The 21st Century began with a transformative decade in film. From films that captured the chaos and insecurity of a post 9/11 terror-centric world to comic depictions of post-modern family values; this decade’s host of films sought to depict a rapidly changing world with ingenuity and creativity. Directors challenged everyone from the food industry (Food Inc) to President Bush (Fahrenheit 9/11), and handled subjects ranging from dysfunctional families (Little Miss Sunshine, Juno) to a zombie infested apocalypse (28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland) to historic civil rights leaders (Milk, Bobby). This list of the 25 best films of the decade (spanning from 2000 to 2009), not only represent the best in filmmaking but also encapsulate the decade known as the naughts.

25) Trouble the Water (2008) – Best Documentary of the Decade

This horrifying documentary, tracing an eyewitness account of Hurricane Katrina, not only criticizes the inability and apathy of federal government, but shows the struggle of an entire community attempting to rebuild not only their homes, but their identity. Kimberly Roberts is not only a reluctant documentarist in this film, but the best representation of New Orleans, a city that despite deep despair has the unrelenting capacity for hope.

24) Brick (2005) – Best Noir Film of the Decade

Though there were several brilliant representations of noir films this decade, including Robert Altman’s opus Gosford Park and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Brick is truly a 21st Century take on a classic cinematic art form. Centered around teen drug pushers living in suburban California, Brick sets film’s most compelling genre in the most unique of environments. Rich in intelligence and wit, Rian Johnson’s take on noir is seductive and thrilling without resorting to sex and extreme violence. This film will no doubt leave you gasping for air… in more ways than one.

23) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) – Best Wes Anderson Flick of the Decade

Wes Anderson is truly the king of whimsical absurdist humor and he is by far at his best in The Royal Tenenbaums. Tenenbaums centers around an affluent family, including three child prodigies, struggling to reconnect with their estranged patriarch. With dark themes such as incest, abandonment, suicide, and depression, Wes Anderson develops a film that creates humor and optimism out of the starkest of circumstances.  No one tells a story with more fantastical creativity than Wes Anderson.

22) Sideways (2004) – Best Film Centered Around Alcohol

The comedy team of Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor have always been able to comedically interpret the middle-aged man in crisis. Sideways, a film that focuses on the bachelor party of two best friends while in Napa Valley, grows and develops into maturity like the fine wine used as a metaphor. In an industry where comedies often resort to absurd scenarios, Sideways has an element of reality and depth that is lacking in a world of sex-crazed teen comedies. It’s always nice to have some sophistication with the funny.

21) Once (2007) – Best Musical of the Decade

It’s difficult to develop a film around two of Ireland’s most famous musicians, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, and stay true not only to the narrative, but to the music that moves the story forward. Director John Carney, also a musician, develops a film that is naturalistic and allows the music to take as much a central role to the film as the characters. Carney merges the storytelling of music and film in a truly original way. Truly a focal point of contemporary Irish film.

20) The Hurt Locker (2009) – Best Iraq War Movie of the Decade

It seems strange that the director of the cheesy cult favorite Point Break, would develop probably one of the most important films of our generation in The Hurt Locker. Kathryn Bigelow’s film about a military unit whose responsibility is to disarm IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device), is much more than a movie about this country’s most controversial war zone; it is a conscious analysis of the psychological consequences of violence and war.

19) Brokeback Mountain (2005) – Best LGBT Film of the Decade

At its heart Brokeback Mountain is a classic American love story, in reality it is a complete revision and criticism of the ideal American lifestyle. Ang Lee perverts the traditional image of the American family, and asks his audience to see that structure as unnatural instead shaping his story around the romance of two headstrong cowboys living in Wyoming. Brokeback is a film that in many ways asks us to criticize the way we view love and happiness, as Lee’s dynamic characters reject both constantly seeking an unrealistic image of normalcy.

18) Up (2009) – Best Animated Film of the Decade

With cherished films like The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and Wall-E, this decade could be viewed as the decade of Pixar. Pixar is counted on time and time again to develop films that really appeal to people of every age, and the shining accomplishment of Pixar’s legacy this decade would have to be the dynamic Up. Pixar took a gamble in investing in a film centered around an elderly man rediscovering his childhood after the passing of his beloved wife. The gamble paid off, as Up has as many tear filled moments as it does humor.

17) District 9 (2009) – Best Sci-Fi Thriller of the Decade

While everyone discusses the much overhyped Avatar, my sci-fi flick of the decade is far more original and trusts story and character development over mere CGI porn. District 9 is based in an internment camp of creatures from another planet who are being moved from a slum in Johannesburg to a government monitored concentration camp. Neill Blomkamp, a South African native who grew up during apartheid, develops District 9 into a film that more than pleases the eyes, but also has a message for a western society struggling with the changes of a post-racial world.

16) Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – Best Adult Fairy-Tale of the Decade

Before Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro was merely a comic book geek whose only notable directorial credits were Blade II and the critically tortured Hellboy. Now, years after the release of his “adult fairy-tale”, del Toro is universally lauded as a visionary director, and rightly so. Pan’s Labyrinth, which centers on a young girl who is identified as the heir to the throne of a fantasy world during civil war era Spain, does what film does best, and that is to take its audience into a completely new world with a recognition of the pain, despair, and courage that exists within our own worlds.

15) Juno (2007) – Best Teen Comedy of the Decade

Juno proved that no screen writer has more of an ear for “Generation Y” lingo and culture than the former Minneapolis stripper turned Academy Award winner Diablo Cody. Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody are the perfect tag team in this comedy about a teenage girl struggling to cope with an unexpected pregnancy. The dialogue is quick and witty, the music is apt and playful, and the acting is comedic without appearing forced or over done. Juno presents a heartwarming message of trust and family with a conscious recognition of what it means to be a teenager in contemporary society. This is not your mom’s Breakfast Club.

14) Volver (2006) – Best Dysfunctional Family Flick of the Decade

Director Pedro Almodovar has a way of shaping his protagonists with delicacy and insight, so its no wonder that the best actors in Spanish film seek him out and are delighted to work with him. This is never more apparent in Penelope Cruz’s portrayal of a mother coming to terms with her troubled past in the eye catching film Volver. Cruz’s role as Raimunda is not only brilliant its captivating as Almodovar crafts a film about the sanctity of feminine sexuality and the power of motherhood.

13) Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) – Best Epic of the Decade

Peter Jackson has come a long way from his zombie gorefest roots, as Lord of the Rings drew comparisons to another popular trilogy by none other than George Lucas, but Rings popularity pales in comparison to the way Jackson crafted a beloved saga of novels into breathtaking film after breathtaking film. Jackson’s films also created an apt parallel to our own society which was coping with a new worldwide war and an undetermined enemy.

12) Flags of Our Fathers (2006)/Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) – Best War Films of the Decade

Clint Eastwood (by the way he grew up in Seattle and almost attended SU) is no doubt one of the most prolific directors of the decade, with films like Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino, but he gets most personal in his sister films Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima. Eastwood, a Korean war veteran, knows the personal and tragic consequences of war and, through the eyes of both sides of the most famous battle of WWII, Eastwood challenges the very reasons we fight war delivering the powerful message that men do not fight wars for their country, but rather their brothers in arms.

11) There Will Be Blood (2007) – Best Film about American Identity

No film has ever made me rethink my identity as an American more than Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil, Blood centers around a power hungry oil man known as Daniel Plainview and his ugly feud with the fundamentally religious pastor Eli Sunday. The feud between Daniel and Eli has a very real place in contemporary American society and history as we feud within ourselves between the capitalist secular greed of Daniel Plainview and the unrealistic optimism grounded in religious reciprocity of Eli Sunday.

10) Children of Men (2006) – Best Apocalyptic Action Film of the Decade

No one revolutionized the way we make movies in this decade more than Alfonso Cuaron did in his compelling film Children of Men. Based in apocalyptic London as the world struggles with the inability to procreate, a man attempts to rescue the world’s last remaining pregnant woman. The film is dark and brutal, presenting a society at an utter standstill waiting and preparing for the end of times, completely devoid hope, and Cuaron allows the audience to step into this world using probably the best cinematography of the decade as his primary tool to do so.

9) A History of Violence (2005) – Best Film Based off a Graphic Novel

This decade saw a flurry of film adaptations of graphic novels, from the bitterly unsatisfying adaptation of Watchmen to the homoerotic/homophobic 300, but the only adaptation to truly outshine its source material is David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence. Cronenberg’s film is compelling in the way he attempts to analyze the use of violence, through the actions of a small town family man. The film asks: Is violence justified? How far is too far? What is more violent our actions or the lies we tell? And nothing is more eerie than watching a father argue with his son over the use of violence then watch them as they kill a group of gangsters.

8] Paranoid Park (2007) – Best Psychological Thriller of the Decade

To watch Gus van Sant’s films is like watching a psych patient with dual personality disorder. He see-saws between marketable main-stream films like Good Will Hunting and Milk, and high concept ethereal dramas like the controversial Elephant. In Paranoid Park (which unfortunately came out the same year as Milk), van Sant merges both of his styles into a film, which is by far the hallmark of his career. Focusing on a young teenage skateboarder entrapped in a murder investigation, Paranoid Park moves with beautiful ease enticing the audience into van Sant’s analysis of lost innocence.

7) Lost in Translation (2003) – Best Romantic Comedy of the Decade

With Lost in Translation, Sophia Coppola proved she has a place in the family business. The film focuses on a burgeoning romance between a young artistic newlywed and a middle aged former celebrity as they struggle to find purpose and meaning in their lives despite the end roads they’ve encountered. In Translation, Coppola exploits the varied hues and diversity of Tokyo to create a Wonderland out of the city developing her characters’ relationship into a colorful utopia. Translation is more than a romance, its a rediscovery of what it means to truly live.

6) Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) – Best Acted Film of the Decade

From the first shot of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei having full nudity sex, the audience knows this is not your run-of-the-mill drama, which then leads to shock at the fact that the director of this film is 80 year old film legend Sidney Lumet. Lumet completely re-invents himself in this crime thriller, about two brothers’ attempt to rob their parents’ family jewelry store. Lumet allows his star studded cast to shine in every frame, and Hoffman plays his most frightening role yet in this mind-boggling film, which is surprisingly innovative.

5) Traffic (2000) – Best Multiple Narrative Film of the Decade

Multiple narrative became a popular story telling device in films such as Crash and Babel, but what many don’t know is that Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic was the first film to experiment with this style of filmmaking. It is no mystery to the public that hypocrisy runs rampant in a bureaucratic society, in Traffic, which focuses on the American war on drugs, Soderbergh crafts a film with no clear protagonist or antagonist demonstrating the pervasiveness of greed and affectation. In Traffic, the nations most trusted drug enforcement agent is portrayed as no more moral than the most nefarious drug dealer.

4) City of God (2002) – Best Foreign Film of the Decade

City of God, a film centered around a brutal gang war spanning three decades in Rio de Janeiro’s “city of god” slum, is dynamic in its raw honest portrayal of destitute poverty and the violence that pustulates from it. Brazilian filmmakers Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, develop a film that far outpaces any Scorsese gangster epic. Whereas many urban gang films can get caught up within character development and action, Meirelles and Lund focus their attention on the perspective of the young photojournalist named Rocket. The film builds effortlessly from childhood innocence to adolescent curiosity to adult loss and disappointment. Growing up is hard to do… especially in a world of violence and corruption.

3) Almost Famous (2000) – Best Comedy of the Decade

1973, the year rock music died, according to Cameron Crowe’s version of super critic Lester Bangs in his semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous. Almost Famous centers around a teenage Rollingstone journalist who gets the assignment to follow the band Stillwater on their nationwide tour all the while falling in love with a mysterious groupie named Penny Lane. Crowe’s film is much more than a representation of his own unique adolescence and is far more than a nostalgic piece referencing 70’s rock music. At its core, Almost Famous is a coming of  age story as three people find what it truly means to grow up, while discovering their own individualism in the process, but they have to battle their own demons to get there.

2) The Dark Knight (2008) – Best Action/Superhero Film of the Decade

No film was more popular or more discussed than Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s dark take on the Batman legacy known as The Dark Knight. By focusing on the greatest rivalry in superhero mythology between Batman and his arch nemesis the Joker, the Nolan brothers developed a film that was not only a physical battle between two comic book characters, but a psychological battle over the understanding of human nature. In many ways The Dark Knight is a tragedy, and Harvey Dent is used as the perfect pawn to force Batman to criticize his own world view. In the Nolan’s film, the world is incapable of protecting itself, there is no white knight that will resonate the values of mankind, instead it takes a “Dark Knight” to maintain the status quo. The Dark Knight took the squeaky-clean image of the superhero film and drug it through the mud, and we are more than grateful for that.

1) No Country for Old Men (2007) - Best Drama/Film of the Decade

I have to admit I’ve never been a huge Coen brothers fan, but I can’t deny that No Country for Old Men is a work of pure genius. Coen brother’s films often come across as intellectually pretentious and overwhelmingly cynical focusing almost exclusively on dialogue to push a film forward (i.e. Burn After Reading), but in No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen show a brilliant command over the power of image and its ability to move a narrative. No Country for Old Men focuses on a drug deal gone bad causing a cat-and-mouse chase between an opportunistic cowboy and a hell bent hitman. The Coen brother’s create a film that is delicately and precisely developed in every way from the haunting sounds of Chigurh’s captive bolt pistol to the captivated image of a Southwestern thunderstorm. Anyone could watch this film on mute and enjoy it just as much. Not to mention the brilliant acting on the part of Javier Bardem who, sorry Heath Ledger fans, plays the most frightening character since Anthony Hopkin’s Hannibal Lecter. Haunting yet beautiful, violent yet subtle,  No Country for Old Men is empowered by its contrasts and its ironies. The western will never be the same.