Best of the Decade: 15-11

Memento - 2000

I still remember when "Memento" came to a theater near me. I saw it on the marquee of our local Regal and gasped "Oh my God" so intensely that my high school carpool driver slammed down on the breaks, thinking my outburst referred to some spectral image on the road before her. (Sorry, Lindsey!) I was giddily shocked that this buzzy indie I had heard so much about was actually in a theater in my county. I talked my dad into taking me--on a school night!--and, incredibly, the movie lived up to the hype. (Even if my dad accurately predicted the ending about 45 minutes into the movie. The bastard.) "Memento" was Christopher Nolan's coming-out party, his Hollywood-geek cotillion, and in my humble estimation, nothing he's done since has lived up to the brainy, twisty genius of it (although the teaser for "Inception" looks pretty nifty, no?). "Memento" plays a game with its audience, puts them in its protagonist's shoes, and then tells revenge tale that may not be what it seems. It repeatedly makes your jaw drop and in flashes, grabs at your heart.

Shrek - 2001

Yes, "Shrek."

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - 2003

It's a little funny that two overly-titled (with colons!) sea-faring movies came out in 2003 and both brought something modern audiences hadn't seen in a long time: really exciting naval warfare. And while I do love that first "Pirates" movie (I tolerate the second and still don't understand 94% of the third), it's "Master and Commander" that I happily watch again and again, my respect for Peter Weir's craftsmanship growing every time. Besides being beautifully made, "Master and Commander" is a rare bird: it's about smart, honest, good men who all respect each other and just want to make decisions that benefit their ship and their country. No gimmicks (although there is an awesome Galapagos sequence) or hostility for drama's sake. I envy the children who first found their role models in the Patrick O'Brien characters, but I'm thankful Weir brought them to the screen so gracefully in "Master and Commander" (which truly gets better with every watch.)



About Schmidt - 2002

Dear Ndugu,

"Election" put Alexander Payne on the map and "Sideways" made him the auteur dujour, but it's this in-between film that resonates most for me. Following his retirement and his wife's death, the title character treks across the country in his camper to get to his daughter's wedding (to Dermot Mulroney, doing the best Keanu Reeves impression ever captured on film) but the journey's intention is something far heavier: Schmidt wants to know why he's on earth. What's the point of it all? Schmidt doesn't really get any straight answers, but rather a series of emotional highs and lows, memories and discoveries that don't so much give clarity as opaque meaning. And why is Alexander Payne one of the only directors who can make voiceover work so dramatically well? I don't know either.

Best,

Aaron

Crash -2005

Yeah, I can hear the collective eyeroll from the cineaste crowd. (Maybe I spend too much time on blogs where haterade is the new black coffee.) But I'll always defend "Crash," as a fantasy, as a parable, as a hold-my-breath gut-wrenchingly effective ensemble drama. Yes, it's about racism, but it explores so well the painful, barely-shadowed fears behind each hate. It's about the way society--society being all of us--punishes those who live up to our expectations of them. It's about well-drawn characters carving out their point of view. Even though I've seen it at least half a dozen times, I still get lost in all the dramatic tension, hovering closer and closer to the edge of my seat while big questions hang in the air, waiting to be asked during the credit sequence.

What am I thinking?