One Best Movies of the 21st Century (so far)

Let's face it, the 21st century has really sucked so far. It started off with a contentious election and then the worst terrorist attack in American history. We had two unnecessary costly wars, a pandemic and introduction of the worst two-word phrase in the English language: President Trump. But what has been great is our art, namely movies ... hence I've come up with this list of the 100 best films of the century so far. I love making lists. 

Coming up with a list like this is a Herculean task. I started it about a year ago. I did spill over to 104 because I couldn't decide which four films to knock off the list, so I just left them there. I also included 2025 and 2000 so, technically, it is 26 years. 

My biases show on this list. A good many of these picks have a sci-fi / supernatural element to them. Seven in the top 11 have either vampires, aliens or elves.  I gave up on the vampire genre quite a while ago because it was getting very tiring and formulaic, but there were three great vampire films so far in this century: Sinners, Let Me In and Let the Right One In. The latter two are basically the same film; one is American and the other Swedish. I am back in on vampire films. 

I adopted a child a few years ago, so my other bias is there are fantastic children's films on the list this is mostly due to the fact I am watching more of them. You may also notice there are some obvious exclusions: no Star Wars, Star Trek or Avatar. I didn't forget these. They just didn't make the cut along with Gladiator. Not a fan. 

Another bias: there are five Marvel films and only two DC. This is because Marvel is so much better than DC ... obviously.

No doubt I have forgotten some and will want to revisit later. Enjoy! 

1. Get Out
2. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
3. Lord of the Rings: The Followship of the Ring
4. Moonlight
5. Sinners
6. Amelie
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox
8. Almost Famous
9. Let the Right One In
10. Let Me In
11. Arrival
12. Sideways
13. Midnight In Paris
14. The Lives of Others
15. Y tu mamá también
16. Anora
17. The Florida Project
18. Lost In Translation
19. Birdman
20. Parasite
21. The Big Short
22. Training Day
23. Inglorious Bastards
24. Spiderman 2 (2004)
25. Memento
26. Guardians of the Galaxy
27. Bugonia
28. Spotlight
29. The Visitor
30. Lady Bird
31. Best in Show
32. School of Rock
33. Up
34. Vanilla Sky
35. Black Hawk Down
36. Beasts of the Southern Wild
37. The Road
38. Black Panther
39. Gravity
40. Pan's Labyrinth
41. Moneyball
42. Roma
43. Donnie Darko
44. Kill Bill Vol. I
45. The Big Sick
46. The Martian
47. Room
48. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Danish version)
49. 12 Years a Slave
50. Zone of Interest
51. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
52. Mean Girls
53. Knocked Up
54. In the Loop
55. Billy Eliot
56. I, Tonya
57. True Grit (2010)
58. Adaptation
59. Hugo
60. Interstellar
61. Blue Jasmine
62. Whiplash
63. Thank You for Smoking
64. Lars and the Real Girl
65. American Psycho
66. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
67. Edge of Tomorrow
68. Manchester by the Sea
69. Mud
70. High Fidelity
71. The Cabin in the Woods
72. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
73. Hotel Rwanda
74. Slumdog Millionaire
75. Moon
76. The Ring
77. Boyhood
78. Anatomy of a Fall
79. Whale Rider
80. O Brother Where Art Thou
81. Life of Pi
82. The Worst Person in the World
83. District 9
84. Django Unchained
85. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
86. Avengers: Endgame
87. Inside Out
88. Wadjda
89. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
90. Little Miss Sunshine
91. Paddington 2
92. September 5
93. Palm Springs
94. Joker
95. Shrek
96. A Complete Unknown
97. Knocked Up
98. Shop Girl
99. Garden State
100. Watchmen
101. Half Nelson
102. Kick Ass
103. Quiet Place
104. I Am Legend