The Decade's Best: #21-#30, and One Switcheroo

Even though these movies inspire me profoundly, I admit I'd been running low on inspiration for these posts. It's been so tempting just to toss the whole rest of the list onto the site ever since the first day, since I had it all written and formatted. Maybe I'm just worried that we're getting closer and closer to the point where the choices will be more predictable, if you've been following along with my yearly Best lists. I hate to bore you!

But, due credit to the value of waiting: I just caught The Hurt Locker again in its small theatrical re-release, and damn if the movie isn't even better than I thought it was. So, at the possible risk of heedlessness, I've had to promote it from its former position at #42. You'll see it again this time around, and oddly, it has the effect of bumping down to #31 the movie that otherwise would have been my #1 film for 2009. A real race to the finish line between those two. I've heard from a few of you who already fear that Hurt Locker is overrated, and I understand the inelegance both of changing the list after it's already started unfurling and of trying to form a coherent assessment of a virtually brand-new film, side by side with movies I've adored for almost a full decade. But there we have it. I really think Bigelow's film has durability and depth, and I'd feel even more wrong about keeping it lower than my gut feels is right. Chime in as you will!

Otherwise, I've been especially gratified by the folks who have reported that you're queuing and renting titles you'd never heard of, based on these posts. (I'm doing the same thing, based on other lists I'm reading elsewhere.) Though I know a lot of people who are even more documentary-obsessed than I am, it sounds like the nonfiction titles on my roster have been the freshest discoveries for a lot of you. So, happy to serve! There are two more doozies here in the high 20s.