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

*shudder*

Also, can I say how unbelievable it is that two films placed on this list that seriously deal with explicitly Jewish acts of violence and revenge? I did some work a few years ago in Jewish cinema and lots of scholars noted that the Hank Greenberg documentary was one of the first times that a Jewish cinematic figure was "athletic" or "masculine" instead of just relying on tropes that Woody Allen had exhausted.

omar, cheers for this btw. you are quite the dude.

next up: "You Don't Mess with the Zohan"

http://i49.tinypic.com/281g6c6.jpg

jesus was athletic and masculine in stuff like Pasolini's Gospel

how unbelievable it is that two films placed on this list that seriously deal with explicitly Jewish acts of violence and revenge

Not very unbelievable that both placed on this list -- both were Best Picture nominees, after all -- but I assume you're talking about the very existence of both, within a few years of each other.

don't forget Which Way to the Front? if you're looking for "seriousness" on the Geek's level

yeah, that's what I meant. xp

the diaspora strikes back

my opposition to wall-to-wall action isn't borne out of a distaste for vulgarity or anything like that but from the fact that it actually makes my attention drift rather than perk up

^^^totally feelin you on this, I am the same

― Wrinkles, I'll see you on the other side (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:54 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is why i didnt like the dark knight

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

So, I got back from my week long stay in British Columbia (Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo) last night, only to be whisked away to a friend's birthday party and then to a showing of the just-off-the-racks DVD for this little gem of an anime movie called Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki.

Oh.. my.. god. Not to underrate the surreal values of most anime flicks, but this one takes the cake, only because it's disguised as a fairy tale free of violence. And, while, compared to most anime flicks, this is indeed relatively violence-free, the images from this movie will never ever leave my brain -- partially to will, and partially not.

Keep in mind that I'm hardly a movie kinda guy, much less an ANIME kinda guy, and I think this is just one of the movies of the year. Maybe anime connoisseurs will balk at my recommendation... but whatever. And with almost all movies, I recommend the Japanese dialog with English subtitles.

― donut bitch

Well, thanks to this thread and DB, Nicole and Jess's enthusiasm, I went and saw Spirited Away tonight -- it did indeed just get released in the States here. Oddly enough, I think I really lucked out -- see, I heard that in fact it would be a dubbed version, and even the studio promo stuff in the theater lobby said that. But it turns out -- possibly because of the Japanese emigre community around here -- that the version shown was in fact subtitled! Thus blessed, I got the film straight up as it was created, and while I'm not as completely and thoroughly blown away as DB was, I'm not far behind -- there are indeed some amazing images and set pieces, and the story as a whole is beautifully, exquisitely handled. Yes, let me recommend this thoroughly -- it was a blessing to be able to see it that way in the theaters, and I understand the passion for the studio's work as a whole that much more clearly now.

― Ned Raggett

I saw this last weekend, and it was every bit as good as everyone on this thread says it is. I think it's probably the most visually enthralling animated feature I've ever seen. For once, I was actually glad that it was dubbed rather than sub-titled because (1) there were no subtitles blocking the bottom section of the screen, and (2) I didn't have to worry about missing the visual action while trying to keep up with the dialogue.

― o. nate

Miyazaki believes in the audience feeling genuine, powerful emotions, terror, confusion, unease, gladness, love. Like in early Disney, eg Pinnochio, not today where it's all filtered for you into a low-key blandness.

I saw Spirited Away several times and it stayed fresh while each time suggesting more to me. Finally i think it's an allegory of the horror of having to grow up and go to work. Chihiro being in fear of her life conveys the death of innocence that we fight against.

― pete s

Spirited Away has this incredible scale - like the sky and the sea and train tracks go on forever.

― Spencer Chow

You spirited away haters are gonna be first against the wall

― Adrian Langston

SPIRITED AWAY -- or This Week In Acid Casualty Anime Fairy Tales That Will Haunt Your Dreams For A Long Time But Make You Want To Watch Them Over And Over Again
Spirited Away and Japanese Mythology

#6

Spirited Away
Hayao Miyazaki
2001
Japan
(1111.5 points, 43 votes, 3 first place)

Give me more food. I'LL EAT EVERYTHING!

Enormous points jump there.

yeah, the points jump from #8 to #6 is huge.

wow yeah that's pretty dramatic!

had a big onion in it, right?

lots of layers

i said i'd be happy if this at least beat all the pixars, so ... i'm happy.

i guess everyone has a different favorite miyazaki and there are great things in so many of his movies that it's a little hard to pick one, but i just felt like spirited away worked so well on so many different levels -- narratively, symbolically and just in terms of the sheer abundance of its visual imagination. it's a great movie.

I'll be honest and say I don't remember hardly anything about this film.

One of the few films I actually own.

But I voted for it anyway just cuz my impression of it eight years ago was WOWZA.

Also I really like the scene where she got the abortion.

man i remember lots of scenes and details. and i've only seen it once, when it came out.

I'm seeing why neorealism didn't do well in the '40s poll.

had a big onion in it, right?

Yes.

http://yoyokirby.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/parappa_level1.jpg

xpost Sorry, rejoining the thread a little late for this but re: "could never get over the cognitive dissonance of FUCKING DISNEY selling me a movie about consumerism and over-consumption." The other day I was thinking about how many Pixar and Pixaresque movies have a similar anti-corporate message: the bastardising of the chef's brand in Ratatouille, the boardroom creep in Robots, the greedy company boss in Monsters Inc. I wonder if it's the individual filmmakers, who are v protective and, as much as you can be in animation, auteurish, grumbling about the machine - that plotline in Ratatouille is almost a preemptive attack on the film's merchandise. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some coded attacks on Michael Eisner in the mix.

5 for 5 on the top 10 list I made last night

I'll be honest and say I don't remember hardly anything about this film.

I didn't either, but rereading the Wikipedia entry on it brought back the entire film almost as if I'd seen it yesterday.

Pretty ironic that a film as anti-pollution as Spirited Away is distributed by Disney!

haw

where's the spirited away haterade

would you accept complete indifference?

that will have to do

I wish I could go back in time and reorder my ballot, I placed this way too low.

remember what happened to donnie darko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEszTzdUMcY

So what are the surprise films to not place in the top 100?

man i need to see this again. when bluray?!

Spirited Away is the best of 00s Miyazakis, but I'd still rate Totoro, Laputa, and Porco Rosso above it. That's not a particularly damning comment though, as they're all great. My favourite movies of his have this slow, meditative quality, which was somewhat missing from Sprited Away (and which was more evident in Ponyo), but it makes it up by the sheer richness of ideas and visual imagination. I definitely should rewatch SA, I haven't seen it since it came out. (It's just that I hate watching movies like that on the small screen, hopefully the local film archive will screen it some day.)

re spirited away: sorry, the most I can muster is a slightly annoyed yawn.

And yeah, it seems pretty obvious this is the movie no one will confess to hate. Can't imagine anyone doing so.

So what are the surprise films to not place in the top 100?

maybe we should ask this when it's done

calling the Fat People in Space portion BAD is just hysteria.

― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:28 PM (49 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's totally pedestrian compared to the last 45 mins of nemo or monsters inc. agree with people upthread saying you shouldn't hold the great first 20 mins against the rest of the movie, but the rest of the movie is dull, and the message stuff doesn't make up for it, any more than it does in avatar.

not seen spirited away. sounds like dog shit.
re: IB, i voted for it, but not top 10. i don't think it would place that high if this poll were done in 5 years time. i guess it picked up a lot of votes form people for whom it was the last film they really enjoyed in the cinema.

re spirited away: sorry, the most I can muster is a slightly annoyed yawn.

― sarahel, Thursday, February 11, 2010 3:31 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

awesome, thanks - really changed the way i think about this movie

xp tuomas: i can confess to hating it if it makes this thread more enjoyable.

It does not.

fwiw Ponyo is the first and only movie my 3 year old neph has seen

ppl who wanted to rep for tarantino but couldn't bring themselves to vote kill bills or death proof

xp to caek