The best films of the decade

James Garner, Thom Jenkins, Raymond Li, Shane Murray and Katerina Webb- Bourne have, after a long argument, managed to agree upon the best films of the 2000s

Umberto Eco recently said that, "We like lists because we don't want to die." The TCS film critics are terrified of death, but not of lengthy, divisive discussions about, well, what makes a film "good" or "great" anyway? Philosophy aside, everybody wrote down their Top Ten and then we argued about it until we were in agreement, or too tired to care anymore.

The end result is a pleasingly idiosyncratic mix. It certainly wasn't easy, and everyone had to kill a few of their babies along the way - if the others hadn't got there first. There was no place for Lord of the Rings, Brokeback Mountain, or There Will Be Blood, with a vague consensus emerging that they were overhyped - because you wouldn't really want to watch them again.

Man on Wire, Bowling for Columbine and Grizzly Man were strongly considered, but did we need a documentary? We didn't and they got cut. Everyone agreed that a Pixar film could warrant a place but nobody could agree which one. A split between Monsters, Inc. and Wall-E left both on the scrapheap. Then The Lives of Others emerged from the battle of bleakly set Germanic films at the expense of Downfall and The Counterfeiters.

Some films were just too divisive to unite the TCS film staff. Steven Spielberg's Munich had some raving about its daring treatment of terrorism, its searing political message; others thought it dull. And then there was The Notebook. James Garner raised eyebrows but not support for the film he calls "the apotheosis of thousands of years of romantic storytelling."

Now then, here's the list. It's a compromise negotiated and voted on democratically, so it has to be right. Like John Major.

1) The Dark Knight

For generations, The Dark Knight will be remembered for the tragic death of Heath Ledger. In the most villainous performance of the decade, Heath Ledger's knife toting, razor tongued Joker outdid Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the dark prince. His deranged appearance, the creepy voice and that menacing laugh provided much of the energy driving the film (not to mention the countless YouTube videos). He embodied the perfect opposite of Batman: anarchy personified. It's a fitting tribute for an outstanding actor, who had received critical acclaim in Brokeback Mountain.

The main theme of the film is escalation as the mob and the police adopt new measures to control Gotham city. Both sides bring on new trump cards with the Joker, representing chaos and lawlessness, against Harvey Dent, District Attorney and spitting image of stability and order. The conflict takes their toll on both him and Batman as they struggle to reconcile imposing justice without reducing themselves to the same level. The award-winning scene has to be the glass smashing interrogation of the Joker by the dark knight himself.

However, this intelligent film also delivers firmly on the action. The action is relentless from the opening bank robbery to the thrilling lorry chase, which happens to feature the decade's coolest motorbike. This reviewer believes that motorbikes from the future will resemble motorised steam-rollers.

This action-manic blockbuster tore through the summer of 2008 and finally put the ghost of Batman & Robin to bed. For once, this lived up to the hype with one of the best trailers ever seen and a rare film that pleased the box office and the critics. The noughties will be regarded as the decade for comic book films and The Dark Knight will be remembered as both the pinnacle of the genre and as having surpassed its genre. RL

2) Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth deserves its spot in the top ten films of this decade for being the twisted fairy tale that transcends cultural and language barriers. Guillermo del Toro has mined the era of the Spanish Civil War more than once to tell compelling, creepy and quite often very tragic tales about human nature. Arguably this film is his best.

A little girl is faced with moving to a Spanish army camp in 1944, commanded by her new sadistic step father. In order to combat the situation she fashions her own fantasy world to escape reality. The juxtaposition of the constructed dark and threatening dreamscape with the harsh realities of war works well. The acting is superb, especially Ivana Baquero as Ofelia. She invests so much into playing the little girl running from a cruel world, and in doing so masters the sense of having wisdom beyond her years.

Del Toro's films are always a joy because he puts his blood, sweat and tears into constructing such greatly textured landscapes. All of Pan's Labyrinth is mesmerising; from the grim forests surrounding the army camp to the rich, luxurious cubby holes Ofelia finds herself in.

Those using the presence of subtitles as a reason to not make an effort do not have a leg to stand on here. The visuals are part and parcel of the story, and you get the feeling that you can mute the film a second time round just to take it all in properly.

If you haven't got lost in Pan's rabbit hole yet, now's your chance. KWB

3) City of God (2002)

Remember the opening scene? A chicken scuttles through the favela, chased by a classroom, and their arsenal. This is no place to be a chicken. Remember the poster? A line-up of tearaways, their chins cocked atavistically; pistols cocked at you and me. Remember the tagline? "Fight and you'll never survive...run and you'll never escape."

City of God opened a window on the wild world of the favelas. It was a fresh new story but a fresh new story can only be told once, so it has to be told well. Director Fernando Meirelles absolutely nails it. The film is not just well-paced; it is shot with fantastic regard for rhythm, beating out this fearful samba of transgressions and intransigence; a dance on a precipice, praying that your feet don't slip.

It's instantly immersive. But, as easy as it is to get caught up in this world, it's impossible to escape. And thus there's that vitality which only exists in close proximity to death. Characters enjoy heady nights of coupling and necking - by morning their heads aren't coupled to their necks.

And, of course, there are the uniformly gripping performances of the young cast. Months of work with real street kids paid huge dividends: scenes cut with the rawest of realism. It is that these kids are the architects of violence - devils with fresh faces - which makes the film so harrowing.

Maybe that isn't so clever. Any misdemeanour is more shocking when performed by the very young or the very old. However, the film is so vibrant, and so powerful, that it cannot be ignored, or forgotten. It might not make you think anything more than, "Thank God I wasn't born in the City of God." But you'll always be glad to spend two hours there. JG

4) In Bruges (2008)

Who would have thought that Colin Farrell could give such a brilliant, nuanced performance? In Bruges was a revelation at the time and remains a surprise hit, both critically and commercially. Its plot is relatively prosaic and appears derivative of any number of Tarantino knock offs - two hitmen, after a job gone wrong, hide out in Bruges, swapping witty banter all the while. Yet, In Bruges had the ambition to rise above its genre trappings.

Yes, the film is violent, yes Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (below, as the hitmen) swap witty banter like Jules and Vince Vega, but there's a much deeper and richer vein of tragedy in Martin McDonagh's script. The film moves effortlessly between comedy, action, tragedy, and philosophical contemplation. It's to McDonagh's credit, as both writer and director, that he is able to balance all of these elements within the story without reducing the impact of any of them.

Farrell's character is a tormented soul, wracked with guilt (the revelation of his secret, when it comes, is fairly shocking) and lurching between suicidal depression and an irreverent joie de vivre. The plot is his story, his attempt to find peace and redemption, aided by Gleeson's brilliant, warm, and never unbelievable performance as an older hitman mentoring him. Ralph Fiennes also puts an excellent and hilarious performance as the crime boss Farrell and Gleeson work for, but the film belongs to McDonagh. Bruges has probably never looked so beautiful, every scene is perfectly directed, and the script (which was somehow beaten to the Oscar by the pedestrian Milk) takes us down a funny road that leads to a surprisingly moving, and, less surprisingly, brilliant finale that satisfactorily closes the story. SM

5) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

Americans are prejudiced and ignorant. Kazakhs are horse urine drinking anti-semites. Cinema audiences love a man in a thong. These three simple facts help give Sacha Baron Cohen's mocumentary a laugh count to rival Sly Stallone's kill count in Rambo 4.

We are led to believe that Borat Sagdiyev, as Kazakhstan's premiere television presenter, has been sent by the Ministry of Information to make a documentary on American culture. In the process he falls in love with Pamela Anderson, wrestles naked with his useless fat producer, is sold a gun specifically for killing Jews and learns to tell jokes... NOT!

In this film Cohen corrects the single greatest mistake he made in Ali G Indahouse, which saw the creation of a fictional world to accommodate Ali G's big screen antics. Cohen learnt that the only world ridiculous enough to house his characters is our own. So, in Borat we are treated to a cocktail of both the unreal real and the real unreal, with laughs coming from all directions.

But what makes it one of the top ten films of the decade? It's the dire attire. It's a stultifier that doesn't misfire. It is boldly going so far beyond satire. And with cultural learning aplenty, it also manages to do exactly what it says on the tin. I mean who would have thought sexism, homophobia and casual racism could be so good? TJ

6) The Lives of Others

In a three-way fight to be the German film on this list, The Lives of Others won out because of its tender focus on the human cost of a surveillance society, rather than just ideas and politics.

The Lives of Others follows the surveillance of a West-leaning playwright by a normally meticulous Stasi agent, who slowly grows to sympathise with his target and abandon his faith in the East German Communist state. Ulrich Muhe, who sadly died shortly after its release, produced a flawless performance of a machine-like true believer slowly recovering his humanity. His Stasi agent is often inscrutable, often appears glum, and always appears to be attempting to be a "good man".

In achieving his latter goal, Muhe's character achieves a fully convincing and incredibly touching redemption. Yet, this is not a tale of triumph against the odds. The film pulls no punches in exposing the ability of the Stasi to destroy individual lives for no reason other than the caprice of a high-ranking officer. The other half of the film follows the efforts of the playwright and his lover not only to evade the Stasi and smuggle dissident articles to the West, but simply to live normally in the warped society of East Germany.

Superbly, The Lives of Others manages to be both a deeply upsetting tragedy and a hopeful, uplifting tale of redemption and hope. More than anything else, it's an incomparable examination of what it means to be "good" and how you can remain human in a state like East Germany. SM

7) Spirited Away

Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase) and her parents are driving to their new home, a big blue house on a hilltop. On the way her father (Michael Chiklis) decides to take a short cut, which has them venture down a strange dark tunnel despite Chihiro's protests. Once back out in the daylight they find themselves in a seemingly abandoned theme park. However, nothing is quite what it seems, and as Chihiro's parents transform into pigs the audience soon learns to suspend disbelief and turn on wonderment.

Unlike Chihiro's father, director Hayao Miyazaki takes no short cuts, producing enchanting, hand-crafted animation. The audience is spirited away to a world governed by a rhyme and reason of its very own for over two hours. But it is not simply a flight of fancy. What is essentially a children's film takes on themes ranging from greed and discrimination to courage and forgiveness, without any of the emetic qualities of a Pixar film.

Spirited Away soon became the most successful Japanese film of all time, and did so by resisting the temptation to imitate the best-of-the-West. It is a testament to the integrity and longevity of the craft that anime finds a place in the top ten films of the 21st century thus far. TJ

8) United 93 (2006)

United 93, a re-telling of the story of the passengers on the plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11, is probably the least accessible and most "difficult" film on our list. On its release, almost five years after 9/11, it had to be pulled from some Manhattan theatres, because of complaints by New Yorkers that the memories were just too raw.

It's an entirely understandable reaction, even more so when one considers that the director Paul Greengrass chose to make the film in a "you are there" style that heightened the realism, with distressing consequences.

But that's why it's on this list. No more moving film was made this decade. Greengrass created a meticulously accurate film, arranging for the actors to meet the families of the deceased passengers and recruiting a cast of unknowns.

The film certainly does brilliantly in its recreation, especially with the casting of FAA National Operations Manager, Ben Sliney, as himself, and the jargon-heavy depiction of various government departments attempting to figure what was going on and what to do about it.

The film's greatest strength, though, is in its depiction of the passengers on United 93 and their slow realisation of what was happening and their brave decision to do something about it. Greengrass manages to build tension, even though we know the outcome, and creates a sense of sick horror and moving remembrance as we watch people we know are doomed.

Never has a film more accurately been called gut-wrenching. United 93 is a film everyone should see, but most, understandably won't. It's brilliant, it's agonising, it's heartbreaking, and it's still too soon. SM

9) Crank (2006)

A remake of Speed with Jason Statham playing the role of the bus. It's as simple as that, and as brilliant. Bad guys have injected Statham with a "Chinese synthetic." If his adrenaline level drops, his heart stops. Cue pandemonium. Crank puts the action in action movie, the motion in motion picture, the sickness in motion sickness. Faster Jason, faster, faster!

This 87 minute thrill-ride is the sort of film Quentin Tarantino would be making if he had an exacting producer, or a decent editor. Somehow Kill Bill ran 136 minutes - and that was just Vol. 2. Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor remember the action genre wisdom that cinematography is one thing - but kinetics is everything. Faster Jason, faster, faster!

In a decade of actioners which took themselves hopelessly seriously (Craig's Bond, Damon's Bourne), Crank was a turning point. Then the veterans kicked it back to the old school (Stallone's Rambo IV, Willis' Die Hard 4.0). But none of those pictures had Crank's spectacular premise, its gleeful unscramble, its accelerative imperative: it's faster Jason, faster, faster!

The film isn't as dumb as it looks either. There's quicksilver dialogue, dizzying inventiveness and sledgehammer wit. And a heart-stopping ending. It's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Ventricles. But faster. Faster, faster, faster, faster! JG

10)No Country for Old Men (2007)

The Coen brothers, so long the nearly men of American cinema, finally made a "great" film with this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's ultra-bleak modern Western. No Country, like so many of the Coens' films is in one sense "just" a genre piece, a return to the themes and style of their earlier thrillers, such as Blood Simple. On the other hand, it's also their masterpiece, a stunning culmination of all of their earlier thrillers. Essentially, it marked the pinnacle of over a decade of film-making, and the gradual accumulation of cinematic nous is thrillingly evident.

No Country is simply a brilliant, undeniably tense thriller that drives the plot through superbly designed scene after superbly designed scene. The terrifying performance of Javier Bardem created a new icon from the seemingly thankless role of the relentless killer, Anton Chigurh. To quote John Brolin's character, "What's this guy supposed to be, the ultimate badass?" Yes, yes he is.

The film doesn't rest on one, admittedly mesmerising performance, however. Instead, the Coens' script and skilful direction create a film that knows only one direction: forward, relentlessly driving the plot and cranking up the tension, and the stakes, as Chigurh and others close in on our hero.

Despite the nihilistic tone of the plot, though, the Coens' keep their sense of humour, and the film was probably the most quotable film of 2007, as the hero and villains exchange macho barbs.

The ending, depending on your point of view, is either so irritating to almost ruin all that came before it, or it is an affirmation of the film's bleak meditation on the problem of good and evil. Either way, it closes a nihilistic film unwilling to offer easy answers in a perfect fashion. SM