Alright, the holidays begin for us today, so we might be a bit more intermittent than usual until around the 30th (you really never can tell). We’ll see. Hopefully starting around then you’ll get some more 2009 coverage out of us. Yes, the year will be over, but we like to spend the early part of January looking back and reflecting on the cinema that has passed, including Best Soundtracks of the Year, Best Films, etc. etc.
In the meantime, in case you somehow missed it, we spent the better half of December knee-deep in our Best of the Decade coverage which we figured we’d recap here unless you missed it. Our lists included:
- The Best Soundtracks Of The Decade
- The Best Scores Of The Decade
- The Best Music Documentaries Of The Decade
- The Best Documentaries Of The Decade
- The Best Films Of The Decade: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
2009 we’re saving ever so slightly cause we wanted to make sure we caught up on every film we could. We didn’t make a definitive Best of The Decade Films list itself because 1) that feels so daunting, 2) we did a list for every single year, but if you wanted to look at our number #1s from each year, technically (technically), our Best Films of the Decade list would look something like this if it was presented in no particular order other than the year they came out:
“In The Mood For Love” – Wong Kar-Wai
“The Man Who Wasn’t There” – The Coen Brothers
“Talk To Her” – Pedro Almodovar
“City of God” – Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund.
“Dogville” – Lars Von Trier
“Cache” – Michael Haneke
“Volver” – Pedro Almodovar
“There Will Be Blood” – Paul Thomas Anderson
“Che” – Steven Soderbergh
Again, that’s only if you simply list out our #1s. It’s not accurate, but it’s interesting to look at. Obviously if we did a true decade list we wouldn’t necessarily pick a film from each year; the lists themselves were never made on a voting system anyhow, so don’t quibble or freak out too much. If anything, they would be closer to the EIC’s personal list, but even then it would be off — surely posting this at all is opening a can of worms, but oh well… At the end of the day it should really only stimulate civil discussion.
And last but not least, here’s one more plug for our old Playlist Soundtrack Series, which is an excellent mixtape Holiday present if you don’t already have it for some reason.
Happy holidays to all and thanks for tuning in this year. We hope you’ll do the same in 2010.
Just wanted to say great job on the lists. I know how hard it can be (especially with a group) to make those Top 10 lists.
I didn't always agree (the honorable mentions helped) but the lists definitely seemed diverse and well thought out. Plus it encouraged me to go back and watch some of these great films again. Which can be so refreshing after trying to keep up with everything released this year.
Well done and I look forward to the 2009 Top 10.
Thanks for saying so. It's something we started planning and thinking about around April. The physical writing and building part of it nearly physically killed me.
Major props on these features. Nobody is supposed to agree with any of them – and it starts some hilarious list-bashing arguments – but it tipped me off to countless movies y'all recommended. I can't wait to check them all out.
The one #1 I agreed with was There Will Be Blood in 2007. I give my biggest respect to all of these lists.
please stop teasing us with the idea of a decade list if yer not gonna follow through dudes. it's not too difficult if you limit yourself to 50 btw.
The decade isn't over until 2011.
Don't be a square Dwayne.
Superb work on the best of the decade. Very comprehensive, so most cineastes should have found something to agree with. Here's mine for giggles: 1.Mulholland Drive 2.In America 3.Ponyo 4.The Best of Youth 5.Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter,..and Spring 6.Napoleon Dynamite 7.The Hours 8. Azumi 9.Battle Royale 10.Volver
Napoleon Dynamite is a very weird one, otherwise, I like your list.