Here they are: the finest films of the 21st Century so far, as voted for by 177 critics from around the world. Topped by a surreal Hollywood neo-noir that was intended as a pilot for a television series, the top 10 includes a Japanese cartoon about a girl who works in a bath house for monsters (Spirited Away: number four on the list), a plotless overview of a Texan boy’s adolescence (Boyhood: five), a chaste love story spanning several years in 1960s Hong Kong (In the Mood for Love: two), and a melancholy romantic comedy involving a memory-erasing machine (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: six).
BBC Culture being an English-language site, there is an inevitable bias: even the most well-travelled festival hound is bound to see more releases in their own language than any other. But it is still a phenomenally diverse and international assortment, with a groundbreaking documentary about the Indonesian genocide (The Act of Killing: 14) sitting next to a Romanian abortion drama (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days: 15), and a fantasy about a fairy underworld in Francoist Spain (Pan’s Labyrinth: 17) sitting next to a genre-hopping French oddity, which features Kylie Minogue and some talking cars (Holy Motors: 16). Cartoons aside, there isn’t much in the list’s upper reaches that could be classed as mainstream entertainment.
What conclusions can we draw? One might be that Steven Soderbergh and Yorgos Lanthimos aren’t the critical darlings you might have thought. Another could be that there really should be more films directed by women in the world. But the cornucopia of remarkable, innovative films on the list also suggests that cinema is in far ruder health than we’re often led to believe.
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The 21st Century’s 100 Greatest Movies.
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