A.V. Club’s Best 50 Films of the Decade
A.V. Club dropped there Best Films of the Decade yesterday, and sadly this is one giant goose egg of a list. The list goes out of its way to include foreign films, and while some of those selections are very deserved (they are 18 of the top 50, to be exact), this attempt to represent world cinema as a whole was done at the expense of some superior English language films. Also, of the 18 foreign language films, where was Let the Right One In?
The rest of the list drops some serious headscratchers, too… well, at least for me. Seriously, Moulin Rouge! (#47), Waking Life (#35), A.I. (#32), Almost Famous (#16)?? I’m happy that personal faves like American Psycho (#34), Punch-Drunk Love (#33), The Man Who Wasn’t There (#23), and Mulholland Dr. (#18) got acknowledged, as did Spike Lee’ vastly fantastic and underrated 25th Hour… But #2 for the entire decade? There Will be Blood for #3? Am I really the only person who thought There Will be Blood was a good movie, but not that good. And the star of the list, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind at #1. Again, another great movie, but #1? Hell, if you wanted to give #1 to a Charlie Kaufman written film (how of the decade!), why not go with the vastly superior Adaptation (#46)? The list is also completely empty of anything from this past year in the theaters.
On a side note: has anyone here ever seen Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (#12)? Why do these two movies get name dropped the way they do? I remember them looking like awful Romantic Dramadies. Hell, I’m even positive I tried to sit through half of one (don’t ask me which) late night on cable.
- My Pal the Crook
December 4th, 2009 at 11:48 am
White people love complaining about “Best Of” lists.
They LIVE for that sh*t.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I think you’re at the wrong site.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I don’t really believe in listing best and worst shit in ranked lists. This list was pretty right on to me. Few things were placed to high or low for me.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Irreversible
2046
December 4th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
yeah, there’s a few things i was pleased to see, others not so much. 25th was too high, not even spike’s best in the past 10 years.
and where was DOGVILLE?
December 4th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
And what about Evil Bong II: King Bong?!
December 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I’m with you! I don’t like those linklatter movies.. and I agreed with everything from what you wrote about Adaptation…to the ones you were glad got recognition. All faves of mine too… Except I should watch “The Man Who Wasn’t There” again… didn’t stand out as much to me.
They definitely made a lot of very odd choices.
December 4th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
@hanta – yesss where was Dogville?
December 4th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
What, these people don’t like horror flicks?
There are plenty of omissions and odd choices, but I’ll stand behind No Country and There Will Be Blood back to back in the top 5. I didn’t buy the hype initially on the latter (didn’t watch it til dvd was out) but once I saw it I was totally floored. Maybe these are safe or obvious choices, but I see them being considered classics in the future.
December 4th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Crook, if you think this is a weird list…check out the top 50 timeoutny list:
http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/80947/the-tony-top-50-movies-of-the-decade/4.html
Somehow EVEN MORE foreign films. And they both have A.I. for some godforsaken reason. I really dont get it.
I think that by and large the AV club list is better…but the TONY list has dogville, and mulholland drive at number 1.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
28 Days Later should have been on that list. Another movie that should have been on the list is Storytelling. One movie that i dont buy is NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Way overhyped. that movie is alright. Also Requiem that German movie about possession was amazing.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I’m pleasantly surprised that What Time Is It There? made the cut. Tsai Ming-Liang is the greatest thing to come out of Asia in this decade in my humble opinion. I tend to think of the Onion AV Club as having all the cinematic savvy of a 12 year old girl, so way to go with putting something decent on the list. P.S. Where was You, The Living and why wasn’t it in the top 10?
December 4th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Also, I’m kind of glad that the list wasn’t overloaded with slow, mostly boring realist Mainland Chinese fare in the Jia Zhangke mode because I’m seeing a lot of that this week. It’s rad that China is coming out of its shell and making movies, but the hype is over the wrong directors. Everyone forgot Jian Wen’s amazing and banned Devils On The Doorstep, which should have been one of the most popular and respected Chinese movies of this decade had anyone bothered to release it. Also, somebody needs to champion Fruit Chan’s weird little magical realist dramas like Durian Durian and Public Toilet. He just keeps cranking out these gems on the budget of an episode of The Creepy Touch. You’ve probably seen his Dumplings short in the 3 Extremes anthology (which also featured Takashi Miike and Park Chan-Wook). I hope somebody throws Fruit Chan a bone in the 2010s and allows him to make a film with a real budget.
December 5th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I disagree with the comments on foreign film. Great cinema is happening everywhere not just in the U.S. and the British isles. I respect this list much more do to it’s efforts to include less seen foreign language films.