We're a little over 17 years into the 21st century, and there's already been an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the films that have been released. To declare film dead is to simply announce that you haven't been paying attention as various auteurs continue to move the medium forward. It's a great time to be a fan of movies even as the artform moves from cinemas to streaming and we live in the age of Peak TV.
Several of our staff writers made the attempt to narrow down all of their favorite movies from the 21st century so far into individual Top 10 lists. It was insanely difficult, and I'm sure you'll look at all of these lists, wonder why a favorite is absent, and you probably won't be wrong! There are plenty of terrific films from the 21st century thus far, and our choices only represent a handful.
Check out our various Top 10 lists below and sound off with your favorites in the comments section.
Adam's Top 10
10) The World’s End
Choosing an Edgar Wright film was also a tough choice, but after many rewatches I think I’ve settled on The World’s End as my favorite Wright joint thus far. It’s hilarious and perfectly crafted like all of Wright’s other films, but thematically it’s tackling some really mature subject matter in a surprising way. I also just love the narrative drive of the pub crawl, and the lengths to which Wright goes to make each feel distinct.
9) Fantastic Mr. Fox
As an avid Beach Boys fan, Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated film had me at its use of “Heroes and Villains.” Fantastic Mr. Fox is silly, sad, and sweet all at the same time, and Anderson’s cinematic eye proves a perfect fit for this particular animation format. I love this movie.
8) Boyhood
I debated which Richard Linklater film to put on here—the truth is I adore Before Sunset and Everybody Wants Some!!—but Boyhood may be tops for me. Admittedly your reaction to Boyhood may vary depending on personal experiences, but this one hit home in a number of ways, and that Linklater was able to thread such delicate themes and performances through 12 years of filming is a miracle.
7) The Dark Knight
My favorite superhero film of all time, with a performance for the ages. Christopher Nolan broke new ground on what a superhero movie could be, and many imitators have followed and come up very, very short.
6) Catch Me If You Can
My list would be incomplete without a Steven Spielberg film, and I’m going with the delightful and joyous Catch Me If You Can. This film is flighty as hell, with one of John Williams’ best scores, but somewhat underrated is Janusz Kaminsky’s cinematography, which I think is some of his best work with Spielberg. There are shots in here so beautiful it makes you want to cry, and Leonardo DiCaprio is perfectly cast as a man boy of many faces.
5) Almost Famous
Maybe Cameron Crowe has become “uncool” as of late with disappointments like Aloha and We Bought a Zoo, but my love affair with Almost Famous will never die. Endlessly rewatchable, hopelessly romantic, and one the best soundtracks ever put to screen.
4) Step Brothers
This is probably the movie I’ve seen more times than any other in the past 17 years, and it gets funnier each time I watch it. Adam McKay’s surrealistic masterpiece boasts a pair of seriously great performances from Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. Though I have to give a hat tip to Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping for the runner up position here in terms of “silly comedies that are also masterpieces.”
3) WALL-E
Hey, it’s my list and I can have two animated films on here if I want to. Andrew Stanton’s 2009 sci-fi pic WALL-E is my favorite Pixar movie. The first act is, as everyone says, amazing—essentially a silent film that proves to be a necessary foundation for the characters as the plot progresses. But ultimately WALL-E is a big ol’ romance that absolutely, 100% sweeps me off my feet. If you can’t feel for WALL-E and EVE something’s seriously wrong with you.
2) Inside Llewyn Davis
I was in love the first time I saw this, and it’s now one of my all-time favorite Coen Brothers films. Melancholic, tragic, and sharply funny, with Oscar Isaac giving one of the best performances of the 21st century so far. The “Please Mr. Kennedy” sequence is an all-timer.
1) The Social Network
A prime example of a perfect marriage between director and screenwriter. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin lift up other’s best tendencies while putting a pin in each other’s worst. I hesitate to say it but I think this may be a perfect movie. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Armie Hammer are so good in it. Also one of the defining films about the 21st century.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order): Her, Before Sunset, Edge of Tomorrow, Moonrise Kingdom, Zodiac, MacGruber, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Magic Mike, Inglourious Basterds, Lincoln, The Wolf of Wall Street, Hot Fuzz, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Haleigh's Top 10
10) I Saw the Devil
The gnarliest, most sadistic game of cinematic cat and mouse that was ever played, I Saw the Devil stars Oldboy's Min-sik Choi as Kyung-chul, a merciless serial killer, and Byung-hun Lee as Soo-hyeon the detective who makes it his mission of vengeance to destroy him, no matter how bloody or batshit crazy the cost. Directed by Korean master Jee-woon Kim, I Saw the Devil offers a portrait of true evil in Kyung-chul, a firestorm of violent impulse and excess who leaves a trail of dismembered victims and grieving families in his wake as he murders and rapes his way through the world at whim. When Soo-hyeon comes after him, Kyung-chul gets the thrill of his life as they wage a savage and unflinching war of attrition that escalates and threatens to engulf them with each new strike. It's an uncompromising story of revenge, cruel and nasty, honed to a fine point and wielded aggressively.
9) In Bruges
For any fan of Martin McDonagh's theater work, In Bruges' devastating, deviant script came as no surprise, but no one could have predicted that he would also have such a confident command of filmmaking in his cinematic debut. A distinctly post-Pulp Fiction crime film, In Bruges is an elegant blend of thriller action and dark humor that's self-aware without winking at the audience. Brashly profane and cynical, yet disarmingly vulnerable, In Bruges keeps you between a laugh and a cry with a singular spin on the hitman genre that respects the implications and consequences of the violence it turns into prime entertainment.
8) The Descent
The Descent is a flawlessly constructed horror movie from top to tail; designed to plant the audience in a vice grip and wring until breathless with a claustrophobic and ferociously kinetic sensory assault. Directed by Neil Marshall, The Descent holds back on his big thrills, slow-burning the tension with suffocating moments of panic, creating a disconcerting shadowland of unnatural light and riling up his heroes until they're little more than shrieking prey in a locked cage. Then he drops the monsters on them. The first full reveal of the creatures is one of the best jump scares in film history, a moment the spikes up the heart rate so high, you never fully recover as the film's second half cascades into primal, frenzied carnage.
7) Children of Men
Alfonso Cuaron and Emmanuel Lubezki work cinematic sorcery in Children of Men, an unequivocal modern classic that fuses remarkable technical feats of filmmaking with genuinely gripping character drama and wraps it all up with philosophical depth and an impossible, undeniable message of hope. The film is set in humanity's worst hour, in a violently anarchic, ruinous England, butmong the ravages and the frazzled terror, we see the holdouts of humanity, those still fighting for something to believe in, even in the face of certain doom -- an unflinching look at the best and worst in human nature. Cuaron shows us a broken world ending with a whimper, and just as quietly, just maybe, finding redemption again.
6) Secretary
I quite simply had never seen a film like Secretary when it debuted in 2002 -- a quirky, kinky, and earnest love story so devoutly interested in female pleasure and self-discovery through unconventional means. It instantly rose the ranks as one of my favorite films and has firmly stayed there ever since. Secretary is all about taking control of your life through the lens of sexual power dynamics and there's never been a more alluring pair of socially-stunted weirdos then James Spader's E. Edward Grey and Maggie Gyllenhaal's Lee Holloway, his devoted secretary. Steven Shainberg explores the layers of Lee's layers of repression, both learned and self-imposed, and makes an empowering and downright sexy show of the ways she breaks through each and every one until she discovers the woman in her she deems worthy of demanding love.
5) Kill Bill
Nobody does innovative pastiche like Quentin Tarantino. Kill Bill Vol. 1 probably Tarantino's most #onbrand film, an endless parade of homage, snarky dialogue, top-shelf needle drops, and visual flourish. The plot is brazenly thin, but Tarantino wields his expert knack for characters to fill in the narrative gaps with charm and impeccable performance. Kill Bill is an action cinephile's dream, born out of Tarantino's frenzied love for the genre. Boasting exceptional fight scenes from legendary Hong Kong choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, heightened by Uma Thurman's iconic, physically commanding performance. The Bride is an action heroine for the ages and the movie that introduces her is a firebrand, vital piece of pure cinematic showmanship.
4) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Ah, love. What a beautiful, painful, stupid, and absolutely essential thing. Few films have captured the wondrous, wearying textures of the modern relationship as well as Michelle Gondry's gorgeous genre-bending love story Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Gondry's wild whimsy meets its perfect match in Charlie Kaufman's endlessly inventive yet ever sincere screenplay. Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey are perfect pair to anchor the visual splendor and mental gymnastics in an earnest, affecting emotional arc between two people who can't be with and can't be without each other.
3) No Country for Old Men
Perhaps the most worthy and surprising Best Picture winner of the century so far, No Country for Old Men is essentially a flawless film. It's the Coen Brothers doing Cormac McCarthy through the lens of Roger Deakins so it was always going to be special, but there's no accounting for the kind of filmmaking alchemy on display in No Country, which is somehow more than the sum of its already exceptional parts. No small credit owed to the character of Anton Chigurh, and in turn the career-defining performance from Javier Bardem, who emerges as one of the most singular and singularly terrifying film villains of all time. Each technical piece of the film is impeccable, and the Coens give No Country their magic touch, perfectly matched to the grimy Americana material, offering us a needling glimpse at the way the human condition readily supplants common sense with greed and fear.
2) Zodiac
Who better to tell a tale of obsession than David Fincher, the notorious perfectionist of Kubrickian proportions? It's Fincher, so of course Zodiac is a phenomenal looking film, but as his first film shot and edited on digital, it has an even more controlled, methodically paced, and insular feel than usual. Spanning three hours with an unscratchable itch ending befitting the still-unsolved true crime inspiration, Zodiac has no right to be as satisfying as it is, but Fincher explores meticulousness and attention to detail in dialogue with his own, manifested on the screen, and slaps it up against the stark contrast of an unknowable truth.
1) Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Shane Black's irreverent love letter to pulp noir is a defiantly clever, breathless demonstration of style and wit that's somehow cynical and sweet in equal measure. Robert Downey Jr. stars as perpetual fuck up Harry Lockhart, a two-bit thief who gets a glimpse of the good life when dumb luck lands him a trip to L.A., where he's paired with the whip-smart, razor-tongued private detective Perry van Shrike a.k.a. Gay Perry (Val Kilmer in a career best role) as research for a film role he's too naive to realize he'll never get. When he runs into his unrequited teen love, Harmony Lane (a dazzling, wonderfully offbeat Michelle Monaghan), the mismatched duo becomes an even odder trio embroiled in a complicated web of conspiracy, murder, and suicide. It's genuinely breathtaking. bravura filmmaking from Black, making his directorial debut after a near decade-long respite from the film industry, and his cast keeps pace with the film's fearless tonal pirouettes, pivoting a moment from raw emotion to guffaw-worthy humor. Black loves his characters and he makes you love them too with all the quotable banter, gripping action, and heartfelt drama you could ever ask for from a trip to the movies.
(Very) Close Calls: Whiplash, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Shame, Hot Fuzz, Nightcrawler, Frank, The Departed, Ex Machina, Only Lovers Left Alive, JCVD, A History of Violence, Carol, The Skin I Live In, The Handmaiden, Bad Santa, Brick, Before Sunset, Coherence, The Master, Serenity, Beginners, and many many more.
Brian's Top 10
10) Zodiac
I think that The Social Network is David Fincher’s best film, but I’m always more in a mood to watch Zodiac. The 70s setting helps. As does Harris Savides, the most pioneering digital cinematographer of his day (R.I.P.).
9) Talk to Her
This film is so sumptuous and heartfelt that you almost always forget that it involves the biggest violation imaginable (an off-screen rape). Pedro Almodovar uses a sexy silent film and two women in a coma to expose men’s fantasies as running amok in their own head.
8) There Will Be Blood
Daniel Day-Lewis at his most towering. He spews fury like derricks spit oil. With Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson launched himself into Kubrick territory (as opposed to his previous Robert Altman-esque films) in that each film from Blood onward feels like its own canvas, unlike anything else he’s shown us before, completely contained and all spilt onto the screen as one singular declaration without a connection to future works. Like Daniel Planview, Anderson’s “finished” by the end of this.
7) Under the Skin
This is the darkest film of my favorites, but it’s so unique and invigorating in its storytelling it’s something I’ll more frequently re-watch. This is more than a sparse tale of a man-eater (Scarlett Johansson) it’s a deconstruction of celebrity and gender.
6) The Tree of Life (2011)
I know putting “favorite” on this heady existential film won’t make sense to many. But if I ever need to get in touch with my childhood emotions/fears and get psychological and philosophical (hey that’s fun to me) then Terence Malick’s daddy issues and combination of awe and fear of what it all means when so much has come before our piddly little lives—is an instant play.
5) Moonrise Kingdom
What kind of bird are you? This is Wes Anderson’s ode to every kid who had an internal radar for things that were unique and cool that existed outside of the community culture that was provided for him or her.
4) Her
Everything about Spike Jonze’s movie works better than it should. It’s remarkable. Almost all my favorite romances on this list end in heartbreak, but like in real life, this heartbreak is necessary to reshape a closed off person’s desire to connect with another human. Once you’ve done it, you’re available to do it again. Joaquin Phoenix just does it with an advanced app, first. Whatever floats your boat.
3) Marie Antoinette
Give it some time and there will be a critical re-evaluation of Sofia Coppola’s post-modern masterpiece. Sure, the excess of our current president will lend this movie to more eyes, but it isn’t a scathing portrait of an out-of-touch leader. It’s a very fun and teenage-d account of immense luxury creating immense detachment from reality. It has the perfect ending, skipping the revolution and going straight to the destruction of stuff.
2) No Country for Old Men
The first two-thirds of this film is some of the most thrilling cinema ever created. The last third is bait-and-switch brilliance of the highest order. Simple men can no longer be heroic; bad guys are no longer understandable; the Interstate has disassembled the idea of rooting down for permanence; and the overindulgent decade of the 80s will warp a country into something that’s unrecognizable and corporate. The Coen Brothers film is a death rattle for our perceived simpler times and how they begat such a selfishness that created mass murderers and mass corporations.
1) Carol (2015)
Rooney Mara’s eyes. Cate Blanchett’s martini. Flung out of space? This romance flings me into outer space, where I hug stars and their stardust makes me cry but keep me hopeful. Truly, Todd Hayne’s poem of the senses is the most complete and classically refined American film of this century.
Honorable Mentions: In the Mood for Love, The Virgin Suicides, Mulholland Drive, Ghost World, The Social Network, The Master, Cosmopolis, A History of Violence, Spider-Man 2, Superbad, Arabian Nights, The Act of Killing, Inside Llewyn Davis.
Chris' Picks
10) Zero Dark Thirty
As a depiction of the international search to find Osama bin Laden, Kathryn Bigelow’s last film is not note-for-note accurate but there’s an unshakeable and unmistakable sense at every moment of the experience of being in these places and seeing the ugly side of military might. As a depiction of a brilliant, ambitious woman attempting to get something right even as untrustworthy men, cowards, and bureaucrats hold her back, Bigelow’s personal connection to the material is thoroughly clear, to the point that it radiates off each of her images.
9) Moonlight
Like Abbas Kiarastomi, Barry Jenkins proved to be one of the most insightful and intimate artists of the raucous, uncontrolled inner life at war with the curtailed presentation of the exterior persona in only two movies. At once a thunderous societal plea, a wondrous, heartbreaking portrait of growing up black and gay, and intoxicating poetry writ large without many words.
8) The Social Network
The Master for the age of social media. The tech-punk class finally find their power and utilize it to become billionaires rather than heroes or even decent friends. The final exchange between Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg still gives me chills.
7) A Touch of Sin
China’s not-so-slow crawl toward capitalism and massive governmental repression set over a high flame by the brilliant Jia Zhangke. Bloody, blunt, and beautifully lensed from beginning to end.
6) The Interrupters
Activism, in all its beauty, empathy, and rage.
5) The Wolf of Wall Street
Capitalism, in all its thrills, cowardice, and ugliness.
4) Like Someone in Love
The late Iranian master Abbas Kiarastomi pushes deeper into his exploration of facades, performance, and desire in Japan, where an old man gets embroiled in the private life of a prostitute. The best shot film of the decade and a shattering work of muffled, dark passions left forever agitated.
3) The Tree of Life
Terrence Malick reemerges well over a decade after The Thin Red Line with a spiritual exploration that even shook this atheist. He ruminates amongst the cosmos, spies on dinosaurs, and finally settles back down on the streets of 1950s Texas, where Malick depicts a version of his relationship with his own father as the stuff of biblical texts. Spellbinding on the first watch, and the twenty-first as well.
2) In Jackson Heights
My New York bias is at work here but if there was ever a film that represented the promise of America as a stew of cultures, backgrounds, traditions, ideas, and political, philosophical, and societal principles, it’s this sublime documentary from the greatest of all American filmmakers, Frederick Wiseman.
1) The Master
The impulsive beast of man and the cultured, socialized charlatan as religious leader meet, fight, fall in love, and stir-up a bottomless well of ideas about the taming of the id. An overwhelming experience that also happens to be wildly entertaining.
Honorable Mentions: This is Not a Film, Chi-Raq, Hard to Be a God, Margaret, 13th, Goodbye to Language, Boyhood, Carol, The Arabian Nights Trilogy, A Quiet Passion, Moonrise Kingdom, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Contagion, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, J. Edgar, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Turin Horse, and like 300 more.
Matt's Picks
10) The Mist
I’m not a horror expert like my fellow writers Haleigh Foutch or Perri Nemiroff, but I do know that The Mist shook me like few other films. I saw it one time in 2007, and it pretty much scarred me. Even if you look past the disturbing ending, you still have a movie about scared people giving into fanaticism. It’s a tough watch.
9) The Grey
“That movie where Liam Neeson fights wolves? That’s one of the best movies of the 21st century?” It is! Because it’s not really about the wolves (although they certainly add a terrifying reality to the situation). Joe Carnahan made a movie about how we deal with death, and set it as a wilderness survival drama. It’s a powerful, stirring drama about the indifference of death and how we choose to carry on.
8) Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
It was so tough deciding on which comedies to put on this list (if we wanted to make things easier for ourselves, we could have upped our lists to 25 titles instead of just 10), and there are so many that I love including 21 Jump Street, MacGruber, and Shaun of the Dead, but Anchorman has cemented itself into my vernacular. I’ll go through a hot day and say, “Milk was a bad choice!” or I’ll get a burrito and say, “The man punted Baxter because I hit him with a burrito!” This comedy owns me.
7) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
It may seem odd to put the start of a trilogy on here since the film technically doesn’t have an “ending”, and while The Two Towers and Return of the King both have their fair shares of emotional, powerful moments, Fellowship is the best of the bunch of one of the all-time great cinematic trilogies. If Fellowship doesn’t makes us care about each of the main characters, the trilogy collapses. It also has the edge because Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey is just the best.
6) The Act of Killing
Director Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary is downright brilliant, and highlights the power of cinema. Discovering that his subjects—men who participated in the Indonesian genocide—felt no remorse over their actions, Oppenheimer let them play the stars of their own movie, and in so doing brought at least one to a horrifying realization about his actions. But even with this cathartic moment, The Act of Killing is like wandering into a terrifying alternate universe where killers not only walk free; they’re celebrated.
5) There Will Be Blood
It’s a film that takes multiple viewings to really sink in, but once it does, you can’t really shake it. Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie cuts to the heart of capitalism and religion in the 20th century through the dueling perspectives of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis giving the best performance of a career packed with great performances) and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). The movie is a beautifully shot, emotional roller coaster than ever signals its moments. It unfolds methodically and beautifully.
4) The Social Network
With every passing day, The Social Network becomes more relevant and it came out only seven years ago. In that time, Sean Parker’s (Justin Timberlake) prophetic words that “we will live on the Internet” have become hauntingly true in more ways than one. While screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has said that he sees this as a universal story, his disdain for the Internet and the relationships it creates come through loud and clear. Additionally, Sorkin’s fiery monologues and hot-tempered banter mesh perfectly with David Fincher’s cold, surgical direction.
3) Memento
Christopher Nolan has become one of the most powerful filmmakers over the 21st century, but it’s his 2000 indie that remains his most emotional and insightful. While some have dismissed its reverse chronology as a gimmick, Nolan’s ingenious storytelling device puts us firmly in the mind of his protagonist, and then forces us to question if actions can still have meaning if we don’t remember them. While Nolan has continued to push the envelope with his future movies, Memento shows what he can do on a small canvas.
2) Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Although he had been writing for decades, Shane Black’s first directorial feature was an outstanding debut from someone who perfectly understood screenwriting rules and how to break them. Black plays with noir tropes, narration, and the act of moviemaking to tell a unique detective story featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer at the top of their games during a time when most other filmmakers wouldn’t give the actors a chance. Both of them effortlessly deliver Black’s witty, singular dialogue but the movie never loses sight of its emotional core.
1) The Fountain
Darren Aronofsky’s unflinchingly earnest movie unabashedly jumps across three different narratives to tell a story about love and death. While some viewers may have gotten bogged down in trying to figure out the chronology (it has nothing to do with time), that misses the point of a man trying to defeat death because he couldn’t treasure the love he had in the time that he had it. It’s a beautiful mediation complete with eye-popping cinematography and one of the best scores of all-time. It’s a personal favorite, and I have no hesitation putting The Fountain at the top of my list.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order): 21 Jump Street, 25th Hour, Finding Nemo, Shaun of the Dead, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, I’m Not There, Inglourious Basterds, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mad Max: Fury Road, MacGruber