10. Moulin Rouge! (2001)


A Beautiful Mind won the Oscar that year and while a solid film it was also a by-the-numbers biopic which mostly stood out thanks to the great performances it contained. Back then there were many cries of outrage about The Fellowship of the Ring being snubbed for that award. However, as good as Fellowship was, it’s Moulin Rouge! that truly deserved to win that year. Moulin Rouge! revived the dormant musical genre. It became the first musical in over two decades to be nominated for an Oscar. In particular the 1990s were an absolute wasteland for musicals. Moulin Rouge! brought back the genre with a bang. With the decade wrapping up we have seen several well-done musicals thanks to Moulin Rouge! but none of them was as creative, original and oozing energy and excitement as Baz Luhrman’s creation. Some might call the film a visual overkill but I see it as a beautiful undertaking. And the most amazing thing about it? Unlike most recent musicals it is not based on a Broadway show or any other existing material.



9. Up (2009) *


Many credit WALL-E’s snub for a Best Picture nomination as one of the most important reasons why the Best Picture line-up has been extended to ten nominees this year – and that for a good reason. Ever since its creation, Pixar has produced one quality project after another and yet their work has yet to be recognized by the Academy for more than just Best Animated Picture. With their latest film, Up, making a killing at the box-office and receiving terrific reviews it’s a shoe-in for a nomination. Up might not be Pixar’s best work to date but it’s definitely high up on their list. WALL-E was a great movie but Up actually manages to top it by showing a maturity rarely seen in an animated film nowadays. Despite a 70-year old as the main character the movie is never slow or boring. In fact it is a wonderful and sometimes thoroughly emotional journey. While the film is not flawless the Carl/Ellie life recap is the best Pixar has ever been.



8. The Hurt Locker (2009) *


Another surefire Best Picture nominee to be announced in about a month. I have always appreciated Bigelow for her underrated work like Strange Days or Near Dark. However even I didn’t expect her to deliver something like The Hurt Locker. It’s the first good movie about the war in Iraq. And it is just a very good movie by itself. This is the defining war movie in a way that Apocalypse Now was for the Vietnam war or Saving Private Ryan for WWII. The Hurt Locker takes a different approach than most war films by presenting itself more as an action film and a character study. It splendidly succeeds in both. It’s smart, psychologically complex and tremendously exciting and tense to watch. It’s marvelously directed, beautifully shot and features a terrific leading performance by Jeremy Renner.



7. Avatar (2009) *


It might seem a little premature putting up a movie released just a few weeks ago on a list like this but it also is a statement about the impression this film has left. Cameron has worked on the film for ages. He promised a “gamechanger”. Whether or not he succeeded with the latter is debatable. What he did succeed with was delivering a movie that reminds you of the grandness of cinema. Cameron has once again outdone himself in the technical department and delivered a sweeping breathtaking sci-fi epic. He created a world of its own as detailed and imaginative as one can ever imagine. He takes the viewer on an amazing and unforgettable journey. This is escapism at its purest and in some of its best moments the word “masterpiece”isn’t far off.



6. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)


When Slumdog Millionaire was sweeping awards left and right last year I was skeptical. That until I have seen the movie myself. When the end credits rolled I knew why the film was so popular. Rarely have I seen a movie that was at the same time so uplifting and yet filled with serious and dark material. How often does a film featuring child abuse, torture and prostitution leaves the viewer with a smile. This film did it to me. Of course it’s also marvelously directed and beautifully filmed. This movie is effervescent, intoxicating and fully deserving of all the accolades it got.



5. Gladiator (2000)


This is probably the most controversial pick on my list but I think it’s a terrific film. Moulin Rouge! revived the musicals but a year earlier Ridley Scott’s Gladiator brought back the sword and sandal subgenre of historical films. Movies like Alexander, Troy or Kingdom of Heaven make Gladiator stand out even more in retrospect. Gladiator might be an old-fashioned film but in that aspect it does almost everything right. The battle scenes are tremendous, we have got a terrific villain (Joaquin Phoenix was robbed at that year’s ceremony) and a charismatic hero that we love to root for. Russell Crowe’s turn here is not a career-best but nevertheless he provides the emotional core of the film. I think the most fitting description for this film is monumental. While most of the aforementioned films will be forgotten rather fast, Gladiator will still stand as the historical spectacle of the decade to be remembered.



4. Munich (2005)


When Spielberg gets serious it’s sometimes hit and sometimes miss. When thinking of serious films by Spielberg he made before Munich one usually comes up with Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. Munich now can easily stand next to these two films as it is no worse than them. He manages to keep the entire film in a rare balance of not sympathizing with any party and yet with both. At times, Munich is a superbly directed gripping thriller that grabs the viewer by the throat. At other times it is a psychologically complex somber drama. But at all times Munich is an absorbing provocative and impeccably acted film that stands among the most important films of our time.



3. The Pianist (2002)


Steven Spielberg has Schindler’s List and Roman Polanski has The Pianist. It’s unfortunate how often this comparison has been drawn around the film’s release because The Pianist can very well stand on its own feet. The movie is the most personal Polanski has ever made – or will ever make. After over two decades of mixed-quality work Polanski has returned with a masterpiece. While the film’s subject is of incredibly emotional intensity – the Holocaust in Poland – the film is also a very personal journey of a survivor but also a film about the art of music which at times seems like a character of its own. Adrien Brody’s turn is great but the film is carried by Polanski’s directional skills. The scenes in the Warsaw ghetto are devastating and unflinching, presented with a lack of melodrama or sentimentality. It’s a raw and bleak film but it does have a thin thread of hope in it. Chicago was good entertainment but The Pianist was truly the best film film that year.



2. The Departed (2006)


It’s a remake of a recent Hong Kong police thriller. It’s bloody, uncompromising and full of dark humor. That certainly doesn’t sound like a movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars – but it did and Martin Scorsese was finally rewarded for the years in the waiting. I am glad they waited for this film. The Aviator might be a competently made film and even Gangs of New York has its moments but both films were Oscar baits to begin with. The Departed, however, brought Scorsese to the genre that he has always been great at. The film is probably the least baity BP winner of the decade. It’s terrific, immersing and purely enjoyable entertainment with stellar performances from the entire cast. In fact DiCaprio, Damn and Wahlberg all deliver career-best turns here. The fact that Scorsese took the already great original film gave it a deserving update that honors the original’s strengths yet adds its own flavor to it is just amazing. It’s even more amazing that it manages to top the original in most aspects. The film is a vibrant thrilling ride, the updated screenplay is a joy and Scorsese and his long-time collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker (editing) are both at the top of their game. No one here went for the Oscars in an apparent way, it was just everyone trying to make a movie as entertaining and involving as possible. I say – great success!



1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)


I don’t like all three parts of the trilogy equally. The Fellowship of the Ring drags in spots and while The Two Towers is an improvement and an amazing film, it’s Return of the King that is the crowning achievement of the series. On its own Return of the King probably still would have topped the list. However, seeing the films in a row it becomes apparent that it’s unfair to divide the trilogy into separate films when judging it for a list like this and the fact that all three films were nominated for Best Picture lends itself well to name the trilogy as a whole. I don’t think there’s much to be said about the films that hasn’t been said a million times already. Suffice to say that adapting the classic novels was a monumental undertaking and Peter Jackson succeeded in pretty much every aspect. The look of the film, the characters, the plot they all fuse into a singular epic picture. James Cameron created a world of his own for Avatar. Peter Jackson did the same for The Lord of the Rings. He might have had the literary source this time but the on-screen Middle Earth has become a vision of his own and unlike Avatar he also managed to infuse his story with depth and gravity. Not since Star Wars in the 70s has a film series had this much of an impact. These movies are not for years or decades. They will be legendary forever.

(* = BP nominations pending)