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  The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films Ranking (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  
     
     
 
 151    152    153  New  
Hotel Rwanda
Terry George  (126)
2004, 121m, Col, UK-USA-South Africa-Italy, War-Drama
"It is a powerful portrait of a slightly befuddled man who, when inhuman demands were placed on him, found within himself an unexpected response." - Richard Schickel, Time
Selected by Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper, Mick LaSalle, Charles Taylor, Desson Thomson.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Café Lumière
Hou Hsiao-Hsien  (127)
• Kôhî jikô (original title)
2003, 108m, Col, Japan-Taiwan, Drama
"Hou's best film since The Puppetmaster (1993). It's also his most minimalist effort to date, slow to reveal its depths and beauties, and it marks a rejuvenation of his art." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Selected by John Anderson, Dave Kehr, John Powers, Kenneth Turan, Chris Fujiwara.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Milk
Gus Van Sant
2008, 128m, Col, USA, Biography-Drama
"What makes Milk extraordinary isn't just that it's a nuanced, stirring portrait of one of the 20th century's most pivotal figures, but that it's also a nuanced, stirring portrait of the thousands of people he energized." - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Selected by Amy Taubin, Dennis Lim, Gerald Peary, David Sterritt, Matt Singer.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 154    155  ▲    156  ▲  
Nobody Knows
Hirokazu Koreeda  (153)
• Dare mo shiranai (original title)
2003, 141m, Col, Japan, Drama
"Unfolds with such leisurely, terrible beauty, it takes a while to realize that what we are witnessing is the children's long slide into beggary, exacerbated by the slow torture of faint hope." - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
Selected by David Edelstein, Daryl Chin, Michael Koresky, Ed Gonzalez, Cynthia Fuchs.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Gladiator
Ridley Scott  (169)
2000, 154m, Col, USA, Drama-Action
"It's that very rare feeling that you're settling into a movie whose individual elements are so finely attuned they fuse into a singular construct of pure entertainment." - Ted Fry, Film.com
Selected by Peter Travers, Mike D'Angelo, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Paul Clinton, Jami Bernard.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Songs from the Second Floor
Roy Andersson  (229)
• Sånger från andra våningen (original title)
2000, 98m, Col, Sweden-France-Denmark-Norway-Germany, Drama
"A brilliant, absurd collection of vignettes that, in their own idiosyncratic way, sum up the strange horror of life in the new millennium." - Marc Caro, Chicago Tribune
Selected by Mike D'Angelo, Gabe Klinger, William Johnson, Gillies MacKinnon, Mike Leigh.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 157    158    159  New  
Flags of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood  (146)
http://www.flagsofourfathers.com/
2006, 132m, Col, USA, War-Drama-Action
"To an extent, Flags of Our Fathers is to the WWII movie what Eastwood's Unforgiven was to the western -- a stripping-away of mythology until only a harsher, uncomfortable reality remains." - Scott Foundas, Village Voice
Selected by Kent Jones, Michael Wilmington, Kirk Honeycutt, Peter Travers, Rex Reed.
Amazon  metacritic
 
24 Hour Party People
Michael Winterbottom  (136)
2001, 115m, Col, UK, Drama-Comedy
"The film is a whirlwind blur, a kinetic thrill ride through the industrial backwater that was one of punk and post-punk's most fertile Promised Lands: Manchester." - Robert Wilonsky, New Times L.A.
Selected by Gerald Peary, David Sterritt, Ella Taylor, Elvis Mitchell, Steven Rea.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Wrestler
Darren Aronofsky
2008, 109m, Col, USA, Drama-Sport
"Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances. An elemental story simply and brilliantly told, Darren Aronofsky's fourth feature is a winner from every possible angle." - Todd McCarthy, Variety
Selected by Michael Atkinson, Glenn Kenny, Donna Bowman, Peter Brunette, Jason Anderson.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 160    161    162  
Ten
Abbas Kiarostami  (134)
• 10 (alternative spelling)
2002, 92m, Col, France-Iran, Drama
"The film offers a fascinating glimpse of the Iranian urban middle class, and though it eschews most of the pleasures of composition and landscape found in other Kiarostami films, it's never less than riveting." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Selected by Michael Atkinson, Leslie Camhi, Andrew O'Hehir, Melissa Anderson, Peter Tonguette.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Nick Park & Steve Box  (142)
• Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (alternative title)
2005, 85m, Col, UK-USA, Animated-Adventure-Comedy
"This latest and biggest installment is a whimsical success of a very high order: The pace never lags, the invention is incessant, and it makes you want to have a bite of cheese afterward." - Ed Park, Village Voice
Selected by Kenneth Turan, A.O. Scott, David Edelstein, Tom Charity, Donna Bowman.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Tarnation
Jonathan Caouette  (135)
2003, 88m, Col-BW, USA, Documentary
"Harrowing, extremely disturbing at times, but brought to the screen in dazzling pop-art images that make the movie's grim content very much worth watching." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Selected by Kenneth Turan, A.O. Scott, Ella Taylor, Lou Lumenick, Wesley Morris.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 163    164    165  
High Fidelity
Stephen Frears  (137)
2000, 113m, Col, USA-UK, Comedy
"With its knowing take on men, messed-up romance and music, it's like one long, hook-filled pop song for the eyes." - Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Selected by Roger Ebert, Desson Howe, Jay Carr, Keith Phipps, David Chute.
Amazon  metacritic
 
21 Grams
Alejandro González Iñárritu  (138)
2003, 125m, Col, Germany-USA, Drama
"What gives the film a formalist kick is that the story unfolds piecemeal as a series of nonlinear moments. What gives it soul are the three lead actors who pull the pieces together with devastating power." - Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Gerald Peary, Manohla Dargis, Mick LaSalle, Elvis Mitchell, Stephen Hunter.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Best of Youth
Marco Tullio Giordana  (148)
• La Meglio gioventù (original title)
2003, 373m, Col, Italy, Drama
"The Best of Youth doesn't have a boring millisecond. It isn't an art film, with longueurs; it's a mini-series with the sweep of a classic novel, with tons of plot." - David Edelstein, Slate
Selected by David Ansen, Kenneth Turan, Michael Wilmington, A.O. Scott, J.R. Jones.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 166    167    168  
To Be and to Have
Nicolas Philibert  (161)
• Être et avoir (original title)
2002, 104m, Col, France, Documentary
"A deceptively simple French film about teaching that keeps enlarging as you watch it, becoming beautiful and inspiring in a way most films never touch." - Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Selected by Chris Fujiwara, Peter Rainer, Alice Lovejoy, Wesley Morris, Stephanie Zacharek.
Amazon  metacritic
 
George Washington
David Gordon Green  (139)
2000, 89m, Col, USA, Drama
"Like Malick's Days of Heaven, it is not about plot, but about memory and regret. It remembers a summer that was not a happy summer, but there will never again be a summer so intensely felt, so alive, so valuable." - Roger Ebert, Chicago-Sun-Times
Selected by Roger Ebert, Jonathan Rosenbaum, David Sterritt, Gerald Peary, Dave Kehr.
Amazon  metacritic
 
A Prairie Home Companion
Robert Altman  (140)
2006, 105m, Col, USA, Comedy-Drama-Musical
"Not since Woody Allen's Radio Days has anyone created such a cinematic Valentine to the wonderfully imaginative medium of radio as A Prairie Home Companion." - Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
Selected by Michael Wilmington, Molly Haskell, Kent Jones, A.O. Scott, Stephen Holden.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 169    170    171  
Chicken Run
Peter Lord & Nick Park  (149)
2000, 84m, Col, USA-UK, Animated-Family-Comedy
"Never loses its priceless stamp of individuality. Reduced to its essence, this is a joke told by a person, not a corporation--and that makes all the difference." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Kenneth Turan, Desson Howe, A.O. Scott, Lisa Schwarzbaum, David Chute.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Monsoon Wedding
Mira Nair  (159)
2001, 114m, Col, USA-Italy-Germany-France, Romance-Drama
"Has an engaging warmth and an effortless sense of life. It also has an instinct for the humanity and universality of situations that are comic, romantic and quite seriously dramatic by turns." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Carrie Rickey, David Ansen, Stuart Klawans, Karen Durbin, Claudia Puig.
Amazon  metacritic
 
12:08 East of Bucharest
Corneliu Porumboiu  (166)
• A fost sau n-a fost? (original title)
2006, 89m, Col, Romania-France, Comedy-Drama
"This brilliantly caustic movie - easily the best in a burgeoning and fertile effort to come to grips with post-Soviet malaise in Central and Eastern Europe - offers living proof that when it comes to politics, comedy is the sincerest form of dissidence." - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
Selected by Michael Atkinson, Jeffrey M. Anderson, V.A. Musetto, Sam Adams, Mark Asch.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 172  New    173    174  
Howl's Moving Castle
Hayao Miyazaki
• Hauru no ugoku shiro (original title)
2004, 119m, Col, Japan, Animated-Adventure-Fantasy
"Howl's Moving Castle is one animated epic that has it all: poetic intensity, potent storytelling, vivid and surprising characters, and intoxicating powers of visual imagination." - Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
Selected by Kenneth Turan, Michael Wilmington, Tom Charity, Peter Rainer, Saul Austerlitz.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Host
Bong Joon-ho  (144)
• Gwoemul (original title)
2006, 119m, Col, South Korea-Japan, Action-Comedy-Horror
"The mix of dark humor, creeping suspense, and a sort of apocalyptic tenderness makes this the best horror flick in years." - J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Selected by Aaron Hillis, Dana Stevens, V.A. Musetto, Mike D'Angelo, David D'Arcy.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Old Joy
Kelly Reichardt  (145)
2005, 73m, Col, USA, Drama
"It's in all the moments where little happens that Reichardt is most amazing, investing even a gas-station pit stop with perfect emotional pitch." - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Selected by Scott Tobias, Ed Halter, Brian Miller, Melissa Anderson, Godfrey Cheshire.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 175    176  New    177  
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
Tsai Ming-Liang  (147)
http://www.flagsofourfathers.com/
• Hei yan quan (original title)
2006, 115m, Col, Taiwan-France-Austria, Drama
"The movie is a block of paper that, when Tsai's finished with it, becomes a chain of snowflakes. Loneliness doesn't often get such a gorgeously ornate tribute." - Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe
Selected by Dennis Lim, Berenice Reynaud, David Sterritt, Jay Kuehner, Chuck Stephens.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Duchess of Langeais
Jacques Rivette
• Ne touchez pas la hache (original title); Don't Touch the Axe (alternative title)
2007, 137m, Col, France-Italy, Drama-Romance
"Jacques Rivette has brought the Balzac short story to screen as a superb chamber drama. His is a graceful work of austerity and formality that perfectly captures the chaos of repressed emotions that see beneath the rigid conventions of aristocratic society." - Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Graham Fuller, Melissa Anderson, Mike D'Angelo, Glenn Kenny, Michael Sicinski.
Amazon  metacritic
 
La Commune (Paris, 1871)
Peter Watkins  (158)
2000, 345m, BW, France, Drama-Historical
"Taped in stark black-and-white and clocking in 15 minutes shy of six hours, this invigorating pic is big, passionate and brimming with compelling human details and broad sociopolitical idealism." - Eddie Cockrell, Variety
Selected by David Ehrenstein, Chris Fujiwara, Michael Atkinson, Andrew Tracy.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 178    179    180  
The New World
Terrence Malick  (160)
2005, 150m, Col, USA, Drama-Adventure
"Not since Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Malick's own Days of Heaven has a movie been both so breathtakingly beautiful and so narratively abstract." - Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
Selected by Manohla Dargis, Kent Jones, Keith Phipps, Michael Koresky, Ed Gonzalez.
Amazon  metacritic
 
King Kong
Peter Jackson  (150)
2005, 187m, Col, New Zealand-USA, Action-Adventure-Fantasy
"Break out the popcorn and prepare to be blown away. King Kong is the most pulse-pounding and heart-stirring romantic adventure since Titanic." - Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Selected by Michael Wilmington, Roger Ebert, Keith Phipps, Lisa Schwarzbaum, F.X. Feeney.
Amazon  metacritic
 
A Time for Drunken Horses
Bahman Ghobadi  (151)
• Zamani barayé masti asbha (original title)
2000, 80m, Col, Iran, Drama
"Presents us with characters of such humanity and dignity that it begins to seem obscene that until now we haven't exactly given all that much thought to the Kurds." - Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Selected by Robert Sklar, Jay Carr, Sam Adams, Andrew O'Hehir, Phillip Lopate.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 181    182    183  
Saraband
Ingmar Bergman  (164)
2003, 120m, Col, Sweden-Denmark-Norway, Drama
"With Saraband, the great writer-director has stepped back into the ring for one last epic wrestle with his demons. There is, as always, no easy outcome. But no one ever fought for higher emotional and spiritual stakes." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by Michael Wilmington, Molly Haskell, Andrew O'Hehir, Stephen Holden, Peter Rainer.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Paradise Now
Hany Abu-Assad  (163)
2005, 90m, Col, France-Germany-Netherlands-Israel, Drama-Crime
"A powerful, poignant, provocative drama, it gets its strength from its dispassion, from an uncompromising determination to explain rather than justify or condemn, to put a human face on incomprehensible acts." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Carrie Rickey, Kenneth Turan, Kent Jones, Daryl Chin, Alice Lovejoy.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Demonlover
Olivier Assayas  (152)
2002, 129m, Col, France-Japan-Mexico-USA, Thriller-Drama-Mystery
"It's an exasperating, irresistible, must-see mess of a movie about life in the modern world and so very good that even when its story finally crashes and burns the filmmaking remains unscathed." - Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Dennis Lim, Manohla Dargis, Gavin Smith, Kent Jones, Charles Taylor.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 184    185    186  New  
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Julian Schnabel  (154)
• Le Scaphandre et le papillon (original title)
2007, 112m, Col, France-USA, Biography-Drama
"It is wonderful: a rhapsodic adaptation of a memoir, a visual marvel that wraps its subject in screen romanticism without romanticizing his affliction. It left me feeling euphoric." - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Selected by Peter Keough, Stephen Garrett, Sam Adams, Peter Debruge, Cheryl Eddy.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Late Marriage
Dover Kosashvili  (155)
• Hatuna Meuheret (original title)
2001, 102m, Col, Israel-France, Comedy-Drama-Romance
"So intimate and sensual and funny and psychologically self-revealing that it makes most of what passes for sex in the movies look like cheap hysterics." - Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
Selected by J. Hoberman, Chris Chang, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Alice Lovejoy, Leslie Camhi.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Edge of Heaven
Fatih Akin
• Auf der anderen Seite (original title)
2007, 121m, Col, Germany-Turkey-Italy, Drama
"With impeccable skill, Akin has made a film roiling with cruelty but guided by tough political optimism. No, we can't all get along, but some us of are trying." - Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Selected by Graham Fuller, Saul Austerlitz, Daryl Chin, J.R. Jones, Charles Taylor.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 187    188    189  
Climates
Nuri Bilge Ceylan  (167)
• Iklimler (original title)
2006, 101m, Col, Turkey-France, Drama
"This film paints a haunting portrait of existential solitude, one in which the images speak louder and often more forcefully than do any of the words." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Selected by J. Hoberman, Peter Brunette, Scott Foundas, Michael Phillips, Graham Fuller.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Into the Wild
Sean Penn  (156)
2007, 140m, Col, USA, Adventure-Biography-Drama
"The beauty of Into the Wild, which Penn has written and directed with magnificent precision and imaginative grace, is that what Christopher is running from is never as important as what he's running TO." - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Selected by Gerald Peary, Roger Ebert, Tom Charity, Thomas Doherty, Susan Gerhard.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Before Night Falls
Julian Schnabel  (168)
2000, 133m, Col, USA, Drama
"It's an horrific and tragic story, but somehow made beautiful through the care and attention of Schnabel's direction and Bardem's tender, unforgettable performance." - Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
Selected by B. Ruby Rich, Peter Keough, Owen Gleiberman, A.O. Scott, Elvis Mitchell.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 190    191    192  
The Deep End
Scott McGehee & David Siegel  (157)
2001, 100m, Col, USA, Drama-Crime
"Exquisitely made with a mesmerizing sense of style, it shows the wonderful things that can happen when traditional material is both handled with care and adroitly updated." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Richard Schickel, Kenneth Turan, B. Ruby Rich, David Ehrenstein, Jay Carr.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Collateral
Michael Mann  (174)
2004, 120m, Col, USA, Thriller-Crime-Action
"As a result of Mann's craftsmanship and concern, Collateral crackles with energy and purpose, a propulsive film with character on its mind and confident men and women on both sides of the camera." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Richard Schickel, Manohla Dargis, Mike Clark, Ella Taylor, Richard Roeper.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Morvern Callar
Lynne Ramsay  (187)
2002, 97m, Col, UK-Canada, Drama
"A work of astonishing delicacy and force, a tone poem about the Frankenstein jolts that all of us, at one time or another, have to live through." - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon
Selected by Elvis Mitchell, Ella Taylor, Mark Olsen, Charles Taylor, Graham Fuller.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 193    194    195  
Ratatouille
Brad Bird  (177)
2007, 111m, Col, USA, Animated-Comedy-Family
"If there is a genius working in Hollywood today, it's animation director Brad Bird, who tops the delightful The Incredibles with arguably the finest 'toon in the Pixar canon, Ratatouille." - Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Selected by Peter Keough, Matt Zoller Seitz, Nathan Rabin, Ray Pride, Noel Murray.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Michael Winterbottom  (162)
http://www.tristramshandymovie.com/
• A Cock and Bull Story (alternative title)
2005, 94m, Col, UK, Comedy
"This is not just a movie-within-a-movie, but a movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie, something that sounds unbearably arch but that is swift, funny and surprisingly unpretentious." - Dana Stevens, The New York Times
Selected by Peter Keough, Molly Haskell, Sam Adams, Carina Chocano, Saul Austerlitz.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Persepolis
Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi  (165)
2007, 95m, Col-BW, France-USA, Animated-Comedy-Drama
"Cinematic poetry in black and white. It also is a deeply affecting tale of the power of resilience and an unflagging sense of humor through the worst of situations." - Claudia Puig, USA Today
Selected by Tom Charity, Jim Emerson, Sam Adams, Melissa Anderson, David D'Arcy.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 196  New    197  New    198  
Man on Wire
James Marsh
2007, 94m, Col, UK, Documentary
"An engrossing study in abnormal psychology, an inspirational drama that tells us a determined man really can do anything his mind can envision." - William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Selected by Phillip Lopate, David Fear, Jason Anderson, Chuck Wilson, Andrew O'Hehir.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Ballast
Lance Hammer
2008, 96m, Col, USA, Drama
"A rock-ribbed sense of committed, personal cinema and a core belief in people being able to pull themselves out of misery supports Ballast, an extraordinary debut by editor-writer-director Lance Hammer." - Robert Koehler, Variety
Selected by Amy Taubin, Chuck Stephens, Adam Nayman, Rob Nelson, Michael Koresky.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Under the Sand
François Ozon  (178)
• Sous le sable (original title)
2000, 96m, Col, France-Japan, Drama
"A beautifully acted, carefully written meditation on one woman's grief, the enigma of imagination, the persistence of desire and -- let's face it -- the power of denial." - Bill Gallo, New Times L.A.
Selected by Dennis Lim, Chris Fujiwara, Desson Howe, Jessica Winter, Mike Rubin.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 199    200  ▲      
Three Times
Hou Hsiao-Hsien  (180)
• Zui hao de shi guang (original title)
2005, 135m, Col, France-Taiwan, Romance-Drama
"Three varieties of love: unfulfilled, mercenary, meaningless. All photographed with such visual beauty that watching the movie is like holding your breath so the butterfly won’t stir." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Selected by Manohla Dargis, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Tom Charity, Sam Adams, Godfrey Cheshire.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Bamako
Abderrahmane Sissako  (203)
2006, 117m, Col, France-Mali-USA, Drama
"As demonstrated in his previous film, a plangent snapshot of subsistence called Waiting for Happiness, Sissako is a poet, and the filmmaking in this new picture is stuff of a deserving laureate." - Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Berenice Reynaud, Michael Sicinski, James Quandt, Andrew O'Hehir.
Amazon  metacritic
  > 201-250
 
     
     
  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