49) The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
Apologies for treating it as one – bloody long – film, but I should point out that I’m going for the director’s cut as I’ve got the house to myself for the next fortnight. Only slightly soiled by the Hobbit films, there’s an audience for Peter Jackson’s masterpiece wherever film is appreciated and enjoyed.
48) Memento (2000)
Have I seen Memento…? Let me just check my tattoos… Well, apparently I have and I was very impressed with the film, with Guy Pearce (in a role originally earmarked for Brad Pitt) and with Christopher Nolan’s directing chops. Now… where was I?
47) One More Time with Feeling (2016)
Following his son’s death, everyone would have understood had Nick Cave drawn the curtains for a while. Instead, the former Bad Seed invited Andrew Dominik to film him recording a new album. With wisdom and song endlessly spilling forth from the singer-songwriter, this is a film to be filed under ‘ennobling’.
46) Volver (2006); 46 on the Guardian’s list
Pedro Almodovar again, this time with one of his brilliantly observed women’s pictures. Starring a never-better Penelope Cruz and the hugely missed Chus Lampreave, one wonders what it is that makes Almodovar such a great director and writer of women. My hunch? He actually listens to them.
45) 13th (2006); 13 on the Guardian’s list
“You see a lot of black people at the courthouse,” Richard Pryor once observed. “You go looking for justice and who do you find? Just us.” Ava DuVernay’s documentary takes things further by shining a light on racism within America’s prison system. What she finds isn’t surprising but, god, it’s shocking.
44) In Bruges (2008)
A toss-up between this and Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri? Not quite, for superb as that film is, the trio of Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes and a never-better Colin Farrell is impossible to beat. Frances McDormand gives them a bloody good run for their money, mind.
43) Adaptation (2002)
With his parlous financial situation leaving him obliged to appear in every fourth movie made these days, you forget Nic Cage is an Oscar-winning actor effortlessly able to play identical twins. He’s so good in Adaptation, he overshadows Charlie Kaufman’s inventive script and Spike Jonze’s directing gymnastics. High praise indeed.
42) 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (2007); 42 on the Guardian’s list
A Romanian abortion drama – now if that’s not a film with the Guardian’s name all over it, I don’t know what is. Lazy journalism aside, Cristian Mungiu has produced and directed all manner of great films this millennium, of which this remains the standout, a visceral reminder of the horror wrought under Nicolae Ceausescu.
41) Half Nelson (2006)
The man entrusted with making a success of Captain Marvel, Ryan Fleck here gets to grip with a more mundane hero, a teacher (Ryan Gosling) with addiction issues. It’s not the most original story but Fleck’s approach makes this feel like fresh territory. Gosling, meanwhile, is a lot more than a pretty face.
40) Grizzly Man (2005)
With a new film out every six months – or so it seems – it’s hard to single out a Werner Herzog production for special praise. However, the sequence in Grizzly Man where he listens to a cassette of two people being torn apart by a bear is something that will stay with you forever.
39) 24 Hour Party People (2002); 49 on the Guardian’s list
The prolific Michael Winterbottom joins Factory Records whiz Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) on a journey from the birth of punk to the death of acid. A film with plenty to offer, not least to whoever it was at the Telegraph who recently compared Nigel Farage to Icarus by way of a compliment.
38) Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011); 38 on the Guardian’s list
A Turkish-Bosnian co-production more properly known as Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da, director Nuri Bilge Ceylan is but one of the heroes of OUATIA. The other is his DP-of-choice Gökhan Tiryaki whose accomplishment here is such that this is almost a picture where you come out humming the cinematography.
37) City Of God (2002)
Among the most baffling omissions from the other survey, Fernando Meirelles’ crime thriller remains among Brazil’s most exciting non-footballing exports. Indeed, much as every film fan is looking forward to Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, if it’s to be century’s best gangster movie, it’s this picture that it’ll have to surpass.
36) A Separation (2011); 36 on the Guardian’s list
Of course, it’s ridiculous to assume cineastes don’t enjoy crowd-pleasing movies. The reverse is also true. For proof of this, look no further than A Separation’s healthy IMDb rating of 8.3 based on more than 200,000 votes. Evidence that if a story resonates with people, it needn’t be stymied by subtitles or unfamiliar climes.
35) The Proposition (2005)
In our topsy-turvy world, it’s perhaps to be expected that great westerns emanate from Australia. With Ray Winstone superb as the colonial jailer who pits Guy Pearce against his bushranger brother, The Proposition positively reeks of authenticity, thanks in part to a Nick Cave script and soundtrack.
34) L’Enfant (2005); 34 on the Guardian’s list
The closest thing the continent has to Ken Loach, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have been making films about blue collar Belgians since they were teens. L’Enfant’s tale of a young couple looking to cash-in via their new baby is also reminiscent of Shane Meadows, another comparison the brothers wear very well.
33) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014); 27 on the Guardian’s list
His slightly underwhelming animated movies aside, most of Wes Anderson’s 21st century output could lay claim to a place on the list. As for the aspect of Grand Budapest that secured its reservation, it’s something Anderson noticed that everyone else had somehow overlooked, that Ralph Fiennes is one of our greatest comic actors.
32) Drive (2011)
So what if it’s just a remake of Shane? So what if it’s a triumph of style over substance? So what if Nicolas Winding Refn hasn’t been able to live up to it? Drive is an exercise in cool so successful, even Ryan Gosling’s jacket seems like a sound sartorial selection.
31) Election (2005)
Hong Kong cinema was all but absent from the Guardian list. Election’s exclusion was positively foolhardy since director Johnnie To seems so au fait with Triad activities, he presumably knows a few people. To, incidentally, is known as ‘Hong Kong’s Jerry Bruckheimer’, a nickname that underrates his talent while underlining his importance.
30) Leviathan (2014); 30 on the Guardian’s list
Leviathan marries a true story of social upheaval in Colorado with the colourful modern history of the town where it was shot. It’s also a modern reimagining of the Book of Job, something which left this writer keen to see director Andrey Zvyagintsev let loose on the rest of the good book.
29) Spotlight (2015)
In The Wire, Tom McCarthy plays a journalist who makes up stuff to get ahead. As the director of Spotlight, he delivers an account of the Boston paedophile scandal that never succumbs to hysteria and instead shows newspapermen and women acting with restraint and professionalism. Movie triumphs are seldom so quiet.
28) The Master (2012)
Paul Thomas Anderson sacrificed his friendship with Tom Cruise to make this thinly-veiled L Ron Hubbard biopic. We hope PTA believes the bridge was worth burning. If he’s in two minds, we insist he re-watch Philip Seymour Hoffman singing to Joaquin Phoenix and marvel at the magic he weaved.
27) Yi Yi (2000); 26 on the Guardian’s list
Edward Yang’s study of everyday life is anything but mundane. Using the viewpoints of different family members to explain what becomes of us between birth and death, Yi Yi is simultaneously very specific and completely universal. Yang’s first film in four years, it would also alas be his last.
26) Oldboy (2003)
It’s not all octopus eating and incest, you know. Naturally, this being Chan-wook Park, Oldboy certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted but its worst excesses have come to mask its beauty, even tenderness. Congratulations too to Spike Lee whose thoroughly wretched remake ensures there will always be an appetite for the original.