FSU Student Life Cinema

2009: A Serious Man - My favorite Coen Brothers film to date, and the only perfect film of last year in my opinion (although I’m impatiently anticipating A Prophete).

2008: Waltz With Bashir - If you would like to look into documentaries this film is a good place to start. The melding of animation and non-fiction works together to create a greatly surrealistic film.

2007: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Another film that blends an experimental filming style with non-fiction elements, this film is an adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir of the same title. Originally set to be made in English with Johnny Depp as the lead, the director, Julian Schnabel, fought to make the film in the language of it’s origin, French.

2006: Volver - My untimely introduction to Pedro Almodovar’s flamboyant filming style. The film is hard to define as a single genre becuase Almodovar’s loves for drama, humor, mystery, and more are all major elements of it.

2005: The Devil and Daniel Johnston - A documentary on the life of the outsider artist Daniel Johnston. You know a documentary is successful when the viewer goes from knowing absolutely nothing on the subject to being a near scholar on it.

2004: The Incredibles - The decade of Pixar! It’s hard to pick just one Pixar film as a favorite, but for me The Incredibles has everything I want with an animated film: action, emotion, originality, and both adult and child humor.

2003: Kill Bill - A two-part (not-so-soon-to-be-four-part) series that should always be considered as one film, even if they were released in two separate years, that shows Tarantino’s many inspirations as a directors.

2002: Adaptation - uhhh, yeah… it’s hard to describe, but I personally nominate Charlie Kaufman for the best writer of the 21st Century made-up-award.

2001: Mulholland Drive - My favorite film of the decade and my favorite David Lynch film, it’s another film that is hard to describe but worth 100 viewings. Though it will probably take more than 100 viewings to fully understand its meaning.

2000: Yi Yi - A close contender for my favorite film of the decade, Edward Yang directs this almost three hour long epic on the subject of life. I’ll suggest this movie over all others because it’s likely that many people haven’t heard of it and because it’s a film with the power to enlighten.

Honorable mention: Inglourious Basterds, An Education, WALL·E, There Will Be Blood, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Squid and the Whale, Sideways, Elephant, City of God, Spirited Away, In the Mood for Love.

-Eric