I just finished up reading The A.V. Club’s top 50 movies of the past decade. It started from #50 and worked it’s way up. Usually, with lists like this, after a certain point you start to get a feel for who’s going to be in the Top 10, then Top 5, etc.. But I was wholly surprised to see Spike Lee’s 25th Hour as the #2 ranked film on this list. #1 is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is no surprise since it’s on most of these “best of decade lists,” but 25th Hour hadn’t shown up on the ones I had read and for the most part never seems to be discussed much at all.
However, it is a fucking great film, one of my favorites of all time, and I am very happy to see it ranked so high. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it, it’ll blow you away. Edward Norton, Barry Pepper, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Bryan Cox are at the top of their game here, as is Spike Lee. I know that Lee tried to make this film about a convicted drug dealer spending the last day of his freedom before a long prison sentence into a reflection on post 9/11 New York right after the attacks, but it’s how Norton’s character and his friends sift through a wide array of fear and confusion and sorrow that ultimately makes this the most human of movies. Go watch it.
Tags: movies
