Tony's Twenty Favorite Films of the Decade (Part 1)

Editor's note: Please welcome my old roommate Tony Zhou as a contributor to this blog. Tony was, and still is, very instrumental in shaping how I felt about movies and I am obviously happy to have him on board. Starting today he'll be sharing with us his favorite movies of the last decade.

Asked to give my twenty favorite films of the decade, I decided to put together this list, which will be split into three parts (Honorable Mentions, 11-20, and 1-10). And yes, I believe that lists are absolutely absurd but still ridiculously fun to make.

Honorable Mentions (alphabetical)


The Fall
2006 - dir. Tarsem Singh
This is one of the great fantasy films, a work of absolute visual wonder. Tarsem Singh, director of The Cell, spent years accumulating money and then shot the film in bits and pieces across 18 countries. The final result (supposedly) contains no special effects and is so dazzling I couldn’t believe all of it was real locations. No other film this decade (save the works of Wong Kar-Wai) has imprinted so many images in my mind. Watch it in awe.


英雄 Hero
2002 - dir. Zhang Yimou
Nobody is going to believe me, but I think Zhang Yimou’s wuxia film is the most subversive mainstream film in Chinese history. Unlike all of its brethren, it is not a nationalistic film, but a film about nationalism. It retells a story about the unification of the country, and then splits the narrative into Rashomon-like pieces that never coagulate. A fleet of China’s biggest stars shows up to act, but the movie is an intellectual experience more than an emotional one. I can think of no other film this decade that hides its meaning in such plain view. Right in front of all the martial arts and love stories and heroic bloodshed lies a deep disillusionment with how nations use stories to lie to themselves, and a great filmmaker asking how much of his audience can look past that deception.



In the Loop2009 - dir. Armando Iannucci
I’ve never seen the television show this film is based on, but if this is any indication, it’s fucking hysterical. Like A Fish Called Wanda, it uses a British screenplay along with a half-American cast to do something that American comedies frequently cannot do: mock someone viciously and absolutely mean it. Nobody tackles the sins quite like the British, and here we have arrogance, ineptitude, self-preservation, betrayal, brownnosing, and false intelligence for starters. Some of the moments are positively ingenious, as when a general uses a toy calculator for troop numbers, or when a press chief dramatically reveals the code name “Ice Man.” Not only a brilliant satire, this movie is, line by line, the funniest film I’ve seen all decade.



지구를 지켜라! Save the Green Planet!
2003 - dir. Jang Joon-Hwan
Now this is my kind of movie. Directed by a first-time filmmaker from South Korea, Save the Green Planet! follows a paranoid loner who thinks his boss is an alien. In order to save the Earth, he decides to kidnap and torture the superior with the help of his short, chubby girlfriend. From then on, the movie is batshit insane, full of surreal asides and bizarre character motivations. And underneath it all is that implication I find in the best South Korean movies – that there is something about society that doesn’t keep us anchored but actually causes us to go insane. The movie is like a pinball machine of emotions: disgust, shock, melancholy, confusion, utter hilarity, and deep sympathy. And what the hell does the ending mean? Is the guy really an alien? Was this whole thing a fantasy? Is this the bang or the whimper? Ah who gives a shit, this is the work of a mad genius.



The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada2005 - dir. Tommy Lee Jones
The first film directed by Tommy Lee Jones may as well be the lost film directed by Sam Peckinpah. Set in West Texas and written by Guillermo Arriaga, the movie features all the touchstones of an idiosyncratic 70’s Western: downtrodden men, barren landscapes, a surreal journey, a strange redemption. Most of all, it finds the perfect match between Jones, the landscape, and the material – which is not just about honoring your friends but about how much your relationship with them is based on what they share with you. Completely overlooked over the last five years, it remains a quiet little marvel – a perfect example of the sort of subtlety that exists in the border country.