A Mirror Floating in Water

Upon the closing of the first ten years of this century, we have encountered a new era in filmmaking. This decade we have seen a prodigious increase in the number of independent films being made with the advent of digital cameras. We have also seen the prodigious increase in monumentally big-budget special-effects films, unprecedented in the 90's. Just think, twenty years ago one of the highest grossing films was Batman (the one with Jack Nicholson), that would look like childs play today.

The evolution of independent cinema in the last decade has been a fascinating one. At the opening of the decade a great number of independent films were no less "independent" from Hollywood convention than most mainstream films. Then we saw an emerging uniqueness at the peak of the decade with films like Juno and Little Miss Sunshine. Now, independent cinema has gained total independence from the confines of mainstream convention with utterly unique films like Chop Shop, [I]Precious/I] and Wendy and Lucy.

Through this, we have seen a rebirth of neo-realism in the cinema, to a point in which American neo-realism could very well be regarded as a new movement. Using handheld cameras, non-professional actors and the influence of Rossilini and De Sica, a new generation of independent filmmakers has emerged, concerned with the realities of everyday life, as well as the heated economic/political climate of current years.

For the next two months, I will be reviewing what I think are the best films of the decade, all the way down to number one sometime at the end of the year. I have certainly not seen, by any stretch of reason, anything close to the amount of films released in the past ten years, but I can certainly take a stab at it.

First I will begin with the films that didn't quite make the list, but probably deserve to be on their just as much:

No Country for Old Men (2007) Joel and Ethan Coen

The Departed (2006) Martin Scorsese

Finding Nemo (2003) Andrew Stanton

Monster (2003) Patty Jenkins

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) Peter Jackson

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Michel Gondry

L'enfant (2005) Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Le Fils (2002) Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Goodbye Solo (2009) Ramin Bahrani

Encounters at the End of the World (2008) Werner Herzog

My Winnepig (2008) Guy Maddin

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Fall. . . and Spring (2003) Kim Ki-Duk

Kill Bill Vol.1 and 2 (2003-2004) Quentin Tarantino

Syndoche, New York (2009) Charlie Kauffman

You, the Living (2009) Roy Anderson

Inland Empire (2007) David Lynch

Russian Ark (2002) Alexander Sokurov

United 93 (2005) Paul Greengrass