The Decade Remembered will be my series of pieces where I will do a top ten for each year from 2000 – 2009 with it ending with the complete Top Ten of the Decade to come.  After 2000, 2001 , 2002, 2003 ,2004 , 2005, 2006 and then came 2007:

TEN – Charlie Wilson’s War

Who Directed it? Mike Nichols

Did It Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? In the infamous words of Charlie Wilson “you can teach ’em to type but you can’t teach ’em to grow tits” .  This movie is hysterical and at the same time informative since it is actually the what happened behind the American support of the Afghanistan v. Russia war.  It also reminded me that Julia Roberts still looks hot in a bathing suit.

NINE – Atonement

Who Directed it? Joe Wright

Did it Win Anything? 1 Academy Award (Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures/Original Score), 2 BAFTA Awards (Best Film, Best Production Design), 2 Golden Globes (Best Film – Drama, Best Original Score – Motion Picture)

Why Do I Love It? Many who’ve seen this film have complained about the slightly wasteful first hour of the movie and while I will agree that it is kind of strange that the main story of the movie takes that long to get going, but once you get past that this movie is a wonderful joy to watch.  It is one of my favourite movies of 2007 from a great story about how the war separated true love and how a little girl made a mistake and tries to redeem herself.

EIGHT – Grindhouse

Who Directed it? Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Taratino

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? This is a double feature that I couldn’t help but fall in love with.  First you have Planet Terror a over the top action zombie film where our main girl loses a leg and eventually has it replaced with a huge machine gun (as shown above), and then after an appropriately hilarious faux intermission you are treated to Death Proof which is one of the most underrated films of tihs year.  Death Proof is exactly what a Tarantino film should be, hot women, fast cars and a 30 minute long heart pumping chase sequence between two stunt drivers.  Tarantino is still my favourite because he knows how to make fun characters for the screen and Stuntman Mike remains one of my favourites.

SEVEN – Knocked Up

Who Directed It? Judd Apatow

Did It Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Everyone has seen the one night stand movie where the leads get drunk and do it.  Well this time the lady got pregnant and realized that she may have made a big mistake because the guy she slept with was a not so attractive, illegal immigrant that is unemployed, Seth Rogen (not the ideal mate).  Here is the first great raunchy romcom that I think I ever saw.  It actually made me an Apatow fan rather than one of those many guys and girls who are still on the fence about him and his type of comedy.  I love especially some of the smaller roles in this movie played by people such as: Jay Baruchel, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Harold Ramis, Alan Tudyk and Kristen Wiig.  Since the main point of comedy is to make you laugh and I almost died from lack of breathing while watching this movie, I guess it wins.

SIX – I’m Not There

Who Directed it? Todd Haynes

Did it Win Anything? 1 Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Cate Blanchett)

Why Do I Love it? I’m not exactly the greatest Bob Dylan fan (yes I was born in the 80s not the 50s), however I do appreciate it a lot.  Some of it is the kind of music which made some of my favourite bands of today able to do what they do now.  I loved the approach of the director by deciding to split up the role of Bob Dylan into these six different characters because his music really felt like it was done by different people dependent on which song/album/decade you were listening to.  Even though Blanchett and Ledger were my favourite of all the Dyalns I did love all of the segments in all.

FIVE – Into the Wild

Who Directed it? Sean Penn

Did it Win Anything? 1 Golden Globe (Best Original Song – Motion Picture: Eddie Vedder “Guaranteed”)

Why Do I Love It? I guess the character and bravery of Alexander Supertramp (yes I prefer that name) to go out of the world we all know and love (or hate) and be one with nature.  Sometimes it’s odd how sad and depressing our society is and this film reminded me of it.  Having to follow all of these societal rules which say that THIS is the way that you have to go to get to that end and you ahve to successful and none of it ever includes your own happiness.  It seems to me that sometimes all of our gains barely ever bring us happiness until we are 80 and retired (and that is in the rare cases).  It’s a touching tale and I still love every moment of it.

FOUR – Eastern Promises

Who Directed it? David Cronenberg

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? I love mobster films and I don’t think I had ever seen the tale of the Russian mafia on the other side of town in dark brooding London.  Viggo Mortenson gives another stellar performance that almost makes me sad that only one person can win the best acting awards each year because this is really one of my favourite characters and performances of the year.

THREE – Zodiac

Who Directed it? David Fincher

Did It Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Sad admission, I never actually knew anything about this story prior to watching this movie.  I’m a huge fan of David Fincher (he also directed Fight Club, Se7en as well as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and his technical style of filmmaking.  This is one of those few movies which proves to me that you can have CGI in a movie and it not be noticable at all.  Fincher is always so detailed in his movies and it makes me so intrigued everytime I see Jake Gyllenhaal jump into his car in the San Fran that I say in films like Dirty Harry.  Some films try to show you a world that once was and some transport you there, this one transports you there without even telling you and you won’t even know you’ve been gone until the movie is over and the lights turn back on you’re happy to know that you don’t have to worry about this serial killer or be afraid of what they were back then.

TWO – There Will Be Blood

Who Directed it? Paul Thomas Anderson

Did it Win Anything? 2 Academy Awards (Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis),  1 BAFTA Award (Best Leading Performance: Daniel Day-Lewis), 1 Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis)

Why Do I Love It? So when you think about the oil industry I’m sure you think about a tale of a greedy businessman who moves from town to town setting up prospects and trying to overthrow the current power in town (i.e. the church) so as to be able to enjoy the franchise that he always wanted.  Hmmm… do you?  Well this movie takes place there and it happens to be one of the most interesting and darkest characters doing the running up and down.  He will smile in your face until he knows he can crush you without any trouble from the locals.  Also the relationship between him and his adopted son makes for a great character point, especially when you note how and when he lets him go and come back and go again.

ONE – No Country for Old Men

Who Directed it? Joel & Ethan Coen

Did it Win Anything? 4 Academy Awards (Best Achievement in Directing, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Javier Bardem, Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published),  3 BAFTA Awards (Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem), 2 Golden Globes (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Motion Picture: Javier Bardem, Best Screenplay – Motion Picture)

Why Do I Love It? This movies works on so many levels.  Cormac McCarthy seems to know how to create characters that are true to life itself.  In a time between this and the old west in a town that never seemed to figure out that cowboys are no more a man stumbles upon a satchel of money and there is a man looking for it and gets wind of him.  With a killer after you what do you do but run.  However, this man on the run isn’t your run of the mill man, he knows how to fight and this brings about one of the best cat and mouse tales that I’ve seen in a long while.  I love how the movie has little to no scoring and how most of these characters talk.  To this day I always look for the right opportunity to quote Tommy Lee Jones’ character with the line “if it ain’t it’ll do until the mess gets here”.  For anyone who’s a western fan or someone who’s never seen one this is the movie to watch.