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

re: Orson Welles, how do you feel about Unicron the round, planet-sized robot that eats planets in Transformers being a meta-reference to Welles (well probably more a direct reference to his girth at the time)?

everybody else seemed to be playing by pretty quotidian rules though

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Thursday, February 11, 2010 9:20 PM (8 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

bardem is kind of like omar in the wire in that sense. (i don't think either of them cross the line to characters who literally don't belong in this universe)

Huckabees really bugged the shit out of me except for Marky Mark.

Intolerable Cruelty is better than nearly all the comedies this poll has named.

Blood Meridian is probably unfilmable though.

what are everyone's highest ranking movies that they're positive aren't going to make it into the top ten?

The Aristocrats, my #2.

Had Eureka @ #4 but figured that was a long, long shot.

xp Philip: I didn't see the Transformers movie, so I have no opinion on it.

Intolerable Cruelty is better than nearly all the comedies this poll has named.

The only funny thing in that whole movie was when someone asked the waitress for baby field greens.

I have no idea what the top 2 will be but I don't think Paranoid Park (#4 iirc) and Milk (#2 or #3) will place. Unless they already have and I missed it in this tl;dr thread.

those trying to read *too* deep into ncfom are doing it wrong. it's basically an almost completely astonishing genre thriller with some mysterious underpinnings that lend it a little more weight and a take on the arbitrariness of life and death and chance that makes it slightly more interesting than it would have been, and a dope monologue at the end from TLJ which--to me--is meant to be somewhat spiritual and reassuring about his own inevitable death, and though it might sound like a mess it just comes together nicely. but make no mistake, first and foremost it's a thriller and a chase film (chigurh knows where his quarry is because of a transmitter, iirc.)

it didn't say anything to me on the subject of mortality. maybe it could've, but this chigurh dude was working for somebody, wasn't he? trying to recover cash? my sense is just that there's a fundamental clash between death coming to these people as inevitable and brought by some terrifying mythic figure vs. oh hey they got involved with some shady criminals who hire people to kill people, that might happen.

Can't think of any film that broke a whole director/studio like Spirited Away.

I still feel bad for forgetting Eureka, because that movie made a really big impression on me back then, and I should've had it in my top 10. Next time I'm gonna spend more than 0,5 hours assembling my ballot.

I'd love Intolerable Cruelty if I hadn't read an interview where Joel Coen claimed that watching it could cure rheumatoid arthritis.

I think omar is OTM here

Funniest Intolerable Cruelty scene, imo, is the one where the guy with asthma shoots at the people with his inhaler and blows his own brains out with the gun.

Blood Meridian is probably unfilmable though.

agreed but that isn't gonna stop Hollywood from making a shitty version of it tho (apparently)

yeah i kinda agree with this but it being an adaptation makes me second-guess my impression of the story and wonder if the way it was told in the book would resonate with me more.

the book was mostly third person, but the "monologues" were these fairly brief first person chapters and they were totally annoying as hell in the book.

but this chigurh dude was working for somebody, wasn't he? trying to recover cash?

No. Its clear by about halfway through the film that Chigurh has his own motivations (I think this is what Harrelson's lone monologue is all about, right? that Chigurh has "principles")

(i think the monologues worked great in the movie)

well, i don't believe him.

My theory of the day is NCFOM:Fargo::Goodfellas:Mean Streets (more mature filmmaker revisits earlier themes and fashions an all-around tauter, more accomplished bravura piece).

"agreed but that isn't gonna stop Hollywood from making a shitty version of it tho (apparently)"

Ick Todd Field.

I had Songs from the Second Floor at #2

and the reason people die is simply because they have SEEN Chigurh - he's a ghost, the angel of death incarnate, every one who comes across his path dies. I thought this was made really explicit, like, several times!

x-post

Can't think of any film that broke a whole director/studio like Spirited Away.

I thought it was Mononoke that did this? I remember it being the first Miyazaki movie even my non-anime-loving friends were talking about. But if SA was the real breakthrough, that's great, because it's clearly better than Mononoke.

Blood Meridian is probably unfilmable though.

film version of this in the works, right? agreed though. 90% of the power of the book is in the apocalyptic, Old Testament prose. plus shit would need to be NC-17++.

xposts damn this moves fast

(Is anyone in any suspense whatsoever about the top three, at this point?)

(I think this is what Harrelson's lone monologue is all about, right? that Chigurh has "principles")

― Wrinkles, I'll see you on the other side (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, February 11, 2010 3:28 PM (42 seconds ago) Bookmark

yes, which is why he tells brolin that chigurh is gonna kill his wife regardless

I thought it was Totoro.

kelly macdonald is so great in that

it's basically an almost completely astonishing genre thriller

prolly would've been a bit more thrilling for me if chigurh wasn't portrayed as a mythical evil superhuman

I mean, character and performance were ace but it made things kind of boring for me

also you guys are basically saying this was terminator gone western noir

"(Is anyone in any suspense whatsoever about the top three, at this point?)"

Only if they haven't been paying attention.

cf scene where Chigurh goes back to the bank that hired him and kills his "employer" (lolz Mr. Swingline from Office Space) - and then he turns to the low-level flunky. Low-level flunky asks if he's going to kill him and Chigurh says "that depends. Do you see me?"

x-posts

he gives brolin a chance to sacrifice himself and save his wife during that phone call and brolin just keeps on running.

film version of this in the works, right? agreed though. 90% of the power of the book is in the apocalyptic, Old Testament prose. plus shit would need to be NC-17++.

yeah. this is a terrible idea. looking forward to the scene where the Judge smashes a newborn baby's head against a rock btw

i dunno, so many great films are based around the notion of someone attempting to escape an exceptionally tenacious pursuer (horror, sci fi, cop films, and so on) that i'm not sure chigurh's superhuman skill is a negative. it's totally thrilling how inventive and batshit he is.

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

This goes much further than Adaptation or even Malkovich, in that it's sustained, and Kaufman even makes the ending stick. He's still as much of a smart-ass as Pope, but now he's also channelling Abelard directly, which makes all the difference. Gondry gets close enough to the right tone - after the insanely pretty opening, it has to keep moving. The cast help of course - thankfully Winslet has something to work with for the first time since, what, Hamlet?; I'd almost forgotten that she's the greatest actress of her generation (so far). But it's Kaufman's movie.

It's great. Probably not La Jetee great. Definitely Blade Runner great.

― B*R*A*D

Yeah, I loved it. One of the very few movies where I've geeked about the head-trippiness (narrative experimentation, sci-fi logic) and was simultaneously close to tears several times.

― jaymc

I saw 'Adaptation' and absolutely adored it, moreso than 'John Malcovich', it left me actually inspired, which felt like a really big thing for me. Usually when i go to see a film in the big theaters i go because it's with friends and i don't really care about it. Most big movies these days feel like they are going through pre-scripted motions, according to a system that i don't find interesting in any way. Obviously there is a head-trip feel to all his movies and a dada/surreal/hipster approach so i almost feel like it's a guilty pleasure, but then again i think he's getting better and better at them and by the time i saw 'Sunshine' i was completely taken over by it.

It didn't help that i was in tears for almost the entire second half. I figured maybe Kaufman knows his demographic too well (the sweater, the Eskimo boots, the Tom Waits and Beck) but most of the similarities between this movie and my life circa a month ago were scarily similar. If you go to this movie with a heavy heart, it's going to shatter you!

― Adam Bruneau

i fucking LOVED this movie btw - emotional wallop, smart enough, good acting, PANTIES, even mopey beck sounded good!

― James Blount

it's metafiction transplanted to film; it's an okay movie, but the device is so far from original it's kind of stale. See every single John Barth novel ever written.

― anthony kyle monday

very clever, sweet, scary and funny in places. didn't actually like the two main characters that much (not that relevant in a way). thought Tom Wilkinson was great, Dunst fine, Elijah OK tho he had little to do.

pretentious? mais naturellement!

would be surprised at anyone who loved BJM (i did) and Adaptation (still not seen) but hated this. other haters, not sure what you wanted (you so rarely explain...).

― stevem

wow. i don't think i've ever cried so much at a film (and i went there completely happy (and i'm happy now) - i don't think it'd be a good film to see if you'd had a recent breakup, as people have said upthread).

but yeah, it's a masterpiece. i think i need a little time away from it before i comment any further, though.

― toby

Absolutely loved this film to the fucking maximum. Totally changed my perspective on Gondry and confirms CK for me as one of *the* great screenwriters (a small band). Can't praise it too highly.

― Enrique

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

#3

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Michel Gondry
2004
United States
(1348 points, 47 votes, 6 first place)

i like the way the film handles chigurhs racial... vagueness. i think hes supposed to be from the balkans? but hes played by a spanish actor in a movie set in the southwest? with a totally indeterminate accent

I thought it was Mononoke that did this? I remember it being the first Miyazaki movie even my non-anime-loving friends were talking about. But if SA was the real breakthrough, that's great, because it's clearly better than Mononoke.

Maybe Mononoke helped but I hadn't heard anything about ghibli til Spirited Away was released, that's when all the dvds started showing up in the shops. I think both are great and interesting for different reasons and leave it at that.

if this were Lost, we'd be all "why'd brolin go back to give that dude water? so stupid! now he deserves to die! Smokey, finish him!"

also you guys are basically saying this was terminator gone western noir

remove the messiah story and replace it with greed and yes, I agree, and it was fucking aweseome

he gives brolin a chance to sacrifice himself and save his wife during that phone call and brolin just keeps on running.

And in sticking with his principles, does exactly what he promises to do. And makes it clear to the wife that it's Brolin's fault!

Also yay to "Eternal Sunshine", kind of glad I've seen and liked all of these movies since #6

ok guys, i'm off for lunch....please try to not debate the final two and what they are or who will finish where, but i will say that coming down to the end of the ballots rolling in it was a pretty close race....leads were switched....

watch this space. continue to trash talk the other films.

lol yeah loved that, pancakes

'eternal shitshine of the shitless shit' is going to stay w/ me.

ISotSM had a good beginning and ending, but the middle section where they go through the fantasyland was waayy too long. I wanted to see more of Kate Winslet's character in real life, not just Jim Carrey's dream version of her.

Wow. So Children of Men may actually go #1.

looks like it's "dude wheres my car" vs "vicky cristina barcelona"