My analyst told me - I was right out of my head - the way he described it - I'd be better dead

Tripp asked me last week what the five best movies made in the last 15 years were. I put a lot of thought into it. Then he changed it to the ten best which made it even harder. I've just about reached a decision.

I like all kinds of movies, so I feel like a list like this needs a strategy. I wanted to represent a wide variety of genres and national cinemas while sticking upholding a few basic criteria: a) the film should be visually beautiful, they don't call them motion pictures for nothing, I like mobile cameras, well composed frames, and rich color palettes, every film should have a distinct look b) the film should get to me emotionally, for just about every movie on this list I can remember the theater I saw it in the people I was with and the other things I did that day, in every case I had multiple "Holy Shit I can't believe I just saw that!" moments while watching the movie c) they should make you think at some level and three days later you should still be telling everyone you meet about the fucking insane flick you just saw d) they should change your outlook on their genre forever and become permanent benchmarks by which all other genre films are measured against.

10. Deconstructing Harry (1997) - Nobody gets hated on like Woody Allen, and nobody for less reason. I know he skeeves women out, but this guy is still a legitimate talent, he's not great every time out, but he's so prolific you have to cut him some slack because when he's on his game there's no one better. Harry is to me the penultimate smart comedy, huge laughs all the way through, great sketches, fantastic meta-narratives, bravura editing, unbelievable music (Annie Ross - oh my god!), and fine performances throughout. I walked out of the Roosevelt Raceway theater in Westbury one afternoon in '97 stunned and wiping tears of laughter out of my eyes while a legion of old people scratched their heads and complained that it wasn't funny. Wrong. (Honorable mention: Mighty Aphrodite (1995) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)).

9. City of God (2002) - God I wish I had seen this in a theater. Epic, beautiful, moving, tragic, and depicting a world that you never knew existed. I'll need to watch it another dozen times or so, but this might make my top ten movies ever. That good.

8. Kill Bill (2002-2003) - (Counting two volumes as one movie) Got to have some martial arts and martial arts won't ever be the same after this opus. I saw the first part with Tim Novarro who hated it and was kind of a drag on my spirits that night, but nothing could drag me off the high of this ridiculously wild splatterfest. When you sit down for a Tarantino film and the lights go down and the music starts you just know that YOU'RE AT THE MOTHERFUCKING MOVIES! Afterwards I went on a netflix mission tracking down the movies it was paying homage to…Lone Wolf and Cub, Shaw Brothers flicks, spaghetti westerns…can't say I've got the whole universe down by any means, but it's a fun trip. (Honorable Mention Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Legend of Drunken Master aka Drunken Master II (1994))

7. Sixth Sense (1999) - What can I say, M. Knight got game, too bad he'll have to spend the rest of his life trying to live up to it. My prediliction is to think anything involving the supernatural is dumb , but even before the surprise ending this was a flat out masterpiece. With the surprise ending (and don't give me any bullshit about how you did because it would be a lie) it's one of the all time great achievements in film history.

6. Saving Private Ryan (1998) - Not the most tightly plotted war movie, but easily one of the most effective. And let's face it, the day before you saw this you didn't think that every war movie ever made to that point basically sucked, but chances are you do now. That's a strong statement, hell even I don't believe it, but there's a grain of truth there. When I watch old war flicks now, even really quality ones like A Bridge Too Far (1977) or Platoon (1986) I have to mentally prepare myself not to start comparing it to this. (Honorable Mention: Band of Brothers (2001) - it's not a movie, but it learns all the SPR lessons of filming combat and has far more compelling plot lines to boot).

5. There's Something About Mary (1998) - Full disclosure: I might be biased on this one. I saw this on a day in September my senior year of college with Jill, Panos, and Margret. It was one of the golden days of college - We were rockstars. Margret had a summer job in Virginia Beach at a jet ski rental place and she hooked us up with hours of jet ski time for like 20 bucks, then we had margaritas and mexican food before heading to the movie. I think it was the first of the gross out comedy movies of the late nineties, or at least the first one I saw. I almost wet my pants. (Honorable mention: American Pie (1999))

4. Pulp Fiction (1994) - If our generation has A movie this is it. (Honorable mention True Romance (1993) and Reservoir Dogs (1992)which could have made the list, but was hurt by the presence of Pulp and Kill Bill and some lingering uneasiness over the amount of material that was borrowed from City on Fire (1987)).

3. Unforgiven (1992) - I wrote a 10 page paper on this movie in college, so I can't really get into here why this is one of the greatest westerns ever, but suffice it to say that there's pure genius here. The movie simultaneously explodes and reinvigorates the myths of the old westand every line spoken by every character is just loaded with meaning, the cinematography is flat our gorgeous, the acting from Eastwood, down to the smallest bit parts (like the woman that plays Ned's (Morgan Freeman's) wife is pitch perfect, and the action is spellbinding.

2. The Matrix (1999) - I expected exactly nothing from this movie and came away so buzzed I was practically halucinating (The fact that I was suffering from an unbelievably bad sunburn might have contributed to my trip a bit too. Panos and I had just gotten back from Virginia Beach and were catching a flick in a town that I think was called Hampton not far from William and Mary).

1. Goodfellas (1990) - If I have to justify this pick I don't think I even want to talk to you anymore. Greatest mob movie ever.

My list has obvious problems.

1)With the exception of City of God, they're all in English, and even worse, all American. This is my fault, my knowledge of international cinema is sadly lacking and 95% of what I have seen is older than 15 years. I need to see John Woo's Hong Kong movies and I need some more recent foreign reccomendations.

2) There aren't many under the radar picks, 8 of these movies were wildly successful and most were blockbusters.

If our society operated on a base 12 numbering system (giving me 2 more picks) I would have mitigated both of these concerns at least somewhat by including Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993) (because it's the classic feel good high school movie and I love it more every time I see it) and Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale (2000) (just for being the most fucked up and deranged piece of cinema I've ever seen (Thanks to Chris Campbell and Nicole for introducing me to it when I was in England.))