The Top 25 Movies of the Decade

23.

You might be saying, "In fuckin' Bruges on your list?" That's right.  To me, Martin McDonagh has usurped Tarantino's thrown as the king of loquacious hit men on celluloid.  One of the main differences between the two auteurs is that McDonagh writes better.  His dialogue crackles with the same wit that Tarrantino brought to Pulp Fiction but without calling attention to itself.  QT's characters often seem like vessels for his dialogue instead of fleshed out human beings.  With In Bruges, McDonagh wisely get his audience rooted in his characters by giving them depth (even the maniacal Ralph Fiennes), which makes the ironic situations and fabulous zingers that much more poignant.

The Top 25 Movies of the Decade

24.


A guilty pleasure. Rarely do Sci-Fi movies explore the interesting aspects of space, instead favoring man's true final frontier as another two dimensional battlefield. Sunshine holds a deep respect for both the beauty and danger of space that keeps it grounded in a level of realism unaccustomed to a genre marked by its fantastical elements. These realistic details (an oxygen garden that catches fire in an accident) up the ante for the audience. We believe in the peril inside and outside the ship .

With the Sun at center of both the story and the film's thematic elements, Danny Boyle utilizes his overt visual style to examine the nature of light. The result is some of the most avant-garde (and effective) footage seen in recent big budget films. Sunshine is an excellent example of a heavily stylized director focusing his talent for a purpose.

The Top 25 Movies of the Decade

25.

Shortly after 9/11, Sony bumped up the release date for their $100 million epic about the incident in Somalia that left 19 American soldiers and seemingly 10 million Somalis dead. The film's accelerated release date was the first of many elements exploiting America's newfound patriotism. Is "BHD" jingoistic? Maybe, but I have trouble accusing a film of glorifying war when I leave the theater scared shitless of getting drafted. Is it racist? Sorta. The "skinnies" get very little screen time when they're not being tore up by America's finest and little explanation of their plight makes it into the film.

So why is it number 25? "BHD" is the most immersive war film ever made. That's all you see. Ridley Scott weaves an impressive display of warfare on a scale that has never gotten its due. That's what people seemed to miss. The pure assault on the senses, the overwhelming amount of action, created a strangely objective view on war.