Commercially speaking, the Aughts were an excellent decade for film. Even in poor economic conditions, box office records continued—and still continue as we speak—to be broken. Box Office Mojo’s list of highest grossing films is littered with movies from the Aughts. Much of this is due to inflation, of course, but even on an inflation-adjusted list of all films to pass $100 million in gross, 273 of 665 films—or 41%—come from this decade alone.

For those who make their living off of movies, then, there was plenty to be happy about in the Aughts. But for the audience, for those who like to watch daring and innovative films, the decade was surprisingly disappointing.

Of course, painting in such broad strokes is always a tricky game, particularly for something as ingrained and multi-faceted as film. Unlike television, cinema has been established as a medium for serious art since before I was even born, so the Aughts couldn’t really see a general creative leap of that sort. Unlike music, in which production costs are lower and output generally faster, film cannot experience the kind of rapid flourishing and integration of entire genres.

So evaluating an entire decade’s worth of film is much trickier: Trends are less pronounced; watershed moments take longer to identify. So condemning an entire decade’s worth of film is unfair. After all, there were some great minds working in film during this decade, people like Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Martin Scorcese, Paul Thomas Anderson, and a few others (although it’s worth pointing out that [arguably] the best films of all of these directors came before 2000). These exceptions notwithstanding, though, the overall quality of movies during this decade was not good.

Film actually seemed to get eclipsed by television in terms of innovation, relevance, excitement, interest generated, and even critical acceptance. The list of great films from the Aughts is much shorter than the list of great films from the 1990s or the ’80s (obviously the ’70s, the golden age of film, is on an entirely different plateau), and the dearth of truly groundbreaking films was palpable.

On some level, this is just a generalization of a personal taste. I know how I would construct a list of great films, but, as I’ve said before, this can’t be expected to hold true for everyone. And yet I don’t think my tastes are that unusual. Consulting the always-helpful IMDb Top 250, the top 50 films include 10 from the Aughts. At first glance, this seems to be a healthy representation, but considering the bias towards recent films on that site (for the love of God, Avatar is #25!), it is surprisingly low. The 1990s, for example, are represented 15 times in the top 50. This may be a crude measure, but it’s indicative of the failure of this decade’s movies to really unite and inspire people.

Some of this is certainly due to the proliferation of franchises that occurred during the Aughts. Franchises and sequels are not unique to the Aughts, of course, but they were taken to a new level of frequency during this decade, accounting for most of the box office successes of the decade. Comic books, Disney rides, children’s toys, literary trilogies, vampire novels, old television shows, and the Harry Potter series provided the source material for almost all of the decade’s most popular and commercially successful films.

It’s easy enough to see why this kind of branding would have a negative effect on the quality of films. These are films that are developed and produced based on the reliability of their brand name, and their built-in marketing potential, not for any substantive quality. They can rely primarily on name-recognition for huge opening weekends.

This does not mean that franchises are always bad; some of the decade’s best films have been sequels, or part of a brand. And the immense popularity of some of these films—seriously, will people shut up about New Moon already?—shows that they do inspire strong reactions. But they very rarely do it because they are “great films”: More people are debating the relative attractiveness of Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner than the merits of New Moon.

The story of brands and franchises, though, does not tell the whole story of why film suffered during the Aughts. In fact, many of the decade’s brightest spots—The Dark Knight, V for Vendetta, 300, The Lord of the Rings—came from previous source material with a large, built-in audience.

The more depressing reason for the lack of quality films in this decade is the lack of originality in films that weren’t adapted from comic books or children’s novels: the “serious” movies that are supposed to the source of truly watershed films.

The Oscar films of the decade were often just as formulaic and predictable as the blockbusters that came out. It seems like every awards season for the last five years (with the exception of 2007, when there were two clear front-runners) has unfolded in a pattern: When the time comes to announce nominees for the big awards, we look around to see one underwhelming, but highly promoted, studio project with a big name attached (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Letters from Iwo Jima, Munich, Ray), one film that looks “important” or “issues based” (Babel, Milk, Crash, Million Dollar Baby), and one underdog film that nobody thought could get nominated in the first place (Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Seabiscuit). Then we throw in a couple of forgettable films with a great acting performance (Capote, The Queen, The Reader) to round it out, and presto: We’ve got ourselves an uninspiring list of nominees.*

*To be fair, I should stress that I’m generalizing to a large degree. I have nothing against most of these movies—and I haven’t even seen all of them. I’m only trying to point out the general perceptions of the films nominated, and the formulaic nature of the nominations themselves.

In an episode of Extras (one that didn’t make the cut of the decade’s funniest episodes), Kate Winslet tells Ricky Gervais that the only reason she’s doing a Holocaust movie (because who needs another one of those? “We get it: It was grim. Move on.”) is because if you do a film about the Holocaust, “you are guaranteed an Oscar.” (Predictably, Winslet later did do a Holocaust film and did win an Oscar for it.) And while the whole “Holocaust movies are guaranteed Oscars” truism has been around a while, that element of predictability in Oscar films has pervaded the entire spectrum of serious dramas.

Films with interconnected stories, biopics, period pieces, films about social issues—these no longer seem like innovative or original styles of film-making, but rather exercises done to get noticed around awards season. Walk the Line, for example, was a pretty good illustration of Johnny Cash’s life. But it did feel a little like, as Jon Stewart put it during the Academy Awards, “Ray, with white people”: A movie like this feels like a cover song—it can be well-executed and an interesting change on the original, but it’s not as compelling as a new song.

Similarly, these films don’t usually provoke the kind of substantive thought that great films do. Crash—which, despite all the backlash to its Oscar win, was not the no-good-very-bad movie that people seem to remember it as—was a typical example of this. The film had a lot of powerful scenes and featured some great performances by a deep cast, but it was ultimately all in service of a “racism is bad, but human” message that was more or less benign. This lent the film a quality of preachyness that inspired much of the backlash.

But this kind of moral predictability and sententiousness was quite common in films of the Aughts, particularly in films released to Oscar buzz: Gran Torino had it, Babel had it, Good Night, and Good Luck had it. Even, perhaps especially, the rise of independent films has been afflicted by this trend.* Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, two of the biggest success stories of the “indie” film scene, relied somewhat on cloyingly predictable messages. Indie, the domain of supposedly grittier and more unpredictable films, is just as susceptible to the overall decline in innovation throughout film this decade.

*Some of this probably has to do with the rise of not-actually-independent “indie” studios and distributors: Things like Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Paramount Vintage, etc., which are really just subsidiaries of major studios, are consciously tapping into the realm of independent studios. This clearly blurs the lines between “indie” and mainstream films, which is both good and bad.

How many “great” films, and even how many “groundbreaking” films, released in a current span of time is obviously subjective. But it does seem obvious that for a film to be great, it needs to surprise you; it needs to be substantively, or formally, or stylistically innovative. There were, certainly, films like this released in the Aughts.

And yet there was an unfortunate sense of predictability and formula that dominated the film industry this decade. Right now, it seems, certain movies are expected to have cool action sequences, or vampires, or wizards; certain movies are expected to have grave social messages and condemnations of injustice; certain movies are supposed to have quick-witted teenagers spouting pithy dialogue. All these expectations, though, make it harder and harder for films to surprise anymore (Tarantino had to go so far as to rewrite World War II to shock us). And it makes it harder and harder for a film to be truly lasting and culturally important.

If this Christmas Day in the UK you find yourself in the unfortunate predicament of spending it alone. Try and find a spare £10 hidden deep within your pockets amongst the lint and moths, then head on down to your local cinema for the feel good film of the year, Up In The Air! Released on almost everyone’s favourite time of the year, Up In The Air, directed by Jason Reitman (Juno, Thank You For Smoking) stars the ever charming, George Clooney (Ocean’s Eleven, Good Night and Good Luck, Michael Clayton) and co-starring, Vera Farmiga (Down To The Bone, The Departed, The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas) and the lovely Anna Kendrick (Camp, Rocket Science, Twilight Saga). Heck, we’re so lucky we even get to see a bit of the quirky Jason Bateman (The Kingdom, Juno, Hancock).

Being critically acclaimed and widely anticipated, the fly in the sky comedy drama follows an isolated, socially segregated corporate downsizer which focuses on his life and the individuals he co-insides with throughout it. Reitman, after reading the novel of the same name by Walter Kirn, decided to spearhead the project with co-writer Sheldon Turner (The Longest Yard, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, X-men Origins: Magneto (yes, it’s happening!)), and decided to write the parts specifically for the actors he imagined would portray the characters (which they are), revolving around their personalities for a more successful performance on-screen.

A performance which is bound to be memorable may I add by a top of the line cast selection indeed. Said performance went down extremely well at several major film festivals across the world, including the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, London Film Festival, and the International Rome Film Festival amongst many more. Up In The Air’s North American release was set at Mann’s Village Theater, Los Angeles, California on Monday, November 30, 2009 and as previously stated, the world-wide release will occur on Christmas Day. I know I will be going to see it. How about you?

The idea that a cultural movement begins or ends with the flip of a calendar is, of course, fallacious. ”60s Music” is an identifier of a specific strain of popular music that really refers to the time period, between 1965 (mid-career Beatles) and 1976 (The Sex Pistols). What we think of as the Golden Era of 70s movies began, arguably, with The Graduate in 1967 (or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the year before) and ended with Raging Bull in 1980.

For now anyway, the 2000s can be called The Netflix Decade, a time when, in theory, more movies were more accessible to more people than ever before. That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone took advantage of this opportunity. Still, the idea that a movie, even one from say, Romania about abortion, can have a second life on video is encouraging. If you’re a stickler for lists, consider this the 90 (or so) best movies of the last ten years. What this era in film will ultimately be called is anyone’s guess, but, many films in this list, particularly those made in the US, reflect life in the Age of Terror, where the country was led by a man whose ambition far exceeded his abilities.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days – Over the last ten years there has been a rush, in relative terms anyway, of films from countries that were formerly behind the Iron Curtain. The best of these was a heartbreakingly frank film about the moral and practical dilemmas of abortion while Eastern Europe crumbled in the late 1980s. A movie of unflinching honesty. (2007)

8 Mile – Don’t laugh. Yes, Eminem played himself, but great movies put the viewer in a time and place and Curtis Hanson’s impeccable direction gives life to the hopelessness of Eminem’s Detroit ring of despair. The performances of Kim Basinger and Mekhi Phifer are first-rate.  The movie looks even more authentic now that Eminem has faded from the limelight. (2002)

21 Grams – The title refers to the amount of weight we lose after we die. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s follow-up to Amores Perros brought together a math professor (Sean Penn), a grieving housewife (Naomi Watts) and a re-born convict (Benicio Del Toro). The story isn’t arranged chronologically and the morality of what’s taking place is apparent before the full impact of the plot.

The 25^th Hour – Spike Lee’s least bombastic work. Three men (Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper) one of whom is preparing for a prison stint, re-assess their lives in New York City while terrorist occupied planes still echo in the background. The request made late in the film by Norton will make you gasp, but then nod in agreement with his logic. (2002)

About Schmidt – When Jack Nicholson’s wife dies he decides to rent an RV and drive around trying to avoid the realization that he’s a selfish creep. Alexander Payne’s portrait of aging shines even brighter when compared to the emptiness of another Nicholson film about old age released several years later—The Bucket List. Hope Davis is brilliant as Nicholson’s estranged daughter. (2002)

Almost Famous – The best fictional account of the rock and roll life this side of Spinal Tap. Billy Crudup hits every note as an ambivalent guitar hero. Philip Seymour Hoffman is hysterical as rock critic Lester Bangs. Cameron Crowe’s movie also launched the career of Kate Hudson, who plays a groupie. Don’t hold that against it. The “Tiny Dancer” sequence on the tour bus is sure to put a lump in your throat. (2000)

Amelie  – Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fable starring Audrey Tautou is certain to become a beloved classic if it hasn’t achieved that status already. Jeunet and Tautou occupy a world that looks much like our own yet is eminently more just, hopeful and full of love. Engaging from any number of perspectives. (2001)

Amores Perros – The three-pronged story about how lives have been irreversibly altered by a car accident can only be described as awe-inspiring. It introduced the world to the massive talents of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gael Garcia Bernal and the progenitors of Latin American Cinema. Much as Amores Perros is a child of Pulp Fiction, it is also the father to the acclaimed City of God. (2001)

Away From Her – This tiny movie about a woman (Julie Christie) coming to grips with Alzheimer’s raises challenging questions about the true nature of love, honesty and companionship. That Sarah Polley was only 27 when she directed this counts as a miracle. (2007)

Babel – Whereas Amores Perros’ and 21 Grams’ centerpiece were a singular event, Innaritu’s Babel centers on a singular feeling brought on by a digital, wireless age. It’s one of mutedness. We can speak to more people in more places than ever before, yet we still have no clue what to say. The characters’ eyes tell us everything we need to know about their hollowed-out existences. In Babel, continents are little more than land masses that separate people trying to cope with this new world. Brad Pitt has never been better. (2006)

The Beat That My Heart Skipped – Romain Duris dreams of becoming a concert pianist conflict with his father’s desire that he follow his footsteps into a life of low-level street thuggery. Director Jacques Audiard brings together the disparate physical and emotional universes that Duris occupies. Paris, probably the most-filmed movie locale in the world after New York, is presented in a new, fresh way. (2005)

Before Sunset – Nine years after Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy fell in love on a single night in Vienna they meet again. Except now they’re in Paris. But time has passed and things have changed. Or have they? A great idea executed to perfection by director Richard Linklater and the two leads. (2004)

Black Hawk Down – Mark Bowden’s searing chronicle of the US Army’s disaster in Somalia. Ridley Scott and a strong ensemble cast capture the frantic efforts of well-intentioned men in one impossible situation after another. (2001)

Bigger Faster Stronger* – A straightforward documentary about steroids and American culture by a first time director and former devotee of the weightlifting/bodybuilding scene. (2008)

Bloody Sunday – Made prior to United 93 and The Bourne movies, Paul Greengrass’ re-creation of the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland seethes with anger. (2002)

Borat – Far and away the best comedy in recent years. Although it dutifully serves its  function as a biting social satire, it’s the bar which other comedies strive for: “Yeah, (title) was pretty funny. But it’s no Borat.” (2006)

Bowling for Columbine – With the school shootings still fresh in the public mind Michael Moore’s film about America’s obsession with guns is a tour de force of filmmaking. It’s become the template for countless other issue-driven documentaries, but the original is still the best. Who could forget Moore emerging from a bank, gun in hand as gratitude for opening a new bank account? (2002)

Capote – I tend to resist portrayals of historical figures little more than overwrought imitations, but there are some performances that just throw you back in your seat. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s depiction of the caustic, gifted, tortured Truman Capote is such a performance. (2005)

The Dark Knight – One of the major secular features of Bush Era was rampant self-involvement. Facebook has turned the personal into the global scale. In a landscape where fame goes to those who are willing only to be more extreme than their predecessor, Heath Ledger, as the sadistic Joker tapped perfectly into this pathos while living up to unprecedented pre-release hype. Everything, onscreen and off, about The Dark Knight reflected the culture of entitlement. Mostly though, The Dark Knight delivered on all its promise.  The movie has flaws; Christian Bale’s smoky (or is it gravelly?) voice is an unneeded prop and the stunt make-up of Aaron Eckhart’s character is unnecessary. That said, it performs the near impossible—a summer blockbuster whose story and message stays with you for days, if not weeks. (2008)

Darwin’s Nightmare – A documentary about the perch in Lake Victoria that shows the social and political effects of an ecological nightmare. While An Inconvenient Truth was the environmental movie that bagged the awards and attention, Hubert Sauper’s movie chilled and moved. (2005)

Eastern Promises –  David Cronenberg re-emerged with A History of Violence, but its follow-up was far more entertaining. Naomi Watts’ London midwife stumbles across the Russian mob, as personified by Viggo Mortensen, cultures clash, mayhem ensues–including a grisly fight in a steam bath. (2007)

Edge of Heaven – The best movies of the decade made outside the US addressed the blurring of boundaries among class, race, ethnicity or sexuality. Fatih Akin’s film about a German Turk who moves to Istanbul in order to find his half-sister makes you wonder if maybe boundaries aren’t such a bad thing. (2008)

Elephant – Gus Van Sant’s take on school violence is haunting. The impending carnage looms over the characters to such a degree that, as an audience member, you want to shake them by the shoulders and tell them to run before the bullets start flying. (2003)

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room – The best of its type. A traditional talking-heads documentary that harnesses the national outrage of the Enron collapse and the subsequent dominoes that fell. Names are named and we’re given plenty of reason to hold those mentioned in absolute contempt. (2005)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – I resisted this as too gimmicky at first and I don’t buy Jim Carrey doing anything serious, but on a second viewing it struck me as a thoughtful consideration of how memory relates to romantic longing, especially considering it’s a major studio release. The rare instance of  when a blend of a potentially toxic mix of artists–Carrey, Kate Winslet, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman results in a coherent final product.  (2004)

The Fall – A suicidal stunt man, an eight year old Eastern European immigrant girl who speaks accented English, Charles Darwin, Alexander the Great and many, many others people populate Tarsem Singh’s follow up to The Cell. Reportedly made without CGI, it’s unlike any film ever made. (2008)

Finding Nemo – A father clown fish loses track of his son clown fish. In desperate need of help in finding him, he is assisted by a pang fish with short-term memory. That the movie somehow takes a parent’s worst nightmare and turns it into something cute is a testament to its many charms. Edged Ratatouille and Up for a spot behind WALL-E on this list. (2003)

Garden State – While it’s easy to dismiss the movie as a tool for Zach Braff’s navel-gazing, Garden State appealed to people of a certain age, pre mid-life, who wondered, “What’s it all for?” It owes massive debts to The Graduate and the work of Wes Anderson but it’s a movie of and about its time. (2004)

George Washington – David Gordon Green’s somber sketch on poor black children in North Carolina plays like a Miles Davis number. The movie is all mood, but by the end, you feel like you know the kids in this movie intimately. (2000)

Gone Baby Gone – This may be a blasphemy in some quarters, but Ben Affleck’s directorial debut does Clint Eastwood better than Eastwood himself. It confronts many of the same issues as Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River the difference is the performance of Amy Ryan, as the world’s worst mother. (2007)

Good Night and Good Luck – George Clooney’s paean to an era gone by was meant to be a body blow to the modern media, where rumor and innuendo flourish. More than David Straitharn’s uncanny impersonation of Edward R Murrow, most the high points are the elegant singing of Dianne Reeves that served as a bridge scenes of increasing tension. (2005)

Goodbye Solo – Souleymane Sy Savane is  Solo, a Senegalese cab-driver in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (the Tar Heel State is a new hot spot for American Indie Cinema). He picks up a weary, southern man who asks that a few days from now Solo take him to Blowing Rock National Park, no questions asked. Ramin Bahrani’s movie is so loaded with symbolism it’s easy to overlook what an assured, confident piece of filmmaking it is. If there’s any justice, Savane will pick up an Oscar nomination this year. (2009)

Happy-Go-Lucky – How far does attitude go in life? At first glance Sally Hawkins’ Poppy is gratingly optimistic, but as Mike Leigh’s small masterpiece unfolds we see that Poppy is far more sophisticated than we’ve given her credit for. Furthermore, I can think of no film of this or an era that so lovingly presents a friendship between two women—Hawkins and Alexis Zegerman. They’re co-workers and have each other’s backs in ways that the girls from Sex and the City would never understand. (2008)

The House of Flying Daggers  – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon set a standard that Zhang Yimou’s exhilarating epic set in the Tang Dynasty surpassed. That’s Ninth Century kids. Two police officers, with differing motives, force a gorgeous dancer to go undercover and infiltrate The House of Flying Daggers, a group of militants who steal from the rich and give to the poor. There’s a sequence where…ok forget that, watch it and you’ll instantly recognize why this movie is on a “Best of” list. (2004)

In America – After WALL-E this was the movie that stole my heart. Jim Sheridan directed a script he wrote with his daughters about a family a lot like their own. It’s the magical story of a family overcoming the loss of the youngest child through great sacrifice and a move to Hell’s Kitchen. Sarah and Emma Bolger, who play the precocious daughters, will steal your heart too. (2003)

In the Bedroom  – Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek have a son (Nick Stahl) who gets involved with an older woman (Marisa Tomei) estranged from her husband. When Stahl gets killed by the husband in a jealous fit Wilkinson must face his own thoughts of revenge in this wrenching drama directed by Todd Field. (2001)

In the Mood for Love – It’s 1962 Hong Kong and Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are neighbors who suspect their spouses of infidelity. Wong Kar-Wai’s film is in the grand tradition of a love story set against a society in upheaval, but simmers with a lust and eroticism all its own. Runner-up to Y Tu Mama Tambien for sexiest film of the decade. (2001)

In the Valley of Elah  – When Tommy Lee Jones’ son goes missing shortly after returning from a tour in Iraq, he sets out to find him. In the course of his quest he’s aided by Charlize Theron and the movie becomes a layered treatise about the war in Iraq, the military and family. In his best roles, Jones face says far more than any word could and that’s certainly the case in this movie, which takes its title from the site of David’s biblical battle with Goliath. (2007)

Into the Wild  – After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta, Chris McCandless, the child of well-to-do parents, gave away all his possessions and hitchhiked across America en route To Alaska. A wonderful companion to Jon Krakauer’s elegiac account of McCandless, Sean Penn’s movie brings together sweeping natural panoramas, marvelous supporting characters (Hal Holbrook especially) and a pitch-perfect score from Eddie Vedder. (2007)

Junebug – So many films about the clash between urban and rural ways of life resort to easy stereotypes, but Phil Morrison’s movie strikes just the right tone. Now living in Chicago, a son brings his art gallery-owning wife (the stunning Embeth Davidtz) to meet his parents in rural North Carolina. He re-acquaints himself with his brother whose wife (played by Amy Adams in the breakthrough performance of the decade) is pregnant. New conflicts arise as old wounds are re-opened. Celia Weston is delightful as the family matriarch. (2005)

Katyn – The legendary director Andrzej Wajda may have made his best film in his 80’s. It’s the heretofore untold story of the slaughter of thousands of Polish soldiers at the beginning of World War II by the Russian Red Army. Wajda focusses on how the Russians lies about the massacre left a permanent stain on the Polish psyche. The final twenty minutes of Katyn put your heart in your throat. (2008)

Kontroll  – Nimrod Antal’s film about life in the Budapest subway system defies easy description. Every scene and piece of dialogue seems loaded with literal and metaphorical interpretations. And the metaphor can apply just as easily to the main characters as to life in Hungary after the fall of the Soviet Empire. (2005)

 Lilya 4-ever – Abandoned by her mother, 16 year-old Lilya must fend for herself in bleak, gray Estonia. She meets a young man different from the abusive thugs in her neighborhood. He is kind to her and promises to pull her out of her dire circumstances. Hopeful and desperate, she trusts him. Thinking they will run off to a slice of heaven, Lilya is instead lowered into a kind of Hell that can only be borne from the minds of the truly evil. Lukas Moodyson’s film muscles its way into the pit of your stomach and stays there for days.

Little Children  – The decade’s best movie about suburban dystopia and arguably Kate Winslet’s best performance. She plays an educated mother whose marriage is passionless. She begins an affair with Patrick Wilson –The Prom King, as he’s dubbed by the neighborhood mothers—whose marriage is  deteriorating while he attempts to pas the bar exam. Most memorable, however, is Jackie Earle Haley, a sex offender trying to start a new life while under the watchful eye of self-appointed moralist. (2006)

The Lives of Others – An engrossing film about the horrors of life on the front lines of the Cold War. Ulrich Muhe is a member of the Stasi in 1984 who listens in on the conversations of a playwright and his lover. His own life being one of boredom he becomes increasingly engrossed in those of his subject. Florian Heckel von Donnersmarck crafted a film of personal destruction while addressing contemporary issues of privacy in a time of unparalleled freedom. (2006)

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – It will be hard to explain to future generations the impact that this series of films had on a populace put on perpetual edge in the age of terrorism. Thousands of people lined up to watch the entire trilogy, nine hours in total. It did not take much imagination to see the similarities between Peter Jackson’s sprawling epics and the state of world affairs. The stories of honor, mysticism, fellowship and duty in the face of an indefatigable enemy bent on an engineering an apocalypse resonated with millions of people who had never even heard of JRR Tolkien. (2001-2003)

Memento  – How Christopher Nolan began the decade. The taut Guy Pearce is covered from head to toe with tattoos. He’s also written himself hundreds of notes. The ink on both the paper and his skin is critical because he has no short term memory. In normal circumstances this would be quite the conundrum, but it’s worse because Pearce’s wife has been murdered and he’s trying to figure if he did it or if someone else did. Memento was that rare, visceral movie that left the audience in their seats after the house lights came up, catching their collective breaths. (2001)

Michael Clayton  – Where Good Night and Good Luck was a clarion call to a lazy media elite, George Clooney got back in front of the camera in this tightly written drama about corporate malfeasance. He’s a fixer who keeps small problems from becoming big ones. He must prevent an old friend gone crazy (a manic Tom Wilkinson) from jeopardizing a billion-dollar project while keeping the company lawyer (a scathing Tilda Swinton) at bay. Tony Gilroy’s movie recalls 70s classics like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor. (2007)

Minority Report - The back end (after Artificial Intelligence: AI) of a Steven Spielberg double-dip on the dire possibilities of the near future, blisters with energy. Tom Cruise plays a pre-crime officer—criminals are arrested before they commit their crimes—who finds himself caught up in agency politics that have far-reaching implications. Watch it again just to see how prescient it is, based on a Philip K. Dick novel. (2002)

Monster’s Ball  – An extremely graphic sex scene featuring Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton (ick) generated buzz, but Marc Forster’s depiction of troubled lives in the south is harrowing. Heath Ledger, Sean Combs and Peter Boyle are excellent in support of Berry’s raw performance. (2001)

The Motorcycle Diaries – Before he became a face on a t-shirt, Ernesto Guevera was called “Fuser” by his friends. As a student, he and a buddy traveled through South America on a beat up Norton 500. Gael Garcia Bernal is Che in Walter Salles’ exquisite travelogue about idealism colliding with reality. The Machu Picchu sequence is breathtaking. (2004)

Moulin Rouge! – Unapologetically over the top, Baz Luhrman’s was the best musical of the past ten years. A courtesan (Nicole Kidman) falls in love with a would-be poet (Ewan McGregor) much to the chagrin of a duke. This triangle is resolved in a splash of song, color and double-entendres. Jim Broadbent won an Oscar the following year in Iris, but he deserved it for his role as the ringmaster here. (2001)

The New World – Terrence Malick’s lyrical, contemplative rendering of the affair between John Smith (Colin Farrell) and Pocahantas sweeps you up and carries you off to a place that only he seems to be able to construct. When the duties of colonization become too much, the stability of their relationship is threatened. (2005)

The Notebook – The moment you say, “Oh, come on! That would never happen!” you’ve missed the point. Every character in the movie is of a type and that very broadness is what makes the film such a timeless love story. (2004)

No Country for Old Men – Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh immediately joined the pantheon of cinematic psychos but Tommy Lee Jones is outstanding as sheriff trying to make sense of killer whose weapon of choice is a cattle prong. Josh Brolin is up to Jones’ lofty standards as Chigurh’s main target. Kelly MacDonald turns a potentially forgettable role as Brolin’s wife into the moral center of the film. While the movie may have caught fans of the Coen Brothers off-guard, it fits nicely in the canon of the makers of Miller’s Crossing, Fargo and Blood Simple. (2007)

Once  – Set in modern day Dublin, Glen Hansard is a Hoover repair man and Marketa Irglova is an immigrant caring for her mother and daughter. They are both amateur musicians and gradually they write songs together that reflect their growing feelings for each other. A small treasure. (2007)

Pan’s Labyrinth – In order to escape her sadistic stepfather in Franco’s Spain, a ten year-old girl imagines a secret world where she must perform three tasks to prove that she is, in fact, a princess. Fashioned by Guillermo Del Toro, who spent the decade creating worlds that exist just beyond the reach of our own. (2006)

Requiem for a Dream — Four disparate characters succumb to drug abuse. Most frightening in Darren Aronofsky’s film is the descent into madness of a woman collecting social security played by Ellen Burstyn. Far from a lecture, the movie shows in explicit detail how different people become addicted for different reasons.  (2000)

Sideways - In celebration of his philandering pal’s upcoming nuptials, Paul Giamatti takes him on a tour of California wine country. Like any good road movie, Alexander Payne’s film contrives one scenario after another in order to reveal something about the characters. What made Sideways different was the intensity of Giamatti’s portrayal of a man consumed by his own self-loathing. (2004)

The Station Agent – A thoughtful independent film from Thomas McCarthy about a dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who inherits an abandoned train station after his best friend dies. He’s subsequently harangued into friendship by a chatty hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale). The unlikely friends then encounter a woman (Patricia Clarkson) who is in mourning. Well-deserving of the many awards it picked up on the festival circuit. (2003)

Taxi to the Dark Side – Of the many righteously indignant documentaries criticizing the Bush Administration Alex Gibney’s was the best. It’s the story of an innocent Afghan cab driver who was tortured and killed while in US custody. He’s not a casualty of the madness of war, but rather, the victim of carefully vetted policy.  (2007)

There Will Be Blood  – P. T. Anderson’s sprawling epic of greed, oil and religion has a problematic ending but who could forget the opening scene, where Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, without saying a word, grunts his way into our psyche. He plunges one hole after another into the ground through the force of his personality, creating to a fortune but and future that will, most certainly, be bloody. An instant American classic. (2007)

Traffic  – The War on Drugs from the peripatetic camera of Steven Soderbergh. In his most complete film, he inspects many, if not all, aspects of the struggle and concludes that the effort has been a colossal failure. Sturdy performances by Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, Don Cheadle and Michael Douglas anchor a somewhat chaotic enterprise. (2000)

Waking Life – Richard Linklater’s mind-massaging meditation on truth, reality, dreams and just about everything else washes over you like a hot shower. The fact that it merges animates live action characters pushes it to the stuff of legend. An exponentially better “alternative reality” film than Mulholland Drive. (2001)

WALL-E – The other major secular strain brought on by the reign of error that was the Bush presidency was conspicuous consumption. Remember that he suggested we go shopping in the weeks after planes were crashed into the financial and political capitols of the country. And we did. Boy did we spend. The magicians at Pixar presented the down side of this approach to calming our collective nerves, while telling a tender love story. If you didn’t go “awwwww” at least once while watching WALL-E may God have mercy on your soul. (2008)

Waltz With Bashir  – Perhaps the first and last of its kind. An animated documentary about an Israeli soldier’s memories of a battle that occurred some twenty years earlier. Ari Folman’s autobiographical story of The Lebanese War had the unique distinction of reminding you of several other films while still being thoroughly original. (2008)

Y Tu Mama Tambien – The sexiest movie of the decade. Maribel Verdu joins Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna on a road trip from Mexico City to a mysterious beach with no strings attached. Much steaminess follows. (2002)

You Can Count on Me  – Before starring in Kenneth Lonergan’s movie Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo had minor roles in minor movies. They play a brother and sister who are connected by a tragic event from their past. Each day is a struggle as they to overcome their flaws and make something out of their shiftless lives. Linney was nominated for an Oscar as a single mother trying to build a life out of perpetual setbacks. The soundtrack features several songs from Steve Earle, who knows a thing or two about turmoil. (2000)

Zodiac  – David Fincher’s story of the serial killer that spooked the Bay Area in the 1970s. Jake Gyllenhaal is a newspaper cartoonist who starts out trying to decode the murderer’s cryptic messages and ends up more obsessed with finding the killer than the police officer (Mark Ruffalo) assigned to the case. Fincher gets the grisliness out of the way early and delivers an unsparing crime procedural; the inclusion of Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man on the soundtrack is inspired. (2007)

They barely missed the cut: High Fidelity, Oldboy, Adaptation and Up

Best Releases Three or Four Decades Late

Army of Shadows – Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic of The French Resistance, released in Europe in the late 1960s made going underground heroic and cool. It ushered in a much-deserved reassessment of Melville’s place in The French New Wave. (2006)

Killer of Sheep – the life of a Los Angeles slaughterhouse worker in black and white with one of the best scores in film history. Charles Burnett’s film sat in a vault at UCLA for 30 years until it was released on video by Milestone/New Yorker Video. (2007)

Underrated, Forgotten or Worth a Second Look

24-Hour Party People – Steve Coogan nails it as the riotously self-possessed Tony Wilson, the television host who sired the Manchester music scene in the late 1970s. Michael Winterbottom adeptly recalls a flowering cultural moment that was both depressing and inspirational. (2002)

The Bridge – Eric Steel’s documentary about why the Golden Gate Bridge has become Ground Zero for suicides. More than that though, it’s about those left behind and trying to make sense of the profoundly tragic. (2006)

The Cell – The acting isn’t much (Jennifer Lopez playing a psychologist and Vince Vaughn playing it straight) and the plot machinations are absurd but Tarsem Singh’s movie about the subconscious of a serial killer is loaded with visual explosions from start to finish. (2000)

The Claim – When you sell off your wife and baby daughter for a gold mine it’s just a matter of time before it comes back to bite you, even in the pre-Information Age. There’s no escaping karma on that one. Michael Winterbottom’s version of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge is unforgettable. The icy turn-of-the-century Canadian landscape is the ideal backdrop for this morality tale. (2000)

The Dish – What role did Australia play in the first moon landing? Well, the country put up a satellite interface in a remote desert. Sam Neill plays one of the technicians who helps the locals prepare for and cope with their day in the, uhh, sun. Patrick Warburton is winning as the American liaison. (2001)

Everything is Illuminated – The movie based on what might be the best novel of the decade barely registered at the box office. Eugene Hutz steals the movie as Elijah Wood’s linguistically-challenged guide and Liev Schreiber’s debut behind the camera is extremely faithful to Jonathan Safran Foer’s source material. (2005)

Heaven – It came and went in the blink of an eye, but Cate Blanchett is a bald vigilante aided and abetted by police-officer Giovanni Ribisi. Impossible to categorize as an action pic for the art house crowd (or is it vice versa?), Tom Tykwer’s movie merits another consideration. (2002)

Idiocracy – Mike Judge’s futuristic comedy about what happens to a society that spends decades rewarding impulse and hubris over intellect and honesty. Sound familiar? (2005)

The Illusionist – In pre-World War I Vienna Edward Norton plays a magician who astonishes and taunts royalty (Rufus Sewell) and law enforcement (Paul Giamatti). It was overshadowed by The Prestige which was released the same year, but it is better shot, better acted and without the cop-out ending of Christopher Nolan’s film. (2006)

Innocence – After his wife dies a man looks up his lost love from over forty years ago. She has married and is living a comfortable life. Now in their 70s, they try to pick up where they left off. Paul Cox’s film of hope, death, loss, regret and risk tugs at your heart and never lets go. (2001)

Last Orders – A London butcher (Michael Caine) instructed his best friends (Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings and Bob Hoskins) to throw his ashes into the water at Margate beach. His son (Ray Winstone) joins them as they make the journey, recollecting about what was and what might have been. The type of small, touching film that big stars don’t seem to make anymore. (2001)

LIE – Paul Dano, in a pre-There Will Be Blood role plays a teenager who sits on a bridge above the Long Island Expressway. He has nothing, so when a dubious character, the slimy Brian Cox, offers him some semblance of normalcy, he takes it. (2001)

Made – Jon Favreau’s comedy is a follow up to Swingers which again features him and Vince Vaughan. This time they’re playing wanna-be mafiosos hired by Peter Falk to cut a deal with Sean Combs. The repoire of the castcast is terrific and the movie is even funnier with the audio commentary on (by Favreau and Vaughn). (2001)

Our Daily Bread – A dialogue-free documentary about the mechanized, industrialized nature of food production. Make sure you eat before viewing. (2006)

The Proposition – Set in late 19^th century Australia, the underappreciated Ray Winstone is magnetic as a frontier lawman determined to bring peace to his town. A group of four brothers has terrorized the locals and Winstone urges two of them to turn in the oldest, who is the ringleader. This sounds like a traditional Western but Nick Cave’s bloody and depraved script is accompanied by a setting that invites comparisons to Antonioni. (2006)

Reign Over Me – Almost all of Adam Sandler’s comedic characters are emotionally-stunted man-boys. His character in Mike Binder’s film is also a shell of a man, mumbling his way around New York City on a scooter, donning headphones to keep the outside world away. Don Cheadle is his usual superb self playing a dentist, trying to find out what’s gone wrong with Sandler, his old college roommate. In the course of reaching out to Sandler, Cheadle must face problems in his own life. (2007)

Sweet Land – In 1920s Minnesota a beautiful German woman arrives to marry a Norwegian farmer. He speaks little English and she speaks none. This is the least of their troubles as her ethnicity, in light of World War I, gives the rest of the community pause. Ali Selim’s feature debut is quiet, elegant and assured. (2006)

The Widow of St. Pierre – Patrice Leconte’s tale of redemption set in the (then) French colony of Newfoundland in the 1850s. Emir Kusterica plays a drunk sentenced to death for a murder. But time passes before the guillotine can arrive from France. Slowly, the community, represented by Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, comes to see the murderer in a different light. (2001)

The Yards – James Gray’s story of corruption in the Queens rail yards was unjustly ignored by audiences on its release. Perhaps it was because the star, Mark Wahlberg, was an unproven quantity as a dramatic actor (Ok, some might say he still is), but he more than holds his own among James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Charlize Theron and Joaquin Phoenix. (2000)

A Double Feature About Women Living on the Margins

Frozen River and Wendy and Lucy -  Melisso Leo and Michelle Williams try to save their son and dog, respectively, while staring some hard truths in the face. (Both released in 2008)

Actors of the Decade—Gael Garcia Bernal and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actresses of the Decade – Cate Blanchett, Laura Linney and Kate Winslet

Directors of the Decade – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Christopher Nolan

Overrated

Brokeback Mountain – A movie more concerned with its message than advancing the story in a cinematic way. The script is clunky (saved by Heath Ledger’s performance) and for a movie intended to bust stereotypes, it’s comprised of supporting characters who are exactly that.

Knocked Up – Where The 40-Year-Old Virgin was a sweet, bromance about the complexities of dating, this was self-indulgent. A stoner who lives with other porn-living potheads hooks up with a successful television producer? That’s a shaky premise to begin with and impossible to ignore whenever the two leads start talking about child rearing. Why weren’t women insulted by this movie?

Lost in Translation – Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are displaced Americans in Tokyo. It’s a Jim Jarmusch movie done by Sofia Coppola. One Jarmusch is plenty thank you very much.

Mulholland Drive – What’s this movie about? No, really somebody tell me.

Movie that’s aged the worst – Crash. Only five years old and the tale of race and circumstance in Los Angeles already feels quaint.

And what of Wes Anderson? – His four films (three live-action and one animated) are entertaining, but they’re all riffs on a similar theme—highly stylized portraits of fractured families done to great soundtracks. They all made my best of the year list when released, but Anderson, so far anyway, has been content to have his characters talk about their struggles rather than show them.

Television (Still a vast wasteland)

The conversation begins and ends with The Wire. If you haven’t seen it you have deprived yourself of storytelling on par with Charles Dickens, but more visual. There’s no point in spilling more cyber-ink on it as countless others have extolled its virtues. So watch it. Now. You’re welcome.

The two best documentaries of the past ten years originally aired on television. Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home revealed every available side of Bob Dylan including a few that Mr. Zimmerman would rather have kept under wraps. Scorsese seemed to talk to everyone who ever had anything to do with Dylan.

The other great doc was Spike Lee’s agonizing, thorough, poetic story of the debacle and failure of our government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. It’s not hyperbolic to call When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts an act of public service.

OK…if I must choose…a baker’s dozen…(I actually already tipped my hand above by adding a clip after the summary)

WALL-E, Amelie, The Dark Knight, Memento, Amores Perros, In America, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Moulin Rouge! There Will Be Blood, The Lives of Others, Waking Life, You Can Count on Me and Lilya 4-ever.

This week’s “F.I.L.M.” (First-Class, Independent Little-Known Movie for those that need a refresher) is George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck.”  The movie follows newscaster Edward R. Murrow’s stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt in the 1950s.  But Clooney, the movie’s writer/director, makes the movie more than just a chronicle of events.  The movie isn’t about Murrow or McCarthy, nor is it about the Red Scare.  ”Good Night, and Good Luck” is about standing up for what is right even if you are the only one.  Clooney understands the importance of these themes still today and makes a film that will be forever relevant.

The movie takes us back to a much simpler time in television.  Murrow (David Strathairn) is more than just a reporter; he is an orator with well thought-out speeches and firm opinions.  In the era where the Red Scare is at its height and blacklisting is a very present fear, Murrow dared to stand up and call out Joseph McCarthy when no one else would, knowing that he very well could become the Senator’s next victim.  Many people were not willing to take this risk with him; even more bet against him.  But Murrow was unyielding and uncompromising, and he used the power that his voice had to convey to Americans that it is not acceptable to live in a climate where we fear one another.  His forceful discourse indirectly led to the end of McCarthyism and, in this writer’s opinion, will become immortalized in the annals of American history at a level near that of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Adress.

“Good Night, and Good Luck” is for television journalism what “All The President’s Men” is for print journalism, a classic story of ethics.  But the former is packed with an extra punch: a cautionary moral tale.  A speech by Murrow in the late ’50s shown at the close of the movie is particularly haunting as he elaborates about the tremendous power of television and how we must use it to inform people, not merely to entertain and amuse.  Murrow passed away over four decades ago, but Clooney sure wants us to ponder what he would think if he turned on the cable box today.  Would he be proud of the uproars when millions of people miss “Grey’s Anatomy” so ABC can show President Obama’s speech?  Would he be proud of the fact that our news channels are so concerned with political correctness that they become lambs rather than the lions of his day, willing to call out wrong behavior with confidence?  Would he be proud to see dozens more movie channels than news channels on most televisions?  Clooney’s double gut-punch of virtue is a wake-up call that does not go out to just politicians and news anchors.  It retains meaning for people dealing with even the smallest of dishonorable conduct.  Now that is something that would make Murrow proud.

The 2000s produced hours and hours of truly great cinema but, after much debate and discussion, Tangled Up in Wires has narrowed it down to our 25 favorites. Not to spoil anything for you, but Michael Bay didn’t make it. Read on to find out who did and then tell us where we’re wrong in the comments.

25. Oceans 11
Less than satisfying sequels aside, Steven Soderbergh’s remake of the Rat Pack classic doesn’t have a bad moment in it. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and the rest of the class have such great chemistry that the back and forth banter seems incredibly natural and hardly seems forced. Just as fun in the first moments as it is in the last, Oceans 11 is a movie you don’t turn off when it’s played over and over on TNT. (M)

24. Goodnight and Good Luck
Goodnight and Good Luck is a brief, fascinating intellectual and stylistic exercise that doesn’t idealize its protagonist. Instead, director George Clooney takes a journalistic approach to Edward R. Murrow’s fight with Senator Joe McCarthy. It helps when he populates the cast with low-key, naturalistic actors like Patricia Clarkson, Frank Langella, and David Strathairn, whose deadpan work as Edward R. Murrow went beyond a mere impression. Similarities to more recent events are irrelevant; more historical dramas should have the rigor and depth of Clooney’s. (J)

23. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Documentaries can sometimes be tedious, 90 minute arguments for an issue that you become either strongly for or strongly indifferent towards in the end. Then there’s King of Kong, which throws all of that out the window. Documenting the battle for the record for the highest Donkey Kong score between long time champ Billy Mitchell and down-and-out everyman Steve Wiebe, the film takes a look into the cutthroat world of competitive arcade gaming while creating an emotional resonance that literally got me up and cheering the first time I saw it. (M)

22. Pan’s Labyrinth
Fairy tales are as much about tragedy as triumph, and Del Toro includes plenty of the former in his gothic horror film. Pan’s Labyrinth’s layered narrative goes to some extremely dark places, as it depicts the harsh, violent reality of life in fascist Spain in 1944, but still provides moments of tremendous beauty. This contrast is certainly helped along by some of Del Toro’s best effects and creature work ever. (J)

21. Lord of the Rings
It may be cheating to name a trilogy as one entry, but it’s really impossible to separate Peter Jackson’s three perfect adaptations of the classic books. Visually, the films are the most stunning sci-fi films you’ll see. Story wise, the films are extremely faithful to the books, and the strongest devotees have extended DVD versions with even more. The best part is that the films are hugely epic while not going over the top. Definitely classics that shouldn’t be missed. (M)

20. 28 Days Later
Danny Boyle’s anti-zombie film starts with a moment of such showy eeriness that it would have been easy to coast by on just that. But after working through the creepily empty streets of post-zombie apocalypse London, Boyle moves on to tell a story that, like the best bits of horror, is more about the monsters that lurk inside of us. Boyle doesn’t go for easy scares, and instead crafts a deliberate, assured film that’s still extremely terrifying. (J)

19. The Squid and the Whale
Noah Baumbach’s intensely personal film about a family taking sides in a divorce is at times a hard film to watch because of it’s unabashed realism. It’s hard to really side with either of the parents in the film (Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels), and Jesse Eisenberg doesn’t oversell his role as the son stuck in the middle. Though he’d already gotten recognition for his debut, Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell movie), The Squid and the Whale brought Baumbach to the forefront of a new generation of indie filmmakers. (M)

18. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Despite making millions of dollars from it in the 1990s for his action scripts, its clear (probably some time around The Long Kiss Goodbye) that Shane Black soured on Hollywood. But the result was this completely overlooked near masterpiece, an entertaining, hyperactive, loquacious, hilarious action film with an excellent cast (anchored by Robert Downey Jr.’s typically strong work and Val Kilmer, looking like he’s having the most fun he’s had in year) and a fun, twisty script. (J)

17. Best in Show
Having already perfected the mockumentary with This is Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman, Christopher Guest took on the world of dog grooming in his hilarious improvised comedy. A cast of fantastic improvisers come together in a film full of goofy one liners and genuine sweetness that produces some of the most memorable lines of all time. That’s really all I have to say, I have to get back to reading American Bitch magazine. (M)

16. Wall-E
Combine Buster Keaton, Arthur C. Clarke, Tex Avery, and Steven Spielberg and you get something close to what Andrew Stanton and the Pixar team achieved with Wall-E. It is not just a children’s film adults can enjoy or an adult film with some elements for children, Wall-E is a film for everyone. Underneath the shockingly dark dystopian view of the distant future and Pixar’s technical wizardry is a film with true heart and emotional heft. (J)

15. Primer
If you want mind blowing science fiction that takes at least a second viewing to fully grasp, then Primer is the movie for you. Shot with a tiny $7,000 budget and written by a former engineer and filled with technical jargon, the film’s take on time travel makes Back to the Future seem absurd as opposed to fantasy. Primer is a cult classic who’s impact on sci-fi will undoubtedly continue to grow in years to come. (M)

14. Lost in Translation
Sophia Coppola’s follow-up to The Virgin Suicides isn’t about story as much as it is about a feeling. Feeling lost, confused, and generally put down doesn’t usually lend itself to cinema, but in Coppola’s hands, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson’s loneliness takes on a fragile beauty, set against the backdrop of one of the most vibrant cities in the world. (J)

13. Brick
Making an old fashioned film noir picture is one thing, but setting it in a high school, as Rian Johnson did in his directorial debut, manages to make Brick an unpredictable, powder keg of a film, ready to blow at any time. A great performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a phenomenal script by Johnson make Brick one of the great independent features of the 2000s. (M)

12. The Dark Knight
Such is the nature of Christopher Nolan’s bleak vision for Gotham City that, by the end of The Dark Knight, the heroic Harvey Dent has become a supervillain who needs to be stopped, the vigilante Batman has had to burn the proverbial forest down to catch his nemesis, and half of Gotham is charred and burnt. Sure he catches the Joker at the end, but its cold comfort in a movie that is as much an anti-superhero film as it is a superhero film.(J)

11. The Incredibles
Not the most popular or commercially successful of Pixar’s stream of successful movies, The Increibles is their best. A pulpy, action packed movie that draws on 1950s comics, The Incredibles is just plain fun to watch. In a decade in which film heroes needed to be more human, The Incredibles are revealed as a normal family with the added circumstances of being forced to hide who they really are. (M)

10. Hot Fuzz
We here at Tangled Up in Wires know that Shaun of the Dead is generally the more popular choice, but, unlike Simon Pegg’s by-the-books policemanofficer, we don’t play by the rules! Hot Fuzz’s laughs are more consistent than its predecessor and Edgar Wright’s direction feels more confident, especially as he handles the big finale. Hot Fuzz is the rare movie that’s as funny when you’re shouting the quotes along with it, as when you’re hearing them all for the first time. (J)

9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
If you could erase certain parts of your memory, would you? That’s the central premise of the Charlie Kauffman penned, Michel Gondry directed film. The film doesn’t so much dwell on the scientific possibilities of such invention as the human use of it. The film’s characters use it not to forget their childhood or embarrassing moments, but rather the ones they have loved or want to love. Great performances from a solid cast make the quirky story work on screen in a film that avoids any sort of classification. (M)

8. Donnie Darko
Appropriately enough for someone with a keen interest in time loops, Richard Kelly’s career has basically consisted of the same thing happening: he makes a movie, it is reviled and dismissed by the public, and then it gets a cult on video. But neither of his follow-ups work on the purely visceral level that Donnie Darko does. Part episode of Lost, part coming-of-age story, part Greek tragedy, and part nostalgic romp through the 1980s, Donnie Darko stretches the limits of science fiction until they rip apart. (J)

7. Memento
Before hitting it big with the Batman reboot, Christopher Nolan made a movie that is just as perplexing to watch the third time as it is the first. A story in reverse about a man with a severe memory condition is a taxing film to watch, but that’s what makes it most enjoyable. The film gets better and better with every viewing, as each time you know something you didn’t before. (M)

6. No Country For Old Men
As of 2006, the Coens’ output for the 2000s consisted of one decent, funny film, one puzzler, and two complete failures. Many had given them up for dead, but like Javier Bardem’s hulking, unstoppable force, they got back up and made one of their finest films yet. No Country for Old Men daringly casts aside narrative conventions, painting an impressionistic picture of the modern west and of people trapped by forces beyond their control. (J)

5. Children of Men
Alfonso Curan’s futuristic film could have veered into the realm of bad science fiction, but with minimal acting and barely even a musical soundtrack, Children of Men is a haunting and beautifully photographed film. The film never dwells on how the world got to be the way it is, instead focusing on what it is and how it can better, and once things are set in motion, there’s hardly a moment to breathe. Fantastic performances by Clive Owen, Julianne  Moore, and Michael Caine are punctuated by Curan’s trademarks style in this truly fantastic film. (M)

4. There Will Be Blood
Oil, money, greed, religion, violence. The question is what happens when you combine these forces and the answer is there in the title. There Will Be Blood makes no qualms about wanting to toss the last 10 years in a blender, but it avoids overt politicizing. Instead, P.T. Anderson’s finest film takes a stark, unflinching look at one person and how a combination of those forces mentioned above turned him into something much less. The violent, divisive epilogue to the film plays, especially upon seeing the film a second time, as the only natural conclusion to the preceding three hours. (J)

3. Adaptation
Charlie Kauffman had already established himself as a daring screenwriter, but with Adaptation, he raised the bar for originality in Hollywood. Rather than writing a straight adaptation of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, Kauffman wrote his struggles as a writer and person into the story, as well as a fictional brother Donald. Throw in director Spike Jonez, Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, and a fantastic Chris Cooper, and you have a quirky, thoroughly enjoyable film. (M)

2. Ghost World
Being young sucks. It’s not exactly the newest theme but Ghost World plays it to the hilt, casting Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson as the most convincing, disaffected youth this side of Neptune High School. But its only after they attempt to prank another outcast, just as lonely and misunderstood as them, that they begin to connect with the world. Ghost World is often hilarious, but there’s a real sadness underneath the laughter that gives the film a weight, boosted by Terry Zwigoff’s assured direction. (J)

1. The Royal Tennenbaums
Wes Anderson became an indie auteur master in the 2000s, but it’s first film of the decade, that is the most fun to watch. Filled with rich characters in an oddly vintage world, The Royal Tennenbaums manages to be a film about disappointment and forgiveness while at times be absolutely hilarious. Aided by a great cast, The Royal Tennenbaums is one of the few films I find I can watch over and over again without getting tired of it. (M)

For Wes Anderson’s third movie, he set out to make a film about Something. The largely ensemble nature, the more openly emotional beats, and the way he cranks his signature stylistic tics up to 11 all point to the high potential for messy overreach. And yet, through the clutter emerges a starkly personal vision of life’s ups and downs, filtered through the candy coating of Anderson’s direction. He borrows from Welles and Salinger (and from Schultz and Konigsberg and Scorsese and Jagger and Smith) like a neighbor borrowing sugar and eggs to bake a cake. Even if you recognize the ingredients the results are something completely unique. (J)

We’re not going to lie, George Clooney might be the coolest man to walk the face of the Earth since Frank Sinatra. He’s come a long way from his “suave Eddie” role as Dr. Ross on ER and his super, super lame push as a Hollywood star in the mid-90s when he starred in such clunkers as One Fine Day, The Peacemaker and of course, Batman & Robin. Bill Bodkin


1. Danny Ocean (Ocean’s 11, 2001): This was the role that made Clooney Hollywood gold. He had just started regaining both critical and commercial ground with Out of Sight (which was the beginning of his working relationship with Steven Soderbergh) and Three Kings, but Ocean’s is what put him over the top. Stepping into the role Sinatra made famous Clooney exudes, what would become, his ultra cool, funny and sometimes self-deprecating charm that has made millions of women swoon.

2. Michael Clayton (Michael Clayton, 2007): After starring in the box office version of lay-up in the Ocean’s sequels, Clooney proved once again that he has tremendous acting chops. Here he plays a legal fixer, whose comfortable job is challenged by a possible cover-up his friend (Tom

Big Wide Grin: Clooney's critically acclaimed role in O Brother Where Art Thou? launched his comeback.

Wilkinson) has discovered. Clooney portrays Clayton as a man wearing his moral conflicts on his sleeve and we’re at the edge of our seat wondering which way he’ll go.

3. Everett T. McGill (O, Brother Where Art Thou?, 2001): If Ocean’s was Clooney’s commercial home run, he certainly knocked it out of the park for critics here. In his first teaming up with the Coen Brothers (who took a huge casting risk), Clooney plays the always scheming, hair product obsessed Everett T. McGill. Clooney plays the role with sublime idiocy and delivers great one-liners, especially
like “you guys are dumber than a bag of hammers.”

4. Fred Friendly (Good Night & Good Luck, 2005): Clooney plays a stocky second banana to David Strathairn’s Edward R. Murrow. While Strathairn completely owns this film, Clooney’s turn as the always worrying, yet solidly behind his friend is brilliant. The fact Clooney also wrote and directed the film, which I consider one of the best about journalism ever, makes his performance even better.

5. Lynn Cassady (The Men Who Stare at Goats, 2009): Not many people have gotten into this film, however from reviews and word of mouth one thing is certain- Clooney was brilliant. Watching him dance around in a bad long-haired wig with a silly mustache to a cheesy 80s song shows that this guy knows how to pick meaty roles and is not afraid to embarrass himself on camera.

It was the 2000 Golden Globes, and George Clooney won Best Actor in a Comedy for O Brother, Where Art Thou.

I was shocked.

As 17-year-old who knew his movies, I didn’t like George Clooney. He seemed nothing but canned charm and a pretty smile who didn’t need to know how to act to attract fans.

But now he had a Golden Globe. Really? Wasn’t he the guy who butchered Batman worse than Val Kilmer? I didn’t get it.

Nine years later, George Clooney is the man I most want to be. Not just because of the charm and smile. But because he does it all so effortlessly — acting included. He’s arguably the most underrated actor in Hollywood — a star who can pull off comedy, romance, light action and heavy drama. -Brent Johnson

So, from a Clooney convert, here are my favorite Clooney roles:

1. Danny Ocean, Ocean’s 13
This is where Clooney’s appeal hit me. Even more so than the first ‘Ocean Film,’ the second sequel is where Clooney proves he’s a master of subtle control — whether it’s charming a disarming woman or making
the audience believe he knows exactly what’s going on. You trust his confidence — even when he’s knocking off casinos. That’s the essence of cool.

2. Jack Foley, Out Of Sight
Danny Ocean with a little less confidence, but no less charm. Here — in one of his earlier films, just before leaving ER — he shows even the coolest men have flaws. Which of course gives average men hope. But Clooney’s still cool enough here to call a federal marshal just to flirt, even when she’s trying to track him down for escaping from prison. (By the way, this is a great, underrated flick — a precursor to the ‘Ocean’ films, which were also directed by Steven Soderbergh.)

Totally Out of Sight: Clooney rebounded from a disastrous early career with Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight

4. Harry Pfarrer, Burn After Reading
As he gets older and grayer, he’s not above playing a supporting role. And this one has some stellar lines (about not discharging his gun and his penchant for after-sex jogs) and one killer scene (where his
finally discharges his gun). And once again, Clooney subverts his persona by oozing more smarm than charm.

5. Michael Clayton, Michael Clayton
Yes, it’s a study in understated acting, with measured reactions and calm conversation — a performance that earned his first Best Actor nomination. But try not to be utterly thrilled by the final scene. His fixer attorney cuts his opponent down to size — without ever entering a courtroom. And the last line is spectacular, delivered with perfect panache.

Honorable Mention:

Seth Gecko, From Dusk Till Dawn
The most fun of all his roles — Danny Ocean included. Maybe because he knows how to deliver Quentin Tarantino dialogue.

Speaking of which, they should work together again. I get the feeling Q.T. is the kind of guy who is cool in his own way — but still wishes he can be as cool as Clooney.

Will these two ever rejoin forces?

për përkthimin falenderojmë Leiden

“Ajo që do të them mund të mos ju pëlqejë. Në fund të këtij debati disa njerëz mund të akuzojnë këtë gazetar se po pështyn në pjatën ku ha, dhe shoqata juaj mund të akuzohet se po u bën vend, në gjirin e saj, ideve eretike (madje të rrezikshme.) Por struktura e ngritur nga rrjetet televizive, agjencitë publicitare dhe sponsorët nuk ka për t’u shembur, as cënuar.

Eshtë dëshira ime, për të mos thënë detyrë, të përpiqem t’ju flas me ndershmëri, ju bashkëudhëtarëve të mi, mbi atë që po i ndodh radios dhe televizionit. E nëse ajo që them është me përgjegjësi, vetëm unë e mbaj përgjegjësinë e asaj që them.

Historia jonë do jetë ajo që ne duam të jetë. E nëse do të ketë historianë pas 50 apo 100 vitesh, e nëse do të ruheshin të gjithë filmimet e një jave të vetme të të tre kanaleve tona televizive, ata do të gjejnë të regjistruar aty, në bardh e zi apo me ngjyra, provat e dekadencës, vakuumit dhe izolimit të realitetit ku jetojmë. Në momentin që po flasim jemi të gjithë të shëndetshëm, jetojmë në mirëqënie, bollëk, të kënaqur e të kënaqshëm. Kemi një alergji ndaj lajmeve jo të këndshme apo shqetësuese, dhe mass media jonë e pasqyron këtë prirje. Por nëse nuk vendosim të shkundim pas krahëve bollëkun, dhe nëse nuk pranojmë që televizioni përdoret mbi të gjitha për të na shpërqëndruar, mashtruar, dëfryer dhe izoluar – atëherë kush e financion, kush e sheh dhe kush punon në të do të ndërgjegjësohet për këtë realitet kur të jetë tepër vonë për ta rregulluar…. Read more

Nisa këtë fjalim duke thënë se historia jonë është ajo që ne bëjmë. Por nëse do të vazhdojmë kështu, historia herët a vonë do të marrë hak, dhe haku nuk vonon shumë që të vijë. Le të vlerësojmë fort rëndësinë e ideve dhe të informimit, për një herë të paktën! Le të ëndërrojmë deri në atë pikë sa të themi se, do bëjë vaki një të diel mbrëma të bekuar, që hapësira e zënë zakonisht nga Ed Sullivan t’i kushtohet një sondazhi të vëmendshëm mbi gjendjen e arsimit në vend, apo që dy a tre javë më pas hapësira e mbushur normalisht nga Steve Allen t’i kushtohet një studimi të thelluar të politikës amerikane në Lindjen e Mesme. A ndoshta imazhi i sponsorëve të këtyre dy programeve do të dëmtohej? A ndoshta aksionerët e tyre do të xhindoseshin e do të qaheshin? Çfarë mund të ndodhë, përveç faktit që disa miliona njerëz mund të ndriçohen pakëz mbi argumente që mund të përcaktojnë fare mirë të ardhmen e këtij vendi dhe, si pasojë, të ardhmen e vetë këtyre kompanive?

Për ata që thonë “njerëzit as nuk kanë për të parë gjë, nuk do të ishin të interesuar, janë tepër të vetëkanëqur, indiferentë dhe të izoluar” mund t’u përgjigjem vetëm duke thënë se kundër kësaj teze ka prova të pakundërshtueshme të reporterit në fjalë. Por edhe nëse do të ishte e vërtetë, çfarë do të humbisnim? Sepse nëse do të ishte e vërtetë dhe ky mjet mos të shërbente për asgjë përveçse për argëtim, dëfrim dhe izolim, atëherë ekrani që tani po shuhet dhe shpejt do të shohim se e gjithë beteja është e humbur.

Ky mjet(televizioni) mund të edukojë, mund të ndriçojë dhe (po!) mund të jetë burim frymëzimi, por mund ta bëjë këtë VETEM dhe EKSLUZIVISHT nëse qenia njerëzore do vendosë ta përdorë për këto qëllime.
Përndryshe nuk është veçse një masë fijesh elektrike dhe valvulash, brenda një kutie.

Natën e mirë e fat të mbarë”.

It is hard to believe that there was a time when journalism was like this.  Reporting consisted of people who took a stance and stood by it.  They had the courage to report the news in a truly objective manner.  They were not perfect mind you.  They were flawed like you and me.  But they were free thinking, and given the opportunity to be controversial, and ask hard questions.  I don’t see that too much these days.

“Good Night, And Good Luck” is a recount of the now famous stand off between Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy.  McCarthy at the time was trying to weed out the communist threat from within.  His tactics were unconstitutional, and stripped people of their basic freedoms.  Murrow went on air to fight against such acts.  Murrow is played here by David Straithairn in a performance that is quiet and effective.  Most of the time he looks on at the people around him.  Straithairn seems to be a master at internal emotion.  He can suggest certain things with his eyes.  He doesn’t much look like Murrow, but he gets his mannerisms and dialect just right.

George Clooney writes, directs and co-stars as Fred Friendly, Murrow’s producer.  He shoots in black and white to give us feelings of nostalgia for that particular time period.  What he achieves is a movie of power and intrigue.  His father was a newscaster for years so he knows this type of material inside out.  His message is very clear.  What McCarthy did was a liar and character assassination is down right wrong.

The interesting thing here is that McCarthy is actually a character in this movie.  He plays him self in several clips of actual footage.  I had heard from a few people that they thought his performance was embellished a little bit or whoever they had play him was overacting.  Think again.  These are actual clips of McCarthy himself.  Yes he was that over the top.  Not too far from current political figures of today.

Over all the movie is about the internal workings of the CBS corporation.  Almost every scene takes place with in the CBS building.  We get to see the pressure that Murrow and his team receive from their sponsors and the blind support he gets from the owners and producers. 

In the end I think what this movie achieves the most is accurately capturing a little piece of history.  Clooney doesn’t so much smother us with his politics as he watches particular people at a particular time.  I’m sure that the time in which he decided to release this movie had a few things to do with our current political climate, but isn’t that what the cinema is all about?  Getting us to think and express our ideas and opinions?  One would hope so.

Wouldn't you rather do awesome things for real?

As I went to my first ever meet-up and starting talking to the people that attended, I was delighted to have finally spoken with intelligent, creative people. The first meet up wasn’t perfect: There were only 3 people, including myself, but it was thrilling enough to have discussed ideas, to talk about what we were going to do with our lives, and most of all, to have a bit of fun while doing this.

But, I would find that when I have stepped forward and talked to people in person, that when I would go online, I wouldn’t be as enthusiastic making it my means of communication. Sure, I still discussed a few things with people, and of course I still had fun browsing through online art communities like Fur Affinity and DeviantArt, but there was something missing from that online experience that I got out of meeting people who study Objectivism.

A sense of accomplishment. In real life.

Why not carry your idea out?

I soon started to think about how I actually spent my time, having seen and experienced the company of people who had their lives together. I became more enthusiastic for my artistic training, my business studies, and my own self-motivation. Furthermore, I started to become less self-conscious, and as I started to work on my own stories, ideas flew out shamelessly.

Why didn’t all of that happen even when I see, and talk to, those people online?

Well, truth is, all of the websites I go too, even the ones I like, are on that very thin line between, “Productive” and “Waste of Time”. Of course, I’m not the most popular person in either of the Art community sites I go to, but the lack of popularity is not the reason why I’m starting to see real life as more important. It’s really because of the principles.

For example, people who have read my “What to Talk about” sections sense me talking about things that are either obscure, or extremely dramatic. (My reaction to the immaturity involving Lady Gaga’s biological traits, for instance.) Now, I could sit here, bitch and moan about everything in the world, in the comfort of my own home, but ultimately, no matter how many comments I get, how much information is shown to me, and how much I delve into the issues involved, I would only be a “safe” distance away from those subjects. I can learn lists of facts, but I still wouldn’t truly “understand” the subjects at hand.

And yet I would be convinced that I have learned, that I have made a contribution to myself. Until I step outside and realize that most of the stuff that is online is not important in the grand schemes. I found that after years of online “productivity”, that I was only climbing a ladder in a world where anything is true not because of demonstration, but because of consent from others. In other words, I was evading reality, while thinking that I was on my way to success.

Real life still is an important thing to explore, and one doesn’t really learn about it from afar, perched in front of one’s computer screen, whining about the latest crappy remake or politics or what have you. Some people actually do great things performing the aforementioned actions. That’s fine, but even then those people have made some contribution to themselves in real life. Even the things that are successful on the internet are things that connect to the real world, not one’s attempts to ignore reality or rail against it.

Think about it: The nerdy people who we see in public, the ones who show their faces and talk about their stuff to millions of people, they may have found a following amongst fellow nerds, but they also get interest from people who are busy working within their own lives. Jay Naylor, creator of Better Days and Original Life, talks about this fact:

The last thing on your mind should be your forum, your blog, your third-party-hosted art page, how many watches you have, how many people put your last image on their favorites list, how many positive comments you get, etc. If you become popular doing what you like, the chances are the vast majority of people following your work in some fashion, are going to be completely off the radar. They won’t be on forums or websites talking about what they like or hate. They will be working diligently within their own lives and taking breaks to enjoy what you do, and then moving on until you do something else. You’ll never even know who they are. I’ll explain it with my own experiences.

I haven’t checked the unique IP statistics on my website in long time, but the last time I did, roughly 15-16k unique IPs were coming in during my webcomic update days. This doesn’t include the 6-9k unique IPs that would investigate the site during non-update days. I have no way of knowing if those people are reading the comic on non-update days, when their schedule permits, or if they’re looking for newly advertised adult material (that would be a lot of people doing that if it were so!), or what. I don’t know how many are a part of the same 16k during update days, or if they are completely new people. So I have no real way to tell how many unique human beings are checking in on the webcomic. For the hell of it, we’ll put the number at the 16k during update days. I no longer have a Livejournal client that gives me a count of the number of people watching my LJ. It may be there somewhere, but I haven’t really looked for it. Last time I was able to see it, about a year go, it was in the 600s. At the time of my writing this post, there are 10,894 people watching me on FurAffinity.

Notice how he doesn’t really care about the whole “Internet Popularity” thing. He just does what he loves to do, and he gets praise (and shit) for it.

I only throw those number out there to make a point. When I make a post on LJ, there’s a small number of people I can expect to almost always comment. This is fine. I can count them on both hands. There’s an even wider number of people I see making comments from on a semi-regular basis, depending on whether or not the subject at hand interests them enough. But even then, I’ve noticed it’s a fairly small number, as I see the same names repeat more frequently. I’d estimate I have, maybe, 30 people who comment regularly or semi-regularly on LJ. That’s an incredibly small slice of the overall people who are keeping up with it just to read it. On FA, the number of people is a bit larger, but it’s all art and requires hardly any reading, and the number of watchers is almost double, so that’s to be expected. Still, the most favorited image in my gallery has a bit over 1,100 favorites. That’s a small fraction of the number of overall watchers! I never have that many comments on a single image, and like LJ, I see the same names more frequently. I’ll put the number of regular FA commenters at a *very* generous 70 to 80. An incredibly far cry from the 10,000+ watchers, and far less than the number of readers for the free webcomic on the site. At any given time, there may be a hate-thread about me on an image board somewhere. Even if every post in a thread was from a unique person (which isn’t likely), we’re looking at tiny numbers in comparison to the overall statistics everywhere else.

The point is, you can’t be buffeted and swayed by every offered opinion or request you see thrown around on forums, because most people are simply passive watchers. There is no real scientific way to correlate the number of passive people who agree with one commenting admirer, or criticizer. It is possible for someone to find a site, a forum, a cluster of friends within those small numbers I cited, who agree with what they say and feel like they have some widespread movement afoot. But the fact is, they just don’t. Again, what you should fall back on is what I stated earlier: your own inspiration and desire to try things.

A real life achievement is much more satisfying than the achievement one gets from internet social groups. One’s true success isn’t filtered by iconoclastic hipsters, or pretentious socialites, or politics. The things that one does in real life are there to stay, to be remembered, whether one cares to acknowledge it or not. That’s the true root of the anger of people who are envious of success: The fact that they can’t stop them, the fact that the ones who achieve are the ones who are brave, who dare to step out and do things while they sit in comfort. It’s easy to be spectator and gossip about things, but in the long run all that one will accomplish is a temporary rise to fame for being the opposite of achievement: a socialite.

Meanwhile, those who achieve do so for their own dreams, to reach new boundaries. They will go through hard times, since there is no such thing as a risk-free venture, but in the long run their work will be what the world thanks them for, and those individuals will be the ones to remember, whether the iconoclasts, politicans and socialites (Online or offline) like it or not.

The world may be going into chaos now, but it is not the time to abandon it.

So, what are you going to do?

Will George Clooney be smiling as he files for unemployment benefits?

No, he’s not ready to get married and settle down with one girl, and he’s not been discovered to be a homosexual. Instead, George Clooney has been caught in the act of something else that may jeopardize his career.

Clooney has been confirmed to be a closeted Republican.

For years and years, political donations to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and finally John McCain have been made by a Stanley Jacobs of Cincinnati. Investigation by Ponderings From Pluto reveal that Jacobs’ bank account number is the same as one also used by Clooney, who’s also from Cincinnati.

“Yes, I’m a Republican,” Clooney admitted to PFP’s C.F. Twob. “All these years campaigning for liberal causes and for liberal candidates have been a complete act, just like what I do for a living.”

Why has Clooney pretended to be a Democrat?

“It’s simple,” he said. “Hollywood has no tolerance for anything that’s even slightly right of center. You have to be a liberal to have a career. I mean, why do you think guys like Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson kept their political beliefs quiet early in their careers? For someone who hasn’t had a big career break to be caught saying, writing or doing anything conservative, there are two words: career killer.”

Clooney’s break came as a carpenter on The Facts of Life, and even then, he noticed many conservatives in Hollywood were pretending to be liberal in order to protect their careers.

The actor/director added that keeping his political beliefs a secret meant also creating many red herrings–such as the anti-Joseph McCarthy movie he directed and co-starred in, Good Night, and Good Luck.

“I’m actually a great admirer of Senator McCarthy and think he sacrificed his career, reputation and life to help protect America from communist infiltration,” Clooney explained. “But the movie served its purpose and did a great job of helping me guard my secret.”

Clooney suggested there are other big name stars who are secretly GOP supporters, but he chose not to name names. “I won’t become the political version of Perez Hilton,” he said, referring to the openly gay celebrity gossip blogger who likes to out closeted gay celebrities.

He joked that now, probably the only people in Los Angeles who will have lunch with him these days are actors like James Woods, Tom Selleck, Vince Vaughn and Sylvester Stallone.

To comment, post below or send an e-mail to ponderingsfrompluto@gmail.com.

Did you know that September 28th-October 3rd, 2009, is the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week?

The week celebrates the freedom we have to express our opinions— even if the opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. Banned Books Week brings attention to the challenges that have been presented to this freedom by celebrating books which have been attempted to be banned in libraries across the country.

This year, the Student Activities Office and Brown Library are partnering on our campus to recognize Banned Books Week and the freedom to read!

Check out the following events:

ALL WEEK

• Participate in the Word-of-the-Week Contest. Stop by the library this week to see the featured word and create a clever and funny definition for it. (We want your definition of the word, not the real definition.) Contest entrants get a chance to win a cool t-shirt from the American Library Association. Students, faculty, and staff are all welcome to participate! (Entries must be recieved by 3pm on Friday, October 2nd. There will be one student winner and one faculty/staff winner, and they will be notified this Friday.)
• Visit Our Display on the Main Floor. See some examples of books that have been banned and find out the reasons behind it.

MONDAY, 9/28

• Make Your Own Photo Bookmark. 10am-2pm, Brown Library steps. First 100 participants receive a free banned book. Choice of following titles: The Kite Runner, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, To Kill a Mockinbird, Fahrenheit 451, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

WEDNESDAY, 9/30

• Papermaking. 10am-2pm, Brown Library steps. Use the art of papermaking to create your own bookmark or sheet of paper, using a variety of materials.

THURSDAY, 10/1

• Film Showing: Good Night, and Good Luck. 1pm, library classroom. This award-winning film stars George Clooney and portrays the drama of journalists who provided critical commentary against popular opinion of the time. 93 minutes.

FRIDAY, 10/2

• Word-of-the-Week Contest winners chosen!

…and start reading now for the upcoming Banned Book Club! The first meeting will be Wednesday, October 21, at 6pm (location tbd). The book to be discussed will be The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Roy both won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and faced an obscenity trial in her native India for this, her first novel. Club open to students, faculty, and staff.

The Brown Library has many books which have been challenged and banned, including:

• Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Call number E185.97.A56 A3 1971
• Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. Call number PS3537.T3234 O4
• Voltaire. Candide, or, Optimism. Call number PQ2082.C3 E5 2005
• Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Call number PS3563.O8749 B55 1993
• Lawrence, D.H. Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Call number PR6023.A93 L2
• Walker, Alice. The Color Purple: A Novel. Call number PS3573.A425 C6 1982
• Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Call number PS3537.A426 C32 1961
• King, Stephen. Christine. Call number PS3561.I483 C4 1983
• Eliot, George. Silas Marner; : The Weaver of Raveloe. Call number PR4670.A1 1967

For a short history of attempts at censoring books, please see The Online Books Page Presents Banned Books Online at the University of Pennsylvania. Included in this page are links to the actual texts of these works, available for free online.

Good Night, And Good Luck. looks at the early years of television and journalism principles; specifically the on-air clash in the 1950’s between Edward R. Murrow of CBS and Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. With an outstanding cast, including McCarthy himself through archival footage, this film comes alive with intense emotion while depicting the historical See It Now shows and journalism integrity.

http://www.dainsmoviereviews.com/2009/09/good-night-and-good-luck-movie-review.html

Men Who Stare At Goats ne peut être qu’une réussite, puisqu’il est mis en scène par Grant Heslov, collaborateur de longue date de George Clooney (il a écrit Good Night And Good Luck) et dont c’est la première réalisation, et parce qu’il est écrit par Peter Straughan, qui a certes co-écrit la médiocre adaptation de How To Lose Friends And Alienate People avec Simon Pegg, Megan Fox et Kirsten Dunst, mais qui pourrait bien être le nouveau Charlie Kaufman, avec deux scénarios en apparence énormes : The Inventor, qui raconte l’histoire d’un fan qui devient son idole; et Our Brand Crisis, qui se focalise sur les stratégies de campagne politique utilisées par les américains en Amérique du Sud (et qui a été acheté par Clooney.)

The Men Who Stare At Goats est basé sur des faits réels, rapportés dans le livre de Jon Ronson publié en 2004 et parle d’un journaliste (McGregor) qui enquête sur un bataillon de l’armée (composé de Clooney, Spacey et Bridges) qui use de pouvoirs supernaturels au cours de leurs missions. Il sort le 6 novembre aux states, oh et ça a l’air juste énorme !

You know how it works. Celebrity does something blog-esque, and within the next week or so (in this case a few days), blogs are lighting up with similar entries.

Recently,  Quentin Tarantino made a video listing his 20 favorite films since 1992 (the year he officially became a director). Now, I originally wasn’t going to make a list of my own. Then it dawned on me, 1992 is also a year of significance to me; it was the year I was born.

Tarantino’s List

I will construct the list as he did; one definitive favorite (favorite doesn’t necessarily mean best) followed by 19 more in no particular order. So, on to my top 20 movies since the year I was born. These are the films that made me love the medium; they have shaped my personality more than any person could:

Favorite – Clerks. (1994)

The Rest (19, In no particular order):

-Pulp Fiction (1994)
-Fargo (1996)
-There Will Be Blood (2007)
-American Splendor (2003)
-The Dark Knight (2008)
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
-The Wrestler (2008)
-Sideways (2004)
-Being John Malkovich (1999)
-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
-Ratatouille (2007)
-Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
-Bowling for Columbine (2002)
-Chasing Amy (1997)
-Unforgiven (1992)
-Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 (2004) (I’m counting these two as one)
-Hot Fuzz (2007)
-Thank You For Smoking (2005)
-The Iron Giant (1999)

——————————————–

That’s it. My 20 favorite films since 1992. What did you think? Like it? Love it? Loathe it? I’d love to read some feedback, good or bad.

-YeOldeJacob

Gladiator, de Lord of the Rings trilogie, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Dark Knight en Slumdog Millionaire. Iedereen kent ze wel, deze blockbusters uit de 21e eeuw die de verwachtingen meer dan waarmaakte.

Er is echter veel meer. Sinds de eeuwwisseling zijn er namelijk ook heel wat prachtige films gemaakt die niet massaal in de bioscoop zijn verschenen en die nog steeds consequent over het hoofd worden gezien. De komende elf weken zal ik aftellen van 16 naar 1 voor de beste onbekende pareltjes van de 21e eeuw. Deze eerste week de nummers 16 tot en met 11:

16. Irrevirsible

Als een mokerslag aankomende film die door zijn omgekeerde vertelvorm de kijker verward en met gemengde gevoelens achterlaat. Heeft de film nu een happy-end of niet? Éen ding is zeker of je hem nu goed vindt of niet, Irrevirsible zal je nog heel lang bijblijven.

15. Il Divo

Een samenspel van een prachtige soundtrack in combinatie met prachtige beelden en een interessant stukje geschiedenis. Absoluut vorm boven inhoud en derhalve ook niet geschikt voor kijkers die een coherent, logisch en makkelijk te volgen verhaal eisen.

14. Good Night, and Good Luck

In geen enkele film wordt zoveel en zo mooi gerookt als in Good Night and Good Luck. Visueel dus indrukwekkend, acteerwerk van de bovenste plank en ook het verhaal over de Amerikaanse radioverslaggever Edward R. Murrow die de strijd aangaat met communistenjager, Senator Joseph McCarthy is meer dan de moeite waard.

13. Bin-Jip

Minimalistische bijna poëtische film over de relatie tussen Tae-Suk, een man die dagelijks overnacht in leegstaande huizen en Sun-hwa, een vrouw die wordt mishandeld door haar man. Film die praktisch geen dialogen bevat en een werkelijk prachtig sprookjesachtig einde kent.

12. Brodre

Susanne Bier schuwt in Brodre de cliché’s niet. Criticasters noemen haar films veredelde soaps maar ik kan er geen genoeg van krijgen. Brodre is wat mij betreft een fantastisch drama over oorlog en wat het doet met de achtergebleven familieleden. Ik kan ook alvast verklappen, dit is niet de laatste film van Susanne Bier in deze lijst.

11. Mar Adentro

Indrukwekkend drama over een al 30 jaar verlamde man die maar één wens heeft en dat is sterven (sublieme rol Javier Bardem). Zowel een advocate die hem enkel juridisch wil steunen als een plaatselijke dorpsvrouw die zijn leven weer zin wil geven moeten voor zichzelf bepalen of ze bereid zijn deze man te helpen bij zijn dood.

Eis om in deze lijst te komen was dat een film minder dat 50.000 stemmen op IMDB had. Vanwege deze regel heb ik helaas Mulholland Drive, Garden State, The Wrestler en The Fountain nipt buiten de lijst moeten houden. Deze pareltjes hier nog even noemen kan echter nooit kwaad. Ook staan er geen documentaires in de lijst waardoor Young @ Heart ontbreekt.

You watch serious documentaries as such that keeps all ur senses on the tv…. the brain seems to function and produce exceptional thoughts.

Edward Murrow.

It’s always right to fight for something important. Especially TRUTH.

Truth is as primal as the Naked body.

We carry it with us everyday, but we don’t feel it.

We need it to norish our soul much more than food, yet we trick ourselves we don’t need it.

Don’t suffer from TRUTH anorexia.

In het dorpje Salem ziet de plaatselijke dominee Parris zijn dochter, zijn nichtje Abigail en enkele andere dorpsmeisjes ’s nachts dansen in het bos. Als zijn dochter vervolgens in coma raakt, laat Parris een geleerde prediker overkomen, die verstand heeft van Zwarte Kunsten. Om zelf niet van hekserij te worden beschuldigd, laten Abigail en de andere meisjes het overkomen alsof ze betoverd werden door anderen en noemen een reeks namen van onschuldige dorpsbewoners.De ondergouverneur van de staat stelt een rechtbank in om de gevallen van hekserij te onderzoeken. Ondertussen beschuldigen Abigail en andere dorpsbewoners iedereen die hen op een of andere manier in de weg loopt – zij het zakelijk of in de liefde – van hekserij. Er ontstaat een heuse hetze en een “leugentje om bestwil” leidt tot een massamoord. De ondergouverneur is volledig overtuigd van het bestaan van hekserij en is niet meer in staat de vele argumenten te vatten. Hierdoor worden vele onschuldigen gearresteerd en opgehangen. Onder hen de eerlijke boer en ex-minnaar van Abigail, John Proctor.

De in 2005 overleden Arthur Miller schreef The Crucible in 1954. Hij situeerde het stuk in het 17de eeuwse Amerika, maar het was een niet mis te verstaan protest tegen de communistenjacht die Amerika in de jaren vijftig van de vorige eeuw onbarmhartig in zijn greep hield. Psychologische thriller en meeslepend rechtbankdrama in één, is Heksenjacht een moderne klassieker geworden, die in een tijd van oplevend religieus fundamentalisme en angst voor terrorisme nog niets van zijn zeggingskracht heeft verloren. Het kan geen toeval zijn dat in 2005 de communistenjacht ook door George Clooney in zijn film ‘Good Night and Good Luck‘ onder de loep werd genomen.

Het stuk wordt gespeeld door het Tongers Nieuw Theater, de regie is handen van Roel Vanderstukken en het stuk wordt gespeeld in het kader van de Kroningsfeesten in Tongeren. De acht voorstellingen in de Tongerse Begijnhofkerk zijn allemaal uitverkocht.

UPDATE

Het stuk was goed gespeeld, maar ik moet er wel eerlijk bij zeggen dat dit niet het soort stukken is waar ik door wordt gecharmeerd. Het decor was ideaal (gewoon de kerk als decor), de overwegend jonge actrices deden het vrij aardig, aangevuld door een aantal oude rotten. De regisseur had ervoor geopteerd om tijdens de pauzes tussen de decorwisselingen e.d. enkel muziek van Elbow te laten horen. Een goede keuze overigens. Persoonlijk kijk ik meer uit naar de volgende stukken van TNT in de Velinx. Eind dit jaar zal het wel weer zover zijn.

la prima luna di Luglio

Questa è stata una di quelle giornate nelle quali sono felice di saper giocare a scacchi.

Dopo aver lavorato fino a tarda notte, non è stato semplice rimettersi in piedi ad un orario accettabile che mi permettesse di non perdere il pasto caldo; all’ingresso in cucina il mio sguardo è stato rapito da un piatto di riso assolutamente freddo, le olive snocciolate che si stagliavano in bella vista sopra quella montagna che in un primo istante ho scambiato per il monte bianco, mi han fatto scendere una sciolina dal labbro inferiore, Vladimir ha scodinzolato e dopo averlo acquietato con una foglia d’insalata fresca, mi sono tuffato in quel ben di Dio.

Sicché quando in spiaggia mi han fatto notare che sono ingrassato e che ero tutto bianco, l’ho buttata sulla difensiva… qua non si fa altro che denigrarmi, in realtà rispetto allo scorsa estate sono passato da 75 a 72 kg ed ho pure qualche lentiggine sulle guancie a causa delle giornate di fuoco che a fine Maggio mi hanno visto protagonista in quel del Superga 63. I campi da calcio erano dune sulle quali i giovani calciatori inseguivano il sogno di una rete, il mio miraggio era una brandina in Zona 99, altro che 4-4-2 od albero di natale, con 30° all’ombra la mia lingua serviva più per asciugare il sudore piuttosto che a pulirmi le labbra dal caffé squisitamente servitomi da Liliana.

In spiaggia mi hanno tempestato di domande, come a cercare un illusorio refrigerio in questa assolata giornata estiva, non mi sono sottratto al confronto ed anche se alla fine mi sono infervorato, ho appreso l’arte della dissoluzione dialettica perseguente il fine del buon vivere. Avendo percepito cosa produce un fazioso totalitarismo, mi sono sentito come un naufrago su un isola deserta, sicché quando Pietro si è seduto vicino a me, ed il mio braccio stava già cominciando a scottare a causa del movimento terrestre, non mi è parso vero di potermi andare a sedere all’ombra e di poter spingere il pedone di Regina di 2 passi.

1. d4 Cf6 il mio avversario vuol proiettare la partita verso un indiana, nella mia mente si staglia l’idea di un teepee ed a mia volta faccio galoppare il cavallo fuori dalla scuderia.

2. Cf3 e6 una tacita proposta per entrare in una indiana di Nimzowitsch

3. e3 rifiuto giacché alla mente ci è tornato il nostro amico Daniel Matovic, con il quale la scorsa estate studiammo il Sistema Colle

3. … d5 credo che non sia la mossa migliore, poiché il bianco può ora impostare una versione migliorata del Sistema Zuckertort 

4. Cbd2 ho scelto di sviluppare il cavallo per poter spingere velocemente in e4, 4. … Cc6 il nero ha sviluppato tre pezzi come il bianco, stilisticamente di nero avrei spinto in c5, ma questa mossa mira sia alla casa b4 che al sostegno della spinta in e5.

5. c3 e5 non si può certo dire che io sia uscito bene dalla fase di apertura, essendo minacciata la spinta in e4 la mia risposta è quasi scontata

6. dxe5 Axe5?! benché questa mossa sia giocabile, preferirei catturare in e5 con il cavallo, in modo da liberare il pedone sulla colonna C e proporre il cambio di un pezzo che verosimilmente difenderà l’arrocco del bianco.

7. Ab5 è vero, ho mosso due volte lo stesso alfiere in apertura, ma creo una minaccia diretta sull’alfiere in e5, sicché come reagirà Pietro? 7. … Ag4, come mi aspettavo un attaccante come lui non retrocede tanto facilmente, a mio avviso Ad6 avrebbe lasciato l’iniziativa nelle mani del nero, dato che dispone di più spazio ed ha una maggiore influenza sul centro.

8. Da4! ora che la Regina non è più inchiodata, si ripropone la minaccia sull’alfiere, ancora una volta era giusto ripiegare, in tal caso era buona Ad7, dato che dopo 9. Cxe5 si poteva replicare con Cxe5 considerato che il cavallo non sarebbe stato più inchiodato sul re.  8. … Dd6 permettendo la semplice combinazione:

9. Axc6+ bxc6 10. Cxe5 Dxe5 11. Dxc6+ conquistando un pedone, ma dopo 11. … Re7 12. b3 Dd6 evitando lo scaccomatto 13. Dxd6,non è stato semplice vincere il finale di alfieri contrari.

Ero già pronto per andare a chiudere gli ombrelloni, quando una fanciulla dagli occhi mistici mi ha chiesto d’insegnarle a giocare scacchi… oh oh oh… sogno o son desto? Well… “Parigi val bene una messa!”

In un paio di ore abbiamo spaziato dall’arrocco ai tarocchi, dal francese allo spagnolo; scacchi esoterici ed energia comisca, gli elementi che ci hanno condotto verso le lingue sancrito e latino; vaghe disserzioni sulle piccole marachelle combinate a scuola e sui progetti per il futuro, con un occhio alla scacchiera ed uno al sole che tramontava, fagocitando una doppia razione del dolce offertoci dalla mamma di Giovi… mmm che gusto!

Sarebbe bastato questo pomeriggio fuori dall’ordinario per farmi guardare con entusiasmo ai giorni del mese entrante, poi alla sera come preventivato, ho trovato il tempo per andare a fare un salutino al Bedo, che mi ha mostrato le statistiche del suo aggregatore dei migliori blog della rete, come il 90, da paura! Abbiamo verificato che il blog del circolo è sceso da page rank 5 a page rank 4 fino a page rank 3, Marco dice che mi sono interessato troppo di politica e che il calcio non centra niente con gli scacchi… non dubito che abbia ragione, ma questo è un blog senza fine di lucro e dato che in questo mondo tutto è collegato, ciò che accade in provincia di Rimini anche se non direttamente si ripercuote come un onda sull’attività scacchistica nella Città di Cattolica. Sicché Libertè, Egalitè, Fraternitè! Si evince che la Difesa Francese sia la mia apertura preferita, al più presto dovrò scriverci un libro.
Prima di rincasare abbiamo giocato qualche partita di scacchi tramite il client per mac Jin, il nostro EGO è aumentato in misura proporzionale alle nostre vittorie, anche se dopo l’ultima partita siamo tornati con i piedi per terra.

Alzando gli occhi al cielo ho capito che è giunta l’ora, di comprare una nuova macchina digitale.

Good night and Good Luck.