Movies of the Decade: 2000-2001

It's year end, and that means LISTS! In the next two weeks I'll be posting each day, alternating between my Movies of the Decade and my Songs of the Year countdowns.

Movies of the Decade is not about the best movies of the decade, because I have no real standing to judge what is 'the best'. It's mostly a list of movies I find particularly memorable for one reason or another over the last ten years.

So let's start at the very beginning (I hear it's a very good place to start):

American Beauty (1999; d. Sam Mendes)

This squeaks into my list because it was released early 2000 in Australia. I remember walking out of the cinema already heatedly debating moments from the movie with my best friend. She stayed the night, and we talked about it into the wee hours of the morning, we were that rapt in it. I haven’t seen it since then, but even after almost ten years, I can still see iconic moments from the movie in my head. Strangely enough, for a story that is about Kevin Spacey’s Lester Burnham, it is the women I remember most: Mena Suvari draped in the rose petals on the ceiling, Thora Birch lifting her shirt in front of her bedroom window, Annette Bening breaking down in the immaculate house she’s trying to sell.

Billy Elliott (2000; d. Stephen Daldry)

This was the first movie I saw post-HSC. Maybe it was the timing, but the theme of dreaming big and defying your family and expectations resonated with me; however, I have seen it a few times since then and I still love everything about this movie, from the opening credits with Billy jumping and dancing on the drab beds of his house to T-Rex, in slow motion and yet conveying so much free energy; to the graceful, almost stilted drama of the last scene. The movie handles the relationships in this so beautifully, from the slow implosion of the tension within Billy’s family, to the way Billy finds and provides support to other misfits around him.

Bring It On (2000, d.Peyton Reed)

I will not hear a bad word about this movie. It is bold and splashy and fun, and it doesn’t try to intellectualise or dumb down its subject and its character; they just are, imperfectly human and a little bitchy but ultimately good people. The romance is sweet, the leads are charming, and there’s a lot of very quotable lines and memorable moments. Not to mention the cheerleading sequences are fabulous to watch. One of my favourite pick-me-up movies still.

Gosford Park (2001, d. Robert Altman)

The first time I watched this I went in with the wrong impression; I was expecting an Agatha Christie-like country house mystery, like the box seemed to promise, and I came out a little disappointed. But I watched it again; and then again; and each time I discovered something more, a new way to read the scenes, different facets of the (large) cast of characters. I came to an appreciation for how Altman allows scenes to flow almost naturally, conversations and interactions tumbling over each other; while structuring each scene just so, such that it carefully eases into view a new piece of the social puzzle each time, revealing bit by bit the manners and mannerisms of the house, the secrets and lies underneath. It’s a smart, beautiful film, bolstered by some great performances from a cast that reads like a who’s who of British film; I particularly love the slow burning tension and attraction between the Mary the maid (Kelly Macdonald) and Clive Owen's Robert.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001; d. John Cameron Mitchell)

The music is great – it’s hard to come out of it not singing the songs – the acting is great – John Cameron Mitchell is funny and heartbreaking and scary and scared and wonderful in channeling Hedwig – and it manages a lot visually on a low budget. I don’t have the words to describe this one, but this New York Times review by Stephen Holden basically articulates everything I wish I could.

What were your favourite/most memorable films from 2000 and 2001?

Tomorrow: Songs of the 2009 part 1