Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

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BleuPanda
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Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by BleuPanda »

I figure we're going to continue into the 2000s starting next month; not sure who will host, but this is probably the time to figure that out.

I want to start off with a new request, however - let's kick things off with our own personal favorites from each year that did not make the top 15 of their poll year last time around. Limit yourself to just one per year - the idea here is that we can have a working watchlist for those interested. No one is bound to anything, obviously, but I think this would be a good way of helping each other's lesser known favorites have a better chance of placing during the qualifying round.

Among those ten you choose, go ahead and bold your three favorites. It's unlikely anyone gets around to too many of these, but highlighting the best of the best will offer a manageable selection. Short write-ups on why people should watch your selected films will likely help - again, no one is bound to anything, so think of this as a sales pitch for your personal favorites. Maybe whoever runs the poll can include our choices near the beginning of each thread.

Here is the list of movies that made the top 15 of each year last cycle, so don't mention any of these (and maybe check out those below that you haven't yet, whatever)

2000:
1. (1) Memento (Christopher Nolan) 310 points, 10 votes, 3 #1 votes
2. (3) Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier) 266 points, 10 votes, 1 #1 votes
3. (6)* 花樣年華 [In the Mood for Love] (Wong Kar-wai) 238 points, 9 votes, 2 #1 votes
4. (4)* Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky) 205 points, 8 votes, 0 #1 votes
5. (9) 一一 [Yi Yi: A One and a Two] (Edward Yang) 180 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 votes
6. (2) Amores Perros [Love's a Bitch] (Alejandro González Iñárritu) 176 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 votes
7. (5)* O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel & Ethan Coen) 174 points, 10 votes, 1 #1 votes
8. (8) Traffic (Steven Soderbergh) 173 points, 8 votes, 0 #1 votes
9. (15) Werckmeister harmóniák [Werckmeister Harmonies] (Béla Tarr) 154 points, 6 votes, 1 #1 votes
10. (11)* 臥虎藏龍 [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] (Ang Lee) 144 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 votes
11. (13) Snatch. (Guy Ritchie) 128 points, 6 votes, 0 #1 votes
12. (16) Gladiator (Ridley Scott) 110 points, 7 votes, 0 #1 votes
13. (10)* High Fidelity (Stephen Frears) 92 points, 9 votes, 0 #1 votes
14. (12)* Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe) 85 points, 5 votes, 0 #1 votes
15. (--) American Psycho (Mary Harron) 82 points, 4 votes, 0 #1 votes

2001:
1. (1) Mulholland Dr. - David Lynch 419 points 13 votes 5 #1 votes
2. (2) Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain [Amélie] - Jean-Pierre Jeunet 341 points 12 votes 1 #1 vote
3. (5) 千と千尋の神隠し [Spirited Away] - Hayao Miyazaki 308 points 9 votes 4 #1 votes
4. (4) Donnie Darko - Richard Kelly 243 points 11 votes 0 #1 votes
5. (6) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Peter Jackson 191 points 6 votes 0 #1 votes
6. (22) The Others - Alejandro Amenabar 149 points 9 votes 1 #1 vote
7. (9) The Royal Tenenbaums - Wes Anderson 141 points 7 votes 0 #1 votes
8. (35) Monsters, Inc - Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, David Silverman 132 points 9 votes 0 #1 votes
9. (35) Waking Life - Richard Linklater 126 points 6 votes 0 #1 votes
10. (8) A.I. Artificial Intelligence - Steven Spielberg 120 points 6 votes 1 #1 vote
11. (11) La Pianiste [The Piano Teacher] - Michael Haneke 100 points 5 votes 0 #1 votes
12. (12) A Beautiful Mind - Ron Howard 91 points 9 votes 0 #1 votes
13. (3) Ghost World - Terry Zwigoff 89 points 5 votes 0 #1 votes
14. (15) In the Bedroom - Todd Field 87 points 5 votes 0 #1 votes
15. (10) The Man Who Wasn't There - Joel and Ethan Coen 86 points 6 votes 0 #1 votes

2002:
1 . (1) Cidade de Deus [City of God] (Fernando Meirelles) , 383 points , 11 votes , 3 #1 votes
2 . (6) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson) , 268 points , 8 votes , 3 #1 votes
3 . (5) Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes) , 181 points , 8 votes , 1 #1 vote
4 . (2) Hable con ella [Talk to Her] (Pedro Almodovar) , 180 points , 8 votes , 1 #1 vote
5 . (7) 25th Hour (Spike Lee) , 158 points , 6 votes , 1 #1 vote
6 . (4) Adaptation. (Spike Jonze) , 147 points , 8 votes , 0 #1 votes
7 . (9) Minority Report (Steven Spielberg) , 145 points , 9 votes , 1 #1 vote
8 . (3) The Pianist (Roman Polanski) , 143 points , 7 votes , 0 #1 votes
9 . (20) 英雄 [Hero] (Yimou Zhang) , 136 points , 5 votes , 2 #1 votes
10 . (11) Le fils [The Son] (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne) , 113 points , 5 votes , 0 #1 votes
11 . (16) Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg) , 110 points , 5 votes , 0 #1 votes
12 . (51) Русский ковчег [Russian Ark] (Aleksandr Sokurov) , 106 points , 5 votes , 0 #1 votes
12 . (10) Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson) , 106 points , 7 votes , 0 #1 votes
14 . (8) The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman) , 91 points , 5 votes , 0 #1 votes
15 . (33) Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore) , 88 points , 6 votes , 0 #1 votes

2003:
1. (6) Dogville (Lars von Trier), 315 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 vote
2. (2) Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino), 255 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote
3. (1) Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola), 239 points, 12 votes, 0 #1 votes
4. (13) Oldboy (Chan-wook Park), 234 points, 6 votes, 3 #1 votes
5. (3) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson), 221 points, 7 votes, 1 #1 vote
6. (9) 봄여름가을겨울그리고봄 [Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring] (Kim Ki-duk), 186 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote
7. (5) La Meglio Gioventú [The Best of Youth] (Marco Tullio Giordana), 172 points, 5 votes, 2 #1 votes
8. (25) Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich), 153 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 vote
9. (82) 살인의 추억 [Memories of Murder] (Bong Joon-ho), 139 points, 8 votes, 0 #1 votes
9. (4) Mystic River (Clint Eastwood), 139 points, 8 votes, 0 #1 votes
11. (8) 21 Grams (Alejandro González Iñárritu), 134 points, 7 votes, 2 #1 votes
12. (14) Big Fish (Tim Burton), 106 points, 9 votes, 0 #1 votes
13. (11) Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki), 100 points, 5 votes, 0 #1 votes
14. (10) American Splendor (Shari Springer Berman / Robert Pulcini), 99 points, 5 votes, 0 #1 votes
14. (12) Les triplettes de Belleville [The Triplets of Belleville] (Sylvain Chomet), 99 points, 6 votes, 0 #1 votes

2004:
1. (1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry), 470 points, 12 votes, 7 #1 votes
2. (8) The Incredibles (Brad Bird), 196 points, 10 votes, 0 #1 votes
3. (14) ハウルの動く城 [Howl's Moving Castle] (Hayao Miyazaki), 195 points, 7 votes, 2 #1 votes
4. (4) Before Sunset (Richard Linklater), 177 points, 8 votes, 0 #1 votes
5. (5) Der Untergang [Downfall] (Oliver Hirschbiegel), 174 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote
6. (6) Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino), 170 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote
7. (16) Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright), 159 points, 7 votes, 0 #1 votes
8. (3) Sideways (Alexander Payne), 155 points, 9 votes, 0 #1 votes
9. (2) 빈집 [3-Iron] (Kim Ki-duk), 143 points, 5 votes, 0 #1 votes
10. (9) Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood), 123 points, 7 votes, 0 #1 votes
10. (46) Collateral (Michael Mann), 123 points, 6 votes, 1 #1 vote
12. (21) 誰も知らない [Nobody Knows] (Hirokazu Koreeda), 88 points, 5 votes, 0 #1 votes
13. (32) Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki), 85 points, 4 votes, 0 #1 votes
14. (29) Vera Drake (Mike Leigh), 73 points, 4 votes, 0 #1 votes
15. (17) สัตว์ประหลาด [Tropical Malady] (Apichatpong Weerasethakul), 70 points, 2 votes, 0 #1 votes

2005:
1. (10) Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog), 230 points, 6 votes, 2 #1 votes
2. (1) Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee), 221 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 vote
3. (2) A History of Violence (David Cronenberg), 206 points, 9 votes, 0 #1 votes
4. (5) V for Vendetta (James McTeigue), 177 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 vote
5. (20) Caché [Hidden] (Michael Haneke), 174 points, 6 votes, 2 #1 votes
6. (23) Match Point (Woody Allen), 172 points, 5 votes, 2 #1 votes
7. (21) Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan), 151 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote
8. (7) Sin City (Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez), 135 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote
9. (14) The New World (Terrence Malick), 130 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
10. (9) L'Enfant (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne), 114 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
11. (25) Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Nick Park / Steve Box), 107 points, 6 votes, 0 #1 votes
12. (--) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black), 95 points, 4 votes, 0 #1 votes
13. (3) The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach), 90 points, 3 votes, 0 #1 votes
14. (17) Serenity (Joss Whedon), 82 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
15. (8) The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles), 79 points, 5 votes, 0 #1 votes

2006:
1. (2) Das Leben der Anderen [The Lives of Others] (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck), 296 points, 9 votes , 4 #1 votes
2. (1) El laberinto del fauno [Pan's Labyrinth] (Guillermo del Toro), 285 points, 9 votes , 3 #1 votes
3. (5) The Departed (Martin Scorsese), 252 points, 9 votes , 1 #1 vote
4. (4) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón), 224 points, 9 votes , 0 #1 votes
5. (15) The Prestige (Christopher Nolan), 165 points, 12 votes , 0 #1 votes
6. (3) Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris), 164 points, 10 votes , 0 #1 votes
7. (6) Inside Man (Spike Lee), 127 points, 7 votes , 1 #1 vote
8. (11) The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky), 116 points, 4 votes , 1 #1 vote
9. (16) Inland Empire (David Lynch), 112 points, 6 votes , 0 #1 votes
10. (35) Casino Royale (Martin Campbell), 108 points, 6 votes , 0 #1 votes
11. (9) Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu), 88 points, 5 votes , 0 #1 votes
12. (32) Rescue Dawn (Werner Herzog), 87 points, 5 votes , 0 #1 votes
13. (--) La Tourneuse de pages [The Page Turner] (Denis Dercourt), 85 points, 2 votes , 1 #1 vote
14. (13) This Is England (Shane Meadows), 84 points, 4 votes , 0 #1 votes
15. (63) Little Children (Todd Field), 77 points, 3 votes , 0 #1 votes

2007:
1. (1) No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen), 374 points, 11 votes , 3 #1 votes
2. (2) There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson), 338 points, 11 votes , 3 #1 votes
3. (4) Zodiac (David Fincher), 209 points, 11 votes , 1 #1 vote
4. (14) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik), 196 points, 8 votes , 1 #1 vote
5. (11) Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright), 174 points, 7 votes , 1 #1 vote
6. (7) 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile [4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days] (Cristian Mungiu), 168 points, 7 votes , 1 #1 vote
7. (3) Le scaphandre et le papillon [The Diving Bell and the Butterfly] (Julian Schnabel), 163 points, 6 votes , 0 #1 votes
8. (21) Into the Wild (Sean Penn), 141 points, 7 votes , 1 #1 vote
9. (12) Ratatouille (Brad Bird), 127 points, 6 votes , 0 #1 votes
10. (--) La habitación de Fermat [Fermat’s Room] (Luis Piedrahita & Rodrigo Sopeña), 85 points, 2 votes , 1 #1 vote
11. (6) Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi), 84 points, 5 votes , 0 #1 votes
12. (10) I'm Not There (Todd Haynes), 83 points, 4 votes , 0 #1 votes
13. (79) Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet), 82 points, 7 votes , 0 #1 votes
14. (42) 色,戒 [Lust, Caution] (Ang Lee), 72 points, 4 votes , 1 #1 vote
15. (5) Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg), 68 points, 6 votes , 0 #1 votes

2008:
1. (3) WALL•E (Andrew Stanton), 339 points, 10 votes , 3 #1 votes
2. (6) The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan), 281 points, 9 votes , 0 #1 votes
3. (1) ואלס עם באשיר [Waltz With Bashir] (Ari Folman), 235 points, 8 votes , 1 #1 vote
4. (60) Hunger (Steve McQueen), 180 points, 8 votes , 2 #1 votes
4. (5) The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky), 180 points, 7 votes , 1 #1 vote
6. (32) In Bruges (Martin McDonagh), 175 points, 9 votes , 0 #1 votes
7. (4) Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In] (Tomas Alfredson), 163 points, 6 votes , 1 #1 vote
8. (7) Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood), 145 points, 7 votes , 0 #1 votes
9. (12) Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman), 137 points, 7 votes , 0 #1 votes
10. (18) Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes), 112 points, 9 votes , 0 #1 votes
10. (8) The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow), 112 points, 5 votes , 1 #1 vote
12. (10) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher), 108 points, 6 votes , 1 #1 vote
13. (2) Entre les murs [The Class] (Laurent Cantet), 104 points, 5 votes , 0 #1 votes
14. (11) Burn After Reading (Joel & Ethan Coen), 89 points, 8 votes , 0 #1 votes
15. (9) Gomorra [Gomorrah] (Matteo Garrone), 82 points, 3 votes , 0 #1 votes

2009:
1. (2) Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino (USA / Germany), 302 points, 9 votes , 2 #1 votes
2. (5) Up (Pete Docter & Bob Peterson), 267 points, 12 votes , 0 #1 votes
3. (10) Mary and Max (Adam Elliot), 227 points, 9 votes , 1 #1 vote
4. (7) Das Weisse Band - Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte (Michael Haneke), 182 points, 7 votes , 1 #1 vote
5. (11) Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson), 176 points, 7 votes , 2 #1 votes
6. (4) District 9 (Neill Blomkamp), 171 points, 9 votes , 0 #1 votes
7. (8) Moon (Duncan Jones), 152 points, 8 votes , 0 #1 votes
8. (1) A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen), 137 points, 8 votes , 0 #1 votes
9. (9) El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) (Juan José Campanella), 124 points, 5 votes , 2 #1 votes
10. (3) Un prophète [A Prophet] (Jacques Audiard), 114 points, 5 votes , 1 #1 vote
11. (6) (500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb), 112 points, 6 votes , 0 #1 votes
12. (15) Adventureland (Greg Mottola), 98 points, 3 votes , 1 #1 vote
13. (65) Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold), 95 points, 3 votes , 1 #1 vote
14. (30) Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer), 78 points, 4 votes , 0 #1 votes
15. (18) Up in the Air (Jason Reitman), 77 points, 6 votes , 0 #1 votes
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BleuPanda
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by BleuPanda »

I figure I should start so people get a better idea of what I'm imagining.

2000: The Gleaners and I - Agnes Varda's documentary on those who live off what they find; what sounds like a simple premise is elevated by Varda's charm and ability to connect this idea back to her own experiences.

2001: Millennium Actress - One of the greatest animated films ever made. A mesmerizing, almost dizzying reflection on a retired actress's life, expertly blurring the line between her life, her films, and the myth of her career. From director Satoshi Kon of Perfect Blue and Paprika fame, though I think this is his true masterpiece.

2002: Oasis - Two of my choices are from the same director, Lee Chang-dong, who became better known after Burning made waves in 2018. His pre-Burning films are completely different beasts, with Oasis focusing on two societal outcasts and their sometimes uncomfortable relationship. It's about as devastating as a romance film can be.

2003: Goodbye, Dragon Inn - One of the key works in the slow cinema movement. One of my favorite memories is when a housemate came home and chatted for about five minutes before telling me I didn't need to pause my movie - I hadn't. It's one of those films that feels almost unbearable while being experienced but might haunt you for years.

2004: The World - Another slow cinema film, this one about disillusioned workers at an amusement park attempting to offer a gateway to the entire world. Captures the overwhelming nature of modern culture like few others.

2005: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - The third movie in Park Chan-wook's revenge trilogy, following Oldboy. In a way, this final piece feels like a deconstruction of the first two.

2006: Still Life - From the same director as The World. If The World is looking to a future crowding itself out, Still Life is a view of the past being literally drowned out.

2007: Secret Sunshine - Perhaps the most devastating film I know about the grieving process, from the director of Burning. A woman moves to her dead husband's hometown only for further tragedy to strike. An unflinching portrait of a woman spiralling down and all the stumbles along her way to recovery.

2008: Uhh...

2009: Dogtooth - Yorgos Lanthimos's completely batshit breakthrough. A family raises their children in complete isolation from the outside world. The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer really can't prepare you for this one.
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by Humphrey1 »

As spokesperson for all the Humphreys obviously:

2000: As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Jonas Mekas)

Not a trolling choice though in all honesty, taking this entire monstrosity in one sitting is somewhat tedious. After it had ended we all felt deeply happy, not because it was finally over, but because that's what looking at the unfiltered life of a beautiful human being for well over six hours does to you.

2001: What Time Is It There? (Tsai Ming-Liang)

Tsai's films are always deeply human and recommended for people who are not appalled when nothing much happens in a movie. The premise alone is a very beautiful little idea and executed by Tsai to perfection. Not even our favorite of his but somehow this forum already selected all the other best ones from 2001.

2002: 28 Days Later... (Danny Boyle)

Boyle's undisputed masterpiece and the best zombie film we had the pleasure to watch so far. Its fusing a standard zombie theme with environmental issues and beautiful nature scenery is so obvious and yet so deeply original that it absolutely earns its place in film history as the worthy reviver of the previously long undead zombie film.

2003: The Saddest Music in the World (Guy Maddin)

Again not our favorite by the director but the first we had the plasure of watching and Maddin's deeply original film language immediately drew us into its aura.

2004: The Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles)

Very worthwhile, in style almost docudrama-like look into the early life of Che Guevara. Not recommended as a means to gain insight into who Guevara actually was (as biopics never are) but simply as a beautiful little film. (Little as in indie, not lengthwise.)

2005: Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel)

Garrel is a weird filmmaker though this film is actually rather accessible. It's an intriguing mesh of an historical context with a, well, regular love story but somehow feels like a remake of The Mother and the Whore from time to time. We guess it has to be seen to be appreciated (which seems to somehow be the case with many movies).

2006: Offside (Jafar Panahi)

Among the cutest little films ever although the societal background obviously is very uncute, especially when viewed against the revolution currently taking place.

2007: My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)

What a film! We rarely had such a good time watching anything. In this semi-documentary look at his own growing up, Maddin has made a deeply political picture for the ages. Recommended without reservation.

2008: Horton Hears a Who! (Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino)

Sorry guys, you had all the good ones. And the meh ones, too. Even though this is indeed the best Dr. Seuss film we're familiar with and was a whacky enough joyride.

2009: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam)

Yeah, I guess we're just not that well-versed in late 2000s cinema. In all honesty, Imaginarium is a deeply original film (as should be expected from Gilliam), a rare chance to see Tom Waits impersonate good old Lucifer himself, and a worthy final curtain call for the late great Heath Ledger. Recommended for people who can take Gilliam's later work and we do hate "Brothers Grimm" with a passion.
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by Humphrey1 »

BleuPanda wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 6:18 am2000: The Gleaners and I - Agnes Varda's documentary on those who live off what they find; what sounds like a simple premise is elevated by Varda's charm and ability to connect this idea back to her own experiences.
We wholeheartedly second this rec, an honor of which it is much more worthy than "Horton Hears a Who!" In your face, capitalism!
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by Humphrey1 »

BleuPanda wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 6:18 am2008: Uhh...
Cheater!
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Schüttelbirne
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by Schüttelbirne »

Spontaneous suggestions:

Sånger från andra våningen [Songs from the Second Floor] (Roy Andersson, Sweden/France/Denmark/Norway/Germany 2000)
A series of individual vignettes, filled with absurdist humor and very true to life. Almost of them done in single well-composed shots.

Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, Australia/USA 2001)
Everything a musical should be. Blown-up, over the top and stuffed to the brim with visual and musical ideas.

ᐊᑕᓈᕐᔪᐊᑦ [Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner] (Zacharias Kunuk, Canada 2001)
If you can get over the three-hour runtime you're rewarded with a beautiful look into Inuit legend.

Gerry (Gus Van Sant, USA 2002)
Very slow and simple (at first glance), but it drew me in completely.

Teknolust (Lynn Hershman-Leeson, USA/Germany/UK 2002)
So wonderfully weird and funny. Tilda Swinton stars as an inventor who has made copies of herself: One dressed in red, one in blue and one in green. To survive they need male DNA, meaning they go out at night and come back to cook sperm tea. The story is a bit anticlimactic, but there's so many delightful ideas here that it doesn't really matter to me.

The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, France/UK/Italy 2003)
Don't really know what to write about this, maybe I'll edit later.

Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei [The Edukators] (Hans Weingartner, Germany/Austria 2004)
Charged film about political activism, focused on the characters.

The Descent (Neil Marshall, UK 2005)
One of the best horror films of its time. Few films have ever felt as claustrophobic.

괴물 [The Host] (Bong Joon-ho, South Korea/Japan 2006)
I know everybody likes Parasite, but I think this is Bong's real masterpiece. A unique turn on monster movies and a pretty intense drama at the same time.

El orfanato [The Orphanage] (Juan Antonio Bayona, Spain/France 2007)
If you thought the "first" ending of The Ring is better than the second, you might enjoy this fine horror film.

Auf der anderen Seite [The Edge of Heaven] (Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey 2007)
Not everything Akin does is great, but this tale of death and forgiveness might be his best.

崖の上のポニョ [Ponyo] (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan/USA 2008)
Less stakes than a lot Miyazaki's other works but some of his best animation.

Revanche (Götz Spielmann, Austria 2008)
A humanist spin on the classic revenge tale.

박쥐 [Thirst] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea 2009)
It's been too long since I've seen this, but I remember being incredibly impressed. I love the concept of vampires, but I dislike a lot of vampire films. This is one of my favorites.
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by Greg »

may add comments later if I can find time

2000: No quarto da vanda (In Vanda's Room) | Pedro Costa (Portugal) (also Shinji Aoyama's Eureka. RIP Aoyama)
2001: Taurus | Aleksandr Sokurov (Russia) (I also second the Humphreys' vote for What Time Is It There?)
2002: Al primo soffio di vento (At the First Breath of Wind) | Franco Piavoli (Italy)
2003: All the Real Girls | David Gordon Green (U.S.)
2004: The Taste of Tea | Katsuhito Ishii (Japan) (I also second Bleupanda's vote for The World)
2005: The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes | Stephen & Timothy Quay (U.S.)
2006: Ten Canoes | Rolf de Heer (Australia) (I also second Bleupanda's vote for Still Life and would mention yet another great Tsai movie, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone)
2007: Stellet Licht (Silent Light) | Carlos Reygadas (Mexico)
2008: Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys) | Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey) (also So Yong Kim's Treeless Mountain)
2009: Agrarian Utopia | Uruphong Raksasad (Thailand) (this might be difficult to find so I'll also mention Lucien Castaing-Taylor's Sweetgrass, which is in some ways similar)
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by BleuPanda »

I'll also give a backing shout out to As I Was Moving Ahead and especially My Winnipeg - I actually prefer My Winnipeg to Secret Sunshine but felt like Secret Sunshine is more likely to find more love here.
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by Le Jeune Rylan »

2000 | 苏州河 (Suzhou River) | Lou Ye
It's regretful that lots of viewers just dismissed this film as a bland Wong Kar-Wai knockoff, however, I think Lou's sensitive image, which is also filled with handheld shots of an Asian metropolis, is much more realistic and more in line with the bottom society than WKW's petty bourgeois and delicate one. Moreover, its nested narrative also cleverly uses the alienation effect to reveal the greediness behind the brutally grown of this city (or the entire country): The love story between Mardar and Mudan may be too romantic for a realistic film, but it doesn't matter - what really matters is whether the audience like "me" (the narrator of this film) still buy into it. Sadly, in a utilitarian world, no one believes in mermaid legends anymore.

2001 | 수취인불명 (Address Unknown) | Kim Ki-duk
Castration anxiety is one of the most important themes in Kim's films. This time he transplanted this anxiety into the sad history of Korea, which was threatened by the different ideologies and semi-colonized by the U.S. after the civil war, and revealed how this pathological social atmosphere poisons one and another generation. Although Kim's multi-thread narrative full of homogenous metaphors is a little bit lumbering, it's still impressive.

2002 | 복수는 나의 것 (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) | Park Chan-wook
I always think the essence of The Vengeance Trilogy is "anti-vengeance", and I regard the first installment, the least unknown one as the best one, which makes a balance between form and content compared to the flashy latter two: This time, Park's exaggerated shots and perverted plots were made for disintegrating the morality and exhilaration of vengeance endowed by traditional ethics, instead of just showing off and detaching with its social reality.

2003 | Elephant | Gus Van Sant
Witness the birth of an inhuman tragedy in still water with one after another lengthy and suffocating long shots.
(The funny thing is, sometimes I'm so moved by a film emotionally that I don't know how to describe or evaluate this feeling in words rationally.)

2004 | 功夫 (Kung Fu Hustle) | Stephen Chow
I believe it's one of the most important Hong Kong films since the Millenium. It pushes the two most important characteristics of HK films, "all too extravagant, too gratuitously wild" and caring for the grassroots people to the extreme. Behind its crazy comedy and fantasy form, it still left threads for the demise of the martial arts spirit and the powerlessness of the bottom to control their own destiny, which makes it achieve full coverage from the cultural elite to the general public at the audience level.

2005 | Corpse Bride | Tim Burton, Mike Johnson
An excellent black fairy tale. Ironically, the world belonging to the living is lifeless and full of calculations and barriers, while the underworld is filled with colorful warmth and happiness.

2006 | パプリカ (Paprika) | Satoshi Kon
Not that good actually in my opinion - sometimes Satoshi's story goes so far that even he couldn't get it back, but it's still extremely imaginative.

2007 | La Graine et le Mulet (The Secret of the Grain) | Abdellatif Kechiche
Through the anxious handheld shots and noisy dialogue, through the magnifying of those boring and tortured moments in life, the audience can sensually experience the absurdity and hardship of existence as these bottom immigrants in the film. This is the first time I realized that a film can be used to convey a sense of compulsion and exhaustion to the audience through an information bombardment, regardless of whether the audience understands the information or not.v

2008 | 耳朵大有福 (Lucky Dog) | Zhang Meng
A black comedy of neorealism, a small-town odyssey of a laid-off worker in Northeast China, known as China's Rust Belt. It's doable to consider it as a dramatized extension of Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2002, directed by Wang Bing). As a native of Northeast China who came from a worker’s family and experienced the wave of laid-off from the 1990s to 2000s, I sincerely recommend this film to anyone who is interested in this history or this land.

2009 | Enter the Void | Gaspar Noé
A nice try at cinematizing the out-of-body experience. Just like a long-shot version of Kechiche, Noé also used extensions of time to manipulate the audience's emotions. And when these intolerant extensions were combined with several jumpscares of childhood flashbacks, the second half was directly evolving into a terrifying and unknown nightmare. Valuably, although there are so many shocking and anti-ethical scenes about sex, drugs, and violence, the characters created by Noé are still pure, entrusting his deep compassion and care for the bottom.

Honorable mention:
Code inconnu (Code Unknown) | Michael Haneke (2000)
鬼子来了 (Devils on the Doorstep) | Jiang Wen (2000)
站台 (Platform) | Jia Zhangke (2000)
Malèna (Malena) | Giuseppe Tornatore (2000)
오아시스 (Oasis) | Lee Chang-dong (2002)
빈집 (3-Iron) | Kim Ki-duk (2004)
La mala educación (Bad Education) | Pedro Almodóvar (2004)
世界 (The World) | Jia Zhangke (2004)
夜车 (Night Train) | Diao Yi'nan (2007)
神探 (Mad Detective) | Johnnie To, Wai Ka-fai (2007)
Triangle | Christopher Smith (2009)
박쥐 (Thirst) | Park Chan-wook (2009)
Last edited by Le Jeune Rylan on Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:04 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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nquoid
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by nquoid »

Will edit in some thoughts later, aware some have already been picked, but limiting myself to actual recommendations instead of just naming a film no one else has named yet:

2000 - Love & Basketball (Gina Prince-Bythewood)
2001 - Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron)
2002 - Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook)
2003 - In The Cut (Jane Campion)
2004 - 2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
2005 - The Proposition (John Hillcoat)
2006 - The Host (Bong Joon-ho)
2007 - Sunshine (Danny Boyle)
2008 - Rachel Getting Married (Johnathan Demme)
2009 - Coraline (Henry Sellick)
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acroamor
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by acroamor »

2000: Bamboozled - Spike Lee - For my money, the best Spike Lee joint outside of Do the Right Thing.
2000: Ritual - Hideaki Anno - Evangelion's creator with a deeply emotional live-action work. Masterpiece.
2000: You Can Count on Me - Kenneth Lonergan - One of the best writers working, a beautiful family drama.
2002: Stevie - Steve James - Discomfiting and compassionate doc from the man behind Hoop Dreams.
2002: Reflections of Evil - Damon Packard - Visceral, violent, uncomfortable: the pinnacle of outsider film.
2003: Los Angeles Plays Itself - Thom Andersen - A politically-charged doc exegesis of the city made by movies.
2004: L'intrus - Claire Denis - The most mystical and evocative piece of the Denis filmography. Poetry in motion.
2006: Old Joy - Kelly Reichardt - A tender look at friendship in mid-age. Featuring Will "Bonnie 'Prince' Billy" Oldham in a starring role.
2006: Southland Tales - Richard Kelly - Pop maximalism, a prescient and underappreciated vision of the 2000s, 2010s, etc.
2008: Wendy and Lucy - Kelly Reichardt - For me, the best Reichardt and one of the best, period.
2008: Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh - The least cynical Leigh, but maybe the wisest.
2009: Halloween II - Rob Zombie - One for the vulgar auteurists, ugly, brutal, yes please.

Seconding Eureka, As I Was Moving..., Love and Basketball, Goodbye Dragon Inn, Songs from the Second Floor, and El orfanato.
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bonnielaurel
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by bonnielaurel »

2000 Little Otik [Otesánek]
2001 Sex and Lucía [Lucía y el sexo]
2002 The Quiet American
2003 Girl with a Pearl Earring
2004 Machuca
2005 L'Enfant [The Child]
2006 After the Wedding [Efter brylluppet]
2007 It's a Free World...
2008 The Baader Meinhof Komplex [Der Baader Meinhof Komplex]
2009 About Elly [Darbareye Elly]

Honorable mentions: Open Hearts (2002), The Class (2008).
De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum.
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Michel
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by Michel »

2000: Le goût des autres [The Taste of Others] (Agnès Jaoui)
2001: Un coupable idéal [Murder on a Sunday Morning] (Jean-Xavier de Lestrade)
2002: Irreversible (Gaspar Noé)
2003: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir)
2004: Rois & reine [Kings and Queen] (Arnaud Desplechin)
2005: De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté [The Beat That My Heart Skipped] (Jacques Audiard)
2006: A fost sau n-a fost? [12:08 East of Bucharest] (Corneliu Porumboiu)
2007: Control (Anton Corbijn)
2008: Il divo (Paolo Sorrentino)
2009: À l'origine [In the Beginning] (Xavier Giannoli)
Gillingham
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by Gillingham »

2000: Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse/The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda)
2001: Lucia y el Sexo/Sex and Lucia (Julio Médem)
2002: Bloody Sunday (Paul Greengrass)
2003: Les Invasions Barbares/The Barbarian Invasions (Denys Arcand)
2004: Gegen die Wand/Head-on (Fatih Akin)
2005: Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney)
2006: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach)
2007: Atonement (Joe Wright)
2008: Doubt (John Patrick Shanley)
2009: Lebanon (Samuel Maoz)
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by BleuPanda »

If someone is able to host they should probably do so at the beginning of next month!
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The_Claw
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by The_Claw »

I finally came around making a list of my favourite films of the 2000s:

2000: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse (The Gleaners and I) (Agnès Varda) #19
2001: Y tu mamá también (Alfonso Cuarón)
2002: Irréversible (Gaspar Noé)
2003: Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
2004: 2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
2005: The 40 Year Old Virgin (Judd Apatow)
2006: Gwoemul (The Host) (Bong Joon Ho)
2007: Stellet licht (Silent Light) (Carlos Reygadas)
2008: Man on Wire (James Marsh)
2009: Avatar (James Cameron)
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The_Claw
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by The_Claw »

No volunteers yet for the 2000s film poll? I wouldn't mind doing it, I have partially hosted the 1960s film poll a few years back. If there aren't any objections, I'll start a 2000 poll on the 1st of March.
ManPerson
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Re: Films of the 2000s: Personal Favorites and Planning

Post by ManPerson »

Seems fine with me.
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