This is where we stand, with the top 5 to come next week.

25. Shaun of the Dead

24. Gladiator

23. Sideways

22. In Bruges

21. Lost in Translation

20. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

19. Mulholland Drive

18. Gosford Park

17. O Brother Where Art Thou

16. There Will Be Blood

15. Snatch

14. Borat

13. The Dark Knight

12. Spirited Away

11. The Royal Tenenbaums

Before I get started, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a film that won’t be on this list due to timing, but absolutely is one of the top 25 films of the last 10 years. And 15 years. And 20 years. And so on.

AVATAR

“Avatar” is really one of the most significant achievements in film history. I honestly feel it’s on par with “The Wizard of Oz” and “Star Wars” in terms of what it does to films as we know them. What James Cameron has done with “Avatar” is simply stunning. Enough praise can’t be heaped on Cameron for what he’s created here. Almost none of the pitfalls of CGI or motion captured animation are present here. In fact Cameron has made CGI the true asset it can be, sharpening the focus by inventing cameras, and heightening the emotion of the characters in the same way.

My friend Andrew Brenner is fond of pointing out that when you pop in “Terminator 2” and look at the effects in that movie, they stand the test of time. I think part of the reason that’s true is Cameron was years ahead of his time then. He’s light years ahead of it here. The 3D is both subtle and enrapturing, and never overtly annoying. The CGI is both stunning and completely acceptable as normal. What stands out is not glitches, but beauty. What pops off the screen is not explosions on the planet, it’s the exploration of the planet. And the love story works, developing through a wonderful montage, and earning emotion through the evolution of a hardened female warrior into a loving, and yet still badass, female warrior.

People are taking potshots at the story or dialogue, but would anyone take potshots at the story and dialogue of “The Wizard of Oz”? Really, how cheesy is “There’s no place like home…” when it comes right down to it?  And isn’t “Star Wars”, as famed cultural historian and overall genius and gift to the world Joseph Campbell observed, just a story of archetypes that resonates with tales from the ages? So what if “Avatar” is similar to other tales? So is the bible. So is “The Wizard of Oz”. So are so many of our great works. The hero has a thousand faces, but the hero’s journey is as timeless as the earth. And, yeah, the film has Sci-Fit conventions, guess what, it’s a SCIENCE FICTION movie. Of course it’s going to have conventions. This film succeeds and exceeds not because its story is conventional, but because the stage on which the conventions play out is historically magnificent, and anything but conventional.

Eat me

Through the criticism this film is enduring, I am starting to wonder if anyone ever sits back and just lets themselves ENJOY something for once anymore? Why does everything have to be a constant analysis of why something disappointed you, instead of a focus on what something does to entertain you? I suspect that, if you’re hating on this film, you’re not SEEING it, just like the main character wasn’t seeing things before he learned to focus on the beauty in them. “Avatar” is a tremendously beautiful film. If it doesn’t make you feel like a kid again, it’s because you aren’t letting it. It’s FINE to think critically, but why not think positively once in awhile? There’s room for both.

Put it this way, there’s beauty in a symphony and beauty in a piano sonata. Yes, the symphony is more complex and succeeds on more levels, and you could look at the sonata and just say it wasn’t as good as the symphony because it didn’t do anything on the oboe, or the woodwinds, or didn’t have a chorus, etc. Or you could just stop hating and enjoy the sonata for what it is.

“Avatar” doesn’t have the best acting this side of “A Streetcar Named Desire”. It’s not the best-written or most original story since “Being John Malkovitch.” But I wish people would stop hating on what it isn’t, and instead revel in the wonder of what it is. You know, maybe enjoy the beauty of the sonata, instead of complaining it’s not a full symphony.

With that off my chest, let’s get on with the list:

10. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND – 2004

The most unlikely “love story” of the films on this list, and also the highest ranked from the genre included here.

This is a tremendously wacky and yet grippingly emotional film. It resonates for anyone who has loved and lost. It confronts the central question “Is it better to have loved and lost, or never loved before” by making that an option. What if, after a particularly painful breakup, you could erase all memories of the person from your head? If you could shake your head like an Etch-A-Sketch and erase all etchings of previous times, would you? And what would be the consequences?

The characters in this film confront these questions directly. They find out the pain and power in their answers. And it’s a hell of an emotional roller coaster. Jim Carrey, perhaps never more vulnerable and real than he is here, and Kate Winslet, who basically has to act her way out of being irresistible, are more than up to the task of letting these questions drive a narrative of their love for one another. It’s anything but a conventional romantic comedy, and yet if not for the conventions the film presents, it would not be the same. This isn’t a “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back and they live happily ever after” story. It’s more of a “boy loses girl, boy wants to forget girl, girl wants to forget boy, but maybe they don’t, and maybe they won’t lose each other, but maybe they will, boy meets girl, boy loses girl?” kinda story. Yeah, it’s that heart-wrenchingly twisted. C’est la vie.

"Meet me in Montauk..."

This film also confronts the issue of the relationship between love and destiny. Is love just something that happens chemically at a pre-determined date and time—a unique combustion of elements based on environmental conditions, or is it something that is bound to happen organically at any date and time based on the natural connection of the people involved? Or is it both?

Speaking of a unique combination of elements that produce combustion, this film is a perfect combination of writer and director. Michael Gondry was born to work with Charlie Kaufman, and vice versa. Their writing output in this film won them an Academy Award in 2005, and it was well deserved. They were able to craft here a film that directly, deftly, and beautifully confronts whether time, or forgetfulness, cures all wounds, and whether purposeful forgetfulness is rather like amputating your arm to cure a hangnail. How do we get over a tragic relationship? Can we? Is there truly eternal sunshine in a spotless mind? Watch this film, and tell me what you think.

9. MEMENTO – 2000

Another film that confronts issue with memory head on. Well, as head on as it can, for a character whose brain basically resets every 15 minutes. It would be hard enough to live life like that. To solve a murder mystery with this condition is a feat worthy of Sherlock Holmes. And to make a cohesive, coherent, and impeccable film with a main character suffering thusly is no small feat for a director either. But Christopher Nolan is no slouch as a director (he’s one of three that manage to get 2 films on this top 25 list.) This is his best work.

I don’t want to say much more about this film, lest I spoil it. But I will say as a suspense film, it manages to find suspense and let the story unfold in unique ways. Instead of the premise being a cage to a bird, it’s a set of wings. What Nolan does with the premise is truly fantastic. The lead performance by Guy Pearce is excellent. It’s one worth watching several times, and will reward you for doing so. If you haven’t even seen it once, make a point of doing so soon.

Here’s what I said when including it on my top 100 films list:

The tricks films can pull with a narrative to make you identify with the main character are numerous, but Memento takes those tricks to a whole new level. If you don’t walk away from this film feeling as rattled as the main character must, then I question your humanity. This film has all the elements of a classic suspense film, but the concept is so unique that it presents something entirely rare in modern cinema–something new. It speaks to and represents the unique talents of Christopher Nolan, and announced to filmgoers that this was a man whose unique views and voice will impact cinema as long as he chooses to work. If you haven’t seen this film, go into it with and open mind and prepare to have that mind blown. I don’t want to say anything more lest I ruin the film’s numerous twists.

8. WALL-E – 2008

Wall-E the character is one of the sweetest heroes of the Zeros. Wall-E the film is possibly the greatest animated film of all time.

If you missed this, or wrote it off as a kids movie, you should make it a point to see it as soon as possible. Its first hour, almost completely void of dialogue, is full of a sense of wonder I’ve rarely experienced in a film, animated or otherwise. It’s a sweet film, a touching film, and a funny film. It has something to say with very few words, and it says it with a longing and some staying power. That it does so as a cartoon makes if one of the best films of any decade. We’ll see whether it represents where animated movies end up going, or merely where they can go. It was nominated for a writing Oscar for crying out loud, as a cartoon, with few words.

There’s a heart in this film that’s present in Pixar’s “Up”. But “Up” just wasn’t as powerful a film as “Wall-E” (though, really, those first 10 or so minutes of “Up” are outstanding.). We’re really splitting hairs here, but “Wall-E” made me feel more for a trash compacting, assembly line, robot than I did for any of the humans in the film, or, hell, any of the humans in most films. The glory’s in the soundtrack, and in sequences like this:

It’s a Sci-Fi story, and not a bad one at that. But mostly it’s just a beautiful film. Well fucking done.

7. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – 2008

My first impression of this film is that the narrative was perfect. Is it slightly attenuated? Sure. Is it a little over the top? Maybe. But those questions are just obliterated from your mind due to the mastery of pace and photography in this film. So many people I’ve talked to about the film remark that they can’t believe that the poverty in India is so desperate (it’s probably worse.) Others talk about the film’s wonderful fairy-tale love story. Still others have marveled at the wonderful performances of completely unknown young actors. For me, the film succeeds in all of these ways, and the sum total of these fantastic elements is a film where the strengths completely outshine the weaknesses.

The story is sweeping, the locations epic, and it is the narrative structure that is both a fantastic (and somewhat unique) device and why this film works so well. The division of the story allows it to be so many things–drama, romance, action, thriller–without spending too much time becoming just one of them.

which of these things does not belong...

Director Danny Boyle creates consistently interesting and unique films (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions) that don’t rely on star power or $150 million budgets. That he does so with such skill and deft hands also speaks to why this film works so well as a culmination of his work to date.

This film will be remembered as the little film that could; winning the Best Picture seemed as unlikely as the exploits of the film’s protagonist. And yet this film earned every measure of respect it got. It is somewhat similar, in fact I’d say heavily influenced, by another film still to come on this list (more on that next week) but it’s far from derivative. The best film from a year that put four films on this list. Not too shabby.

6. THE HURT LOCKER – 2009

“War is a drug.”

This phrase begins 2009’s masterpiece “The Hurt Locker” and it also sums up the essential nature of the film. This is a war movie, yes, but it’s not about tactics, it doesn’t preach a message, it doesn’t condemn or pontificate. It simply shows how an elite bomb defusing squad goes about their business. And in showing the how, it subtlely and masterfully gets at the why. Thus “War is a drug.”

There is so much worthy of praise in this film. Director Kathryn Bigelow  delivers suspense on par with Hitchcock. And she does it through simply showing what’s happening, by giving the audience a glimpse into the day to day of this squad’s lives. Characters do die, explosions do happen, such that it’s clear from the word go, every situation is life or death. Every situation. Every day. That may be the reality of certain squads in war, but perhaps never has it hit home harder than it does in this film. And with that being quickly established as the reality, every single time the crew goes out you’re gripped in suspense. The film style helps, it’s shot much like a documentary would be. You can feel the heat of the desert and the tenseness of every scene exploding through the screen. It’s an almost perfectly-made film. And it can’t be overlooked that it was written largely as a result of a journalist embedded with this very type of unit and character for years. This is a film that knows what it is doing, and why. It knows what the characters go through, and it shows us.

Yes, the days are long and fraught with peril. Every interaction could mean your life. So who would want to cast their lot into such a situation? This film introduces us to three clear characters, and their involvement mirrors the types of people that get involved in drugs (since, after all, “war is a drug.”) There’s the simple experimenters who quickly, and too late, realize the drug is not for them. There’s the calm customers who think they have their usage under control, but are really lying to themselves and others. And then there’s the full-blown junkies, who live for the fix, and who can’t be persuaded to look out for their own safety. How each of these characters displays these characteristics, and why, is another fantastic element of the film.

Jeremy Renner(left), and Anthony Mackie star in "The Hurt Locker"

The cast contains mostly unknowns, which both adds to the cinema verite style and allows for a clean slate on which these actors can work. We don’t associate them as any other character, so these characters are more memorable, and more real. Despite being unknown, they turn in better performances than anyone would expect. Academy Award deserving performances, especially from Jeremy Renner as the squad’s leader. And speaking of Academy Awards, there’s some serious talent popping up in cameo appearances here: Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes et al show up, and in doing so suggest that this film is a seriously impressive project.

In a decade that will be remembered for war and violent acts, that the most impressive war film isn’t a condemnation (like “All Quiet on the Western Front” was in the 30’s) or satire (like Dr. Strangelove or “M.A.S.H.” were in the 60’s and 70’s) of war can’t be overlooked. The 00’s will be remembered for the burst of “reality” and instant coverage of news. Citizen Journalism is normal now, shaky hand-held camera shots inside insurgent camps are standard. Into this realm, “The Hurt Locker” casts its dice as a “real” depiction of what an elite bomb diffusion squad is, and why. It is both of this era, and timeless. It could very well win Best Picture in 2009, it’s the highest ranked (and only) film from 2009 on this list, and no less than James Cameron himself proclaims this “the Platoon for the Iraq war.” An outstanding film of all genres, and an incredible war film.