The Decade List: #61-80

61. The Tulse Luper Suitcases / d. Peter Greenaway / 2003-2004 / UK/Netherlands/Spain/Luxumbourg/Italy/Hungary/Russia/Germany

62. Grizzly Man / d. Werner Herzog / 2005 / USA

63. United 93 / d. Paul Greengrass / 2006 / France/UK/USA

64. Taxidermia / d. György Pálfi / 2006 / Hungary/Austria/France

65. Mean Girls / d. Mark Waters / 2004 / USA

66. Julia / d. Erick Zonca / 2008 / France/USA/Mexico/Belgium

67. In the Mood for Love / d. Wong Kar-wai / 2000 / Hong Kong/France

68. The Mother / d. Roger Michell / 2003 / UK

69. demonlover / d. Olivier Assayas / 2002 / France

70. The Son [Le fils] / d. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne / 2002 / Belgium/France

71. The Holy Girl [La niña santa] / d. Lucrecia Martel / 2004 / Argentina/Spain/Italy/Netherlands

72. La France / d. Serge Bozon / 2007 / France

73. A Hole in My Heart [Ett hål i mitt hjärta] / 2004 / d. Lukas Moodysson / Sweden/Denmark

74. Rachel Getting Married / 2008 / d. Jonathan Demme / USA

75. Under the Sand [Sous le sable] / 2000 / d. François Ozon / France

76. Go Go Tales / 2007 / d. Abel Ferrara / Italy/USA

77. The Return / 2003 / d. Andrei Zvyagintsev / Russia

78. Glue / 2006 / d. Alexis Dos Santos / Argentina/UK

79. Inside [À l'intérieur] / d. Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury / 2007 / France

80. Ploy / d. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang / 2007 / Thailand

The Decade List: #81-100

81. The Heart of the World / d. Guy Maddin / 2000 / Canada

82. George Washington / d. David Gordon Green / 2000 / USA

83. La fidélité / d. Andrzej Żuławski / 2000 / France

84. Trouble Every Day / d. Claire Denis / 2001 / France/Germany/Japan

85. The Bourne Supremacy / d. Paul Greengrass / 2004 / USA/Germany

86. Mysterious Skin / d. Gregg Araki / 2004 / USA/Netherlands

87. My Summer of Love / d. Paweł Pawlikowski / 2004 / UK

88. Finding Nemo / d. Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich / 2003 / USA

89. Tony Manero / d. Pablo Larraín / 2008 / Chile/Brazil

90. The Company / d. Robert Altman / 2003 / USA/Germany

91. Hedwig and the Angry Inch / d. John Cameron Mitchell / 2001 / USA

92. Happy-Go-Lucky / d. Mike Leigh / 2008 / UK

93. The Proposition / d. John Hillcoat / 2006 / Australia/UK

94. Y tu mamá también / d. Alfonso Cuarón / 2001 / Mexico

95. Tiresia / d. Bertrand Bonello / 2003 / France/Canada

96. Half Nelson / d. Ryan Fleck / 2006 / USA

97. Dance Party, USA / d. Aaron Katz / 2006 / USA

98. Two Drifters [Odete] / d. João Pedro Rodrigues / 2005 / Portugal

99. When Will I Be Loved / d. James Toback / 2004 / USA

100. Drag Me to Hell / d. Sam Raimi / 2009 / USA

Now It's Dark

As promised, I'm about to begin posting my 100 Best Films of the '00s. It feels strange to be closing out something you've been working toward for nearly ten months, but I'm pretty sure if I spend any more time on something as unimportant as a hierarchical list of films I happen to have seen that were released within a ten year window, I might drive myself crazy(ier). As I didn't plan the list beforehand, a (surprisingly large) number of the films I've written about previously didn't make the final 100, but I've linked to them on the side. It's also unfortunate how many of the films I haven't gotten a chance to write more extensively on, but I guess I didn't plan on being so totally wiped out by the time I came to this date. I couldn't begin to list all the films I didn't get around to watching as that list would go on forever. I may take a break from the blog after this, or I might not... I don't know. Hopefully though, I will get around to writing more about the films I didn't get a chance to in the next couple of weeks. And we're off...

The Decade List: L'intrus (2004)

L’intrus [The Intruder] – dir. Claire Denis

In what Claire Denis described as her own mood piece inspired by Jean-Luc Nancy’s book of the same name, The Intruder is the most ecstatically puzzling of her career, a haunting exploration of a man dying of heart failure (Michel Subor). Denis subtly takes you into the mind of Louis, blending his fantasies into the already challenging narrative. What we do know is that he has a son (Grégoire Colin) he barely sees, a failing heart and is visited by a young Russian woman (Katia Golubeva), to whom he owes a large sum of money and might be a manifestation of his imagination (or “the Angel of Death,” as some have speculated).

I don’t think I’m alone in claiming The Intruder to be Denis’ most difficult in deciphering (nor in my total fascination with it). And still, it’s somehow everything I want out of one of her films: frustration, bewilderment and atmosphere. Similar to Beau travail, my other favorite film of hers, The Intruder only seems to strengthen through memory, even if returning to it still proves to be an extremely complex endeavor.

With: Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin, Katia Golubeva, Bambou, Florence Loiret-Caille, Alex Descas, Béatrice Dalle, Lolita Chammah, Kin Dong-ho, Henri Tetainanuarii, Jean-Marc Teriipaia, Anna Tetuaveroa
Screenplay: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, based on the book by Jean-Luc Nancy
Cinematography: Agnès Godard
Music: Stuart Staples
Country of Origin: France
US Distributor: Wellspring

Premiere: 9 September 2004 (Venice Film Festival)
US Premiere: 18 March 2005 (Rendezvous with French Cinema)

The Decade List: Bug (2006)

Bug – dir. William Friedkin

Mistreated by Lionsgate, who apparently thought they could market William Friedkin’s adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Off Broadway play to the Hostel and Saw crowd by throwing “From the director of The Exorcist” on the poster, Bug was an utterly unnerving and bleak examination of a woman’s (a brilliant Ashley Judd) descent into complete obsessive terror with the help of a stranger in town (Michael Shannon). It was, basically, the alternative to the sort of cheap gore-fests that seemed so popular at the time (I hope we’re past that now).

William Friedkin walks Bug along a dangerous line between sheer horror and over-the-top mayhem, and to those without patience (mainly the people who bought into Lionsgate’s misleading promotion), it didn’t work. It takes a certain kind of delicacy to pull something like Bug off on the big screen, and for Friedkin, Judd and Shannon, it was the perfect amount, even if too many of the wrong people saw it. For the rest of us, Bug unsettled to the point of cringing and total personal disruption. I was literally shaken and stirred, and formed a return appreciation for Freidkin’s dying brand of terror.

With: Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Brian F. O’Byrne, Harry Connick Jr., Lynn Collins
Screenplay: Tracy Letts, based on his play
Cinematography: Michael Grady
Music: Brian Tyler
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Lionsgate

Premiere: 19 May 2006 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 11 November 2006 (AFI Film Festival)

Awards: FIPRESCI Prize: Quinzaine des réalisateurs (Cannes Film Festival)

The Decade List: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona – dir. Woody Allen

No film last year glued a glimmering smile on my face as strongly and thoroughly as Woody Allen's effervescent Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Perhaps I was witnessing one of my favorite directors come back to life after a decade-long stint of mediocre films, many of which featuring his most incompetent muse to date, Scarlett Johansson, a sad replacement for Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow. Or perhaps it was such a relief to feel those temptations to say that he'd "lost it" dissipate within the film's earliest moments. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether low expectations and dwindling confidence were to thank for what was easily my best "cinema experience" of ‘08.

In ways no other director can compete, Allen pulled me through the ringer with alternating moments of hilarity and stomach-dropping poignancy. As Vicky, the 'Woody Allen character' of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Rebecca Hall nailed neurotic dissatisfaction, culminating in the heart-sinking moment where her entire façade shatters near the end of the film as she tells Javier Bardem, quite simply, "I'm scared." As Cristina, the self-proclaimed free-spirit amid a love-triangle with Bardem and the smoldering Penélope Cruz, Johansson is as tolerable as she's ever been, with Allen exposing the two things most directors miss in the actress: a brimming sexuality that's deeper than physical voluptuousness and the seeping fear that she isn't up to snuff. I (still) have no reservations in claiming Vicky Cristina Barcelona to be among the highest tier of Allen films, within the ranks of Stardust Memories, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Annie Hall and Deconstructing Harry.

With: Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Kevin Dunn, Pablo Schreiber, Carrie Preston, Zak Orth, Christopher Evan Welch
Screenplay: Woody Allen
Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe
Country of Origin: Spain/USA
US Distributor: The Weinstein Company

Premiere: 17 May 2008 (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 15 August 2008

Awards: Best Supporting Actress – Penélope Cruz (Academy Awards); Best Supporting Actress – Penélope Cruz (BAFTA Awards); Best Picture, Musical/Comedy (Golden Globes); Best Supporting Actress – Penélope Cruz, Best Screenplay (Independent Spirit Awards); Best Supporting Actress – Penélope Cruz (Goya Awards, Spain); Best Foreign-Language Film (Cinema Brazil Awards); Best Ensemble Cast – Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz (Gotham Awards)