Roger Ebert Spoke to Me

No, I don't mean literally. What I mean is that I read an article where he gave his top ten list of the decade and found his choices interesting. It wasn't chosen based on Academy Award best picture wins or the ambitions of well known directors. It was a very personal list of films that not everybody loves. The end of his article is what spoke to me the most:

"And this reflection: All of these films are on this list for the same reason: The direct emotional impact they made on me. They have many other qualities, of course. But these evoked the emotion of Elevation, which I wrote about a year or so ago. Elevation is, scientists say, an actual emotion, not a woo-woo theory. I believe that, because some films over the years have evoked from me a physical as well as an intellectual or emotional response.

In choosing the list, I decided to bypass films that may have qualified for their historical, artistic, popular or "objective" importance. No lists have deep significance, but even less lists composed to satisfy an imaginary jury of fellow critics. My jury resides within. I know how I feel.

Almost the first day I started writing reviews, I found a sentence in a book by Robert Warshow that I pinned on the wall above my desk. I have quoted it so frequently that some readers must be weary of it, but it helps me stay grounded. It says:

A man goes to the movies. A critic must be honest enough to admit he is that man.

That doesn't make one person right and another wrong. All it means is that you know how they really felt, not how they thought they should feel."

So now that brings me to my list of my favorite movies of the decade.
1.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2.Synecdoche, New York-The film is ambitious but not pretentious. For a first time directing Charlie Kaufman does a fantastic job. This is one of those movies loaded with motifs and symbolism and after each watch you figure something new out. Very sad, but at the same time it makes one celebrate life. Possibly the saddest ending to a movie I've ever seen.
3.Letters From Iwo Jima
4.You, The Living
5.Adaptation
6.The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou-Everybody celebrates Wes Anderson's Royal Tenenbaums, but this film goes unappreciated. This film is very similar to the Tenenbaums; dealing with estranged families and heroes dwelling on their past glory now stuck in a midlife crisis. However, The Life Aquatic does everything better, and Bill Murray plays one of his best roles in his career. And how could you not love the scene where Bill stops a whole pirate fleet with a handgun while Search and Destroy by the Stooges is playing in the background?
7.Amelie
8.Neil Young: Heart of Gold-Neil is in his 5th decade playing music and most of the songs he plays are not his well known classics. So why is this movie so good? It's because he plays the hell out of the tunes. This was supposed to be his last concert, diagnosed with a deadly disease that was likely to kill him. Great backing band, great venue to bring out the acoustics of the instruments, and so much emotion by Neil, this is one of the best concert films of all time.
9.Mulholland Drive
10.World's Greatest Dad- This film is rude, depressing, and awesome. One of the funniest films of the decade, I don't see why it's not appreciated more. Robin Williams is fantastic and the movie is the true essence of a dark comedy. Life isn't how we fantasies it to be, which is why we shouldn't overlook the happiness that stares right at us because it's socially frowned upon to do so.
11.The Pianist
12.Memento
13.A Serious Man-Another awesome dark comedy. The ending was brilliant and just makes the rest of the movie so much more funny when watched again.
14.The Departed
15.Inland Empire
16.Traffic
17.The Hurt Locker
18.Road to Perdition
19.The Twilight Samurai
20.Werckmeister Harmonies
21.Sideways
22.Persepolis
23.The King of Kong-The Twin Galaxies community may seem trivial and making a movie based on a man spending months memorizing patterns in a 20 year old game to achieve a high score may seem uniteresting, but as the movie progresses it becomes incredably gripping. I was cheering for the underdog Steve Weibe through out as he attempted to take on the hot head Billy Mitchell. The documentary does a great job of telling both men's stories and following the events.
24.Mary and Max
25.Moon
26.City of God
27.Oldboy
28.Elling-The premise is a bit cheesy, but what makes the movie so great is how feel-good it is. By the end of the movie, as if I actually knew the two men, I was cheering for both and hopeful of their future, and then went through the rest of my day with a smile.
29.Milk
30.Battle Royale
31.Pans Labyrinth
32.American Splendor
33.Munich
34.Hotel Rwanda
35.Kill Bills
36.In Bruges
37.Ghost World
38.The Royal Tenenbaums
39.The Dark Knight
40.Ichi the Kiler-What a violent movie. How could you not like it?
41.Street Fight
42.Fantastic Mr. Fox
43.Donnie Darko
44.Up
45.Turtles Can Fly
46.Sin City
47.Suan of the Dead
48.Cinderella Man
49.Thank You For Smoking
50.Mystic River
51.The Garden
52.Million Dollar Baby
53.Hotel Rwanda
54.Man on Wire
55.Little Otik
56.Bigger, Stronger, Faster
57.Bad Santa
58.Palindrome
59.Gangs of New York
60.Lord of the Rings Trilogy


So what makes one a better critic than the average movie goer? There definitely is a considerable technical knowledge to be known when critiquing a movie. There is also experience of watching movies needed, so one can compare to others and not make ridiculous assumptions of how a movie is great based on inexperience of watching great movies. Then there is prose; one has to also be a good writer. Any numskull can acquire these skills though, and what makes those such as Ebert one of the best is because they review a movie as a human would who has preference and soul despite skill and prestige.