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  The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films Ranking (151-200)  
  21st Century Home  Rankings: 1-50  51-100  101-150  151-200  201-250  Full Listings: By Title  By Director  By Year  The Top 50 Directors  
     
     
 
 151  152  153
A Time for Drunken Horses
Bahman Ghobadi  (178)
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
 
demonlover
Olivier Assayas  (129)
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
 
Nobody Knows
Hirokazu Koreeda  (130)
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
         
 154  New    155  156  New  
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Julian Schnabel
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  (131)
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
 
Into the Wild
Sean Penn
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
         
 157  158  159
The Deep End
Scott McGehee & David Siegel  (132)
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
 
La Commune (Paris, 1871)
Peter Watkins  (243)
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
 
Monsoon Wedding
Mira Nair  (157)
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
         
 160  161  162
The New World
Terrence Malick  (164)
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
 
To Be and to Have
Nicolas Philibert  (147)
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
 
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Michael Winterbottom  (135)
http://www.tristramshandymovie.com/
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
         
 163  164  165  New  
Paradise Now
Hany Abu-Assad  (136)
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
 
Saraband
Ingmar Bergman  (154)
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
 
Persepolis
Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi
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
         
 166  New    167  168
12:08 East of Bucharest
Corneliu Porumboiu
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
 
Climates
Nuri Bilge Ceylan  (160)
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
 
Before Night Falls
Julian Schnabel  (140)
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
         
 169  170  171
Gladiator
Ridley Scott  (142)
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
 
I Heart Huckabees
David O. Russell  (183)
2004, 106m, Col, Germany-USA-UK, Comedy
"A fresh, buoyant, mischievous and rather jolly meditation - if that's the word for a movie as divinely nuts as this one is - on the meaning of life in an unhappy world." - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
Selected by David Ehrenstein, Glenn Kenny, Carina Chocano, Saul Austerlitz, Mark Holcomb.
Amazon  metacritic
 
25th Hour
Spike Lee  (173)
2002, 134m, Col, USA, Drama-Crime
"The film persuades us to think long and hard about what prison means, and Lee has shaped it like a poem that builds into an epic lament, especially in a beautiful and tragic closing that risks absurdity to achieve the sublime." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Selected by Ty Burr, David Sterritt, F.X. Feeney, Cynthia Fuchs, Mike D'Angelo.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 172  173  174
Unknown Pleasures
Zhang Ke Jia  (166)
2002, 112m, Col, Japan-France-Korea-China, Drama-Comedy
"Unknown Pleasures suggests a coolly formalist reinvention of neorealism. The film is both distanced and immediate -- a fiction with the force of documentary." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by Dennis Lim, Berenice Reynaud, Chris Fujiwara, Gavin Smith, Kent Jones.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Billy Elliot
Stephen Daldry  (144)
2000, 110m, Col, UK, Drama
"This delightful film, with its surprising depth charges of emotion, has the feel of a movie that's going to lodge itself in the public's affections for a long time to come." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by David Ansen, Peter Travers, Mark Caro, Paul Clinton, Charles Cassady Jr.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Collateral
Michael Mann  (145)
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
         
 175  176  177  New  
About a Boy
Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz  (139)
2002, 101m, Col, Germany-USA-France-UK, Drama-Comedy
"It's funny, moving and true, and it respects the audience's intelligence as much as the characters'. That combination, no matter the movie's label, deserves to be treasured." - Marc Caro, Chicago Tribune
Selected by Carrie Rickey, Richard Schickel, John Powers, Mike Clark, Thomas Doherty.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Crimson Gold
Jafar Panahi  (150)
2003, 96m, Col, Iran, Drama
"Iranian director Jafar Panahi's Crimson Gold is an anti-blockbuster--a deceptively modest undertaking that brilliantly combines unpretentious humanism and impeccable formal values." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by John Anderson, Chris Chang, Robert Koehler, Wesley Morris, Godfrey Cheshire.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Ratatouille
Brad Bird
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
         
 178  179  180
Under the Sand
François Ozon  (151)
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
 
Southland Tales
Richard Kelly
2006, 144m, Col, Germany-USA-France, Comedy-Drama-Science Fiction
"Funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired look at America and its discontents." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Selected by J. Hoberman, Kent Jones, Mark Peranson, Mark Olsen, Rob Nelson.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Three Times
Hou Hsiao-Hsien  (162)
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
         
 181  182  183
Battle in Heaven
Carlos Reygadas  (153)
2005, 97m, Col, Mexico-France-Germany, Drama
"Reygadas' radical rejection of filmmaking conventions is at first off-putting, but he's able to elicit remarkable performances from the cast of non-professionals while building tension that will hold viewers' attention." - V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Selected by Michael Atkinson, Peter Keough, J. Hoberman, Peter Brunette, Ed Gonzalez.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Va Savoir
Jacques Rivette  (155)
2001, 154m, Col, France-Italy-Germany, Romance-Drama-Comedy
"Va Savoir doesn't so much flow as wander, trailing off into drama one minute, slapstick the next; it tries your patience, but ever so gently, masterfully." - Manohla Dargis, LA Weekly
Selected by David Sterritt, Chris Fujiwara, David Ehrenstein, Elvis Mitchell, Chris Chang.
Amazon  metacritic
 
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen  (137)
2000, 107m, Col, USA-France, Crime-Adventure-Comedy
"It is, all in all, a rambunctious and inspired ride in which the Coen brothers' voracious fascination with the arcana of American popular culture and their whiz-kid inventiveness reach new heights of whimsy." - A.O. Scott, New York Times
Selected by Scott Tobias, Charles Taylor, Gregory Solman, Mark Olsen, Jeffrey M. Anderson.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 184  185  186
Bus 174
Felipe Larceda & Jose Padilha  (227)
2002, 119m, Col, Brazil, Documentary
"Tense, engrossing, and superbly structured, Bus 174 is not just unforgettable drama but a skillfully developed argument." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by John Anderson, Stephen Hunter, Scott Tobias, A.O. Scott, Jason Anderson.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Distant (Uzak)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan  (158)
2003, 110m, Col, Turkey-Netherlands, Drama
"The compositions are masterful, especially the snow-covered scenes in Istanbul and, most memorably, the spectacle of an overturned ship in the wintry harbor." - Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Selected by Chris Fuijiwara, Gerald Peary, Tom Charity, Robert Koehler, Scott Foundas.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Five Obstructions
Jorgen Leth & Lars von Trier  (156)
2003, 90m, Col-BW, Denmark-Belgium, Documentary
"Part of what hooks you to this movie is how Leth outsmarts his taskmaster, and how the two men have divergent, almost incompatible aesthetic ideals." - Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Selected by John Anderson, Kenneth Turan, Richard Corliss, Ron Stringer, Justine Elias.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 187  188  New    189
Morvern Callar
Lynne Ramsay  (149)
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
 
Atonement
Joe Wright
2007, 123m, Col, USA-UK-France, Drama-Romance-War
"No two-hour film could ever capture all the riches of McEwan's masterly novel. But Wright and Hampton's Atonement comes tantalizingly close, while adding sensual delights all its own." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by Roger Ebert, Nathan Rabin, Keith Phipps, Peter Brunette, J.R. Jones.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Man Who Wasn't There
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen  (161)
2001, 116m, BW, USA-UK, Drama-Crime-Comedy
"Most of the way this ranks with the Coens' most immaculately crafted work. Cain would have loved its dreamlike chills, and so will audiences nostalgic for the movies of half a century ago." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Selected by David Sterritt, Kent Jones, A.O. Scott, Scott Tobias, Keith Phipps.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 190  New    191  192  New  
Away from Her
Sarah Polley
2006, 109m, Col, Canada-UK-USA, Drama-Romance
"Rarely has love at any age been depicted so honestly on screen. For such a fully realized portrait to be created by a 28-year-old first-time director is even more remarkable." - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Selected by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Roger Ebert, J.R. Jones, V.A. Musetto, Dana Stevens.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Syriana
Stephen Gaghan  (163)
2005, 126m, Col, USA, Thriller-Drama
"Takes off with the lightning speed of a thriller, the gonzo force of frontline journalism and the emotional wallop of a drama that puts a human face on shocking statistics." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Selected by Carrie Rickey, Roger Ebert, F.X. Feeney, Cynthia Fuchs, Saul Austerlitz.