BBC lists Top 100 films of 21st century; 'Mulholland Drive' No. 1, Japan's 'Spirited Away' ranked No. 4

Lists like this will always be subjective.

I thought the new Mad Max was an entertaining watch, but as far as quality in a movie and acting, it didn't stand up to the Revenant at all. Yet the former is on the list, and the latter is not.

Lists like this will always be subjective.

or, opinions are like.......

Glad they put "There Will Be Blood" in the top. Haven't seen the other two flicks, but I did like Twin Peaks. Glad to see they opted out of Birman (first movie ever walked out of) and The Revenant (watched it two weeks ago...meh). “Mad Max: Fury Road”???...waste of time. “The Royal Tenenbaums” is my favorite listed here.

I just went through the whole list and have to say I agree with most of it, at least the 60 or so flicks I've seen from those 100. Also, apparently, there are quite a few gems I have yet to see. Awesome.

"Heat" (1995) should be top! Or, "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012).

Where is Predator?! Oh too old my bad! Reckoned it topped the 20th century list.

Haha incredible! Mulholland Drive finally gets some of the credit it deserves! It was definitely one of the greatest achievements in cinematic storytelling, though no.1 is a pretty bold statement.

Crap list!

It's a mainstream list. I remember the 20th list, nowhere were "Rosetta", or "Lilja 4ever", some of the best movies I ever watched, but they were not movies you could watch on theathers.

HUH! I beg to differ, strenuously.

mad max at 19... eugh

LostinNagoya

I remember the 20th list, nowhere were "Rosetta", or "Lilja 4ever"

"Rosetta" was 1999 and " Lilja 4ever" was 2002- different centuries.

I did get a little tired of those faux lame shaky camera work films that seemed to be in vogue around that time.

Having said that, I did like "Gypo" in 2005. Strange the Dogme 95 group seem to have disowned that film and many of the later works.

Just a matter of taste. Actually, no great movies were made after 1980.

Easy to dismiss this list. How could Arnold's "Hercules in New York" not make the top ten. Or have the only seen the dubbed version? Outrageous!

So many respondents here don't seem to understand what the films of the 21st century means.

@Speed We understand that films of the 21st century means the greatest movies made in 2000 or after. However, I still insist that no "great" movies have been made since 1980. It should be the "the top 100 least mediocre movies of the 21st century" list.

Horrible list.

Speed. Eh oh. Shows I don't read very well.....Twenty FIRST century... I wish you could delete your own posts on JT. But at least I got to plug Arnold's best movie...

Great to see In The Mood For Love on this. However. It's not like the list was made by Sarris, Godard, Truffaut, Scorsese, or Lynch or the Coen's. Now a list that included why, would be good reading. Let's put it this way. Rolling Stone's U.S. edition has never had Tom Waits on the cover. Go to eBay and buy some smart magazine issues from the 60's. Even the fifties. Esquire. Downbeat. The Atlantic. Cahiers du Cinema. Film Forum.

Loved Mulholland Drive. I don't fully understand what it was about, even after reading a few Internet synopses, but damned if I wasn't completely engrossed the whole way through.

As others have noted, any list like this will be subjective. Also, any list done by the BBC will inherently have a bias that reflects British or even European tastes. Not saying that is bad, just making an observation. Imagine if, say, PBS were to publish a list. I guarantee you it would be different and would be somewhat more American. Not in the origin of the films selected, but more in terms of American critics' sentiments on these things.

For sure those lists are subjective. Any such list by the BBC is bound to be biased and subject to a liberal, extremely left-wing outlook. The BBC is one of the most biased news media I have ever seen, and that included the state controlled Chinese media, the NY Times, Pravda, Fox News, CNN and this site. Everything is viewed by their own particular bias and prejudices. I have seen hundred of lists of the supposedly "best" or "greatest" films and lots of the films on them are pure garbage.

Is Zhang Yimou's "Hero" on that list?

Is Zhang Yimou's "Hero" on that list?

Love that movie.

If someone in 1916 had done a list of the best films of that century, it would be a pointless exercise.

Just like someone doing int in 2016 and calling it "best of the century"

dcog9065AUG. 26, 2016 - 10:45AM JST Haha incredible! Mulholland Drive finally gets some of the credit it deserves!

I guess I'll have to watch it a third time to see what I missed. As LA based noir goes, L.A. Confidential was a much better movie.

Let's make a list of the best film critics. For our children's children.

Don't want to be picky, but films from 2000 shouldn't be in a 21st century list...

Muholland Drive just haunts you in a way that most movies can't. It's like "The Trial" by Kafka.

A lot of the movies on the list seem kind of brooding. L.A. Confidential should be there somewhere.

Spike Lee’s “25th Hour” is the only movie by an African-American to make the list

What is that supposed to mean? Sounds like someone is trying to make something out of nothing. Although not an African-America, I'm pretty sure you'll find that England's Steve McQueen is black.

oh man. So many listicles coming out these days that are just striving, clutching at revisionism and re-evaluation of art. A few years ago, Rolling Stone did the same thing with BEST DRUMMERS, BEST SONG, etc. and you could kind of see the PC denizens come out in droves to rewrite the history of rock and roll. Because yo... it is a new century.

Now the BBC does the same with film, and all of a sudden, Woody Allen, Pasolini, and I am betting Polanski have been pushed aside to make way for..... Mulholland Drive? Because yo... it is a new century.

I had heard so much about it, and I am surprised to see so much love for that movie here. What a hot mess. Lynch just shoots some this and that in an addled way and puts in an oblique twist and TADA! It is art. I don't find it to be enduring or particularly memorable. Somebody voted it way up, so it must have its fans, but.... I have watched it one too many times. I want my two hours back. (I think Lynch is a self-absorbed fake, just like the people you would meet on Mulholland Drive, which is why Lynch movies look so LA, if you ask me..)

I have two methods of "evaluating a movie" aside from just seeing it. Unfortunately, Roger Ebert is gone. He was a very reliable, but not perfect, compass for so long. Now it is Rotten Tomatoes. I don't think it ranks movies per se, but it can show you whether you can appreciate a movie or not. It used to be that Shawshank Redemption had the highest evaluation of any movie ever. OK. I don't agree, but OK. Freddy got Fingered? Pretty bad. And RTomatoes will show that. Gems like Fury Road and Spirited Away don't get the raw numbers that they deserve on RTomatoes, but if you read the comments and critiques, you can find people who appreciate the films for what they are. And that is all I care about.

But yo.... it is a new century. Anything made before 2000 has suddenly become unwatchable. And here we are with a list that includes the Royal Tenenbaums but no Sweeney Todd. And where is I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS?

Mulholland Drive is great. It's not a movie you should 'get'. Like any great film, it demands repeated viewings. Each time you watch, granted you keep your mind open and inquisitive, you will get more. And more. And more. The mark of an exceptional film is one that never gets old. One that works on an inexhaustible number of semiotic and emotional levels.

PT Anderson is brilliant. IMO The Master should be rated higher. Beautiful.