Last month, Talkhouse Film contributors and a select few friends of the site voted on their favorite theatrical releases of the millennium so far; the aggregated results were published on Talkhouse yesterday. Below are ballots from a selection of the filmmakers who took part in the voting process.
Aitch Alberto
1. Finding Nemo
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
3. Best in Show
4. Dancer in the Dark
5. Black Swan
6. Mad Max: Fury Road
7. The Virgin Suicides
8. Moonlight
9. In the Mood for Love
10. Mustang
Sherman Alexie
1. No Country for Old Men
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
5. The Social Network
6. 28 Days Later
7. The Departed
8. Stories We Tell
9. Children of Men
10. Toni Erdmann
Notes
The Social Network is probably the most important film, politically speaking, because it reveals the moral character of the one person who has probably done the most damage to the world psyche.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Locke, Wendy and Lucy
Vashti Anderson
1. Sinners dir. Ryan Coogler
2. You Won’t Be Alone dir. Goran Stolevski
3. Under the Skin dir. Jonathan Glazer
4. Triangle of Sadness dir. Ruben Östlund
5. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl dir. Rungano Nyoni
6. Fish Tank dir. Andrea Arnold
7. Punch-Drunk Love dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
8. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
9. Only Lovers Left Alive dir. Jim Jarmusch
10. Clara Sola dir. Nathalie Alvarez Mesen
Notes
Ten best is utterly impossible, but the ones I chose shook, excited and inspired me intensely. They take major creative and thematic risks, as films can do but often don’t. I love that so much.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Neptune Frost dir. Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman; Hit the Road dir. Pahah Pahahi; birth/rebirth dir. Laura Moss
Ana Asensio
1. Roma
2. In the Mood for Love
3. The Zone of Interest
4. Another Round
5. Ida
6. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
7. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)
8. The Son (Dardenne Brothers)
9. Mulholland Drive
10. Black Swan
Notes
Roma is an experience that trascends film its art at it’s best. So much that I can’t or won’t ever watch it again. I want to retain how I felt when I saw it and heard it in the big screen
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
There Will Be Blood, About Elly
Eszter Balint
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus
3. Synechoche, New York
4. Rotting in the Sun
5. Adaptation
6. Little Children
7. The Savages
8. Best in Show
9. Caché
10. The White Ribbon
Notes
The order is pretty arbitrary. I’m forgetting so many but others I loved I’m certain. But here are a few more worth mentioning: White God, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Sirat (!!) , Boyhood, Nickel Boys, There Will Be Blood (except for the too-much ending:) I would like to say that as an original and super skilled filmmaker, Gaspar Noé has impressed me with a couple of his films, however his bleak nihilism and cruelty to his audience makes it too hard for me to include any of his films.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Before he was a big Hollywood filmmaker, Denis Villeneuve’s made Incendies. Dark, dark, dark, but great. Also The Maid by Sebastian Silva.
Emily Bennett
1. Mulholland Drive
2. American Psycho
3. Tár
4. Birth
5. Oldboy
6. Antichrist
7. No Country for Old Men
8. Burning
9. We Need to Talk About Kevin
10. Morvern Callar
Notes
The fact that Tár wasn’t praised as one of the finest films of modern cinema remains utterly cruel and senseless to me. I dream about this film and this character. Moments from this film haunt me in ways horror films never have. The slow elegant descent into banishment and shame is just so delicious. Justice for Tár.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
The Night House, I Saw the TV Glow, Nightcrawler
Amy Berg
1. I’m Still Here
2. Red Rocket
3. A Complete Unknown
4. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
5. The Master
6. La Vie En Rose
7. Detropia
8. Meet the Barbarians
9. No Country for Old Men
10. Closer
Rod Blackhurst
1. Children of Men
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Zodiac
4. Prisoners
5. There Will Be Blood
6. The Dark Knight
7. Gladiator
8. The Place Beyond the Pines
9. Mad Max: Fury Road
10. Arrival
Notes
Children of Men uses the full language of cinema (hello wide lenses with deep focus and massive world building) to confront the spiritual crisis of our times without sentimentality, cynicism, or retreat into genre comfort. It is compltely original, politically urgent, and emotionally devastating in equal measure, and it insists that hope is not an abstract idea or a victory condition, but a moral action performed by flawed people when there is no guarantee it will matter.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Patrick Brice
1. Caché – Michael Haneke
2. Stevie – Steve James
3. Inland Empire – David Lynch
4. Los Angeles Plays Itself – Thom Andersen
5. The Master – Paul Thomas Anderson
6. No Country for Old Men – Joel and Ethan Cohen
7. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story – Jake Kasdan
8. Zodiac – David Fincher
9. Children of Men – Alfonso Cuarón
10. Mandy – Panos Cosmatos
Notes
This list is barely in any solid order and changes all the time. But if I’m being honest with myself, Caché is the one movie I always go back to as a kind of sacred text as being a spiritual north star film for me.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis, while being incredibly dark and disheartening, gave me perspective and made me feel slightly more adept at weathering the storm of the 21st Century.
SJ Chiro
1. Mulholland Drive
2. In the Mood for Love
3. Morvern Callar
4. Y Tu Mamá También
5. Moonlight
6. Call Me by Your Name
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
8. Lost in Translation
9. Aftersun
10. Under the Skin
Notes
Morvern Callar is one of the most overlooked brilliant films of the quarter century. I’ve watched it again and again always finding something surprising. Lynne Ramsay’s oeuvre should be at least as large and respected as some of our great male filmmakers. I’m happy that she’s been hired to adapt and direct specific work (such as You Were Never Really Here and Die My Love), but she isn’t given the time/money/respect she needs and deserves to fully create her own work. There, I said it.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, written and directed by Rungano Nyoni. This film gives an authentic look and feel to a modern African (Zambian) woman’s story while maintaining mystery and sharp cinematic storytelling. This is a film I want everyone to see, but I feel like it’s been buried (although On Becoming a Guinea Fowl earned her the 2024 Cannes Film Festival’s Best Director – Un Certain Regard award). This film proves the adage that the most specific will also be the most universal. I hope people look for it and give it the respect it deserves.
Stephen Cone
1. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2. Mulholland Drive
3. L’Intrus (The Intruder)
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. The Irishman
6. The New World
7. No Country for Old Men
8. Ten
9. A Christmas Tale
10. Somewhere
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
The Royal Road, Paranoid Park, What Time Is It There?
Zach Clark
1. First Reformed
2. The Love Witch
3. To Die Like a Man
4. The Brown Bunny
5. Twin Peaks: The Return
6. Margot at the Wedding
7. Climax
8. Knife + Heart
9. May December
10. Bubble
Luke Davies
1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2. Spirited Away
3. Waltz with Bashir
4. Into Great Silence
5. Birdman
6. A Prophet
7. Under the Skin
8. The Act of Killing
9. A Serious Man
10. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Capernaeum, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Gomorrah, Mommy, The Death of Stalin and District 9
Hope Dickson Leach
1. The Zone of Interest
2. One Battle After Another
3. Yi Yi
4. Zodiac
5. Twin Peaks: The Return Episode 9
6. The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band)
7. The Act of Killing
8. Spirited Away
9. Mulholland Drive
10. Parasite
Katherine Dieckmann
1. Children of Men
2. The Great Beauty
3. Perfect Days
4. The Gleaners and I
5. A History of Violence
6. Margaret
7. Summer Hours
8. Twentieth Century Women
9. Yi Yi
10. Toni Erdmann
Notes
I don’t want to do either, actually, but I feel I have to stress that this list is not really in ranked order, I love all these films pretty much equally, and could not place one above the other. I picked based on what I find I want to return to most often, and/or talk about most in the classroom, meaning these ten continue to yield both wisdom and pleasure, and always feel seminal to me.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
How could I leave off La Cienaga, Reprise (also Oslo, August 31st), In the Mood for Love, Holy Motors, Tarnation, La Chimera, Wendy and Lucy? Painful! My “deep cut” would be a film very few people saw, which I think about often, and in fact wrote about for Talkhouse: Give Me Liberty. And even though it just came out this past year, I suspect down the line I might regret not including The Secret Agent.
Dean Fleischer Camp
1. Phantom Thread
2. Le Havre
3. Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse
4. The Florida Project
5. The Taste of Tea
6. We Are the Best!
7. Under the Skin
8. Atonement
9. Minari
10. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Notes
I really wanted to include K-Pop Demon Hunters here but refraining to avoid potential recency bias
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
My favorite 21st century deep cut is called K-Pop Demon Hu… no just kidding – Love Exposure, Dìdi, Aftersun, Sleep, Holy Motors are all bangers I didn’t have room to include.
Michael Gallagher
1. Toni Erdmann (2016) Dir. Maren Ade
2. City of God (2002) Dir. Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund
3. There Will Be Blood (2007) Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
4. Sideways (2004) Dir. Alexander Payne
5. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) Dir. Sidney Lumet
6. Caché (2005) Dir. Michael Haneke
7. Frances Ha (2012) Dir. Noah Baumbach
8. Uncut Gems (2019) Dir. Benny & Josh Safdie
9. Bamboozled (2000) Dir. Spike Lee
10. Best in Show (2000) Dir. Christopher Guest
Notes
This was a fun and nearly impossible task, so I created a few ground rules to keep my head on straight: I could only pick (1) film per director, I must have watched the film at least twice (if not more), and choose films that are your gut-favorites (not necessarily the agreed upon culturally curated picks). Please note: This list could significantly change depending on my mood… so this is a reflection of the movies I cherish deeply on Thursday January 8th, 2026.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
A few deep cuts: State and Main (2000) and Heist (2001) directed by David Mamet. Both movies are brilliant and under appreciated. Incredibly casting and iconic dialogue I quote all the time.
Bette Gordon
1. In the Mood for Love
2. Ida
3. White Material
4. Winter Sleep
5. Amour
6. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
7. The Rider
8. Werckmeister Harmonies
9. Ash is the Purest White
10. Y Tu Mama También
Notes
Wong Kar-wai has redefined cinematic storytelling through his use of saturated color, light, shadow and seductive movement, evoking desire in its purest form.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Mullholand Drive and No Country for Old Men
Bradley Rust Gray
1. Cafe Lumiere
2. Mulholland Drive
3. Syndromes and a Century
4. Oasis
5. Toni Erdmann
6. The Wayward Cloud
7. The Turin Horse
8. Elf
9. Treeless Mountain
10. Phantom Thread
Megan Griffiths
1. Fishtank
2. You Can Count on Me
3. The Rider
4. Moonlight
5. Eighth Grade
6. We Need to Talk About Kevin
7. The Diary of a Teenage Girl
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
9. Winter’s Bone
10. Adaptation
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Mind the Gap
Emily Hagins
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Never Let Me Go
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Catch Me If You Can
5. The Virgin Suicides
6. The Wailing
7. Interstellar
8. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
9. Crimson Peak
10. Hot Fuzz
Daniel Hart
1. Children of Men
2. Get Out
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. Volver
5. No Country for Old Men
6. Parasite
7. Amores Perros
8. Spirited Away
9. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
10. Phantom Thread
Notes
I remember seeing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in the theater in Philly. I had just joined The Polyphonic Spree, and they had some songs in the film, so we went to the movies one day after rehearsal. I’d never seen anything like it (sheltered, suburban taste). I probably haven’t seen it since the late 2000s, but I still think about it all the time.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
I watched Scratch and I Am Trying To Break Your Heart so many times in the early 2000s. I had the DVDs in a small CD wallet that I usually brought on tour. I really wanted to be a good DJ, and I really wanted to write music as compelling as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Chad Hartigan
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
3. Before Sunset
4. All the Real Girls
5. There Will Be Blood
6. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
7. Oslo, August 31st
8. First Man
9. Hunger
10. Gerry
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
We Are the Best! narrowly missed out. Best coming-of-age movie ever made maybe.
Pat Healy
1. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
2. Mulholland Dr.
3. Moneyball
4. The Master
5. Lincoln
6. Inside Llewyn Davis
7. Margaret
8. About Schmidt
9. Uncut Gems
10. Zodiac
Jeremy Hersh
1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
2. A Separation
3. Another Year
4. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
5. Happy Hour
6. The Stranger by the Lake
7. From What is Before
8. Manakamana
9. BPM (Beats per Minute)
10. White Chicks
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Nika (2022) directed by Vasilisa Kuzmina (you might need a VPN to watch it)
Gillian Horvat
1. The Beast
2. Nymphomaniac (includes both parts as one film)
3. Idiocracy
4. Birth
5. Toni Erdmann
6. First Reformed
7. The Piano Teacher
8. Kings and Queen
9. The Untamed
10. Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Overlooked Films honorable mention: Zero Fucks Given, Fish & Cat, Polina, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Pontypool, Zoo, Calvaire, Blackboards, Who You Think I Am
Jim Hosking
1. Secret Sunshine
2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
3. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
4. Suntan
5. Right Now, Wrong Then
6. Spirited Away
7. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
8. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
9. Police, Adjective
10. Caché
Notes
I remember going to see Police, Adjective with one of my oldest friends. I found it brilliant and hysterical, he thought it was the most boring film he’d ever seen.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
All of Alain Guiraudie’s films.
Christina Kallas
1. Mulholland Drive Lynch’s masterpiece (there are very few films I’d use this term for) is magical. It demands repeated viewings to unravel its enigmatic puzzle, and everyone experiences it differently depending on where they stand in life. Its power lies not in solving it, but in surrendering to its emotional logic.
2. Irreversible Told in reverse chronology, it uses its inverse structure to devastating effect, forcing us to watch inevitable doom approach. To me though, it reverses the experience—so you end up getting a catharsis which in linear chronology would have been impossible. Like so many nonlinear films, it is an experience rather than just storytelling.
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The rare occasion of an auteur film that works perfectly even when writer and director are two different people. Emotionally devastating, it allows you to experience how our worst memories are often inseparable from our most cherished ones.
4. The Hurt Locker This is maybe the only real anti-war film I know. Most “anti-war” films still glamorize combat even while condemning it. Bigelow strips away the heroism and testosterone, leaving only the mechanical compulsion. It lets you experience the addictive nature of war viscerally.
5. The Big Short Probably the most innovatively edited feature film ever. Despite its frenetic style and fourth-wall-breaking explanations, it still lets you experience fully the stories of its three most important characters without losing depth for its whole ensemble.
6. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Mungiu’s unflinching single-day ordeal is shot with suffocating realism and true moral complexity. In the tradition of Romanian New Wave cinema, it creates unbearable tension through small mundane details. And delivers the quietest and still loudest finale I have ever seen.
7. 25th Hour The quintessential film about the most cinematic city, it really captures New York’s energy as if it were a character—few films have ever done that to that extent. Lee’s post-9/11 portrait paired with Norton’s career-best performance makes it definitive.
8. City of God Kinetic, brutal, formally dazzling. The favela’s cyclical violence is turned into a visceral chronicle where style and substance are inseparable. The camera’s restless energy mirrors the characters’ desperate momentum, trapped in a world where survival demands constant motion.
9. Tár A slow-burn character assassination that refuses easy answers. It functions as both psychological thriller and institutional critique, and most importantly, somehow manages to leave us complicit in our own judgments.
10. 21 Grams A non-linear puzzle with a brilliant script and one of the strongest emotional structures ever, built as a mosaic of grief and guilt. Perfect emotional structure.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
I’m drawn to intense, psychologically complex films with strong directorial vision, moral ambiguity, and often non-linear storytelling. Cinema that is formally audacious, emotionally devastating, morally complex, and experiential rather than explanatory. I want films that disorient, refuse easy answers, and strip away comfort. Among the most radical examples are films set in contained environments, where removing locations, spectacle, and traditional cinematic tools makes achieving great cinema exponentially harder. Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten and Steven Knight’s Locke are two of the greatest experiments in what cinema can be when you remove almost everything except human presence and the frame. Both films take place entirely inside a car.
Lev Kalman
1. Millennium Mambo (2001, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. Wet Hot American Summer (2001, David Wain)
3. Erie (2010, Kevin Jerome Everson)
4. The Gleaners and I (2000, Agnès Varda)
5. Tropical Malady (2004, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
6. El Futuro (2013, Luis López Carrasco)
7. The Unspeakable Act (2012, Dan Sallitt)
8. Novelist’s Film (2022, Hong Sang-soo)
9. Crazy Horse (2011, Frederick Wiseman)
10. The Shining: Forwards and Backwards (2011, Akiva Saunders and John Fell Ryan)
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Whispering Pines (2002 – 2018, Shana Moulton): a series of ten video art works, beginning as pranky camcorder performances, culminating in an After Effects new age opera, all responding to the artist’s experiences growing up in Twin Peaks country. I’m guessing there’ll be some votes in this bonus slot for Twin Peaks: The Return, and that makes sense. But for my money, Moulton’s tender, goofy videos edge it out as the more radiant refractions of Lynch’s ’90s soap.
Larry Karaszewski
1. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
2. Sideways
3. The Social Network
4. Y Tu Mama También
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
7. Moneyball
8. There Will Be Blood
9. The Worst Person in the World
10. Summer Hours
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Eureka
Aaron Katz
1. Toni Erdmann
2. 35 Shots of Rum
3. Our Little Sister
4. Ghost World
5. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
6. Wajib
7. Memoria
8. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
9. Love & Basketball
10. Funny Ha Ha
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Little Forest
Andrew Boodhoo Kightlinger
1. The Tree of Life
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. No Country for Old Men
5. There Will Be Blood
6. The Social Network
7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
8. Spirited Away
9. Moonlight
10. Avatar
Notes
I chose Tree of Life as my #1 choice because I feel no film has loomed larger on cinema culture – informing aesthetic in overt and subliminal ways. It is cinema as poetry, transcending beyond the medium to become itself a form of visual literature. In 100 years, much like 2001: A Space Odyssey, like we will looked back on as a work of human philosophy.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Peter Jackson’s King Kong and Neil Marshall’s The Descent
Bruce LaBruce
1. Inland Empire
2. Pulse
3. Under the Skin
4. Visitor Q
5. Tropical Malady
6. I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians
7. The Skin I Live In
8. Fat Girl
9. It Was Just An Accident
10. Trouble Every Day
Notes
Considering the conditions under which it was made, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident has to be considered one of the greatest feats of filmmaking of all time. It’s also by turns sardonically funny, politically astringent, and heartbreakingly sad.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Remi Weekes’ His House and Keith Thomas’ The Vigil are two haunted house horror movies from first-time directors that transcend the genre. Two British queer-themed debut features, Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s Femme and Harry Lighton’s Pillion, are similarly transcendent.
Adam Leon
1. Petite Maman
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Margaret
4. Gosford Park
5. Tulpan
6. Linda Linda Linda
7. Bully
8. Meek’s Cutoff
9. Where the Wild Things Are
10. Memoria AND Right Now, Wrong Then (GIMME 11!)
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Men Go to Battle and Manakamana
Alison Star Locke
1. Zodiac
2. The Babadook
3. Get Out
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Pontypool
6. Green Room
7. Anatomy of a Fall
8. Boyhood
9. Shattered Glass
10. The Host (2006 – Bong Joon-Ho)
Notes
Pontypool is still an underwatched gem, and while this might seem a strange one to be in the top ten, I think most filmmakers would understand what a trick this movie pulls off. It makes language both a weapon and our way through and it does it all in a smart, contained zombie film. This one lives rent free.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Spontaneous (dir. Brian Duffield) is a tonal tightrope of comedy, tragedy and horror. It respects the characters’ and their experience by letting them be specific weirdos we can relate to. Wouldn’t have seen a school shooting analogy as being a good time but it is a classic spoonful of sugar. Also must give love to Julia Ducournau’s hilarious, horny Raw and the mockumentary horror masterpiece Lake Mungo!
Rod Lurie
1. Pan’s Labyrinth
2. No Country for Old Men
3. The Revenant
4. Munich
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
6. City of God
7. Us
8. Anatomy of a Fall
9. Zero Dark Thirty
10. Sinners
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Black Swan and Superbad
Julia Marchese
1. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy
2. Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!
3. Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy
4. Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men
5. Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous
6. Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7. The Daniels’ Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
8. Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later
9. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road
10. Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe
Notes
I refuse to split the trilogies mentioned – as individual films they are enchanting, as a whole they are masterpieces.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Runners up: It: Chapter One, Memento, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Battle Royale, Sinners, Donnie Darko, Shaun of the Dead, Summer of Soul – and many many more!!
James Marsh
1. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
2. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
3. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
4. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)
5. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
6. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
8. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Remember His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
9. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)
10. Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)
Notes
Two films in my list stand out for the way they resonate with our own troubled times and which posit an appalling vision of where we might be heading – The Act of Killing and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
The Imposter (Bart Layton, 2012) – an astonishing story, told with great confidence and visual panache. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2012) – a mainstream film, but it’s superbly directed with an eye for deightful, eccentric details.
Jonathan Milott
1. No Country for Old Men
2. Interstellar
3. Sicario
4. Annihilation
5. Oldboy
6. Parasite
7. Arrival
8. Mad Max: Fury Road
9. Children of Men
10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Notes
Interstellar isn’t a controversial top choice but one that continues to move up my list of all time favorites. It’s epic, profound, and deeply moving on a scale that most films aren’t.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Let the Corpses Tan
Roberto Minervini
1. Silent Light (Luz Silenciosa), dir. Carlos Reygadas, 2007
2. Holy Motors, dir. Leos Carax, 2012
3. Shara (Sharasôju), dir. Naomi Kawase, 2003
4. DAU. Natasha, dir. Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel, 2020
5. The Beaches of Agnès (Les plages d’Agnès), dir. Agnès Varda, 2008
6. Blackboards (Takhté siah), dir. Samira Makhmalbaf, 2000
7. Syndromes and a Century, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006
8. La Libertad, dir. Lisandro Alonso, 2001
9. The Wayward Cloud (Tan bian yi duo yun), dir. Tsai Ming-liang, 2005
10. Lazzaro Felice (Happy as Lazzaro), dir. Alice Rohrwacher, 2018
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Dirty Feathers, dir. Carlos Corral, 2021
Sarah Elizabeth Mintz
1. Phantom Thread by Paul Thomas Anderson
2. The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke
3. Oslo, August 31st by Joachim Trier
4. Melancholia by Lars von Trier
5. Whiplash by Damien Chazelle
6. Fishtank by Andrea Arnold
7. I Am Love by Luca Guadagnino
8. God’s Own Country by Francis Lee
9. The Worst Person in the World by Joachim Trier
10. Blue Valentine by Derek Cianfrance
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (changed my life) and Weekend by Andrew Haigh
Laura Moss
1. A Serious Man
2. American Psycho
3. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
4. 28 Days Later
5. Shaun of the Dead
6. Melancholia
7. Red Rooms
8. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
9. Morvern Callar
10. Incendies
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
My Friend Dahmer
Victoria Negri
1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (can’t single one out)
2. Mulholland Drive
3. The Tree of Life
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5. Lost in Translation
6. No Country for Old Men
7. There Will Be Blood
8. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
9. Mad Max: Fury Road
10. Black Swan
Notes
Seeing Lord of the Rings when I was in high school literally changed my life and made me want to act in and make movies.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Not a deep cut really, but Dancer in the Dark (2000) is an unforgettable use of the musical medium. Killing me I didn’t include Hamnet, but it should be mentioned as a stunning work about the intersection between grief and art.
Kent Osborne
1. The American Astronaut – 2001, Cory McAbee
2. Sasquatch Sunset – 2024, Zellner Brothers
3. Nope – 2022, Jordan Peele
4. Uncut Gems – 2019, Safdie Brothers
5. We Go Way Back – 2006, Lynn Shelton
6. Waking Life – 2001, Richard Linklater
7. LOL – 2006, Joe Swanberg
8. The Catechism Cataclysm – 2011, Todd Rohal
9. Anomalisa – 2015, Charlie Kaufman
10. Sideways – 2004, Alexander Payne
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Wizards Way – 2013, Metal Man
Mike Ott
1. American Movie
2. The Five Obstructions
3. Ghost World
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Wendy and Lucy
6. Paradise Now
7. The TV Set
8. HyperNormalisation
9. Mulholland Drive
10. This Is England
Pascal Plante
1. Y Tu Mamá También (2001, Alfonso Cuarón)
2. La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000, Peter Watkins)
3. Mulholland Dr. (2001, David Lynch)
4. The New World (2005, Terrence Malick)
5. A Separation (2010, Asghar Farhadi)
6. Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019, Céline Sciamma)
7. Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)
8. The White Ribbon (2009, Michael Haneke)
9. Winter Sleep (2014, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
10. American Honey (2016, Andrea Arnold)
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Dans Ma Peau (2001, Marina de Van) and La Niña Santa (2004, Lucrecia Martel)
Randy Russell
1. Twin Peaks: The Return
2. Synecdoche, New York
3. Inside Llewyn Davis
4. Inherent Vice
5. Mulholland Drive
6. Sorry to Bother You
7. Zama
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
9. In the Mood for Love
10. Uncut Gems
Noah Schamus
1. The Zone of Interest
2. Adaptation
3. Toni Erdmann
4. Get Out
5. Spirited Away
6. Shaun of the Dead
7. Children of Men
8. The Host
9. Nickel Boys
10. Mulholland Drive
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Deep cut: The Same River Twice (2003)
Summer Shelton
1. The Quiet Girl
2. Ida
3. In the Mood for Love
4. 45 Years
5. Yi Yi
6. In the Bedroom
7. Blue Valentine
8. My Octopus Teacher
9. Fill the Void
10. Goodbye Solo
Notes
The Quiet Girl speaks volumes about love and grief. The film reminds us that silence can be a virtue. Echoing Séan’s wisdom to Cáit –that many have lost much by failing to stay silent — I will not attempt to articulate the film’s beauty, for no words could do it justice.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
1985 (dir. Yen Tan)
Leah Shore
1. Dogtooth
2. Under the Skin
3. Holy Motors
4. Melancholia
5. Enter the Void
6. Decision to Leave
7. Phantom Thread
8. The Handmaiden
9. Annihilation
10. The VVitch
Notes
Dogtooth is the perfect combination of excellent storytelling, indie filmmaking skills, impeccable cinematography, absurdity and dance.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Boarder, The Lighthouse, Coco, For Sama, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Goran Stolevski
1. Margaret
2. Talk to Her
3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
4. Brokeback Mountain
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6. Volver
7. Get Out
8. Shoplifters
9. Far from Heaven
10. Kings and Queen
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Museum Hours
Joe Swanberg
1. Jackass: The Movie (2002)
2. Force Majeure (2014)
3. The Departed (2006)
4. Fat Girl (2001)
5. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
6. Elf (2003)
7. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
8. Man on Wire (2008)
9. Finding Nemo (2003)
10. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), A Family Finds Entertainment (2004), Dig! (2004)
Sandi Tan
1. Synecdoche, New York
2. Mulholland Drive
3. 2046
4. There Will Be Blood
5. Reprise
6. Poetry
7. Tár
8. My Winnipeg
9. Zodiac
10. The Social Network
Rod Thomas
1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Knife + Heart
3. Moulin Rouge!
4. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
5. Jennifer’s Body
6. The Little Hours
7. Sinners
8. Dune
9. The Cabin in the Woods
10. The Happiness of the Katakuris
Notes
Knife + Heart is the most smart and underrated horror to me. Steeped in Giallo homage but so perfect in its balance – super sexy and funny but deeply sad and brutal. It has amazing LGBTQ representation – gay, lesbian, bi, trans … everyone is a real character. Immaculate score from M83.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Die, Mommie, Die and Psycho Beach Party by Charles Busch are insanely fun and fabulous, but I think these others are maybe ever so slightly more of a home-run.
Alex Thompson
1. Ocean’s 11 / Ocean’s 12
2. Mulholland Drive / Inland Empire
3. Caché
4. Somewhere
5. The Tree of Life
6. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
7. Melancholia
8. Personal Shopper
9. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
10. Michael Clayton
Notes
Respect, admiration, and envy. I study the Ocean’s movies as often as I do the greats of yore.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Not deep cuts by any means, but Winter Sleep, Rust and Bone, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Black Dynamite, The Green Knight and Mr. Turner are wonderful.
Constance Tsang
1. Werckmeister Harmonies
2. La Cienaga
3. In the Mood for Love
4. The Piano Teacher
5. Goodbye, Dragon Inn
6. Mulholland Drive
7. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
8. Secret Sunshine
9. The Gleaners and I
10. Y Tu Mama También
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Suzhou River, An Elephant Sitting Still
Michael Tully
1. Mulholland Drive
2. Memories of Murder
3. 35 Shots of Rum
4. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
5. Esther Kahn
6. Yi Yi
7. Tulpan
8. The New World (Extended Cut)
9. Inherent Vice
10. Keane
Notes
It is impossible to narrow this list down to 10 … aghhhhhh!!!! … but I am also content with pressing Submit on this form.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
Dawson City: Frozen Time, Pahokee, Happy as Lazzaro, War Pony, Atlantics, just to name a few.
Joshua Z Weinstein
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Inside Llewyn Davis
3. The Wolf of Wall Street
4. Yi Yi
5. Toni Erdmann
6. P’tit Quinquin
7. Grizzly Man
8. Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
9. HyperNormalisation
10. The Show About the Show
Lauren Wolkstein
1. Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Alfredson)
2. Mulholland Drive (dir. David Lynch)
3. Birth (dir. Jonathan Glazer)
4. Water Lilies (dir. Céline Sciamma)
5. Carol (dir. Todd Haynes)
6. Toni Erdmann (dir. Maren Ade)
7. Tár (dir. Todd Field)
8. Anatomy of a Fall (dir. Justine Triet)
9. Spirited Away (dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
10. The Master (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Caveh Zahedi
1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
2. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
4. The Five Obstructions (Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth)
5. The Comedy (Rick Alverson)
6. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
7. Y Tu Mama También (Alfonso Cuarón)
8. Soundtrack for a Coup D’Etat (Johan Grimonprez)
9. Letter to the Editor (Alan Berliner)
10. La Commune (Paris, 1871) (Peter Watkins)
Notes
After Alan Berliner made a mind-bogglingly brilliant love letter to the New York Times, instead of thanking him profusely, they decided to sue him for copyright infringement instead. Fuck them.
A 21st-century deep cut (or two!) that didn’t make the list but that you want to champion to all
The Redemption of General Butt Naked (Daniele Anastasion and Eric Strauss) – This is one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen, but it was not met with the adulation that it deserved.
