The 21st Century’s 100 greatest films

Entertainment
#1

The best that cinema has had to offer since 2000 as picked by 177 film critics from around the world.

  • [100] Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, )
  • Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, )
  • Carlos (Olivier Assayas, )
  • The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, )
  • Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, )
  • White Material (Claire Denis, )
  • Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, )
  • Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, )
  • Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, )
  • Ratatouille (Brad Bird, )
  • The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, )
  • The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella, )
  • The Pianist (Roman Polanski, )
  • The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, )
  • Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, )
  • Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, )
  • Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, )
  • A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, )
  • Her (Spike Jonze, )
  • A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, )
  • A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen, )
  • Shame (Steve McQueen, )
  • The Return (Andrey Zvyagintsev, )
  • Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, )
  • The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, )
  • The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, )
  • Dogville (Lars von Trier, )
  • Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, )
  • Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, )
  • Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, )
  • Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, )
  • Tabu (Miguel Gomes, )
  • Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, )
  • Carol (Todd Haynes, )
  • The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, )
  • The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, )
  • Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (Kim Ki-duk, )
  • Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, )
  • The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, )
  • The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, )
  • Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, )
  • Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, )
  • Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, )
  • A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, )
  • Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembène, )
  • Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, )
  • Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, director; Ágnes Hranitzky, co-director, )
  • Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski, )
  • Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, )
  • Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, )
  • Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, )
  • Inception (Christopher Nolan, )
  • [50] The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, )
  • Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, )
  • Brooklyn (John Crowley, )
  • Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, )
  • Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, )
  • Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, )
  • Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, )
  • Melancholia (Lars von Trier, )
  • Amour (Michael Haneke, )
  • Inside Out (Pete Docter, )
  • Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, )
  • The New World (Terrence Malick, )
  • City of God (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, )
  • Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, )
  • Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, )
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, )
  • Son of Saul (László Nemes, )
  • The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, )
  • The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, )
  • Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, )
  • Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, )
  • WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, )
  • Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, )
  • The Social Network (David Fincher, )
  • th Hour (Spike Lee, )
  • ​**[25]** Memento (Christopher Nolan, )
  • The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, )
  • Caché (Michael Haneke, )
  • Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, )
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, )
  • Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, )
  • Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, )
  • The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, )
  • Pan&#;s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, )
  • Holy Motors (Leos Carax, )
  • Months, Weeks and Days (Cristian Mungiu, )
  • The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, )
  • Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, )
  • Zodiac (David Fincher, )
  • Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, )
  • [10] No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, )
  • A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, )
  • Yi Yi: A One and a Two (Edward Yang, )
  • The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, )
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, )
  • Boyhood (Richard Linklater, )
  • Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, )
  • There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, )
  • In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, )
  • [1] Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, )

Some odd choices if you ask me!

#2

Used to hate these lists, not many movies that suited my taste. Then I got older which broadened my view and I didn’t demand fast cars, exciting action scenes and good looking women. I could live with this list, replacing a few in the top 20 thou.

#3

Got to watch Requiem for a dream again and where’s Donnie Darko on that list?

#4

Surprisingly many really good films on the list, even though I wouldn’t have put Mulholland Drive at #1, the shit by Scorsese and Nolan (except Memento) of course shouldn’t be there and Werckmeister Harmonies should be much higher. They apparently don’t like Iñárritu very much, either.

#5

Fucking Zero Dark Thirty :poldi:

Might as well put American Sniper and Michael Bay’s Benghazi film up there too.

3 Likes
#6

Garbage list, mainly just Oscar hype.

#7

I still don’t understand what was meant to be so good about Mad Max Fury Road

3 Likes
#8

Seen 18/100. Sheesh.

According to this list… This is one of the 100 best films made this century…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaeVPdsVkyA

#9

Some great ones there. But quite disappointing, to see a list compiled by so many critics, not include any of the films made by the best director of the 21st century. Many other very good and great filmmakers, were also left out.
Although the critics were only allowed to vote for 10 films, so I suppose that explains some of it.

#11

Who’s that?

#12

Michael Bay

7 Likes
#13

That would be Jia Zhangke, even if I’d like to pretend that his most recent film, that was released in 2015, never actually happened. But the films he made before that, are either great or at least good. Can’t think of any other filmmaker in recent years, with a run of films more impressive than Jia Zhangke’s three masterpieces in a row between 2000-2004.

No idea really, why none of his films made the list. He usually does appear on these kinds of list. And now, since they asked 177 critics (most of them appear to be just reviewers though), you’d think that at least a few would vote for some of his films.

I also dislike the idea of just being allowed to vote for 10 films. It only makes these lists even more predictable and boring.

#14

@AbouCuellar Jia Zhangke is really good, one of the best Chinese directors around, although not many Chinese people have heard of him. I think early Zhang Yi Mou is superior. Not sure why In the Mood for Love is in the top 100, it’s fucking terrible.

#15

@AbouCuellar Actually while I’m at it I recommend Zhang Yi Mou’s Not One Less, and Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth, which has Zhang Yi Mou doing the cinematography. You should probably love both of these.

And BTW don’t you consider Jia Zhang Ke’s Still Life from 2006 a masterpiece?

#16

@Dr_Strangepass

Hmm, are those two posts replies to my post or the one made by AbouCuellar? I mean, the last part, with the question about Still Life, makes me think that you meant to reply to me.

But oh what the hell, I’ll answer just in case: No, I don’t think that Still Life is quite as great as the four films before that (shouldn’t forget, that his first film in 1997 was something of a near masterpiece too). I still think it’s a good film though. And it might just be a case of me needing another viewing. I remember that I saw a godawful dvd-rip of it, rather than seeing it either on a proper dvd or blu-ray, like I did with the previous films.

I’m aware of both Not One Less and Yellow Earth, but I haven’t seen them. I liked Zhang Yimou’s first films, even if I think that some of them are slightly overrated. I lost interest in his films after a while and haven’t seen anything he’s made after that godawful piece of shit that is Hero. I don’t think much of The Road Home either, which looks quite similar to Not One Less and was made during the same year.

Yellow Earth I haven’t seen, purely because I don’t think that the versions that are out there, are good enough. No proper release of this film exists as of yet. If I thought that the rest of Chen Kaige’s filmography looked interesting enough, then I probably would have seen it anyway.

#17

Shit, yes I should have been replying to you. Apologies:)

I also wouldn’t watch anything post Hero from Yang Yi Mou. Well, that’s not true cos I’ve sat in cinemas in China watching them, thinking wow, this man has really gone to shit.

I managed to watch Yellow Earth on a cheapo fake DVD I got in China, and it was perfectly fine, so there’s probably a half decent download out there. Which Jia ZhangKe film would you most recommend? (I’ve still not seen them all).

Are you from China yourself?

#18

The new one, with Matt Damon, might actually be a new low for him. Worst part being that most likely, more people will see that one, instead of something like Qiu Ju or Raise the Red Lantern

As for Yellow Earth; Ye, I’ve noticed that there are few of those version out there. The film, is even uploaded on Youtube, but I don’t think it looks very good. I’m waiting for a good release, then I’ll definitely watch it. Although, there are no news of any restoration and those who are supposed to actually care, don’t appear to give a damn about Chinese film. Not much attention is paid to anything from Hong Kong or Taiwan either. Most likely, I’ll have to watch some crappy copy online unless I want to wait for…who knows how long.

If I were to break Jia Zhangke’s filmography, then it would be something like this;

The first four films, Xiao Wu (Pickpocket), Platform, Unknown Pleasures and The World – all of these are either truly great or at least near that level.

Still Life is good. The films he made after that one, 24 City, is also good. Then he made an even better film, A Touch of Sin, which is very good. And then of course there’s his most recent film, Mountains May Depart. I seem to be in a minority, but I thought that one was a disaster.

All the films mentioned, are all of the feature films he’s directed. All of them can be found on dvd. The World, does even have an excellent Masters of Cinema blu-ray. If you care about extras, to give you more context , then I’d highly recommend that version.

Best way to go about his films, would be to start with Xiao Wu, and then work your way through in chronological order.

No, I’m from Sweden and I have no connection to China or anything like that. :slight_smile:

#19

I’ve got Unknown Pleasures currently downloading. I’ll try work my way through them all but not necessarily in chronological order.

Jesus AF from Sweden, are you the artist formerly known as Almost Famous, then? Bloody name changers :slight_smile:

#20

^

Haha, yep, that used to be my name. :smiley:

Nice! Hopefully you won’t be disappointed. It seems like that one in particular, is his least appreciated film for some reason. Would love to hear your thoughts later on, in the “What was the last film you watched” thread. :slight_smile:

#21

Which movie in that list is a feel good one?
Please suggest quickly.