Honorable Mentions

Here is a list of the runners-up for my Top 15 films of the aughts:

About Schmidt (2002) and Sideways (2004)
Directed by Alexander Payne. Written by Payne and Jim Taylor.

Adaptation (2002) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Directed by Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, respectively. Written by Charlie Kaufman.

Babel (2006)
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Written by Guillermo Arriaga.

Before Sunset (2004)
Directed by Richard Linklater. Written by Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Kim Krizan.

Big Fish (2003)
Directed by Tim Burton. Written by John August.

Children of Men (2006)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Written by Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby.

Doubt (2008)
Directed and written by John Patrick Shanley.

Gosford Park (2001)
Directed by Robert Altman. Written by Julian Fellowes.

Rescue Dawn (2006)
Directed and written by Werner Herzog.

Match Point (2005)
Directed and written by Woody Allen.

Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce.

The Pledge (2001)
Directed by Sean Penn. Written by Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski.

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2002)
Directed by Jill Sprecher. Written by Karen and Jill Sprecher.

Vanilla Sky (2001)
Directed and written by Cameron Crowe.

Wall-E (2008) and Up (2009)
Wall-E: Directed by Andrew Stanton. Written by Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Pete Docter.
Up: Directed and written by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson.

Wonder Boys (2000)
Directed by Curtis Hanson. Written by Steven Kloves.

Zodiac (2007)
Directed by David Fincher. Written by James Vanderbilt.

My sincere thanks to all of those who followed this semester-long countdown; it was the most fun I've had blogging in my two years here at Caméra-Stylo. The new millennium may not have started with one of the greatest decades for contemporary U. S. fiction film, but these picks mean a lot to me personally, and I think any decade that offers a crop of this caliber is a great one. I began the project with the following quote from Pauline Kael: "A mistake in judgment isn't fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is."

To close, as I look forward to reading other reflections on and evaluations of cinema over the last ten years, I'll leave you with this quote from Tom Gunning: "As a historian I think this is a good thing to do; not to indicate what the timeless masterpieces are, but to give a sense of history for our evaluations. Values are mutable, but that's the point. They change and have the power to change."

#1 The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

Directed by Tommy Lee Jones. Written by Guillermo Arriaga.

Trailer

Yes, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is the best U.S. fiction film of the aughts, which, despite its eccentricities, reaches near perfection. Quiet, lyrical, and at times darkly funny, this modern-day Western follows aging Texas rancher Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) on his quixotic ride across the border to bury his friend, Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cedillo), in his home town. Spurring attention from the local law, Pete kidnaps the U.S. border patrolman who shot Melquiades, Mike Norton (Barry Pepper), so that the man can give him a proper burial near his family in Mexico.

Jones directed the film and went on to pick up the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, while Guillermo Arriaga won for his nonlinear screenplay. Reminiscent of John Sayles’s Lone Star (1996), Three Burials wisely addresses contemporary political issues in the U.S. (specifically what has been called “The Great Immigration Panic”), but without ever seeming like an “issue movie.” The film is primarily about the multifaceted relationships among its characters, which also includes Belmont (Dwight Yoakam), the ineffectual sheriff back in Texas, Rachel (Melissa Leo), the married waitress sleeping with Pete and Belmont, and Lou Ann (January Jones), Mike’s neglected wife. Balancing real, perceptive moments of social life with the magical stuff we can only get from the movies, or from dreams, this is a feverish film of aching beauty and sad ironies that only comes along once in a decade.

Read Jonathan Rosenbaum’s review in the Chicago Reader

#2 In the Bedroom (2001)

#3 There Will Be Blood (2007)

#4 The Dark Knight (2008)

#5 Gangs of New York (2002)

#6 No Country for Old Men (2007)

#7 Munich (2005)

#8 Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

#9 Mulholland Dr. (2001)

#10 [tie] The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Casino Royale (2006)

#11 Road to Perdition (2002)

#12 Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

#13 Public Enemies (2009)

#14 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

#15 Snow Angels (2008)

About the list

#2 In the Bedroom (2001)

Directed by Todd Field. Written by Robert Festinger and Field.

Trailer

This jagged-edged chamber piece reflects loss, grief, blame, and, finally, desperate vengeance with more heartrending detail than any film in recent memory. Actor Todd Field made his feature debut with In the Bedroom as screenwriter (with Robert Festinger) and director, adapting Andre Dubus’s short story “Killings” and capturing a sense of place with his Maine fishing town as if he’d lived there is whole life. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson will knock you off your seat as a middle-aged couple trying to heal the emotional wounds left by an unspeakable event.

Eschewing sentimentality and plot-driven melodrama, Field and Festinger are all about looks, expressions, and verbal cues among friends and families that communicate volumes and totally absorb. They know these characters—and so do we. The haunting, regional atmosphere reminds me of some of my favorites from the 1990s: Sling Blade (1996), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and A Simple Plan (1998). When it cools, the film is an apparently simple tone poem on the everyday, but when it boils, the film explodes with raw and at times shocking emotions.

Read Roger Ebert’s review in the Chicago Sun-Times

#3 There Will Be Blood (2007)

#4 The Dark Knight (2008)

#5 Gangs of New York (2002)

#6 No Country for Old Men (2007)

#7 Munich (2005)

#8 Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

#9 Mulholland Dr. (2001)

#10 [tie] The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Casino Royale (2006)

#11 Road to Perdition (2002)

#12 Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

#13 Public Enemies (2009)

#14 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

#15 Snow Angels (2008)

About the list