Thursday, August 13, 2009

FAVORITE MOVIES OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Falling asleep last night, I came up with a list of English-language movies I think (and in some cases hope) will be the future classics from the first decade (or this much of it so far) of the 21st century.

I originally did it in my mind alphabetically, but it started to grow so large I changed to my old favorite trinity lists, inventing new categories to include the flicks that came to mind as those I would vote for for consideration as what the future will deem classics:

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL MOVIES:

JUNO
MEAN GIRLS
NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY WOODY ALLEN MOVIES

MATCH POINT
SMALL TIME CROOKS
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
[I haven’t seen WHATEVER WORKS yet]

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY ACTION MOVIES

THE BOURNE IDENTITY
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY SERIOUS GEORGE CLOONEY MOVIES

MICHAEL CLAYTON
THE GOOD GERMAN
SYRIANA

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY COMIC GEORGE CLOONEY MOVIES

BURN AFTER READING
LEATHERHEADS
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY CAPER GEORGE CLOONEY MOVIES

OCEAN’S ELEVEN
OCEAN’S TWELVE
OCEAN’S THIRTEEN

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY MOVIE MUSICALS

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
DREAMGIRLS
ONCE

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY CRIME DRAMAS

AMERICAN VIOLET
FROZEN RIVER
GONE BABY GONE

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY ROMANTIC COMEDIES

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
2 DAYS IN PARIS
WAITRESS

MOST UNIQUE 21ST CENTURY LOVE STORIES

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
LOST IN TRANSLATION

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY ANIMATED FILMS

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLVILLE [I know I said English language, but this is in the universal language of animation]
UP [especially in 3-D]
WALL-E

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY OLD STYLE EPIC FILMS

APCOLYPTO
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL
THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY NEWISH-STYLE EPIC FILMS

ATONEMENT
BABEL
CRASH

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY ULTIMATELY TRAGIC MOVIES

IN BRUGES
INTO THE WILD
NOTES ON A SCANDAL

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY TRIUMPH OF THE UNDERDOG MOVIES

THE GREAT DEBATERS
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY FEEL GOOD MOVIES DESPITE THEIR SUBJECT MATTER

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER
THE VISITOR
YOU KILL ME

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY ULTIMATELY TRAGIC LOVE STORIES

AWAY FROM HER
EASTERN PROMISES
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING

FAVORITE 21ST CENTURY OVERCOMING-THE-ODDS LOVE STORIES

HIGH FIDELITY
JUST LIKE HEAVEN
SKINS [the Native American one, the love in this case being familial]

4 comments:

Ed Baker said...

you actually
remember all of this schlock/dreck
a l p h b e t i c a l l y ?


Amazing

Lally said...

Ed, which is the "schlock/dreck"—my making lists of favorite books or movies or art etc. like this one, or the actual movies I chose? If it's the latter, what a blanket judgement. Not worthy of you to my mind. If it's my lists, or lists in general, why bother with your own poetry and other writing, which more often than not involves list making. Unless you mean all writing is "schlock/dreck" or...
Anyway, like most poets (and I suspect most people) I love lists, and since this is my blog, I share them.
And yes, the way I remember the lists I use to help me fall asleep is by doing them alphabetically. I actually picture the alphabet and then search my memory for something (or someone in some lists) that fits the parameters I make up for each one and starts with that letter.
(sometimes I look up details the next day to make sure I remember it correctly, like I thought of GROSSE POINT BLANK last night when I was first making an alphabet list, but wasn't sure it was made in the past nine years so I left it off, before I switched to the triplets one (and found out today that my doubts were correct, it came out in the '90s).
Etc.

-K- said...

I watched "Napoleon Dynamite" and didn't laugh once. The next day, however, my head could not stop trying to figure out what it had seen. Uncle Rico, "Do the chickens have large talons?" drawing ligers, Vote for Pedro, the llamas, all of it so quirky in a blatantly understated way (if there can be such a thing), I didn't start laughing until 12 hours after the movie was over.

Anonymous said...

Dear M:
These should be the new Oscar categories---it would make the event much more interesting. And as for Ed Baker's condescending dismissal of such great works as "Michael Clayton" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou" as dreck---you give his benighted and limited perspective more attention than it deserves.
TPW