10/10 FILMS OF 21ST CENTURY
A friend recently shared with me a Hollywood Reporter article, 'The 50 Best Movies of the 21st Century So Far, Ranked' and it got me thinking about what would be my personal top 10 films of this century so far.
1. Still Walking (2008)
If there is one genre in film where one single country has ruled the roost over the past 100 years of cinema (aside from America with Westerns) then it must surely be Japan with astute family dramas and Hirokazu Koreeda's 'Still Walking' (2008) may be my favourite of them all. A sequel of sorts to Ozu's 'Tokyo Story', 'Still Walking' manages to draw upon familar, familial themes from that 1953 masterpiece and yet update them for a more modern 21st Century setting. The gentle pain of misunderstandings and resentments within the Yokoyama family that have been brought about through the death of a son and brother is as delicate as a butterfly's wings.
Exquisite.
2. Yi Yi (2000)
Edward Yang's 'Yi Yi' (2000) is a grander and more thematically wide ranging film than Koreeda's 'Still Walking', much like a great expansive novel. It deals ostensibly with the fragility of a modern family attempting to survive the existential threat and atomisation of modernity on their traditional relationships with one another.
What it captures so profoundly is the aloneness of individuals in both families and modern societies that are becoming increasingly depersonalised. How do we find that soul nourishing connection in such an age? Ironically, perhaps of all the characters in the film, it's eight year old Yang-Yang who gets closest to finding it.
What a tragedy then that director Edward Yang died shortly after making his magnum opus. At least film lovers worldwide will take some comfort in knowing that we'll always have this beautiful testament to his craft to enjoy forever.
3. Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003)
This isn't a film for everyone. But for those who like to wallow in the nostalgia of watching movies in darkened cinemas as a form of escape from the tyranny of our day-to-day realities then it provides quite a meta experience as we observe a disparate group of characters watch a final screening of Dragon Inn (1967) in the soon to be closed down Fu-Ho Grand Theater cinema in Taipei.
Not much happens in Tsai Ming-Liang's film but as a record of the atmosphere of the traditional movie going experience it provides quite a poignant testimony that I find surprisingly moving.
4. La Grande Bellezza (2013)
Coincidentally, similar to 'Still Walking', Sorrentino's 'La Grande Bellezza' (2013) is a sequel of sorts to Fellini's iconic 'La Dolce Vita' (1960) and again it updates familar ideas but for the 21st Century where the glory of Rome is now slowly fading and writer/journalist/socialite Pep Gambardella appears to be the last one to turn the lights out on his beloved city, perhaps hoping for one last re-acquaintance with his own idiosyncratic ideas of beauty as a way of recapturing his long lost youth.
5. Artificial Intelligence (2000)
I get a lot of flak for singing this film's praises and though it would take a long time to convert an atheist of this movie into a believer, all I will say is that each time I return to it, it haunts me and as it's a hyrbid, beyond-the-grave collaboration between the long deceased Stanley Kubrick and still living Steven Spielberg I think it does more than justice to the 10 page 'Supertoys Last All Summer Long' David Aldiss classic short story it's based on, a modern day, transcendent re-telling of Pinocchio that hits harder than you might suspect.
6. Steve Jobs (2015)
I've never been the biggest fan of Danny Boyle's work if I'm honest but here he serves an exceptional Aaron Sorkin script with surgical-like directorial precision and it's one of the most effective movies I've seen in recent decades.
The contrast between a man with a myriad of human flaws attempting to evolve the perfection of his computer systems across a perfectly executed three act/three decade structure is my idea of screenplay heaven. There may have been some licence taken in the depiction of Jobs and his daughter but if his reason for impressing her (and the rest of us) was creating 1000 songs in her pocket with the invention of the iPod then I'm down for it.
7. Her (2013)
Any film where the protagonist loses his lover to an A.I reconstructed Alan Watts has to deserve a place in my top 10 fims of the 21st century. It is similar to Spielberg's 2000 film 'Artificial Intelligence' in that it deals with the uneasy transiton between the human age and incoming robot age, posing interesting questions about the limitations of humans' perception of love and whether that's real or artificial. A modern day 'Annie Hall' meets '2001 : A Space Odyssey'.
8. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
A man just ever so slightly out of time with his own generational zeitgeist that he fails to capitalise on his role within it, is possibly the most obscure and hilarious premise to a movie ever. The first time I watched this I found myself depressed at finding so many similarities between myself and the protagonist but thankfully watching a second time, I rejoiced at its dark humour and realised this was a stone cold classic.
And one with a brilliant soundtrack.
9. Sexy Beast (2001)
What I love most about 'Sexy Beast' (2001) is that most people who focused on the toxic masculinity on display in the guise of Ben Kingsley's psychopathic character, Don Logan, failed to miss that the movie is actually a perfect love story that recalls the chivalric tales of old. Gal (Ray Winstone) has to prove himself worthy to win the hand of his fiancée, Deedee, (Amanda Redman) by fighting off the demons (Kinglsey and McShane) who try to own his soul.
Perfection.
10. The Two Towers (2002)
As much as I was overwhelmed with the brilliant faithfulness of Jackson's 'The Fellowship Of The Ring', it was 'The Two Towers' that really brought home how important this trilogy adapatation was as the jeopardy for Middle Earth was ratcheted up to incredible Kuroswa-like heights and the resonance of why Tolkien's iconic book remains more relevant than ever was brought home for our distraught age.
SPECIAL MENTIONS
11. The Social Network (2010)
A hymn to Silicon Valley autism.
12. Coco (2017)
Memory, hero-worship and music have never been better examined than in this surprisingly effective Pixar movie set in Mexico on the famous Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead).
13. Birdman (2014)
The unravelling of celebrity in a digital age is hilariously observed in this tour de force with Michael Keaton in the starring role under the brilliant direction of director Iñáratu.
14. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino's ingenious fantasia on the problematics of language during WW2 and a parody of how often Hollywood overlooked this fundementallly basic issue, making overt references to Pabst, Lubitsch and the Marx Bros.
15. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
The last halycon days of Hollywood before the garden of Eden in Los Angeles is shattered forever by Manson and his blood-soaked satanic cult. Tarantino's pens his most poignant ever final scene as he balances a grand guignol with a subtle, love letter style sign off that wouldn't seem out of place in the best of American short fiction writing.
16. Gladiator (2000)
A requiem or last rites of the classical male hero archetype in the guise of Maximus Decimus Meridius before identity politics buried him for eternity, or at the very least the next 100 years.
17. Adaptation (2002)
As as failed screenwriter myself, I probably over-related to Nicholas Cage as Charlie Kaufmann in this ingenious exploration into the madness of a film writer as he wrestles with the age old dilemma of balancing commerical cinema with artistic integrity.
18. West Side Story (2021)
I'll admit I shed a tear watching this as this was the first major film after the Covid tyranny weirdness that reminded me that cinema was finally back. Superior update of the original screen adaptation.
19. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
A perfect homage to Pulp crime novels for an attention deficit Hollywood with Robert Downey Jr in a career best performance as petty criminal Harry Lockhart alongside an equally brilliant performance by Val Kilmer as his private investigator mentor Perry Van Shrike. Shane Black's best screenplay to date and he directs his own magnum opus with aplomb.
20. No Country For Old Men (2007)
The final death knell for the American Western is tolled by the Coen Bros as Sherriff Tommy Lee Jones realises the futility of attempting to combat evil, as do we, the audience.
AND HOW COULD I POSSIBLY FORGET?
Minority Report (2002), Matchstick Men (2003), 2046 (2004), The Aviator (2004), The Lives Of Others (2006), Clouds Of Sil Maria (2014).