My top ten films for each year of the 2000s. These are always up for revision as I watch more films, revisit ones I’ve seen before, and think about them over time. I don’t really believe in top “ten” lists, despite using the common nomenclature for the title of this page, nor do I hold fast to the order, though it’s generally from films I liked better to films I liked less well. This is going to be my top several films of each year, down to whatever point I feel is right. Might be eight one year, might be twenty-three another.

2009

  • Inglourious Basterds
  • Mr. Nobody
  • Fish Tank
  • I Killed My Mother
  • Up in the Air
  • Black Dynamite
  • The Secret in Their Eyes
  • An Education
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • (500) Days of Summer
  • Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
  • A Town Called Panic
  • Mother
  • Agora
  • The Myth of the American Sleepover
  • Broken Embraces
  • A Serious Man
  • Thirst
  • The White Ribbon
  • The Fantastic Mr. Fox
  • The Loved Ones
  • Antichrist
  • Moon
  • Splice
  • It Might Get Loud
  • Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
  • The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
  • The Girlfriend Experience
  • Kawasaki’s Rose
  • Sin Nombre
  • Up
  • Bright Star

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
A Prophet
Mary & Max
The Road
Ip Man
35 Shots of Rum

2008

  • Wall-E
  • Rachel Getting Married
  • Revolutionary Road
  • Sense and Sensibility
  • Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • Speed Racer
  • Let the Right One In
  • Revanche
  • The Dark Knight
  • The Good, the Bad, the Weird
  • Terribly Happy
  • Slumdog Millionaire
  • Frozen River
  • Burn After Reading
  • Iron Man
  • Tell No One
  • Cloverfield
  • The Square
  • In Bruges
  • Sleep Dealer
  • Doubt
  • Transsiberian

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Wrestler
Man on Wire
Hunger
Bronson
Waltz with Bashir

2007

  • No Country for Old Men
  • 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
  • The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  • Hot Fuzz
  • The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  • Planet Terror
  • Black Snake Moan
  • Away from Her
  • The Visitor
  • My Winnipeg
  • Ratatouille
  • The King of Kong
  • 28 Weeks Later
  • Gone Baby Gone
  • The Orphanage
  • Eastern Promises
  • Juno
  • The Savages
  • 3:10 to Yuma
  • I’m Not There
  • Zodiac
  • Sunshine
  • The Host
  • [Rec]
  • Across the Universe
  • Atonement
  • Waitress
  • Enchanted
  • Shoot ‘Em Up
  • The Lookout
  • 1408

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Death Proof
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Control
Shotgun Stories
La Vie en Rose

2006

  • Pan’s Labyrinth
  • Once
  • INLAND EMPIRE
  • The Fountain
  • The Lives of Others
  • Paris, je t’aime
  • Volver
  • Marie Antoinette
  • Children of Men
  • Notes on a Scandal
  • Casino Royale
  • Little Children
  • The Departed
  • The Fall
  • The Prestige
  • District B13
  • Red Road

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Letters from Iwo Jima
United 93
12:08 East of Bucharest
Syndromes and a Century
Day Watch

2005

  • Brick
  • The New World
  • Pride & Prejudice
  • The Squid and the Whale
  • Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
  • The Constant Gardener
  • Good Night, and Good Luck.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Smith
  • Thank You for Smoking
  • The Descent
  • Batman Begins
  • Welcome to Dongmakgol
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • Serenity
  • Howl’s Moving Castle
  • Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
  • A History of Violence
  • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
  • Walk the Line
  • Transamerica
  • The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
  • Look at Me
  • 49 Up
  • Aeon Flux
  • Hard Candy
  • Sin City
  • Dear Frankie
  • Breakfast on Pluto
  • Match Point
  • Munich

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Lady Vengeance
C.R.A.Z.Y.
Funky Forest
No Direction Home
L’Enfant

2004

  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
  • Shaun of the Dead
  • Downfall
  • Kill Bill, Vol. 2
  • The Incredibles
  • Mean Girls
  • Garden State
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  • Maria Full of Grace
  • House of Flying Daggers
  • Kung Fu Hustle
  • Team America: World Police
  • Primer
  • Collateral
  • The Aviator
  • Bride and Prejudice
  • A Very Long Engagement
  • Hellboy
  • Hero
  • Dear Frankie
  • Before Sunset
  • Howl’s Moving Castle
  • Layer Cake
  • Hidalgo
  • Shrek 2
  • The Bourne Supremacy
  • District B-13
  • Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
2046
Tropical Malady
Birth
Steamboy
3-Iron

2003

  • Kill Bill, Vol. 1
  • Lost in Translation
  • A Tale of Two Sisters
  • Dogville
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  • Whale Rider
  • Love Actually
  • Memories of Murder
  • Goodbye, Lenin!
  • City of God
  • The Station Agent
  • The Triplets of Belleville
  • Oldboy
  • The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
  • The Animatrix
  • 21 Grams
  • The Cooler
  • School of Rock
  • I’m Not Scared
  • Finding Nemo
  • Spellbound
  • Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring
  • Once Upon a Time in Mexico
  • American Splendor

Top Five Yet To See
The Fog of War
Bubba Ho-Tep
The Barbarian Invasions
To Be and To Have
Time of the Wolf

2002

  • Adaptation.
  • Catch Me if You Can
  • Minority Report
  • The Hours
  • Talk to Her
  • Road to Perdition
  • Punch Drunk Love
  • Resident Evil
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  • Secretary
  • Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
  • The Importance of Being Earnest
  • Brotherhood of the Wolf
  • Chicago
  • Standing in the Shadows of Motown
  • 28 Days Later
  • 24 Hour Party People
  • The Bourne Identity
  • Spider-Man

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Infernal Affairs
Solaris
The Pianist
Irreversible
The Twilight Samurai

2001

  • Mulholland Drive
  • The Royal Tenenbaums
  • Amelie
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • Moulin Rouge
  • Millenium Actress
  • The Others
  • The Devil’s Backbone
  • Hedwig and the Angry Inch
  • Waking Life
  • Monsters Inc.
  • Ocean’s Eleven
  • The Princess and the Warrior
  • Das Experiment
  • Wit
  • Gosford Park
  • Spirited Away
  • Lagaan
  • Wet Hot American Summer
  • Shaolin Soccer

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
A Beautiful Mind
In Praise of Love
Ichi the Killer
In the Bedroom

2000

  • O Brother Where Art Thou?
  • In the Mood for Love
  • Memento
  • Almost Famous
  • Snatch.
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  • Amores Perros
  • Best in Show
  • Bring It On
  • Werckmeister Harmonies
  • Pitch Black
  • X-Men
  • Charlie’s Angels
  • Wonder Boys
  • Traffic
  • The Emperor’s New Groove
  • Gladiator
  • High Fidelity
  • Dancer in the Dark
  • The Claim
  • Shadow of the Vampire
  • Chicken Run
  • Unbreakable

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Requiem for a Dream
American Psycho
Battle Royale
The Gleaners and I
Yi Yi: A One and a Two