The Best Best

Scott Hardie | February 24, 2012
Defend your vote!

Steve Dunn | February 24, 2012
Brokeback Mountain

Samir Mehta | February 24, 2012
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Matthew Preston | February 24, 2012
All are excellent films, deserving of their best picture status (Crash excluded - that fits in what I call the "Saving Private Ryan was robbed" category). After much internal deliberation, I kept coming back to The Departed. Powerhouse actors, intense plot, and twists and turns all the way to the end. No Country for Old Men is a close second for me. Although it had a different artistic approach, like most viewers, I left that film with no sense of closure. I've held a grudge since and can't let that go for a best of the best win.

Samir Mehta | February 24, 2012
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Scott Hardie | February 25, 2012
Crash wasn't a bad movie. But it robbed the hell out of the much better Brokeback Mountain. Like Matthew and Steve, I'm not going to forgive it for that.

Chicago and Slumdog Millionaire were fun, but the weakest titles on the list.

I somehow still haven't seen The Hurt Locker. :-(

A Beautiful Mind and The King's Speech were very good, memorable and moving. They're not the best of the decade, but they're worthy of their Oscars.

That leaves the four best. And it's tough to pick just one.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a gargantuan production that almost seems worthy for scale alone. As with Samir, I'd be tempted to pick it if we were talking about the whole trilogy. (I thought The Two Towers was by far the weakest, but whatever.) Peter Jackson, thank you for nine hours of supreme entertainment.

The Departed is an excellent thriller, complex and stylish. I would probably like it more if I hadn't seen the Chinese movie it was based on, Infernal Affairs, which accomplished the same tension with less money, smaller stars, and no Dropkick Murphys. Great movie, but not the best of the best.

Million Dollar Baby is gut-wrenching. You don't come out of that movie the same person. The bold photography stays with me years later. At the time I thought it was just Clint Eastwood making another superb Clint Eastwood movie, but looking back I realize it's one of his very best. I agree with Samir that the final act is not a "twist," not in the Shyamalanian sense. People need to learn the difference between a twist and a natural progression of the plot in the direction it was always headed that they just didn't see coming. Anyway, superlative movie, and almost the best of the decade.

No Country for Old Men is it, for me. It gave me the most to think about during and since. It's also given me the most daydreams and nightmares. If I ran into Anton Chigurh in a dark alley, I would need a change of pants. From the opening scenes about hunting, I saw it as a film about the quiet terror of being something's prey, and how nature kills without mercy or cessation. For that reason, the ending did not seem lacking in closure to me, but I think I can see the other perspective. At any rate, I should definitely read the book. A similar good movie if you haven't seen it: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.

Aaron Shurtleff | February 25, 2012
lol How is it I've only seen three of these ten movies, and The Hurt Locker happens to be one of them?

I can't fairly judge, having not seen most of these movies, but of the 3 I have seen, I would rank them:

1) The Hurt Locker
2) NCFOM
3) LOTR:ROTK

For me, it seems like the movie that wins Best Picture never really feels like a "real" movie. It always feels like a movie that gets made to win the Best Picture. I doubt I can explain it, but it feels like it's some super artistic movie that leaves me feeling like I don't "get it". As if there is a huge secret, and if I were just a little bit more smart/cultured/in the know, I would love the movie. The Hurt Locker never made me feel that way, and that is why i would say it is the best of the three.

Erik Bates | February 26, 2012
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Steve West | February 26, 2012
I've watched No Country for Old Men four times and am still amazed by Javier Bardem's performance. Haunting.

Scott Hardie | February 29, 2012
Setting aside Best Picture winners, what are some of the best films of the last ten years that you've seen, in hindsight? A good measure of that might be: Which movies have stuck with you, unlike the many that faded from memory?

Christopher Nolan's Inception and The Dark Knight have shown just how lacking in intelligence most large-scale movies have become. I look forward to his next film this summer. Co-star Joseph Gordon Levitt also made the terrific Brick.

The decade's best sci-fi movies have provided me with many hours of entertainment (The Matrix Reloaded) or thought (Children of Men) or both (Minority Report). Yeah, as much as they're guilty of "overpromising and underdelivering" as business people say, I still enjoy the underrated Matrix sequels, all these years later.

I remain moved by very strong dramas. The Pianist and the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are harrowing. The Dead Girl and Monster are heartbreaking. 25th Hour is the most complex of the lot, the one that reaps the biggest rewards upon repeat viewings. (I'd mention No Country for Old Men in this company if it wasn't discussed above.)

But the very best? The one movie above all that I keep coming back to, keep laughing about, keep thinking about, keep loving after all these years? I ♥ Huckabees. It has to be one of the funniest movies ever made about depression. It's polarizing, so when I recommend it to people I do so with some hesitation, but it's pitch-perfect on my own personal wavelength. I laugh now just thinking about it.