The Telegraph: The Films That Defined The Noughties
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This decade has brought some extraordinary shifts in the way films are made, and the way we watch them. But it’s not always easy to pinpoint exactly when those changes began – or where they will end. Many of the best films on this list – long-gestating triumphs such as In the Mood for Love or Spirited Away – were in development in the Nineties; others, now in production, will only see the light of day in a few years time. More than that, some of the key trends of the past 10 years – the DVD boom, faster broadband, YouTube – mean that today’s film fans have been watching, legally or illegally, movies from a bygone age. A fragmented, pick’n’mix cinematic culture, represented on this list by highly referential films such as Kill Bill, Moulin Rouge! and Far from Heaven, is increasingly the norm, not the exception.
Big studios have continued to focus on blockbusters and franchise-fare to boost their profits. This hasn’t always been bad – the Bourne and Lord of the Rings trilogies are terrific fun – but it’s striking that artistically successful, award-winning features such as There Will Be Blood and Milk have under-performed at the box office: how sombre they must seem to audiences weaned on Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider-Man. How CGI-depleted! How zombie-less!
Documentaries – intimate (Être et Avoir), epic (the nine-hour West of the Tracks) and idiosyncratic (The Gleaners and I) – have flourished, in part because of cheap digital technology, but also because that genre is given increasingly short-shrift on television. Animation – from the reliable Pixar stable to the Israeli Waltz with Bashir – has moved mainstream.
The independent sector has become more international with the rise of Mexican drama, Korean horror, Romanian social realism. The succès d’estime of Steve McQueen’s Hunger and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady bodes well for the future of art film. Cinema, claimed by many to be moribund at the end of the Nineties, is still hungry, furious and vital.
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43 new
The Dark Knight
2008, in 27 top lists Check -
5 new
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2001, in 31 top lists Check -
59 new
WALL·E
2008, in 26 top lists Check -
25 new
Up
2009, in 16 top lists Check -
31 new
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the...
2003, in 13 top lists Check -
3 new
The Incredibles
2004, in 13 top lists Check -
48 new
Gladiator
2000, in 25 top lists Check -
100 new
Avatar
2009, in 13 top lists Check -
96 new
Shrek
2001, in 14 top lists Check -
60 new
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
2003, in 18 top lists Check -
42 new
Ratatouille
2007, in 14 top lists Check -
41 new
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
2001, in 5 top lists Check -
16 new
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2004, in 28 top lists Check -
10 new
Slumdog Millionaire
2008, in 13 top lists Check -
79 new
Spider-Man
2002, in 7 top lists Check -
6 new
Memento
2000, in 27 top lists Check -
58 new
Donnie Darko
2001, in 21 top lists Check -
65 new
The Departed
2006, in 20 top lists Check -
45 new
District 9
2009, in 10 top lists Check -
84 new
Sin City
2005, in 10 top lists Check -
53 new
No Country for Old Men
2007, in 23 top lists Check -
39 new
Casino Royale
2006, in 7 top lists Check -
12 new
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
2001 — a.k.a. Amélie, in 27 top lists Check -
23 new
Shaun of the Dead
2004, in 13 top lists Check -
38 new
El laberinto del fauno
2006 — a.k.a. Pan's Labyrinth, in 33 top lists Check -
67 new
Little Miss Sunshine
2006, in 7 top lists Check -
27 new
Star Trek
2009, in 5 top lists Check -
88 new
The Pianist
2002, in 21 top lists Check -
64 new
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
2001 — a.k.a. Spirited Away, in 39 top lists Check -
7 new
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make...
2006, in 8 top lists Check -
62 new
The Devil Wears Prada
2006, in 3 top lists Check -
77 new
Children of Men
2006, in 12 top lists Check -
4 new
There Will Be Blood
2007, in 20 top lists Check -
21 new
The Bourne Supremacy
2004, in 8 top lists Check -
14 new
Saw
2004, in 6 top lists Check -
20 new
Lost in Translation
2003, in 19 top lists Check -
22 new
Cidade de Deus
2002 — a.k.a. City of God, in 22 top lists Check -
40 new
Moulin Rouge!
2001, in 17 top lists Check -
75 new
School of Rock
2003, in 3 top lists Check -
35 new
Knocked Up
2007, in 4 top lists Check -
98 new
Crash
2004, in 4 top lists Check -
32 new
Oldeuboi
2003 — a.k.a. Oldboy, in 34 top lists Check -
2 new
Brokeback Mountain
2005, in 21 top lists Check -
78 new
The Hurt Locker
2008, in 13 top lists Check -
92 new
The Wrestler
2008, in 3 top lists Check -
70 new
Mulholland Dr.
2001 — a.k.a. Mulholland Drive, in 26 top lists Check -
18 new
Mamma Mia!
2008, in 3 top lists Check -
33 new
Wo hu cang long
2000 — a.k.a. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in 27 top lists Check -
85 new
Erin Brockovich
2000, in 8 top lists Check -
9 new
The Passion of the Christ
2004, in 4 top lists Check
Last updated on Apr 18, 2016; source