Named after the David Cronenberg film, this is the blog of former RogerEbert.com editor Jim Emerson, where he has chronicled his enthusiasms and indulged his whims since 2005. Favorite subjects include evidence-based movie criticism, cinematic form and style, comedy, logical reasoning, language, journalism, technology, epistemology and fun. No topic is off-limits, but critical thinking is required.
Zweiundzwanzig: Meine 22 beliebtesten Filme, 2000-2009 (Best o' Decade -- UPDATE!)
by Jim Emerson
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As I always like to say, "Everybody Loves Lieblingsfilme." I know I do, which is why I made this list of my 22 favorite films of the '00s. No, that is not entirely true. I made the list because the estimable Milan Pavlovic, editor of the German Filmzeitschrift Steadycam (and for whom I wrote this profile of Barbara Baxley's Lady Pearl in Robert Altman's "Nashville") asked me to.
He asked others, too, and the aggregate findings will be published in a future issue of Steadycam. The important thing to remember here is that these are favorite films. Sure, everything on my list is also an accomplished work of art, but these are the movies I love, that have had the most personal impact on me, that I have found most moving and exhilarating, that have permanently ingrained themselves into my psyche -- whether they're anybody else's idea of the "best of the decade" or not:
Now updated with links to my previous noodlings, where available:
1) "No Country for Old Men" (Coens, 2007) 2) "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" (Jones, 2005) 3) "Caché" (Haneke, 2005) [Opening Shot] 4) "Zodiac" (Fincher, 2007) [Opening Shot] See also: Hurdy Gurdys and Aqua Velvas, The "Dirty Harry" Scene, Three Kinds of Violence. 5) "A Serious Man" (Coens, 2009) 6) "Mulholland Dr." (Lynch, 2001) 7) "Brokeback Mountain" (Lee, 2005) 8) "Pan's Labyrinth" (Del Toro, 2006) 9) "Birth" (Glazer, 2004) 10) "24 Hour Party People" (Winterbottom, 2002)
11) "Time Out" (Cantet, 2001) 12) "In Bruges" (McDonaugh, 2008) 13) "The Descent" (Marshall, 2005) 14) "The Son" / "Le fils" (Dardennes, 2002) 15) "A History of Violence" (Cronenberg, 2007) 16) "Donnie Darko" (Kelly, 2001) 17) "I'm Not There" (Haynes, 2007) 18) "Man Push Cart" (Bahrani, 2005) 19) "INLAND EMPIRE" (Lynch, 2006) 20) "Grizzly Man" (Herzog, 2005) 21) "The New World" (Malick, 2005) 22) "Code Unknown" (Haneke, 2000)
And "Pineapple Express," too. And "Brick." And "A Prairie Home Companion." And "Munich"... Oh, jeez, I'm starting to re-think this whole endeavor...
ADDENDUM: I can think of only three good reasons for anybody to make these silly lists: 1) to recommend films the list-maker really loves and hopes to share; 2) to convey some information about the list-maker's cinematic values, taste, personality; 3) to provide links (or capsules) that offer further information about what the list-maker finds so valuable about these particular selections. As a reader, I use them to help me get recommendations for movies I really must see (or re-visit) and... well, to get some idea of what the person making the list cares about in movies, and these movies in particular. That's about it.
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Roger Ebert became film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967. He is the only film critic with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named honorary life member of the Directors' Guild of America. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Screenwriters' Guild, and honorary degrees from the American Film Institute and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
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