Just re-watched Children of Men since first seeing it in the theatre. The film remains as powerful as it was all those years ago. A veritable clinic in verite filmmaking.
Joseph - 10 years ago
Moonrise Kingdom. Never been a crazy Wes Anderson fan, and up to this film, have always had a hard time getting into his films, but this one works perfectly. It's highly stylized like other Anderson movies, but the depth of feeling conveyed here surpasses that of the others.
RuffReader - 10 years ago
CERTIFIED COPY, but damn this is hard.
Kris - 10 years ago
Ignoring the distinction between 'favourite' and 'best', I 'othered' Where The Wild Things Are. I realise there have probably been better films in terms of cinematic achievement, or whatever, and the films on the list all tick the boxes for the grand themes - ambition, religion, fate, good, evil, yap yap yap - but for me Where The Wild Things Are is equally (if not more) profound, albeit in a different way, without being so Goddamned po-faced.
I didn't care for Her, though.
Totoro - 10 years ago
Sure, The Tree of Life is transcendent, There Will Be Blood is provocative, No Country for Old Men is thrilling, and The Master is haunting... but why not have all four while being ridiculously funny? My choice for the best film of the filmspotting era is A Serious Man, a film that perfectly blurs the line of tragedy and comedy while subtly building its own big themes in the most unassuming way possible. There is nothing epic in this film, yet the questions and observations it posits about the world, cultural identity, and the validity of religion have lasted with me since my initial viewing. The fact that it does all of this while providing the signature never-been-better Coen brothers dialogue and humor is no small task. To those that don't understand the love for this movie, I say only this, "Accept the mystery."
white house down. no question. who DOESN'T want to see the president with a rocket launcher on the white house lawn!?!? ;)
Bretton (from Newton, Mass.) - 10 years ago
Three of your four titles are masterpieces. ("The Master" doesn't even belong in the conversation.) I'd go in this order: Tree, Blood, then No Country. But I'm going outside the box and choosing "Once." The three others all have a permanent place in my film viewing soul, but it's a decision to sit down with each of them. I'll never not feel like diving into "Once." Perhaps it's that it was one of the first films I saw with the woman who became my wife. Perhaps it's that it's one of the few of my favorites of the last decade that isn't a, as Michael Phillips would say, "tough sit." It doesn't really matter why, though. Sometimes you end up in the theater watching exactly the right film at exactly the right time in your life.
Having just watched LIFE ITSELF, I feel it's only fitting to be voting for my favorite film of the Filmspotting era, THE TREE OF LIFE. I hadn't even heard of Terrence Mallick until becoming a FS listener with episode #303 from May, 2010 in which Adam and Matty discussed Nicole Holofcener's PLEASE GIVE. After that the name Mallick was dropped so many times I finally sat down and watched Badlands. I had a religious experience I couldn't quite explain. Then about a year later, I heard that this reclusive film maker I couldn't believe I'd never heard of before filmspotting had a new movie coming out. I rushed to the theater with my fellow movie-loving friend Zoe to the TREE OF LIFE, and we were both blown away. I was so enraptured by this movie that I asked the elderly 'gentleman' across the aisle to please be quiet after he continuously expressed his befuddlement at this strange and wonderful dream of a movie. "I have no idea what's going on here..", he kept sighing until finally, and with righteous indignation, I quietly said: "excuse me, you're not in you're living room, some of us are enjoying this, would you please be quiet." He and his wife got up and left. While I'm not in the habit of shushing or asking people to be quiet, I felt like I was having a once in a lifetime experience that I wasn't about to allow someone else take from me. After this, I got looks of disbelief as I began to tell people that TREE was the greatest movie I'd ever seen in a theater. I got back lash on my Facebook page about how friends of mine had walked out and thought it was the worst thing they'd ever seen. Hearing about Roger's championing of under appreciated films always brings this experience to mind, and when Adam, Matty, and the rest of Filmspotting nation and I voted Mallick's masterpiece as the best film of 2011 so far I felt reassured that I wasn't crazy, I was just lucky to get to appreciate such an amazing movie. It's remained one of my top 5 films of all time, so it had to get my vote in this poll. Thanks for doing what you do, guys. Keep it up.
I still have to catch up with No Country for Old Men and The Tree of Life, so my vote should probably be discarded on that basis alone (if not because of my choice itself). I ultimately settled on Gravity. It came down to 3 (3 of just 6 films I've actually purchased on DVD/Blu-ray in the past 10 years): Winter's Bone, Synechdoche, NY, and Gravity. (The other 3 were Kill List, Martyrs, and The Proposition.)
I never expected to even like Gravity, much less LOVE it. Cuarón put me in space with those characters. And Sandra Bullock's journey to make it back to earth became a metaphor for my existential search for some kind of "solid ground" to base my understanding of why I'm here and what life means. I know, who would have thought, right? I'm just as surprised by my reaction as anyone. Suffice it to say that Gravity is more than a movie to me. It's probably the closest thing to religion that this soulless heathen can experience!
DavidW - 10 years ago
I don't know how anyone can derive a meaningful top 5 from so many great films. The 4 options given are all great films, but where are the comedies? Surely, some of those were great films.
I think a better topic would be which films of the filmspotting era did I watch because of filmspotting and am so grateful for the experience.
I humbly submit 7 films from my top 20 or so (including 3 comedies!):
Safety Not Guaranteed
Son of Rambo
Synecdoche, New York
The Lives of Others
Take Shelter
In Bruges
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
david - 10 years ago
Synecdoche, NY
dbsweeney - 10 years ago
So many to choose from ... including so many already mentioned:
In Bruges
Zodiac
The Social Network
the family sections of The Tree of Life
Others include:
Four Lions
Moonrise Kingdom
A Prophet
Two Lovers
White Material
Damsels in Distress
The Squid and the Whale
Tabu
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Wolf of Wall Street
Inside Llewyn Davis
Drive
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
But most of all is:
The Deep Blue Sea
and even more so:
35 Shots of Rum
Film making that doesn't call attention to itself and is so delicate but speaks great truths about life and family (think the best of Ozu). It may have healing properties.
The greatest scene of any film comes from the same film: the bar scene with the interaction between the father, his daughter and her husband to be.
Lane - 10 years ago
I chose the 'other' option, and voted Synecdoche, New York.
Congratulations, however, on not including in the options any of those silly films about the man who dresses up like a bat to fight crime. It may sound slightly absurd coming from someone who considers Synecdoche, New York the best film of the last ten years, but the Nolan Batman films, and particularly the last two, are two of the most overwrought, overrated, overacted, pompous and pretentious films in cinema history.
So many great films have come out since Adam & Sam began this journey through the airwaves. I have to go with the one that showed me just how versatile and inspirational cinema can still be. Abbas Kiarostami's 'Certified Copy' continues to engage me with each rewatch. It's a great showcase of love and how it can endure and grow, and sometimes fade away in our lives. Oh, and it's gorgeous to boot. It helped introduce me to Iranian cinema, which continues to fascinate and entertain.
Thanks for 500 great shows guys, here's to a lifetime of more.
Erin Teachman (Washington, DC) - 10 years ago
This kind of "There can be only one" poll is an almost torturous exercise, since the distance between my #20 film and my #1 film is statistically meaningless and changes with the wind, the amount of coffee I've had, and who knows what else, but enough caveats. I voted for Winter's Bone, a movie that introduced me to Jennifer Lawrence and that reminded of the terrifying, brooding, brilliance that John Hawkes is capable of. I'm a sucker for noir and for films of few words (Let the Right One In is also a top 5 pick for me) and this film is both to the hilt.
The other films in this poll are towering works, no doubt, I just had to take the opportunity to talk up one of the few movies on my list that didn't get mentioned during the show. I think the ultimate conclusion from this poll is that we are all winners, because the Filmspotting era has been an extremely good one for cinema. Congrats on #500 and thanks for listening.
Steve Moore - 10 years ago
There are many films - A Separation, Boyhood, Koreeda's amazing Afterlife (does that fit in the timescale?) that have stunned and impressed but THE LIVES OF OTHERS manages to tell a story - an unexpected story at the same time as being a great film.
I love all of the four films you cite - but none of them, especially The Master, tell a story nearly as well.
Michael R - 10 years ago
I'm going with The Dark Knight, which took a B-genre property and elevated it to high art. It's also remarkably misunderstood. I constantly have to explain to people that Batman loses at the end and The Joker wins.
M.C. - 10 years ago
I voted for "The Lake House".
Mike Robbins - 10 years ago
I found that the "I have a competition in me" scene from There Will Be Blood foreshadowed the last 30min of the film. From the 500 podcast, there was some discussion and questions about the ending. This scene answers those for me.
Chris Bentley-Smith - 10 years ago
I was wavering between There Will be Blood and The Tree of Life, the latter of which I really do need to see a second time, both are undoubtedly great films. But I had to go with 12 Years a Slave. Steve McQueen's film would have knocked off me off my feet had I been standing up. The filmmaking is masterful, the performances impeccable, the story so immensely powerful; it had to be my number one. How this film didn't merit a mention in the show I'm not quite sure...
Tiago Mexia - 10 years ago
While I always enjoyed hanging in that imaginary World of surreal, elaborate film constructions that is most of today's cinema, no fictional web is richer or more compelling than the raw brutality of real Wold emotions in a well crafted Human story: A Separation
Jared Skarsten - 10 years ago
My go-to favorite film of all time, 2006's Children of Men deserves to be in contention. Maybe not as epic as some of the other films on the list, this film (to me) had no flaws, and had some truly incredible long-takes that are among the best in history. It serves as what science fiction should serve as, an allegory for real world issues.
Fonzi Arana - 10 years ago
My personal favorite throughout this era has been Pan's Labyrinth. Everything Guillermo del Toro did in that movie was nothing short of spectacular. Every shot was so meticulous. Every symbol was so well-thought out. This is Guillermo at his finest, and that's saying a lot.
But... with that said, that is not my choice. Upon looking back at the films from this era, it was clear that Chris Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' is the clear winner. Not only did he create a film that reached almost every person at some level, he also redefined what it was to be a "comic book" movie. Just as Frank Miller redefined Batman in his legendary comic "The Dark Knight Returns," Chris Nolan showed us that the caped crusader is not just for the action buffs. Not only is it still one of the best comic book films I have ever seen (along with a legendary performance by Heath Ledger), it is also one of the best depictions of mad men trying to deal morality in an immoral world.
Just my two cents, but man did he hit it out of the park.
peter - 10 years ago
Couldn't fit more than a few cigarette papers between them, but Tree of Life ahead of TWBB
Because, like Andrew Stanton said, it changed what cinema could do in my eyes. And I thought I was past being surprised.
Lucy - 10 years ago
All great and unique films, but gut instinct - No country! Such well crafted story telling, without cliches, full of tension, loveable characters and many surprises as well as one of the best villains in any film ever! 2007 producing 2 of the greatest films..
alex - 10 years ago
Glad to see Children of Men getting some love in the comments. I voted for No Country for Old Men, but it was a toss-up between these two films. Children of Men feels a little rougher around the edges -- Cuaron definitely pulls off those long takes, but just barely. Those flourishes, combined with the more allegorical story, make for a really entertaining movie. If not more ambitious, definitely pushing the boundaries. No Country is a masterpiece, adopted from solid source material by filmmakers in total control of their craft. The result is polished, expertly paced and looks fantastic throughout. It also features one of the top bad guy performances of any era.
Rick - 10 years ago
I am so sad that There Will Be Blood is winning, especially over No Country. It makes me wish P.T. Anderson had never started making movies. Blech.
Brian Finch - 10 years ago
Okay question with an easy answer, There Will Be Blood is the best film. However, I would be more interested in what is the most Filmspotty movie over the same time period. Meaning, which film best exemplifies Filmspotting, and not necessarily the best film. The work of some notable filmspotting favorite directors would be a nice place to begin, such as Kelly Reichardt, Duncan Jones, Michael Haneke, Giorgos Lanthimos , or even Robert Bresson. All cinephiles know of Paul Thomas Anderson, which they surely should know, he is wonderful, but every filmsotting faithful knows Rian Johnson (and soon the entire world will know that name). What film best captures the culture of the cult following that is Filmspotting. "A force for good in the universe."
Keil S. - 10 years ago
I'd say it's clear who the favorite director of the Filmspotting era would be, should you put it to a vote. Paul Thomas Anderson practically assumed the position of my favorite filmmaker when I first saw Boogie Nights in late 1997, and he's done nothing but solidify said position since then. His movies will automatically be my most anticipated film of any given year, which is the only reason Boyhood fell to #2 on my Must-See list for 2014. The guy's truly a master, no pun intended.
Keil S. - 10 years ago
Funny that 3 of these were my "Best Film of the Year" for their respective years (TWBB, Tree of Life, and The Master). A very hard decision, but I went with TWBB. However, I think Zodiac is up there with your other 2 masterpieces of 2007. Hell, that year also produced greats like Assassination of Jesse James and Ratatouille, among countless others, but you gotta draw the line somewhere.
I voted "other" and chose "The White Ribbon". It's a really fascinating movie - Haneke manages to tell a story about violence showing almost no violence on screen. Very gripping, thought-provoking and with beautiful cinematography. But it was a tough choice with so many great movies being released in this period. Honorable mentions for me are "Brokeback Mountain", "The Dark Knight", "Children of Men" and the dark comedy from Denmark "Adam's Apples".
Nathan Marone - 10 years ago
Other. David Fincher's Zodiac is not only a flawless movie, but it is the zeitgeist movie for the Filmspotting era. No other film so perfectly caught the post-9/11 sense that what we want to know, what we think we know, and what we actually do know are so far apart from each other that we have to let go of our concepts of knowledge completely. What we are left with is a mix between total fear and time-induced indifference.
No Country for Old Men goes along quite well with the above reading of Zodiac, so I'd be happy choosing that one as well. Asheville, NC
Vicki from TN - 10 years ago
My two cents is worth less than that since I have yet to see either The Master or The Tree of Life. I would have to cast a vote for Pan's Labyrinth with its grief and terror and wonder. Others that echo in my mind well after the end credits include Winter's Bone and (obligatory Josh nod to animation) The Incredibles.
david from sweden - 10 years ago
There WIll be Blood easily. I don't even have to think twice about it. I feel like i should exclude it, because it is too obvious to me as it also being my favourite film of all time. Other films I would consider are Un prophète, Copie conforme, Shotgun Stories or Under the Skin. Would probably choose Un prohète.
I don't want to be that guy, but I'm going to be that guy and say THE DARK KNIGHT. It's the Filmspotting era's version of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: big-budget commercial filmmaking that manages a perfect storm of entertainment, complexity, and bravura filmmaking. Six years out, it's still the modern standard of an action film.
Randy - 10 years ago
All great films but I had to go with Other and specifically "Into the Wild".
Erik S - 10 years ago
I'm with Kevin on this one. I've never experienced anything like The Master. It remains fresh with every viewing. No Country, There Will Be Blood, and Tree of Life are ridiculously good as well, but my love for The Master is too strong. It's an easy choice.
I would also second Children of Men and Social Network as strong choices. Give it a few years and maybe 12 Years a Slave will be in the conversation too.
I'm not ashamed to throw down my love for The Master here. There have been a lot of great films since 2005 (despite what "the end is nigh" opponents of modern film might say)... Zodiac, The Social Network, Frost/Nixon, Looper, Children of Men, In Bruges, and even The LEGO Movie. All of these and more deserve lengthy essays and discussions on their behalf. But, for me, there is no film of this period I return to in my mind more than The Master.
Even up against powerhouses like No Country and There Will Be Blood, The Master stands tall. For me, there is no scene from either of those films that has stuck with me quite like The Master's first procession scene, an arresting piece of filmmaking that is just two men talking. And there are more than a dozen others from Paul Thomas Anderson's divisive masterpiece that return to my mind in the dark, quiet times at night when there is nothing to do but let the mind wander. For that, The Master deserves the utmost possible praise.
I briefly lamented having to choose between The Tree of Life and The Master, neck-and-neck for being my favorite film of the past five years, when I remembered, "Oh, yeah, There Will Be Blood exists." Maybe in another few years time either of those two might surpass Blood in my estimation, but for now it stands as the crowning achievement in Paul Thomas Anderson's career. It's a story of one man's alienation and loss of any connection to humanity by his own hand, a film where the little we know about our fearsome protagonist serves just how much he holds even those closest to him on the outside looking in. That narrative of the simultaneous rise and fall of Daniel Plainview is told on a grand scale as a way to mirror the rise of modern America as well as its shift into being a harder, more brutal capitalistic system. It has several similarities to Citizen Kane, but it's also at once a tragedy, a western, an epic and a horror movie, mixing in the jaded but not heartless view of John Huston with the formal perfection and jarring, arrythmic feel of late-period Stanley Kubrick. And all of this goes without mentioning that towering performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, which is somehow both wildly expressive and feral and totally grounded at the same time.
Just re-watched Children of Men since first seeing it in the theatre. The film remains as powerful as it was all those years ago. A veritable clinic in verite filmmaking.
Moonrise Kingdom. Never been a crazy Wes Anderson fan, and up to this film, have always had a hard time getting into his films, but this one works perfectly. It's highly stylized like other Anderson movies, but the depth of feeling conveyed here surpasses that of the others.
CERTIFIED COPY, but damn this is hard.
Ignoring the distinction between 'favourite' and 'best', I 'othered' Where The Wild Things Are. I realise there have probably been better films in terms of cinematic achievement, or whatever, and the films on the list all tick the boxes for the grand themes - ambition, religion, fate, good, evil, yap yap yap - but for me Where The Wild Things Are is equally (if not more) profound, albeit in a different way, without being so Goddamned po-faced.
I didn't care for Her, though.
Sure, The Tree of Life is transcendent, There Will Be Blood is provocative, No Country for Old Men is thrilling, and The Master is haunting... but why not have all four while being ridiculously funny? My choice for the best film of the filmspotting era is A Serious Man, a film that perfectly blurs the line of tragedy and comedy while subtly building its own big themes in the most unassuming way possible. There is nothing epic in this film, yet the questions and observations it posits about the world, cultural identity, and the validity of religion have lasted with me since my initial viewing. The fact that it does all of this while providing the signature never-been-better Coen brothers dialogue and humor is no small task. To those that don't understand the love for this movie, I say only this, "Accept the mystery."
white house down. no question. who DOESN'T want to see the president with a rocket launcher on the white house lawn!?!? ;)
Three of your four titles are masterpieces. ("The Master" doesn't even belong in the conversation.) I'd go in this order: Tree, Blood, then No Country. But I'm going outside the box and choosing "Once." The three others all have a permanent place in my film viewing soul, but it's a decision to sit down with each of them. I'll never not feel like diving into "Once." Perhaps it's that it was one of the first films I saw with the woman who became my wife. Perhaps it's that it's one of the few of my favorites of the last decade that isn't a, as Michael Phillips would say, "tough sit." It doesn't really matter why, though. Sometimes you end up in the theater watching exactly the right film at exactly the right time in your life.
Having just watched LIFE ITSELF, I feel it's only fitting to be voting for my favorite film of the Filmspotting era, THE TREE OF LIFE. I hadn't even heard of Terrence Mallick until becoming a FS listener with episode #303 from May, 2010 in which Adam and Matty discussed Nicole Holofcener's PLEASE GIVE. After that the name Mallick was dropped so many times I finally sat down and watched Badlands. I had a religious experience I couldn't quite explain. Then about a year later, I heard that this reclusive film maker I couldn't believe I'd never heard of before filmspotting had a new movie coming out. I rushed to the theater with my fellow movie-loving friend Zoe to the TREE OF LIFE, and we were both blown away. I was so enraptured by this movie that I asked the elderly 'gentleman' across the aisle to please be quiet after he continuously expressed his befuddlement at this strange and wonderful dream of a movie. "I have no idea what's going on here..", he kept sighing until finally, and with righteous indignation, I quietly said: "excuse me, you're not in you're living room, some of us are enjoying this, would you please be quiet." He and his wife got up and left. While I'm not in the habit of shushing or asking people to be quiet, I felt like I was having a once in a lifetime experience that I wasn't about to allow someone else take from me. After this, I got looks of disbelief as I began to tell people that TREE was the greatest movie I'd ever seen in a theater. I got back lash on my Facebook page about how friends of mine had walked out and thought it was the worst thing they'd ever seen. Hearing about Roger's championing of under appreciated films always brings this experience to mind, and when Adam, Matty, and the rest of Filmspotting nation and I voted Mallick's masterpiece as the best film of 2011 so far I felt reassured that I wasn't crazy, I was just lucky to get to appreciate such an amazing movie. It's remained one of my top 5 films of all time, so it had to get my vote in this poll. Thanks for doing what you do, guys. Keep it up.
I still have to catch up with No Country for Old Men and The Tree of Life, so my vote should probably be discarded on that basis alone (if not because of my choice itself). I ultimately settled on Gravity. It came down to 3 (3 of just 6 films I've actually purchased on DVD/Blu-ray in the past 10 years): Winter's Bone, Synechdoche, NY, and Gravity. (The other 3 were Kill List, Martyrs, and The Proposition.)
I never expected to even like Gravity, much less LOVE it. Cuarón put me in space with those characters. And Sandra Bullock's journey to make it back to earth became a metaphor for my existential search for some kind of "solid ground" to base my understanding of why I'm here and what life means. I know, who would have thought, right? I'm just as surprised by my reaction as anyone. Suffice it to say that Gravity is more than a movie to me. It's probably the closest thing to religion that this soulless heathen can experience!
I don't know how anyone can derive a meaningful top 5 from so many great films. The 4 options given are all great films, but where are the comedies? Surely, some of those were great films.
I think a better topic would be which films of the filmspotting era did I watch because of filmspotting and am so grateful for the experience.
I humbly submit 7 films from my top 20 or so (including 3 comedies!):
Safety Not Guaranteed
Son of Rambo
Synecdoche, New York
The Lives of Others
Take Shelter
In Bruges
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
Synecdoche, NY
So many to choose from ... including so many already mentioned:
In Bruges
Zodiac
The Social Network
the family sections of The Tree of Life
Others include:
Four Lions
Moonrise Kingdom
A Prophet
Two Lovers
White Material
Damsels in Distress
The Squid and the Whale
Tabu
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Wolf of Wall Street
Inside Llewyn Davis
Drive
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
But most of all is:
The Deep Blue Sea
and even more so:
35 Shots of Rum
Film making that doesn't call attention to itself and is so delicate but speaks great truths about life and family (think the best of Ozu). It may have healing properties.
The greatest scene of any film comes from the same film: the bar scene with the interaction between the father, his daughter and her husband to be.
I chose the 'other' option, and voted Synecdoche, New York.
Congratulations, however, on not including in the options any of those silly films about the man who dresses up like a bat to fight crime. It may sound slightly absurd coming from someone who considers Synecdoche, New York the best film of the last ten years, but the Nolan Batman films, and particularly the last two, are two of the most overwrought, overrated, overacted, pompous and pretentious films in cinema history.
Well done.
So many great films have come out since Adam & Sam began this journey through the airwaves. I have to go with the one that showed me just how versatile and inspirational cinema can still be. Abbas Kiarostami's 'Certified Copy' continues to engage me with each rewatch. It's a great showcase of love and how it can endure and grow, and sometimes fade away in our lives. Oh, and it's gorgeous to boot. It helped introduce me to Iranian cinema, which continues to fascinate and entertain.
Thanks for 500 great shows guys, here's to a lifetime of more.
This kind of "There can be only one" poll is an almost torturous exercise, since the distance between my #20 film and my #1 film is statistically meaningless and changes with the wind, the amount of coffee I've had, and who knows what else, but enough caveats. I voted for Winter's Bone, a movie that introduced me to Jennifer Lawrence and that reminded of the terrifying, brooding, brilliance that John Hawkes is capable of. I'm a sucker for noir and for films of few words (Let the Right One In is also a top 5 pick for me) and this film is both to the hilt.
The other films in this poll are towering works, no doubt, I just had to take the opportunity to talk up one of the few movies on my list that didn't get mentioned during the show. I think the ultimate conclusion from this poll is that we are all winners, because the Filmspotting era has been an extremely good one for cinema. Congrats on #500 and thanks for listening.
There are many films - A Separation, Boyhood, Koreeda's amazing Afterlife (does that fit in the timescale?) that have stunned and impressed but THE LIVES OF OTHERS manages to tell a story - an unexpected story at the same time as being a great film.
I love all of the four films you cite - but none of them, especially The Master, tell a story nearly as well.
I'm going with The Dark Knight, which took a B-genre property and elevated it to high art. It's also remarkably misunderstood. I constantly have to explain to people that Batman loses at the end and The Joker wins.
I voted for "The Lake House".
I found that the "I have a competition in me" scene from There Will Be Blood foreshadowed the last 30min of the film. From the 500 podcast, there was some discussion and questions about the ending. This scene answers those for me.
I was wavering between There Will be Blood and The Tree of Life, the latter of which I really do need to see a second time, both are undoubtedly great films. But I had to go with 12 Years a Slave. Steve McQueen's film would have knocked off me off my feet had I been standing up. The filmmaking is masterful, the performances impeccable, the story so immensely powerful; it had to be my number one. How this film didn't merit a mention in the show I'm not quite sure...
While I always enjoyed hanging in that imaginary World of surreal, elaborate film constructions that is most of today's cinema, no fictional web is richer or more compelling than the raw brutality of real Wold emotions in a well crafted Human story: A Separation
My go-to favorite film of all time, 2006's Children of Men deserves to be in contention. Maybe not as epic as some of the other films on the list, this film (to me) had no flaws, and had some truly incredible long-takes that are among the best in history. It serves as what science fiction should serve as, an allegory for real world issues.
My personal favorite throughout this era has been Pan's Labyrinth. Everything Guillermo del Toro did in that movie was nothing short of spectacular. Every shot was so meticulous. Every symbol was so well-thought out. This is Guillermo at his finest, and that's saying a lot.
But... with that said, that is not my choice. Upon looking back at the films from this era, it was clear that Chris Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' is the clear winner. Not only did he create a film that reached almost every person at some level, he also redefined what it was to be a "comic book" movie. Just as Frank Miller redefined Batman in his legendary comic "The Dark Knight Returns," Chris Nolan showed us that the caped crusader is not just for the action buffs. Not only is it still one of the best comic book films I have ever seen (along with a legendary performance by Heath Ledger), it is also one of the best depictions of mad men trying to deal morality in an immoral world.
Just my two cents, but man did he hit it out of the park.
Couldn't fit more than a few cigarette papers between them, but Tree of Life ahead of TWBB
Because, like Andrew Stanton said, it changed what cinema could do in my eyes. And I thought I was past being surprised.
All great and unique films, but gut instinct - No country! Such well crafted story telling, without cliches, full of tension, loveable characters and many surprises as well as one of the best villains in any film ever! 2007 producing 2 of the greatest films..
Glad to see Children of Men getting some love in the comments. I voted for No Country for Old Men, but it was a toss-up between these two films. Children of Men feels a little rougher around the edges -- Cuaron definitely pulls off those long takes, but just barely. Those flourishes, combined with the more allegorical story, make for a really entertaining movie. If not more ambitious, definitely pushing the boundaries. No Country is a masterpiece, adopted from solid source material by filmmakers in total control of their craft. The result is polished, expertly paced and looks fantastic throughout. It also features one of the top bad guy performances of any era.
I am so sad that There Will Be Blood is winning, especially over No Country. It makes me wish P.T. Anderson had never started making movies. Blech.
Okay question with an easy answer, There Will Be Blood is the best film. However, I would be more interested in what is the most Filmspotty movie over the same time period. Meaning, which film best exemplifies Filmspotting, and not necessarily the best film. The work of some notable filmspotting favorite directors would be a nice place to begin, such as Kelly Reichardt, Duncan Jones, Michael Haneke, Giorgos Lanthimos , or even Robert Bresson. All cinephiles know of Paul Thomas Anderson, which they surely should know, he is wonderful, but every filmsotting faithful knows Rian Johnson (and soon the entire world will know that name). What film best captures the culture of the cult following that is Filmspotting. "A force for good in the universe."
I'd say it's clear who the favorite director of the Filmspotting era would be, should you put it to a vote. Paul Thomas Anderson practically assumed the position of my favorite filmmaker when I first saw Boogie Nights in late 1997, and he's done nothing but solidify said position since then. His movies will automatically be my most anticipated film of any given year, which is the only reason Boyhood fell to #2 on my Must-See list for 2014. The guy's truly a master, no pun intended.
Funny that 3 of these were my "Best Film of the Year" for their respective years (TWBB, Tree of Life, and The Master). A very hard decision, but I went with TWBB. However, I think Zodiac is up there with your other 2 masterpieces of 2007. Hell, that year also produced greats like Assassination of Jesse James and Ratatouille, among countless others, but you gotta draw the line somewhere.
I voted "other" and chose "The White Ribbon". It's a really fascinating movie - Haneke manages to tell a story about violence showing almost no violence on screen. Very gripping, thought-provoking and with beautiful cinematography. But it was a tough choice with so many great movies being released in this period. Honorable mentions for me are "Brokeback Mountain", "The Dark Knight", "Children of Men" and the dark comedy from Denmark "Adam's Apples".
Other. David Fincher's Zodiac is not only a flawless movie, but it is the zeitgeist movie for the Filmspotting era. No other film so perfectly caught the post-9/11 sense that what we want to know, what we think we know, and what we actually do know are so far apart from each other that we have to let go of our concepts of knowledge completely. What we are left with is a mix between total fear and time-induced indifference.
No Country for Old Men goes along quite well with the above reading of Zodiac, so I'd be happy choosing that one as well. Asheville, NC
My two cents is worth less than that since I have yet to see either The Master or The Tree of Life. I would have to cast a vote for Pan's Labyrinth with its grief and terror and wonder. Others that echo in my mind well after the end credits include Winter's Bone and (obligatory Josh nod to animation) The Incredibles.
There WIll be Blood easily. I don't even have to think twice about it. I feel like i should exclude it, because it is too obvious to me as it also being my favourite film of all time. Other films I would consider are Un prophète, Copie conforme, Shotgun Stories or Under the Skin. Would probably choose Un prohète.
I don't want to be that guy, but I'm going to be that guy and say THE DARK KNIGHT. It's the Filmspotting era's version of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: big-budget commercial filmmaking that manages a perfect storm of entertainment, complexity, and bravura filmmaking. Six years out, it's still the modern standard of an action film.
All great films but I had to go with Other and specifically "Into the Wild".
I'm with Kevin on this one. I've never experienced anything like The Master. It remains fresh with every viewing. No Country, There Will Be Blood, and Tree of Life are ridiculously good as well, but my love for The Master is too strong. It's an easy choice.
I would also second Children of Men and Social Network as strong choices. Give it a few years and maybe 12 Years a Slave will be in the conversation too.
I'm not ashamed to throw down my love for The Master here. There have been a lot of great films since 2005 (despite what "the end is nigh" opponents of modern film might say)... Zodiac, The Social Network, Frost/Nixon, Looper, Children of Men, In Bruges, and even The LEGO Movie. All of these and more deserve lengthy essays and discussions on their behalf. But, for me, there is no film of this period I return to in my mind more than The Master.
Even up against powerhouses like No Country and There Will Be Blood, The Master stands tall. For me, there is no scene from either of those films that has stuck with me quite like The Master's first procession scene, an arresting piece of filmmaking that is just two men talking. And there are more than a dozen others from Paul Thomas Anderson's divisive masterpiece that return to my mind in the dark, quiet times at night when there is nothing to do but let the mind wander. For that, The Master deserves the utmost possible praise.
Star Warz
I briefly lamented having to choose between The Tree of Life and The Master, neck-and-neck for being my favorite film of the past five years, when I remembered, "Oh, yeah, There Will Be Blood exists." Maybe in another few years time either of those two might surpass Blood in my estimation, but for now it stands as the crowning achievement in Paul Thomas Anderson's career. It's a story of one man's alienation and loss of any connection to humanity by his own hand, a film where the little we know about our fearsome protagonist serves just how much he holds even those closest to him on the outside looking in. That narrative of the simultaneous rise and fall of Daniel Plainview is told on a grand scale as a way to mirror the rise of modern America as well as its shift into being a harder, more brutal capitalistic system. It has several similarities to Citizen Kane, but it's also at once a tragedy, a western, an epic and a horror movie, mixing in the jaded but not heartless view of John Huston with the formal perfection and jarring, arrythmic feel of late-period Stanley Kubrick. And all of this goes without mentioning that towering performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, which is somehow both wildly expressive and feral and totally grounded at the same time.