Crowdsourcing UP's Favorite Movies (NOW ACCEPTING RANKINGS: the 2000s)

We are compiling consensus community rankings of various decades of movies history (potentially moving on to an all-time ranking at some point).

Nothing complicated is happening here. There are two phases to ranking a decade:

  1. The brainstorming phase: just name as many movies as you feel should be considered for ranking when the voting starts. No wrong answers. Participating in this phase is not a requirement for voting. It is, however, a good idea to participate if you particularly want to ensure that specific movies from that decade are considered by the community when we start voting.
  2. The ranking phase: participants will PM me their top 20 list from the decade we’re working on. In order. All films from this decade are eligible whether they came up during the brainstorming phase or not. 1st place votes count more than 2nd place votes, which count more than 3rd place votes, etc. Don’t worry too much about this part; I’ll do the tabulating.

After these phases are complete: sit back, relax, and enjoy the reveal.

CURRENT PHASE: Currently accepting top-20 rankings for the 2000s. PM them directly to me. Deadline for submission is Saturday, March 21, at 7:00 AM ET.

Master 2000s list (all feature-length 2000s releases are eligible whether they are on this list or not):
2046
21 Grams
25th Hour
28 Days Later
300
3:10 To Yuma
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Adaptation
The Agronomist
Almost Famous
Amelie
American Gangster
American Psycho
American Splendor
Amores Perros
Amélie
Anchorman
Apocalypto
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
Australia
Avatar
The Aviator
Babel
Bad Lieutenant : Port of Call New Orleans
Bad Santa
Batman Begins
Battlestar Galactica The Plan
A Beautiful Mind
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Before Sunset
Bend It Like Beckham
Best in Show
Birth
Black Hawk Down
Blow
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Brick
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Brokeback Mountain
Bubba Ho-Tep
Burn After Reading
Cache
Capturing the Freidmans
Casino Royale
Cast Away
Catch Me if You Can
The Cell
Chicago
Children of Men
Choke
City of God
Collateral
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
The Cooler
Coraline
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dancer in the Dark
The Darjeeling Limited
The Dark Knight
Day after Tomorrow
Dead Man’s Shoes
Death to Smoochy
The Departed
The Descent
The Devil’s Rejects
District 9
Donnie Darko
Doubt
Downfall
Dream Girls
Eastern Promises
Elf
Enemy at the Gates
Enter the Void
Equilibrium
Erin Brockovich
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Eurotrip
Extraordinary stories
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Femme Fatale
Finding Nemo
Gangs Of New York
Gerry
The Girl Next Door
Gladiator
Good Night and Good Luck
Hangover
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harsh Times
Hedwig & the Angry Inch
Hero
High Fidelity
A History of Violence
The Host
Hostel
Hot Fuzz
Hotel Rwanda
House of Flying Daggers
Howl’s Moving Castle
The Hurt Locker
Hustle and Flow
Idiocracy
In Bruges
In the mood for love
In the Valley of Elah
The Incredibles
Infernal Affairs
The Informant
Inglourious Basterds
Inland Empire
Inside Job
Inside Man
Insomnia
Into the Wild
Iron Man
The Italian Job
Jarhead
Juno
Kangaroo Jack
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2
King of Kong
The Kingdom
A Knight’s Tale
Kung Fu Hustle
L4yer Cake
Lady in the water
Lady Vengeance
Last King of Scotland
Legally Blonde
Let the Right One In
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Little Children
Little Miss Sunshine
The Lives of Others
Looper
Lost in Translation
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
LOTR: The Return of the King
LOTR: The Two Towers
Love Actually
Love and Basketball
The Machinist
Malena
Man on Wire
Master and Commander
Match Point
Matrix Reloaded
Matrix Revolutions
Mean Girls
Meet The Parents
Memento
Memories of Murder
Miami Vice
Michael Clayton
Millenium Mambo
Million Dollar Baby
Minority Report
Miss Congeniality
Monster
Mother
Moulin Rouge!
Mulholland Drive
Munich
My Sassy Girl
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
Mysterious skin
Napoleon Dynamite
The New World
No Country For Old Men
No End in Sight
Not Another Teen Movie
O Brother Where Art Thou
Ocean’s 11
Ocean’s 12
Ocean’s 13
Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
Oldboy
Once
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Owning Mahowny
Pan’s Labyrinth
Paprika
The Patriot
Persepolis
The Pianist
Pitch Black
A Prairie Home Companion
The Prestige
Pride & Prejudice
PTU
Pulse
Punch-Drunk Love
Pursuit of Happyness
Ratatouille
Redbelt
Requiem for a Dream
Revolutionary Road
The Ring
Road to Perdition
Roger Dodger
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Rundown
A Scanner Darkly
Scary Movie
School of Rock
The Score
Serenity
A Serious Man
Sexy beast
Shaun of the Dead
Sherlock Holmes
Shrek
Signs
The Simpsons Movie
Sin City
Slumdog Millionaire
Snatch
Solaris
Songs from the Second Floor
Southland Tales
Spartan
Speed Racer
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Spirited Away
The Squid and the Whale
Star Trek
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
The Station Agent
Step Brothers
Superbad
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Syriana
Talk to Her
The Tao of Steve
Team America: World Police
Thank You For Not Smoking
There Will Be Blood
Time and Tide
Traffic
Training Day
The Transporter
The Triplets of Bellville
Tropic Thunder
Unbreakable
United 93
Up
V for Vendetta
V is for Vendetta
The Village
Vincere
Waking Life
WALL-E
War of the Worlds
We Own the Night
Wedding Crashers
Wendy and Lucy
Whale Rider
White Oleander
Winged Migration
The Wrestler
X-Men Origins Wolverine
X2
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Yi Yi
Zodiac
Zombieland
Zoolander

Completed Rankings:
‎Unstuck Politics Top 20 of the 1970s • Letterboxd
‎Unstuck Politics Top 21 of the 1990s • Letterboxd
‎Unstuck Politics Top 20 of the 2010s • Letterboxd

8 Likes

I’ll start (again, mine are in no ranked order whatsoever and this will surely not reflect an order of my ranking):

Se7en
Before Sunrise
Dazed and Confused
A Few Good Men
The Shawshank Redemption
Notting Hill
The Insider
The Silence of the Lambs
Titanic
The Big Lebowski
Jackie Brown
Goodfellas
Legends of the Fall
Pulp Fiction
Jurassic Park
Fargo
Casino
Malcolm X
Reservoir Dogs
Thelma & Louise
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Remains of the Day
Meet Joe Black
Schindler’s List
Heat

7 Likes

Cronenberg had a hall of fame run in the 90s; Naked Lunch, M. Butterfly, Crash and eXistenZ all home runs, each better then the last.

1 Like

3 Likes

Just putting stuff I don’t see on LKJ’s list that I think are at least worthy of consideration:

Saving Private Ryan
Apollo 13
Forrest Gump
The Matrix
Fight Club
LA Confidential
Trainspotting
Terminator 2
American History X
The Lion King
Clueless
Groundhog Day
Office Space
The Usual Suspects
Toy Story
Princess Mononoke
Run Lola Run
Unforgiven

5 Likes

Miller’s Crossing
Swingers
Good Will Hunting
Jerry Maguire
Scream
The Rock
Con Air

1 Like

L.A. Story
Misery
Thelma and Louise
The Usual Suspects
L.A. Confidential
Pump Up the Volume
Quick Change
The Paper
Philadelphia
The Shawshank Redemption
Good Will Hunting
A Few Good Men
Saving Private Ryan
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Notting Hill
Pretty Woman
Rushmore
Election
Braveheart
Schindler’s List
The Silence of the Lambs
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Unforgiven
Quiz Show
Rounders
Fight Club
Se7en
Boyz N the Hood
The Truman Show
Toy Story
Jerry Maguire
A League of Their Own
That Thing You Do!
Can’t Hardly Wait
10 Things I Hate About You

2 Likes

Maybe a little off-topic because it’s not one of my favorites and I don’t think it’s one of the best movies of the 90s, but I stumbled across this trailer the other day and I couldn’t think of a movie that LOOKS more 90s than this

3 Likes

Note: people shouldn’t worry too much about whether a movie has been posted before they mention it (potentially again). I can put together a master list and nuke duplicates before posting it.

Just looked through the International/foreign language Oscar nominees to see if I’d missed anything, and I haven’t seen a single one. (Compared with 9 already in the 2020s)

Is world cinema actually better now, or just more accessible? I’m assuming it’s the latter.

I haven’t seen most of the 90s nominees either, so I can’t make a value judgment. I still have too many blind spots. But I would also guess it’s mostly an availability thing, because I don’t particularly like the foreign films of today better than I like a long list of pre-90s foreign films.

The Academy also isn’t the greatest barometer, and especially weren’t in the past. Wong Kar-wai isn’t showing up anywhere in that list, and lots of people absolutely love, e.g., Chungking Express (1994).

2 Likes

whoops i cant read

1 Like

Straight Story

Lost Highway

Funny Games (1997)

Hate (La Haine)

Breaking the Waves

The Celebration (Festen)

Black Cat, White Cat

Delicatessen

Life is Beautiful

Insomnia

Fucking Amal

Lovers of the polar circle (Los amantes del CĂ­rculo Polar)

Open your eyes (Abre los ojos)

Underground

Most of these are international films of the 90s that are worthy of consideration.

2 Likes

It shames me that I’ve only seen two of those.

Some are weird, others disturbing, some graphic, others intense or romantic but they’re all worth watching. I don’t know how easy you can stream them.

I’ve somehow watched more movies than LKJ on a list? Clocked in at 7.

Cool concept, will post later. Just watched pulp fiction again - still great.

1 Like

Magnolia

3 Likes

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Office Space

My Cousin Vinny

Scream

The Sixth Sense

Beauty and the Beast

Tombstone

Titanic

Dazed and Confused

2 Likes

The Sixth Sense
Mission: Impossible
Austin Powers
Arlington Road
Primal Fear
As Good as It Gets

1 Like