Guest Reviewer’s Top 25 of the Decade!

Jan 17, 2010 - 12:21 pm

As a preview to our official Top 25 of the Decade lists we have enlisted some help from some fellow film-buff friends. Their lists are below, and LCD and TC will both be giving our opinions about them below in the comments.

A bit about the reviewers:

The Lab Rat - If TC and LCD had a baby the film tastes of that unholy offspring would probably match The Lab Rat. He is a constant presence at the ReelFriction movie nights and his opinion will color whatever films they decide to watch, for better or worse.

Bootleg Willy- It’s no secret that Bootleg Willy’s film tastes align closer to TC than LCD. He did after all initiate TC into the pleasures of cinema back in his formative high school years. Still, their tastes are different and sometimes TC and LCD agree more often than TC and Willy.

And here are their lists!

The Lab Rat

25. Once
24. Juno
23. The Fountain
22. Synechdoche, NY
21. No Country for Old Men
20. History of Violence
19. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
18. The Hurt Locker
17. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
16. District 9
15. The Life Aquatic
14. Southland Tales
13. Up
12. Lost in Translation
11. Royal Tenenbaums
10. Memento
9. Adaptation
8. Shaun of the Dead
7. Wall-E
6. Donnie Darko
5. Requiem for a Dream
4. There Will Be Blood
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. City of God
1. Lord of the Rings

Bootleg Willy

25. Nobody Knows
24. Tarnation
23. Minority Report
22. Blessing Bell
21. Shaun of the Dead
20. Capturing the Friedmans
19. Oldboy
18. The Heart of the World
17. The Pianist
16. Me and You and Everyone We Know
15. In the Mood For Love
14. There Will Be Blood
13. Moon
12. Mulholland Drive
11. Dancer in the Dark
10. Finding Nemo/Triplets of Belleville
9. Audition/Visitor Q
8. Piano Teacher
7. Waking Life
6. Brick
5. Morvern Callar
4. Battle Royale
3. Lord of the Rings
2. Once
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

It is very hard to come up with a list of the best films of the decade, so thank you both for your contributions! Coming soon will be TC and LCD’s official lists for best 25 of the decade.

4 Comments

Cinesthete • Jan 18, 2010 @12:42 pm

I’ll start by commenting on The Lab Rat’s list.

The best films on your list, which I may put on mine, are: Once, Syncechdoche NY, History of Violence, Wall-E, Shaun of the Dead, Requiem for a Dream, There Will be Blood, Eternal Sunshine, City of God, and of course, Lord of the Rings. I can’t argue with any of those.

Everything else I would argue against, but there were four films that I really didn’t like: Southland Tales, District 9, No Country for Old Men, and A.I.

There are alot of films that I think you overrated but I still enjoy. I’ll get into those later.
Cinesthete • Jan 22, 2010 @4:13 pm

Bootleg Willy, I expected your list to align more closely with mine. Instead I found some movies I didn’t like at all: Minority Report, Triplettes of Belleville.

Not that many, but there were far more that didn’t belong on this list in my opinion: Finding Nemo, Capturing the Friedmans, Moon, Waking Life, your Miike double-feature.

Most of the other films are hard to argue with. I might even include some on my top 25.
The Revenge of Bootleg Willy • Jan 23, 2010 @4:03 pm

Cinestethe, I find Minority Report a cool time at the movies… Does it neuter the PKD philosophical intent with its ending? Possibly. Maybe I don’t mind that as much now that we’re getting pure adaptations like Scanner Darkly. - Friedmans, because I needed a documentary. — I do NOT apologize for Moon, Waking Life, and Audition. Finding Nemo, like I said, kept my nephews quiet for a whole weekend; for that, I am eternally grateful. Triplets of Belleville made it due to my little deal with the Devil; merci, mon diable, mon amour…”

As Long as You don’t pick Wall-E. :) Whereas Twilight is a stalker movie unheatlthy for girls, Wall-E is unhealthy for boys…. teaches them to fall in love with the first chick they see, and that girls will fall in love with you as long as you brush aside their initial disregard, show them your favorite flick, and follow her intently.

Letting me put the Room to fill up five spaces would have avoided all this conflict.
The Revenge of Bootleg Willy • Jan 24, 2010 @6:58 pm

26 - Millions (Danny Boyle)
27 - The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
28 - Princess and the Warrior (Tom Tykwer)
29 - Royal Tenebaums (Wes Anderson)
30 - The Sun (Sokurov),
31 - Kung-Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)/Hero (Zhang Yimou)
32 - Mad Detective (Johnnie To)
33 - 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Christian Mungiu)
34 - Red Cliff (John Woo)
35 - A Serious Man (Coen Bros.)
36 - Still Life (Zhang Ke-Jia)
37 - Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky)
38 - 25th Hour (Spike Lee)
39 - Spring Summer Winter Fall (Kim Ki-Duk)
40 - Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
41 - The Descent (Neil Marshall)
42 - Match Point (Woody Allen)
43 - American Psycho (Mary Harron)
44 - 40 Year Old Virgin (Apatow)
45 - Yes (Sally Potter)
46 - Talk to Her (Pedro Almodovar)
47 - In Vanda’s Room (Pedro Costa)
48 - Superbad (Greg Mottola)/Anchorman (Adam McKay)
49 - What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-Liang)
50 - The Room (Tommy Wiseau)

Guest Reviewer’s Top 25 of the Decade!

4 Comments

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