American Psycho! The Musical

The recent news that Bret Easton Ellis', shall we say, unpleasant novel - and, I presume, my extension, it's visual adaptation to film by Mary Harron - is being adapted to Broadway was certainly a head-scratcher. Would the music be dark and brooding or light and poppy like the music that Patrick Bateman's (the novel's lead character) enjoys. Will there be a Whitney Houston inspired torch ballad like "The Greatest Love of All" or will we get smooth new wave pop like Huey Lewis and the News' "Hip to Be Square"? One can only imagine, and I haven't heard the music from Spring Awakening to know what lyricist Duncan Sheik could come up with.

This article does bring up a great picture for the mind, however, invisioning Patrick's apartment as a decadent white laboratory of musical madness. Think Harron's interpretation meets Down with Love and Rope. A lot of Rope.


Image by Justin Reed, source
I came up with some lyrics that are clearly Tony worthy. The first song I picture being sung by Patrick himself (first verse, final line) and a chorus of doll-face dancers wearing nothing but sheer raincoats. Does it work?

My name is Patrick!
When I’m through with you on my dick,
My name is Patrick!
I like to impale you on a stick.

I have perfect complexion,
Smooth skin!
Watch out I might just stab you,
Through the shin!

Patrick!
That’s me!

His name is Patrick!
He has some fetishes that are really sick
His name is Patrick!
If he doesn’t like you he’ll give you the flick

You’ll never see it coming,
Dig in!
His teeth will rip your flesh,
Real sick!

Patrick!

That’s me!

Yeah? Personally, I think it's amazing and stellar and wheresmyaward?

How about this little ditty I came up with?

My tanning salon,
Is it on,
Turn it up!
Maximum!

I like a tan in the morning!
I like a tan after brunch!
I watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre!
And then I get another tan for America!

My tanning salon!
Is it on!
Turn it up!
Maximum!

I like a tan in the evening,
I like a tan before drinks,
My pectoral muscles have never been so tan,
I’m looking so hot I’m gonna need a fan.

My tanning salon,!
Is it on!
Turn it up!
Maximum!

Some people say I’m obsessed,
I just say that they’re a mess,
If they looked as good as me,
They’d tan from 8 til 3.

My tanning salon!
My tanning salon!
My tanning salon!
Maximum!

How do I look?

And, of course, you can't have an American Psycho musical without a song called "Murders and Executions" can you?

(singing)
Murders and executions are the things I like the best,
Ask me what I just said and I’ll say it was a jest.
Forget skinning cats and all the rest,
For murders and executions are the ultimate test.

(spoken word)
You know, someone once asked me “how can you do what you do, representing fat cat America?” and you know what I told her? “Shut your fucking face you dirty fucking whore!” We both laughed for four or five seconds before I produced a nail gun and shot her through the skull.

But you know what the moral of this story is? If you don’t have anything nice to say… I’ll kill you and stuff your head in my freezer!

(singing)
Murders and executions, they’re what I like to do,
With knives and chainsaws, teeth and hammers too.
When I’m alone at night and I look at my toil.
I notice I am all alone, I feel like a Royal.

(spoken word)
Sometimes I wonder “How did I get here? What am I doing here?” and then I remember I’m exfoliating and that takes a lot of concentration so I stop thinking and make sure my fruit extract facial mask isn’t drying out my skin too much. Once I’m finished with that, however…

(big cresendo)
I look in the mirror and peel off my face!
Smiling ‘cause I know your blood will be all over my place!

(singing)
For now the night is over and the blood has spilt.
How dare you mess up up carpet, don’t you have any guilt?
Oh, oops, you’re already dead so who am I singing this to?
I guess I’m all alone.
Murders and executions, baby it’s just me and you.

I obviously missed my calling in life. Now, how about that Far From Heaven musical...

Design of a Decade: The Greatest Hits of the '00s - Part VI [Final]

This is it, the final piece in the jigsaw that is my personal countdown of the best cinematic achievements of the last decade. By now I am sure you have worked out what a good half or so of the final 25 positions will be held by, but I hope you still get a kick out of it. If you haven't read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V then you will have no idea what's going on (reading the rules would be beneficial too) so before we continue please do so.

25.
CRAFT: Production Design
Tom Foden, Geoff Hubbard, Michael Manson & Guy Dyas
The Cell
Shout out must also go to Eiko Ishioka's costumes, but it is the production design and art direction that really stood out most of all for me. Unique and fantastical, as well as visually astonishing representations of famous artworks and original set pieces alike. Incredible work.


24.
MUSIC: Original Soundtrack, Selmasongs
Performed by Bjork
Dancer in the Dark
I originally spent a fair amount of time deciding how to represent the original song score of Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark on the countdown. Should it be the "I've Seen It All" scene, or how about "Cvalda"? What about a song citation for "New World" or so on. I decided to simply go with the soundtrack that was released, Selmasongs. It features some alterations to the film versions - of particular obviousness is the new version of "I've Seen It All", now with Thom Yorke - but each and every song is overflowing with brilliance. It's hard to pick a favourite, and yet my mind seems to wind towards "New World".




23.CRAFT: Original Screenplay
Charlie Kaufman
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I don't think I have to discuss this much at all, do I? I think by this stage everybody and their pet knows how great this movie is and that a large part of it has to do with the screenplay by Kaufman. This movie is the best thing ever done by basically every single person involved.



22.
PERFORMANCE: Laura Dern
"Nikki Grace" / "Susan Blue"
INLAND EMPIRE
sdj3=fxk*9jv$#szZpq@75xxx%

That about covers it, doesn't it?


21.
PEOPLE: Lars Von Trier
Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Dear Wendy, The Five Obstruction, The Boss of it All & Antichrist
With his only true misstep this decade coming from the awful Manderlay, a sequel to Dogville that sent him into near career-ending depression apparently, Von Trier was at his provocative best. Anybody who made Dancer in the Dark and Dogville would be right up there anyway, but throw in the rest of his work - including writing the screenplay for Dear Wendy - and he's earned his spot.

20.
SCENE: "El Tango de Roxanne"
Moulin Rouge!
The best thing The Police have ever been involved in.


19.
PEOPLE: Dion Beebe
The Goddess of 1967, Equilibrium, Chicago, In the Cut, Collateral, Memoirs of a Geisha, Miami Vice & Nine
The best cinematographer of the decade was this Aussie lenser. While he won an Oscar for Memoirs of a Geisha (his least impressive work of the titles listed above) and failed to even be nominated for Collateral, In the Cut and Nine (his three crowning achievements if you ask me) shows some weird alignment issues between the man and the Academy, Dion Beebe has proven time and time again that he is a stunning DP.

Just writing about him now and several images instantly flash into my mind - the blue bridge from Miami Vice, the delicate petals of the In the Cut opening sequence, the "Roxie" sequence of Chicago etc. His finest achievement, however, is Collateral, a film I have no qualms in saying features the best cinematography of the decade.

18.
CHARACTER: "The Bride" aka "Beatrix Kiddo"
Played by Uma Thurman
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 & Kill Bill, Vol. 2
As truly blazing as I think Uma Thurman is in the role of her career in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films, I think so much of that has to be put down to the character itself. "The Bride" was an iconic character of the decade, without a doubt.


17.
PERFORMANCE: Christian Bale
"Patrick Bateman"
American Psycho
The best male performance of the decade came before even the first year was up! Let's take a trip back to 2000, shall we? Leonardo DiCaprio had been rumoured to have the part, Reese Witherspoon was still willing to make artistic ventures such as this, Chloe Sevigny was perhaps on the verge of mainstream acceptance after her recent Academy Award nomination and Christian Bale was nothing more than an actor that we all felt a bit creepy about staring at in the shower/tanning bed because a) he was carving up characters left and right, and b) he was the kid from Empire of the Sun.

I wasn't able to see American Psycho at the cinema due to it's R18+ rating (sorta like NC17 in the USA), but I did win the soundtrack and so I heard the hilarious monologues about preening and dead souls and all of that good stuff and was instantly obsessed. When I finally did see it I was blown away, and my appreciation for the film - many, many viewings later - has only grown. Christian Bale is the epicentre for that love and if he's gone a bit off the rails lately, that's okay because in my mind he will always be reciting the virtues of Huey Lewis and the News, Genisis, Whitney Houston and the importance of a really good facial shower scrub.

16.
PEOPLE: Gus Van Sant
Elephant, Gerry, Last Days, Last Days, Paris je t'aime, Paranoid Park & Milk
Career resuscitation didn't come quite as incredibly as it did with Gus Van Sant. He started the decade with Finding Forrester, unseen by me, but known to be thoroughly middle-of-the-road before trucking on with his "Death Trilogy" that was an astonishing achievement of artistic freedom, independent filmmaking and technical experimentation. It started with Gerry, although Australia got Palme d'Or-winner and personal favourite Elephant first, and continued on through to the proxy sequel Paranoid Park and then capped it off with the sublime Oscar-winner Milk.


15. / 14.
Ellen Burstyn
"Sara Goldfard"
Requiem for a Dream

Björk
"Selma Jezkova"
Dancer in the Dark
I am sorry, but it is nigh on impossible for me to separate these two performances. I genuinely believe they are as good as each other and I shouldn't have to split them up just because of some (non-existent, might I add) "no ties" rule that some people may have. Ask me on any given day of the week who I think deserved the Oscar and it'll change depending of my mood (if I'm depressed, Ellen, if I'm really depressed, Björk) and many other factors. So here they are, together as they should be.

13.
SCENE: "The Face"
INLAND EMPIRE
sdj3=fxk*9jv$#szZpq@75xxx%

That about covers it, doesn't it?


12.
MUSIC: Original Score
Angelo Badalamenti
Mulholland Drive
Obviously, at least a smidgen of the success that David Lynch had with Mulholland Drive had to relate to Angelo Badalamenti's fantastic score. The synths of that opening credits sequence (listen below) makes me want to put myself into the fetal position and rock back and forth, while "Love Theme" has the power to make me cry and "Silencio" is just aurally bonkers. It's all just so magical, I love it. I can only imagine what Badalamenti would have come up with if Mulholland Drive had have become the TV series it was originally meant to be. We'd be listening to volumes upon volumes of music much like I still do for Twin Peaks.


11.
SCENE: "Shoot-Out"
Open Range
The best gun fight since The Matrix in 1999 was this in Kevin Costner's western Open Range. It easily trumps that pioneering movie and I can't even think of how many years we would all have to go back to see another one of this exemplary quality. I'd go out on a limb and call this perfect filmmaking if I was feeling bold...




10.
MARKETING: Poster
Akiko Stehrenberger
Funny Games

A poster that, itself, plays games with the audience. Is it a movie still? Is it painted? Is it just photoshopped? Who knows. I don't and I don't care, because it just looks so incredible. It would have been so easy to make this one of those annoying stripey posters or one where Naomi's tear-stricken face adorns the bottom right hand corner surrounded by empty space, but it's not. They chose to use an image that not only strikes possible pain, anguish and terror into anyone looking at it, but does so in a manner than screams "WE'RE HERE!" There's no hiding from Naomi's face on this one.

The contrast, that image, that tagline, the simple helvetica font, it all just works. It's become iconic in poster-watching circles and for good reason. It's topped most similar lists to this and, for a change, group think is actually right! Viva la Haneke, I guess. Nothing can get me to actually watch the movie (so perhaps that's an immediate fail right there?) but this poster should be plastered all over my wall like wallpaper and like the Mona Lisa it would follow me everywhere.

9.
EXPERIENCE: Interactive Cinema
The Room
In my review of Tommy Wiseau's "disasterpiece" I wrote that attending a screening of The Room was "the greatest cinematic experience of my life." And I stand by that. I have never had so much fun in a cinema, fact. It's obviously not the best movie I have ever seen, but there's something entirely different about experiencing a movie such as this in a packed cinema with others who are having a good time and enjoying themselves. It's a completely different thrill to what you get by watching something such as Birth. It's incomparable, really. I saw this again a couple of months later and it was just as good. I can't wait for it to return to Cinema Nova here in Melbourne so I can go again. It was life-changing, really.

8.
MARKETING: Trailer
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
I can distinctly remember seeing this trailer for the first time. It absolutely terrified me. I hadn't seen the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre at that stage because the idea of it was just too much for me (I subsequently rushed out and hired it from the video store) and so that's probably why I have such a strong affinity for it. Something about it just struck me "to the core" and paralysed me with fear. And then I went and saw the movie and I was paralysed again, but we're not talking about the film here, we're talking about the trailer.

It's such a perfectly constructed trailer, I think. It doesn't show you everything, but it also doesn't show you nothing at all (like some trailer seem to do in an effort to be cool, "look how obtuse this trailer is! you can barely tell what movie it's selling! etc!" It ramps up all those key horror zing words such as "tension" and "dread" and offers but mere glimpses of several key ingredients (such as Leatherface). I also love the camera sound effects, an obvious direct reference to the opening scene of the 1974 original. Not to mention the perfect use of music, This Mortal Coil's "Song to the Siren" and Peter Gabriel's "Signal to Noise" and some excellent editing in the second half.


What I think the trailer did best, however, and this part is key, is that it completely changed the outcast for the film. Before the trailer premiered every single person who had an opinion on the topic was in the negative. "How dare they!" and so forth. With this trailer people suddenly changed. In fact, you could say that this trailer changed the horror genre. Sure, it "changed" it for worse from a creativity standpoint, but the current trend of remaking famous horror classics (think Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and so forth) - arguably the genres only reason to still be seen as a dominant box office force outside of Saw - wouldn't exist without it and despite how poor most of these remakes have been (Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes being the only ones I could label as better than "adequate"), where would the genre be without them? I imagine nobody would be talking about horror as a viable box office force and without that we wouldn't get the few moments of genuine horror goodness that studios feel safe in funding because they know there is an audience for them.

I'm sure you can now understand why I have ranked this trailer so high? I can talk and talk about it endlessly. I have watched it countless times and, I say, anytime the DVD special features denote a segment to how good a trailer was then they've done something right. And, just lastly - seriously, I'm going on for ages, aren't it? - it very literally changed the way I look at movie marketing. I want all trailers to be this poster, just like I want all posters to be as good as #10 up there. That's why this was such a defining moment of the decade for me.


7.
TREND: Musicals
Dancer in the Dark, Moulin Rouge!, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, 8 Women, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Chicago, The Producers, Prey For Rock & Roll, Dreamgirls, Happy Feet, Across the Universe, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street & Nine
I was so freakin' happy that the musical came back. It'd be gone for too long (well, it was there, but it wasn't good) and I missed it dearly. There's only so many times one can watch Xanadu and wish that somebody would make a movie just like it for today's audiences. Oh who am I kidding? You can never watch Xanadu too many times!

But seriously, the musicals listed above all have stuff about them that I admire greatly. Yes, even the ones such as The Producers and Nine. And - oh yes - there is a reason I didn't include Once or Were the World Mine or Camp, all of which are movies I have firmly placed in the "overrated shit" column. But, hey, if I'm allowed to like The Producers then, by all means, others are allowed to like Camp.

I definitely think that out of all the musicals this decade it was Hairspray that got the balance best. It can be silly to see characters suddenly break out into song, I get that (hello Mamma Mia!), but Adam Shankman's film made it feel so effortless and easy. Of course, Dreamgirls had issues with "is it a stage musical or not? and what worked for Rob Marshall's Chicago didn't always work for Rob Marshall's Nine, but in the grand scheme of things I was just glad to be able to at least twice a year enter a cinema and see people singing on screen. Sometimes it was in lavish costumes, other times it was on bare stages, but it was there and that's all that matters to me. I look forward to another decade of musicals and hope that the likes of Burlesque, In the Heights, My Fair Lady and so on can continue to make the genre a strong and formidable force.

6.
SCENE: "Car Chase"
Death Proof
The greatest car chase ever filmed? It's certainly right up there, and without having seen the classics of that particular list (The French Connection, Bullitt, the original Gone in 60 Seconds) on the big screen, it's hard to tell. I, however, can never get enough of this extended sequence in the second half of Quentin Tarantino's GrindHouse segment (that was released in Australia all by its lonesome), Death Proof. My adrenalin goes through the roof! Classic.




5.
PEOPLE: Alexandre Desplat
The Luzchin Defense, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Birth, Hostage, The Queen, The Painted Veil, Lust Caution, The Golden Compass, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Coco avant Chanel & Fantastic Mr Fox
Alexandre Desplat would have ranked high without Birth on his roster, but the fact of the matter is that the score to Jonathan Glazer's Birth is - and I'm not using hyperbole here - the single greatest musical score I've ever heard. Yes, I said it. I'm not just saying this because I'm young and don't know any better like when I was 11 years old and had a serious debate with myself as to which was my favourite movie of all time, Independence Day or Mars Attacks. No, I am sure there are hundreds of incredible scores out there that I have never heard, but of all of those that I have heard Birth is my favourite. Now, add on all the others up there and you have your reason for why he is ranked so high. He is already well on his way to being one of the greatest.

4.
SCENE: "Welcome to the Moulin Rouge!"
Moulin Rouge!
No single scene, no single moment, was as immediate and as film-defining as Christian’s introduction to the Moulin Rouge club of 1898. No single moment drew such a definitive line in the sand and proudly screamed "LOVE ME OR HATE ME!" as the moment a chorus line of gents in tops and tails struts past a giant elephant singing Nirvana’s "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Or how about a hallucinogenic Kylie Minogue dissolving into a swirling black hole of debauchery. Or Jim Broadbent flying through the sky with an umbrella to the sounds of Can Can dancers? This extended sequence – I include up to Satine’s collapse from the high-wire – was literally like nothing I had ever seen before (or since). Make or break... and it made.

I could go on and on about this sequence - how did this alone not win Best Editing and Best Sound at the Oscars? Nicole Kidman's range in these seven minutes alone is astonishing. So much exposition that I honestly can't take anybody seriously who claims it's one big indulgence. - but I won't. There are those that said Moulin Rouge! was a musical for "the MTV generation", which is a shorthand way for old fogies to give themselves a pass for not wanting to put in the work and actually watch what Baz Luhrmann was doing. I, however, MTV generation or not, cannot imagine the decade without it.


Part II, which can't be embedded.
3.
SCENE: "The Opera"
Birth
There aren't too many words to describe this moment from Jonathan Glazer's Birth that truly express my feelings on the matter. Seeing it on the big screen, something that not many people did, left me speechless. Rewatching it on DVD does too, but that first time watching this moment was like something spiritual. An epiphany.


2.
PERFORMANCE: Naomi Watts
"Betty Elms" / "Diane Selwyn"
Mulholland DriveM
A performance of such instant eye-opening revelation and ferocity, Naomi Watts' performance as duel David Lynch catalysts is truly the greatest performance of the decade. From the innocent of "Betty Elms" to the lurid, desperation of "Diane Selwyn", Watts tears through this performance with incredible tenacity and bravura. Star-making turns don't come quite like this very often and it is now impossible to imagine what Mulholland Drive would be without her.

1.
PEOPLE: Nicole Kidman
Moulin Rouge!, The Others, The Hours, Cold Mountain, Dogville, Birth, The Interpreter, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, Happy Feet, Margot at the Wedding, The Golden Compass, Australia & Nine
Consider this: The last Nicole Kidman movie that I failed to see in the cinema (and still haven't seen on DVD for that matter) was The Human Stain way back in 2003.

For me there was no one quite like Nicole Kidman this decade. She had shown promise before - namely in her early Australian work and Gus Van Sant's To Die For - but nothing could have prepared for the 1-2-3 punch of musical Moulin Rouge!, horror The Others and Oscar-winning drama The Hours. Throw in Lars Von Trier's Dogville and Jonathan Glazer's Birth and you have one of the most incredible runs I can think of. While the quality of the movies certainly dipped in the second half of the decade, there was still greatness to be had. Her performance in Margot at the Wedding is astounding in its acidic bite, The Golden Compass is delicious evil and even Australia features some wonderful stuff.

But this #1 placement isn't just for the movies and the performances, it's for this idea of Nicole Kidman who is so willing and fearless. What other top tier actress would get on an airplane the day after winning an Oscar for a British prestige period piece to go to Denmark and film a Lars Von Trier allegory tale on a set with only white lines on a bare stage? How many others would be willing to make such an nontraditional biopic like Fur when there was surely a more Oscar-baiting one waiting to be made. Did anybody else make three musicals this decade? Who else was so able to see what directors were doing great stuff and actively sought out working with them? Luhrmann, Amenabar, Von Trier, Glazer, Shainberg, Hirschbiegel and Baumbach aren't names that will appear of anybody else's filmography in succession. Not to mention the likes of Pollack, Minghella, Daldry and Miller.

I am sure that some of my readers will have negative things to say about her - omgtoomuchbotox, omgshesicecold etc - but I don't care. Nicole Kidman was this decade's defining actor and that's why she is number one. No actor meant more to me than Nicole Kidman and no other actor deserves the number one ranking in my mind more than Nicole Kidman. Viva la Kidman!


~-~
And, because I'm sure you all now have some sort of rough estimate of what my top ten of the decade was, I'll just list them without any further words.

1. Mulholland Drive, dir. David Lynch
2. Moulin Rouge!, dir. Baz Luhrmann
3. Birth, dir. Jonathan Glazer
4. Elephant, dir. Gus Van Sant
5. Bowling for Columbine, dir. Michael Moore
6. American Psycho, dir. Mary Harron
7. Dogville, dir. Lars Von Trier
8. Lost in Translation, dir. Sofia Coppola
9. Dancer in the Dark, dir. Lars Von Trier
10. Chicago, dir. Rob Marshall
And so ends 'Design of a Decade'. I hope you have had as much fun digesting the decade as I have.

Design of a Decade: The Greatest Hits of the '00s - Part V

And so we come to the last entry in "Design of a Decade", my own personal look at the decade that was and you dear readers discover who and what were my most cherished memories from 2000-2009. ETA: er, not quite the last. If you haven't read Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV then you will have no idea what's going on (reading the rules would be beneficial too) so before we continue please do so.

50.
SCENE: "Run and Tell That"
Hairspray
Just such a superbly done scene, don't you think?



49.
SCENE: "Hip to be Square"
American Psycho
Everything that is perfect about American Psycho - my #1 film of 2000, ahead of Dancer in the Dark, Requiem for a Dream and so on - can be found in this scene in which Christian Bale's "Patrick Bateman" recites a monologue about the virtues of Huey Lewis and News' "Hip to be Square" before sending an axe into Jared Leto's head. Embedding has been disabled, but click here to watch it.


48.
SHOT: "Upside Down Kiss"
Spider-Man
I wasn't as keen on this movie as I was the sequel, but there's something to be said for such an instantly iconic pop culture imploding moment such as this.


47.
SCENE: "Hedge Garden"
The New World
Everytime I watch it I cry a bit at its immaculate nature.



46.
PERFORMANCE: Heath Ledger
"Ennis Del Mar"
Brokeback Mountain
I could never tell if people forgetting this performance when The Dark Knight came out was just fandom or something more suspicious. It's disappointing that Ledger's "Joker" seems to have overtaken this beautiful performance as the defining moment of his career, but I think truer fans will always see Ledger's "Ennis" as one of the truly greatest male performances of all time.

45.
SCENE: "Crazy 88s"
Kill Bill, Vol. 1.
This is one of those gang up fight sequences that I kinda do believe that even if all the villains came after her at once (something that never happens in movies, we all know that) The Bride would still come out victorious. It's an incredible sequence in terms of action, choreography, filmmaking finesse, music and sound.



44.
SUPERFICIAL NONSENSE:
Yes, please bear with me as I go completely superficial. It may sound sad and desperate, but some of my fondest cinematic memories of the last decade were of the men I was watching on screen. It can't be helped, unfortunately. I do have eyes, after all. And I wouldn't have seen some very fine - and very terrible - movies if it wasn't for this very superficial predilection, so y'all will just have to deal with it. It wasn't reduced to just these pictured men, but they are the prime suspects.


43.
PERFORMANCE: Ellen DeGeneres
"Dory"
Finding Nemo
Yes, one of the greatest performances of the decade is a vocal one in an animated film. Probably the single funniest performance of the decade and she does it all with only her voice. As funny as it is to think of DeGeneres in a Disney movie (being a publicly out lesbian and all), she truly is hysterical as "Dory". And she even does the tender, heartfelt stuff with aplomb, too.

42.
SHORT: Logorama
Dir. François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy & Ludovic Houplain
So inventive and fun and one of the very few short films that I actually want to watch again (trust me, that's rare, I'm not a big short film fan).




41.
PEOPLE/MARKETING: Jeremy Saunders
See them all here
It was this or take up several spots on the countdown just for his designs of Antichrist, Look at Me, Suburban Mayhem, Good Night and Good Luck and so on. Key art designer extraordinaire. He's so good that I hold him at least partially responsibly for my movie poster obsession and I even got to interview him.

40.
SCENE: "Cell Block Tango"
Chicago
For someone who wasn't familiar with the Chicago score outside of, say, "All That Jazz" this scene was probably some sort of Earth-shaking event. Incredibly staged and performed. Energising and vibrant to the hilt. In a film filled with them, "Cell Block Tango" was the best musical sequence in Chicago.



39.
DIALOGUE: Requiem for a Dream
"I'm somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they'll all like me. I'll tell them about you, and your father, how good he was to us. Remember? It's a reason to get up in the morning. It's a reason to lose weight, to fit in the red dress. It's a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right. What have I got Harry, hm? Why should I even make the bed, or wash the dishes? I do them, but why should I? I'm alone. Your father's gone, you're gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I'm lonely. I'm old. ... Ah, it's not the same. They don't need me. I like the way I feel. I like thinking about the red dress and the television and you and your father. Now when I get the sun, I smile."

38.
SCENE: "Last March of the Ents" / "The Battle of Helm's Deep"
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
I wrote at #163 that The Two Towers was my favourite of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and that is predominantly because of these duel action sequences. It helps that the Ents were my favourite part of the entire series and their attack on Isengard is actually quite moving as well as thrilling. The Helm's Deep part, however, is just about the greatest scene of its kind ever put to screen.

37.
PERFORMANCE: Mo'Nique
"Mary Jones"
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
I have spoken at lengths about how good Mo'Nique is in the role of Mary Jones, the abusive mother of the title character, so I'm not going to go through it again. Needless to say I feel as strong about that performance today as I did back then. "Back then" being a few months ago, naturally. Nothing has changed.

36.
PEOPLE: Tilda Swinton
The Deep End, Adaptation, Young Adam, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Michael Clayton, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading & Julia
Swinton's performance in Julia would rank easily in a top five performances of the decade shortlist if I were to make one. I am not, but I thought I'd throw that out there. It's just amazing the things that Swinton has been able to pull of this decade, not least of all an Academy Award. This woman is incandescent.

35.
SCENE: "The End"
Before Sunset
This would be, without a doubt, the greatest closing moment of a film this decade... if it weren't for #26 on the list. Still, as endings go, this is a doozy, an immortal and one for the all time list.



34.
CRAFT: Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki
The New World
Put Emmanuel's cinematography alongside Wagner's "Vorspiel" and you have one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking and tender moments of the decade. Have Lubezki's cinematography and nothing else? Still out of this world.


33.
CHARACTER: "Cherry Darling"
Played by Rose McGowen
Planet Terror
MACHINE GUN FOR A LEG!!!!!


32.
PERFORMANCE: Ray Lawrence Ensembles
Lantana: Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Armstrong, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey, Rachael Blake, Vince Colosimo, Daniella Farinacci, Russell Dykstra, Peter Phelps, Leah Purcell & Glenn Robbins
Jindabyne: Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne, John Howard, Deborra-Lee Furness, Eva Lazzaro, Leah Purcell, Simon Stone, Stelios Yiakmis, Sean Rees-Wemyss, Alice Garner, Chris Haywood, Tatia Reilly & Charles "Bud" Tingwell
If you haven't seen these two movies then you've missed two of the decade's absolute finest cinematic achievements. Central to them is the stunning ensembles that Ray Lawrence assembled.

31.
SCENE: "Cerulean"
The Devil Wears Prada
This scene is not only pivotal in Dave Frankel's The Devil Wears Prada, but it's also key in my philosophy on film, music and other artistic fields. In fact, The Devil Wears Prada itself is important in that philosophy, in that I think a popcorn movie, just like a pop song, can be just as great, just as important and just as well-made as whatever hard-edged arthouse flick people are fawning over. It takes just as much effort to make a good popcorn flick as it does to make, for instance, Bright Star. This scene is perfect in how it is so simple and yet so effective in teaching Anna Hathaway's "Andy" that no matter how hard she tries to be "individual" that she's always going to be following someone.


30.
MARKETING: Trailer
The Strangers
This trailer for horror movie The Strangers is completely and utterly scary in itself so, I think, that's job well done. In this trailer there are, what I like to call, "movie making moments". Moments in a trailer that sell the movie without a shadow of a doubt. This trailer has several! First is, of course, the moment immortalised on the third poster at 0:53 when the stranger appears behind Liv Tyler. The next is at 1:26 when Liv Tyler gets to absolutely scream her lungs out to the tune of a skipping record player and an axe-swinging psychopath. And then lastly is the haunting dialogue exchange at 1:48.

"Why are you doing this to us?"
"Because you were home."


29.
TREND: Animation
Pixar, Aardman, Studio Ghibli, Mary and Max, The Triplets of Belleville, The Emperor's New Groove, Fantastic Mr Fox, Tekkonkinkreet, Corpse Bride, Happy Feet, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, Teacher's Pet and others
I got a bit of a laugh out of people saying that 2009 was "the year of animation" since it has only been this decade that animation has become the dominant force that it now is. Before 2000 there were no more than two or three animated titles a year, now there are regularly 10 major releases, sometimes upwards of that, and a whole swag of smaller titles that appeal to all sorts of various audiences. One could that animation was this past decade's defining "genre" (even though, as I just said, animated films can cover a range of more traditional genres). Whether you agree or not (I'm not commenting), you can't argue that animation truly did break out this decade and gave us some of the greatest cinematic moments and achievements.


28.
SCENE: "The Audition"
Smiley Face
I said up above that Ellen DeGeneres probably gave the funniest performance of the decade, well I could possibly say that Anna Faris gave the best, technically adept comedic performance of the decade in Smiley Face. It may be "just another stoner movie", but you truly cannot say that without having seen it. Faris is beyond and never more so than in this audition scene in which Faris' "Jane F." lets forth the film's catch phrase de jour. And let's not forgot Jane Lynch's priceless reactions, the kitty cat mumble and that so-good-but-you-may-have-missed-it eerie Lynchian sound design as the casting agent looks at Jane's headshot. Comedy perfection. Watch it.


27.
SCENE: "Columbine"
Bowling for Columbine
There are many things in this film - one of the five best films of the decade if you want me to give a vague idea of film rankings - that left me speechless, none more so than this moment.



26.
DIALOGUE: Year of the Dog
I didn't love Year of the Dog, but this film-ending monologue is one of the most touching and life-affirming things I've ever seen. You have to be made of stone to not be moved at all by the closing scene of Mike White's Year of the Dog. It's hard to put into words, really, so I think I'll let the dialogue speak for itself, but needless to say I feel so close to this movie because of it. It's a treasure of a moment and one that many may have forgotten or didn't really take notice of, but I sure did. Just thinking of it makes me yearn for every lost pet and wishing I had my cats right now to snuggle up to on the couch.

"If you all didn't think I was crazy, I'm sure you will now. How do I explain the things I've said and done? How do I explain the person I've become? I know I've disappointed everyone and I'm sorry for that. I wish I was a more articulate person. I believe life is magical. It is so precious. And there are so many kinds of life in this life. So many things to love. The love for a husband or a wife, a boyfriend or girlfriend. The love for children. The love for yourself. And even material things. This is my love. It is mine. And it fills me and defines me. And it compels me on."

-~-
This has taken a lot longer to write up than before so I'm going to give you the top 25 in a separate entry.