Top Twenty Films of the Decade.... and Southland Tales

By: William Mayo

2000-2009:

For their emotional impact on me, I picked 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, and 20.

For their importance to this particular decade, I picked 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18.

For the beauty and resonance of their images, I picked 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, and 19.

For just plain great storytelling, I picked 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 18.

For scripts, I picked: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, and 20.

For (re)revolutionizing, I picked: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 18, 19, and 20.

(and Southland Tales)

• 01
  Mulholland Drive
  David Lynch
• 02
  Lost in Translation
  Sofia Coppola
• 03
  Brokeback Mountain
  Ang Lee
• 04
  Talk to Her
  Pedro Almodóvar
• 05
  There Will Be Blood
  Paul Thomas Anderson
• 06
  No Country for Old Men
  Ethan Coen
• 07
  The Hurt Locker
  Kathryn Bigelow
• 08
  Swimming Pool
  François Ozon
• 09
  Amélie
  Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• 10
  Elephant
  Gus Van Sant
• 11
  In the Mood for Love
  Wong Kar-wai
• 12
  The Pianist
  Roman Polanski
• 13
  Adaptation.
  Spike Jonze
• 14
  Up in the Air
  Jason Reitman
• 15
  4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
  Cristian Mungiu
• 16
  Hidden
  Michael Haneke
• 17
  Ghost World
  Terry Zwigoff
• 18
  WALL•E
  Andrew Stanton
• 19
  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  Julian Schnabel
• 20
  Synecdoche, New York
  Charlie Kaufman
• 21
  Southland Tales
  Richard Kelly