In our run-up to listing our favorite films released in 2019 (and, separately, the best of the past decade), we are looking back on our previous best-of lists. Today, we go back to the previous decade and dig out a few lists of favorites.
When we were back at the Albuquerque Tribune, we participated in the staff reviews of the year in film. In 2005, we liked "The Squid and the Whale." And one day we must revisit "The Dying Gaul" (if it's available anywhere) to see if it still holds up. We got crap for calling "The Aristocrats" and "Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic" "fundamentally funny." We still have a soft spot for "Junebug" and "Thumbsucker."
In 2006, we discovered Jia Zhang-ke through "The World." Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu followed up "21 Grams" with his attempted masterpiece "Babel." Michael Winterbottom was working his magic with "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story." The Dardenne brothers unspooled "L'Enfant (The Child)." We still have a fondness for small movies like "Duck Season" and "The Sisters."
The year 2007, my last full year at a newspaper and as a paid critic, brought the twin towers of "No Country for Old Men" and "I'm Not There," a pair of epics. After catching a full-house screening at the Santa Fe Film Festival, I was certain that "The Astronaut Farmer," from the Polish brothers, was going to be a beloved classic for the ages; I still don't understand why it isn't (they never really recovered). I even showed some prescience when I gave props to Mike Judge for being prescient in chronicling the coming "Idiocracy." And documentaries don't come much simpler and better than "51 Birch Street."
Click the date links for the full lists and accompanying essays, where applicable.
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