The (Now-Overrated) ILX Top 100 Films of the 2000s Poll Results

sarahel*

triplets is another one from my shortlist that i ended up cutting. but i really like it. the sequences with the triplets in particular -- their musical performances, their frog dinner preparations -- are great and imaginative and really a window on this other askew world.

Yeah, it's not like Cameron Crowe invented the concept of groupies just to fit into his film. Kate Hudson's character aside (who had a multitude of problems), the rest of the groupies portrayed in the film seemed very aware of themselves and knew exactly what they were doing at all times. They weren't a bunch of starstruck teenyboppers.

I'm assuming you're reading a glorification of groupism into it,

uh, because that's a large part of the movie - the rosy nostalgia for that era, the hooker with the heart of gold, that is still devastated because, well, she's a ho. Of course the mom's character is privileged - she's a mother.

okay, finally caught up.

Master and Commander was my number 8. Absolutely adore that film. I also don't know what the guy upthread means about the story being muddled because of fitting too much in, because the story is ridiculously simple.

still wondering in what world the good girl is more interesting than school of rock, personally

I got quoted on In Bruges. It was my number 39. Really enjoy that film.

And School of Rock is the best mus-o film of the decade probably.

I'm a little surprised there isn't more commentary about what people like about these movies instead of what they hate

well... I've only seen (and liked) the following:

77. The Squid & The Whale simply one of the best "family drama" type movies of the last decade, one where all the characters are interesting/believable and avoids predictability in favor of a more sustained tone of discomfort and hurt and angst. it just seemed very emotionally honest.
79. Team America: World Police like I said, I have issues with the politics and racism, but the design/execution is amazing and there are tons of great jokes.
81. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring I've discussed this enough, I think. the best of the trilogy, one that encapsulates the feeling of loss that pervades Tolkien's work, as well as his love of simple joys and the wonder of nature. breathtaking landscapes all the way through, plus ridiculous aping of the best elements of the Bakshi version, the perfect Gandalf, and a fair amount of decent action.
83. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle stoners be lovin stoner comedies. Morbz rightly points out that the funniest thing in the whole movie is Kumar dreaming of marrying his bag of weed (which then turns into a loveless marriage involving beatings, etc.) should've ranked higher tbh.
93. Sideways eh, this was okay. "Like" is probably too strong a word.
96. High Fidelity ditto

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Well, of course there's going to be rosy nostalgia. It's essentially Crowe's autobiography, and he's the director.

xp honestly don't wanna do a close reading of the film, but i think that one can acknowledge some glorification of something bad (see drug use in like almost every film ever) while still not totally subscribing to the view that those things are good

this is dumbassery tho: "Of course the mom's character is privileged - she's a mother."

Wtf are you talking about? So all mothers in all films have their perspectives privileged????

uh, because that's a large part of the movie - the rosy nostalgia for that era, the hooker with the heart of gold, that is still devastated because, well, she's a ho. Of course the mom's character is privileged - she's a mother.

yeahhhhh I don't think she's devastated because 'she's a ho'

Man, it killed me when the dog landed on the other side of the Atlantic and was still chewing that caramel!

I'm a little surprised there isn't more commentary about what people like about these movies instead of what they hate

Man Who Enjoys Thing Informed He Is Wrong

i mean i like the good girl, and i'm glad that it got made, and it seemed like there was a dearth of solid, offbeat, grown-up american films at that time iirc, but some small nmber of frames from school of rock is more interesting than it imo

i liked the omniscient narration on et tu mama, and the window on rural mexico, and the energy of the young guys

narration reminded me of french new wave

nah totally prefer the Good Girl myself. brutal movie. still lol at the "invisible paint" joke.

School of Rock is okay and all but its basically a sports movie (underdogs gotta win the big game... *yawn* no wonder his next movie was Bad News Bears)

I liked the audience-pleasing non-canonical dwarf-tossing scene in whatever LOTR movie it was.
Joan Cusack is excellent in School of Rock. Clearly the superior Cusack.

this is dumbassery tho: "Of course the mom's character is privileged - she's a mother."

Wtf are you talking about? So all mothers in all films have their perspectives privileged????

One of the classic stereotypical dichotomies with female characters is that of madonna/whore. We have the groupie who has an unhappy ending, and we have the wonderful mother - the madonna figure - who through her great wisdom and love, lets her only son go on tour with a rock band and become "born" as a rock critic.

Also, In the Loop making this list is just really really weird. Kudos for a somewhat unpredictable poll, even if they're (early on, anyway) taking place in some alternate universe from what I experienced this decade.

i voted for 4 of the films that have shown up so far: happy-go-lucky, memories of murder, master and commander, and in the loop. i didn't vote for fellowship of the ring, mainly because i voted for the two towers.

sarahel, serious question: have you actually seen the film?

Yes I have seen it - and the stereotypical female characters just were too annoying, though I do really like Frances McDormand as an actress, so it wasn't excruciating.

I don't believe there was any evidence that he actually molested any children, but I don't recall.

He confessed to something vague in a letter, which suggested he at least did something he was ashamed of.

sarahel's memory jibes with mine fwiw

doesn't jibe with mine, or with the Madonna/Whore complex, but whatever. i don't really feel like arguing about it.

re: friedmans, wasn't it the creepy photos he took?

Movies deal in stereotypes, male and female. That's why we watch them. All of them.

sure but its nice to add some shading/subtleties in there

It's just the way I read it - someone like you, Mordy, who are probably identifying more with the main character because of the fact you are a) a guy and b) a music writer is probably going to pay attention to other things.

like how realistic it is for a bus full of rockers in '74 to be singing Tiny Dancer

Haven't seen almost famous, but how problematic is it compared to jerry maguire?

sarahel, I'm also an attentive film watcher and a graduate student in a very critical theory heavy department, so this isn't just a moment where I'm clouded by my fond memories

don't young, teenage boys view their mothers as their mother?

The scene where Zooey gives the kid her vinyl records, and he flips through all the mysterious covers, made me wish really bad that I'd had an older sibling.

It's not. But that's what Almost Famous is... Cameron Crowe writing and directing his own autobiography, and making something of a fantasy out of it to cover up the boring parts.

oh, and sarahel, Manderlay is vastly superior to Dogville. Still kind of shit, but not terrible.

Has this been posted? Best part of Team America:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yC7HwPh6Es

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/amelie.jpg

Soppy, sappy and lovely in equal effect. Point is that I do not believe in love at first sight, or the idea of soulmates - which the film to a lesser or greater extent panders to. Nevertheless I do find the narrative style and the visual beauty sucks you in far more that the films many shortcomings (overly cute and gamine lead, tweeness) washed over me. Luckily the lead and the film (the two are pretty much intertwined) have a dark side which makes the loveliness of the rest of it bearable.

― Pete

saw the first 20 minutes on tv at christmas and spent the first weekend after christmas looking for the dvd only to fail to find it anywhere (which is odd because it used to be everywhere).

― koogs

I think it's excellent. The only bit I didn't like was the sex shop which I thought was needlessly contrived (even in a very contrived film). But everything is so sparkly and pretty in it. I appreciated it even more after going to Paris and then watching it and realizing what a fantasy view of the city it is.

― anthony kyle monday

It seems like a lot of the criticism of Amelie is directed at the setting and characters and plot and so on. But it makes no claim to be otherwise, and can and should be enjoyed as light, clever fantasy, as a fairy tale romance. The whole arc of the film is watching Amelie's eventual detachment from her twee little fantasy world, and while it may have been more interesting to have city itself grow a bit in turn, it doesn't ruin the film to have the simpler story. The film is only in part about Paris, and not the real Paris, the one that's on your parent's decades-old postcards. If this is not your thing -- it isn't mine, really -- so be it, but I don't understand the level of animosity directed towards it.

― Jacob

Amelie

#72

Amelie
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2001
France
(259.5 points, 14 votes)

iirc kate hudson's characters problems don't stem from her ho-dom, they stem from the rock dude being a dick and not-that-into-her. reallly don't see how this can be seen as a sexist narrative unless I'm remembering the movie wrong.

omigod

Amelie! Let the games begin!

Like Jules et Jim, this fucking thing defined Foreign Films for a generation.

Yeah, if you take the fame and rock n' roll out of Almost Famous, it's still just a story about a one-sided relationship. I don't see that as inherently sexist at all.

Amelie doesn't deserve a place on any best-of poll, but it's certainly not a bad film. Jacob pretty OTM

Very curious about what animations turn up. I didn't vote for Triplets in the end but it has some great touches and fantastic cartoon Glenn Gould

re: AF rock dude in not-falling-in-love-with-cheap-ho shockah

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finally we can start arguing about racism instead of sexism

xp Mordy: Then, I'm at a loss why the stereotypical female characters aren't obvious to you - I don't know. I don't feel like watching that movie again to better build my argument, and I'm ready to just agree to disagree on this point.

iatee: and why would that be? Why would rock dude be a dick and not-that-into her? Because she's a groupie, she's too easy, impure, etc. This is a really tired narrative trope.

director's cut of AF fleshed out the women more iirc