Who doesn’t love the Land of Scorsese? The man knows more about the art of cinema than any living American filmmaker. But I can’t let that cloud my judgment. The fact that two of his masterpieces are in my top five films of all time doesn’t necessarily mean everything Marty puts out is solid gold. Such is the case here.So… you get a washed up, overworked, emotional wreck of a Boston cop Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new, amiable partner (Mark Ruffalo). They’ve been sent to Shutter Island, which houses a notorious asylum for the criminally insane. A dangerous female “patient” has gone missing; she “evaporates right through the walls,” as the steadfast director of the institution (played with reliable brilliance by Ben Kingsely) tells us.
But that’s not the movie, of course. Once on the island, weird shit starts to happen. Creepy inmates give cold, menacing stares. Teddy starts hallucinating (but why?) A violently convenient storm blankets the island. The power goes out. Prisoners roam around. You get it.
Flashbacks (too many of them) reveal a complicated backstory for Teddy. Not only was he a courageous, albeit murderous, soldier who liberated Nazi death camps, but he also lost his wife in a fire. It doesn’t take long for the viewer to lose patience, asking “so what?” aloud.
Look, here’s the thing. Shutter Island is way more Cape Fear than GoodFellas. It has everything you want in a Scorsese film: flashy cinematography, gripping editing, a pacing score, and so on. But the story just lacks. I’ll admit it: one of the biggest disadvantages of being a massive film fanatic is that it takes a lot to really surprise me. So it’s no exaggeration when I say I called the climax to this movie pretty early on.
As he’s proved with his recent string of Scorsese films, DiCaprio excels here (although for my money his work in The Departed still reigns supreme). As is the case in all Scorsese films, the supporting cast propels the picture, making it essential viewing. In addition to Ruffalo and Kingsely, we’re given great turns by a cold Max von Sydow (Jesus, how old is this guy?), Elias Koteas, Jackie Earle Haley, Patricia Clarkson, and the way-too-underrated Emily Mortimer (Transsiberian, Redbelt, Lars and the Real Girl), who may very well have the best scene in the film as a found prisoner.
Bottom line: Shutter Island can appeal to a lot of people. Those looking for a high shock-factor adult thriller should be set. But any real diehard Scorsese fan may feel something is missing, (as I did with Gangs of New York and The Aviator). But it’s a good flick. Better than any other shit out there. B+
A running time of two and half hours is a blessing for a film like The White Ribbon. I’m not going to lie: the film is slow. But there’s a difference between dragging on and being patiently paced. You have to invest time with these people, if you want to give a damn about the story.
The poetic, philosophical genius behind one of the best war films ever made (The Thin Red Line) presents his own version of Pocahontas. Sound lame? You bet. That’s why this film is such a knockout. With its limited dialogue and extended shots of nature-as-life, you’re in for something different, albeit tragically brilliant.
The only Best Picture winner on my list, and the best boxing film since Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby is a subtle work of art with a gut punch of a third act. Hilary Swank (who’s only been good in two films), excels in the lead. Note the crafty art direction; you can actually smell that rusty old gym. This movie proves that tough ain’t enough, you need a heart as well.
Find me a film that better details the bliss and hell of love, and I’ll eat my words. Heath Ledger’s flawless performance as Ennis Del Mar will be talked about and studied for decades. Just watching him is heartbreaking. His face, his gestures; there’s pain behind every facet of Ennis. This film is so subtle that it may pass you by after an initial viewing. But if you have any lasting interest, explore it again. It’s the best, most tragic love story of our time.
I typically don’t like films that rely on a gimmick to fill the seats, but when it’s this good, it’s impossible to overlook. Like Pulp Fiction, Memento’s narrative structure has been picked and pulled and copied dozens of times by lesser filmmakers. Go back to the source for a real psychological wallop. Guy Pearce extends his genius as an actor in a role that’s built around a gimmick, but soon becomes so much more.
There are a lot of people out there that will disagree with me, but Babel is easily one of the most gut wrenching emotional experiences of the decade. Each story may not seem necessary, but they soon become essential to the development of the characters' conflicts. The highlight: Rinko Kikuchi as a sexually frusterated, borderline suicidal, deaf mute teenager. Like Heath Ledger in Brokeback, Kikuchi embodies the pain of her character in a way rarely seen. I currently have my iTunes playlist on random and while I was writing this paragraph the closing song of the film, "Bibo no Aozora" by Ryuichi Sakamoto, began to play. Everything is connected.
Surely this won’t be on any other critic’s list, which is completely understandable. For me, Antwone Fisher falls into a very limited category of films: those that have quite literally changed my life. Is it the best shot, best scored, best developed film of the decade? God no. But it has importance, it has purpose, it has a life.
Adrien Brody, in the Oscar-winning role of a lifetime, excelled as real life Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman. Directing his best movie since Chinatown, Roman Polanski gave his deeply personal film a pulse. While that pulse may seem faint at times, it’s pumping in the film’s many emotional sequences. Unflinching, honest, and poignantly captured.
Over time, people will forget this, but when this film came out, other directors were avoiding 9/11. Films were re-edited, delayed, dumbed down and so on to skirt the topic. But Spike Lee, America’s most prominent New York filmmaker, actually embraced our country’s new state of terror with awesome vengeance. In the best role of his career, Edward Norton becomes Monty Brogan. We may not like Monty at first, with his pompous attitude and do-no-good frills, but by the end, we hate to see him go.
This movie will have influence on future cinema, more than any other film this decade. Daniel Day-Lewis, in the best performance of the decade, let’s you see what true greed actually is. There isn’t a forced moment or unnecessary scene in the film’s 160 minutes. A throwback to 1940s cinema, There Will Be Blood is a movie to be analyzed by any film enthusiast. Each scene could stand as its own short film; it is that well-defined. To quote Mr. Plainview himself: “that was one goddman hell of a show.”
I’m surprised I haven’t seen this on any other best of the decade lists. No matter, Traffic is the most searing work of the 2000s. I’ve seen this dozens of times and it simply gets better and more evolved with each viewing. With his shaky, off-hued camera, Soderbergh captures the drug world in a way we’ve never seen (note: The Wire began in 2002). Better than any film this decade, Traffic took a series of stories and entwined them in a way that made them essential to one another. Because of its heart rendering final moments, this film matters to me more than most. “We’re here to listen.” We could all learn something from that.