1. Lord of the Rings: The movie I was waiting for since grade four.
2. Pan's Labyrinth: I spent a year writing my thesis on it. I'd damn well better have liked it.
3. O Brother Where Art Thou?: Homer's Odyssey in the Depression years - George Clooney falling out of the train at the start sold me.
4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: While the most recent was the best, this will always be my favorite, for childlike nostalgia.
5. Moulin Rouge!: A gorgeous looking cinematic anomaly which shouldn't have worked, but did.
6. Dark Knight: The best superhero movie of the 21st century.
7. Wall-E: Pixar's best film can be viewed as children's movie, eco-statement, homage to SF, or theopoetic commentary on contamination and purity.
8. War of the Worlds: This movie remains one of the most chilling adaptations of Wells' book, and a stellar commentary on the post 9/11 world.
9. Silent Hill: A highly underrated movie with rich thematic depth.
10. Erin Brockovich: Julia Roberts' best role ever, and a great David vs. Goliath storyline.
What strikes me as particularly amazing, is that I could go back through the files from the Gotthammer website, which I started nearly 10 years ago. Before that, I have no record of what I thought the top 10 films of each year were, because I wasn't a blogger. 10 years ago, people weren't blogging per se. No one owned an Ipod. Mp3s were the hottest new technology. I didn't own a DVD player. 10 years ago, I was just recovering from the biggest crash of my life, and entering into a multimedia developer's program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. 9/11 hadn't happened yet. I didn't know who Harry Potter was. None of my writing had been published. My first band was over, and I hadn't started the next one. My children were years from being born. Lord of the Rings as a film phenomena was just a rumor. I had no idea that in a decade, I'd have left my first career behind, failed at my second, and moved onto a third. If you had told me I'd be studying steampunk for my PhD, I'd have said "steamwhat?"
I have no idea where the next 10 years will take me, but if the ride is as good as the last 10 have been, I am very excited. As Tennyson said, "'Tis not too late to seek a newer world."
