Best Films of the 21st Century

A few weeks ago, the BBC released a list compiled by 122 critics from around the world chronicling their favorite films of the 21st Century. From 2000 until now, cinema has continued to push the creative boundaries of what a film can and should do. Stories made for the big screen continue to reveal niche ideas and underrepresented moments in history to the masses. Each critic’s unique list reminds me that I have a massive amount of films to catch up on (y’all I still haven’t seen Lost in Translation or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), but in the meantime I have put together my own list to compliment the dozens of cinephiles around the world who made theirs. These films have not only reshaped the way I view movies, but they have prompted empathy for the world around me. What are some your favorite films of the 21st Century so far?

1. City of God (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, 2002)

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)

3. The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)

4. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)

5. Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000)

6. OldBoy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)

7. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aranofsky, 2000)

8. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)

9. Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014) 

10. The Descent (Niel Marshall, 2005)

Honarable Mentions 

Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000)

Kill Bill: Volume 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)

Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005)

Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

American Pyscho (Mary Harron, 2000)

Wall-E  (Andrew Stanton, 2008)

Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)

Blue is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)