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FargoEvery month, our contributors will be putting together a list of ten films on certain topics. Each month will be different and will feature an alphabetical list our selections, commentary from each of us on our picks and an itemized list showing what we each selected.

This month, Cinema Sight (formerly oscarguy.com) will be celebrating its 20th anniversary on the internet. In celebration of that, this month’s poll looks back at our ten favorite films of the last twenty years. While it was no doubt difficult to narrow these down, here are the results.

Three directors are represented by two films on these lists. Ang Lee has both Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi while Clint Eastwood has Million Dollar Baby and Letters from Iwo Jima. In addition, Quentin Tarantino shows up with both Kill Bill: Volumes 1 & 2 and Inglorious Basterds.

Of the films with multiple citations, Fargo has the most mentions with three. With two each, Boyhood, Spirited Away and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, let’s take a look at the films that make up our lists along with our comments on each.


AssassinationofJesseJames

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

(dir. Andrew Dominik)
Commentary By Tripp Burton – Andrew Dominik’s elegiac 2007 Western, with a star-making turn from Casey Affleck, might say more about our celebrity culture today than any other film of the past twenty years. The way Affleck’s Robert Ford idolizes Brad Pitt’s Jesse James, the way that he edges himself closer to him, and the way that the public at large monopolizes both men is a reflection of our current tabloid driven, Reality TV obsessed culture today. The fact that the film is soaked in Roger Deakins’ cinematography, and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ music, both of which make the film feel so worn and yet so fresh, only helps to drive home this point. It is at all times beautiful, chilling, fascinating and intelligent.

Boyhood

Boyhood (2014)

(dir. Richard Linklater)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Richard Linklater’s ambitious 2014 film, made over the course of thirteen years, representing twelve years in the life of a fractured Texas family, is unique in that it features actors naturally aging over the course of the filming as opposed to different actors or the same actors heavily made up to play the same characters at different stages of life. Such a film might be dismissed as a glorified home movie if it werenโ€™t for the expert acting of Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as they go through real life changes over the course of the film. It’s an experimental film that works on all levels.

Commentary By Tripp Burton – Richard Linklater has spent the last two decades chronicling what it has been like to live right now in this moment. I thought about putting his Before trilogy on this list, and you could certainly argue that his rotoscoped films are among the freshest visions of this century so far, but Boyhood may be his greatest achievement to date. By slowly working its way through the new millennium, and following one character as he tries to make sense of the world around him, Linklater has captured the 21st century in all its everyday wonders and mundanity. The way that the film uses Britney Spears songs and Barack Obama campaigns to mark time feel both time-specific and also universal: the tunes and candidates might change, but the excitement and emotion never do. Linklater is never afraid to let his characterโ€™s breathe through a movie, and in Boyhood he takes that to the extreme: it is the small moments in life that truly mark who we are, and we are shaped by the love of others more than their actions.

BrokebackMountain

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

(dir. Ang Lee)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – One of my favorite working directors, Ang Lee has turned out some of the finest cinema in the last two decades. One of his greatest efforts was this modern western drama about two cowboys who fall in love on the barren Wyoming mountainside. Starring the tremendous Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, the film dealt honestly and passionately with the concept of gay relationships, especially in a time when they could be a death sentence. Ledger should have won an Oscar for this performance and Lee, rightfully did. The Academy passed on it in favor of the simple-minded Crash, but history hasn’t and won’t ever look kindly on that.

Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – A winner of multiple awards worldwide, this moving examination of a long-term same-sex love affair was too hot for some old guard Oscar voters who denied the film its rightful 2005 Best Picture award but couldn’t deny Ang Lee his first Oscar for Best Direction, or Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana their first for Best Screenplay. For McMurtry (Hud, The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment) this was a particularly overdue win. Too bad voters didnโ€™t see fit to honor actors Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams as well for their moving performances.

ChefinLove

A Chef in Love (1997)

(dir. Nana Dzhordzhadze)
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – This was a little seen Georgian film that was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It showed both the love of food, but also the difficult life under the early Soviet regime. The core metaphor linking food with love may be a little trite, but it was a delightful and heart-warming film. It did not make it to Denver until months after the Oscars and only played for a week, but I tried to talk everyone I knew into seeing it as I so enjoyed it.

ChildrenofMen

Children of Men (2006)

(dir. Alfonso Cuarรณn)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Alfonso Cuarรณn took us inside P.D. James dystopian novel Children of Men and gave us a tremendous glimpse into a dangerous future. Cuarรณn maserfully directed this searing drama with strong performances from Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clare-Hope Ashitey and star Clive Owen. Would you be willing to risk your life for the sake of civilization? The film answers that question with blistering realism, one of the finest futuristic dramas made in the last two decades.

EternalSunshineoftheSpotlessMind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

(dir. Michel Gondry)
Commentary By Tripp Burton – The fragmented storyline has become one of the hallmarks of the movies of the past twenty years, but no film has used it as emotionally devastatingly as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufmanโ€™s bizarre vision of a near-future where memories can be erased, and the dream-like maze of memories that we are taken through as they literally crumble around the characters, is one of the freshest cinematic achievements of the past two decades. Structurally, the film is a work of art, weaving scenes in and out of each other and revisiting them time and time again to give them new resonance, but many other films have done that just as well before and since. What makes Eternal Sunshine stand out is how devastating, uplifting, funny, terrifying, warm, cold, optimistic and pessimistic it can seem all at one time. For a movie that spends so much time grappling with how the brain works, it is fitting that this is a movie that plays with both sides of your brain simultaneously, and manipulates them both expertly.

EyesWideShut

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

(dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – The final film of director Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut explores marital fidelity in fascinating detail. Kubrick was a perfectionist and it showed here with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise delivering strong performances as a married couple on the rocks and his strange trip through the New York City nightlife, facing one near-miss after another of sexual gratifcation and guilt-ridden fidelity. Only after Kubrick’s death, shortly before its release, have historians begun looking into the film in earnest, realizing what some of us knew then that this may be one of his most masterful works ever.

Fargo

Fargo (1996)

(dir. Joel Coen)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – The Coen Brothers’ comedy came in like a refreshing, if chilly, breath of fresh air in the spring of 1996. To me it’s still the best thing the Coens have come up with, and two seasons of the excellent cable TV show later, it remains a one-of-a-kind film-going experience. Frances McDormand won a much deserved Oscar for her portrayal of the no-nonsense pregnant deputy sheriff and Oscar-nominated William H. Macy is almost her equal as the hapless first-time criminal in way over his head. Steve Buscemi and Harve Presnell stand out in the letter perfect supporting cast.

Commentary By Tripp BurtonFargo was a jolt to my system when it came out in 1996, and it hasnโ€™t given up its grasp on me since. I was 14, and this was in many ways the funniest, smartest and most exciting film I think I had ever seen. 20 years later, it remains as funny, smart and exciting as the day that it came out. Spearheaded by a trio of brilliant performances from Frances McDormand, William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi, Fargo is a distillation of everything that makes the Coen Brothers two of the greatest filmmakers alive today: hilarious dialogue, memorable characters, original scenarios, a tinge of the absurd, and the most acute eye for the details of life.

Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – The Coen Brothers’ films can often be a mixed bag, but when they are on, they can produce masterpieces like Fargo. Set in bleak northern Minnesota during the freezing winter, the film is alternately bloody and hilarious, anchored by an Oscar-winning performance by Frances McDormand. Wood chippers will never be viewed the same after seeing this film.

GodsandMonsters

Gods and Monsters (1998)

(dir. Bill Condon)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Bill Condon’s Oscar-winning script and his equally fine direction perfectly captures both the look of 1950s Hollywood and its earlier 1930s period in flashback in this 1998 film. Ian McKellen was robbed of a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of legendary director James Whale, as was Lynn Redgrave parodying Whale favorite Una Oโ€™Connor (The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein) albeit with a Hungarian accent as Whale’s disapproving housekeeper instead of Oโ€™Connorโ€™s Irish brogue. Brendan Fraser is also excellent as the ex-marine gardener who becomes Whale’s unlikely model and friend.

GrizzlyMan

Grizzly Man (2005)

(dir. Werner Herzog)
Commentary By Tripp Burton – The past 20 years have been a renaissance of documentary filmmaking, but I struggled as to what should represent the genre on this list. I could have easily gone with Capturing the Friedmans, The Act of Killing, any number of Errol Morris films, or even several other Werner Herzog films. Grizzly Man, though, may be the most frighteningly personal and personally frightening of them all. As Herzog grapples with the story of Timothy Treadwell, he is faced with the questions that have plagued him his entire career: how do we progress as humans and still respect nature, and more importantly, how does nature continue to outmatch us at every turn. By the time we get to the story’s ending, which Herzog smartly does not subject us to but instead lets us watch him listen to Treadwell’s final moments, we are left with no answers but even more questions and a sense that no matter what we do, we will never be able to control our own fates.

Hero

Hero (2002)

(dir. Zhang Yimou)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – There aren’t many martial arts epics that I enjoy, let alone I declare classics; however, Zhang Yimou delivered what is ostensibly my favorite film of the genre with Hero, a Wuxing drama about a Qin prefect who agrees to kill three individuals who attempted to assassinate the king. As he recounts the stories of their deaths, we are treated to a sumptuous series of reminiscenes that gorgeously depict this man’s travels. Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi are undeniably great in their respective roles and the film’s luscious cinematography by Christopher Doyle captures beautifully visually segments done in separate single-color dominant hues.

InAmerica

In America (2004)

(dir. Jim Sheridan)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Few films capture the immigrant experience in modern America better than the 2003 Oscar-nominated screenplay by Jim Sheridan and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten based on their own experiences a decade or so earlier. Paddy Considine as an aspiring actor and Oscar-nominated Samantha Morton as his pregnant wife are unforgettable, as are Sarah and Emma Bolger as their daughters and Oscar-nominated Djimon Hounsou as their neighbor, an African-American artist dying of AIDS. On an emotional level, the film ranks right up there with Sheridanโ€™s three Daniel Day-Lewis starrers, My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father and The Boxer.

InglouriousBasterds

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

(dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – My favorite by far of Quentin Tarantino’s films. I never would have guessed that I could laugh uproariously at World War II, but he did make it possible. Various serious subplots swirl through the film, and many main characters do not live to the end, but it was a gripping film. It also introduced Christoph Waltz to a larger cinematic world, and his Hans Landa is an intelligent, frightening, charming and ruthless creation. He absolutely deserved his Oscar for the role. The film itself would have been my choice to win for Best Picture as well.

KillBill

Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 (2003-2004)

(dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Told in his trademark narrative style using jumbled temporal placement, Quentin Tarantino waged the greatest revenge drama in cinema history featuring Uma Thurman as The Bride, a jilted woman left to die on her wedding day, as she sets about killing those responsible, four former associates and assasins, and finally the man who orchestrated it all. This visually resplendant saga blends all of Tarantino’s greatest traits into one of the most exciting films of the last two decades. Its visual panache is matched only by its creative energy. While my favorite scene of the pair takes place in a snowy court yard, there are countless memorable set pieces to enjoy.

LAConfidential

L.A. Confidential (1997)

(dir. Curtis Hanson)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Based on James Ellroy’s acclaimed novel, this excellent 1997 modern film noir follows the exploits of three detectives (Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce) in the corrupt L.A. police department of the 1950s. Utilizing different methods to uncover the conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner, their investigation leads to a high-priced call girl ring in which the prostitutes are made up to resemble Hollywood stars. Kim Basinger won an Oscar for playing a Veronika Lake look-alike. The critical favorite might have won the Best Picture Oscar in another year, but it was up against Titianic.

LettheRightOneIn

Let the Right One In (2008)

(dir. Tomas Alfredson)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – You can forget the weak, subtext-less 2010 American remake. Let the Right One In is a fascianting visual poem about fidelity, love and survival as a young vampire relies entirely on a caretaker to keep it safe. After a costly mistake, the vampire must begin grooming a replacement, a young boy who wants to have a friend, but succumbs to the vampire’s charms. Lina Leandersson is superb as the young vampire Eli, an androgynous creature whose suggested sexuality becomes a subversive text on the nature of interpersonal relationships and the delicate balance between friendship and love.

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

(dir. Clint Eastwood)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Arguably the best film Clint Eastwood ever directed, this war/antiwar film told from the perspective of the losing Japanese toward the end of World War II, was a companion piece to Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, released earlier in 2006. The earlier film chronicled the battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the six American soldiers who raised the flag on the island after the defeat of the Japanese. Both are moving and unforgettable, but the American side of the story should be familiar to most viewers whereas the clashing social dynamics of the Japanese side of the war makes for a haunting history lesson as well as a great film.

LifeofPi

Life of Pi (2012)

(dir. Ang Lee)
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – A lyrically beautiful film of a young boy’s improbable voyage across the Pacific Ocean with a tiger in his life raft. Although filled with amazing computer-generated imagery, it is also an intimate tale of survival and the unlikely friendship, or at least toleration and compromise, one has to make to survive. From the harrowing shipwreck to a feast of flying fish, it creates an indelible world. It worked in both 3D and 2D, and, for me, heralded a better use of 3D technology than I had previously seen. A winner for both director Ang Lee as well as cinematography among other awards, it could easily have won more.

LordoftheRings

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

(dir. Peter Jackson)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – A monumental undertaking, Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal novel series The Lord of the Rings was mounted as a simultaneously-filmed epic that would take fans and non-fans on adventure across the lands of Middle Earth as a young Hobbit carries a great burden towards into a dangerous clime where he must destroy it before it falls into the possession of a great enemy. Featuring incredible performances from Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, John Noble, Karl Urban, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Bernard Hill, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif and Christopher Lee, the films became instant classics and remain one of the most ambitious and successful cinematic events ever.

Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – I decided to lump these three together as they were a series that built upon each other. Peter Jackson created a fully realized world of hobbits and magic and orcs and elves. The characters are lovingly detailed and the cinematography and special effects make a cohesive whole. I was dubious about how these would translate to film, but they were one of the few sets of films, especially ones that were three hours long apiece, that I felt could have been longer. And then when they were re-released in a longer version, they still worked just fine. These felt streamlined and nearly perfect for what they were, a pity that he followed them up with the bloated Hobbit series. Ignore those and revel in these three films.

Matrix

The Matrix (1999)

(dir. Andy & Lana Wachowski)
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – It may not be my favorite movie of all time, but it probably affected how films were made more than any other film in the last 20 years. The special effects and action sequences were groundbreaking at the time and have been copied in thousands of movies since. This one was so successfully made that it is a pity that they weren’t able to make the sequels as powerful, but the bleak future was fully realized in this film.

MidnightinParis

Midnight in Paris (2011)

(dir. Woody Allen)
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – Woody Allen can succeed beautifully with a film, or produce a fluff piece that hardly seems worth the time. This time-traveling lark stars a never better Owen Wilson visiting Paris in its perceived heyday of Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. How the taxi makes the trip is never explained, but it does not need to be. Itโ€™s an enjoyable ride and has a bittersweet message about how we all assume an earlier age was better.

MillionDollarBaby

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

(dir. Clint Eastwood)
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – From action hero to introspective director, Clint Eastwood has had a fascinating career path. He had directed for years, but reached his pinnacle with this film. Many films have shown a brash young boxer turning to an older hand for direction, but this added some fresh spins on the type, not just having the boxer be female. Strong performances by Eastwood and the Oscar-winning duo of Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman make this a moving picture, especially with its unexpected ending.

Miserables

Les Misรฉrables (2012)

(dir. Tom Hooper)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Gene Kelly once said that the purpose of a musical was to make people feel good. If by feeling good he meant uplifting the spirit, then I wholeheartedly agree. While a film like Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain is so full of laughter and joy that it can’t help but make you feel good, a film filled with tragedy albeit stirring nobility gives you hope for the whole human race. West Side Story was such a film, and so is 2012’s Les Misรฉrables, which despite the naysayers, was one of the great film musicals of recent times. We need more of them, so thank you to Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne and company for giving us this one.

MulhollandDr

Mulholland Drive (2001)

(dir. David Lynch)
Commentary By Tripp Burton – Perhaps the greatest puzzle film of the past 20 years, a lot has been written trying to come to terms with the timeline of David Lynchโ€™s Mulholland Drive: who lives, who dies, how many Bettys are there and at what point does reality cease and fiction take over for her? In the end, though, any confusion over what is happening on screen ends up being inconsequential. Lynch’s film is about movies and the fairy tale land that we enter when the lights are turned down, and the emotion of Betty’s journey is what we take away from the film. Naomi Watts vaulted to stardom based on this performance, still her best, but the eccentric mismatch of character actors Lynch assembles do just as much of the heavy lifting for the film, weaving us through a Los Angeles where darkness is always bubbling and no one is safe for long.

RequiemforaDream

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

(dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans and Christopher McDonald, Darren Aronofsky’s rough, visceral drug addiction drama is a stark reminder of how dangerous illicit drug use can be. From traditional drug use like that used by Leto, Connelly and Wayans to the prescription drug addiction of Burstyn’s character, the film hammers home its idea with unrelenting realism marked by twisted, bizarre visual elements used to depict the mentally confused world of these participants. Unrelenting and bleak, there are few films that I left in the last two decades feeling so emotionally and mentally engaged. It was a difficult film to watch, but filled with such stunning creative energy and undeterred cynicism that it easily remains with you long after you’ve seen it.

Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer (2014)

(dir. Joon Ho Bong)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Dumped in the states by Harvey Weinstein after the director refused to let him recut the film, Snowpiercer is a visual marvel that requires the audience move from one scene to the next without knowing what to expect. A dark, post-apocalyptic future follows a rag tag group of steerage passengers on a speeding train who launch a violent uprising to unseat the power at the front of the train where the wealthy have gathered to cavort and enjoy their eternal train ride while the poor are mistreated and subjugated at the rear. Each train car is a unique and compelling environment demanding your undivided attention while its unrelenting visceral imagery sears itself into your mind. A powerful indictment of class struggles and the dangerous future ahead if Climate Change is left to run rampant, Joon Ho Bong’s film is a fascinating and beguiling sci-fi drama.

SpiritedAway

Spirited Away (2001)

(dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Animated features can be quite uneven and I’ve never been a fan of the anime style, but at the heart of Hayao Miyazaki’s masterful animated features is a simple story about growing up and moving on. While I almost put The Wind Rises onto this list, ultimately the childish wonder and visual splendor of Spirit Away edged it out. Miyazaki’s look at a young girl as she gets lost in an ancient city where the hidden spirits of our world go to cleanse themselves of their taint is a beautiful, simple tale told with imagination, heart and unbridled and unrivalled creative energy. There are few masters so evocative as Miyazaki and this is one of his most daring and approachable films even with its slightly subversive undertones.

Commentary By Tripp Burton – Hayao Miyazaki has ended his career with a streak of simplistically devastating animated films, continuing to find depth, meaning and truth in the most artificial of genres. Spirited Away is probably still his masterpiece, a film that deals with Miyazakiโ€™s common concerns of environment, parenting and adventure with pure grace. Every turn of the film is perfectly constructed and the creatures that Chihiro collects along the way are among the most memorable in animation history, and is propelled by Joe Hisashiโ€™s wistful score. Spirited Away is a film that challenges everyone who watches it, no matter what age.

SummerHours

Summer Hours (2008)

(dir. Olivier Assayas)
Commentary By Tripp Burton – Watching Olivier Assayas transition from enfant terrible of French cinema into one of its most challenging, mature directors of realism has been one of the great treats of the last decade, and Summer Hours remains the apex of his oeuvre. Using his penchant for the allegory, Assayas plops us directly down in the middle of a family drama with no need for trickery. As we watch a family grasp with their own responsibilities and heritage, we also understand that the family is only one part of what Assays is going for. Summer Hours is also the greatest examination we have yet had about rapid globalization. Many people have reached for wider nets to discuss how our world is reconnecting around us, but by distilling it down to one family, it packs more of a punch than any of them. By the time we get to the final act, a seemingly plotless party back where we started, we understand just how the world is changing and what Assayas is really trying to tell us.

TasteofCherry

Taste of Cherry (1997)

(dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
Commentary By Tripp Burton – As filmmakers continue to ratchet up the urgency of their films through choppy editing, loud sound effects and rapid-fire dialogue, Abbas Kiarostami continues to let his characters sit in silence through long takes and take in the meaning of the world around them. I almost included the later Certified Copy instead of this film, as it remains one of the great meditations on art and filmmaking that we have, but the humanity of Taste of Cherry remains as urgent today as they did when the film premiered almost 20 years ago. It is not an easy film, and the ending can still be hard to grapple with, but great films should always be difficult to grasp.

Titanic

Titanic (1997)

(dir. James Cameron)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – A box office phenomenon about the voyage of the ill-fated ship was released at the perfect time Almost twenty years later itโ€™s doubtful that todayโ€™s audiences would greet it with the same acclaim. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as Jack and Rose, the star-crossed young lovers and Gloria Stuart as Winsletโ€™s character grown old are sheer perfection. The reconstruction of the ship and the meticulous filming of its sinking are seared in the memory. The 1997 filmโ€™s record-tying eleven Oscars included those for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Editing, Sound and Score.

ToyStory3

Toy Story 3 (2010)

(dir. Lee Unkrich)
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – This film beautifully tied up the trilogy of Toy Story films and the secret lives of the toys that come alive when we are not around. The animation, especially of the humans, improved with every film, and this one brought a lot of emotion. It is filled with comedy, surprisingly tense action sequences, and a heartfelt ending that did bring tears to my eyes. I have read that they are planning a fourth movie, and I have very mixed emotions as this one seemed the perfect ending and actually improved on the previous films. Hopefully, they will continue to improve the series with it.

TreeofLife

The Tree of Life (2011)

(dir. Terrence Malick)
Commentary By Tripp Burton – Terrence Malick may be the greatest living filmmaker, and his prolific (for him) output over the last two decades led to several films that I thought about including on this list. In the end, I went with his instant masterpiece. The Tree of Life, which takes us from dinosaurs to small-town America to purgatory with an emotional stream that is vital filmmaking. Perhaps no film of the past 20 years has challenged the average filmgoer more, but no film also offers the rewards that this film does: the gorgeous cinematography, music and production design are flawless, but so are the quiet performances, the warm love bubbling under the surface of everything, or the questions we all must face about just what our role in this world is, and how much of an effect any of it has in the biggest of pictures.

Up

Up (2009)

(dir. Pete Docter)
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – Filled with beautiful and striking images and lots of comedy, this Pixar release showed that there can be a lot of true emotion in modern animated films. A disgruntled old man decides to fly away in his house and live the adventures he never had, but inadvertently takes a scout and dog with him. Along the way they discover an exotic bird and an evil explorer, have grand adventures, but also discover what is truly important in life. It was a most deserving Oscar winner for Animated Feature.

YiYi

Yi Yi (2000)

(dir. Edward Yang)
Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Edward Yang, a leading light of the Taiwanese New Wave of the 1980s and 90s, made his last film in his early 50s, dying way too soon a few years later at the age of 57. That film, however, is a modern masterpiece totally in sync with the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s masterpiece, 1953’s Tokyo Story. Both films center around family, Yangโ€™s chronicling a year in the life of a Tapei family attempting to answer the question, ‘Why is the world so different from what we think it is?” Frustrated with the ways films were distributed in Taiwan, Yangโ€™s 2000 film still has not been officially shown in his own country.

Wesley’s List

Peter’s List

Tripp’s List

Thomas’ List

  • Brokeback Mountain
  • Children of Men
  • Eyes Wide Shut
  • Hero
  • Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2
  • Let the Right One In
  • The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
  • Requiem for a Dream
  • Snowpiercer
  • Spirited Away
  • Boyhood
  • Brokeback Mountain
  • Fargo
  • Gods and Monsters
  • In America
  • L.A. Confidential
  • Les Misรฉrables
  • Letters from Iwo Jima
  • Titanic
  • Yi Yi
  • The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  • Boyhood
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Fargo
  • Grizzly Man
  • Mulholland Drive
  • Spirited Away
  • Summer Hours
  • Taste of Cherry
  • The Tree of Life
  • A Chef in Love
  • Fargo
  • Inglourious Basterds
  • Life of Pi
  • The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
  • The Matrix
  • Midnight in Paris
  • Million Dollar Baby
  • Toy Story 3
  • Up

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