100 Favorite Movies, 2000-2009: Mike Schulz

After telling friends and family members that, for 2010's first issue of the Reader, I'd be compiling a list of my 100 favorite movies from the last 10 years and ranking them in preferential order, a few of them asked me, "So how do you do that?"

It was simple, really. First, I gathered titles from my DVD cabinet, my reviews since January of 2000, and the past nine years' worth of Oscar nominees, and winnowed that list of 130-ish down to 100 movies I could/can happily watch over and over again. Then I broke those 100 titles down into separate lists of 10, starting with the movies I'd ditch if composing a "desert island" list of absolute favorites; the first 10 to be excised would consequently be ranked 91 - 100, the second 10 would be ranked 81 - 90, and so on. Then I broke those down, deciding which title would be the first to go from each individual list of 10, and voilà! Instant Top 100!

Hey, it was the holidays. I had a lot of free time on my hands.

So what did I learn from the experiment?

Well, I apparently don't have much repeat-viewing use for effects-heavy blockbusters once their big-screen thrill has worn off; despite my adoration for them, none of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films made the list, nor did such deserving possibilities as X2: X-Men United or the first two Spider-Mans. (I continue to doff my cap, though, to entries 16, 64, 86, and 97.) And despite outstanding offerings by Nick Park, Hayao Miyazaki, the geniuses at Pixar, and others, fewer animated movies made the cut than I initially expected. (I've only included five here, although all of them cracked the top 50, and two landed in the top 13.)

I obviously continue to be knocked out by first-rate documentaries, with 12 of them making the line-up - 13, if you count the nonfiction/fiction hybrid at #27 - and am deeply embarrassed by the paucity of foreign-language titles, with all of two - ranked at numbers 39 and 89 - on the list. (My sad excuse for their lack of repeat-viewing appeal? Like many, I'll oftentimes re-watch DVDs with only half an eye while paying bills or housecleaning or whatever, activities that don't much allow for the reading of subtitles.)

My favorite filmmakers of the nineties, the Coen brothers, were also my favorite filmmakers of the aughts, with five of their works - including their most recent three - landing on the top 100. Beyond the Coens, directors with multiple titles on the list include Christopher Nolan and Gus Van Sant with three each, and Robert Altman, Wes Anderson, Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood, Stephen Frears, Christopher Guest, Spike Jonze, David Lynch, Bryan Singer, Andrew Stanton, and Quentin Tarantino with two. (As a lifelong Woody Allen devotee, it was with regret that I didn't find room for any of the prolific auteur's 10 titles from 2000 - 2009. Though, dishearteningly, not much regret.)

I learned - or rather, was reminded - that you should never take critics' first impressions as their final words on a subject; after subsequent DVD viewings, three of the included titles (at rankings 36, 40, and 67) were movies I didn't care for the first time around. I was reminded how some films that you initially like (numbers 23, 31, 45... ) can, over time, morph into films that you love. I was reminded of the unapologetic joy that can sometimes come from a really, really, really bad movie. (Thank you Tommy Wiseau for inclusion #100!)

And I was reminded that no matter how thorough your planning, there's always going to be a title you just plum forgot about. (Damn it!, I thought when scanning my editor Jeff Ignatius' own top-100 list, how did I miss The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada?!?")

I hereby submit my favorites of the last 10 years for your perusal and mockery... with titles and rankings subject to change within minutes of publication.

1. There Will Be Blood

    

2. Mulholland Dr.

3. Before Sunset

4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

5. WALL·E

6. The Royal Tenenbaums

7. Zodiac

8. Gosford Park

9. Brokeback Mountain

10. The Squid & the Whale

11. The Departed

12. No Country for Old Men

13. The Incredibles

14. Moulin Rouge!

15. Sideways

16. The Dark Knight

17. Capturing the Friedmans

18. You Can Count on Me

19. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

20. Murderball

21. A Mighty Wind

22. Inglourious Basterds

23. Shaun of the Dead

24. Donnie Darko

25. Michael Clayton

26. Elephant

27. American Splendor

28. A Prairie Home Companion

29. Adaptation

30. Lost in Translation

31. Team America: World Police

32. Fantastic Mr. Fox

33. Capote

34. The Hurt Locker

35. Children of Men

36. Shattered Glass

37. Grizzly Man

38. 25th Hour

39. Y tu mamá también

40. Almost Famous: Untitled

41. Finding Nemo

42. The Fog of War

43. The Station Agent

44. Memento

45. The Mothman Prophecies

46. Spellbound

47. Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

48. The Good Shepherd

49. Munich

50. Erin Brockovich

51. A Serious Man

52. Juno

53. Happy-Go-Lucky

54. Far from Heaven

55. Little Children

56. Gerry

57. Across the Universe

58. High Fidelity

59. Bowling for Columbine

60. Synecdoche, New York

61. Knocked Up

62. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

63. (500) Days of Summer

64. X-Men

65. The Queen

66. Startup.com

67. Burn After Reading

68. Million Dollar Baby

69. Kill Bill: Volume II

70. Into the Wild

71. Adventureland

72. Good Night, and Good Luck.

73. The Hours

74. Inland Empire

75. The Prestige

76. Tarnation

77. The Pianist

78. Crash

79. Milk

80. United 93

81. Gone Baby Gone

82. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

83. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

84. The Man Who Wasn't There

85. Shortbus

86. Superman Returns

87. Mystic River

88. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

89. Talk to Her

90. Anvil! The Story of Anvil

91. Best in Show

92. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

93. Where the Wild Things Are

94. The Bridge

95. Revolutionary Road

96. Ghost Town

97. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

98. Rachel Getting Married

99. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

100. The Room