15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Prisoner of Azkaban is the best film to date in the Harry Potter franchise. This is the movie that best translates the essence of the fantastic novels by J.K. Rowling. Directed by the brilliant Alfonso Cauron (who actually has more films on this list than any other filmmaker) it is the most visually arresting experience in the franchise. Perhaps it is ironic that the best of the Harry Potter films is also the shortest. There were storylines that were cut out for this movie but the experience is not compromised. What is important about an adaptation is how it works on its own merit and not necessarily the faithfulness to the source material. The first two films were great children's movies, but a little too saccharine. The remaining movies (with possibly the exception of The Half-Blood Prince) have been too staccato in the storytelling, causing a rigid and uneven experience. Prisoner of Azkaban does not have these pitfalls; it is a wonderful entertainment from beginning to end. Sure, there are times the acting is not great (these are children, after all) but the world is there on the screen, and the emotional payoff of the climax (Harry and the Dementors) is one for the ages.
14. Antichrist
The most disturbing film I have ever seen, it will haunt you for days after seeing it. This film by Lars Von Trier is probably the most controversial movie on the list. It has acts of graphic violence and despair that are worse than anything seen in mainstream "torture-porn." That being said, Antichrist is a masterpiece. The emotions, as raw as they are, are very real. The performances by William Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are both worthy of Oscar recognition, though they will not receive it. You will never look at a fox the same way again. Von Trier has created a truly unique piece, and inverted world- and the results are unimaginable.
13. The Squid and the Whale
The Squid and the Whale is one of the best movies I have ever seen about divorce, particularly the effect that divorce has on children. This small film, less than 100 minutes long and shot on a shoestring budget, has given me more to think about regarding the family dynamic that any other film in years.
The film tells the story of the Berkman family. Bernard (Jeff Bridges) and Joan (Laura Linney), the father and mother, are both New York intellectuals. She writes for the New Yorker and is getting ready to be published, while he was a successful writer for many years but has recently become a washed out Junior College creative writing professor. She is cold and uncompromising, he is an arrogant ass. These are two people that do not need to be married. When they sit down their children Walt (Jesee Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline, the son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates) both children immediately begin to take sides. Frank sides with Mommy, Walt with Daddy.
There are the obvious dramas about murder, torture, disease, famine and war, and there are the true dramas, the realistic ones. All 4 members of the Berkman family are realistic people with realistic problems. Bernard loves his wife but is too arrogant to admit it. He is so caught up on himself, and even goes about giving his son horrible advice, going as far as telling him to have sex with his new girlfriend before dumping her, for practice. Joan has not always been faithful to Bernard, but loves him too much to let him go. Both children are terribly screwed up, yet we sense that they will grow up and do great things. In all actuality – they did. The film is written and directed by Noah Baumbach, based on some personal experiences he has. How much do you want to bet that Frank and Walt end up writing a movie someday? Who knows- it may be as good as The Squid and the Whale.
12. There Will Be Blood
Daniel Day Lewis gives one of the most powerful performances in this history of film as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. It will only be surpassed by one other performance this decade. This performance alone cements There Will Be Blood as one of the great movies. Most magical is that this film has so much more going for it than just Day Lewis. The story is told such an elegant, straight-forward way that it is as if we are watching a documentary unfold.
There have been many critics that have claimed that this film is a character study, however I feel that it is also one of the best epics of the decade. The oil derrick fire is on par with the fire in Gone with the Wind, and the rugged landscape of California creates a setting as majestic as any in a Sergio Leone picture. Paul Dano is superb as both Paul and Eli Sunday. The ending of the film is unforgettable; I will never look at bowling the same way again. This could have easily been in the top ten in any other decade.
11. Minority Report
Minority Report, the best science fiction film since Blade Runner, is the best work that Steven Spielberg has done this decade. It is based on a Phillip K. Dick(Blade Runner, Total Recall) story, and is an outstanding combination of science fiction and film noir.
The story stars Tom Cruise as John Anderton, one of the head officers in the future Washington D.C.’s elite Precrime unit. Using a group of psychic children (Precogs) the police have developed a way of preventing and prosecuting crime before it occurs. Even think about killing your wife, and within minutes a SWAT team will be at your door, placing a halo around your head, and sending you to prison.
The system is flawless. Since its inception Washington D.C. has not had a single homicide. The opening sequence of the film shows the entire Precrime process. As a man that is about to kill his wife and her lover is escorted away, he cries and screams- “I didn’t do anything.” The moral and constitutional implications of such a system clearly escape the government as well as Anderton. That is, until Anderton sees that he is slated to commit murder in roughly 24 hours.
From this realization on, Minority Report becomes a nonstop action picture. Anderton must flee from his own police force with retnal scanners and identity tracers everywhere. In order to get to bottom of the murder (which must be a setup) he is required to use all of the ingenuity he can find. The result is Spielberg’s most electrifying work, with special effects seamlessly blending into this detective story.
I love this movie. There are moments of excitement, such as the thrilling sequence in which robotic “spiders” search an entire city block looking for Anderton; or, the fantastic sequence towards the end of the movie with John and Agatha (Samantha Morton- one of the Precogs) evade escape through a futuristic shopping mall to the tune of Andy Williams’s Moon River. There are many twists, turns, revelations and surprises; there is never a dull moment, nor should there be- after all we are in Spielberg’s hands.
