Dinca — contemporary art blog

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

Read the indiewire article here.

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.

  • Jack says:

    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.

  • Zack Oleson says:

    I’m taking a class with this guy, Philip Lopate, who organized the survey.

  • Zack Oleson says:

    Almodovar, INLAND EMPIRE, Mulholland Drive, Dogville, The Last Mistress.

  • Mulholland Dr. is so deserving of that one slot.

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