The Aisle Seat Blog

Right now, many critics are unveiling their lists of the ten best films of the decade. Not me. I have no intention of doing such a list. Oh sure, it seems simple: take my #1 movie from each of the last ten years, rank those ten pictures, and be done with it. The task is not that easy, though. For example, I'd rank my #2 movie from 2007 (No Country For Old Men) over my #1 movie from 2005 (King Kong). When you get into those kinds of logistics, it becomes something of a nightmare.

But the bigger reason why I'm not doing a Best of Decade list (unless I change my mind between now and January 1, 2010) is that I've had more time to think about the pictures that came out earlier in the decade. Year-end Ten Best lists are, in a way, knee-jerk. They are a critic's immediate impression of the twelve months just past. While I rarely (if ever) change my opinion about a film, time certainly does shape the proportions of those opinions. Some movies grow in staute as I think about - or re-watch - them; the impact of others may fade slightly, or perhaps the films themselves grow dated.

In any event, rather than trying to cobble together a list of the best pictures of 2000-2009, I thought it would be more enlightening to reflect back on my ten best list from a decade ago. How do the movies I chose as the best of 1999 hold up in my mind today? Here are a few quick thoughts about them.

10. The Insider - Michael Mann directed Russell Crowe and Al Pacino in this true tale of a tobacco company whistleblower. This is one of only two films on this list that I never saw again after my initial viewing. Still, I remember a very good film - a little long, perhaps, but still solid.

9. The Legend of 1900 - Honestly, I remember almost nothing about this movie. I do recall that Tim Roth played a pianist working on a cruise ship, and the standout scene had him trying to play while a storm rocked the ship, sending his piano flying back and forth across the ballroom floor. I was obviously pretty enamored with the film in 1999 to have put it on my list. Interestingly, neither Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia nor David Fincher's Fight Club appear on this list. I love both of them and probably should have given this slot to one or the other. For that matter, I should have bumped off The Insider for one of them as well.

8. Bringing Out the Dead - Martin Scorsese directed Nicolas Cage in this tale of an EMT suffering a personal crisis of conscience. There are many critics who think this is one of Scorsese's weakest efforts. I think it is underrated in that sense, but it certainly isn't in the same league as his best work. This one seemed like a big deal to me at the time; today, it's not the first one I'd pop in were I in the mood for either a Scorsese or a Cage flick.

7. Toy Story 2 - Well, I definitely called this one right. An all-time classic. I re-watched it this past May, as a matter of fact, and was delighted all over again. If anything, it belongs higher on the list.

6. Three Kings - David O. Russell's Gulf War drama is another solid choice. Russell and star George Clooney may have physically come to blows during production, but the film they ended up with is smart, funny, and appropriately cynical about war. These qualities make it at least as relevant in 2009 as it was in 1999. I may be due to re-visit it again soon.

5. Man on the Moon - This Andy Kaufman biopic was never the box office hit I really thought it would be, but then again, Kaufman was a very acquired taste. Jim Carrey gave a performance that went beyond brilliance as both Kaufman and alter ego Tony Clifton. My wife absolutely hates this movie and can't understand my love for it. As someone who found Andy Kaufman endlessly fascinating, I think the picture gets a lot of stuff right about the nature of his genius.

4. American Beauty - Here's another one time hasn't been kind to in the eyes of some critics. More than once, I have heard it referred to as "one of the worst Best Picture winners in Oscar history." Granted, it may have tapped into the cultural mood (and millenial fears) circa 1999, but I think it holds up. To me, the story was about how your life is doomed if you don't find try to find beauty wherever you can (even if it's just watching a bag blow in the wind). That message is timeless. My belief is that the backlash is merely a product of Right Now, and American Beauty will regain its reputation over the long haul.

3. Being John Malkovich - Ten years on, this still looks like a masterpiece. Others have tried to imitate the quirky, mind-bending qualities of this Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman collaboration, but none have pulled it off. On the modern movie landscape, this is undoubtedly a touchstone.

2. Dogma - For many years, I had a policy of making my #2 film a personal favorite - some movie that I really cherished for whatever reason. Kevin Smith's satire of Catholicism (which nevertheless contained some pretty sincere devotion to faith) was my 1999 choice. Putting a bunch of big stars in a movie whose content was both controversial and non-commercial was brave then and it's brave now. That said, I think perhaps I'd put it slightly lower on my list were I making it today. Still top ten - maybe even top five. My love for Dogma remains strong. It just doesn't feel like an almost-the-best-film-of-the-year kind of choice. Needless to say, I've scrapped that old policy for #2 films in the last decade.

1. The Blair Witch Project - Yeah, I'm the guy who picked this as the year's best. I think we all know what the blacklash has been on this low-budget horror pic, and it's the kind of thing that has come to represent the phrase "can't match the hype." I saw it before the hype really hit, and was blown away by the creativity of the low-budget asthetic. In awarding it my top slot, I was recognizing the then-novel idea that innovative filmmakers could pick up a home video camera (of all things!) and use their creativity and ingenuity to give us something we hadn't seen before. Of course, the use of digital video cameras has become commonplace; we've even had movies co-opting the Blair Witch style, Paranormal Activity being chief among them. I actually think this was a solid choice for 1999. After all, it was new and fresh and different at the time. Also, the flick was absolutely a harbinger of low-budget filmmaking to come. So I stand by my initial ranking. Today, though, Being John Malkovich looks more like the #1 film of 2009 to me.