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  The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films Ranking (101-150)  
  21st Century Home  Summary:  The 250 Films  The Top 50 Directors  Browse by Ranking:  1-50  51-100  101-150  151-200  201-250  
     
     
 
 101  ▲    102    103  
Together
Lukas Moodysson  (106)
• Tillsammans (original title)
2000, 106m, Col, Sweden-Denmark-Italy, Drama-Comedy
"Moodysson captures exactly the preening narcissism and gumption of these frazzled would-be revolutionaries trying to wriggle out of their bourgeois straitjackets." - Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
Selected by Kenneth Turan, Owen Gleiberman, David Ansen, David Edelstein, Paul Malcolm.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Gosford Park
Robert Altman  (86)
2001, 137m, Col, UK-USA, Comedy-Mystery-Drama
"It ranks among Robert Altman's best work ever, and that its many satisfactions derive in large part from a superbly written screenplay by Julian Fellowes that has no equal this year." - Jonathan Foreman, New York Post
Selected by Michael Wilmington, Philip French, Peter Rainer, David Edelstein, Jay Carr.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Inland Empire
David Lynch  (91)
2006, 172m, Col-BW, USA-Poland-France, Drama-Mystery
"It is Lynch's most experimental endeavor in the 30 years since Eraserhead that it will do nothing to draw new fans to the director's work and that, after two viewings, I cannot wait to see it again." - Scott Foundas, LA Weekly
Selected by J. Hoberman, Peter Keough, Manohla Dargis, Ed Gonzalez, Glenn Kenny.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 104    105    106  
Volver
Pedro Almodóvar  (88)
2006, 121m, Col, Spain, Comedy-Drama
"Almodóvar is still one of the few directors worth watching just for how he uses color on the screen. But the pleasures have always run much deeper, and now they run deeper still." - Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club
Selected by David Ansen, Molly Haskell, Stephen Holden, A.O. Scott, Peter Travers.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Bad Education
Pedro Almodóvar  (93)
• La Mala educación (original title)
2004, 105m, Col, Spain, Thriller-Drama
"Bad Education is a voluptuous experience that invites you to gorge on its beauty and vitality, although it has perhaps the darkest ending of any of the films by the Spanish writer and director." - Stephen Holden, New York Times
Selected by Carrie Rickey, Stephen Holden, Wesley Morris, David Edelstein, Richard Corliss.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Black Book
Paul Verhoeven  (90)
• Zwartboek (original title)
2006, 146m, Col, Germany-Netherlands-UK-Belgium, War-Thriller
"Like much of Verhoeven's best work, it's shamelessly melodramatic, but in its dark moral complexities it puts Schindler's List to shame." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Selected by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones, Dennis Lim, Tom Charity, Joshua Land.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 107    108  ▲    109  
Gangs of New York
Martin Scorsese  (98)
2002, 166m, Col, USA, Drama-Crime-Action
"A grand achievement in history and anthropology, supporting its ambition and scope with a sumptuous re-creation of the period and an immediacy that allows a forgotten past to barrel into the present." - Scott Tobias, The Onion
Selected by Carrie Rickey, Kent Jones, A.O. Scott, Stephen Holden, F.X. Feeney.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Bowling for Columbine
Michael Moore  (117)
2002, 120m, Col, USA, Documentary-Comedy
"Moore's best movie, and one of the most blisteringly effective polemics and documentaries ever." - Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Selected by Owen Gleiberman, Ed Halter, Scott Foundas, Edward Crouse, Mike Clark.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Colossal Youth
Pedro Costa  (94)
• Juventude Em Marcha (original title)
2006, 155m, Col, France-Portugal-Switzerland, Drama
"Beautifully photographed, this elliptical, sometime confounding, often mysterious and wholly beguiling mixture of fiction and nonfiction looks and sounds as if it were made on another planet. And, in some respects, it was." - Manohla Dargis, New York Times
Selected by Dennis Lim, Berenice Reynaud, Sean Axmaker, Richard Brody, Daryl Chin.
Amazon  IMDB
         
 110    111    112  
The Piano Teacher
Michael Haneke  (95)
• La Pianiste (original title)
2001, 130m, Col, Austria-France-Germany, Drama
"At once an emotional thriller and a domestic horror movie -- a woman's picture with a vengeance, in which the bloodletting is kept to a minimum, and ends up all the more powerful and profound for it." - Manohla Dargis, LA Weekly
Selected by Michael Atkinson, Manohla Dargis, Ernest Hardy, Scott Foundas, Mick LaSalle.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Wonder Boys
Curtis Hanson  (96)
2000, 112m, Col, USA-Germany-UK-Japan, Drama-Comedy
"Michael Douglas digs deep and delivers one of his best performances in Wonder Boys -- a comic dazzler of roguish wit and touching gravity that is driven by characters, not jokes." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Selected by Dave Kehr, Roger Ebert, David Ansen, Amy Taubin, Michael Atkinson.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Eureka
Shinji Aoyama  (97)
• Yurîka (original title)
2000, 217m, Col-BW, Japan-France, Drama
"Builds steadily through a series of masterfully orchestrated modulations to a final act without shattering revelations or lofty dramatic peaks but with a quiet, formidable power." - David Rooney, Variety
Selected by Dave Kehr, David Sterritt, David Ansen, Michael Atkinson, Jay Carr.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 113    114    115  
The Hours
Stephen Daldry  (109)
2002, 114m, Col, USA, Drama
"Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore bring dignity and Oscar-worthy performances to The Hours, a lovingly crafted meditation on death, loss and literature." - Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
Selected by David Sterritt, Kenneth Turan, Mick LaSalle, Stephen Holden, Andrew O'Hehir.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Triplets of Belleville
Sylvain Chomet  (99)
• Les Triplettes de Belleville (original title)
2003, 80m, Col, France-Canada-Belgium-UK, Comedy-Animated-Adventure
"A madcap milestone. Not since Disney's 75-minute Alice In Wonderland (1951) has an animator filled the screen with dazzling flights of random invention that manage to hook up into a swift, brief narrative." - Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
Selected by Michael Atkinson, David Sterritt, Gerald Peary, Peter Rainer, A.O. Scott.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Sexy Beast
Jonathan Glazer  (100)
2000, 88m, Col, UK-Spain-USA, Drama-Crime-Comedy
"Carries so much impacted menace and visual narrative gamesmanship that it brought back some of the excitement I felt nearly a decade ago watching Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs." - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Selected by Owen Gleiberman, Peter Rainer, David Edelstein, Elvis Mitchell, A.O. Scott.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 116  New    117  New    118  New  
Silent Light
Carlos Reygadas
• Stellet licht (original title)
2007, 136m, Col, Mexico-France-Netherlands, Drama
"This is a deeply considered, formally accomplished, beautiful-looking and unexpectedly gripping film from a director making a giant leap into the first rank of world cinema." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Selected by Steve Erickson, Mike D'Angelo, Patrick McGavin, Melissa Anderson, Michael Koresky.
Amazon  Reverse Shot
 
Synecdoche, New York
Charlie Kaufman
2008, 124m, Col, USA, Comedy-Drama
"To say that Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York is one of the best films of the year or even one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Selected by Phillip Lopate, Glenn Kenny, Peter Brunette, Noel Murray, Nathan Rabin.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Let the Right One In
Tomas Alfredson
• Lĺt den rätte komma in (original title)
2008, 114m, Col, Sweden, Drama-Horror-Romance
"In the basest of terms, a horror flick. But it's also a spectacularly moving and elegant movie, and to dismiss it into genre-hood, to mentally stuff it into the horror pigeonhole, is to overlook a remarkable film." - John Anderson, Washington Post
Selected by John Anderson, Gerald Peary, Tom Charity, David Sterritt, Ed Gonzalez.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 119    120    121  
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Tsai Ming-Liang  (101)
• Bu san (original title)
2003, 82m, Col, Taiwan, Drama-Comedy
"Has a quiet, cumulative magic, whose source is hard to identify. Its simple, meticulously composed frames are full of mystery and feeling; it's an action movie that stands perfectly still." - A.O. Scott, New York Times
Selected by John Anderson, Berenice Reynaud, Dennis Lim, Chris Fujiwara, J. Hoberman.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Last Days
Gus Van Sant  (103)
2004, 96m, Col, USA, Drama
"What Last Days offers is a blank and narrative-free, but pitch-perfect, dreamscape on which to project your own personal ruminations on Kurt, fame, whatever, nevermind. If you have none, you're on your own." - Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Peter Keough, Dennis Lim, Ed Halter, Phillip Lopate, Ed Park.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Son
Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne  (108)
• Le Fils (original title)
2002, 103m, Col, Belgium-France, Drama
"By the climax, we can hardly breathe -- The outcome is less important than our utter and complete empathy with this man. As we await what he does, we breathe with him, in and out. This is an astonishing movie." - David Edelstein, Slate
Selected by Kent Jones, Dennis Lim, Roger Ebert, Geoff Andrew, J.Hoberman.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 122    123  New    124  
Platform
Zhang Ke Jia  (104)
• Zhantai (original title)
2000, 154m, Col, Hong Kong-Japan-France-Netherlands-Switzerland, Drama
"One of the richest films of the past decade... Platform looks like a documentary, but it's Pop Art as history." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by Manohla Dargis, Berenice Reynaud, Chris Fujiwara, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Michael Atkinson.
Amazon  metacritic
 
In the City of Sylvia
José Luis Guerín
• En la ciudad de Sylvia (original title)
2007, 84m, Col, Spain, Drama
"The film is built on sensuous interplays between people and objects, reality and representation, implying something profound is at risk here, and the simultaneous thrill and danger of every scene nearly stops the heart." - Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Selected by John Anderson, Gerald Peary, Tom Charity, David Sterritt, Ed Gonzalez.
Amazon  Slant Magazine
 
Kinsey
Bill Condon  (105)
2004, 118m, Col, Germany-USA-UK, Drama-Biography
"A stupendously moving film. Neeson nails Kinsey's rock-hard decency and fragile ego, and Linney abets him beautifully: There isn't an actress in movies right now who's more simply alive." - David Edelstein, Slate
Selected by Owen Gleiberman, David Ehrenstein, Richard Schickel, A.O. Scott, Stephen Holden.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 125    126    127  New  
Eastern Promises
David Cronenberg  (111)
2007, 100m, Col, UK-Canada-USA, Crime-Drama-Thriller
"A rhapsodic movie directed with considerable formal intelligence and brooding power from an original screenplay by Steve Knight, Eastern Promises is very much a companion to A History of Violence." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by Peter Keough, Berenice Reynaud, Stephen Garrett, Robert Horton, Kristin M. Jones.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Bloody Sunday
Paul Greengrass  (114)
2001, 110m, Col, UK-Ireland, Historical-Drama
"For the viewer, the miracle of Bloody Sunday is that firm moral judgment can exist side by side with a wild and bitter exhilaration in the sheer physicality of violence." - David Denby, The New Yorker
Selected by Peter Keough, Gavin Smith, Kenneth Turan, Scott Foundas, Elvis Mitchell.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Lives of Others
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
• Das Leben der Anderen (original title)
2006, 138m, Col, Germany, Drama
"The easy, complacent distance that informs much historical filmmaking is almost entirely absent from this supremely intelligent, unfailingly honest movie." - A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Selected by Graham Fuller, Kirk Honeycutt, Godfrey Cheshire, Saul Austerlitz, Mark Holcomb.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 128    129    130  
Erin Brockovich
Steven Soderbergh  (107)
2000, 130m, Col, USA, Drama
"The kind of stand-up-and-cheer movie Hollywood is supposed to have forgotten how to make." - Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Selected by Kenneth Turan, Gavin Smith, David Ansen, Mike Clark, F.X. Feeney.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Quentin Tarantino  (115)
2004, 136m, Col-BW, USA-China, Thriller-Drama-Action
"This installment delivers more of the pleasures that made Tarantino the wunderkind of 90s cinema: offbeat scumbag characters, narrative sleight of hand, an extraordinary visual sense, and affectionate genre pillaging." - J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Selected by Ty Burr, Roger Ebert, Manohla Dargis, Scott Foundas, David Chute.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Spellbound
Jeffrey Blitz  (120)
2002, 96m, Col, USA, Documentary
"At its most unsettling level, Spellbound asks us to consider what words are for and what childhood should be. It's as profound as anything you'll see this year, and, yes, it should have won the Oscar." - Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Selected by Ty Burr, A.O. Scott, Wesley Morris, Stephanie Zacharek, Charles Taylor.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 131    132    133  
Offside
Jafar Panahi  (110)
2006, 93m, Col, Iran, Comedy-Drama-Sports
"The masterly Panahi concocts a spellbinding, often corrosively and/or warmly funny story in which love of both country and sport tries to, but doesn't quite, transcend dogmatic and ingrained difference." - Glenn Kenny, Premiere
Selected by J. Hoberman, Dennis Lim, David D'Arcy, Bilge Ebiri, Ed Gonzalez.
Amazon  metacritic
 
In America
Jim Sheridan  (112)
2003, 105m, Col, USA-Ireland-UK, Drama
"In America is not unsentimental about its new arrivals (the movie has a warm heart and frankly wants to move us), but it is perceptive about the countless ways in which it is hard to be poor and a stranger in a new land." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Selected by Michael Sragow, J. Hoberman, Michael Wilmington, Roger Ebert, David Ansen.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Notre musique
Jean-Luc Godard  (113)
2004, 80m, Col, France-Switzerland, Drama
"Visually sublime and intellectually dense, this is one of the extremely rare movies that prove cinema can be as complex and profound as the very greatest art works in any form." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Selected by Gerald Peary, Chris Fujiwara, David Sterritt, J. Hoberman, Kent Jones.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 134    135    136  
Ŕ ma soeur!
Catherine Breillat  (123)
• Fat Girl (English title)
2001, 86m, Col, France-Italy, Drama
"As fascinating as it is discomfiting and as intelligent as it is primal. From first shot to last, France's foremost bad girl has made an extremely good movie -- and maybe even a great one." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by Amy Taubin, B. Ruby Rich, J. Hoberman, Michael Atkinson, David Ansen.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Man Without a Past
Aki Kaurismäki  (116)
• Mies vailla menneisyyttä (original title)
2002, 97m, Col, Finland-Germany-France, Romance-Drama-Comedy
"Kaurismäki is Finland's greatest filmmaker, and never has he more artfully balanced his patented blend of deadpan humor, low-key melodrama, and toe-tapping music." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Selected by Chris Fuijiwara, David Sterritt, A.O. Scott, Chris Chang, Alice Lovejoy.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Moore  (124)
2004, 122m, Col, USA, Documentary-War
"Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11 has launched an unapologetic attack, both savage and savvy, on an administration he feels has betrayed the best of America and done extensive damage in the world." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by David Ehrenstein, David Sterritt, Kenneth Turan, A.O. Scott, Peter Travers.
Amazon  metacritic
          
 137    138    139  
Chicago
Rob Marshall  (133)
2002, 113m, Col, USA-Germany, Musical-Crime-Comedy
"Isn't just the most explosively entertaining movie musical in a couple of decades. It's going to be the most influential: the one that inspires the rebirth of the Hollywood musical." - David Edelstein, Slate
Selected by Michael Sragow, Mick LaSalle, Ernest Hardy, David Edelstein, Stephen Holden.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Once
John Carney (128)
2007, 87m, Col, Ireland-USA, Drama-Musical-Romance
"The music is so rich and completely satisfying and the characters so appealing Once makes us believe that this is all happening right in front of our eyes." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Tom Charity, Michael Atkinson, Aaron Hillis, Thomas Doherty, Stephen Garrett.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Black Hawk Down
Ridley Scott  (130)
2001, 144m, Col, USA, War-Drama-Action
"Rivets our interest for its entire lengthy running time. And it does this without any of the usual war movie clichés, false heroics, barracks-humor nonsense or grandstanding absurdities." - William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Selected by Richard Schickel, Kenneth Turan, Roger Ebert, Richard Corliss, Jack Mathews.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 140    141  New    142  
What Time is it There?
Tsai Ming-Liang  (118)
• Ni na bian ji dian (original title)
2001, 116m, Col, France-Taiwan-Italy, Drama
"This wonderful, one-of-a-kind movie hops from Taiwan to France, from tragedy to deadpan comedy and, in its mysterious conclusion, from the worldly to the otherworldly." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by Chris Fujiwara, Michael Atkinson, J. Hoberman, Elvis Mitchell, Alice Lovejoy.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Rachel Getting Married
Jonathan Demme
2008, 113m, Col, USA, Drama-Romance
"A friend asked: "Wouldn't you love to attend a wedding like that?" In a way, I felt I had. Yes, I began to feel absorbed in the experience. A few movies can do that, can slip you out of your mind and into theirs." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Selected by Mike D'Angelo, Ed Gonzalez, Noel Murray, Matt Singer, Nathan Rabin.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Little Miss Sunshine
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris  (119)
2006, 102m, Col, USA, Comedy-Drama
"This indie, a sweet, tart and smart satire about a family of losers in a world obsessed with winning, is an authentic crowd pleaser. There's been no more satisfying American comedy this year." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by David Ansen, Joe Morgenstern, Peter Travers, Stephen Holden, Claudia Puig.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 143    144  New    145  
Maria Full of Grace
Joshua Marston  (121)
2003, 100m, Col, USA-Colombia-Ecuador, Drama-Crime
"Moreno, with her wide, watchful eyes, owns the camera - and the film. Her performance is perfectly natural and profoundly moving. Maria Full of Grace is a remarkable picture, full of suspense and discovery." - Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Selected by John Anderson, Owen Gleiberman, Richard Schickel, Stephen Holden, Kevin Thomas.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Hunger
Steve McQueen
2008, 96m, Col, UK-Ireland, Drama-Historical
"Hunger is extreme cinema for an extreme subject. It is outstandingly made; long wordless sequences are composed with judgment and flair and expository dialogue scenes are confidently positioned. It surely confirms McQueen as a real film-maker." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Selected by Berenice Reynaud, Graham Fuller, Gerald Peary, Dennis Lim, Cynthia Fuchs.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Regular Lovers
Philippe Garrel  (122)
• Les Amants réguliers (original title)
2004, 178m, BW, France-Italy, Drama
"While the film’s desperately sad finale indicates that Philippe Garrel knows the truth of '68 better than most and might have suffered a crisis in faith in the years since, this magnificent film is itself proof that all was not lost." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Selected by Kent Jones, Michael Atkinson, Dennis Lim, Manohla Dargis, Nathan Lee.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 146    147    148  
Spider
David Cronenberg  (129)
2002, 98m, Col, Canada-UK-Japan-France, Thriller-Drama
"Deliciously wicked, strangely poetic portrait (adapted by Patrick McGrath from his own novel) of a schizophrenic man at once tyrannized and elevated by oedipal terrors." - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
Selected by Jason Anderson, V.A. Musetto, Glenn Kenny, Graham Fuller, Chris Fujiwara.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Intruder
Claire Denis  (141)
• L'Intrus (original title)
2004, 130m, Col, France-Korea, Drama
"Exhilarating and exhausting, the kind of picture you don't bounce back from immediately. Yet its elusiveness is the very source of its poetic energy." - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon
Selected by Dennis Lim, Kent Jones, Scott Foundas, Robert Koehler, Leslie Camhi.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Head-On
Fatih Akin  (143)
• Gegen die Wand (original title)
2003, 121m, Col, Germany, Romance-Drama
"In its breathlessly claustrophobic way the movie is vital and passionate, and lit with a lyric beauty that washes over love scenes and violent acts alike." - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
Selected by David Ansen, Ty Burr, Peter Keough, David Ehrenstein, Wesley Morris.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 149    150      
Werckmeister Harmonies
Béla Tarr  (125)
• Werckmeister harmóniák (original title)
2000, 145m, BW, Hungary-Germany-France-Switzerland-Italy, Drama
"Mysterious, poetic and allusive, Werckmeister Harmonies beckons filmgoers who complain of the vapidity of Hollywood movie making and yearn for a film to ponder and debate." - Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times
Selected by Manohla Dargis, David Sterritt, Robert Sklar, J. Hoberman, Chris Fujiwara.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Hero
Zhang Yimou  (131)
• Ying xiong (original title)
2002, 99m, Col, Hong Kong-China, Drama-Action
"Hero is a movie that lives up to all the nobility of its title, a gift to movie audiences who cherish the opportunity to be transported to a heretofore unimagined world and absorbed totally into what happens there." - Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun
Selected by Richard Corliss, David Edelstein, Charles Taylor, Chris Kaltenbach, Mark Jenkins.
Amazon  metacritic
  > 151-200
 
     
     
  21st Century Home  Summary:  The 250 Films  The Top 50 Directors  Browse by Ranking:  1-50  51-100  101-150  151-200  201-250  
     

 

 

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Last updated: 25/12/2008 09:05 AM.  Contact Us: bill@theyshootpictures.com.
©2002-2009 They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
"A film is a petrified fountain of thought." - Jean Cocteau   "If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed." - Stanley Kubrick