The Big Picture's Top Ten Films of the Decade

When counting down my top ten films of the year, I cautioned that it's not an exact science. While I think most knowledgeable movie fans can acknowledge what films are good and what films are bad, saying this one is better than another is usually very difficult business. As you can imagine, that's only magnified when looking at a decade's worth of films.

Different critics look for different things. I appreciate good visuals and good acting, but to me, it always starts with the story. Why? Because 20 years down the road, groundbreaking effects of today will be commonplace or (more likely) outdated. So the story, primarily the way it's written - efficiently, chock full of good dialogue that serves the characters - means more to me than anything else. Why does Silence of the Lambs hold up, or Chinatown or Lawrence of Arabia? Certainly, each of those has other fantastic components, but if not for the screenplays, they'd be sunk. The past ten years have been great for cinematic storytelling, and if anything, we've seen a growing influence of foreign language films on the Hollywood machine. Stars and directors are crossing over, great films from other countries are being remade, and in general, American audiences are more open to the ways other cultures deal with their histories and fiction on the silver screen. It hasn't happened yet, but I predict we're no more than ten years away from our first foreign language Best Picture winner. My list of the decade's best, though not by design, features five foreign language films. Of these, only two bear much similarity at all, and on top of their brilliant storytelling, these films look and sound different, from a cold East Germany to the breathtaking views of rural China. As for the American films, only one failed to make a considerable amount of money or earn significant Oscar nominations, which signals to me that maybe, just maybe, the studios are listening to a larger demographic than the opening weekend 18-34 crowd. 1 - City of God (2002) City of God either glamorizes or accurately reflects the slum of Rio de Janeiro that bears its name. It's a powder keg, with more energy busting off the screen than just about any other film this decade. Scorsese’s GoodFellas is likely the best film that chronicles the entire breadth of a gang – introducing its characters young, green, and stupid and leaving them cold, abusive, wrecked, and in some cases, dead - but City of God is a very close second. Very, very close. Based on true accounts of Brazilian gang violence, City of God picks up in the 1960s, when Rocket was just another slum kid. His older brother was one-third of the Tender Trio, the slum's only "gang," that robbed gas trucks just to avoid eating dirt another day. Eventually, the Trio gives way to Lil Ze, who, at maybe 13 years old, is as fearsome and unflinching as any villain you're likely to find. City of God marked the arrival of director Fernando Meirelles, who has chosen as his subject a terrifying, violent, and stunning story that glues you to the screen. He does not disappoint, and neither does his remarkable, astonishing, and technically perfect film.

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New Trailer for Ang Lee's 'Taking Woodstock'

For his next trick, director Ang Lee is going back to 1969 and covering the most famous concert of all time. Taking Woodstock is not about the music so much, but rather the nearly impossible task of putting together a concert that size in the middle of nowhere.

The plan was executed by Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), who saw an opportunity for the concert to save his parents' motel. One giant field and a hundred thousand of your closest friends later, the legend was born. It does not look like any of Ang Lee's recent work, and maybe that's a good thing for him. He always bounces from one style to another, and maybe working in an ensemble comedy will open up some new doors for him. Take a look at the new trailer:

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Ang Lee Goes to 'Woodstock'

It would be inaccurate to say that Ang Lee has ever been a lazy filmmaker. One of the very few successful directors to genuinely roll the dice every time he makes a movie, Lee is now set to take on one of the seminal moments in American pop culture history. It was 39 years ago that Woodstock forever changed the course of rock n' roll, at once the apotheosis of 1960s counter culture and effectively the end of it. But for three days in August of that year, hippies and music lovers congregated on a farm in upstate New York by the hundreds of thousands to hear performances by The Who, CCR, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Sha-Na-Na (?), The Grateful Dead, and more. Lee will dramatize the events leading up to that fateful weekend in his next film, and his longtime collaborator James Schamus recently outlined the production to Rolling Stone. "It's an amazing bunch of people. You look around and I can't believe we're getting away this," said Schamus of his "insanely fresh" cast: Liev Schreiber, Paul Dano, Emile Hirsch, comedian Demetri Martin, and Eugene Levy. Levy will play Max Yasgur, who offered his farm as a performance grounds, and Martin will portray interior designer Elliot Tiber, who let concert organizers use his family's hotel in the Catskills as a headquarters. So if you'll take out your Ang Lee scorecards, that's Crouching Tiger, Hulk, Brokeback Mountain, Lust, Caution, and now the offbeat Taking Woodstock, which probably will be more comedy than drama. There is, naturally, the question of music in the film, but Schamus downplays the possibility that this will be a living soundtrack. “Ang and I are score-oriented,” Schamus said. “It’s in the early stages, but I can tell you it’s not going to the be the usual collection of obvious needle drops. It will be of the time, and of the spirit of the time. It’s whatever works dramatically.” We don't have any real plot specifics, but Schamus, who also runs a little studio called Focus Features, did give us a glimpse into Martin's character, who never quite makes it into the festival. “Put it this way,” said the Oscar-nominated producer. “He gets waylaid by an acid trip and a three-way.”