What were our favorite films of the decade? We polled our arts writers, and this is what we came up with.
Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind
Garden State
WALL-E
Slumdog Millionaire
The Departed
Up
Amelie
The Royal Tenenbaums
There Will Be Blood
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
— Ali Freedman
The Lives of Others
Dancer in the Dark
Pan’s Labyrinth
Donnie Darko
Slumdog Millionaire
Mean Girls
Almost Famous
Up
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Dark Knight
— Heather Price-Wright
Almost Famous
Amelie
There Will Be Blood
No Country for Old Men
Gangs of New York
Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind
The Royal Tenenbaums
WALL-E
Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2
Lost in Translation
— Alex Gendreau
Lost in Translation
School of Rock
I Served the King of England
The Pianist
Ghost World
Downfall
Almost Famous
The Power of Nightmares
Persepolis
The Notorious Bettie Page
— Justyn Dillingham
Love Actually
The Dark Knight
Up
Harry Potter series
Miss Congeniality
The Hangover
Juno
Wedding Crashers
Casino Royale
She’s the Man
— Dallas Williamson
Mean Girls
Napoleon Dynamite
A Love Song for Bobby Long
Garden State
Crash
Almost Famous
There Will Be Blood
Little Miss Sunshine
Legally Blonde
Finding Nemo
— Anna Swenson
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
The Dark Knight
In the Mood for Love
No Country For Old Men
Paprika
The Prestige
Princess Mononoke
Punch-Drunk Love
Twilight Samurai
WALL-E
— Steven Kwan
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum
Dodgeball
Dreamgirls
The Dark Knight
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
I Am Legend
Spiderman
Madea Goes to Jail
17 Again
— Ada Dieke
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
There Will Be Blood
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Dogville
A Serious Man
A History of Violence
Broken Flowers
In Bruges
Children of Men
— Brandon Specktor
Y tu mamá también
Sweeney Todd
Mean Girls
The Sweetest Thing
She’s the Man
Monsters, Inc.
El orfanato
Pride & Prejudice
Love Actually
Sex and the City: The Movie
— Kenny Contrata
Our Picks:
“”Amelie”” (2 votes)
“”Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”” (2 votes)
“”Garden State”” (2 votes)
“”Lost in Translation”” (2 votes)
“”Mean Girls”” (3 votes)
“”The Royal Tenenbaums”” (2 votes)
“”Up”” (3 votes)
“”The Dark Knight”” (3 votes)
“”Kill Bill”” (3 votes)
“”WALL-E”” (3 votes)
“”Almost Famous”” (4 votes)
“”There Will Be Blood”” (4 votes)
1. There Will Be Blood/Almost Famous
Paul-Thomas Anderson’s dark vision of the politics of oil, featuring a bravura performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, tied with Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical tale of the rock-ridden ’70s, topped our list of favorite movies from this decade.
2. (tied) The Dark Knight, Kill Bill, WALL-E, Up
Batman returned (for the seventh time), Bill got killed, and Pixar’s space explorers (both on Earth and in, well, space) jockeyed for second place.
3. (tied) Amelie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Garden State, Lost in Translation, Mean Girls, The Royal Tenenbaums
All the weepy, indie-kid favorites came in a timid, self-conscious third.
