Just as the music industry had it’s comfy, soulless, profit-raking, creatively-void existence shaken out of it’s tree, so too the film industry started to feel their profits shrivel in this freshly democratic media landscape. It seems innovation and profit didn’t necessarily go hand in hand though as the massive film production companies tried to plug the gaps with endless remakes, 3D tomfoolery and crap loads of marketing driven genre dirge. If anything it was a decade of extremes, as the mainstream became more generic and formulaic so there were the occasional glittering gems shining through the shinola, that kicked against the tide and were all the better for it.
Remake, remodel In assessing the last ten years in film special note has to be made for remakes. You couldn’t move for remakes between 2000 and 2009. They said pop will eat itself but mainstream (well, Hollywood) cinema gorged itself of the gently rotting corpses of past glories throughout the decade. And shallow Hollywood execs didn’t mind how precious a commodity they plundered or where in the world it came from.
We saw a whole slew of B-grade Japanese horror remakes and some weren’t actually so bad, there was The Ring (2002) series which gave a boost up to the careers of both Naomi Watts and director Gore Verbinski followed by The Grudge (2004) and Walter Salles‘ cerebral take on Dark Water (2005). Dark Castle was set up at the bitter end of the 90s with a mission to remake one b-grade horror movie a year for as long as they were able so the naughties saw them produce Thirteen Ghosts (2001), Ghost Ship (2002) and the not completely terrible though quite gruesome House of Wax (2005) and a sequel to their first ever remake (huh?) Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007). Other horror remakes included the mobius strip like Halloween franchise (which ran with the idea that when the number of sequels becomes ridiculous, simply go back and start again), more ‘adult’ fare such as The Invasion (2007) (of the Body Snatches), The Omen (2006) and Neil LaBute’s car-crash of a remake for The Wicker Man (2006).
Remake fever wasn’t just confined to the horror genre. Oh no. Other serious errors in judgement included the Coen’s Ladykillers (2004), Oz’s Stepford Wives (2004) and Demme’s The Manchurian Candidate (2004) which robbed the original of, well, pretty much everything that made it appealing in the first place. All big name directors, all flailing around the the creative gel of past film makers and deflating audiences at every turn. Most of these films beggared the question why not just make a new film using the original as inspiration and call it something completely new, hence bypassing the need to compare the two. Or better still, why not remake some bad films and make them better rather than the other way around. Only a handful scraped by unscathed, through inventive reinvention, including a John Waters approved musical remake of Hairspray (2007) and Tim Burton’s saved-by-the-Depp epic remix of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
Indie Mavericks The more generic the mainstream became the larger the audience for truely original and creative film making became clearing the path for a slew of modern indie mavericks such as Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola. Charlie Kaufmann is worthy of special note if only for the fact that script writers rarely over-shadow directors, and even though his own directorial debut, the constant low hum that is Synecdoche, New York (2008) was more miss than hit, the cinema landscape would have been a much duller place without it.
There were a few precious little one-hit wonders along the way too such as Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), as well as handful of similarly quiet achievers who set themselves up for much greater things this coming decade such as Rian Johnson who pulled a couple of rabbits out his hat with Brick (2005) and The Brothers Bloom (2008) and Alex Holdridge who narrowly broke free of any mumblecore associations with a uniquely modern take on romance with In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2007). Jennifer (daughter of David) Lynch even managed a bit of a career repreve at the end of the decade with, the intriguing indie thriller Surveillance (2008).
What we all thought would be the biggest breakout this decade though was Richard Kelly after his debut, Donnie Darko (2001). Unfortunately two films on and he has yet to crack that magic combination that made Donnie Darko one of the most memorable films ever produced. The success of Donnie Darko was acknowledged by a film company attempting to cash in on it with a dire, unofficial sequel going by the name of S. Darko (2009) which was lambasted by fans and new comers alike.
The International Scene The loosening of Hollywood’s grip on the multiplexes (sad, bedraggled temples to the golden age of American powerhouse cinema in the 80s that they are) meant non-US produced films started to get more of a look in too and even gain a bit of well needed exposure.
The UK, in particular, benefited this decade with a number of biggish films such as Shaun of the Dead (2004), An Education (2009) and Hammer and Tongs’ take on a quintessentially British sci-fi classic, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Less well distributed UK films yet still worthy of note included Mike Leigh’s antidote to the re-release of Naked, Happy Go Lucky (2007) and Sean Ellis‘ boobtastic debut, Cashback (2006) and chilly follow up, The Brøken (2008).
Over on the continent the French proved they still could kick butt with parkour-fest Banlieue 13 (2004) and threatened to turn us all into melancholics with Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell & The Butterfly (2007). Michael Haneke continued to rap us over the knuckles with a remake of his own film, Funny Games U.S. (2007) and Caché (2005). Daft Punk even managed to release a silent movie about robots called Electroma (2006). Iceland’s Mýrin (2006) informed us that whole sheep’s heads are considered a tasty snack and Germany’s Tattoo (2002) enlightened us to the real reason body art can be dangerous. Germany continued to display it’s new found seriousness for cinema with the Berlin Film Festival gaining more and more recognition and cinematic output such as The Lives of Others (2006), Downfall (2004) and The Edukators (2004) gaining much wider audiences.
The list! There’s are so much more films we could talk about here. IMDb alone lists over 200,000 titles as having been released this decade. It’s been kind of bewildering trying to put together any sort of list. I’ve stopped short at 50 fave films for the year. Quite a few had to be clipped off the end to get to that number. If there’s any you think should stayed on, or if you’ve got a fave, leave a comment and let us know. Here goes nuffing…
01. Donnie Darko (2001)
02. Marie Antoinette (2006)
03. Children of Men (2006)
04. Finisterre (2003)
05. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
06. In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2007)
07. A History of Violence (2005)
08. Let the Right One In (2008)
09. Zombieland (2009)
10. CQ (2001)
11. Human Nature (2001)
12. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
13. Planet Terror (2007)
14. House of Wax (2005)
15. Moon (2009)
16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
17. Lost in Translation (2003)
18. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
19. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
20. The Brøken (2008)
21. Surveillance (2008)
22. An Education (2009)
23. Ghost World (2001)
24. Red Dragon (2002)
25. Inland Empire (2006)
26. Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
27. Franklyn (2008)
28. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
29. Silent Hill (2006)
30. The Ring (2002)
31. Casino Royale (2006)
32. Cashback (2006)
33. Far from Heaven (2002)
34. Banlieue 13 (2004)
35. No Country for Old Men (2007)
36. Sunshine (2007)
37. Sin City (2005)
38. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) & Vol. 2 (2004)
39. District 9 (2009)
40. Nurse Betty (2000)
41. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
42. Electroma (2006)
43. Disturbia (2007)
44. Dogville (2003)
45. Spirited Away (2001)
46. City of Ember (2008)
47. 28 Days Later… (2002)
48. American Psycho (2000)
49. Ellie Parker (2005)
50. Brick (2005)
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