So, it's finally happened: we've survived the first 21 years of the 21st century (sort of). In addition to the new developments in technology of last two decades (the universality of the smart phone, which has, in addition to turning humans into mindless zombies, also transformed us into the ultimate know-it-alls, fake wise men and women who carry the entire encyclopedia of human history in the palm of our hands - literally), we've also witnessed the birth of more than a few excellent motion pictures.
The fact that about half of the films listed below were not a product of Hollywood, but of the world outside of USA, gives me some comfort, truth be told (as it should give the same to you; and here I'm specifically addressing fanatics of everything commercial and popular who dare not watch a movie with subtitles 🤨).
You will see that I've listed 10 foreign films, and 11 English speaking movies, an arrangement that I tried to balance as much as possible by watching three or four foreign films for every 10 Hollywood products each year. I believe this to be the fairest of assessments of everything out there, but unfortunately, there's still loads of stuff that I never got to see, either due to lack of time, lack of availability of international cinema in the commercial market, or simple laziness on my part.
So, are there any essential movies that I failed to mention? How many on here do not belong? Is anything overrated? Underrated?
Comment bellow, and let's open up a discussion.
1. Der Leben das Anderen / The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006. Florian Henckel von Donnersmark)
In the early 1980s days of communist East Germany, government agent Wiesler (Urlich Müche) wiretaps the apartment of a writer, Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), and proceeds to listen in on the artist's life. Loyal to his Stasi leaders to the core, Wiesler's tough exterior slowly begins to soften, as he's moved by Dreyman's writings and his music, and at the same time disillusioned by the hypocrisy displayed by his party's superiors. The final act, in which Dreyman's Sonata for a Good Man at long last falls into the hands of the one who inspired it, should have you fighting back tears (if not, you'll need to check your pulse). The Lives of Others may just be the perfect examination of a man who, sacrificing everything to save those he was supposed to ruin, eventually ends up finding his own soul in the most moving way imaginable.
2. Inglorious Basterds (USA, 2006. Quentin Tarantino)
You can rest assured that when Quenting Tarantino, the most original living American filmmaker, decides to change the course of World War 2 history, the result will, almost certainly, be riveting, unpredictable, and above all... just pure entertaining as hell! In Inglorious Basterds, Lieutenant Aldo Raine's (Brad Pitt) titular group of soldiers scalp and bash the brains of any Nazi they encounter, but the real showstopper here is Hans "The Jew Hunter" Landa (Christoph Waltz), an SS officer whose charisma and multilingual skills will both charm and terrify you. The last shot, where Raine proudly says, "This just might be my masterpiece", may as well be Tarantino talking about this film, and deservedly so.
3. The Dark Knight (USA, 2008. Christopher Nolan)
A Shakespearean tragedy masquerading as a superhero film. Or is it the other way around? Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy elevated the Caped Crusader from a comic book mortal to a complex character who is fearful, doubtful and who eventually succumbs to extreme pain - characteristics unheard of in a hero wearing tights. Add to the mix an archaic villain (Heath Ledger's Joker) whose only purpose and inspiration is to create "chaos", and what you're left with is a thoroughly exciting action film where the drama supersedes the spectacle. Superhero genre (DC or Marvel) has never produced a better product - and likely never will.
4. Oldboy (South Korea, 2003. Park Chan-wook)
A South Korean movie that truly emphasizes the old proverb, Revenge is a dish best served cold, Chan-wook's drama is, quite possibly, the most thorough movie about revenge we've ever seen. As a man who's been mysteriously locked up in a room for fifteen years, Oh Dae-su (Choi Min Sik), upon his sudden release, is angry, confused and curious as ever for answers. By the time he discovers who his captor was, and the elaborate reasons behind it, he, and the audience along with him, will have gone through an experience similar to a nightmarish euphoria (just an FYI: the 2013 American remake is a forgettable mess in comparison). A movie that has to be seen to be believed (that's not an exaggeration).
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (USA, 2004. Michel Gondry)
Film critic Owen Gleiberman, upon this film's release in 2004, said, "...it's a movie that will bend your mind and break your heart...", and a more perfect description of Charlie Kaufman's best screenplay has never been uttered. As a couple whose relationship has deteriorated to the point where Clementine (Kate Winslet) chooses to have her memories of her ex Joel (Jim Carrey) completely erased, the two leads create a love story that's so fascinating because it's the complete opposite of perfect. Director Michel Gondry presents the memory erasure scenes as a waking dream that slowly turns into a messy nightmare, then eventually fades away with the morning sun. Tennyson's poem, it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved of all, has never been more perfectly captured in a movie.
6. Hable con Ella / Talk to Her (Spain, 2002, Pedro Almodovar)
Two men, Marco (Dario Grandinetti) and Benigno (Javier Camara) are in love with two women who are both in a coma. As they wait for them to wake, they talk to the women (who may or may not be able to hear them) they ponder the meaning of life, death, love, and their own existence. Pedro Almodovar's best film is a meditation on mystery, unexplained infatuation and the lengths that some will go to sacrifice themselves for complete strangers. It's a most lyrical love story in which loss and the subsequent recovery of that loss can fill one with an optimistic hope.
7. Foxtrot (Israel, 2017. Samuel Maoz)
A middle aged Tel Aviv couple (Lior Ashkenazi and Sarah Adler) receive news that their son, Jonathan (Yonathan Shiray) who was serving in the army, has died. What exactly happened to him? Was he murdered, or was his death an unfortunate accident? As director Samuel Maoz takes us back to the desolate checkpoint where Jonathan was stationed, we witness the pure absurdity of the military through an accident where innocent people were slaughtered, and the ensuing cover-up that followed. It's not until the very final shot that we realize Foxtrot's message of you reap what you saw could not have been presented more prudently.
8. Memories of Murder (South Korea, 2003. Bong Joon-ho)
Sure, David Fincher has made some terrific serial-killer-chased-by-curious-detective movies (Seven, Zodiac), but they all pale in comparison with Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder. In a small South Korean town, a murderer targets young women, rapes them, then leaves their corpses to be found in the vast country fields. The detectives assigned on the case are clumsy, unsure of themselves, and even a little dull (in other words, they're all too human). The movie's ending may leave some unsatisfied, for not everything is solved and wrapped up nicely the way it often is in Hollywood, but the stare given by the lead detective at the very end is chilling nonetheless, and all too real. It will leave you feeling much the same way.
9. Match Point (USA, 2005. Woody Allen)
Who would've thought that Woody Allen's best movie would be the one that doesn't feature him in any of the roles? This tale of a failed tennis professional, Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Myers) who worms his way into the upper class London society by smooching to the rich parents of "plain-Jane" Chloe (Emily Mortimer), a girl he "likes". But once he catches a glimpse of the seductive Nola (Scarlett Johansson), Chris decides that he's gonna have his cake and eat it, too. The complications that follow are on par with Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, presenting us with a climax that may be hard to watch and still support the protagonist's plight. Match Point was the best movie in a year (2005) that had sooo many excellent candidates, and that's saying a lot.
10. Mad Max: Fury Road (Australia, 2015. George Miller)
Who would've thought that, thirty years after the last Mad Max movie, a much older George Miller would go and put out something like this? Substituting Mel Gibson with the Brit Tom Hardy in the titular role, the Australian filmmaker's fourth installment in the post-apocalyptic Australian desert brings us even more enthralling car chases, mesmerizing sets of punks rocking guitars while elevated on fast-moving vehicles, and an unforgettable villain, Immortan Joe, whose appearance is part Bane, and part masked Hannibal Lecter. Fury Road is an astonishing action spectacle, an extravaganza of speed, color and wheels that you may wanna watch with a fastened seatbelt.
11. Wall-E (USA, 2008. Andrew Stanton)
The most ambitious Pixar movie presents us with the ultimate consumerism nightmare: a futuristic Earth overstuffed with trash, leaving the whole mess for the titular singular robot to clean up, while humanity travels across the universe in a gigantic spaceship, abandoning any and all responsibility for the disaster they've left behind. In addition to being a touching romance between Wall-E and the more advanced robot, Eve, this animated wonder also evokes the prophetic message of 2001: A Space Odyssey: that future AI machines, given enough power and leverage, may indeed overtake humanity at some point. It's a possibility certainly worth thinking about.
12. A Touch of Sin / 天注定 (China, 2013. Jia Zhangke)
China's most audacious, most honest film presents us with situations stocked with conflicts and violence that the CCP would dare not want anyone to see (just how Jia Zhangke was able to get it made and released is beyond me). In A Touch of Sin, a young factory worker is blackmailed by his co-workers, and also pressured by his parents to provide for them; a fed up masseuse goes all Howard Beale and decides to not take it anymore!; a furious miner goes shot-gun crazy against a company that's betrayed him by blasting everyone in sight. The film explores the constant frustration and desperation of the lower classes, and the underlying corruption always present in Chinese bureaucracy and the upper echelons of society. By the time it's over you'd have witnessed, more or less, the microcosm of modern day China.
13. United 93 (USA, 2006. Paul Greengrass)
No modern filmmaker can reenact recent global tragedies quite like Paul Greengrass, and in United 93, his docu-drama about 9/11, he (practically literally) takes the audience on a ride on a doomed United airplane that crashed in the fields of Pennsylvania after its passengers took on the terrorists. The movie feels so real that it creates a certain level of discomfort: during my first theatrical viewing of it, several people walked out, and those who stayed until the end were sick to their stomachs. This is all the more credit to Greengrass, who, aware of how many innocent people were murdered on that tragic day, wanted to make the audience feel just a little of their dread. Needless to say, in that, he's succeeded triumphantly. As important a movie about an American tragedy as there is.
14. All the Real Girls (USA, 2003. David Gordon Green)
Along with Sunshine, this is the new millennium's most unusual, unpredictable love story. When a small town womanizer, Paul (Paul Schneider), begins to spend more time with his best friend's younger sister, Noel (Zooey Deschanel), who has returned home from boarding school, he's suddenly forced to deal with feelings completely alien to him. Noel is unlike any woman he's ever met, but alas, she's a virgin. So what is this lifelong playa to do? David Gordon Green's second movie is his very best: a drama about the maturation of a man who never really wanted to grow up, but was forced to anyway. The viewer is left to decide whether his transformation will benefit him in the long run.
16. Edge of Tomorrow (USA, 2014. Doug Liman)
This futuristic, time-shifting, alien invasion hybrid proves that, whether you like him or not, Tom Cruise's charisma can indeed elevate an otherwise average concept to larger-than-life sci-fi/action film. As he resets the day during a monstrous battle of an alien invasion of Earth every time he dies, Major William Cage (Cruise), aided by a fitter-than-hell Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), displays emotions of despair and improvisation that completely overshadow those of Bill Murray's Phil Connors in the original day-reset classic, Groundhog Day. Edge of Tomorrow is an invigorating, thrilling experience, and its star deserves most of the credit.
17. Jagten / The Hunt (Denmark, 2012. Thomas Vinterberg)
Hell hath no fury like a child scorned, or so Thomas Vinterberg's excellent drama would have you believe. When a young kindergarten child feels neglected by her teacher Lucas (a superb Mads Mikkelsen), her dark imagination takes over and she accuses him of an improper sexual gesture. Did he do it? I mean... could he have? It's not long before Lucas' life gets turned upside-down and his society nearly destroys him completely. The closing shot, set in the woods, is both frightening and prophetic, and will likely stay with you long after the movie's over.
18. Requiem for a Dream (US, 2000. Darren Aronofsky)
Darren Aronofsky's engrossing movie, based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., compares the addiction between pharmaceutical drugs users and the illegal narcotics obtained by fiends in the most captivating ways imaginable. Playing the mother of a heroin addict Harry (Jared Leto), Ellen Burstyn gives one of the most unforgettable performances in the history of cinema, as her character succumbs to prescribed amphetamines that crush her reality utterly. Jennifer Connelly, as Harry's girlfriend, conveys the desperate depths she'd go through to get her next high: she'd practically jump straight to hell for a quick momentary fix. Add to the mix an erie, haunting score by Clint Mansell, and what you're left is one of the most intense moviegoing experiences of this century.
19. Inside Llewyn Davis (USA, 2013. Ethan & Joel Coen)
Even though the Coen brothers were more celebrated for the overrated No Country for Old Men back in 2007, their real masterpiece of the 21st century was this meditation on the 1960s New York music scene, conveyed with untypical mastery by its lead, Oscar Isaac (in the titular character role), whose singing is a genius in its own right. Llewyn Davis is talented musician, but he still finds himself on the outside looking in, witnessing lesser talents ahead of him simply because their mediocrity panders more easily to the mainstream public. As photographed masterfully by cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis is a brilliant, insightful examination of a man searching for himself (and a red cat) in a sea of loneliness, snow and eccentricity (John Goodman somehow always steals every scene in every Coen brothers' film). A movie that can be enjoyed even with one's eyes closed.
20. Cidade de Deus / City of God (Brazil, 2002. Fernando Meirelles)
Every film connoisseur knows that the defining gangster movie of our time is Goodfellas, but if any movie comes close to replicating the experience of the brutal gang underworld, it is Meirelles's sprawling masterpiece about Rio De Janeiro's inner city hoodlums. Shot in a gritty, grainy style that resembles a product from another era altogether, City of God evokes the lyrical structure of the finest South American literature, its narrative leaping back and forth, and taking the viewer on a most extraordinary experience to the place none of us would otherwise dare to go. Has there ever been a better movie from Brazil? You tell me.
21. Capharnaüm / Capernaum (Lebanon, 2018. Nadine Labaki)
There are moments in Capharnaüm where two children, the adolescent Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) and an infant Yonas (a baby, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole), are spending many days (perhaps even weeks) unsupervised in a meager shack, struggling to find food, as they wait for Yonas' mother (who has been detained by authorities) to return. Director Labaki films these scenes with such authentic grit that it's hard to imagine just how she got such young performers to appear so... real. The central point of focus in this authentic drama about homeless children's plight in modern Lebanon are the eyes of its protagonist, Zain; Rafeea is a potential child superstar in the making, if there ever was one. Like a post-modern Oliver Twist, he commands the screen with raw presence of the late Heath Ledger, and if he was an American actor working in Hollywood, he'd be proclaimed the next James Dean, for sure.
