40. The Social Network
Leave it to David Fincher to deliver not only one of the best movies of the year, but one of the best music videos to boot. The Winklevoss (Winklevi?) twins, long since burned by their dubious exchanges with official Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, have finally had enough after losing an esteemed international sculling race and learning that their stolen internet idea has now made it across the pond. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's tongue-in-cheek rendition of Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" infects one with the thrill of the final strokes of their race, and as a stylistic lynchpin, it might be just the thing that takes The Social Network to greatness. It's another indication of Fincher's ever-evolving kino eye, and not the first time he's out-Kubricked Kubrick.
39. The Royal Tenenbaums
Another snatch that once made it as far as this sites main banner. The formative years of the young Tenenbaums are summarized with grace and wit to The Mutato Muzika Orchestra's cover of "Hey Jude," with the climactic coda seeing young Richie freeing his pet falcon Mordecai from the urban prison to which the rest of them are bound. Bliss ensues. This might be the instant I fell in love with Wes Anderson.
38. Toy Story 3
Despite an overly polished narrative, Toy Story 3's heart is in the right place, never more so than during the instantly infamous climax: the toys, accidentally thrown out, find themselves trapped in a landfill's automated trash shredder and incinerator, a dead-end obstacle course that sees the iconic group reconciling their mortality in a transcendent image of solidarity. In a trilogy that respectfully considers who we are, where we come from, and where we're going, it's a sobering wake-up call to the finite nature of all things.
37. Eastern Promises
Arguably the fisticuffs sequence of the decade, this bathhouse tussle acts like a palate cleanser to all those horrid action films in which fights and shoot-outs are assembled less from proper coverage than from the sloppy editing of deliberately obscure camerawork. Here, every punch, kick, cut and body slam registers with aching force; the audience itself feels wounded by the time a victor emerges.
36. Death Proof
This sequence was absent from the stateside, Grindhouse-intact cut of Death Proof, so only those who've ventured to the full cut of the film will know it's sexy glory. It's just one of many ethereal cinematic highs in an underrated, exquisitely personal work; accept the laid back, slow-burn pacing, and Tarantino's spell works wonders (the same goes for that other forgotten QT gem, Jackie Brown). I doubt that words could do it justice. "He wears a red bandanna ..."
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