Okay – here’s a first class Argument Starter. In the past week, The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott released their list of The 25 Best Films of the 21st Century So Far. And it seems that everyone is weighing in with their own lists. Me, too.
Of course I agreed with some of the NYT picks (Boyhood, The Hurt Locker, Million Dollar Baby, Spirited Away). But I thought they picked the wrong Coen brothers movie (the dreadful Inside Llewyn Davis instead of any other Coen brothers film) and the wrong Dardennes brothers movie (The Child instead of The Kid with a Bike or The Son). Moonlight and Mad Max: Fury Road are just too 2017-trendy. I’m skeptical of their three Chinese and Taiwanese films that I haven’t seen (although I have some obscure picks on my list, too).
I found less fault with the accompanying article, Six Directors Pick Their Favorite Films of the 21st-Century. I particularly dovetailed with Sophia Coppola’s choices of Ida, Grizzly Man, Force Majeure, Fish Tank and Ex Machina.
So, just for shits and giggles, here’s The Movie Gourmet’s Best 25 Movies of this Millennium (so far).
- Boyhood
- Million Dollar Baby
- Minority Report
- Winter’s Bone
- Ida
- Sideways
- Hell or High Water
- 25th Hour
- The Hurt Locker
- Ex Machina
- Best in Show
- The Kid on a Bike
- Gosford Park
- Memories of Murder
- Children of Men
- Spirited Away
- Monster’s Ball
- Toy Story 3
- Stories We Tell
- A Serious Man
- Grizzly Man
- Talk to Her
- I’ve Loved You So Long
- Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
- Blue is the Warmest Color
Just missed: Margaret, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, The Secrets in Their Eyes, Incendies, Monster, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Take Shelter, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Crash, Traffic, After the Wedding, Away from Her, Mystic River, Wild Tales and The Hunt.
