BBC's Top 100 films of the 21st Century so Far

[Chanticoblues]

So the other day, the BBC put together a list of the best films of the 21st century (from the year 2000 onwards). They did this by polling nearly 200 film critics and historians from around the globe. I don't why they decided to do this now, but they did, and it makes a nice distraction.

Here's the list:

100. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
100. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
100. Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
99. The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda, 2000)
98. Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)
97. White Material (Claire Denis, 2009)
96. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003)
95. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)
94. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
93. Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007)
92. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
91. The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, 2009)
90. The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)
89. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)
88. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015)
87. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
86. Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002)
85. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)
84. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
83. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
82. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009)
81. Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011)
80. The Return (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2003)
79. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000)
78. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
77. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007)
76. Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003)
75. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
74. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
73. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004)
72. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
71. Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012)
70. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
69. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
68. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
67. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)
66. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (Kim Ki-duk, 2003)
65. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)
64. The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
63. The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky, 2011)
62. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)
61. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
60. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)
59. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)
58. Moolaade (Ousmane Sembene, 2004)
57. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
56. Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, director; Agnes Hranitzky, co-director, 2000)
55. Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013)
54. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011)
53. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
52. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)
51. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
50. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)
49. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
48. Brooklyn (John Crowley, 2015)
47. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
46. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
45. Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
44. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
43. Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)
42. Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
41. Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015)
40. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)
39. The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)
38. City of God (Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, 2002)
37. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
36. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
35. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
34. Son of Saul (Laszlo Nemes, 2015)
33. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
32. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
31. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)
30. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
29. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
28. Talk to Her (Pedro Almodovar, 2002)
27. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
26. 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)
25. ​Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)
24. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
23. Cache (Michael Haneke, 2005)
22. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
21. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
20. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
19. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
18. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009)
17. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)
16. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
15. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
14. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)
13. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
12. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
11. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)
10. No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)
9. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
8. Yi Yi: A One and a Two (Edward Yang, 2000)
7. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
4. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
3. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
2. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

What do you guys think of it? I like it, although there are a few on here I haven't seen yet. I think it really paints a picture of what people have been crazy about for the last decade and a half, even if I haven't been in total agreement. It also reflects how diverse the current era is for film which I dig. Lots of different styles and viewpoints on here.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Meh. I've seen some of these and none of them really spoke to me. Mulholland Drive was mawkish and felt like a Soap Opera just without the audience reaction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a confusing mess, There Will Be Blood was 90mins too long. Memento was good once. Wall-E was fun. Zero Dark Thirty was decent, but a little too...glorifying? Dark Knight should be in the Top 10 no question.
Inglorious Bastards did not age well, if it was even fresh to begin with. And Ratatouille?! Seriously?! That's not even as good as Tangled, which can't hold a candle to Zootopia.

In fact, lets just redo the entire 100. Zootopia takes the cake. All of it.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

THERE WILL BE BLOOD IS IN 3RD PLACE!!!

 

[Saelune]

Meh. I've seen some of these and none of them really spoke to me. Mulholland Drive was mawkish and felt like a Soap Opera just without the audience reaction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a confusing mess, There Will Be Blood was 90mins too long. Memento was good once. Wall-E was fun. Zero Dark Thirty was decent, but a little too...glorifying? Dark Knight should be in the Top 10 no question.
Inglorious Bastards did not age well, if it was even fresh to begin with. And Ratatouille?! Seriously?! That's not even as good as Tangled, which can't hold a candle to Zootopia.

In fact, lets just redo the entire 100. Zootopia takes the cake. All of it.

Don't know if its the best movie of the last 17ish years...but its better than most on this list, and its not even on it.

Too many of these movie sound like they were Oscar baiters.

 

[Sonmi]

Mulholland Drive was mawkish and felt like a Soap Opera just without the audience reaction.

That's kind of the point though, you're going through the whole movie through Naomi Watts's youthful perception of romance, of the world, of Hollywood and her dream to become an actress in general. Lynch used the same type of mood for Twin Peaks.

I wouldn't have named it the greatest film of the 21st century, but it's still excellent.

As for the list, I think it's a bit too anglocentric, but that's to be expected. Glad to see that A Serious Man made it, I love that movie.

(Seen 53 of those, will try seeing those I haven't as soon as possible, been meaning to watch In the Mood for Love for a while now)

 

[Chanticoblues]

No opinion. I've seen 28 of those and enjoyed most of them. Mulholland Drive not so much. I'm gonna use this. Still blowing through the last list you posted (TSPDT) at a rate of about six movies a week. Thanks.

Ok. I just made a connection I probably should have a while ago. I also go by Ringedwithtile on Giantbomb, where I think you also post. The different avatars threw me, and it wasn't until now that I made the connection. I split my time between these two forums and also make an effort on Easy Allies.

And hey, no problem! It's a great resource for sure. If you ever want recommendations, hit me up.


One thing I think is really cool, is that Toni Erdmann, darling of Cannes this year, made the list. This is a film that hasn't been released yet. It hasn't even played in a North American film festival and it still made the list. That's crazy.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Maybe not the best of all time, but it should at least be on there.

SNIP

That movie should have ended at the 40min mark. It simply ran out of things to say and just kinda meandered around doing cowboy things.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Wait? Mulholland Drive is numnber 1??!!! Just to be clear, I have seen it but I'm stil confused at what exactly was going on in that film. Also what the hell? Tree of Life is in the top 10 too??!!!

Other than that, I'm glad that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Spirited Away, Lost in Translation, City Of God and WALL-E was in the list!

 

[Sonmi]

Just to be clear, I have seen it but I'm stil confused at what exactly was going on in that film.

The basic chronological plot is this:

Spoiler

A mediocre actress (Watts) tries to make it big in Hollywood, her lover (Harring) has far more success than her in the movie industry, which Watts suspects is due to her sleeping with producers and directors to get parts. Harring dumps Watts, and invites her to a party where she announces her engagement to a prominent director (Theroux). Being both jealous of Harring's success and heartbroken, Watts calls a hit on her and falls asleep. Most of the movie is her dream, where she is idealized as talented and optimistic, where the only reason she isn't able to succeed is due to a giant conspiracy to goes right to the top, where her lover is amnesiac and overly dependent on her, and where the hitman she hired to kill her IRL is grossly incompetent. While in her dream, she realizes what she has done, wakes up, freaks out, and kills herself.

 

[Catnip1024]

I was about to say that it pretty good for a BBC list. Then I realised there was no Die Another Day. That's a deal-breaker, no compliments from me BBC.

On the other hand, a few of these I'm actually surprised are from this century (I thought Crouching Tiger was way older).

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

I've seen 31 of those, but I heard about most of them. Seems like a pretty ok list. I need to stop watching shitty movies. I went on a Uwe Boll marathon because some of his movies were about to leave Netflix.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I don't think they included 2016 for this list. There have been some gems already that no doubt would be included. Spotlight and The Theory of Everything would have certainly made it in my honest opinion. There must have been a cut off point to begin production and publication and such, if this was televised especially. Edit: Oh wait, Spotlight is there, and it was 2015. I mistaked it! And a 2016 film there at the top, but a cut off point must exist somewhere within this year!

 

[TakerFoxx]

No Ex Machina, none of the LotR films. Phooey.

At least Dark Knight made the cut.

 

[Chanticoblues]

I don't think they included 2016 for this list. There have been some gems already that no doubt would be included. Spotlight and The Theory of Everything would have certainly made it in my honest opinion. There must have been a cut off point to begin production and publication and such, if this was televised especially. Edit: Oh wait, Spotlight is there, and it was 2015. I mistaked it! And a 2016 film there at the top, but a cut off point must exist somewhere within this year!

I don't know if there was a cutoff point, but as I mentioned earlier, that 2016 entry hasn't even played on North American soil yet, so it's a very surprising inclusion! I think it might just be tougher for some people to justify a really recent movie over one that they've been watching and rewatching for a decade or more. This list was made out of a bunch of different people's top 10 picks. I mean if I picked my top 10 of the 21st century, it wouldn't have anything from 2016 either.

 

[Fox12]

This is a great list. I agree with most of the choices made. I watched There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men the other day, and they were both mind blowing. I can't decide which one I love more.

Oh, it's you! That's funny.

And Ratatouille?! Seriously?! That's not even as good as Tangled, which can't hold a candle to Zootopia.

In fact, lets just redo the entire 100. Zootopia takes the cake. All of it.

I haven't seen Zootopia, but I'd put Spirited Away ahead of any Disney animation I've seen. And knowing Disney, I doubt Zootopia surpasses it. It's nice to see Spirited Away so high on the list.

I adored zootopia. It was a really fun movie. I may make the protagonist my avatar one day. But it doesn't deserve to be in the top 100 films. It doesn't even deserve to be in the top 1000. Most of Pixars filmography is better, and pretty much anything by ghibli is in an entirely different league. I loved zootopia, but like Frozen before it, it gets a little too much hype from its fans.

 

[Evonisia]

I've enjoyed most of the films I've watched from that list. I'm particularly happy with "No Country for Old Men" making the Top 10.

I may dislike some others, but in general it's a nice list. There's a lot of variety in there across several genres and for the most part it does highlight the films people really loved. On that note, however, I have to echo the shock that none of the "Lord of the Rings" films are on there.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I don't think they included 2016 for this list. There have been some gems already that no doubt would be included. Spotlight and The Theory of Everything would have certainly made it in my honest opinion. There must have been a cut off point to begin production and publication and such, if this was televised especially. Edit: Oh wait, Spotlight is there, and it was 2015. I mistaked it! And a 2016 film there at the top, but a cut off point must exist somewhere within this year!

I don't know if there was a cutoff point, but as I mentioned earlier, that 2016 entry hasn't even played on North American soil yet, so it's a very surprising inclusion! I think it might just be tougher for some people to justify a really recent movie over one that they've been watching and rewatching for a decade or more. This list was made out of a bunch of different people's top 10 picks. I mean if I picked my top 10 of the 21st century, it wouldn't have anything from 2016 either.

That is a good point, recent releases have more social ground to cover and embed into people's imaginations. They need time to settle.