My Favourite Movies of the Decade

30. Kontroll

Nimrod Antal makes an extremely entertaining and engaging directorial debut with this tale of ticket controllers losing their minds and their dignity while on the job. Shot entirely in the Budapest subway system (the second oldest of its kind in the world), the story follows Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi) and his group of fellow ticket controllers as they suffer ridicule and physical attacks on a daily basis. Their job is to check tickets on the subway trains, but nobody takes them seriously and so they're always finding themselves in one terrible situation after another. There is also a subplot regarding a mysterious murderer pushing people in front of moving trains and Bulcsú even meets an intriguing love interest in the form of a young woman routinely dressed in a pink bear suit. It's all so lovingly weird and Antal keeps the narrative clicking along at a fantastic pace. Kontroll is often hilarious, but Bulcsú's journey is tinged with sadness, as well. The various emotions are confidently juggled by Antal and the cast ensures that the comedic and dramatic elements are always entwined.

 

29. The Dark Knight

Superhero cinema was elevated to previously unimagined heights with this soaring depiction of Batman's ongoing battle with crime in Gotham City. Co-writer/director Chris Nolan built upon the brainy infrastructure he helped create in Batman Begins by considering the consequences of Batman's actions. If a wealthy, well-trained man actually did decide to dress up as a bat and terrorize criminals in a bid to clean up his city, what would happen next? Where would the hero go from there and how would his decision affect the city he is struggling to protect? To find the answer, Nolan turned to Batman's most iconic villain, the clown-faced Joker. Envisioned as a demented soul who considers himself one of the greatest criminal minds on the planet, the Joker arrives in Gotham City with one hopeful desire: to beat Batman. If he can best the world's only genuine superhero, then clearly he will be remembered as the greatest villain the world has ever known. Obsessed with anarchic pleasures, this Joker proves to be one of the screen's most memorable bad guys. As played by the late Heath Ledger, this Joker is smart, cunning, mysterious, creepy, and completely despicable. Ledger's performance is a work of unhinged brilliance and Nolan's movie remains the greatest big-screen superhero tale to date.

 

28. The Piano Teacher

This eerie, disturbing drama from celebrated filmmaker Michael Haneke has a creepy quality that seems to suddenly materialize out of nowhere. The first half of the movie is actually quite tame and relatively normal. A snooty piano teacher named Erika (played with fearless dedication by Isabelle Huppert) reluctantly takes a young student named Walter (Benoît Magimel) under her wing and the pair develop a mutual attraction for each other. Walter pushes hard to pursue a romantic relationship with Erika, but she tries to fiercely deny her desires at first. Eventually, once she feels comfortable enough to be honest with Walter, Erika reveals her obsession with sadomasochistic acts and invites Walter into her secret world. At this point, Haneke switches gears and creates a dark portrait of a woman descending into a personal hell. Huppert makes the transformation seem entirely authentic and, as Erika sinks deeper into the abyss, it is impossible to deny the dramatic power of her journey.

 

27. Dogville

Another fascinating experiment from Lars von Trier, this three-hour drama set in a small Depression-era town is shot entirely on a soundstage with minimal props and no sets. Walls and doors and gardens (and even a dog) are replaced with chalk outlines drawn on the floor, all of which are treated by the actors as if the object or creature they represent is physically present. The result is a stupendously strange viewing experience where two characters will talk about a neighbour in the comfort of their own home, while the person of discussion can be clearly seen in the background, sitting in their wall-less home. It's amazingly odd, especially when actors mime such actions as opening a door and when the chalk outline dog barks at a passer-by. The story is no less outlandish, as it is concerned with a young woman named Grace (Nicole Kidman, in one of her best performances of the decade), who hides out in the small town of Dogville when a group of gangsters pursue her. The seemingly kind citizens of Dogville help shelter Grace until the threat is gone, but afterwards, they feel that Grace owes them something more than gratitude, so they basically make her a slave. The story and its execution is pure von Trier, which means it is certainly not for everyone. But the combination of a unique narrative and excitingly original visuals makes Dogville stand out as something special.

 

26. No Country for Old Men

The Coen brothers were in top form with this frightening adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name. The cat-and-mouse narrative is focused on a war vet (Josh Brolin) who steals a satchel of money and ends up being hunted by a monster with a bad haircut (Javier Bardem). Brolin and Bardem are both brilliant in their roles, each bringing a confident charisma to their characters that lends their violent battle a startling authenticity. Brolin's Llewellyn Moss is a tough guy with a lot of brains, so when we see the brutally unstoppable force that is Bardem's Anton Chigurh at work, we know that Llewellyn is in serious trouble. Joel and Ethan Coen completely nail the harrowing tone of McCarthy's prose, allowing the gruff, sun-soaked landscape and impending danger to hang over the movie like two distinct additional characters. Cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has shot a total of ten Coen brothers movies to date, does some of his best work of the decade here. No Country for Old Men is a terrific thriller, where the hero is complex and the villain is a portrait of terror.

 

25. [Rec]

This Spanish horror flick is easily the scariest movie I saw all decade long. Employing the "found footage" technique used earlier in The Blair Witch Project and later in Paranormal Activity, [Rec] follows a two-person news crew (a reporter and her cameraman) as they ride along with a group of firefighters responding to a 911 call. The movie wisely bides its time before launching into a claustrophobic zombie massacre that takes place in a single apartment building. Viewed entirely through the lens of the news camera, [Rec] goes from unnerving to scary to absolutely terrifying over a span of just 80 minutes. The performance by Manuela Velasco as the brave protagonist only heightens the fear, because her journey into the depths of an inescapable zombie nightmare is so completely convincing. The final five minutes of the movie are so disturbing that I will probably never be able to sit through them again.

 

24. The Wrestler

I quite adore all three features directed by Darren Aronofsky during the past decade, but this movie about an aging wrestler reaching skyward for one last chance at stardom revival is my favourite. Mickey Rourke revived his own fledgling career by filling every nook and cranny of Randy "the Ram" Robinson's damaged body and soul. Living in a trailer park and performing to small crowds in community centres, Randy has fallen a long way down since his glory days in the mid-80s, when he once drew a crowd of 25,000 at Madison Square Garden. Rourke makes every ache, both physical and psychological, reverberate through every scene. His performance is one of glorious immersion, as he plays his role without ever hitting a false note. Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood add solid support as two very different women in Randy's life. And after two very glossy movies with sharp imagery and flashy editing (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain), Darren Aronofsky opts for a decidedly raw visual style, favouring hand-held camerawork over complex camera setups. His extreme attention to detail is still on display and his creative decisions are always in service of the story. Diving into the grit and the grime to inspect a life gone awry, Aronofsky and Rourke emerge with something refreshingly beautiful.

 

23. Shaun of the Dead

Zombies were very popular over the past decade. The rules were rewritten in 28 Days Later and its excellent sequel 28 Weeks Later, two of George Romero's zombie classics were remade, and Romero himself returned with two disappointing instalments. Yes, zombies were everywhere, but one movie stood above the rest like a shining beacon of flesh-munching hilarity. From the minds of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost came this pitch-perfect comedy about two British losers (Pegg and Frost) who hide out in their favourite pub when zombies take over London. Described by its creators as the first ever "rom-zom-com" (that's a romantic zombie comedy, for the uninitiated), Shaun of the Dead is one of the few horror/comedy hybrids to elicit great laughter while also legitimizing the threat of a monster army. Pegg is incredible in every scene, crafting an endearing, lovable character who has to save his romantic relationship and his neighbourhood pub all in one fateful night.

 

22. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

One of the saddest movies I have ever seen in my life. Kurt Kuenne set out to make a documentary about a close friend of his named Andrew Bagby, who was murdered in 2001 in a parking lot in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Family members believed that Andrew's ex-girlfriend Shirley, with whom he had broken up shortly before his death, was guilty of murdering him. The story took another tragic twist when Shirley announced that she was pregnant with Andrew's child. She named the boy Zachary and fled to St. John's, Newfoundland in hopes of avoiding arrest. Kuenne originally intended for his movie to be a tribute to his late friend and a compilation of evidence against Shirley. But as the story progressed, the situation only grew worse. Kuenne's movie captures the disturbing events unfolding one after the other with Andrew's parents watching in horror. The interviews in the movie are so passionate and searing that they reach the point of being emotionally overwhelming. Kuenne edits all of his footage into a powerful diatribe about the broken legal system and the injustice of a tragedy that robbed a father and son of the opportunity to meet each other.

 

21. The Return

This haunting Russian movie is an engrossing thriller anchored by three fantastic performances. When brothers Andrey (Vladimir Garin) and Ivan (Ivan Dobronravov) return home one day to discover the father (Konstantin Lavronenko) they barely knew has inexplicably shown up after a twelve year absence, their whole world changes in an instant. Their father wishes to take the boys on a camping trip, which sounds innocent enough. With their mother's approval, Andrey and Ivan hit the road with their dad and anticipate an exciting adventure ahead. But not too long after they've embarked on their journey, dear old Dad begins to pick on the kids, constantly insulting them and even smacking them around a bit. Before long, the brothers begin to question what the purpose of this trip really is, as their father steadily transforms into a rather intimidating monster. The performances from the three actors are excellent, with Garin and Dobronravov illustrating the slow growth of fear with gripping results and Lavronenko playing the terrifying father without ever going ridiculously over-the-top. The conflict is both mysterious and very believable, a combination that director Andrei Zvyagintsev uses to great advantage, delivering a movie that is dreamlike in its beauty and nightmarish in its bleak despair.