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  The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films Ranking (101-150)  
  21st Century Home  Summary:  The 250 Films  The Top 50 Directors  Browse by Ranking:  1-50  51-100  101-150  151-200  201-250  Previous Titles  
     
     
 
 101    102    103  
35 Shots of Rum
Claire Denis   new  
• 35 rhums (original title)
2000, 89m, Col, Portugal-France, Drama-Comedy
Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Nicole Dogue, Gregoire Colin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Djedje Apali, Eriq Ebouaney, Ingrid Caven, Stephane Pocrain, Julieth Mars Toussaint
"For 20 years, Claire Denis has been among France's foremost filmmakers with her acute yet subtle observations of the ebbs and flows within relationships. Her perception and understanding seem to grow only richer over the years, and her newest film, 35 Shots of Rum, is surely one of her finest -- and thereby one of the best films of the year." - Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Amy Taubin, Berenice Reynaud, Kent Jones, John Powers, Daryl Chin.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Tsai Ming-Liang  (119)
• Bu san (original title)
2003, 82m, Col, Taiwan, Drama-Comedy
Kang-Sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Tien Miao, Chun Shih, Chao-Jung Chen, Kuei-Mei Yang
"Has a quiet, cumulative magic, whose source is hard to identify. Its simple, meticulously composed frames are full of mystery and feeling; it's an action movie that stands perfectly still." - A.O. Scott, New York Times
Selected by Daryl Chin, Dennis Lim, Philip French, Chris Chang, Stig Bjorkman.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Saraband
Ingmar Bergman  (181)
2003, 120m, Col, Sweden-Denmark-Norway, Drama
Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Borje Ahlstedt, Julia Dufvenius, Gunnel Fred
"With Saraband, the great writer-director has stepped back into the ring for one last epic wrestle with his demons. There is, as always, no easy outcome. But no one ever fought for higher emotional and spiritual stakes." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by Joseph McBride, Geoff Andrew, Raymond Bellour, Gilbert Adair, Arnaud Desplechin.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 104    105    106  
Together
Lukas Moodysson  (101)
• Tillsammans (original title)
2000, 106m, Col, Sweden-Denmark-Italy, Drama-Comedy
Lisa Lindgren, Gustaf Hammarsten, Michael Nyqvist, Emma Samuelsson, Sam Kessel, Anja Lundqvist, Jessica Liedberg, Ola Norell, Axel Zuber, Shanti Roney
"Moodysson captures exactly the preening narcissism and gumption of these frazzled would-be revolutionaries trying to wriggle out of their bourgeois straitjackets." - Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
Selected by David Ansen, Armond White, Sukhdev Sandhu, Kenneth Turan, Owen Gleiberman.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Holy Girl
Lucrecia Martel  (100)
• La Niña santa (original title)
2004, 103m, Col, Argentina-Spain-Italy-Netherlands-Switzerland, Drama
Mercedes Moran, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapilleta, Maria Alche, Julieta Zylberberg, Mia Maestro, Marta Lubos, Arturo Goetz, Alejo Mango, Monica Villa
"A subtle artist and a sharp observer, Martel manages a large cast with an ease that matches her skill at storytelling, within which psychological insight and social comment flow easily and implicitly." - Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Raymond Bellour, Jonathan Romney, Phillip Lopate, Nick James, Kent Jones,
Amazon  metacritic
 
Vera Drake
Mike Leigh  (71)
2004, 125m, Col, UK-France, Drama
Imelda Staunton, Philip Davis, Peter Wright, Eddie Marsan, Alex Kelly, Daniel Mays, Sally Hawkins, Adrian Scarborough, Heather Craney, Ruth Sheen
"Vera Drake puts the passion in compassion. Building up to a shattering conclusion, Leigh's movie is both outrageously schematic and powerfully humanist." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by Roger Ebert, Michael Wilmington, Richard Schickel, John Anderson, Kenneth Turan.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 107    108    109  
Werckmeister Harmonies
Béla Tarr  (149)
• Werckmeister harmóniák (original title)
2000, 145m, BW, Hungary-Germany-France-Switzerland-Italy, Drama
Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla, Janos Derzsi, Djoko Rossich, Tamas Wichmann, Ferenc Killai, Mihaly Kormos, Putyi Horvath, Eva Almassy Albert
"Mysterious, poetic and allusive, Werckmeister Harmonies beckons filmgoers who complain of the vapidity of Hollywood movie making and yearn for a film to ponder and debate." - Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times
Selected by David Sterritt, Michael Atkinson, Jean-Michel Frodon, Jonathan Romney, Tony Rayns.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Fog of War
Errol Morris  (83)
• The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (alternative title)
2003, 107m, Col, USA, Documentary
Robert McNamara, Errol Morris
"Errol Morris may have been put on earth to make The Fog of War, a stunning portrait of Robert S. McNamara that closes a year of outstanding nonfiction movies on a high note." - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Selected by Joseph McBride, Phillip Lopate, Berenice Reynaud, Stephen Holden, Scott Tobias.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Munich
Steven Spielberg  (91)
2005, 160m, Col, USA, Drama-Historical-Thriller
Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Hanns Zischler, Ayelet Zorer, Gila Almagor, Michel Lonsdale, Mathieu Amalric
"A superbly taut and well-made thriller that jumps from Geneva to Rome, from Paris to Beirut, from Athens to Brooklyn, each lethal assignment staged with a mastery Hitchcock might envy." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by Owen Gleiberman, Armond White, Roger Ebert, Ty Burr, Michael Wilmington.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 110    111    112  
Up
Pete Docter   new  
2009, 96m, Col, USA, Animated-Adventure-Comedy
Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, John Ratzenberger, David Kaye, Elie Docter, Jeremy Leary
"Rarely has any film, let alone an animated one powered by the logic of dream and fantasy, been able to move so successfully -- and so effortlessly -- through so many different kinds of cinematic territory." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Kenneth Turan, Glenn Kenny, Peter Keough, David Denby, Michael Atkinson.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Piano Teacher
Michael Haneke  (110)
• La Pianiste (original title)
2001, 130m, Col, Austria-France-Germany, Drama
Isabelle Huppert, Benoit Magimel, Annie Girardot, Susanne Lothar, Udo Samel, Anna Sigalevitch, Cornelia Kongden, Thomas Weinhappel, Georg Friedrich, Philipp Heiss
"At once an emotional thriller and a domestic horror movie -- a woman's picture with a vengeance, in which the bloodletting is kept to a minimum, and ends up all the more powerful and profound for it." - Manohla Dargis, LA Weekly
Selected by John Waters, Michael Atkinson, Manohla Dargis, Ernest Hardy, Scott Foundas.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Colossal Youth
Pedro Costa  (109)
• Juventude Em Marcha (original title)
2006, 155m, Col, France-Portugal-Switzerland, Drama
Ventura, Vanda Duarte, Beatriz Duarte, Gustavo Sumpta, Cila Cardoso, Isabel Cardoso, Alberto 'Lento' Barros, Antonio Semedo, Paulo Nunes, Jose Maria Pina
"Beautifully photographed, this elliptical, sometime confounding, often mysterious and wholly beguiling mixture of fiction and nonfiction looks and sounds as if it were made on another planet. And, in some respects, it was." - Manohla Dargis, New York Times
Selected by Dennis Lim, Richard Brody, Bill Krohn, Thom Andersen, Jia Zhangke.
Amazon  IMDB
         
 113    114    115  
The Man Without a Past
Aki Kaurismäki  (135)
• Mies vailla menneisyyttä (original title)
2002, 97m, Col, Finland-Germany-France, Romance-Drama-Comedy
Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, Juhani Niemela, Annikki Tahti, Kaija Pakarinen, Sakari Kuosmanen, Esko Nikkari, Outi Maenpaa, Pertti Sveholm, Anneli Sauli
"Kaurismäki is Finland's greatest filmmaker, and never has he more artfully balanced his patented blend of deadpan humor, low-key melodrama, and toe-tapping music." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Selected by Peter von Bagh, Vivian Sobchack, David Sterritt, Chris Fuijiwara, A.O. Scott.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan  new    
2008, 152m, Col, USA-UK, Action-Crime-Thriller
Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Ron Dean, Cillian Murphy
"Beyond dark. It's as black -- and teeming and toxic -- as the mind of the Joker. Batman Begins, the 2005 film that launched Nolan's series, was a mere five-finger exercise. This is the full symphony." - Richard Corliss, Time
Selected by Matt Singer, Nick Schager, Scott Tobias, Nathan Rabin, Noel Murray.
See also: 1,000 Greatest Films
Amazon  metacritic
 
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Peter Weir  (87)
2003, 138m, Col, USA, Drama-Adventure-Action
Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd, James D'Arcy, Chris Larkin, Lee Ingleby, George Innes, Mark Lewis Jones, Richard McCabe, Robert Pugh
"As magnificent as a high-masted 19th-century British warship, as explosive as a Napoleonic-era ocean battle seen above the cannon's mouth... probably the best movie of its kind ever made." - Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Selected by Michael Wilmington, Michael Sragow, Ty Burr, Roger Ebert, J. Hoberman.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 116    117    118  
Good Night, and Good Luck
George Clooney  (81)
2005, 93m, BW, USA, Drama-Historical
David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr., Ray Wise, Frank Langella, Jeff Daniels, Tate Donovan, Robert Burke, Reed Diamond
"This is an elegant and stirring entertainment about the hard-drinking, hard-smoking reporters of "See It Now," the show that Murrow and the producer Fred Friendly put together every week." - David Denby, The New Yorker
Selected by David Ansen, Molly Haskell, David Ehrenstein, Peter Keough, Ty Burr.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Time Out
Laurent Cantet  (89)
• L'Emploi du temps (original title)
2001, 134m, Col, France, Drama
Aurelien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot, Monique Mangeot, Nicholas Kalsch, Marie Cantet, Felix Cantet, Olivier Le Joubioux, Maxime Sassier
"There's piercing sadness, and fury, too, in this Everyman's isolation, and Cantet is singularly skilled at evoking the universal condition of such tragic ordinariness." - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Selected by John Anderson, Dave Kehr, John Powers, Kenneth Turan, Chris Fujiwara.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Paranoid Park
Gus Van Sant  (79)
2007, 85m, Col, France-USA, Drama
Gabe Nevins, Taylor Momsen, Jake Miller, Dan Liu, Lauren McKinney, Scott Green, John 'Mike' Burrowes, Grace Carter, Jay 'Smay' Williamson, Christopher Doyle
"The pleasing circularity of Gus Van Sant's masterful Paranoid Park is not only a function of the film's narrative structure but reflects the arc of its maker's career. Few directors have revisited their earliest concerns with such vigor." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by David Ehrenstein, Tom Charity, Amy Taubin, J. Hoberman, Daryl Chin.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 119    120    121  
Regular Lovers
Philippe Garrel  (145)
• Les Amants réguliers (original title)
2004, 178m, BW, France-Italy, Drama
Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme, Julien Lucas, Nicolas Bridet, Mathieu Genet, Raissa Mariotti, Caroline Deruas-Garrel, Rebecca Convenant, Marie Girardin, Maurice Garrel
"While the film’s desperately sad finale indicates that Philippe Garrel knows the truth of '68 better than most and might have suffered a crisis in faith in the years since, this magnificent film is itself proof that all was not lost." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Selected by David Ehrenstein, Richard Brody, Michael Atkinson, Charles Tesson, Berenice Reynaud.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Hunger
Steve McQueen  (144)
2008, 96m, Col, UK-Ireland, Drama-Historical
Michael Fassbender, Stuart Graham, Helena Bereen, Larry Cowan, Liam Cunningham, Dennis McCambridge, Liam McMahon, Laine Megaw, Brian Milligan, Rory Mullen
"Hunger is extreme cinema for an extreme subject. It is outstandingly made; long wordless sequences are composed with judgment and flair and expository dialogue scenes are confidently positioned. It surely confirms McQueen as a real film-maker." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Selected by David Sterritt, Nick James, Graham Fuller, Gerald Peary, Dennis Lim.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Police, Adjective
Corneliu Porumboiu   new  
• Politist, adj. (original title)
2009, 115m, Col, Romania, Comedy-Crime-Drama
Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Saulescu, Ion Stoica, Marian Ghenea, Cosmin Selesi, George Remes, Dan Cogalniceanu, Serban Georgevici, Costi Dita
"Police, Adjective is a deadly serious as well as dryly humorous analysis of bureaucratic procedure and, particularly, the tyranny of language. Images may record reality, but words define it." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by Mark Cousins, Tom Charity, Amy Taubin, David Sterritt, Phillip Lopate.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 122    123    124  
The White Ribbon
Michael Haneke   new  
• Das Weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (original title)
2009, 144m, BW, Austria-Germany-France-Italy, Crime-Drama-Mystery
Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Fion Mutert, Michael Kranz, Burghart Klaubner, Steffi Kuhnert, Maria-Victoria Dragus
"Detailed yet oblique, leisurely but compelling, perfectly cast and irreproachably acted, the movie has a seductively novelistic texture complete with a less-than-omniscient narrator." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Selected by Geoff Andrew, Piers Handling, David Denby. Berenice Reynaud, David Ehrenstein.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Circle
Jafar Panahi  (92)
• Dayereh (original title)
2000, 90m, Col, Iran-Italy-Switzerland, Drama
Maryam Parvin Almani, Nargess Mamizadeh, Fereshteh Sadr Orafal, Mojgane Faramarzi, Elham Saboktakin, Monire Arab, Solmaz Panahi, Fatemeh Naghavi, Maedeh Tahmasbi, Maryam Shayegane
"A triumph of invisible craftsmanship that embraces so much specific detail that none of the women ever comes across as an emblem or an abstraction." - David Chute, LA Weekly
Selected by Peter Keough, David Sterritt, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Gerald Peary, Peter Rainer.
Amazon  metacritic
 
School of Rock
Richard Linklater  (88)
2003, 108m, Col, Germany-USA, Musical-Comedy
Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White, Sarah Silverman, Adam Pascal, Lucas Papselias, Chris Stack, Lucas Babin, Jordan-Claire Green, Veronica Afflerbach
"This joyous farce is a big, big deal, and Jack Black is nothing less than majestic as a scruffy, irreverent rocker passing himself off as a pedagogue in a private school." - Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
Selected by Kevin MacDonald, Dennis Lim, Owen Gleiberman, Ty Burr, David Ansen.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 125    126    127  
Little Miss Sunshine
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris  (142)
2006, 102m, Col, USA, Comedy-Drama
Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Abigail Breslin, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, Marc Turtletaub, Beth Grant, Jill Talley
"This indie, a sweet, tart and smart satire about a family of losers in a world obsessed with winning, is an authentic crowd pleaser. There's been no more satisfying American comedy this year." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by David Ansen, Joe Morgenstern, Peter Travers, Stephen Holden, Claudia Puig.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Happy-Go-Lucky
Mike Leigh  (84)
2008, 118m, Col, UK-USA, Comedy-Drama
Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Stanley Townsend, Kate O'Flynn, Caroline Martin, Oliver Maltman, Sarah Niles, Samuel Roukin
"Leigh and his actors work mysterious magic in Happy-Go-Lucky. This is a movie about hitting the groove of everyday life and, nearly miraculously, getting music out of it." - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon
Selected by Armond White, Amy Taubin, John Anderson, Phillip Lopate, Saul Austerlitz.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Volver
Pedro Almodóvar  (104)
2006, 121m, Col, Spain, Comedy-Drama
Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Duenas, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave, Antonio de La Torre, Carlos Blanco, Maria Isabel Diaz, Neus Sanz, Blanca Portillo
"Almodóvar is still one of the few directors worth watching just for how he uses color on the screen. But the pleasures have always run much deeper, and now they run deeper still." - Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club
Selected by David Ansen, Molly Haskell, Stephen Holden, A.O. Scott, Peter Travers.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 128    129    130  
Half Nelson
Ryan Fleck  (82)
2006, 106m, Col, USA, Drama
Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Jeff Lima, Nathan Corbett, Tyra Kwao-Vovo, Rosemary Ledee, Tristan Wilds, Bryce Silver, Monique Gabriela Curnen
"It's a complex and defiant fable of American life run just slightly off the rails, delivering all the impact of Crash without the phony-baloney paradoxes or brick-in-the-face message delivery." - Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
Selected by David Ansen, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Scott Tobias, Andrew O'Hehir, Robert Horton.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Bad Education
Pedro Almodóvar  (105)
• La Mala educación (original title)
2004, 105m, Col, Spain, Thriller-Drama
Gael Garcia Bernal, Fele Martinez, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Lluis Homar, Francisco Maestre, Francisco Boira, Raul Garcia Forneiro, Nacho Perez, Javier Camara, Alberto Ferreiro
"Bad Education is a voluptuous experience that invites you to gorge on its beauty and vitality, although it has perhaps the darkest ending of any of the films by the Spanish writer and director." - Stephen Holden, New York Times
Selected by Gilbert Adair, Tony Rayns, Carrie Rickey, Stephen Holden, Wesley Morris.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Wrestler
Darren Aronofsky  (159)
2008, 109m, Col, USA, Drama-Sport
Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Mark Margolis, Todd Barry, Wass Stevens, Judah Friedlander, Ernest Miller, Dylan Keith Summers, Tommy Farra
"Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances. An elemental story simply and brilliantly told, Darren Aronofsky's fourth feature is a winner from every possible angle." - Todd McCarthy, Variety
Selected by James Franco, Michael Atkinson, Glenn Kenny, Donna Bowman, Peter Brunette.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 131    132    133  
The Best of Youth
Marco Tullio Giordana  (165)
• La Meglio gioventù (original title)
2003, 373m, Col, Italy, Drama
Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti, Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni, Maya Sansa, Valentina Carnelutti, Jasmine Trinca, Andrea Tidona, Lidia Vitale
"The Best of Youth doesn't have a boring millisecond. It isn't an art film, with longueurs; it's a mini-series with the sweep of a classic novel, with tons of plot." - David Edelstein, Slate
Selected by Kenneth Turan, A.O. Scott, Vivian Sobchack, Richard Schickel, Michael Wilmington.
Amazon  metacritic
 
House of Flying Daggers
Zhang Yimou  (95)
• Shi mian mai fu (original title)
2001, 111m, Col, Hong Kong-China, Action-Drama-Romance
Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Ziyi, Andy Lau, Song Dandan, Wang Yabin, Zheng Lu, Wu Weifeng, Yan Yan, Zheng Jie, Zhao Hongfei
"House of Flying Daggers finds the great Chinese director at his most romantic in this thrilling martial arts epic that involves a conflict between love and duty carried out to its fullest expression." - Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Michael Wilmington, Richard Roeper, J.R. Jones, David Edelstein, Richard Corliss.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Capote
Bennett Miller  (96)
2005, 98m, Col, USA, Drama-Biography
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Bob Balaban, Amy Ryan, Mark Pellegrino, Marshall Bell, Bess Meyer
"The genius of the film, besides Hoffman's stunning performance, is that it knows exactly how much is enough. It never overplays, lingers or punches up." - Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
Selected by Peter Keough, Carrie Rickey, Molly Haskell, David Ansen, Tom Charity.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 134    135    136  
Sexy Beast
Jonathan Glazer  (115)
2000, 88m, Col, UK-Spain-USA, Drama-Crime-Comedy
Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White, Alvaro Monje, James Fox, Robert Atiko, Nieves del Amo Oruet
"Carries so much impacted menace and visual narrative gamesmanship that it brought back some of the excitement I felt nearly a decade ago watching Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs." - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Selected by Nick James, Owen Gleiberman, Peter Rainer, David Edelstein, Elvis Mitchell.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Bowling for Columbine
Michael Moore  (108)
2002, 120m, Col, USA, Documentary-Comedy
Michael Moore, Denise Ames, Arthur A. Busch, Barry Glassner, Charlton Heston, Marilyn Manson, James Nichols, Matt Stone, Dick Clark, Seth Collins
"Moore's best movie, and one of the most blisteringly effective polemics and documentaries ever." - Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Selected by Mark Cousins, Michael Atkinson, Ed Halter, Scott Foundas, Edward Crouse.
Amazon  metacritic
 
The Intruder
Claire Denis  (147)
• L'Intrus (original title)
2004, 130m, Col, France-Korea, Drama
Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin, Yekaterina Golubeva, Bambou, Florence Loiret, Lolita Chammah, Alex Descas, Dong-ho Kim, Se-tak Chang, Hong-suk Park
"Exhilarating and exhausting, the kind of picture you don't bounce back from immediately. Yet its elusiveness is the very source of its poetic energy." - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon
Selected by Dominik Graf, Kent Jones, Jonathan Romney, Chris Chang, Gavin Smith.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 137    138    139  
What Time is it There?
Tsai Ming-Liang  (140)
• Ni na bian ji dian (original title)
2001, 116m, Col, France-Taiwan-Italy, Drama
Kang-Sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen, Yi-Chung Lu, Tien Miao, Cecilia Yip, Chao-Jung Chen, Guei Tsai, Arthur Nauzyciel, David Ganansia, Jean-Pierre Leaud
"This wonderful, one-of-a-kind movie hops from Taiwan to France, from tragedy to deadpan comedy and, in its mysterious conclusion, from the worldly to the otherworldly." - David Ansen, Newsweek
Selected by David Sterritt, Chris Fujiwara, Michael Atkinson, J. Hoberman, Elvis Mitchell.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Black Book
Paul Verhoeven  (106)
• Zwartboek (original title)
2006, 146m, Col, Germany-Netherlands-UK-Belgium, War-Thriller
Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus, Derek de Lint, Christian Berkel, Dolf De Vries, Peter Blok, Michiel Huisman
"Like much of Verhoeven's best work, it's shamelessly melodramatic, but in its dark moral complexities it puts Schindler's List to shame." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Selected by Leonardo Garcia-Tsao, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones, Dennis Lim, Tom Charity.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Café Lumière
Hou Hsiao-Hsien  (152)
• Kôhî jikô (original title)
2003, 108m, Col, Japan-Taiwan, Drama
Yo Hitoto, Tadanobu Asano, Masato Hagiwara, Kimiko Yo, Nenji Kobayashi
"Hou's best film since The Puppetmaster (1993). It's also his most minimalist effort to date, slow to reveal its depths and beauties, and it marks a rejuvenation of his art." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Selected by Raymond Bellour, Tony Rayns, Piers Handling, Gavin Smith, John Anderson.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 140    141    142  
Once
John Carney (138)
2007, 87m, Col, Ireland-USA, Drama-Musical-Romance
Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova, Hugh Walsh, Gerry Hendrick, Alastair Foley, Geoff Minogue, Bill Hodnett, Danuse Ktrestova, Darren Healy, Mal Whyte
"The music is so rich and completely satisfying and the characters so appealing Once makes us believe that this is all happening right in front of our eyes." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Tom Charity, Michael Atkinson, Aaron Hillis, Thomas Doherty, Stephen Garrett.
Amazon  metacritic
 
I'm Going Home
Manoel de Oliveira  (93)
• Je rentre à la maison (original title)
2000, 89m, Col, Portugal-France, Drama-Comedy
Michel Piccoli, Catherine Deneuve, John Malkovich, Antoine Chappey, Leonor Baldaque, Leonor Silveira, Ricardo Trepa, Jean-Michel Arnold, Adrian de Van, Sylvie Testud
"Piccoli gives one of the most nuanced performances of his distinguished career, but the primary star of the movie is de Oliveira, who unfolds the story with unfailing skill and sensitivity." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Selected by Suzanne Liandrat-Guigues, Manohla Dargis, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Peter Keough, Kent Jones.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Gladiator
Ridley Scott  (155)
2000, 154m, Col, USA, Drama-Action
Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, Richard Harris, David Schofield, John Shrapnel, Thomas Arana
"It's that very rare feeling that you're settling into a movie whose individual elements are so finely attuned they fuse into a singular construct of pure entertainment." - Ted Fry, Film.com
Selected by Frank Darabont, Owen Gleiberman, Peter Travers, Mike D'Angelo, Lisa Schwarzbaum.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 143    144    145  
Wonder Boys
Curtis Hanson  (111)
2000, 112m, Col, USA-Germany-UK-Japan, Drama-Comedy
Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes, Rip Torn, Richard Knox, Jane Adams, Michael Cavadias, Philip Bosco
"Michael Douglas digs deep and delivers one of his best performances in Wonder Boys -- a comic dazzler of roguish wit and touching gravity that is driven by characters, not jokes." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Selected by Dave Kehr, Roger Ebert, David Ansen, Amy Taubin, Michael Atkinson.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Head-On
Fatih Akin  (148)
• Gegen die Wand (original title)
2003, 121m, Col, Germany, Romance-Drama
Birol Unel, Sibel Kekilli, Catrin Striebeck, Meltem Cumbul, Stefan Gebelhoff, Francesco Fiannaca, Mona Mur, Ralph Misske, Philipp Baltus, Hermann Lause, Karin Niwiger
"In its breathlessly claustrophobic way the movie is vital and passionate, and lit with a lyric beauty that washes over love scenes and violent acts alike." - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
Selected by David Ansen, Nick James, Ty Burr, Peter Keough, David Ehrenstein.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Moore  (136)
2004, 122m, Col, USA, Documentary-War
Michael Moore, George W. Bush, Craig Unger, Jack Cloonan, James Moore, Dan Briody, Rosemary Dillard, Martha Brill Olcott, Jim McDermott, Roy Gladding
"Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11 has launched an unapologetic attack, both savage and savvy, on an administration he feels has betrayed the best of America and done extensive damage in the world." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Joseph McBride, David Ehrenstein, David Sterritt, Kenneth Turan, A.O. Scott.
Amazon  metacritic
         
 146    147    148  
25th Hour
Spike Lee  (204)
2002, 134m, Col, USA, Drama-Crime
Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Tony Siragusa, Levani, Misha Kuznetsov, Isiah Whitlock Jr.
"The film persuades us to think long and hard about what prison means, and Lee has shaped it like a poem that builds into an epic lament, especially in a beautiful and tragic closing that risks absurdity to achieve the sublime." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Selected by A.O. Scott, David Sterritt, Roger Ebert, Ty Burr, F.X. Feeney.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Gangs of New York
Martin Scorsese  (107)
2002, 166m, Col, USA, Drama-Crime-Action
Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Brendan Gleeson, Gary [2] Lewis, Alec McCowen, David Hemmings
"A grand achievement in history and anthropology, supporting its ambition and scope with a sumptuous re-creation of the period and an immediacy that allows a forgotten past to barrel into the present." - Scott Tobias, The Onion
Selected by Jonathan Romney, Carrie Rickey, Kent Jones, Stephen Holden, F.X. Feeney.
Amazon  metacritic
 
Notre musique
Jean-Luc Godard  (133)
2004, 80m, Col, France-Switzerland, Drama
Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer, Simon Eine, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, George Aguilar, Ferlyn Brass, Leticia Gutierrez, Jean-Luc Godard, Elma Dzanic
"Visually sublime and intellectually dense, this is one of the extremely rare movies that prove cinema can be as complex and profound as the very greatest art works in any form." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Selected by Peter von Bagh, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Tom Gunning, Gerald Peary, Chris Fujiwara
Amazon  metacritic
         
 149    150      
Demonlover
Olivier Assayas  (183)
2002, 129m, Col, France-Japan-Mexico-USA, Thriller-Drama-Mystery
Connie Nielsen, Charles Berling, Chloe Sevigny, Gina Gershon, Jean-Baptiste Malartre, Dominique Reymond, Edwin Gerard, Thomas M. Pollard, Abi Sakamoto, Naoko Yamazaki
"It's an exasperating, irresistible, must-see mess of a movie about life in the modern world and so very good that even when its story finally crashes and burns the filmmaking remains unscathed." - Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times
Selected by Jean-Michel Frodon, Sukhdev Sandhu, Jonathan Romney, Maitland McDonagh, Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Amazon  metacritic
 
To Be and to Have
Nicolas Philibert  (166)
• Être et avoir (original title)
2002, 104m, Col, France, Documentary
Georges Lopez, Alize, Axel, Guillaume, Jessie, Johann, JoJo, Julien, Laura, Letitia
"A deceptively simple French film about teaching that keeps enlarging as you watch it, becoming beautiful and inspiring in a way most films never touch." - Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Selected by Chris Fujiwara, Peter Rainer, Alice Lovejoy, Wesley Morris, Stephanie Zacharek.
Amazon  metacritic
  > 151-200
 
     
     
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