Wednesday 4 November 2009

Films of the decade

I have, in the last 24 hours, been asked by a couple of magazines I write for to furnish them with a list of my top ten films of decade. Both wanted my selection as soon as possible, and so I had a quick think and came up with a list of around 16 titles which I then had to massage into a top ten. I'm not sure if I did the list again tomorrow, I would come up with the same top ten, but here is the list of titles from which I picked. I will reveal my final choice in due course.

Memento
Zodiac
City Of God
In The Mood For Love
Almost Famous
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
The Incredibles
Sideways
Wonder Boys
The New World
Mulholland Drive
Up!
Amelie
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Children Of Men
Traffic


Your thoughts and own lists are welcome.

10 comments:

Matt Jones said...

Good to see 2 animated flicks in the list.

My top 10 would include:

FIGHTCLUB
THE FOG OF WAR
MAN ON WIRE
THE DEPARTED
CROUCHING TIGER
LOTR: THE 2 TOWERS
THE ROYAL TENEBAUMS
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT
ROAD TO PERDITION
MASTER & COMMANDER

Mark Salisbury said...

Crouching Tiger is a good call. I should have thought of that.

And I toyed with Man On Wire. On any other day it would have made it.

Alas Fight Club is a 1999 release and is therefore ineligible.

Gina Sackman said...

Fantastic selections. I'll be interested in seeing which you decided to go with ultimately.

Mark Salisbury said...

Me too :)

Unknown said...

Good selections! I pretty much agree with all of 'em. I would be hard-pressed to think of others... 'cept maybe substitute CITY OF GOD for SYRIANA.

Mark Salisbury said...

Syriana was another I toyed with and, as with Man On Wire, would have probably made the list on another day.

I'm starting to realise that my final top ten of the decade might actually be a top twenty...

Unknown said...

Yeah, I would also add GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK. Such a fantastic film. the more times I watch it, the more I am really diggin' FROST/NIXON as well... I dunno if it would make the top 10 but it's up there...

Gerard said...

I'm worthless when it comes to compiling lists. (Though yours are all great choices!) Eternal Sunshine would definitely be on a list of my own, as would The Incredibles, and Mulholland Drive, Children of Men and The New World would all come close. I'd include The Proposition myself, and I think I'd have to include some Miyazaki - Spirited Away. And either No Country or A Serious Man - I couldn't overlook two of the best films ever from the Coens. Let the Right One In would definitely make the cut, along with either Pan's Labyrinth or The Devil's Backbone (I backflip daily as to which I prefer). And if we're talking purely as to favourites here, Sweeney would make an appearance. I can never remember what released when (I was only turning 16 in 2000!). Donnie Darko would have to be in there, too... Seriously, I'm terrible at these. I know there are so many obvious inclusions I'm completely neglecting... Tenenbaums is a great choice, as Matt said, and it would feel disingenuous for me to overlook the LOTR films... I'd need some gargantuan list of every single title released to pore over to do this in any way I could feel comfortable with. Like I said - terrible!

Fas said...

Great choices, others to consider:

Pan's Labyrinth
The Lives of Others
The Descent
A Bittersweet Life
Kung Fu Hustle
Oldboy
The Dark Knight
Collateral
Punch Drunk Love
Borat
Amores Perros
Spider-man 2
Moulin Rouge!
28 Days Later
Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one)
Shrek
25th Hour
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Mark Salisbury said...

@ Fas

Welcome. And thanks for stopping by.

Another great list of films, and yet another reason why it's impossible to pick just ten titles. Personally, I prefer Devil's Backbone to Pan's but so many of the film you listed are perfect in their own way. In fact, i think I'm now leaning towards a Top 25 of the decade...