"Best." "Favorite." "Awesomest." I spent a while trying to land on which adjective best suited the purposes of this list. After all, the methods and criteria with which we measure goodness in film vary wildly. "Favorite" is different than "Best," but I would never put a movie under "Best" that I don't at least like. And any film critic will tell you that their favorite films are inevitably also the best films anyways ...
But here at the quarter-century mark, I wanted to give some kind of space to reflect on which films are really deserving of celebration. Which films ought to be discussed as classics in the years ahead. So ... let's just say these are the films of the 21st century that I want future champions of the film world--critics and craftsmen--to be familiar with.
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| Sian Hader directing the cast of CODA (2021) |
In order to focalize on some of these, I'm going to organize similar films together according to shared qualifying factors. At least those that this film critic has homed in on. There's no particular math to the ordering of the represented films.
These explanations will be relatively concise, much moreso than they deserve, but fear not. For those works for which I have already written longer dissections, I will be linking to their respective reviews and essays.
By the end of this list, some of you might be thinking, "but you forgot this masterpiece from 2007! And what about this auteur's seminal work? Don't they deserve a shout-out?" And to that I say, "Absolutely! This is not a comprehensive list by any definition. By all means, go make your own list! I can't do this all by myself!"
Film as Identity
The films we watch build shape our character, our values, our sense of self.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - Michel Gondry
This is probably the best film to start this list with. After all, what is cinema if not the passage through the memories and experiences that made us who we are?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Do Joel and Clementine Stay Together or Not?
2. Roma (2018) - Alfonso Cuaron
A director has always been at their best when they draw upon their own experience. That doesn't necessarily need to mean autobiographical, though certainly something special happens when a director can awaken the secret parts of their history into something available for us all to experience. As Cuaron himself explains, "There are periods in history that scar societies and moments in life that transform us as individuals. Time and space constrain us, but they also define who we are, creating inexplicable bonds with others that flow with us at the same time and through the same places ... [Roma is] an intimate portrait of the women who raised me in a recognition of love as a mystery that transcends space, memory and time"
3. Room (2015) - Lenny Abrahamson
The 21st century has been obsessed with female strength, and the best ways to represent that. The truth is, there are a lot of "best ways." That's the beauty of variety. But we can look to this film in particular for pinning down one of the most elusive aspects about what it means to be "strong" in this world. Joy escapes from her captor midway through this story, yet even after her external circumstances have changed, the scars on her psyche continue to torment her. She cries to her mother midway through, "I don't know what's wrong with me." But through all these little fractures, her love for Jack is sustained. And just as it has carried him through their time in captivity, it comes to sustain her out in the world.
4. Moonlight (2016) - Barry Jenkins
Jenkins' lyrical film explores the chemistry of tender feelings in such a caustic world. Chiron's environment demands that he be callous, yet with only the smallest display of sincere affection, the deepest of human emotions rise to the surface.
5. Lady Bird (2017) - Greta Gerwig
Lady Bird at one point tells her school counselor that she doesn't "love" Sacramento, this rundown city that she just can't shake off, she just pays attention to it. Her counselor replies, "Don't you think they are maybe the same thing?" But that same throughline carries both ways: as we grant our attention to this girl in all her rough spots, we can't help but love her.
6. 千年女優, Sennen Joyū "Millennium Actress" (2001) - Satoshi Kon
The intent behind this kind of premise is usually to illustrate that the day-to-day living of the movie star is recognizable to us on the ground. "They're just like us." But Millennium Actress does the opposite. It displays how the real life of this one girl was every bit as illustrious and grandiose as those you see "in the movies." She just happened to be in a position to reflect some of that light back to us. The role of the movie star has never seemed so salvific.
Film as Art
From the day that moving pictures first captured our imagination, film has been a powerful means of human expression with its own unique arsenal and endless methods of utilizing it.
7. Moulin Rouge! (2001) - Baz Luhrmann
Even in the context of Luhrmann's other high-volume extravaganzas, this movie's flavor and heartbeat are entirely unique. Oscillating between delicate intimacy and electric reverie, you arrive at the end of the film believing you have somehow experienced every human emotion.
8. De Rouille et D'os "Rust and Bone" (2012) - Jacques Audiard
Film has all sorts of devices that can help an audience feel for a character, but sometimes all it takes is just to sit and spend time with them, and their natural humanity will reveal itself without ceremony. Rust and Bone contains moments of sentiment or drama, but the film's real secret is the way it works quietly to build up these characters and this situation.
9. Avatar (2009) - James Cameron
The easy line for some critics has always been "there's so much spectacle here that there's just no room for story" (do these folks feel the same way about The Bridge on the River Kwai?) but that affords absolutely no consideration to the absolute synergy between the wonderland onscreen and the exhilaration in the audience's heart as Jake surrenders to the serenity of this modern-day Oz. Anyone can sit in the director's chair and dump $400 M on a computer software to make pretty pictures, but only an artist can truly wrap their hand around what it means to take the audience on a journey.
10. Arrival (2016) - Denis Villeneuve
Academics often like to sort films into either/ors. High-art/low-art, and the like. Many of these are arbitrary and misleading, but perhaps no dichotomy is so false as intellectual/emotional, as this film demonstrates so clearly. The revelations in this film are mentally rigorous but also profoundly moving.
11. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - Gore Verbinski
The 21st century's answer to "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars." Here's a gritty adventure piece that also isn't afraid to reach for an operatic tone and scale, and the result is endlessly satisfying. How nice it is to have lived through one of these "they just don't make 'em like this anymore" movies.
12. Finding Nemo (2003) - Andrew Stanton
Ever since the days of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the filmgoing world has always needed reminders that animation is as suitable a package as any for experiencing deep human emotions displayed across glorious vistas. For however many times audiences have asked this question, film's answer is always the same.
13. L'Emploi du Temps "Time Out" (2001) - Laurent Cantet
The film builds an entire psychological fortress out of little more than the performances involved (mark down Recoing's performance as one of the all-time greats). Without ever indulging in anything that could be construed as melodrama, the film accesses the deepest anxieties of both the domestic and corporate sphere.
14. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse (2018) - Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
Animation as a medium, superhero films, representation, there's hardly a corner of the conversation that this movie doesn't lift up.
Film as Society
Cinema has always been a space to track a culture's hopes, fears, values, and obligations.
15. Zootopia (2016) - Rich Moore, Byron Howard, Jared Bush
The movie embodies all that was exciting about mid-2010s Disney animation--the rich worldbuilding, the fresh optimism, the vibrant characters. More uniquely, this film helped make concepts such as "accountability" accessible to the mainstream audience, giving hopeful allies a window into the racial conversation that bypassed the "white savior" model which had previously dominated the board.
16. Silver Linings Playbook (2012) - David O. Russell
Every generation wants to believe it is the first to discover that life isn't a fairy-tale, that the world isn't as neat or tidy as it sounds in the books, but the story of human longing reveals a long trail of disappointment, tedium, and frustration, as well as the people who have found happiness through it all. What's truly radical is to live like there's a happy ending only just around the corner of this rundown world. That's not an easy road to walk, but along the way, you might discover a fellow nut who's just as long for company as you.
17. Wicked (2024) - Jon M. Chu
This musical extravaganza deploys some of the most dazzling spectacle the 21st century has known. Yet this only serves to demonstrate that not even the most decorated pageantry is so arresting or overwhelming as the moment you decide to commit to your principles, no matter the cost.
18. 竜とそばかすの姫 Belle (2021) - Mamoru Hosoda
It feels skewed to describe this film as the most honest representation of internet culture--how could any such portrait be anything but vile and callous--but in its colorful and vivid display of light and music, Hosada's masterwork imagines a way forward for all those who feel paralyzed with fear by the judgment of the online arena, while also offering the most stunning marriages of music and animation in all of cinema.
19. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) - Martin McDonagh
Platonic male companionship has been a fixture of storytelling from the very start of storytelling. Yet its intricacies have gone largely unexamined all this time, and the fracturing friendship at the heart of this movie is the ultimate fulfilment of that oversight.
20. Hævnen ”In a Better World” (2010) dir. Susanne Bier
This
vaguely allegorical story pulls the rug out from under the youthful impulse
to enact the retribution to the older generation is too "timid" to enforce, and it reveals
something about these attitudes, which might be more sophomoric than we’d hurry
to admit. But that’s also not to say that the film is nihilistic, nor that it’s
resigned to the world as it is. Rather, the film understands that there are forces
more binding, more influential, than the need to exert power over our aggressors.
Film as Empathy
Films help us access the inner lives of individuals who may not be granted attention and consideration elsewhere, and thereby enable us to understand both our obligations and capacity to connect with them.
21. The Woodsman (2004) - Nicole Kassell
Walter asks the audience, "What's the worst thing you've ever done?" The movie asks, "Could you ever come back from that?" It's only in the world of film where a person like Walter would have the space to tell his story, for audiences to form that salvific bond with someone who is trying to shed the most shameful parts of their psyche.
22. Marriage Story (2019) - Noah Baumbach
Baumbach's deeply personal film surprises us with the revelation that two people who have injured each other can also become one another's biggest cheerleaders--and that's before we get Adam Driver's rendition of "Being Alive."
23. CODA (2021) - Sian Heder
There are so many layering networks in this film that make the story of this girl and this family so special. It's a story about fitting in, about disability, about family, about growing up, about reaching your potential. But at the end of the day, it's all just about love.
24. The Holdovers (2023) - Alexander Payne
You can be locked in the same space as someone and never truly get to know their story, but sometimes life arranges the landscape--such that even a bunch of holdovers from all across the board can come to see what they have in common, and the opportunity they have to build one another up.
25. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - James Gunn
Maybe anyone can be a hero, but how often does a society look to its most maligned members to step into this role? The ragamuffins in this film certainly come from a long line of raucous and corrosive characters, but presence in the zeitgeist does not always equate to authentic, useful representation. Gunn's story peels back this artifice and creates space for "losers" like them to be both seen and healed.
_________
There is something comforting about even the idea of classic movies--and I don't even mean in the grandma sitting by the fire and reminiscing about the mythical "good old days when we had no problems" kind of way. To me the magic of watching a classic is in the idea that some things will outlive the flighty and temporal conditions in which they emerged. That is what I want for the films of the twenty-first century.
--The Professor
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