On a week where it seems like the entire industry has taken off for Passover and Easter, THR decided to shake the lame news cycle up by posting a list of their best films of the 21st century.
The first thing I noticed, after scrolling through this list of 50 films, are two notable omissions: Joel Coen’s “No Country for Old Men” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood.” No 21st century list can be complete without these two.
To put “Black Panther” on there instead feels damn-near blasphemous. Hell, there’s plenty of other superior superhero movies I’d have preferred to see on there than ‘Panther,’ such as “Spider-Man 2” and “The Dark Knight.”
I guess the critics that make these sort of lists are going to keep pretending that “Black Panther” is the masterpiece that it isn’t. Including it because of its cultural impact is one thing, but quality-wise? Give me a break.
They’ve also inserted “Bridesmaids” in the top 50, again, purely due to cultural impact. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I found it to be a very funny movie, but it’s nowhere near an all-timer as far as I’m concerned.
There’s also no “Mad Max: Fury Road”. No Scorsese. No Tarantino. No Nolan. No Spielberg. No Malick. Ditto marquee world filmmakers such as Jia Zhangke, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Asghar Farhadi, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Hou Hsiao-Hsien are missing. What a mess.
Hey, at least Edward Yang’s incredible generational epic “Yi Yi” topped the list. That’s a very inspired choice. An underseen 3-hour film that very much deserves to be called a masterpiece.
Here’s the sampling top 20. You can find the full list here. It was all put together by THR’s six main critics: Jon Frosch, David Rooney, Sheri Linden, Lovia Gyarkye, Leslie Felperin and Jordan Mintzer.
“Yi Yi” (Edward Yang)
“Inside Llewyn Davis” (Joel Coen)
“The Gleaners and I” (Agnes Varda)
“Zodiac” (David Fincher)
“Mulholland Drive” (David Lynch)
“Spirited Away” (Hayao Miyazaki)
“Brokeback Mountain” (Ang Lee)
“In the Mood For Love” (Wong Kar-Wai)
“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” (Cristi Mungiu)
“Get Out” (Jordan Peele)
“Boyhood” (Richard Linklater)
“Moonlight” (Barry Jenkins)
“Burning” (Lee Chang Dong)
“WALL-E” (Andrew Stanton)
“The Power of the Dog” (Jane Campion)
“Eternal Sunshine of the …” (Michel Gondry)
“Talk to Her” (Pedro Almodovar)
“Shoplifters” (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
“Drive My Car” (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
“Far From Heaven” (Todd Haynes)
Of course, we all know the rule: take these reactions with a grain of salt rather than treating them as gospel. Still, I will say that the film tested like gangbusters earlier this year, and Lionsgate clearly has confidence.