I was 12 years old when the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1, 2000. As a young, innocent child, my mother never restricted my movie watching.<\/p>\n
To give everybody a visual, I vividly remember watching \u201cDie Hard\u201d when I was 5 years old.<\/p>\n
Growing up in the \u201800s, I feel like I have a good grasp of the cinematic triumphs and failures over the past decade. Here\u2019s my list of the top 10 movies of the decade.<\/p>\n
10. \u201cBrokeback Mountain\u201d (2005)<\/strong><\/p>\n Directed by Ang Lee, \u201cBrokeback Mountain\u201d shares the story of two men who fall into a hidden love affair in a world that doesn\u2019t welcome homosexuality.<\/p>\n Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star in the acclaimed drama that racked up three Academy Awards, including Best Director and Adapted Screenplay.<\/p>\n The film went through a bit of controversy because of its sensitive plot, but the movie is a must-see thanks to a strong cast and a gutsy script.<\/p>\n 9. \u201cThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button\u201d (2008)<\/strong><\/p>\n Brad Pitt leads the way as the lovable and innocent Benjamin who was physically born an old man and died a young boy.<\/p>\n Eric Roth, who gained fame by writing the screenplay for \u201cForrest Gump,\u201d put together the script for \u201cCurious Case\u201d based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same title.<\/p>\n Of the 13 Academy Awards the film was nominated for, \u201cCurious Case\u201d took home three Oscars and won the hearts of many with this fresh and exciting look at a man\u2019s life as it ticks against the clock.<\/p>\n 8. \u201cMemento\u201d (2000)<\/strong><\/p>\n After seeing this movie for the first time last month, I had to immediately put this in my top 10.<\/p>\n Christopher Nolan (\u201cBatman Begins\u201d and \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d) directs this mind-bending thriller starring Guy Pierce as a former insurance investigator who is dealing with short-term memory loss while searching for his wife\u2019s murderer.<\/p>\n The story is told in a counter-clockwise motion from end to beginning. Nolan uses the film as a way to grab the viewer\u2019s brain and spin it around in ways I never imagined.<\/p>\n \u201cMemento\u201d is one of those films that come along every so often.<\/p>\n 7. \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d (2008)<\/strong><\/p>\n Another Christopher Nolan flick makes my list, and it\u2019s hard to disagree.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d is second film in the newly restored Batman series starring Christian Bale.<\/p>\n Though the sequel was Nolan\u2019s masterpiece, the film truly belonged to the late Heath Ledger. Ledger\u2019s performance as the menacing and demonic Joker won the actor the Oscar for best supporting role.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d captured eight Academy Award nominations, winning two awards, while racking up more than $500 million at the box office.<\/p>\n 6. \u201cNo Country for Old Men\u201d (2007)<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve always been a sucker for Joel and Ethan Coen.<\/p>\n Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, \u201cNo Country for Old Men\u201d is directed by the Coen brothers and won the Academy Award for best picture in 2008.<\/p>\n Set in 1980\u2019s Texas, the film follows Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) after he stumbles across the wrong briefcase full of cash.<\/p>\n Tommy Lee Jones plays the county sheriff and Javier Bardem stars as the unforgettable Anton Chigurh.<\/p>\n The film\u2019s melodic pace and cynical characters turn this film into a modern classic.<\/p>\n Check out the rest of my countdown in next week\u2019s edition of the Clarion<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was 12 years old when the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1, 2000. As a young, innocent child, my mother never restricted my movie watching. To give everybody a visual, I vividly remember watching \u201cDie Hard\u201d when I was 5 years old. Growing up in the \u201800s, I feel like I have a good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1272,841],"class_list":["post-3682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-joseph-stueve","tag-top-films"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-Xo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3682"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3804,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions\/3804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}