The Top 10: 
1. Memento
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
3. Requiem for a Dream
4. Oldboy
5. The Royal Tenenbaums
6. No Country for Old Men
7. The Mothman Prophecies
8. Mulholland Drive
9. Donnie Darko (original theatrical version)
10. The Descent (international version)
Christopher Nolan directed five movies released this decade; two of them are nearly perfect, one of them has unparalleled rigor for a superhero movie, and the other one has Heath Ledger’s Joker casting an enormous shadow over (and therefore obscuring) its many flaws. The unnecessary remake of Insomnia was the necessary bridge between Memento and Batman Begins – from independent to studio work – but beyond it Nolan has made nothing but winners. To be clear, I don’t believe Nolan is a great filmmaker, and I’m skeptical he’ll ever equal any of these four movies, even though he hasn’t yet turned 40.
A throw-away bit of connective tissue struck me in Jim Emerson’s announcement of his and MSN’s movies of the decade: “That’s a pretty mainstream list (hey, it’s for MSN) – and so is mine.” Not really, I thought. Unsurprising? Yes. Dominated by English-language films? Yes. But mainstream? This is, of course, a matter of definition.
The Box Office Power Rankings do not like the Twilight movies. We are not fooled by the excitement or ticket-buying power of teenage girls. We are on Team No One. (Did I do that right?) Neither movie has ever finished better than third place in the Box Office Power Rankings. We are confident that this validates our methods.
With the broad rubbing hornily against the observant, the clear-eyed ‘Adventureland’ views an awkward age with fondness and well-aged shame.
It’s messy and too telegraphed, but ‘Thirst’ employs vampirism probingly, is anchored by two great performances, and is disgustingly funny.
The One-Line Review’s Iain Stott has followed up his The 50 Greatest Films project with Beyond the Canon, meant to address complaints that the first survey was too canonical. The top five: Eyes Wide Shut, Mulholland Dr.,The Killing, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Shadow of a Doubt.
Primally repulsive and sad, ‘Grace’ is an honest, thorough metaphor for early motherhood, and clever and light with its icky cryptic horrors
As people tell us time and time again, box-office performance is in the eye of the beholder. Box Office Mojo wrote that Michael Jackson’s This Is It, in its debut weekend, did “exceptionally well for a concert picture or music documentary.” On the other hand, Disney’s A Christmas Carol “stumbled a bit out of the gate.” Guess which one made $30 million and which one pulled in $23 million in its opening weekend. Yep. The stumbler made more.
Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell exists mostly to remind the world that Sam Raimi made The Evil Dead and can still make The Evil Dead, which is good to know because Sam Raimi is re-making The Evil Dead. But amid all the giggle-inducing grossness are a few grace notes – unnecessarily skillful business that reminds us that Raimi also made A Simple Plan. I’m going to talk about one of those bits.
