2000s: The Decade's Best

Looking over this decades films, I can instantly remember where I was, and at what point in my life I was at, when I saw these films. The 1990s was when I fell in love with films. The 2000s was when I transitioned to film-lover to filmmaker. A very important decade for me and I saw many beautiful, amazing films that encouraged and challenged me along the way.

Like all the annual lists I compile, this one is by no means comprehensive. I like to include in each lists films I have not seen because that influences my choices. (I have to keep myself honest, it wouldn't be right for me to list Tropical Malady as one of the decades best when I haven't seen it.) It's to hard to numerically order these films, so I've listed them in alpha order. I set aside the first ten as the ones I would distinguish as my top ten of the decade, but in alpha order.

Brokeback Mountain — at the U.S premiere in Telluride Film Festival
Children of Men — probably at the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley
Dancer in the Dark — DVD at my Mom's House as I finished High School in Riverside
The Dark Knight — IMAX Metreon in San Francisco, went to the early screening and still got bad seats
Hunger — Kreuzberg, Germany summer 2009
In the Mood for Love — MRC Library, basement floor at Moffitt Library at UC Berkeley
The New World — probably at Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley
Paranoid Park — Indie Fest in San Francisco
There Will Be Blood — Special Screening at Castro Theatre in San Francisco
Three Times — Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley when I worked for the San Francisco International Film Festival

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days — Sheridan Opera House, Telluride. I sat in the balcony with a metal pole in the middle of the screen for the entire film
A Serious Man — The Landmark on Pico and Westwood
About Schmidt — somewhere in Orange County when I was attending UC Irvine
Cache — Sheridan Opera House, part of the Telluride's student symposium
Everlasting Moments — it was the final screening for that year at Telluride completely packed. A friend squeezed Judy and I into the projection booth and we watched the film from there.
George Washington – Watched this one on DVD at my apartment in Oakland
Life During Wartime — U.S premiere at Telluride
The Lives of Others — Special screening at Embarcadero in San Francisco
Magnolia – Mission Grove Cinemas in Riverside
Memento – Canyon Springs Cinema, where I used to work at after highschool
Mulholland Drive – Special preview screening at UC Irvine
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Punch Drunk Love — A theatre in Fashion Island, I think, in Newport Beach
The Pianist
The Royal Tennenbaums – Canyon Springs Cinema, Moreno Valley
Still Life – Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley
United 93 – Shattuck Cinemas, Berkeley
Workingman's Death – Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, Japantown, San Francisco
Y tu Mama Tambien
YiYi – DVD at my apartment in Los Angeles
Zodiac – Embarcadero Cinemas in San Francisco

Films of the 2000s

2009
1. Hunger
2. Life During Wartime
3. A Serious Man
4. The White Ribbon
5. The Headless Woman
6. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
7. Fish Tank
8. The Baader Meinhoff Complex
9. Up and Inglorious Basterds (tie)
10. Star Trek
11. Anvil: The Story of Anvil
12. Gigante
13. Nine
14. Where the Wild Things Are
15. Avatars

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
Invictus
Up in the Air
A Single Man
Red Cliff
Police, Adjective
The Hangover
Funny People
Summer Hours
Of Time and the City
Medicine for Meloncholy
Precious
District 9
Broken Embraces
Goodbye Solo
Sugar
La Danse
Tyson
The Beaches of Agnes
Crazy Heart
35 Shots of Rum
The Messenger
__________________________

2008
1. The Dark Knight and Paranoid Park (tie)
2. Everlasting Moments
3. The Wrestler
4. Ashes of Time Redux
5. Revolutionary Road
6. I've Loved You for so Long
7. Tulpan
8. Wall-e
9. The Flight of the Red Balloon
10. Standard Operating Procedures
11. The Class
12. Milk
13. Che
14. Gomorrah
15. Synodeche, New York

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
You, The Living
Frozen River
My Winnepeg
Revanche
Hunger
Racheal's Getting Married
Happy Go-Lucky
Snow Angels
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Mad Detective
Mongol
A Christmas Tale
24 City
Shine a Light
Let the Right One In
Man on a Wire
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Changling
Doubt
Gran Torino
Stranded
Australia
_______________________

2007
1.There Will Be Blood
2.4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
3.Zodiac
3.Atonement
4.The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
6.Control
7.Hana
8.Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
9.The Way I Spent the End of the World
10.Grindhouse
11.No Country for Old Men
12.American Gangster
13.I'm Not There
14.Charlie Wilson's War
15.Eastern Promises
16.The Bourne Ultimatum
17.Boarding Gate
18.Blind Mountain
19.Jar City
20.No End in Sight
21.The Darjeeling Limited
22.Silent Light
23.Lust, Caution

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Kite Runner
Rendition
Sweeny Todd
The Savages
Margot at the Wedding
Juno
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Once
The Host
_______________________

2006
1.United 93
2.Children of Men
3.The Lives of Others
4.Three Times and Workingman's Death (tie)
5.Still Life
6.Army of Shadows
7.Little Children
8.Le Pont des Arts
9.I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
10.When the Levees Broke
11.Colossal Youth
12.Syndromes of a Century
13.The Prestige
14.Borat
15.Pan's Labyrinth
_____________________

2005
1.The New World
2.Brokeback Mountain
3.Cache
4.The Constant Gardener
5.The Squid and the Whale
6.King Kong
7.No Direction Home
8.The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
9.Howl's Moving Castle
10.L'efant

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
BrokenFlowers
Darwin's Nightmare
The Best of Youth
__________________________

2004
1.Sideways
2.Cafe Lumiere
3.Closer
4.Nobody Knows
5.Kill Bill vol 2
6.Old Boy
7.The Aviator
8.The Life Aquatic
9.The Brown Bunny
10.Los Muertos
11.Woman is the Future of Man

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
Time of the Wolf
The World
Goodbye Dragon Inn
Tropical Malady
__________________________

2003
1.City of God
2.Elephant
3.Irreversible
4.The Hulk
5.The Fog of War
6.Kill Bill
7.Japon
8.Lost in Translation
9.The Weather Underground
10.All the Real Girls

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Master and Commander
Man on the Train
The Man Without a Past
The Triplets of Belleville
Seabiscuit
Raising Victor Vargas
The Son
_____________________

2002
1.Y tu mama tambien
2.About Schmidt
3.Punch Drunk Love
4.Minority Report
5.The Pianist
6.Talk to Her
7.Millenium Mambo
8.Bloody Sunday

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
Solaris
In America
Igby Goes Down
AutoFocus
24 Hour Party People
Unknown Pleasures
The Man Without a Past
Spider
The Son
To Be and to Have
demonlover
Ichi the Killer
The Fast Runner
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
____________________________

2001
1.The Royal Tennenbaums
2.Mulholland Drive
3.Black Hawk Down
4.Spirited Away
5.In the Bedroom
6.The Piano Teacher
7.The Pledge
8.The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings
9.Captain's Corelli's Mandolin
10.Ali

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
What Time is it There?
__________________________

2000
1.In the Mood for Love
2.Dancer in the Dark
3.Magnolia
4.George Washington
5.Memento
6.Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
7.Toy Story 2
8.YiYi
9.Flowers of Shanghai
10.O Brother, Where Art Thou?
11.Amores Perros
12.Almost Famous
13.Castaway
14.Best in Show
15.American Psycho
16.Ratcatcher

Films I haven not seen in no particular order:
Beau Travail
The Wind Will Carry Us
The House of Mirth
You Can Count on Me
Humanite
Werkmeister Harmonies
The Gleaners and I
Platform
Mysterious Object at Noon
Pola X
The Heart of the World
The Circle
The Road Home
A Time of Drunken Horses
Songs from the Second Floor