BBC's compilation of the top movies of the 21st century

[RPS]

So the BBC asked 177 movie critics about the top movies of the 21st century. They asked for their lists and then proceeded to compile the results. I thought it would be interesting to discuss what was included, what was excluded, how many movies everyone had seen, etc. Me and my better half have endeavored to watch every movie on the list that we have not seen together and pick out favorites from the list, but that will probably take a while as we've probably seen 15-20 of the movies on the list together. 

 

Quote

100. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
100. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
100. Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
99. The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000)
98. Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)
97. White Material (Claire Denis, 2009)
96. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003)
95. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)
94. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
93. Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007)
92. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
91. The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella, 2009)
90. The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)
89. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)
88. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015)
87. Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
86. Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002)
85. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)
84. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
83. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
82. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009)
81. Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011)
80. The Return (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2003)
79. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000)
78. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
77. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007)
76. Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003)
75. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
74. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
73. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004)
72. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
71. Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012)
70. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
69. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
68. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
67. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)
66. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (Kim Ki-duk, 2003)
65. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)
64. The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
63. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, 2011)
62. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)
61. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
60. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)
59. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)
58. Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembène, 2004)
57. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
56. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, director; Ágnes Hranitzky, co-director, 2000)
55. Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013)
54. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011)
53. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
52. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)
51. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
50. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)
49. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
48. Brooklyn (John Crowley, 2015)
47. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
46. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
45. Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
44. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
43. Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)
42. Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)
41. Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015)
40. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)
39. The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)
38. City of God (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, 2002)
37. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
36. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
35. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
34. Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015)
33. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
32. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
31. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)
30. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
29. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
28. Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002)
27. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
26. 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)
25. Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)
24. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
23. Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)
22. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
21. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
20. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
19. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
18. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009)
17. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)
16. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
15. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
14. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)
13. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)
12. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
11. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)
10. No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)
9. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
8. Yi Yi: A One and a Two (Edward Yang, 2000)
7. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
4. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
3. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
2. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

I have seen 11 of the top 25 and I will likely end up seeing all of them, but it is a pretty solid and diverse range of movies. I feel like some movies are in there simply because of their directors, because A Serious Man was not a very good movie at all and yet somehow it is there in the 80s. It is strange because there is a few documentaries in there, but a lot of the really great ones aren't included. I would have preferred a separate documentary list. 

[Hobo]

I've seen maybe 20 out of that 100.

One of which is Moulin Rouge! - which I hated.

[Colly]

Another is AI: Artificial Intelligence, the worst film I've ever watched in a cinema. And no Toy Story 3.

[C-MIL]

51 minutes ago, RPS said:

26. 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)

So close.

I really, really love that movie though.

[Kaney]

I've only saw 14 of the whole list. Zodiac, which I even liked, being 12th is baffling.

[Liam]

100. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
96. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003)
95. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)
93. Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007)
87. Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
68. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
59. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)
53. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
44. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
41. Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015)
40. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)
35. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
33. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
30. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
29. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
27. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
25. Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)
22. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
21. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
17. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
4. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
 

Here is my list. Not bad, I guess.

[RPS]

Wow. I have seen a good chunk of the list... 28 movies! Of those, my top 5 would probably be: Armour, WALL-E, The Lives of Others, Mad Max and White Ribbon. 

[Lineker]

Woooooo, BBC! 

 

Back to your discussion. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

Surely AI is only on there because something something technology something something breakthrough in film or something, right? Because otherwise, I dunno..

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I've only seen, like, eight of these 

[Draevyn]

3 minutes ago, Jericode said:

I've only seen, like, eight of these 

Got ya beat with 3. I apparently need to watch some movies.

[Bobfoc]

I'm on three as well. I only liked one of them (The Dark Knight), and I still don't think I enjoyed it as much as most people seemed to. This must be why I'm so bad at the film questions on Pointless.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I've seen 20 films off the whole list and like 5 that are in the top 25 (No Country For Old Men, Spirited Away, Mad Max: Fury Road, Eternal Sunshine and Children of Men).

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

I counted 26, more than I thought.

A lot of Wes Anderson on there. I was surprised by a few of the movies that made it, even if I liked them (Assassination of Jesse James, Zodiac, and A Serious Man). 

[MalaCloudy Black]

Jesse James was one that stuck out to me. I've seen it - and I liked it - but a "top movie of the 21st century"? Nah.

[Tigerstyle]

I've seen 32, Mulholland Drive is brilliant but it's nobodies favourite movie coz it makes no fucking sense.

[Jimmy]

9 hours ago, Tigerstyle said:

I've seen 32, Mulholland Drive is brilliant but it's nobodies favourite movie coz it makes no fucking sense.

It's one of my favourite movies  

I've seen 59 of that list.

There's some insanely good stuff in there, although I think it's definitely skewered in favour of the last fives years, which I don't necessarily agree with. For example, I don't think Brooklyn would make this list if it were to be conducted again in a few years and that's placed at 48. But something like Fish Tank or even Ten would hopefully retrain their places despite being lower. It's never easy to really debate lists, two of my favourites from this time didn't even place. I think Mulholland Drive is a perfect good first to have in the top spot, especially followed up by In The Mood For Love; hopefully lists like this give the latter and some other under-seen foreign films some good exposure to people who'll look at the list. Glad to see Far From Heaven sneak in as well, that movie is so good. 

17 hours ago, Cloudy said:

Surely AI is only on there because something something technology something something breakthrough in film or something, right? Because otherwise, I dunno..

It carries weight for a lot of people, but also surely held highly by some because it was Kubrick's unfinished film that was realised by Spielberg. It certainly had a lot of history behind which assumably makes it even more important for a select few. 

Edited October 25, 2016 by Jimmy

[MDK]

How the hell is Finding Nemo in there

[Benji]

I've seen 19 of those, but since it has no LOTR at all, no The Departed (nor Infernal Affairs), no Gladiator, no Toy Story 3, no Up!, no Prestige (not seen but I've rarely heard bad about it), no Gone Girl, no V for Vendetta, no Donnie Darko, not a single Harry Potter, no Monsters Inc, no Catch Me If You Can, no Sin City, no Pirates of the Caribbean, and not a single Marvel film, I have no issue with seeing so little. Bit of a film snob list tbh.

[RPS]

20 minutes ago, Benji said:

I've seen 19 of those, but since it has no LOTR at all, no The Departed (nor Infernal Affairs), no Gladiator, no Toy Story 3, no Up!, no Prestige (not seen but I've rarely heard bad about it), no Gone Girl, no V for Vendetta, no Donnie Darko, not a single Harry Potter, no Monsters Inc, no Catch Me If You Can, no Sin City, no Pirates of the Caribbean, and not a single Marvel film, I have no issue with seeing so little. Bit of a film snob list tbh.

It is a film snob list because they asked film critics to give their lists. Film critics end up seeing a lot more films versus the average person and I think this list tends to be a lot more independent and international versus what a list from other audiences would look like. Not that independent and international is necessarily better, but it definitely will vary the list up a bit when the people have seen the movies. 

A few of the movies you listed are ranked highly on other critic aggregate websites (like They Shoot Pictures Don't They), so I assume that if the list was expanded another hundred movies, you'd see the Departed, a few LOTR, Toy Story, and Up on there. Probably not the other ones listed.