Top 100 Films of the 2000s

A few months ago I sat down to make the list of The 100 Greatest Movies of All-Time. Then it occurred to me: I have not seen anywhere near enough movies. If I couldn’t even make a list of The Top 100 Movies of a single decade, which I failed to do just before that, how could I do all of them, ever? That’s when my ever-ambitious creative side came up with an idea for a blog series: The Decades Project. This was how I would execute my search and see more movies: I would create a Top 100 for each decade between the 1920s and 2010s (no disrespect to the 1910s and before but there weren’t enough accessible feature-length films I could find) to help assist me. Of course films pre-1920 and post-2019 would be eligible for the overall list but this seemed like a great starting point. These lists would also be filled with different types of movies. Every genre was eligible, and I wanted to include movies from all across the world. Not only would movies that I personally love but also movies with cultural relevance (regardless of how I feel about The Social Network or The Lord of the Rings they belong on decade lists), artistic merit, landmark accomplishments, etc. In other words I set out to make this as comprehensive of a project as one girl with a full-time job could handle.

Oh my God, did I underestimate the scope of this.

I wanted, and still want, this project to be good. I don’t want to slap the most obvious choices on each list and call it a day. I’m trying to FIND film, to widen what I have seen. And, consequently, it’s taking me a while. But I’m also learning. I’m learning about what each decade and the artists that dominated them had to say. I’m learning which movies took off and hypothesizing why. The 2010s were filled with rage and justice and class warfare (you can read that post here). Going into my deep dive into the 2000s I was expecting something equally as loud, yet less raw; I think I was expecting to see a pattern of gaudy excess. Surprisingly, though, that was a minority of the films that came across my screen. The 2000s was a decade of solitude, of loneliness, of reflection.

It makes sense, really. After the 1980s and 1990s—20 years of fast-paced living and upper and middle class mobility—the world, especially America, hit a wall. The 2000s was a traumatic decade: a hotly contested election in 2000, 9/11 and the two wars that followed, the reporting on the atrocities of the Catholic Church, civil wars ebbing and flowing in other regions of the world, Hurricane Katrina, a quick spread of the internet and connectivity that the world had never experienced before (spurred by a huge tech boom), economic collapse and subsequent recessions, drug war escalations, a rise in obesity and healthcare costs, climate change concerns coming to the forefront…the list goes on. So when you think about it, it isn’t all that surprising that the art of that last decade would sit back and reflect on the culture of the day. We didn’t know how to process these sudden changes and our quick access to learn all about them.

Not every film on this list is solemn or a meditation on loneliness. Not every movie on this list is even a reflection. Some are major cultural hits such as Pirates of the Caribbean or The Fellowship of the Ring. Even some of those, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or Wall-E, for example, fall into the contemplative category. Then there are some, like Super Size Me that are major cultural milestones so cemented you can’t overlook the lasting impact that they had on the world. The major industry of fast food completely rebranded and changed its marketing approach largely because of that film. (Actually, I love talking about Super Size Me as a cultural milestone so definitely reach out if you want to have that conversation.) And it wasn’t just American film that took this tone. Some foreign examples include Regular Lovers from France, Yi Yi from Taiwan, Osama from Afghanistan, Offside from Iran, The Secret in Their Eyes from Argentina, and Y Tu Mama Tambien from Mexico. The 2000s was a major surprise for me as I continued to dive into them. I know these lists are everchanging, and I cannot wait to continue to evolve and dig into both this decade and the ones upcoming.

Enough of my musings, however. You’re here for the Top 100 and so here they are.

(If you want a pretty layout where you can read them all with their poster art, click here.)

100. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

99. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

98. Thirteen

97. Sin City

96. Iron Man

95. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

94. Mean Girls

93. The Descent

92. Catch Me If You Can

91. The Devil Wears Prada

90. 21 Grams

89. Che: Part One

88. American Gangster

87. Primer

86. A Beautiful Mind

85. Erin Brockovich

84. Insomnia

83. Kill Bill: Volume 2

82. Kill Bill: Volume 1

81. Requiem For A Dream

80. Lilo and Stitch

79. Rachel Getting Married

78. In Vanda’s Room

77. Alone in the Wilderness

76. The Emperor’s New Grove

75. Still Walking

74. Snatch

73. Pineapple Express

72. The Hours

71. Zombieland

70. High Fidelity

69. Coffee and Cigarettes

68. Thank You For Smoking

67. Waiting…

66. An Education

65. Where The Wild Things Are

64. Man on Wire

63. Los Angeles Plays Itself

62. You Can Count on Me

61. The Departed

60. Zodiac

59. The Incredibles

58. Finding Nemo

57. Up

56. Morvern Callar

55. No Country For Old Men

54. Before Sunset

53. The Prestige

52. Walk the Line

51. Almost Famous

50. Little Miss Sunshine

49. Lost in Translation

48. Adaptation

47. Punch-Drunk Love

46. Super Size Me

45. Osama

44. 35 Shots of Rum

43. Y Tu Mama Tambien

42. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

41. Antichrist

40. 28 Days Later

39. In the Bedroom

38. Persepolis

37. 25th Hour

36. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

35. Shaun of the Dead

34. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

33. Capote

32. Angels in America

31. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

30. The Secret in Their Eyes

29. Ocean’s Eleven

28. The Orphanage

27. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

26. The Wrestler

25. Chinese Coffee

24. Big Fish

23. Oldboy

22. In The Loop

21. Tropic Thunder

20. WALL-E

19. Yi Yi

18. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

17. In Bruges

16. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

15. Let the Right One In

14. Regular Lovers

13. American Psycho

12. When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

11. There Will Be Blood

10. Pan’s Labyrinth

9. Once

8. Dogtooth

7. Spirited Away

6. City of God

5. Children of Men

4. In the Mood for Love

3. Mulholland Drive

2. Offside

1. Hunger

The 2000s was filled with quality films from all across the globe, as were the 2010s, and that only makes me even more eager to dive into what the 1990s has to offer.