While other magazines may have done their best to highlight the best of aughties cinema, we here at Street have the real recap of the past ten years.
Best trip back to high school: Superbad (2007)
Jonah Hill and Michael Cera rule as Seth and Evan, two delightfully awkward high-school seniors trying to live it up before graduation. From McLovin’ to failed seductions, not everything goes as planned, but when was high school perfect? We’d take a day with these dudes any day.
Best reminder to be thankful that you graduated: Mean Girls (2004)
We all knew the bitchy popular girls, but none were as icily perfect as Regina George and her slightly less impressive fellow plastics. As we watch Lindsay Lohan’s Cady navigate her junior year, through daily dress regulations and burn books, we’re thankful to have left the endless drama behind. Maybe …
Best Film Within a film: Tropic Thunder (2008)
Robert Downey Jr. in blackface, need we say more? Well we should, and aside from Downey’s uproarious turn, the rest of the cast within a cast, including Jack Black and Ben Stiller, is almost equally hysterical. Film stunts turn into real world danger as nearly everything that can go wrong actually does.
Best foreign language film: Talk to Her (2002)
Because we guess WALL-E technically wasn’t in a foreign language, we’ll go with Almodovar’s Oscar winning masterpiece about bullfighting, amnesia and everything in between. The subtitles only make us pay more attention to the Spanish auteur’s magnificent dialogue and storytelling.
Best endorsement of dog ownership: Best in Show (2000)
It would be a fair assessment to say that the dogs competing in the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show are the most normal creatures on screen. Their owners run the gamut from neurotic yuppies to closeted lesbian trophy wives, and you get the sense that the canines are the only things keeping the entire show from dissolving into comedic chaos.
Most successful Wharton grad: Daniel Plainview
We know a Wharton grad when we see one. There Will Be Blood’s Daniel Plainview is a model entrepreneur. Starting with nothing, he builds up an oil empire. When his deaf son, a pesky preacher and an impersonator threaten his business, he gives them a harsh dose of reality only possible after hours spent in MGMT 100.
Most straightforward plot: Inland Empire (2006)
David Lynch can’t fool us. After we used his way-too-obvious clues to solve the mystery of Mulholland Dr., we expected more of a challenge from Inland Empire. Not the case. After shooting begins for a new film, an actress discovers that she can no longer tell reality from fiction, finding herself in a variety of bizarre situations. There’s no reason for us to explain the connection between a sitcom with bunnies, screwdrivers in stomachs and dancing streetwalkers. We all go to Penn, after all.
Most frightening movie vagina: Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
And we thought Lars von Trier was scared of women. In Peter Jackson’s epic work, Sauron’s eye (i.e. flaming vagina held aloft by the tallest, creepiest tower ever) recruits a gigantic army of orcs and goblins in a quest to destroy the good people of Middle Earth and reunite his genitalia with the rest of his body.
Best parenting style: Nobody Knows (2004)
Children are too pampered these days, unprepared for reality. This forward-thinking mom teaches her four kids the value of self-reliance. She disappears for weeks at a time, leaving barely enough money for food and supplies. The children must learn to be resourceful on their own — after all, the ivory tower that is elementary school cannot truly prepare you for the real world.
Best editing: Russian Ark (2002)
The decade saw a variety of great editing. From the fast-paced cuts of The Constant Gardener to the more classical style of No Country for Old Men, we witnessed brilliance from the cutting room. Yet the work done in Russian Ark soars above the rest. Told entirely in a single shot without any cuts, every editing decision is impeccable.
