BCB's Top films of 2000-2011 poll. (FULL RESULTS)

[The Write Profile]

Actually, I'm surprised by the number of what I'd broadly call "mainstream" comedies on the list- not just something like Dodgeball, but also the works of Pixar, and stuff like High Fidelity, Best in Show, In the Loop, and so on (not to mention Amelie and Goodbye, Lenin! which are both romantic/satircal comedies of a sort themselves). And I'm sure there's a few more to come. It does come accross like people genuinely picked their personal favourites, and the relatively small sample size pushes certain flicks up the list that wouldn't otherwise be there. There's quite a lot of colour in this list, as it were.

[beenieman]

The Artist at #1?

[The Write Profile]

The Artist at #1?

It wasn't released before this poll went out, so unless people decided it was their favourite before they'd even seen it, I'd doubt it.

Anyway, as I said, it's been an interesting selection, and quite broad in its range of styles and appeal.

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

Anyway, as I said, it's been an interesting selection, and quite broad in its range of styles and appeal.

Totally agree, it's a much broader bunch than normally appears in these kinds of polls. It's clear that people are voting for their favourites rather than a perceived canon of what's "best" or most admirable.

I'll have a crack at guessing the Top Ten, for what it's worth, in no particular order.

The Dark Knight - I have a suspicion that Heath Ledger's performance and a general love for Christopher Nolan's work might push this one in.
The Bourne ??? - there's no Bourne films in the list so far and I can't believe one or more won't make an appearance, unless the vote is spread too thinly across all three. My favourite is The Bourne Ultimatum.
Donnie Darko
City of God
The Lives of Others
No Country for Old Men - no real reason other than I think these four films were all widely popular.
Toy Story 3 - this seems to be the animated film that has had the most emotional impact on adult viewers in the last decade. Well either that or Up, and I think this is the better film so it might sneak into our Top 10.
Mulholland Drive - this seems to be the David Lynch film that is most widely liked, so I'm guessing there will be a spread of votes for it.
Team America - I think this will get the BCB sick humour vote, rather than Borat etc.
There Will Be Blood - not sure about this one, but I think it'll place Top 20 if not Top 10.

Bubbling Under: more Lord of the Rings, Pan's Labyrinth, The Incredibles, Slumdog Millionaire, Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Touching the Void, In Bruges, Hunger, Adaptation, Man on Wire, The Departed, Good Night and Good Luck, Dig!

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

Clearly silence means consensus and you all agree with me!


(Well, either that or you're all asleep because it's night time where you are)

[beenieman]

Clearly silence means consensus and you all agree with me!

I don't think you believe that

[algroth]

Clearly silence means consensus and you all agree with me!

I'd like to say as little as I can, that way I avoid giving away too much. That's an interesting list, though.

[beenieman]

The Artist at #1?

It wasn't released before this poll went out, so unless people decided it was their favourite before they'd even seen it, I'd doubt it.

Just out of curiosity. I was joking. Did you know that?

[beenieman]

27=



Der Untergang [Downfall] (2004)
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

The riveting subject of Downfall is nothing less than the disintegration of Adolf Hitler in mind, body, and soul. A 2005 Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, this German historical drama stars Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) as Hitler, whose psychic meltdown is depicted in sobering detail, suggesting a fallen, pathetic dictator on the verge on insanity, resorting to suicide (along with Eva Braun and Joseph and Magda Goebbels) as his Nazi empire burns amidst chaos in mid-1945. While staging most of the film in the claustrophobic bunker where Hitler spent his final days, director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment) dares to show the gentler human side of der Fuehrer, as opposed to the pure embodiment of evil so familiar from many other Nazi-era dramas. This balanced portrayal does not inspire sympathy, however: We simply see the complexity of Hitler's character in the greater context of his inevitable downfall, and a more realistic (and therefore more horrifying) biographical portrait of madness on both epic and intimate scales. By ending with a chilling clip from the 2002 documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, this unforgettable film gains another dimension of sobering authenticity. --Jeff Shannon (Amazon.com)

Voters: whodathunkit (8), Ghost of Harry Smith (1), Goat Boy (3), Rank Bajin (7)

All sounds somewhat depressing doesn't it. I'm not saying I'll never get round to watching this bit it seems unlikely.

27=



Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain [Amélie]
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Perhaps the most charming movie of all time, Amélie is certainly one of the top 10. The title character (the bashful and impish Audrey Tautou) is a single waitress who decides to help other lonely people fix their lives. Her widowed father yearns to travel but won't, so to inspire the old man she sends his garden gnome on a tour of the world; with whispered gossip, she brings together two cranky regulars at her café; she reverses the doorknobs and reprograms the speed dial of a grocer who's mean to his assistant. Gradually she realizes her own life needs fixing, and a chance meeting leads to her most elaborate stratagem of all. This is a deeply wonderful movie, an illuminating mix of magic and pragmatism. Fans of the director's previous films (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) will not be disappointed; newcomers will be delighted. --Bret Fetzer (Amazon.com)

Voters: kath (5), martha (5), all mimsy (4), W.G. Kaspar (5)

It really doesn't sound very good does it. Having said that I'm sure it is in fact charming & perhaps something I'd enjoy. Not high on the 'to see' list though.

27=



Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In] (2008)
Directed by Tomas Alfredson

The enduring popularity of the vampire myth rests, in part, on sexual magnetism. In Let the Right One In, Tomas Alfredson's carefully controlled, yet sympathetic take on John Ajvide Lindqvist's Swedish bestseller-turned-screenplay, the protagonists are pre-teens, unlike the fully-formed night crawlers of HBO’s True Blood or Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight (both also based on popular novels). Instead, 12-year-old Oskar (future heartbreaker Kåre Hedebrant) and Eli (Lina Leandersson) enter into a deadly form of puppy love. The product of divorce, Oskar lives with his harried mother, while his new neighbor resides with a mystery man named Håkan (Per Ragnar), who takes care of her unique dietary needs. From the wintery moment in 1982 that the lonely, towheaded boy spots the strange, dark-haired girl skulking around their outer-Stockholm tenement, he senses a kindred spirit. They bond, innocently enough, over a Rubik's Cube, but little does Oskar realize that Eli has been 12 for a very long time. Meanwhile, at school, bullies torment the pale and morbid student mercilessly. Through his friendship with Eli, Oskar doesn't just learn how to defend himself, but to become a sort of predator himself, begging the question as to whether Eli really exists or whether she represents a manifestation of his pent-up anger and resentment. Naturally, the international success of Lindqvist's fifth feature, like Norway's chilling Insomnia before it, has inspired an American remake, which is sure to boast superior special effects, but can't possibly capture the delicate balance he strikes here between the tender and the terrible. --Kathleen C. Fennessy (Amazon.com)

Voters: algroth (1), martha (5), Ghost of Harry Smith (3), Goat Boy (10)

Well I liked Twilight sp erhaps I'd like this. Has there really been an american remake though? I looked it up & couldn't find it on imdb.

26



Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
Directed by Wolfgang Becker

Contemporary comedies rarely stretch themselves beyond a bickering romantic couple or a bickering couple and a bucket of bodily fluids, which makes the ambition and intelligence of Good bye, Lenin! not simply entertaining but downright refreshing. The movie starts in East Germany before the fall of communism; our hero, Alex (Daniel Bruhl), describes how his mother (Katrin Sass), a true believer in the communist cause, has a heart attack when she sees him being clubbed by police at a protest. She falls into a coma for eight months--during which the Berlin Wall comes down. When she awakens, her fragile health must avoid any shocks, so Alex creates an illusive reality around his bedridden mother to convince her that communism is still alive. Good bye, Lenin! delicately balances wry satire with its rich investment in the lives of Alex, his mother, and other characters around them. Funny, moving, and highly recommended. --Bret Fetzer (Amazon.com)

Voters: whodathunkit (6), The RightGraduate Profile (4), Lemon Yoghourt (5), Geezee (5)

Presumably funnier than it sounds?

24=



The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Directed by Wes Anderson

In a fitting follow-up to Rushmore, writer-director Wes Anderson and cowriter-actor Owen Wilson have crafted another comedic masterwork that ripples with inventive, richly emotional substance. Because of the all-star cast, hilarious dialogue, and oddball characters existing in their own, wholly original universe, it's easy to miss the depth and complexity of Anderson's brand of comedy. Here, it revolves around Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), the errant patriarch of a dysfunctional family of geniuses, including precocious playwright Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), boyish financier and grieving widower Chas (Ben Stiller), and has-been tennis pro Richie (Luke Wilson). All were raised with supportive detachment by mother Etheline (Anjelica Huston), and all ache profoundly for a togetherness they never really had. The Tenenbaums reconcile somehow, but only after Anderson and Wilson (who costars as a loopy literary celebrity) put them through a compassionate series of quirky confrontations and rekindled affections. Not for every taste, but this is brilliant work from any perspective. --Jeff Shannon (Amazon.com)

Voters: martha (5), Lemon Yoghourt (5), W.G. Kaspar (5), Geezee (6)

I've intended to see this on several occasions but never done so. I'll try harder. It has also sounded intriguing.

24=



Best in Show (2000)
Directed by Christopher Guest

Christopher Guest, the man behind Waiting for Guffman, turns his comic eye on another little world that takes itself a bit too seriously: the world of competitive dog shows. Best in Show follows a clutch of dog owners as they prepare and preen their dogs to win a national competition. They include the yuppie pair (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) who fear they've traumatized their Weimaraner by having sex in front of him; a suburban husband and wife (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara) with a terrier and a long history of previous lovers on the wife's part; the Southern owner of a bloodhound (Guest himself) with aspirations as a ventriloquist; and many more. Following the same "mockumentary" format of Spinal Tap and Guffman, Best in Show takes in some of the dog show officials, the manager of a nearby hotel that allows dogs to stay there, and the commentators of the competition (a particularly knockout comic turn by Fred Willard as an oafish announcer). The movie manages to paint an affectionate portrait of its quirky characters without ever losing sight of the ridiculousness of their obsessive world. Almost all of the scenes were created through improvisation. While lacking the overall focus of a written script, Best in Show captures hilarious and absurd aspects of human behavior that could never be written down. The movie's success is a testament to both the talent of the actors and Guest's discerning eye. --Bret Fetzer (Amazon.com)

Voters: T. Willy Rye (5), whodathunkit (4), Owen (5), Rank Bajin (7)

I've always had my doubts about this. I should see it some time though.

23



High Fidelity (2000)
Directed by Stephen Frears

Transplanted from England to the not-so-mean streets of Chicago, the screen adaptation of Nick Hornby's cult-classic novel High Fidelity emerges unscathed from its Americanization, idiosyncrasies intact, thanks to John Cusack's inimitable charm and a nimble, nifty screenplay (cowritten by Cusack). Early-thirtysomething Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a slacker who owns a vintage record shop, a massive collection of LPs, and innumerable top-five lists in his head. At the opening of the film, Rob recounts directly to the audience his all-time top-five breakups--which doesn't include his recent falling out with his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle), who has just moved out of their apartment. Thunderstruck and obsessed with Laura's desertion (but loath to admit it), Rob begins a quest to confront the women who instigated the aforementioned top-five breakups to find out just what he did wrong.

Low on plot and high on self-discovery, High Fidelity takes a good 30 minutes or so to find its groove (not unlike Cusack's Grosse Pointe Blank), but once it does, it settles into it comfortably and builds a surprisingly touching momentum. Rob is basically a grown-up version of Cusack's character in Say Anything (who was told "Don't be a guy--be a man!"), and if you like Cusack's brand of smart-alecky romanticism, you'll automatically be won over (if you can handle Cusack's almost-nonstop talking to the camera). Still, it's hard not to be moved by Rob's plight. At the beginning of the film he and his coworkers at the record store (played hilariously by Jack Black and Todd Louiso) seem like overgrown boys in their secret clubhouse; by the end, they've grown up considerably, with a clear-eyed view of life. Ably directed by Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons), High Fidelity features a notable supporting cast of the women in Rob's life, including the striking, Danish-born Hjejle, Lisa Bonet as a sultry singer-songwriter, and the triumphant triumvirate of Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Rob's ex-girlfriends. With brief cameos by Tim Robbins as Laura's new, New Age boyfriend and Bruce Springsteen as himself. --Mark Englehart (Amazon.com)

Voters: T. Willy Rye (5), Owen (5), The Red Heifer (10), BlueMeanie (6)

The first of this batch I've seen. It's a good movie. Cusack is perfect & Jack black is almost tolerable. I wouldn't rate it this high but I'm not surprised it's here.

22



Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234 million), Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is a dazzling film that reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasy worlds. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice, Chihiro plunges into an alternate reality. On the way to their new home, the petulant adolescent and her parents find what they think is a deserted amusement park. Her parents stuff themselves until they turn into pigs, and Chihiro discovers they're trapped in a resort for traditional Japanese gods and spirits. An oddly familiar boy named Haku instructs Chihiro to request a job from Yubaba, the greedy witch who rules the spa. As she works, Chihiro's untapped qualities keep her from being corrupted by the greed that pervades Yubaba's mini-empire. In a series of fantastic adventures, she purges a river god suffering from human pollution, rescues the mysterious No-Face, and befriends Yubaba's kindly twin, Zeniba. The resolve, bravery, and love Chihiro discovers within herself enable her to aid Haku and save her parents. The result is a moving and magical journey, told with consummate skill by one of the masters of contemporary animation. --Charles Solomon (Amazon.com)

Voters: algroth (2), kath (5), martha (5), Snarfyguy (5), Goat Boy (1)

I doubt I'll ever see this.

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

Der Untergang [Downfall] (2004)
All sounds somewhat depressing doesn't it. I'm not saying I'll never get round to watching this bit it seems unlikely.

You make me laugh Beenie! Of course it's fucking depressing, it's about the end of WWII and people are dying horribly left, right and centre. But, just like reading Anthony Beevor's books about Berlin and Stalingrad, this film sums up this brutal period of history and does it very well. Definitely not a date movie though.

Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In] (2008)
Well I liked Twilight so perhaps I'd like this. Has there really been an american remake though? I looked it up & couldn't find it on imdb.

The remake is called Let Me In, here's the IMDB listing URL = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228987/
It's not a bad remake, some elements I even preferred to the original, but overall I didn't find it as affecting.
Not sure why the review mentioned Twilight & True Blood in comparison though, as other than all being about vampires they're chalk and cheese.

[algroth]

Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In] (2008)
Well I liked Twilight so perhaps I'd like this. Has there really been an american remake though? I looked it up & couldn't find it on imdb.

The remake is called Let Me In, here's the IMDB listing URL = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228987/
It's not a bad remake, some elements I even preferred to the original, but overall I didn't find it as affecting.
Not sure why the review mentioned Twilight & True Blood in comparison though, as other than all being about vampires they're chalk and cheese.

I have not seen True Blood or Twilight but based on what I heard they're also part of this whole new romantic look on vampires, and deal with a romantic relationship between a vampire and a human being. I'd say there are some rather clear links between this and Twilight at least, although what they do with the respective ideas couldn't be further apart.

[beenieman]

Der Untergang [Downfall] (2004)
All sounds somewhat depressing doesn't it. I'm not saying I'll never get round to watching this but it seems unlikely.

You make me laugh Beenie! Of course it's fucking depressing, it's about the end of WWII and people are dying horribly left, right and centre. But, just like reading Anthony Beevor's books about Berlin and Stalingrad, this film sums up this brutal period of history and does it very well. Definitely not a date movie though.

The end of a world war should have been such a joyous time!

I take it the movie shows that Hitler did not take losing well.

Watching a dictator's psychic meltdown depicted in sobering detail is a poor choice for a date movie I agree. Not a chick flick then?

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

...although what they do with the respective ideas couldn't be further apart.

Which was my point Algroth, hence chalk and cheese. You could say that there's a sub-text of romantic relationships between vampire and human in almost every vampire tale, that's one of the recurrent tropes in this kind of fiction. But, having seen both Twilight and Let The Right One In, the way that this trope is approached is so utterly different, to the point where a comparison between them is a reach. Twilight is a teen romance, with every touch and kiss in the screenplay squeezed for maximum effect. Let The Right One In is more about damaged 'children' trying to find companionship, friendship, than any actual romance.

But you know, what I actually thought of first saying in my post was that Beenie would not necessarily like Let The Right One In, just because he liked Twilight. Then I predicted that would just prompt Beenie to respond with a flippant remark saying how the hell do I know what he'll like and anyway he didn't even bring up Twilight, the reviewer did. So I pointed out that the reviewer's comparison was a little bit of a reach, prompting you to disagree with me instead. A man can't win.

[beenieman]

...although what they do with the respective ideas couldn't be further apart.

Which was my point Algroth, hence chalk and cheese. You could say that there's a sub-text of romantic relationships between vampire and human in almost every vampire tale, that's one of the recurrent tropes in this kind of fiction. But, having seen both Twilight and Let The Right One In, the way that this trope is approached is so utterly different, to the point where a comparison between them is a reach. Twilight is a teen romance, with every touch and kiss in the screenplay squeezed for maximum effect. Let The Right One In is more about damaged 'children' trying to find companionship, friendship, than any actual romance.

But you know, what I actually thought of first saying in my post was that Beenie would not necessarily like Let The Right One In, just because he liked Twilight. Then I predicted that would just prompt Beenie to respond with a flippant remark saying how the hell do I know what he'll like and anyway he didn't even bring up Twilight, the reviewer did. So I pointed out that the reviewer's comparison was a little bit of a reach, prompting you to disagree with me instead. A man can't win.

[The Write Profile]

Stupid spam filter! Second attempt

Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In] (2008)

Well I liked Twilight so perhaps I'd like this. Has there really been an american remake though? I looked it up & couldn't find it on imdb.

Yep, there's been a remake, called Let Me In, which is good but overly noisy, and lacks this film's sense of suppressed horror and gently moving ambiance of the original. Both are better than the barbarous teen-abstinence recruitment drive otherwise known as the Twilight films, tho!

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Presumably funnier than it sounds?

It was for me, certainly! But it really depends how interested you are in post-WWII German culture, or cold war paraphernalia in general. It helped that I've spent time in Germany, and know the language so I got a lot of the references. Not to say that those who don't know the country/language won't like the film, but context certainly gives it an extra kick and resonance. I thought it was just about perfect for what it set out to do.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

I've intended to see this on several occasions but never done so. I'll try harder. It has also sounded intriguing.

I veer between really liking this and really disliking it (I own the Criterion DVD). Sometimes it feels overdone and worked out to the nth degree, on other occasions, it feels like the perfect realization of those overly ambitious John Irving or JD Sallinger short stories about promising families gone to seed. Gene Hackman's wonderful in it.

Best in Show (2000)

I've always had my doubts about this. I should see it some time though.

How much you like this depends on how much you like the "Mockumentary" style of flicks like Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, et al (it features many of the cast and crew of those films). I don't like it as much as those, though there are some great vignettes, not least Fred Willard's utterly clueless commentator and Eugene Levy's turn as the unwittingly cuckolded husband with "two left feet".

High Fidelity (2000)

The first of this batch I've seen. It's a good movie. Cusack is perfect & Jack black is almost tolerable. I wouldn't rate it this high but I'm not surprised it's here.

I'd agree with that. It captures the book well while translating it to a new time and place (early 90s London to late 90s Chicago).

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001)

I doubt I'll ever see this.

Your loss. It's one of the most visually eye-popping amazing experiences ever, the sheer scope of animation is enough in itself. It's pitched at an incredibly excessive and overwrought level, but there's also a lot of beauty and grace in it too. A masterpiece. I didn't pick it cos I forgot to.

--ADMINSTRATIVE NOTE --
DO NOT QUOTE THIS POST OR THE SPAM FILTER WILL LOCK YOU OUT.

[the masked man]

Absolutely, I got locked out there! Unbelievable!

[beenieman]

It catches me on movie threads quite often. I try to remember to save my movie posts before clicking submit now.

[The Modernist]

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001)

I doubt I'll ever see this.

Your loss. It's one of the most visually eye-popping amazing experiences ever, the sheer scope of animation is enough in itself. It's pitched at an incredibly excessive and overwrought level, but there's also a lot of beauty and grace in it too. A masterpiece. I didn't pick it cos I forgot to.

So they say, but I found it a bit silly and visually disappointing. It wasn't the magical experience I'd been lead to expect.

[algroth]

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001)

I doubt I'll ever see this.

Your loss. It's one of the most visually eye-popping amazing experiences ever, the sheer scope of animation is enough in itself. It's pitched at an incredibly excessive and overwrought level, but there's also a lot of beauty and grace in it too. A masterpiece. I didn't pick it cos I forgot to.

So they say, but I found it a bit silly and visually disappointing.

I don't think it was either at all, but it does lag as a whole behind some other Miyazaki films for me.

[beenieman]

I tried to escape the Spam filter with limited quoting of Profile's post but so riddled is it with obscenities & subliminal advertising that it failed Ten minutes later I'm back with a reduced response:

Best In Show - Given I thought Spinal Tap disappointing when I saw it & I know this has the same guys involved I'm not optimistic on this but I will give it a go one day.

Spirited Away. Your recommendation has convinced me. I'll never see it