1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon

[1SO]

As a warm up to my Top 100 of All Time Marathon, I'm going to take a look back at the last 10 years and attempt to come up with a Top 100 for the past decade I can be happy with.  I've gone through all of my lists from each year and ranked them into a 1st draft of 112 movies that I feel have Top 100 potential.
I will not be rewatching all 112, since some are very fresh in my mind. I'm most interested to look at the ones I haven't seen in a while.  
I will start at the bottom of my list and see if the films get better as I move up.
I will not print the entire list in advance, but instead will name the next film I plan to watch (as well as fill in the titles I'm skipping past.)  That way you can all weigh in with your comments on the film before I watch it and influence my mindset.

First up will be #112 Dirty Pretty Things

EDIT:

First was my original marathon.
Then you weighed in with your rebuttal submissions.
And now it's come to this, my final word on the 00's.

Here is the list of My Top 100 films of the 00's:
1. City of God
2. Requiem For A Dream
3. United 93
4. The Incredibles
5. Erin Brockovich
6. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
7. Memento
8. Finding Nemo
9. Hot Fuzz
10. Mulholland Drive
11. Kill Bill Vol. 1
12. Closer
13. Ratatouille
14. Moulin Rouge
15. Batman Begins
16. Untitled (Almost Famous - The Bootleg Cut)
17. Zatoichi
18. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
19. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
20. Spirited Away
21. There Will Be Blood
22. Black Hawk Down
23. V For Vendetta
24. Capturing the Friedmans  
25. Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance
26. House of Flying Daggers
27. Battle Royale
28. Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut
29. Ocean's 11
30. Fahrenheit 9/11
31. Milk
32. Up
33. Crash
34. The Descent
35. Waltz With Bashir
36. Wall-E
37. The Lord of the Rings, (Part 2 of Review)
38. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
39. Snatch
40. Chicken Run
41. Avatar/Werckmeister Harmonies
42. The Squid and The Whale
43. Inland Empire
44. A Bittersweet Life
45. Amélie
46. The Bourne Ultimatum
47. The Prestige    
48. Oldboy
49. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
50. The Brothers Bloom
51. 2046
52. The Lives of Others
53. Gangs of New York
54. Mission: Impossible III
55. Love Actually
56. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
57. [REC]
58. Sin City
59. Monsters Inc.
60. The Royal Tenenbaums
61. Serenity
62. Fantastic Mr. Fox
63. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
64. Pulse (Kairo)
65. The Son (Le Fils)  
66. Borat
67. No Country For Old Men
68. District 9
69. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
70. Shaun of the Dead
71. Almost Famous
72. In America
73. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
74. Grindhouse
75. Into The Wild
76. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind  
77. The Magdalene Sisters
78. In Bruges
79. Star Trek
80. A Serious Man    
81. Million Dollar Baby
82. Grizzly Man
83. Inglorious Basterds
84. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
85. The Dark Knight
86. Brotherhood of the Wolf
87. North Country
88. Once
89. The Last Kiss
90. Bloody Sunday
91. Moon
92. Good Night, and Good Luck
93. Sexy Beast
94. Cold Mountain
95. X-Men
96. Whale Rider
97. Super Size Me
98. Akeelah and the Bee
99. Interstella 5555
100. The Departed



Films in the Rebuttal Marathon which I've seen at least once. Ranked in Descending Order by how much I liked them:
Synecdoche, New York
Pan's Labyrinth
The Prestige
A Serious Man (oldkid)
The King of Kong
Star Trek (oldkid)
The Proposition (Junior)
Y Tu Mama Tambien (¡Keith!)
Brick ('Noke)
Waking the Dead
In the Mood For Love ('Noke)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Little Children (Sam the Cinema Snob)
Before Sunset (Clovis8)
Once (Clovis8)
Children of Men
In America (oldkid)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch ('Noke)
High Fidelity
Good Night and Good Luck
25th Hour
Morvern Callar

Films in the Rebuttal Marathon I've never seen.  Ranked in Descending Order by how much I'm looking forward to them:
Eureka
Capturing the Friedmans (¡Keith!)
United Red Army (zarodinu)
Shotgun Stories (THATguy)
Noi the Albino (zarodinu)
Lagaan (Bondo)
Last Life in the Universe (roujin)
Songs From The Second Floor (Melvil)
The Return (zarodinu)
Goodbye, Lenin (¡Keith!)
Together (zarodinu)
Kontroll (Bondo)
Man Push Cart (FLYmeatwad)
The Merchant of Venice (smirnoff)
Vera Drake (smirnoff)
Food Inc. (Selsnik)
Devils on the Doorstep (jbissell)
Deep Water (smirnoff)
Duck Season (pixote)
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Junior)
The Woodsman (Bondo)
Das Experiment (chardy999)
Children Underground (pixote)
XXY (Bondo)
Sweet Sixteen (pixote)
Dans Paris (¡Keith!)
Taxidermia (¡Keith!)
To Be and To Have (Etre Et Avoir) ('Noke)

[smirnoff]

Dirty Pretty Things is one I'd like to revisit as well. I don't recall any details of the film, but I remember it was a positive experience. This is a good excuse to see it again, and then I can get in on the discussion.

I like the mystery of this marathon.

[ferris]

Excellent!  Do you have a list somewhere?  I'd love to see what you have coming up....and especially if Synecdoche, NY is on it

[1SO]

Synecdoche, NY was my #10 film of last year.  Only my Top 6 made it to this list.

7 from 2009 are on the list.
9 from 2007
11 from 2006
17 from 2005
12 from 2004
16 from 2003
8 from 2002
13 from 2001
13 from 2000

And for those who read my initial post, I did a slight revision and am down to 112 films.

[FLYmeatwad]

I expect I'm Not There is only this list somewhere, correct?

[1SO]

I expect I'm Not There is only this list somewhere, correct?

I'm a big fan of Todd Haynes and I love the way he experiments with cinema, but I did not like the presentation and found it to be Haynes' most self-indulgent film.

Velvet Goldmine >> I'm Not There

[mañana]

I thought Velvet Goldmine was borderline unwatchable.

[FLYmeatwad]

I need to watch Goldmine, but I'm Not There is one of the ten best films ever made.

[roujin]

Safe, Far From Heaven and Poison are all better than I'm Not There. I should watch Velvet Goldmine.

[1SO]

Safe, Far From Heaven and Poison are all better than I'm Not There. I should watch Velvet Goldmine.

Yes... Yes... Yes... and you should.

[sdedalus]

Safe, Far From Heaven and Poison are all better than I'm Not There. I should watch Velvet Goldmine.

No, no and no.  And I should too.

[skjerva]

Safe, Far From Heaven and Poison are all better than I'm Not There. I should watch Velvet Goldmine.

yes, maybe and maybe.  i should, too

[Holly Harry]

 I'm the opposite of all of you, Velvet Goldmine is the only Haynes film I've seen.

I liked it alright.

[1SO]

Dirty Pretty Things

3rd Viewing
This is an excellent sleeper that I'm guessing has mostly travelled under the radar, even among the people on these boards.  The cast vary wildly in their acting styles, but work together beautifully.  At the time, the only known star was Audrey Tautou, coming off of Amelie.  We've seen Sophie Okonedo go on to an Oscar nom for Hotel Rawanda and Sergi López (who's delicious creepy) build upon this performance as the evil Captain in Pan's Labyrinth.  The real breakthrough is Chiwetel Ejiofor as Okwe, the leader of this band of outsiders and immigrants.  This is the first of what would become a string of awesome performances, and I believe it's still his best work.

While I love the screenplay by Steven Knight, I also think it's the film's biggest weakness.  There are many, many really well-written scenes and some great character dynamics.  The stakes continue to build, suspenseful moments grow organically from the material and you really can't tell if we're going to get a happy or unhappy ending.  The mechanics of the plot mesh like clockwork, but perhaps a little too neatly.  Okwe is friends with exactly the right people who are able to help at exactly the right time.  (How did he come to know the doctor?)  While there's a great unexpected quality to much of the plotting, I also find the pieces falling neatly into place exactly when they need to.

Still this is a great portrait of the London underbelly, vividly realized by Stephen Frears, working at the top of his game here.  Is it destined for my Top 100?  Too early to tell, but I could definitely see it making the cut.  Either way, I very much urge those of you who've forgotten about it to add Dirty Pretty Things to your DVD queue.

Grade: B+

Next up in the marathon is uncertain.  I own the next 2 on my list (X2: X-Men United and the Japanese gangsters vs. zombie flick, Versus).  I might rewatch those or go right to #109... Zoolander.

If I go to Zoolander, the list stands at...

110. Dirty Pretty Things
111. Versus
112. X2: X-Men United

[Holly Harry]

I'm the opposite of all of you, Velvet Goldmine is the only Haynes film I've seen.

I liked it alright.

Well, I've just seen "I'm Not There".

Astounding film. Easily one of the best movies of the decade.

[Clovis8]

I've seen all five of his films and they are all good to great, imo

Great
Far from Heaven (this movie is amazing and needs to be seen by more people)
I'm Not There

Good
Velvet Goldmine
Poison
Safe

[FLYmeatwad]

I'm the opposite of all of you, Velvet Goldmine is the only Haynes film I've seen.

I liked it alright.

Well, I've just seen "I'm Not There".

Astounding film. Easily one of the best movies of the decade.

Correct. It's never high enough on my lists.

['Noke]

Great
Far from Heaven (this movie is amazing and needs to be seen by more people)

I just can't get over Moore in the lead role. Love I'm Not There, but I don't really like Moore.

[Clovis8]

Great
Far from Heaven (this movie is amazing and needs to be seen by more people)

I just can't get over Moore in the lead role. Love I'm Not There, but I don't really like Moore.

Did you actually see this 'noke? I agree I dont love Moore either (I dont hate her though) but this is her best role by far. Way better than even Boogie Nights.

['Noke]

Great
Far from Heaven (this movie is amazing and needs to be seen by more people)

I just can't get over Moore in the lead role. Love I'm Not There, but I don't really like Moore.

Did you actually see this 'noke? I agree I dont love Moore either (I dont hate her though) but this is her best role by far. Way better than even Bookie Nights.

I have not. Just something about Moore puts me off.