Register  |   Log In  |  
Sign up to our weekly newsletter    
Search   
Empire Magazine and iPad
Follow Me on Pinterest
Empire
Trending On Empire
Two free posters with Empire magazine
Subscribe: Get Dead Island: Riptide
Empire's Soundtrack Celebration
90 Years Of Warner Bros.
Your chance to win a Blu-ray every day!
Cannes Film Festival 2013
News, photos and more from the Croisette
Empire Blogs
Under The Radar

Back to all blogs Comment Now

Damo's Top Ten Of 2009

Posted on Saturday January 2, 2010, 13:27 by Damon Wise in Under The Radar
Damo's Top Ten Of 2009

Top Ten Of 2009
1. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, US)
2=. Moon (Duncan Jones, UK)
2=. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, US)
3=. Milk (Gus Van Sant, US)
3=. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, US)
4. Antichrist (Lars Von Trier, Denmark)
5. Enter The Void (Gaspar Noe, France)
6. In The Loop (Armando Iannucci, UK)
7. An Education (Lone Scherfig, UK)
8. We Live In Public (Ondi Timoner, US)
9. Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, US)
10. Not Quite Hollywood (Mark Hartley, Australia)

Top Five Of 2010 So Far...
1. Shhh... (Mystery Man, UK)
2. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)
3. A Single Man (Tom Ford, US)
4. Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog, US)
5. I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino, Italy)

Top 30 Of The 2000s
1. Mulholland Dr (David Lynch, 2001, US)
2. Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003/4, US)
3. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron, 2001, Mexico)
4. Songs From The Second Floor (Roy Andersson, 2000, Sweden)
5. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007, US)
6. Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette, 2003, US)
7. Dancer In The Dark (Lars Von Trier, 2000, Denmark)
8. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001, US)
9. Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000, US)
10. Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005, US)
11. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007, US)
12. Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (Park Chan-Wook, 2002, South Korea)
13. Changeling (Clint Eastwood, 2008, US)
14. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005, US)
15. Lost In Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003, US)
16. Borat (Larry Charles, 2006, US)
17. Last Days (Gus Van Sant, 2005, US)
18. No Country For Old Men Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007, US)
19. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005, US)
20. House Of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004, China)
21. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001, US)
22. Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore, 2004, US)
23. 24 Hour Part People (Michael Winterbottom, 2002, UK)
24. DiG! (Ondi Timoner, 2004, US)
25. Capturing The Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki, 2003, US)
26. Talk To Her (Pedro Almodovar, 2002, Spain)
27. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006, Mexico/Spain)
28. Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Kore-Eda, 2004, Japan)
29. City Of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002, Brazil)
30=. Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, 2004, US)
30=. Zoolander (Ben Stiller, 2001, US)

Login or register to comment.

Comments

1 relativelyrelative
Posted on Saturday January 2, 2010, 19:20
OK, let's hear it - How does antichrist deserve to be on any top ten, and how in the name of all that's holy does Inglorious Basterds beat Moon?

2 kiz123
Posted on Sunday January 3, 2010, 02:55
good decision - inglorious basterds definitely number 1, wicked film beyond a doubt!

3 Damon_Wise
Posted on Sunday January 3, 2010, 15:34
Easy! I wasn't sure Basterds was going to work; I read the script and absolutely could not fathom how Tarantino was going to pull it off, especially when he kept saying how 'funny' certain scenes were. He'd done his homework over the ten years of writing, but most of that wasn't immediately apparent from the words on the page; I was rather worried that Tarantino was setting himself up for a massive kicking. To put it another way, when I visited the set in Berlin, I didn't even hang around to speak to Christoph Waltz (it had been a very long day, but still...), because I was still trying to make sense of the film as just something in Tarantino's head. At the first screening in Cannes I was almost dreading it, and, although it was a slightly inferior cut to the release version, I was amazed to see that not only had the script completely come to life, it was an awful lot of fun (and not just to me: there was next to no heckling at the screening) and the controversial ending was way more powerful than I thought it could possibly be (turns out it's a very sophisticated piece of plotting, in that it's dramatically satisfying, self-reflexive and quite properly post-modern). The German cast are particularly good; Daniel Bruhl played a tricky part especially well, and August Diehl blew me away in the La Louisiane scene. I've seen it three times at the cinema and have yet to buy the DVD because I know I'll get sucked into it again.

4 Damon_Wise
Posted on Sunday January 3, 2010, 15:34
Antichrist is just something I really responded to; I'm fascinated by Von Trier's mind, and this was a very interesting compendium of the styles he's worked with over the years. He's written off too often as a cynical provocateur, and although there is one highly graphic moment that serves that particular agenda, I think Antichrist is a very heartfelt attempt to communicate with an audience. I love the fact that Von Trier himself doesn't even claim to know what the ending's about; I love that parts of it are wooden and stilted, because all these things are part of an engagement with cinema as being both dreamlike and not real – the latter point went flying over the heads of the audience that I saw it with, who laughed at the talking fox, not realising that Von Trier has a very good sense of humour about these things himself. Anyway, it's my Top Ten, so I'm going to keep it there!

5 J.L.Wroot
Posted on Monday January 4, 2010, 20:20
How is Lord of the Rings not in the best of the last decade??????

True it's hard to pick one out of three - if it was me I'd pick return of the king.

But if we leave out trilogies there's still a glaring omission - SERENITY!

And while we're on the subject of the films above - what is the fuss about Anchorman? I really dont get that film - it's not funny at all. Dodgeball is much better. The only Will Ferrell film that's any good is Stranger than Fiction.

Sorry - digression rant over - but Serenity should deffo be in there........

6 Damon_Wise
Posted on Monday January 4, 2010, 21:04
J.L.Wroot! I'm not dissing LOTR. The films above are just some of my personal favourites, not Empire magazine's! It's a not a definitive list, just a different take...

7 J.L.Wroot
Posted on Tuesday January 5, 2010, 09:12
That's fine I get it - it's just sometimes in things like this I believe there can be common sense and then personal opinion - which is my opinion.....


..............which I've just realised doesnt make a lot of sense.


...............where's that coffee?

(Sorry - rant over again - I mean it this time! :o) )

8 hpmoviefan777
Posted on Friday January 15, 2010, 21:14
i cant believe inglourious bastards got no.1 and milk got no.3 wtf???? :)

9 lukemurray
Posted on Wednesday January 27, 2010, 15:21
Have you seen Oldboy? definitely my favourite of the decade. District 9 is up there too.

Log in below, or register to post comments
Username:
Password:
Remember Me:

CATEGORIES

Empire States (412)

Under The Radar (289)

Infinite Lives (75)

Small Screen (53)

Cannes 2011 (28)

Off The Wire (23)

Comic-Con 2010 (21)

Words From The Wise (11)

Casting Couch (2)

Oscars 2011 (1)


RECENT POSTS

Hannibal: The Pilot Review
By Stephen Carty

House Of Cards: Our First Reaction
By Olly Richards

Arrow: The Pilot
By Stephen Carty

TV Review: Homeland Episode 1
By Stephen Carty

Empire Visits Fresh Meat Season 2
By Phil de Semlyen

Does Elementary Cut The Mustard?
By Stephen Carty

Dallas: Changing Of The Guard
By Stephen Carty

The Newsroom: First Reaction
By Stephen Carty

House: The Final Finale
By Stephen Carty

True Blood: Season Four - What A Witch
By Helen O'Hara


RECENT COMMENTS

Hannibal: The Pilot Review
"Agreed thought the show was absolutely terrific, looking forward to the next few episodes and seeing"  TheDavidFoster
Read comment

Hannibal: The Pilot Review
"I think you need to go a bit easier on the movies Hannibal and Red Dragon. Individually they are bot"  danielthompson99
Read comment

Hannibal: The Pilot Review
"I've been loving it so far but apparently NBC are already having the jitters having already moved th"  kisswithatear
Read comment

Hannibal: The Pilot Review
"I love it so far. I agree that it should have been a Showtime or HBO tv show because there's more ro"  thisiscarlijn
Read comment

Hannibal: The Pilot Review
"Didn't even want to watch this show initially. A friend talked me into watching the premiere episode"  readyrr
Read comment

Hannibal: The Pilot Review
"Agreed. Best new show I have see for a while. Totally destroys the god-awful The Following (not hard"  Youshouldberunning
Read comment

House Of Cards: Our First Reaction
"@lankeymarlon, it is in fact possible to access the US Netflix selection in the UK if you are watchi"  Craigmustdie
Read comment

House Of Cards: Our First Reaction
"Amazing show, really on a different intellectual level to most things on tv. Mostly avoids using the"  Zimbo
Read comment

House Of Cards: Our First Reaction
"Watched the whole series and its been excellent. Its the kind of role Kevin Spacey was born to play "  Popcorn Required
Read comment

House Of Cards: Our First Reaction
"I'm 6 episodes in too and this is an impressive start for Netflix as a specially commissioned series"  Brother L
Read comment


POPULAR POSTS

What's The Best TV Show Ever?
307 comments

We Don't Need Another Heroes
122 comments

Lost: The End
112 comments

What's The Best Show On TV Right Now?
104 comments

The Show Must Go On
102 comments

Smallville: The End Is Upon Us
63 comments

Ten Ways To Improve 24
58 comments

Why The US Office Is Undeniably Better Than The Original
57 comments

My Problems With Sherlock
49 comments

Sherlock Holmes And The Curious Case Of The Princess Bride
43 comments


BLOGGERS
Damon Wise (273)
Helen O'Hara (156)
James Dyer (85)
Chris Hewitt (83)
Amar Vijay (71)
Ali Plumb (50)
David Scarborough (38)
Sam Toy (34)
Sam Toy (31)
Stephen Carty (31)
James White (27)
Simon Braund (24)
Olly Richards (23)
Ian Freer (21)
Nick de Semlyen (20)
Phil de Semlyen (18)
Nev Pierce (10)
Glen Ferris (8)
Dan Jolin (8)
Nick de Semlyen (8)
Owen Williams (8)
Peter Lord (6)
Emily Phillips (6)
Kat Brown (3)
Dan Goodswen (3)
Kim Newman (3)
Jodie McEwan (3)
Empire Empire (2)
Sebastian Williamson (2)
Eve Barlow (2)
Emma Cochrane (2)
Edmund Ward (1)
Chris Smith (1)
Alice Wybrew (1)
Jonny Pile (1)
Steve Charnock (1)
Empire Workie (1)
Colin Kennedy (1)
Tom Ambrose (1)
Lucy Quick (1)
Benjamin Lee (1)
David Parkinson (1)
Dallas King (1)
Ross Bennett (1)
John Hitchcox (1)
Siam Goorwich (1)
Sanam Jehanfard (1)
Anton Bitel (1)


CURRENT HIGHLIGHTS
Empire's Great Gatsby Video Interviews
Leonardo DiCaprio! Carey Mulligan! Tobey Maguire! Baz Luhrmann!

Cannes Film Festival Videblogisode #3
Featuring Justin Timberlake, Marion Cotillard, Clive Owen and Carey Mulligan!

The Biggest Doctor Who Jaw-Droppers
The Time Lord's biggest surprises over 50 years of TV

Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch: A Beginner's Guide To The Avengers 2 Newcomers
Your primer on the brother and sister joining the A-team

Clint Mansell On Making Requiem For A Dream
'Darren had to edit at night because he could get access to the studio for free then.'

Arrested Development Video Interviews
Say hello to Jeffrey Tambor, David Cross, Tony Hale, Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat

Empire's Favourite Music Moments
From The Pixies to Burt Bacharach via Audioslave

Subscribe For Only £20
Get Dead Island: Riptide and six issues of Empire for only £20! Subscribe now
Steven Spielberg iPad App
Hollywood's most beloved director in this unique iPad special. Download now
Empire iPad Edition
The world's biggest movie magazine available on iPad Download now
Home  |  News  |  Blogs  |  Reviews  |  Future Films  |  Features  |  Interviews  |  Images  |  Competitions  |  Forum  |  iPad  |  Podcast  |  Magazine Contact Us  |  Empire FAQ  |  Subscribe To Empire  |  Register
© Bauer Consumer Media  |  Terms And Conditions  |  Our Data Promise To You  |  Bauer Entertainment Network
Bauer Consumer Media. Company number 1176085 (England). Registered Office: 21 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2DY