Bill Gibron's The 10 Best Films of the Decade (2000 - 2009)

Created by Niaajjh.

Favorited 1 time, disliked 0 times, added to 0 watchlists.

Bill Gibron is a writer and film critic for popmatters. He wrote the 10 best films of decade in the end of 2009. Here his about that description for the list:

Talk about tough! Even if this wasn’t a full time job, taking up as much of one’s life as any career plus concept of entertainment could, trying to pick out ten titles from an equal number of years is almost impossible. It’s not like television, which tends to keep its beloved entities on the air long enough to make a memorable impact. It’s also not like music, which can play in the background of one’s life sometimes decades after release. No, movies demand attention. They require patience and perspective. They are the most unique of artforms because they come at you complete. You can love a particular band or album even with one or two clunkers among the set list. No TV show is ever going to be 100% funny/dramatic/thrilling/thought-provoking all the time.

But film doesn’t dignify such flaws. Instead, it amplifies them, destroying brilliant direction, excellent acting, or superb storytelling along the way. Naturally, this creates a kind of cinematic standard, a benchmark by which we measure both the good and the bad. And yet, going back over the near 3500 entries for possible inclusion here (figure it out - that’s 350 per year, or almost one a day for the last decade…and yes, I did watch each and every one, be they theatrical or on DVD) is still a mammoth undertaking, one that gears itself noticeably toward the most recent viewing experiences. Indeed, a lot of lists out there currently offer pickings from 2007 - 2009 almost exclusively, making you wonder if these so called experts even saw anything prior to the second Bush Administration. Add in the almost infinite and exhaustive “honorable mentions” and you’ve got a pointless combination of limited perspective and bet hedging.

Don’t worry - this list won’t be any better. As a matter of fact, one can probably pick it apart point-by-point and argue over the merits of each selection. Still, as a function of one person’s own individual likes and dislikes, as a Herculean attempt to take one’s passion and profession and summarize it in several hundred words or less, it’s the way things stand…today…at this moment…without too much internal kvetching. Could it all change tomorrow? Probably. Are some of these choices set in cement, almost inarguable in their inclusion? Yes. So grab your cinematic salt (you’ll need it to take most of what you’ll read next) and settle in for SE&L"s Top 10 Films of the Decade (2000 - 2009), starting with a very unusual selection in the final spot: