Numbered Rankings: Film Critics Polled on the Best Films of the 2000s
Samantha Morton in Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar (2002)
Indiewire, an active blog that follows independent film, invited a 100 or so film critics and bloggers to weigh in on the best movies of the decade.
The votes have been tallied; the films are organized by numbered rankings according to votes tallied. I’m quite pleased with the number one selection and it’s pleasant to find some unexpected films on this list. Anyone care to post their top five films of the decade? See below.
The Rankings
| # | Film Title | Score | Mentions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mulholland Dr. | 288 | 38 |
| 2 | In the Mood for Love | 239 | 32 |
| 3 | Yi Yi | 177 | 23 |
| 4 | There Will Be Blood | 168 | 29 |
| 5 | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | 161 | 23 |
| 6 | The New World | 133 | 19 |
| 7 | Before Sunset | 104 | 20 |
| 8 | Zodiac | 100 | 17 |
| 9 | Platform | 97 | 12 |
| 10 | A.I.: Artificial Intelligence | 91 | 12 |
| 11 | Syndromes and a Century | 89 | 14 |
| 12 | 25th Hour | 79 | 11 |
| 13 | No Country for Old Men | 78 | 14 |
| 14 | Brokeback Mountain | 72 | 11 |
| 15 | The Death of Mr. Lazarescu | 69 | 13 |
| 16 | In Praise of Love | 57 | 8 |
| 17 | The Son | 52 | 8 |
| 18 | Inland Empire | 50 | 8 |
| 19 | Kings and Queen | 49 | 10 |
| Punch-Drunk Love | 49 | 8 | |
| 20 | Children of Men | 44 | 8 |
| Werckmeister Harmonies | 44 | 8 | |
| 21 | 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days | 42 | 7 |
| The Royal Tenenbaums | 42 | 8 | |
| The World | 42 | 6 | |
| 22 | Los Angeles Plays Itself | 41 | 8 |
| 23 | Dogville | 40 | 9 |
| The House of Mirth | 40 | 7 | |
| 24 | L’Intrus | 39 | 8 |
| 25 | Grizzly Man | 38 | 8 |
| 26 | Lost in Translation | 37 | 8 |
| The Lord of the Rings | 37 | 5 | |
| 27 | A Christmas Tale | 36 | 7 |
| Caché | 36 | 8 | |
| Tropical Malady | 36 | 6 | |
| 28 | Synecdoche, New York | 35 | 4 |
| 29 | 2046 | 34 | 5 |
| 30 | City of God | 32 | 5 |
| 31 | Silent Light | 29 | 4 |
| Spirited Away | 29 | 7 | |
| 32 | Beau Travail | 27 | 6 |
| I Heart Huckabees | 27 | 4 | |
| Kill Bill, Vol. 1 | 27 | 5 | |
| Memento | 27 | 5 | |
| The Dark Knight | 27 | 4 | |
| 33 | Cafe Lumiere | 26 | 3 |
| Flight of the Red Balloon | 26 | 4 | |
| 34 | Esther Kahn | 25 | 4 |
| Lilya 4-Ever | 25 | 5 | |
| Regular Lovers | 25 | 6 | |
| Time Out | 25 | 4 | |
| Y Tu Mama Tambien | 25 | 4 | |
| 35 | Best of Youth | 24 | 3 |
| 36 | A History Of Violence | 23 | 5 |
| Femme Fatale | 23 | 4 | |
| L’Enfant | 23 | 5 | |
| Moolaadé | 23 | 4 | |
| Morvern Callar | 23 | 4 | |
| The Squid and the Whale | 23 | 4 | |
| Trouble Every Day | 23 | 4 | |
| 37 | In the City of Sylvia | 22 | 5 |
| The Diving Bell and The Butterfly | 22 | 4 | |
| 38 | La Commune (Paris, 1871) | 21 | 4 |
| 39 | Gerry | 20 | 2 |
| Once | 20 | 5 | |
| The Fog of War | 20 | 4 | |
| 40 | Code Unknown | 19 | 2 |
| Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | 19 | 3 | |
| I’m Not There | 19 | 4 | |
| Talk to Her | 19 | 4 | |
| United 93 | 19 | 3 | |
| demonlover | 19 | 4 | |
| 41 | Goodbye Dragon Inn | 18 | 4 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 18 | 3 | |
| 42 | Birth | 17 | 3 |
| Capturing The Friedmans | 17 | 2 | |
| Hunger | 17 | 2 | |
| Iraq in Fragments | 17 | 2 | |
| Three Times | 17 | 3 | |
| 43 | Oldboy | 16 | 2 |
| Sideways | 16 | 3 | |
| Spider | 16 | 2 | |
| The Piano Teacher | 16 | 3 | |
| 44 | Gosford Park | 15 | 4 |
| In Vanda’s Room | 15 | 2 | |
| Irreversible | 15 | 3 | |
| Let the Right One In | 15 | 3 | |
| Requiem for a Dream | 15 | 4 | |
| Summer Hours | 15 | 5 | |
| The Incredibles | 15 | 3 | |
| The Wayward Cloud | 15 | 4 | |
| 45 | My Winnipeg | 14 | 3 |
| Nobody Knows | 14 | 3 | |
| Russian Ark | 14 | 2 | |
| The Headless Woman | 14 | 3 | |
| What Time Is It There | 14 | 3 | |
| 46 | Crimson Gold | 13 | 4 |
| Donnie Darko | 13 | 4 | |
| The Wind Will Carry Us | 13 | 3 | |
| 47 | Blissfully Yours | 12 | 2 |
| Head-On | 12 | 2 | |
| Pan’s Labyrinth | 12 | 2 | |
| Songs From the Second Floor | 12 | 2 | |
| The Hurt Locker | 12 | 2 | |
| Unknown Pleasures | 12 | 3 | |
| WALL-E | 12 | 3 | |
| Waltz with Bashir | 12 | 2 | |
| 48 | Adaptation | 11 | 2 |
| Dancer in the Dark | 11 | 3 | |
| Finding Nemo | 11 | 2 | |
| George Washington | 11 | 2 | |
| Happy-Go-Lucky | 11 | 2 | |
| Memories of Murder | 11 | 3 | |
| Moulin Rouge! | 11 | 2 | |
| Shaun of the Dead | 11 | 3 | |
| The Darjeeling Limited | 11 | 2 | |
| The Fast Runner | 11 | 2 | |
| 49 | C.R.A.Z.Y. | 10 | 1 |
| Colossal Youth | 10 | 3 | |
| Distant | 10 | 2 | |
| Elephant | 10 | 2 | |
| Far From Heaven | 10 | 2 | |
| Inglourious Basterds | 10 | 2 | |
| La Cienaga | 10 | 1 | |
| Land of Plenty | 10 | 1 | |
| My Hand Outstretched to the Winged Distance and Sightless Measure | 10 | 1 | |
| The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein | 10 | 1 | |
| The Prestige | 10 | 2 | |
| These Encounters of Theirs | 10 | 1 | |
| Turning Gate | 10 | 2 | |
| Wendy and Lucy | 10 | 1 | |
| West of the Tracks | 10 | 1 | |
| You Can Count On Me | 10 | 2 | |
| 50 | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy | 9 | 3 |
| Battle in Heaven | 9 | 2 | |
| Darwin’s Nightmare | 9 | 1 | |
| La Captive | 9 | 1 | |
| La Libertad | 9 | 1 | |
| Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 9 | 1 | |
| Million Dollar Baby | 9 | 1 | |
| Reflections of Evil | 9 | 1 | |
| Secret Sunshine | 9 | 1 | |
| Slumdog Millionaire | 9 | 1 | |
| The Dancer Upstairs | 9 | 1 | |
| The Descent | 9 | 2 | |
| The Lives of Others | 9 | 2 | |
| The Man Who Wasn’t There | 9 | 1 | |
| Vera Drake | 9 | 1 | |
| 51 | Afterschool | 8 | 1 |
| Black Book | 8 | 2 | |
| Broken Sky | 8 | 1 | |
| Dreamgirls | 8 | 2 | |
| Eureka | 8 | 1 | |
| Friday Night | 8 | 1 | |
| Jellyfish | 8 | 1 | |
| Reservation Road | 8 | 1 | |
| Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith | 8 | 1 | |
| Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance | 8 | 1 | |
| The Circle | 8 | 1 | |
| Together | 8 | 2 | |
| 52 | 28 Days Later | 7 | 2 |
| A Talking Picture | 7 | 1 | |
| Away From Her | 7 | 1 | |
| Big Fan | 7 | 1 | |
| Climates | 7 | 1 | |
| Junebug | 7 | 2 | |
| Last Days | 7 | 1 | |
| Munich | 7 | 2 | |
| Primer | 7 | 3 | |
| Ratcatcher | 7 | 1 | |
| Southland Tales | 7 | 1 | |
| The Host | 7 | 1 | |
| The Last Mistress | 7 | 2 | |
| The Taste of Others | 7 | 1 | |
| Up the Yangtze | 7 | 1 | |
| War of the Worlds | 7 | 1 | |
| 53 | Batman Begins/The Dark Knight | 6 | 1 |
| Bloody Sunday | 6 | 1 | |
| Funny Ha Ha | 6 | 2 | |
| Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple | 6 | 1 | |
| Michael Clayton | 6 | 1 | |
| Mister Lonely | 6 | 1 | |
| Monsters, Inc. | 6 | 1 | |
| Paradise Now | 6 | 1 | |
| Sexy Beast | 6 | 1 | |
| Still Life | 6 | 2 | |
| The Case of the Grinning Cat | 6 | 1 | |
| The House of Sand | 6 | 1 | |
| The Pianist | 6 | 1 | |
| Volver | 6 | 2 | |
| 54 | A Prairie Home Companion | 5 | 2 |
| American Psycho | 5 | 1 | |
| Before I Forget | 5 | 1 | |
| Bright Leaves | 5 | 1 | |
| Daumer | 5 | 1 | |
| Ghost World | 5 | 2 | |
| Los Muertos | 5 | 1 | |
| Marie Antoinette | 5 | 2 | |
| Paranoid Park | 5 | 3 | |
| Pulse | 5 | 1 | |
| Rejected | 5 | 1 | |
| Rosetta | 5 | 1 | |
| Sobibor, Oct. 14, 1943, 4 P.M | 5 | 1 | |
| Solaris | 5 | 2 | |
| State and Main | 5 | 1 | |
| Summer Palace | 5 | 1 | |
| Tarnation | 5 | 2 | |
| The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford | 5 | 1 | |
| The Beaches of Agnes | 5 | 1 | |
| The Company | 5 | 1 | |
| The Departed | 5 | 1 | |
| The Gleaners and I | 5 | 1 | |
| The Magdalene Sisters | 5 | 1 | |
| The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear | 5 | 2 | |
| The Silence Before Bach | 5 | 2 | |
| Three Monkeys | 5 | 1 | |
| Time of the Wolf | 5 | 2 | |
| Two Lovers | 5 | 2 | |
| Two Wrenching Departures | 5 | 1 | |
| 55 | About Schmidt | 4 | 1 |
| Amores Perros | 4 | 1 | |
| Bamako | 4 | 1 | |
| Che | 4 | 1 | |
| Exiled | 4 | 1 | |
| Fateless | 4 | 1 | |
| Fengming: A Chinese Memoir | 4 | 1 | |
| Good Morning, Night | 4 | 1 | |
| Idiocracy | 4 | 1 | |
| Man Push Cart | 4 | 1 | |
| Man on Wire | 4 | 2 | |
| Minority Report | 4 | 1 | |
| Old Jury | 4 | 1 | |
| Red Road | 4 | 1 | |
| Snow Falling on Cedars | 4 | 1 | |
| The Dreamers | 4 | 1 | |
| The Hours | 4 | 1 | |
| Traffic | 4 | 1 | |
| Two Ladies | 4 | 1 | |
| 56 | 24 Hour Party People | 3 | 1 |
| An Injury to One | 3 | 1 | |
| Atonement | 3 | 1 | |
| Black and White | 3 | 1 | |
| Everlasting Moments | 3 | 2 | |
| Fat Girl | 3 | 2 | |
| In the Bedroom | 3 | 1 | |
| Knocked Up | 3 | 1 | |
| La Vie Nouvelle | 3 | 1 | |
| Liverpool | 3 | 1 | |
| Oh! Soo-jung (aka Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors) | 3 | 1 | |
| Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands | 3 | 1 | |
| Star Spangled to Death | 3 | 1 | |
| The 40 Year Old Virgin | 3 | 1 | |
| The Consequences of Love | 3 | 1 | |
| The Corporation | 3 | 1 | |
| Tsotsi | 3 | 1 | |
| 57 | 21 Grams | 2 | 1 |
| Bamboozled | 2 | 1 | |
| Brothers of the Head | 2 | 1 | |
| Bully | 2 | 1 | |
| Come and Go | 2 | 1 | |
| Curse of the Golden Flower | 2 | 1 | |
| Daniel | 2 | 1 | |
| Domestic Violence | 2 | 1 | |
| Drawing Restraint 9 | 2 | 1 | |
| Half Nelson | 2 | 1 | |
| Legally Blonde | 2 | 1 | |
| Look At Me | 2 | 1 | |
| Oasis | 2 | 1 | |
| Rachel Getting Married | 2 | 1 | |
| Ratatouille | 2 | 1 | |
| Red Lights | 2 | 1 | |
| Sita Sings the Blues | 2 | 1 | |
| The Edge of Heaven | 2 | 1 | |
| The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | 2 | 1 | |
| The Triplets of Belleville | 2 | 1 | |
| Waking Life | 2 | 1 | |
| 58 | A Serious Man | 1 | 1 |
| Almost Famous | 1 | 1 | |
| Anonymous | 1 | 1 | |
| Blind Shaft | 1 | 1 | |
| Borat | 1 | 1 | |
| Bowling for Columbine | 1 | 1 | |
| Cast Away | 1 | 1 | |
| Crank | 1 | 1 | |
| Fahrenheit 9/11 | 1 | 1 | |
| Forty Shades of Blue | 1 | 1 | |
| Frownland | 1 | 1 | |
| Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai | 1 | 1 | |
| Gomorrah | 1 | 1 | |
| Hedwig and the Angry Inch | 1 | 1 | |
| Keane | 1 | 1 | |
| Kill Bill, Vol. 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Kung Fu Hustle | 1 | 1 | |
| La Blessure | 1 | 1 | |
| Mysterious Skin | 1 | 1 | |
| Mystic River | 1 | 1 | |
| Ocean’s 13 | 1 | 1 | |
| Palindromes | 1 | 1 | |
| Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” By Sapphire | 1 | 1 | |
| Red Cliff | 1 | 1 | |
| Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby | 1 | 1 | |
| The Constant Gardener | 1 | 1 | |
| The Fountain | 1 | 1 | |
| The Idiots | 1 | 1 | |
| The Other Half | 1 | 1 | |
| The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom | 1 | 1 | |
| The Woman on the Beach | 1 | 1 | |
| When the Levees Broke | 1 | 1 | |
| Where the Wild Things Are | 1 | 1 |
Participating Critics
Sam Adams
Jason Anderson
Melissa Anderson
Michael Atkinson
Saul Austerlitz
Donna Bowman
Richard Brody
Dwight Brown
Matt Brunson
Jeannette Catsoulis
Tom Charity
Daryl Chin
Travis Crawford
Mike D’Angelo
David D’Arcy
Robert Davis
Peter Debruge
Aaron Dobbs
Bilge Ebiri
Cheryl Eddy
Gregory Ellwood
Steve Erickson
Jürgen Fauth
David Fear
Marshall Fine
Cynthia Fuchs
Susan Gerhard
Leo Goldsmith
Ed Gonzalez
Andrew Grant
Tim Grierson
Tom Hall
Brandon Harris
Aaron Hillis
Robert Horton
Eric Hynes
Caryn James
Mark Jenkins
J.R. Jones
Kristin M. Jones
Ben Kenigsberg
Laura Kern
Peter Knegt
Robert Koehler
Eric Kohn
Dan Kois
Michael Koresky
Gary M. Kramer
Jay Kuehner
Joshua Land
Andy Lauer
Eric Lavallée
Kevin B. Lee
Nathan Lee
Dennis Lim
Karina Longworth
Phillip Lopate
Patrick Z. McGavin
Sean Means
Brian Miller
Kristi Mitsuda
Amy Monaghan
Noel Murray
V.A. Musetto
Adam Nayman
Rob Nelson
Mark Olsen
Gerald Peary
Andréa Picard
Richard Porton
Ray Pride
James Quandt
Nathan Rabin
Jeff Reichert
Vadim Rizov
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Lisa Rosman
Joshua Rothkopf
Michael Joshua Rowin
Nick Schager
Jason Shawhan
Matt Singer
David Sterritt
Benjamin Strong
R. Emmet Sweeney
Amy Taubin
Charles Taylor
Anne Thompson
Scott Tobias
Michael Tully
Elbert Ventura
David Walsh
Elizabeth Weitzman
Armond White
Stephen Whitty
Matthew Wilder
Chuck Wilson
Chris Wisniewski
Susan Wloszczyna
7 Comments
I just realised that Cast Away received one vote — funny.
The Fountain received one vote — this film was self-indulgent and an abomination.
Legally Blonde received two votes — someone likes Elle Woods and pink.
Adaptation
I’m consistently pleased to see some Malick on these lists.
And mine–
1. The New World
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Primer
4. Elephant
5. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
I have serious beef, though, with people’s constant praising of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Sure, it has an interesting premise, but the plodding ending and sheer predictably of it runs it aground.
I agree with Jack. I feel as though it is a movie with nominal qualities.
I’m taking a class with this guy, Philip Lopate, who organized the survey.
Almodovar, INLAND EMPIRE, Mulholland Drive, Dogville, The Last Mistress.
Mulholland Dr. is so deserving of that one slot.