NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Introduce yourself to the community or chat with other users about whatever is on your mind
djross
Posts: 1212
5318 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 12:56 am

NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by djross »

x
Last edited by djross on Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mentaculus
Posts: 215
3438 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2007 2:17 am

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by Mentaculus »

Actually not a bad list - I can see the purpose behind each (whether I personally agree or not, they are well-reasoned). I've also only seen about half - of these, I do disagree with A Touch of Sin. Though again, I see their thought process.

My quickie top 25 pulled from Criticker, sans shorts, and limiting myself to only one film by filmmaker (Miyazaki is apparently a serious offender) and/or major producing entity (e.g. Pixar). I'm not embarrassed by it, and there's even overlap (There Will Be Blood; I also overlap Spirited Away; I share Mulholland Drive with you, which seems like a glaring omission from the NYT list, if I indeed see where they're coming from; - as is Crouching Tiger, City of God, Cache and Children of Men - but I guess you can only have 25).

The Act of Killing (2012)
Brand Upon the Brain! (2006)
Children of Men (2006)
A Serious Man (2009)
Tôkyô sonata (2008)
Spirited Away (2001)
WALL·E (2008)
Let the Right One In (2008)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Dawn (2015)
The Fountain (2006)
Kotoko (2011)
The Proposition (2005)
The Witch (2016)
9 Souls (2003)
The Illusionist (2010)
Secret Sunshine (2007)
Silence (2016)
Caché (2005)
City of God (2003)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)

VinegarBob
Posts: 775
4158 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:54 am

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by VinegarBob »

djross wrote:Their choices are as follows:

    1. There Will Be Blood
    2. Spirited Away
    3. Million Dollar Baby
    4. A Touch of Sin
    5. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
    6. Yi Yi
    7. Inside Out
    8. Boyhood
    9. Summer Hours
    10. The Hurt Locker
    11. Inside Llewyn Davis
    12. Timbuktu
    13. In Jackson Heights
    14. L’Enfant
    15. White Material
    16. Munich
    17. Three Times
    18. The Gleaners and I
    19. Mad Max: Fury Road
    20. Moonlight
    21. Wendy and Lucy
    22. I’m Not There
    23. Silent Light
    24. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
    25. The 40-Year-Old Virgin


What a strange list.

CosmicMonkey
Posts: 594
1271 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:52 pm

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by CosmicMonkey »

So I challenged myself to make a list of what I thought were the 25 best/most important films of the century (also excluding documentaries). And it ended being really hard to narrow it down to 25, but I somehow managed.

    12 Years a Slave (2013)
    4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
    A Prophet (2009)
    A Separation (2011)
    Amour (2012)
    Boyhood (2014)
    Brokeback Mountain (2005)
    City of God (2002)
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
    The Dark Knight (2008)
    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
    The Hurt Locker (2008)
    In the Mood for Love (2000)
    Inside Out (2015)
    Lost in Translation (2003)
    Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
    Moonlight (2016)
    Mulholland Drive (2001)
    No Country for Old Men (2007)
    Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
    Sideways (2004)
    The Social Network (2010)
    Spirited Away (2001)
    WALL·E (2008)
    Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

I currently have 7 films overlapping with the NYT's list. 5 with Mentaculus's and just 1 with Djross's. The 1 film that shows up on all three of our lists is Mulholland Drive, which fails to make an apperance on the NYT's list, and I think can well be around be regarded as a very unfortunate and undeserved omission.
Last edited by CosmicMonkey on Sat Jun 10, 2017 6:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.

djross
Posts: 1212
5318 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 12:56 am

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by djross »

x
Last edited by djross on Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

iconogassed
Posts: 919
7281 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:41 pm

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by iconogassed »

Seen 18 of the NYT list. The only one I actively dislike is Boyhood. I can't really see how it's "strange" beyond the predictable attempt at diversity by including gross-out comedy, kids' movies, and Best Picture winners alongside (safe) arthouse choices.

Here's mine (not deliberately "tiered", I just think it reads easier this way if unnumbered). Only shared film is Mulholland Drive (thread high-five!) but I have alternate films by Denis, Anderson, Spielberg, and the Dardennes.

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Mekas, 2000)
The Wayward Cloud (Tsai, 2005)
The Skin I Live In (Almodóvar, 2011)
A Master Builder (Demme, 2014)
Two Lovers (Gray, 2008)

Spring Breakers (Korine, 2013)
La vie nouvelle (Grandrieux, 2002)
Computer Chess (Bujalski, 2013)
Happy-Go-Lucky (Leigh, 2008)
Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)

Trouble Every Day (Denis, 2001)
Experimenter (Almereyda, 2015)
We Are the Best! (Moodysson, 2014)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001)
Maps to the Stars (Cronenberg, 2014)

My Winnipeg (Maddin, 2007)
Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)
Los Angeles Plays Itself (Andersen, 2003)
The Son (Dardennes, 2002)
Margaret (Lonergan, 2005/11)

Memories of Murder (Bong, 2003)
Weekend (Haigh, 2011)
Dream Work (Tscherkassky, 2002, sh)
Marseille (Schanelec, 2004)
Femme Fatale (De Palma, 2002)

3dRevelation
Posts: 515
1164 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:46 am

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by 3dRevelation »

I've seen 7 films from the NYT list (3 of which are on mine: There Will Be Blood, The Hurt Locker, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). I agree wholeheartedly with the placement of TWBB as the number 1 film as I haven't seen a film from this century that I consider better. I'm the first to not include Mulholland Drive on my list. I've seen and like it, but not quite enough to place it on my top 25. Here it is (ranked in order, but maybe not etched in stone):

1. There Will Be Blood
2. A History of Violence
3. Requiem for a Dream
4. The Departed
5. Lord of the Rings (I'm cheating by counting the trilogy as one entry, it's spot earned by being where I would put my favorite of the three at)
6. The Dark Knight
7. Pan's Labyrinth
8. The Fountain
9. Donnie Darko
10. Mystic River
11. Inception
12. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
13. House of Sand and Fog
14. The Prestige
15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
16. Black Swan
17. Inglourious Basterds
18. 21 Grams
19. Elephant
20. The Hurt Locker
21. The Wrestler
22. No County for Old Men
23. Adaptation
24. Babel
25. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

It's interesting to compare these to the BBC poll of 177 critics that was released last year (http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/201608 ... -who-voted). Each of the critics polled picked a top 10. Of the films on my list only The Fountain, House of Sand and Fog, and 21 Grams do not appear on any of the 177 top 10s. So those three must just be my personal taste, although Mentaculus also included The Fountain. Several appear only on 1 list, but there were some surprises like finding Elephant on 6 of the 177 lists.

Peter Travers is one of my favorite critics, and I find myself agreeing with him often, but I find it interesting that in his top 10 for BBC, he ranked Mulholland Drive number 1 and There Will Be Blood 2. His previous Top 10 of the decade of the 2000s published in Rolling Stone had There Will Be Blood at 1 and Mulholland Drive at 3 (behind Children of Men at 2). He also had No Country for Old Men rated 3 in the BBC poll, but had in 5 on his top 10 of the 2000s on Rolling Stone. His 4th favorite film of the 2000s listed on Rolling Stone was A History of Violence, which curiously doesn't make his top 10 in the BBC. Just goes to show that years from now my feeling might change.

paulofilmo
Posts: 2586
2428 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 3:40 pm

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by paulofilmo »

my trouble with this is that i stopped enjoying things in about 2005 :D

probably why i don't write for the new york times. probably

VinegarBob
Posts: 775
4158 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:54 am

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by VinegarBob »

I can see why Mulholland Drive tops so many best of lists. It seems to be one of those films that although it may not be the top pick its near the top for a lot of people. It's on my top 25 too, although Inland Empire is higher. Nice to see There Will Be Blood getting it's due. It's been my favourite film since I saw it in the cinema on release. At this point it's hard to imagine another film knocking it off it's perch. They just don't make them like that much anymore.

There Will Be Blood (2007)
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
The White Ribbon (2009)

Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
The Hunt (2012)
Inland Empire (2006)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Poetry (2010)
A Separation (2011)
Saraband (2003)
Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
The Sunset Limited (2011)
Ten (2002)
The Turin Horse (2011)
Winter Sleep (2014)
Yi Yi (2000)

Casino Royale (2006)
Il Divo (2008)
Downfall (2004)
Irreversible (2002)
The Man Without a Past (2002)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Oldboy (2003)
Our Sunhi (2013)
Peppermint Candy (2000)

AFlickering
Posts: 641
2994 Ratings
Your TCI: na
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:15 pm

Re: NYT Top 25 of the 21st Century

Post by AFlickering »

boyhood and million dollar baby are the worst things there. maybe munich too although i need to rewatch that.

mine, in chronological order and one per director:
george washington (green, 2000)

mulholland drive (lynch, 2001)
the royal tenenbaums (w. anderson, 2001)
the man who wasn't there (coen bros., 2001)

the son (dardennes, 2002)
morvern callar (ramsay, 2002)

dogville (von trier, 2003)
memories of murder (bong, 2003)

keane (kerrigan, 2004)
mysterious skin (araki, 2004)

miami vice (mann, 2006)

there will be blood (p. t. anderson, 2007)
the assassination of jesse james... (dominik, 2007)

synecdoche new york (kaufman, 2008)
love exposure (sono, 2008)

two lovers (gray, 2009)
where the wild things are (jonze, 2009)

certified copy (kiarostami, 2010)
into eternity (madsen, 2010)

margaret (lonergan, 2011)
tinker tailor soldier spy (alfredson, 2011)

cosmopolis (cronenberg, 2012)
romancing in thin air (to, 2012)
tabu (gomes, 2012)

a field in england (wheatley, 2013)

--------------------------------------------

alternatively could've picked MY WINNIPEG, TALK TO HER, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON, THE NEW WORLD, OBSERVE AND REPORT, THE COLOR WHEEL, OSLO AUGUST 31, THE ACT OF KILLING, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, THE UNSPEAKABLE ACT, TWIXT etc. also hong sang-soo's whole 21st century filmography should be allowed as one entry.

current 10th tier PSIs (well known-very popular) that i haven't seen are AS I WAS MOVING AHEAD OCCASIONALLY..., TIE XI QU: WEST OF THE TRACKS, WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?, IN VANDA'S ROOM, SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY, DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP, TOUTES LES NUITS.

Post Reply