? Wow.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Greg — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:09:07 -0000

I think that the main problem with Traffic is its huge range of interests don't allow it to look at any in-depth. The huge amount of characters don't allow us to get close to any of them. Dennis Quaid gets some top billing, his character gets a floaty head on the poster, but after seeing the film twice I still have no idea what the hell his character was about.

The relationships between the characters suffer from this. You never get a true sense of the relationship between, say, Wakefield and his wife, Rodriguez and his partner, Caroline and Seth, beyond the artificial (they are fighting/they are friends/he gives her drugs). What we're seeing are types occasionally bumping into each other, and that just doesn't engage me.

The same lack of focus falls on any kind of theme or message. The nearest we really get to something is in the middle of the film, when Wakefield visits the border and we get a series of lectures that basically amount to "it's kind of a hopeless situation" and leaves it at that. That sums up the movie for me: lecture points. Drugs are bad (though we never really see why drugs are bad), Mexican drug dealers are evil (in the most unspecified ways), and that's about it.

Requiem is microcosmic compared to Traffic: four characters, three apartments, you could almost turn it into a chamber play if you found a way to make it work without the hip hop montages (more on those in a sec). This sharper focus allows me more interest in the characters' highs (hardy har har)and lows (which is not to say that these characters are super deep, but deeper then Traffic).

But what really puts the film in the win catagory for me is the point of it all: the symbology we use for drug addiction is inadequate, it's either grossly inaccurate (Reefer Madness) or isn't powerful enough (in Traffic, Caroline basically becomes a hobo-zombie or something and Seth is just a prick). What Aronofsky does is boil drug addiction down to it's strongest symbols and presents them via hip hop montage: pills in hand, pills in mouth, eyes widen, let's watch TV.

I guess I should boil it down too: Requiem is specific, Traffic is not, and I much rather prefer specific.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Greg — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:06:13 -0000

That.... is not something I considered before... :/

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Bob Turnbull — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:48:51 -0000

I'll chip in a vote for "Almost Famous". In many ways it's comfort food for me - the topic (damn I wanted to be that kid), the music, the flow and pace of the film - but I think Crowe was really hitting on all cylinders in how he presented things. The cut from the young William Miller spinning "Tommy" for the first time to him three years later fully engrossed in the music always gives me some goose bumps (OK, Townsend's music helps in that regard too). The little details (the backstage conversation about loving the little things in music like "Woos" and mistakes) and bits of humour (Russell Hammond nodding Yes to go to a local party while Miller is shaking his head No) are everywhere. Even the music for the band Stillwater was perfect - exactly what you would hear from a "mid-level band": the couple of FM radio tunes that get replays and the, ahem, deeper cuts from the album.

And the performances and characters are superb.

The best of the year? No idea. I love it though.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Matt Parker — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:27:36 -0000

Traffic - although truthfully I like both of them in spite of their didacticism. Why do you like Requiem more than Traffic?

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

alsolikelife — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:51:29 -0000

I won't comment as to their overall quality, but one social lesson that both films hammered home was that drugs are the surest route to white girls having illicit sex with black men. Viva D.W. Griffith!

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Greg — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:45:27 -0000

Curious, as 2000's two big "drug movies," which do you think was a better take on the subject?

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

boudu — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:04:15 -0000

It is Robert Hare, not David

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Matt Parker — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:35:43 -0000

Traffic and Requiem are close seconds in my book :-)

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

alsolikelife — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:45:55 -0000

well I originally intended this to be just for American films, since I was surprised that there weren't any American films I was crazy about from 2000 (usually there's at least one). But then I cast the gaze further to all films in English and still nothing. (except now I've been reminded of Esther Kahn).

I love BARKING DOGS as well, though I'm more excited about revisiting MEMORIES OF MURDER. At any rate Bong Joon-ho is the Korean director most likely to make my list.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

alsolikelife — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:39:56 -0000

I didn't realize this was from 2000, and you know what, it's one I've been meaning to revisit, so it gets a slot. That leaves room for just one more...

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

John Murdoch — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:17:54 -0000

Memento.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

boudu — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:07:32 -0000

Your mind works in mysterious ways, Kevin: I don't know why you divide the movies by language, such an 'Academic' distinction, in the worse sense of the word (Academic). I've already voted for American Psycho, a movie that has the rare quality of being a great movie based on a great book, and that includes in the title (and his central character is an example of) the concept of Psycho, something formalized by Psychologist David Hare, in what could be one of the greatest discoveries of the twenty century. Besides that, I'm with Mr. Kerpan,: don't forget Barking Dogs Never Bite, a movie that I have put in my top 20 of best movies ever made. But my mind works in mysterious ways, also.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Sean — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:55:16 -0000

Absolutely, House of Mirth. Would make my own list of a dozen or so this decade.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

John — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:42:43 -0000

Talk about another case of over-using scare quotes.

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

chris — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:40:59 -0000

Traffic...since Im only allowed to pick one

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

c mason wells — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:21:00 -0000

Well, I'll second the vote for ESTHER KAHN, but HOUSE OF MIRTH is far and away the best movie on that list. I've always been taken with Kent Jones's immediate reaction after he saw it: "Wow, what a movie!"

Re: Best of the Decade Derby POLL: Best English language film from 2000

Gareth — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:04:58 -0000

Though there are occasional moments that make me cringe a little, the one I've enjoyed on repeat viewings is "Almost Famous," with the performances becoming more and more wonderful with time.

Not on the list, but well worth of a look (a re-look) is Andrew Dominik's Australian debut "Chopper," which is very interesting to see in parallel with his (longer in every sense) "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." Both films are deeply concerned with the nature of fame and notoriety, as well as with violent people who want to have a certain degree of social acceptance.