Compiling a decade’s best list is a profoundly intimidating affair. Some films, especially the first handful, come instantly. They are as immovable as granite, as strong today as when they first appeared. But things get more complicated the further down the list you go. Some assume that one would simply review one’s Best Of lists over the past ten years and chose the leaders found there. But it’s not that easy. Opinions change. Over time, some films rise to surface while others sink. The following list (which, I admit on the outset, contains several blatant cheats and which I offer without commentary or cause) represents films that have stood the test of the past decade and contributed something to cinema that hadn’t been there before. And, of course, they meant something special to me. For every film that made this list, there were numerous others that had to be left off, often agonizingly so. But such is the nature of list making — an arbitrary act to be sure, yet an essential examination of what art survives and why. So, without further ado, here, in my opinion, are the finest films the departing decade had to offer (linked to their respective trailers just in case you need your memory refreshed).

The Best Films of the Aughts
1. There Will Be Blood
2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
3. The New World
4. The Dark Knight
5. The Village
6. Lost in Translation
7. The Bourne Trilogy
8. Children of Men
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
10. Pixar: The Incredibles, Wall*E, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille
11. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
12. The Departed
13. Casino Royale
14. Pan’s Labyrinth
15. Moulin Rouge!
16. Eastern Promises
17. No Country for Old Men
18. Man on Wire
19. United 93
20. Let the Right One In
21. Master and Commander
22. Amelie
23. The Lives of Others
24. Gladiator
25. Once

© Copyright 2009 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.