| 1.
In the Mood for Love – Kar-Wai Wong |
| 2. Children of Men – Cuaron |
| 3.
There Will Be Blood – P. T. Anderson |
| 4. Werckmeister Harmonies – Tarr |
| 5. Mulholland Drive – Lynch |
| 6. Punch-Drunk Love – P.T. Anderson |
| 7. Lost in Translation – S. Coppola |
| 8. The Royal Tenenbaums – W. Anderson |
| 9. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford –
Dominik |
| 10. Syndromes
and a Century – Weerasethakul |
| 11. Before
Sunset – Linklater |
| 12. Cache –
Haneke |
| 13. Kill Bill – Tarantino |
| 14. Inglourious Basterds – Tarantino |
| 15. Zodiac –
Fincher |
| 16. The Lord
of the Rings – Jackson |
| 17. Y Tu Mama
Tambien – Cuaron |
| 18. Dancer in
the Dark – von Trier |
| 19. Broken
Flowers – Jarmusch |
| 20. The New
World – Malick |
| 21. The White
Ribbon – Haneke |
| 22. No
Country For Old Men – Coen |
| 23. Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Gondry |
| 24. A Serious
Man – Coen |
| 25. Requiem
for a Dream – Aronofsky |
| 26. The Dark
Knight – Nolan |
| 27. Talk to
Her – Almodovar |
| 28. 25th Hour
– S. Lee |
| 29. Moulin
Rouge! – Luhrmann |
| 30. Million
Dollar Baby – Eastwood |
| 31. Pan’s
Labyrinth – del Toro |
| 32. 4 Months,
3 Weeks and 2 Days – Mungiu |
| 33. A History
of Violence – Cronenberg |
| 34. The
Fountain – Aronofsky |
| 35. Atonement
– J. Wright |
| 36. Mystic
River – Eastwood |
| 37. Traffic –
Soderbergh |
| 38. Memento –
Nolan |
| 39. The
Departed – Scorsese |
| 40. American
Psycho – Harron |
| 41. The Son –
Dardenne |
| 42. 2046
– Kar-Wai Wong |
| 43. L’enfant
– Dardenne |
| 44. Marie
Antoinette – S. Coppola |
| 45. Avatar –
Cameron |
| 46. Hunger –
McQueen |
| 47. Gosford
Park – Altman |
| 48. Amores
Perros – Iñárritu |
| 49. Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon – A. Lee |
| 50. A.I.
Artificial Intelligence – Spielberg |
| 51. Spirited
Away – Miyazaki |
| 52. The Piano
Teacher – Haneke |
| 53. Dogtooth
– Lanthimos |
| 54. Code
Unknown – Haneke |
| 55. Fantastic
Mr. Fox – W. Anderson |
| 56. The
Darjeeling Limited – W. Anderson |
| 57. Wall-E –
Stanton |
| 58. The Hurt
Locker – Bigelow |
| 59. O
Brother, Where Art Thou? – Coen |
| 60. Amelie –
Jeunet |
| 61. The
Bourne Ultimatum – Greengrass |
| 62. Letters
from Iwo Jima – Eastwood |
| 63. Platform
– Zhangke Jia |
| 64. Road to
Perdition – Mendes |
| 65. 21 Grams
– Iñárritu |
| 66. Reprise –
Trier |
| 67. 24 Hour
Party People – Winterbottom |
| 68. The Squid
and the Whale – Baumbach |
| 69. City of
God – Meirelles |
| 70. The
Aviator – Scorsese |
| 71. Match
Point – Allen |
| 72. Sideways
– Payne |
| 73. Master
and Commander: The Far Side of the World – Weir |
| 74. Elephant
– Van Sant |
| 75. Spring,
Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring – Ki-duk Kim |
| 76. Summer
Hours – Assayas |
| 77. Wendy and
Lucy – Reichardt |
| 78. Donnie
Darko – Kelly |
| 79. Rachel
Getting Married – Demme |
| 80. Far From
Heaven – Haynes |
| 81. Michael
Clayton – Gilroy |
| 82. Pride and
Prejudice – J. Wright |
| 83. Star Trek
– Abrams |
| 84. Almost
Famous – Crowe |
| 85. Oldboy –
Chan-wook Park |
| 86. Collateral
– M. Mann |
| 87. Brokeback
Mountain – A. Lee |
| 88. Valhalla
Rising – Refn |
| 89. Broken
Embraces – Almodovar |
| 90. Babel –
Iñárritu |
| 91. Morvern
Callar – Ramsay |
| 92. Eastern
Promises – Cronenberg |
| 93. Two
Lovers – Gray |
| 94. Waking
Life – Linklater |
| 95. We Own
the Night – Gray |
| 96. Ocean’s
Thirteen – Soderbergh |
| 97. The Man
Who Wasn’t There – Coen |
| 98. Blissfully
Yours – Weerasethakul |
| 99. Public
Enemies – M. Mann |
| 100. Adaptation – Jonze |
I love this list, a little different than mine but all of your top 10 are movies I adore and wouldn’t be too hesitant about putting them in a top 10, but nonetheless:
1. Mulholland Drive
2. In the Mood for Love
3. There Will be Blood
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5. Synecdoche, New York
6. Yi Yi
7. Zodiac
8. Caché
9. No Country for Old Men
10. Children of Men
Leo– appreciate you sharing and the kind words here on my list. So I’ve struggled with “Yi Yi” and “Synecdoche, New York”. “Yi Yi” is universally praised (it’s #3 of the decade on the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They composite critics list) and “Synecdoche” is Ebert’s #1 of the decade. So you’re in good company. I’ve seen both twice but it’s been years now since so I look forward to revisiting. I think i viewed both, largely, as achievements in writing vs. films that were well directed. I hope I find myself completely wrong when I revisit.
Well done! Very thorough list. It’s always so amusing to debate best/worst movies. My 2000’s top ten: (I’m not including my best animations because I personally feel those deserve their own category of greatness)
1. Blood Diamond
2. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. American Gangster
4. Miracle
5. Collateral
6. There Will Be Blood
7. V for Vendetta
8. The Last Samurai
9. The Count of Monte Cristo
10. Lars and the Real Girl
spirited away is undeniably a top 5 film of the decade.
@ david — thanks for the comment. Many would agree with you but i just saw “Spirited Away” in 2018 and it is simply not on that level. I’d happy to hear as to why you think it is.
Memories of Murder is a far far better film than Zodiac.
@ david. Not visually it isn’t— “Memories” is great– just can’t match “Zodiac” visually and cinema is largely a visual artform.
Hey Drake. Have way too much time on my hands today. Michael Clayton is way way way way way way too low on your list brother. to me the screenplay for Michael Clayton is arguably one of the five best screenplays ever produced. Happy Thanksgiving. Ur awesome!
@Kent- thanks for the note here. Happy belated Thanksgiving to you too- sorry for my tardiness with the comments back. Yes- many critics (yourself included) adore Michael Clayton and would disagree with my placement of it. I just think it’s largely all about the writing and acting here— I think the films ahead of it on the list offer more cinematically. What are some movies here you’d move down to make room for Michael Clayton?
Most apparitions in the « Best Performances of the Year » category, in the 2000’s :
Daniel Day-Lewis (2) :
} 1# en 2002.
} 1# en 2007.
Heath Ledger (2) :
} 1# en 2005.
} 1# en 2008.
Leonardo DiCaprio (2) :
} 1# en 2004.
} 2# en 2006.
Robert Downey Jr. (2) :
} 5# en 2007.
} 5# en 2008.
Christian Bale (1) :
} 1# en 2000.
Gene Hackman (1) :
} 1# en 2001.
Bill Murray (1) :
} 1# en 2003.
Clive Owen (1) :
} 1# en 2006.
Christoph Waltz (1) :
} 1# en 2009.
Tony Leung (1) :
} 2# en 2000.
Jack Gyllenhaal (1) :
} 2# en 2001.
Adam Sandler (1) :
} 2# en 2002.
Sean Penn (1) :
} 2# en 2003.
Ethan Hawks (1) :
} 2# en 2004.
Jim Carrey (1) :
} 2# en 2004.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (1) :
} 2# en 2005.
Casey Affleck (1) :
} 2# en 2006.
Mickey Rourke (1) :
} 2# en 2008.
Michael Stuhlbarg (1) :
} 2# en 2009.
Guy Pierce (1) :
} 3# en 2000.
Ewan McGregor (1) :
} 3# en 2001.
Jim Broadbant (1) :
} 3# en 2001.
Edward Norton (1) :
} 3# en 2002.
Choi Min-Sik (1) :
} 3# en 2003.
David Carradine (1) :
} 3# en 2004.
Bill Murray (1) :
} 3# en 2005.
Daniel Craig (1) :
} 3# en 2006.
Brad Pitt (1) :
} 3# en 2007.
Jeremy Renner (1) :
} 3# en 2008.
Mads Mikkelsen (1) :
} 3# en 2009.
Benicia Del Toro (1) :
} 4# en 2000.
Gaël Garcia Bernal (1) :
} 4# en 2001.
Olivier Gourmet (1) :
} 4# en 2002.
Russell Crowe (1) :
} 4# en 2003.
Paul Giamatti (1) :
} 4# en 2004.
Viggo Mortensen (1) :
} 4# en 2005.
Javier Bardem (1) :
} 4# en 2007.
Tommy Lee Jones (1) :
} 4# en 2007.
Joaquin Phœnix (1) :
} 4# en 2008.
Jared Leto (1) :
} 5# en 2000.
Steve Coogan (1) :
} 5# en 2002.
Viggo Mortensen (1) :
} 5# en 2003.
Bruno Ganz (1) :
} 5# en 2004.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (1) :
} 5# en 2005.
Mark Ruffalo (1) :
} 5# en 2007.
Ian McKellen (1) :
} 6# en 2001.
Ben Kingsley (1) :
} 6# en 2000.
Jeff Daniels (1) :
} 6# en 2005.
Jeremie Renier (1) :
} 7# en 2005.
You spelled Jeremy Renner Wrong
@Randy– As implausible as it seems there actually is a Jeremie Renier — Belgium born actor who works often with the Dardenne brothers
Yes. + Renner is on the list (3# in 2009,Hurt Locker). Renier is here for his work in the Dardenne movie L’Enfant :
« Jérémie Renier’s gut-wrenching neo, neo-realism performance in the Dardenne’s l’enfant »