Because Jacob Made Me!

We are coming up on the Film Review special at work and Jacob had mentioned that he was considering putting together a "Best of the Decade" since they are popping up around the interweb. Initially I was against it because the decade truly ends in 2011... however including 2000 allows me to drop in some of my favorite films and I love lists (who doesn't?)

First things first; this list will probably change in like 5 years when I finally see all the flicks I've missed over the last two or three years. Now... chow on this:

P@'s Top Ten Films of the 00's

2) Almost Famous (2000)
3) DiG! (2004)
4) Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
5) Once (2008)
9) Snatch (2000)

A quick explanation:

Eternal Sunshine ~ not only does this flick have some of the coolest visuals I've ever seen but the story is rock solid, the acting is perfect across the board, and just mentioning the title makes me want to pop in the DVD. Also, kudos to Jim Carrey's last good movie.

Almost Famous ~ Hard to believe this came out in 2000. How can you argue with how good this film is? If you have ever been in a band you know the dynamics at play here. If you have ever been a music junkie you know what the main character is going thru. Plus the directors cut is incredible. Should have won the Oscar.

DiG! ~ Just watch it and tell me it's not incredible.

Happy-Go-Luck ~ I love the main character. So much fun and a non hollywood story. I watched this three nights in a row.

Once ~ Again, if you've been in a band, a songwriter, or had your heart broken you know what's up with this guy. And the tunes? please, incredible.

Lost in Translation ~ This may be the trendiest film of the decade and I can't escape it. The soundtrack amazing and it helped remind everyone that Bill Murray is possible the greatest living actor- Definitely the greatest to come from Chicago.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind ~ I love spy movies, this one has Sam Rockwell and George Clooney it's too bad it has Julia. So good, so fun, great visuals

Inglorious Basterds ~ I had to include something QT and this film wins based on the incredible performance from the bad guy and Tarantino's willingness to take the script where it needed to go. I love when a film puts a cherry on top with its final scene and Basterds is Example A with this films closing scene.

Snatch ~ I love the script and character interplay in this film. Plus it comes off as a heist film even though the heist is less than 10% of the film. Plus similar to Basterds the happy ending is exactly where the plot needed to go. Also, one of the few films I like with voice over carrying the plot.

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? ~ Simliar to Basterds there was no way I was gonna keep the Coen's out of this list but for my money they haven't really produced a show stopper in the last 10 years. Miller's Crossing is still my personal favorite and I am just waiting for them to top it. Oh Brother is great stylization, soundtrack, story telling, and the film that turned me around on Clooney (along with Ocean's 11). So many great quotables.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This book should not exist

Image
It's late on a mid-October 2015 night and I am struggling with whether I should buy a $1,200 last-minute ticket to California to be with my family for my mother's emergency brain surgery. A week prior everyone was together in my house for an adventurous weekend climbing a wind turbine and celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday, now we are on the eve of my mom going under the gamma knife for emergency brain surgery. Turns out she has a size-able tumor growing on the surface of her brain.   It's a bit of miracle that the tumor was discovered in the first place as my mom's routine cancer screenings didn't usually include brain scans; however, she had been complaining of blurry vision and balance issues, plus she had become quite irritable having been pushed to take FMLA from work to deal with what she thought was post-cancer "brain fog." Thankfully her doctor had the good sense to add it all up and include her brain in her next cancer scan. Sure enou...
Read more

Finding "Clarity" in 1999

Image
I distinctly remember Tuesday, February 23, 1999. I was still living in Iowa and immediately after school let out I road with a friend to Best Buy so he could pick up Eminem's freshly released second album. Always down for a hang, I road along as there was one album I had read about and wanted to see if it was in stores. That album was Jimmy Eat World's Clarity . On the ride home I didn't bother asking to put in my purchase as my friend was not a rock fan. So for the next hour or so of cruising we blasted Slim Shady at painful volumes. For those uninitiated, this was the "Hi! My name is (ticka ticka) Slim Shady" album. I was indifferent to rap so it got a little long and tiresome by roughly the third time through the album. When I finally listened to Clarity it underwhelmed. Nothing on the album is lyrically hook centered on kinetically riff focused like later Jimmy Eat World releases. For a 16 year-old ska and pop punk super fan, Clarity go...
Read more

My Favorite Creative

Image
As I type this two drastically different things are happening; I'm in California for a film festival and my mother, Linda Boberg, is lying in a Des Moines hospice bed. In fact she started hospice care the day I flew out here. As you can imagine, I'm experiencing quite the emotional tug of war. When you have a kid you commonly examine where they get certain traits. I've always been able to parse that I get my emotional, empathetic tendencies from my mother and my pragmatic, compartmentalizing skills from my Dad (another raging tug of war at the moment). This list could go on forever, but one thing I've never fully understood is where my creative drive came from. Now with the writing on the wall, it's obvious my mom flipped the creativity switch. It wasn't until my Mom self-published a novel at 65 years old that I understood how creative she is. In the last three years she's self published half a dozen books and written many more. Her first bout of cancer in 2...
Read more