What a decade it has been. When I actually stopped and considered some of the great films the past ten years has produced I was surprised. For all my griping and preferences for older movies and disappointment with some of the unsavory turns many modern films have taken, I was happy to recall that I did in fact enjoy myself at the theater this decade. Looking back, I’d say that the films that came out helped define and shape their decade (as they always do). They were the products of and reflections of their time and they helped inform the rest of us about what our world was and was becoming.

The following is my list of my personal favorite films to emerge between 2000 and 2009 (naturally it’s limited to only the films I saw and perhaps I may find more gems that I missed). *My list’s order is almost entirely arbitrary…it was just how I was feeling that day.

10. Richard Linklater is one of those fascinating filmmakers that’s not afraid to experiment. “Waking Life” (2001) is a lyrical dream of a meandering existential conversation with delirious rotoscoped animation. It latches onto your retinas and does not let go until your brain has been forced to ponder the musings of the ever-changing line-up of characters.

9. An unexpected surprise occurred when Christopher Nolan directed this small neo-noir flick and told it backwards…it turned out to be brilliant. Perhaps the film solely hinges on a gimmick, but the gimmick never gets old and they never run out of twists. Guy Pearce stars as a man with a five-minute memory who is slowly tracking down the man who murdered his wife and destroyed his world in “Memento” (2000).

8. My next pick reminded me why I needed to watch more documentaries. Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman’s exploration into the world of India’s red light district and into the lives and minds of the offspring of prostitutes is at once shattering, engaging, informative, and heartfelt. Briski goes to India to document the prostitutes but finds an even more fascinating subject in their children. She gives them all cameras and let’s us watch what develops. If at the end of “Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids” (2004) you still feel nothing, then you have no heart.

7. My next pick is on pretty much everyone’s list, but deservingly so. Andrew Stanton’s “WALL-E” (2008) from Pixar was a welcome treat for sci-fi fans, comedy fans, and even romance fans. WALL-E is so irrepressibly likable that’s it’s no wonder he captured the hearts of so many. A janitor-esque robot cleans an empty planet earth until EVE shows up and changes his life. The film absolutely elates.

6. Everyone loved “No Country For Old Men” so much (myself included) that they completely overlooked another Coen Brothers masterpiece from this decade: “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (2000). Say what you like, this was one of my favorite movies of theirs. Based on Homer’s “The Odyssey” and set in the Depression era American South this breezy comedy features three escaped convicts (George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson) on a strange adventure to find fortune. The movie also features a great bunch of Southern folk songs.

5. Very seldom do pictures, performances, and music come together so well to recreate another real time and life. Andrew Dominik’s film, “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford” (2007) got a bum rap for being a lousy cowboy action movie, which is a shame because the movie is really a very intricate and pensively paced character study. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck play their roles well and for the patient and attentive the movie will prove to be a very fascinating and rewarding experience.

4. It’s obvious French animator Sylvain Chomet’s style and sensibilities will not be for everybody, but I guess they were for me. “The Triplets of Belleville” (2003) rekindled my hope in animation. Chomet gives us the world as we’ve never seen it: an absurd and bent caricature of the world we live in. When bicyclist, Champion, is shanghaied during the Tour-de-France to America by the French mafia, only his Grandma and dog, Bruno, can save the day…as long as they get some help from a trio of aging Vaudevillian sisters.

3. My next pick is another one that showed up on a lot of best-of-the-decade lists. It’s Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund’s terrifying drama about growing up in Rio de Janeiro’s gang-run streets, “City of God” (2002). Rocket must hone his skills and passion for photography and keep his wits about him if he wants to stay alive long enough to become a success against the odds.

2. Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” (2004) may seem modest, but for 126 minutes it’s everything it needs to be. Paul Giamatti, Thomas Hayden Church, Virginia Madsen, and Sandra Oh are all compellingly real characters and we alternate from being repulsed and intrigued by them…yet we still catch ourselves rooting for them. Explorations into the rituals of male bonding, mid-life crises, and wine never have been so “quaffable but far from transcendent”…maybe not.

1. The best fairy tales not-for-kids come from the twilight hallucinations of Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro. “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006) pits young Ofelia against the evils of Fascist Spain amidst communist uprising and a wicked stepfather and also against the slime of a twisted fantasy that is woven by a mossy, old faun who insists that she is the princess. Del Toro marries monsters and magic with taut, emotional drama like no other.

Whew. I guess it was a good decade. For personal edification consider some other great movies from the aughts.

“Oldboy,” “Amores Perros,” “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “The Departed,” “Mulholland Dr.,” “Bronson,” “Let the Right One In,” “The Incredibles,” “The Saddest Music in the World,” “Spirited Away,” “In Bruges,” “The Wrestler,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Team America: World Police,” “Requiem for a Dream,” “Babel,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Ghost World,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “American Movie,” “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang,” “Crimen Ferpecto,” “Munich,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Ratatouille,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Amelie,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Up,” “King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea,” “Precious,” “The Machinist,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Gosford Park,” “Michael Clayton,” “Adaptation,” “25th Hour,” “Minority Report,” “Synecdoche, New York,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” “Kung-Fu Hustle,” and the list goes on.

Here’s something I hear a lot about: our waking lives are really just as much a dream as what we experience when we’re asleep and that neither one is really “real”.  But I also hear it’s important to be here now. 

How can I really be here now if now is not real?  I think here and now does exist because…here we are.

Maybe both our dreams and our waking lives are “real”.  And so is an afterlife.  Maybe they’re all happening.

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.

We normally ascribe a movie to the director and, to a lesser extent, writer. Not that actors don’t get any credit – acting is as important for the success of a movie as direction – but that a movie is, in some way, the director’s rather than the actors’.

The director is definitely an artist, an auteur, because he has a vision. The actor, too, is in one way an artist, because what he does to his role is as important to it as how the director visualises it. I mean, can you imagine Raging Bull or Taxi Driver without De Niro, or No Country for Old Men without Javier Bardem? But it’s still a Scorsese movie, or a Coen brothers film. Obviously, this is because it’s Scorsese or the Coens who visualised it. They made the right casting choices, they did a countless number of things right. Amidst all this, the actor comes out looking like nothing more than a pawn the director moves around to do what he wants to.

The question I’m wondering about is, is this pawn an artist? In the trivial way I’ve already explained, the answer is yes. But, art is about expression. Whether you believe it’s the expression of an individual qua individual or that of an outlet of society, it’s about expression. How is this pawn expressing himself? This pawn has little choice about what projects he can become part of, because it’s finally the player, the auteur, the director, who chooses what he does. Yes, there is some amount of self-expression involved in bringing yourself to a character, or bringing a character to yourself – as the case may be – but with most artists – directors, writers of both books and screenplays, painters, composers – we can look at the oeuvre as a whole and deduce something of what drove this person to live, to create this art.

Obviously, an important part of expressing yourself in this way requires choice. An actor may see some project close to his heart, but not be able to join it for various reasons. He may have to take up Snakes on a Plane (Samuel L. Jackson) or2012 (John Cusack) to perform his pet-puja. Of course, we can ignore these massive aberrations, but what about small aberrations? There is, for example, a man called Adam Sandler, who is certainly a certified auteur; all his roles are one and the same (let’s ignore quality). It took a great filmmaker (look at the word) called Paul Thomas Anderson to understand the point his movies were making. This is why Anderson made Punch-Drunk Love, which has famously been called a piece of film-criticism. Of course, you might argue, how do you know you get the point a director, or a writer or a painter, is making? Well, at least I can come up with something. There was, on the other hand, a sum total of one person who understood Sandler’s movies, or even came up with a theory of understanding of his movies. Till him, everyone just dismissed Adam Sandler as a buffoon out for profits. On the other hand, every roadside drunk can theorise about Woody Allen and where he is missing his point.

One thing I said was that actors don’t have choice. This is where the star system comes in handy. Here’s a clip from Waking Life which advocates a new paradigm of movie-making (I suspect that this is how I started thinking about this):

Till a couple of days ago, I thought typecasting was a bad thing. Whenever someone told me Jack Nicholson was a great actor, I’d think, “In his type of role, yes”. Now, it occurs to me that that reservation might be the very thing that makes him a great actor, an auteur in his own right, a man about whose oeuvre you can think of in much the same way as that of Elmore Leonard. Of course, it might also be something which resulted in an inhibition of self-expression because he isn’t considered for other roles, but I think a star has enough clout to be auditioned for any role he wants.

While it seems that the whole business is settled, it’s not. A De Niro night go his whole life without finding his Scorsese, while a director need make only the type of movie he feels like, using either the new generation of actors who believe in moulding themselves to suit the movie’s needs or the old-fashioned audition. I suspect that actors who are called great – De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Peter O’Toole – are the ones who found, and consistently kept finding, roles that suited them, both by means of clout and of choosing the right roles to mould for their own self-expression. Or maybe not. Maybe they were just pawns who fought remarkably well, pawns who got to the opposite end of the chess board to become queens. Then, the real question is: how much does it matter which it is, whether he was just a great pawn or someone who transcended his pawnhood to perfectly resonate with the player? The answer is: I don’t know. Yet.

Masters of the Universe aren’t as awe-inspiring as they used to be.  Until recently, with a track record burnished by net job creation and material increases in living standards, this microscopic subset of the human race was given a free pass to exact astronomical economic rents from the rest of us.  Dynastic wealth became a confirmation of greatness, rather than an obscene injustice perpetrated by a few deft players on an economic playing field tilted in their favor.  Given recent events, however, the latter interpretation is ascendant.  It seems our lordly masters have many of our same predilections and hang-ups, just with much greater access to resources–a volatile cocktail.

John Robb has a recent post on his blog Global Guerrillas, entitled “Random Thoughts on SuperEmpowered Individuals.”  It makes this point, that a complex liberal market economy in which nation-states lose their moral right to govern not only creates “fat tails” of income distribution, but also creates the possibility of ever more extreme outcomes that affect more people than ever, both positively and negatively.

More so than ever before, a small cadre of individuals can co-opt the gears of power by holding governments hostage.  More so than ever before, we as a human race are harnessing our environment to our species-selfish desires.

Here is a particularly rich passage from Richard Linklater’s 2001 movie Waking Life on this topic:

              If we’re looking at the highlights of human development,
              you have to look at the evolution of the organism...
              and then at the development of its interaction with the environment.
              Evolution of the organism will begin with the evolution of life...
              perceived through the hominid...
              coming to the evolution of mankind.
              Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon man.
              Now, interestingly, what you’re looking at here are three strings:
              biological, anthropological--
              development of the cities, cultures--
              and cultural, which is human expression.
              Now, what you’ve seen here is the evolution of populations,
              not so much the evolution of individuals.
              And in addition, if you look at the time scales that's involved here--
              two billion years for life,
              six million years for the hominid,
                      years for mankind as we know it--
              you're beginning to see the telescoping nature of the evolutionary paradigm.
              And then when you get to agricultural,
              when you get to scientific revolution and industrial revolution,
              you're looking at        years,     years,      years.
              You're seeing a further telescoping of this evolutionary time.
              What that means is that as we go through the new evolution,
              it's gonna telescope to the point we should be able to see it
              manifest itself...within our lifetime, within this generation.
              The new evolution stems from information,
              and it stems from two types of information: digital and analog.
              The digital is artificial intelligence.
              The analog results from molecular biology, the cloning of the organism.
              And you knit the two together with neurobiology.
              Before on the old evolutionary paradigm,
              one would die and the other would grow and dominate.
              But under the new paradigm, they would exist...
              as a mutually supportive, noncompetitive grouping.
              Okay, independent from the external.
              And what is interesting here is that evolution now becomes
              an individually centered process,
              emanating from the needs and the desires of the individual,
              and not an external process, a passive process...
              where the individual is just at the whim of the collective.
              So, you produce a neo-human with a new individuality and a new consciousness.
              But that's only the beginning of the evolutionary cycle...
              because as the next cycle proceeds,
              the input is now this new intelligence.
              As intelligence piles on intelligence,
              as ability piles on ability, the speed changes.
              Until what? Until you reach a crescendo in a way...
              could be imagined as an enormous instantaneous fulfillment of human,
              human and neo-human potential.
              It could be something totally different.
              It could be the amplification of the individual,
              the multiplication of individual existences.
              Parallel existences now with the individual no longer
              restricted by time and space.
              And the manifestations of this neo-human-type evolution,
              manifestations could be dramatically counter-intuitive.
              That's the interesting part. The old evolution is cold.
              It's sterile. It's efficient, okay?
              And its manifestations are those social adaptations.
              You're talking about parasitism, dominance, morality, okay?
              Uh, war, predation, these would be subject to de-emphasis.
              These would be subject to de-evolution.
              The new evolutionary paradigm will give us the human traits of truth,
              of loyalty, of justice, of freedom.
              These will be the manifestations of the new evolution.
              That is what we would hope to see from this. That would be nice.

I am writing this post as an individual who has generally prospered under a liberal market economy.  In this sense, I can’t complain too much.  People like me (decidedly un-Super, but privileged nonetheless) at this point in time have more choice and freedom than even prominent historical figures.  Although we still have to deal with cumbersome tax regimes and immigration protocols, the nation-state no longer necessarily defines who we are or where we can pursue our interests.  We strike allegiances and form communities around the world based on the merit of our ideas, not proximity.  For the first time known to me, competition for high-performance individuals at the nation-state level is actively discussed in the MSM.  As distasteful as it may be, whingeing about 50% tax rates appears to have become a national sport in affluent Great Britain.

Human choice is a necessary condition of the creative process that brings the New into the world (“New” defined as “novel”).  Whether or not you believe in free will in formal terms, the human condition and the attendant experience of freedom does spur creative action.  If this blog post wrote itself, you’d find me living like King-Size Homer.  Instead, I know writing takes effort and that effort is a choice.  Luckily, the human organism has a tremendous capacity for imposing its will to choice, in even the most difficult circumstances.  Unfortunately, capacity does not equal results, and in a sense, our current economic/societal predicament owes more to Homer Simpson than anyone would like to admit.  To this point, later in Waking Life, a philosophy professor harangues the protagonist:

              There are two kinds of sufferers in this world:
              those who suffer from a lack of life...
              and those who suffer from an overabundance of life.
              I've always found myself in the second category.
              When you come to think of it,
              almost all human behavior and activity...
              is not essentially any different from animal behavior.
              The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship...
              bring us, at best, up to the super-chimpanzee level.
              Actually, the gap between,
              say, Plato or Nietzsche and the average human...
              is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human.
              The realm of the real spirit,
              the true artist, the saint, the philosopher,
              is rarely achieved.
              Why so few?
              Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress...
              but rather this endless and futile addition of zeroes?
              No greater values have developed.
              Hell, the Greeks      years ago were just as advanced as we are.
              So what are these barriers that keep people...
              from reaching anywhere near their real potential?
              The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this:
              Which is the most universal human characteristic--
              fear or laziness?

So, what do we need?

Der Uebermensch–but only if he or she doesn’t get lazy at the top (or has enough humility and self-knowledge to step down when appropriate).  And only if they mean well by the rest of us.  Sounds like a lot of people I know, at least potentially.

As for unintended consequences, well, maybe that’s the price we pay for freedom.

So random, slightly trippy, very unusual, but really interesting. It all sounds so good on paper, but doesn’t quite work as a film; I would prefer to just read the script. There was no plot, no character development, but a lot of brilliant ideas/concepts discussed.

It’s like you come onto this planet with a crayon box. Now, you may get the 8-pack, you may get the 16-pack. But it’s all in what you do with the crayons, the colors that you’re given. Don’t worry about drawing within the lines or coloring outside the lines. I say color outside the lines. Color right off the page.

An assumption develops that you cannot understand life and live life simultaneously. I do not agree entirely. Which is to say I do not exactly disagree. I would say that life understood is life lived.

Existentialism is often discussed as if it’s a philosophy of despair. But I think the truth is just the opposite. Sartre once interviewed said he never really felt a day of despair in his life. But one thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as a real kind of exuberance of feeling on top of it. It’s like your life is yours to create.

I just recently got into this existentialism business – well, it was practically forced upon me – and I don’t know if it’s something I’d like to think about too much. Also, all that talk about dreams kind of freaked me out. I’m not sure I understand the connection between dreams and existentialism…90% of the film was kind of WTF for me to be honest. But I’m glad I watched it. Sometimes I need to take a break from all those screwball comedies and actually sit down and immerse myself into something intellectually-stimulating.

by Hydro033

I’ve been grappling with this idea that I cannot deny, but that I wish was not true. This my startle you, but I don’t believe in free will. I just don’t think it exists, I just don’t see how it can exist. Free will, to me, seems like we have the power to change chemical and physical reactions and bend their outcomes based on our “will.” It doesn’t work like that. You have reactants and products. You have forces and results. We can’t influence these things.

I think free will was a just a way for humans to explain our differences. It was a mechanism for us to separate ourselves from each other. Well, why would we separate ourselves? One reason is to gain favor. In fact, it’s the primary reason. Separate the sinners from the non-sinners if you will to gain favor in the eyes of God. It may have evolved directly from the fear of God which influenced people’s behaviors. I don’t want to delve to deep into this little origin story, but I hope you get the picture. People will just use “free will” for the reason of evil, because they don’t want to think God created evil. People also want to blame people. People don’t want to give sinners excuses. They don’t want to be like sinners and they think they aren’t because they chose not to be because they’re “good.” In a theological sense, free will works. It is a great way to facilitate the struggle with good and evil in this world, but I will leave that origin hypothesis for another post.

I have a few fundamental hypotheses on life that will facilitate this post: 1) We only do things for ourselves. 2) We are motivated solely by fear. 3) We don’t have free will (choice). 4) We are only different because we have variable environmental influences. 5) Fate exists.

I believe that since the start of the universe, all the particles of the universe were set into motion and obey physical and chemical laws until the end of the universe. How can anyone deny this? Free will does contradict my previous statement though. If these particles (ie atoms and molecules) are just interacting like they would because of physics and chemistry (ie positive/negative charges, Newtonian mechanics, quantum mechanics), then we can in no way influence them. We are those particles so how can we influence those particles if we ourselves are the results of those particles just interacting? It is just absurd to think that. Chemical and physical reactions can’t be chosen – they just occur spontaneously. If this is true, then we cannot have free will.

So, if we cannot influence these particles, then they are just going to keep interacting in an ordered way. For example, particle 1 will hit particle 2 and then hit particle 3. This could have been predicted if we knew the positions, forces, and charges of the particles. This leads one to believe that the universe is on a strictly linear path. If the universe is on a linear path, then we should be able to predict the future though right? Well, theoretical, yes. Is it possible? Well… not by us. The universe is far and away too complex to predict the future. Each atom is a variable, so forget about it. But technically, it can only have one set path because all of the interactions are predictable (theoretically). We can’t predict them because there are just too many variables. It’s like trying to predict what type a person a newborn will be when he grows up. We can’t because we do not know the environmental influences he will experience. His parents could die, he could be orphaned, he can lose a limb, he can knock a girl up, he could have an accident that leads him to Jesus. We would not be able to see of those incoming environmental variables. The chaos theory would come into play here, but I will not touch on this subject although it almost seems necessary.

Since we cannot influence particles, and those particles are on a predetermined pathways, fate exists. The future is unchangeable. Destiny is inevitable. You can call me a determinist or a fatalist. I’m going to quote Wikipedia because it has some damn good stuff. “Determinism is a belief every event is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences.” This is what I said before in what I believe to have begun when the universe was created.Fatalism is a little different because it believes that there is one chain and only one chain of prior occurrences. “[I]n determinism, if the past were different, the present and future would also differ. For fatalists, such a question is negligible, since no past could have happened other than the one that has happened.” It is a really fucking sad way to view life, but it is the only thing that makes sense to me.

One last quip: God is the laws of physics. This is how I sometimes look at it. They seem to be the only thing that just are and always will be. Those laws of physics are the reason why we even exists, so in a sense, he still created us. This is still taking a “God of the gaps” approach, where God is just used to fill in the gaps of scientific knowledge. Maybe someday the laws of physics could be completely explained and God will be dismissed entirely by me or even the rest of the world. So, for the time being, I bid you adieu.

I was looking for a philosopher that had the same idea as me (sigh, there is no originality left in the world) and I stumbled across this video. David Sosa is an American philosopher that addresses my (is it mine?) hypothesis. This video (which is an excerpt from the film Waking Life) nails my idea, so take it for what it’s worth because he explains it much better than me.

”Συγννώμη.

Ει, μπορούμε να το ξανακάνουμε αυτό; Ξέρω ότι δεν έχουμε γνωριστεί, αλλά να, δε θέλω να λειτουργώ σα μυρμήγκι. Καταλαβαίνεις;

Εννοώ ότι ζούμε τη ζωή μας με τεντωμένες κεραίες, να πέφτουμε ο ένας πάνω στον άλλο συνεχώς σε αυτόματο πιλότο, σαν να μη χρειάζεται τίποτα πραγματικά ανθρώπινο από εμάς:

Σταμάτα, Πήγαινε, Προχώρησε εδώ, Οδήγησε εκεί…

Κάθε μας δράση γίνεται βασικά για την επιβίωση, κάθε μας επικοινωνία μόνο για να διατηρήσει αυτή την αποικία μυρμηγκιών ζωντανή, ικανή να συνεχίσει να λειτουργεί με αποτελεσματικό και ευγενικό τρόπο.

“Ορίστε τα ρέστα σας”

“Χαρτί ή πλαστικό;”

“Πιστωτική ή χρεωστική;”

“Θέλετε κέτσαπ ή μαγιονέζα;”

Αυτό που χρειάζομαι δεν είναι κέτσαπ. Έχω ανάγκη από αληθινές ανθρώπινες στιγμές.

Θέλω να σε δώ. Θέλω να με δεις.

Δε θέλω να το εγκαταλείψω αυτό.

Δε θέλω να γίνω σα μυρμήγκι.

Καταλαβαίνεις;”

Dream Life
Σενάριο/Σκηνοθεσία: Richard Linklater

Απόδοση στα ελληνικά/εικόνα: Lelon

I’ve been using this little book, which attempts to render the history of philosophy at a break-neck pace (128 pages… and it flies even faster in the Kindle edition), as a centerpiece in my Intro courses for many years. This semester I’ve saved it for last, hoping to provide a bit more historical perspective than the same authors’ topically-arranged Big Questions achieved. I’ll be going back to the old approach next time. (I know where to find a much cheaper version of at least one “big question.”)

The  brooding thinker doesn’t really represent my idea of philosophy anyway. A little sitting-and-thinking is fine, but I prefer the perambulating, peripatetic spirit of motion and activity. The best ideas come while walking, said Nietzsche (who showed, in spite of himself, that the worst ones do, too).

Philosophy is something you do, not something you just ponder. I did enjoy the art history lessons.

I’m a big fan of the late Robert Solomon (his widow Kathleen Higgins, still at the University of Texas in Austin, published the latest edition of Big Questions just after his untimely death in a Swiss airport a couple of holiday seasons ago). He also wrote Spirituality for the Skeptic, which we’ll be reading in the “Atheism & Spirituality” course next semester. In that book, love of living is the simple essence of spirit– made poignant by our knowledge of the author’s own foreshortened fate, which he would remind us is inevitably our own. We must not take a moment of life for granted.

Solomon: “Whether or not there is a God to be thanked seems not the issue to me. It is the  importance and the significance of being thankful, to whomever or whatever, for life itself.” Thank who? Thank God, thank goodness, or thank pitchforks and pointed ears. But give thanks. Gratitude is a renewable resource, and then some. It’ll leave you feeling gratified.

He was a critic of overly-narrow, technical philosophy that, with “mind-numbing thinness,” fails to speak to ordinary human concerns. He was the sort of academic philosopher you might look for, if you were inclined to look for one,  in a popular film like Waking Life:

Premessa: per me, Mario Adinolfi è uno stronzo viziato. Su Red Tv intervista Sergio d’Elia, dirigente di Prima Linea (per quanto scritta in un inglese maccheronico, linko la pagina della wiki inglese perché contiene informazioni più complete rispetto a quella italiana), protagonista degli anni di piombo, dodici anni di pena scontati (credo otto di carcere, ma non trovo informazioni dettagliate).

Ecco.

Guardatelo tutto. D’Elia dice cose profonde, comprese a sue spese. C’è la saggezza di Todorov mediata da Foucault, in quel suo “vittime e carnefici“; fa polpette di Totem e tabù; cerca, allarmato, di spiegare la storia e come si scrive la storia; agisce da protagonista, sa che è chiamato ad espiare tutte le volte, e pubblicamente, anche dopo che per il potere e la giustizia ha già espiato – tanto che si è ricavato uno spazio nel potere -, eppure ostenta un senso critico degli avvenimenti che è forse quanto di più vicino a me abbia mai ascoltato da parte di chi, in teoria, dovrebbe essere prevedibilmente parziale.

Perché ve lo propongo? La ragione è semplice: tutti i film che hanno parlato degli anni di piombo, ivi incluso quel capolavoro di Buongiorno, notte, anche quando problematizzavano i personaggi scarnificando l’ideologia e lasciando trapelare l’individualità, i sentimenti, le eterodossie, i dubbi e i ripensamenti, hanno costantemente commesso un errore esiziale: hanno ambientato i loro soggetti durante gli anni di piombo.

Forse non è ancora tempo, o non verrà mai il tempo, perché un soggetto filmico possa ricavarsi la potenza diegetica ed espressiva necessaria ad esprimere posizioni tanto complesse. Forse, oggi come ieri come sempre, manca uno spazio di ricezione ideologica; e forse la ricerca di una storia che sia narrabile rende di per se stesso impossibile far percepire le naturali, promiscue, quasi intime rivolte etiche, morali, politiche, pubbliche e personali, dell’uomo. Forse, appunto, per capire possiamo soltanto fissarci ad un dibattito tra una persona piuttosto odiosa ed un’altra che protesta, si rivolta, capisce; ma commette a sua volta errori, come la totale negazione della “verità di regime”; errori che fanno capolino dalle pieghe del volto.

Finché qualcuno non mi smentirà con un film, un libro, un racconto orale, questo di Red tv resta un documento sui limiti della storia, del nostro narrare, e del cinema.

(trovato qui)