Best Movie of the 2000s Update #6

It’s Erin here writing the placeholder text for this new update, which took me like three weeks to write after Tom begged me to do it every day and I kept saying, “okay!” And then I didn’t do it. But now I did. Man, we watched these a long time ago. Oops!

Erin Brockovich (2000)
Tom: The movie is so 2000, but it’s one of my favorite Julia Roberts movies. Maybe my favorite? I’m not the biggest J-Rob fan out there, I’ll admit. But she was great, and it was a classic outsider-underdog story that happens to be based on something that actually happened. Down with environmental crime!
Erin: I obviously love this movie because it has my name in the title. 💁🏻‍♀️ I first saw it in high school and it does hold up surprisingly well. Julia Roberts really is fantastic in it. Also, it’s fun to catch the name-changed-but-still-him supervillain Tom Girardi character. Beverly Hills Housewives fans STAND UP.

In the Bedroom (2001)
Tom: This one took a few WILD twists and turns but at its core it’s a meditation on grief and what happens when you fail to communicate in a relationship. It’s part-romantic drama (with a murder!), part-indie acting clinic, and part-thriller. Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek are incredible. One of my favorites from 2001 so far.
Erin: This is a legit “film.” You know what I mean. I liked it a lot for three reasons: a. It contained the still rare Middle Aged Leads. b. It was like a triptych in movie form, which was fascinating (Art History was my lowest grade in college but I still remembered something). c. A New England small town setting. Love that stuff.

Panic Room (2002)
Tom: I always thought this was a horror movie when I was younger, but it’s pure thriller, and it was fun! Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart had good chemistry, and the bickering between the robbers added an air of unpredictability as to what was going to happen next. There’s a bit of a precursor to Jared Leto’s Joker in this (for better or worse), and I think it fit the narrative and contributed to the tension. He was also compelling because the loudmouthed arrogance clearly tried to make up for his lack of actual ability, intelligence, or self-worth, which was actually surprisingly subtle for a performance like this.
Erin: Panic Room is FUN!! Okay this is my thing—I hate thrillers that try too much. The larger the scope, the more complex the plot, the more bored I get. Panic Room understands this about me. Jodie Foster and her daughter Kristen Stewart are in a panic room. Perfect!

Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Tom: While this documentary is a precursor to much of the true crime hysteria we have in movies and TV nowadays, it clearly hadn’t figured everything out because its portrayal of a family involved in child sexual abuse was troubling. The director apparently left important information out in order to view the subjects as humans instead of the monsters they are. No thanks.
Erin: Oofies to this guy here. Andrew Jarecki, I loved The Jinx and Catfish. I’m not going to sympathize with child predators though 😵‍💫 this is not worth the watch.

Closer (2004)
Tom: The dialogue in this movie is hilariously bad. For a movie that was based on an award-winning play that was written by the playwright, it had absolutely none of the basic writing techniques (i.e., show, don’t tell) that you learn in Writing 101. The amount of times we were told that X person was in love with another person without ever actually seeing any interaction with a hint of chemistry made the entire thing fall flat. I love Clive Owen though.
Erin: This movie is iconic. It was TERRIBLE in my humble opinion but it was one of those where I was laughing the whole time, so clearly I kind of loved it. The dialogue and the delivery was so strange. Even stranger was that I immediately recognized two of the lines as song lyrics/titles of pop punk songs, thus proving that IT’S NOT A PHASE, MOM!

Memories of Murder (2005)
Tom: Now we’re talking. Bong Joon-ho’s 2005 movie about the hunt for Korea’s first serial killer is just fantastic. Like many of Bong’s films, it tackles social issues like class, police brutality, and violence against women, but Bong somehow finds a way to keep the tone watchable and even humorous at times. There are also about 500 dropkicks in this movie for no reason. It’s incredible. Also, the ENDING. It’s one of my favorite movie endings.
Erin: Now we’re talking!!! If you liked the great Zodiac (2007), watch this because it’s even better!! Bong Joon Ho is a master, his films are genre defying and funny and socially conscious. And I can’t deal with the fact that there were dropkicks in each scene but they fit and didn’t mess up the tone of the film at all??

Idiocracy (2006)
Tom: I’m a Mike Judge fan. His stuff is crude but socially aware, sarcastic, and largely accurate. Idiocracy is just OK though. There are some laugh-out-loud moments (“Welcome to Costco, I love you”) but overall it was hit-or-miss, and there’s a few too many homophobic and ableist jokes in it (but I get it, that’s the point of an “idiocracy” - this society hasn’t created good people). And Maya Rudolph’s blaccent for the entire movie took me aback a bit. I’ll admit, though, that Terry Crews’s President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho is an icon.
Erin: I thought this was supposed to be really prescient and good? And it wasn’t? I think this is a movie that the annoying guy from your freshmen floor thought was like, really connected to the state of our nation, mannn. Pass!

Superbad (2007)
Tom: Say what you want about Jonah Hill or Seth Rogen or anyone involved in this, but Superbad is an all-time classic. McLovin is one of the funniest characters to me and he makes up for a lot of Seth’s overly obnoxious schtick as well as Evan’s sad-sack-ness. They all gel together perfectly though, as do the cops played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader, and Emma Stone’s character grounds the movie with the heart that she always brings. It’s pretty much a perfect comedy.
Erin: I have always loved Superbad and I still love Superbad. So do you. We know, it’s top tier! McLovin. What else do you want?

Mamma Mia! (2008)
Tom: I get the appeal, and ABBA is great, but this movie is not my thing. It could’ve been 30 minutes long and had the exact same plot. It’s a musical version of Grown Ups, which is fine, but I personally didn’t like it all that much.
Erin: Campy dancy sparkles and sunshine. I love ABBA and I love Mamma Mia! Have I ever not loved a movie with an exclamation point in the title? Okay I just looked it up. So far I have loved every movie I have SEEN with an exclamation point, including Airplane! which I watched with Tom on our first date awwww.

Star Trek (2009)
Tom: I’ve never seen any Star Trek media so I didn’t know what I was getting into, but I really liked this one. Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine were awesome together, and I thought the movie did a good job of telling both of their stories at once, treating them as intertwined equals. I know that Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk had come out already, but this movie felt a lot like a precursor to the MCU as we know it - humor, melodrama, a Hollywood Chris (Pine, but also Hemsworth in the opening scene), and enough Easter eggs to make hardcore fans happy while pleasing newcomers.
Erin: Why did I see this in theaters? I think it was because I really liked Chris Pine in the terrible Lindsay Lohan vehicle Just My Luck (yikes). Omg I just looked it up and Just My Luck only got a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. Star Trek is much better, in case you wanted to compare!