# What do you think of the films 177 critics picked as the best of the 2000s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 30, 2017, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706 "2017-05-30T06:51:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/1 "2017-05-30T06:51:37Z")
(Don’t call it “best of the 21st century”, as some publications did, or it will get some people’s noses bent out of joint due to the movies on it which were released in the year 2000.) I missed [this](http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160819-the-21st-centurys-100-greatest-films) when it came out last August (I need an app that sends me such things directly!), and checked to see if it had a thread here, but it appears it was only [used as a jumping off point](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=802784) to discuss “Mulholland Drive” specifically. I’m interested in discussing the list more broadly. It is such an interesting and sometimes frustrating list. I’ve seen many of these, especially the ones nearer the top. It’s a mix of unsurprising and deserving selections (“Spirited Away”, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, “No Country for Old Men”, “Children of Men”), little-known gems that I’m excited to see get this much recognition (“Holy Motors”, “25th Hour”_, “Margaret”_), unsurprising and UNdeserving picks that I already knew were critically overrated (“There Will Be Blood”, “Tree of Life”, “Boyhood”), and movies that were perfectly fine, but which I consider total WTF picks in a list like this (“Inside Llewyn Davis”, “Zodiac”, “Inside Out”). For comparison, here are my [top films of 2000-2009](http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?decade=2000&user=SlackerInc) and my [top picks from 2010-present](http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?decade=2010&user=SlackerInc) (Flickchart won’t, alas, let me sort by any date range other than a decade or a specific year). \*Both of these, as it happens, feature great performances from Anna Paquin in her “Lolita” stage. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/2 "2017-05-30T07:23:38Z")
Last time I checked, we still had 83 years and 7 months to go in this century. Calling this list the best of the 21 century seems somewhat presumptuous, denying that there will ever be any better films produced in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/3 "2017-05-30T07:33:04Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Last time I checked, we still had 83 years and 7 months to go in this century. Calling this list the best of the 21 century seems somewhat presumptuous, denying that there will ever be any better films produced in the future. The point the article was making was that people too often discount recent films as being inferior to the classics. So it was offering a list of great recent films. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/4 "2017-05-30T07:48:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The point the article was making was that people too often discount recent films as being inferior to the classics. So it was offering a list of great recent films. Yes, I absolutely applaud the effort. And there have been many such lists based on decades; to go for a 17 year span just makes it all the (potentially) richer. I’m just puzzled by some of the picks. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/5 "2017-05-30T07:54:55Z")
Have you seen _Inside Out_? It’s a beautiful coming of age film and it deserves to be on this list. I haven’t seen most of these films, but I’m thrilled to see so many Wes Anderson titles, and _Oldboy_ deserves to be there, but it just about fucked me up for life. ETA: Where the hell is _Kill Bill?_ ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/6 "2017-05-30T08:13:48Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Have you seen _Inside Out_? It’s a beautiful coming of age film and it deserves to be on this list. > > I haven’t seen most of these films, but I’m thrilled to see so many Wes Anderson titles, and _Oldboy_ deserves to be there, but it just about fucked me up for life. > > ETA: Where the hell is _Kill Bill?_ I did see _Inside Out_, and I expected a lot more than I got. I thought it was pretty thin. Not bad, just not great. Agree about Wes Anderson. _Oldboy_, I was eager to check out because I had really liked Park’s previous film, _Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance_. But I was seriously offended by the way he treated an attempted rape as a comedic moment in cinematic language (regardless of anything someone might argue about the characters themselves), so I turned off the film at that point. Definitely agree that it’s messed up for _Kill Bill_ to be missing, particularly when you have stuff like \*Zodiac \*high on the list. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/7 "2017-05-30T10:37:36Z")
My least favourite film from that list (and admittedly I haven’t seen many of the foreign and arthouse films from the list) is “Inherent Vice” which I found stilted and uninteresting. I got about 70% of the way through before deciding I had better things to do with my time. I think “Inside Out” certainly deserves to be on the list more than “Ratatouille” which was no great shakes (but naturally critics would love a movie about the joys of being a critic). “Oldboy” is an incredibly stupid film, but it has a few interesting moments. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/8 "2017-05-30T10:49:00Z")
Some of PT Anderson’s output I consider masterful (_Magnolia_ is one of my very favorite films), but yeah: _Inherent Vice_ is just mostly inert. I see recency bias there and with _Inside_ _Llewellyn Davis_. ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/9 "2017-05-30T12:40:54Z")
I’m not seeing much to explain what parameters they used for their choices. Film critiques have always been tricky and even problematic for me, because of a seemingly inescapable phenomenon of how people come to be hired AS critics. Quite simply, the amount of in depth knowledge they have about film making plays a part; the depth of passion that they bring to the whole experience of watching films plays a part; and the egotism needed to be decisive about bashing sensitive peoples’ efforts publicly plays a part. Too often, that adds up to the same thing I dislike about Oscar decisions: critics as a group, tend to choose “Filmy-films” to heap praise upon, to the extent that people watching them have to work VERY hard to understand why in the hell they chose as they did. I’m not JUST talking about how many popular films get short shrift for being popular. I’m talking about how experts often have so much interest in minutia of a craft, that they lose sight of the bigger picture, and end up chastising the rest of us for failing to do likewise. Anyway. I could go on for many boring pages about my problems with the critics and awards voting I’ve observed over the years, but this isn’t the place. As for this particular list, I can’t comment on the majority of the films because I haven’t seen them. The best I can do is say that I think there are better Miazaki films than Spirited Away in my opinion, though that one is very good. And I’m VERY glad that Frozen doesn’t appear anywhere on the list, since I found it to be boring in the extreme, and annoying for the same reasons why many critics praised it while it was in theaters. I’ll take a look at the OPs list later today. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/10 "2017-05-30T13:23:04Z")
I’m surprised by how few of these I’ve seen, and most of the ones I’ve seen are animated. Of those I’ve seen, the only one I strongly disagree with is _AI_. The message most people took away from the movie is very different from what’s actually there, which leads me to conclude that they didn’t communicate it very well. There are a number of others that didn’t make the list but should have, and some I can say should have been displaced in their favor. For instance, while _Ratatouille_ wasn’t bad, there are better Pixar movies, like _The Incredibles_. There are also some Best Picture winners which are conspicuously missing from that list. While some years are certainly better than others, you still wouldn’t expect an entire year out of 17 to be missing from a list of the top 103, which means that the creators of this list have very different standards than does the Academy. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/11 "2017-05-30T13:30:05Z")
I think I’d agree with that list more if it was inverted. Kept thinking all the better films were toward the rear of it, such as: \*\*Requiem for a Dream Amelie Brokeback Mountain Almost Famous Inside Out (waaaay too far back) \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/12 "2017-05-30T13:47:59Z")
I’m glad _The Lives of Others_ is on the list. I enjoyed it a lot, but I don’t know anyone else who’s seen it. I avoided _Zero Dark Thirty_ because I heard it made torture seem like an effective interrogation tool. Is it worth seeing? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/13 "2017-05-30T14:06:39Z")
I had to stop perusing the list once I saw \*Margaret \*at number 3. Holy crap. I hated that film so much I had to come here and post about it at the time. It actually, _actively_ pissed me off :mad: (I’m mostly kidding. That movie is a piece of dreck but most of the items on the list deserve to be there). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/14 "2017-05-30T16:45:31Z")
I’ve seen 24 of the movies on the list, and mostly agree with their picks (although I wanted to love _Ratatouille_ and just didn’t). Very sorry not to see _Limitless_ (Neil Burger, dir., 2011) on the list, though - a great what-if sf adventure and a tour de force for Bradley Cooper. He should have won an Oscar. > [@Sefton](#): > > …I avoided _Zero Dark Thirty_ because I heard it made torture seem like an effective interrogation tool. Is it worth seeing? I remember the controversy about that at the time, but yes, I would encourage you to see it. A gripping movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden; Jessica Chastain is very good in the lead role as a CIA analyst. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/15 "2017-05-30T16:48:24Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ve seen 24 of the movies on the list, and mostly agree with their picks (although I wanted to love _Ratatouille_ and just didn’t). Very sorry not to see _Limitless_ (Neil Burger, dir., 2011) on the list, though - a great what-if sf adventure and a tour de force for Bradley Cooper. He should have won an Oscar. Which reminds me - _Silver Linings Playbook_? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/16 "2017-05-30T17:00:38Z")
> [@igor\_frankensteen](#): > > Too often, that adds up to the same thing I dislike about Oscar decisions: critics as a group, tend to choose “Filmy-films” to heap praise upon, to the extent that people watching them have to work VERY hard to understand why in the hell they chose as they did. > > I’m not JUST talking about how many popular films get short shrift for being popular. I’m talking about how experts often have so much interest in minutia of a craft, that they lose sight of the bigger picture, and end up chastising the rest of us for failing to do likewise. I think sometimes it takes a while for critics to just relax about a film and appreciate it for its entertainment value. This is especially true for action movies and comedies. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/17 "2017-05-30T17:21:32Z")
Could have used more sci-fi. I just re-watched _Edge of Tomorrow_ (2014) last weekend and I’d put that movie in the top 100, easy. A few other sci-fi movies I’d nominate: _District 9_ (2009) _The Martian_ (2015) _Interstellar_ (2015) I’m sure I could come up with more after investigation. Some movies I didn’t love on the list: All the Wes Anderson stuff, Crouching Tiger, Ratatouille, The Assassination of Jesse James…, Dogville. _Ratatouille_ is probably the most egregious addition for me. I’d probably put Frozen, Brave and a few other Disney flicks above it. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/18 "2017-05-30T17:44:43Z")
The year 2000 is not in the 21st century. Not. Spring Breakers is on the list. Under the Skin is on the list. Two very diverse choices which are idiotic for different reasons. List is terrible. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/19 "2017-05-30T18:39:22Z")
Well, I’d consider the following films the most egregious oversights, since I consider them the best of their respective years: _Gerry_ (2002) _Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World_ (2003) _L’Enfant_ (2005) _Once_ (2007) _Man on Wire_ (2008) _Winter’s Bone_ (2010) _Upstream Color_ (2013) _Mustang_ (2015) My other choices rank at #1, 2, 6, 7, 13, 18, 36 and 95 (way, way too low) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706/20 "2017-05-30T20:10:00Z")
Best Picture winners that got left off: 2000 _Gladiator_ 2001 _A Beautiful Mind_ 2002 _Chicago_ 2003 _The Return of the King_ 2004 _Million Dollar Baby_ 2005 _Crash_ 2006 _The Departed_ 2008 _Slumdog Millionaire_ 2010 _The King’s Speech_ 2011 _The Artist_ 2012 _Argo_ 2014 _Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)_ 2016 _Moonlight_ Wow, I didn’t realize that the list would be that long. In fact, only four Oscar Best Picture winners _did_ make the list. Only one _nominee_ even shows up from 2000, 1 from 2001, 1 from 2002, 1 from 2003, none from 2004, 1 from 2005, none from 2006, and at that point I got bored and stopped counting. At this point, I think the makers of this list really need to explain their methodology. It’s almost like it’s a list of the top 100 underappreciated films, or something, except that they do have four Oscar winners on there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-the-films-177-critics-picked-as-the-best-of-the-2000s/787706.md?page=2)