* Best Films of 21st Century Thus Far
Divided nearly evenly between English and Foreign language films and presented chronologically (ranking in the arts is frankly ridiculous), the list includes both well known, recognized and popular titles with overlooked and under appreciated films. This list does not mirror the herd mentality consensus among professional film critics who prefer to list culturally branded films recognized by their peers. Professional critics prefer the safety of numbers. By all means compare the lists offered by NY Times, and critic surveys by BBC and They Shoot Pictures Don't They website for a completely different assessment of films of 21st Century thus far.
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- DirectorJim SheridanStarsPaddy ConsidineSamantha MortonDjimon HounsouA family of Irish immigrants adjust to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsEric BanaDaniel CraigMarie-Josée CrozeAfter the Black September capture and massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, five men are chosen to eliminate the people responsible for that fateful day.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsSean PennTim RobbinsKevin BaconThe tragic murder of a 19-year-old girl reunites three childhood friends still living in Boston--the victim's gangster father, a detective, and the disturbed man they both suspect of killing her.
- DirectorStephen GaghanStarsGeorge ClooneyMatt DamonAmanda PeetA politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it.
- DirectorTom McCarthyStarsRichard JenkinsHaaz SleimanDanai GuriraA college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.
- DirectorKenneth LonerganStarsLaura LinneyMatthew BroderickAmy RyanA single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely seen younger brother returns to town.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodBee VangChristopher CarleyAfter a Hmong teenager tries to steal his prized 1972 Gran Torino, a disgruntled, prejudiced Korean War veteran seeks to redeem both the boy and himself.
- DirectorDebra GranikStarsJennifer LawrenceJohn HawkesGarret DillahuntAn unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
- DirectorAlexander PayneStarsGeorge ClooneyShailene WoodleyAmara MillerA land baron tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.
- DirectorAlexander PayneStarsBruce DernWill ForteJune SquibbAn aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million-dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.
- DirectorTom McCarthyStarsMark RuffaloMichael KeatonRachel McAdamsThe true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
- DirectorDavid MackenzieStarsChris PineBen FosterJeff BridgesToby is a divorced father who's trying to make a better life. His brother is an ex-con with a short temper and a loose trigger finger. Together, they plan a series of heists against the bank that's about to foreclose on their family ranch.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
- DirectorWalter SallesStarsJosé DumontRodrigo SantoroRita AssemanyWhen ordered by his father to avenge the death of his older brother, a young man questions the tradition of violence between two rival families.
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsUlrich MüheMartina GedeckSebastian KochIn 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
- DirectorAgnès JaouiStarsMarilou BerryJean-Pierre BacriAgnès JaouiA french girl gifted with a great voice, has a complex about her weight and her appearance.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsKen TakakuraKiichi NakaiShinobu TerajimaA Japanese father travels to China's Yunnan province in the place of his ailing son to film a folk-opera singer.
- DirectorPaolo SorrentinoStarsToni ServilloAnna BonaiutoGiulio BosettiThe story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
- DirectorAndrew LauAlan MakStarsAndy LauTony Leung Chiu-waiAnthony Chau-Sang WongA story between a mole in the police department and an undercover cop. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop.
- DirectorPawel PawlikowskiStarsAgata KuleszaAgata TrzebuchowskaDawid OgrodnikA novice nun about to take her vows uncovers a family secret dating back to the German occupation.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsAndré WilmsBlondin MiguelJean-Pierre DarroussinWhen an African boy arrives by cargo ship in the port city of Le Havre, an aging shoe shiner takes pity on the child and welcomes him into his home.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsKôki MaedaOshiro MaedaRyôga HayashiTwelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.
- DirectorXavier BeauvoisStarsLambert WilsonMichael LonsdaleOlivier RabourdinUnder threat by fundamentalist terrorists, a group of Trappist monks stationed with an impoverished Algerian community must decide whether to leave or stay.
- DirectorAndrea SegreStarsTao ZhaoRade SerbedzijaMarco PaoliniA study of the friendship between a Chinese woman and a fisherman who came to Italy from Yugoslavia many years ago, who live in a small city-island in the Veneto lagoon.
- DirectorEran RiklisStarsHiam AbbassRona Lipaz-MichaelAli SulimanThe story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemontree field when a new Israeli Defense Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down.
- DirectorSusanne BierStarsMikael PersbrandtTrine DyrholmMarkus RygaardThe lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.
- DirectorFatih AkinStarsBaki DavrakGürsoy GemecCengiz DanerA Turkish man travels to Istanbul to find the daughter of his father's former girlfriend.
- DirectorMarco Tullio GiordanaStarsLuigi Lo CascioAlessio BoniJasmine TrincaAn Italian epic that follows the lives of two brothers from the 1960s to the 2000s.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsHiroshi AbeYui NatsukawaYouA family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.
- DirectorJuan José CampanellaStarsRicardo DarínSoledad VillamilPablo RagoA retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later.
- DirectorJoachim TrierStarsAnders Danielsen LieHans Olav BrennerIngrid OlavaOne day in the life of Anders, a young recovering drug addict, who takes a brief leave from his treatment center to interview for a job and catch up with old friends in Oslo.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiDaoming ChenHuiwen ZhangLu and Feng are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. He finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife no longer recognizes him.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsThomas DoretCécile de FranceJérémie RenierAbandoned by his father, a young boy is left in a state-run youth farm. In a random act of kindness, the town hairdresser agrees to foster him on weekends.
- DirectorAndrey ZvyagintsevStarsAleksey SerebryakovElena LyadovaRoman MadyanovIn a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsKen WatanabeKazunari NinomiyaTsuyoshi IharaThe story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonGiovanni RibisiA faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.
- DirectorTony GilroyStarsGeorge ClooneyTilda SwintonTom WilkinsonA law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsAdrien BrodyThomas KretschmannFrank FinlayDuring WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
- DirectorTom McCarthyStarsPeter DinklagePatricia ClarksonBobby CannavaleWhen his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.
- DirectorJ.C. ChandorStarsZachary QuintoStanley TucciKevin SpaceyFollows the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.
- DirectorGavin O'ConnorStarsTom HardyNick NolteJoel EdgertonThe youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home, where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament - a path that puts the fighter on a collision course with his estranged, older brother.
- DirectorJohn Michael McDonaghStarsBrendan GleesonChris O'DowdKelly ReillyAfter he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
- DirectorTodd FieldStarsTom WilkinsonSissy SpacekNick StahlA New England couple's college-aged son dates an older woman who has two small children and an unwelcome ex-husband.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsJulia RobertsAlbert FinneyDavid BrisbinAn unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply.
- DirectorKenneth LonerganStarsCasey AffleckMichelle WilliamsKyle ChandlerA depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsNaomi WattsSean PennSonya DavisonCIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote criticizing the Bush administration.
- DirectorKenneth LonerganStarsAnna PaquinMatt DamonMark RuffaloA young woman witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people's lives.
- DirectorMichael McGowanStarsJames CromwellRonan ReesGeneviève BujoldAn elderly couple fight against local authorities in rural New Brunswick to build their final home.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsAndy LauRene LiuBaoqiang WangA con-team couple (Andy Lau & Rene Liu) head west after taking a city businessman for his BMW. But an encounter with a naive young carpenter travelling home with his life savings challenges their fate as thieves.
- DirectorSteve JamesStarsTio HardimanAmeena MatthewsToya BateyA year in the life of a city grappling with urban violence.
- DirectorGreta GerwigStarsSaoirse RonanLaurie MetcalfTracy LettsIn 2002, an artistically inclined 17-year-old girl comes of age in Sacramento, California.
- DirectorJim JarmuschStarsAdam DriverGolshifteh FarahaniNellieA quiet observation of the triumphs and defeats of daily life, along with the poetry evident in its smallest details.
- DirectorDebra GranikStarsThomasin McKenzieBen FosterJeffery RifflardA father and his seventeen-year-old daughter are living an ideal existence in a vast urban park in Portland, Oregon when a small mistake derails their lives forever.
- DirectorPawel PawlikowskiStarsJoanna KuligTomasz KotBorys SzycIn the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France.
- DirectorTaylor SheridanStarsElizabeth OlsenJeremy RennerGraham GreeneA wildlife officer, who is haunted by a tragedy that happened because of him, teams up with an FBI agent in solving a murder of a young woman on a Wyoming Native American reservation and hopes to get redemption from his past regrets.
- DirectorCarlos López EstradaStarsDaveed DiggsRafael CasalJanina GavankarWhile on probation, a man begins to re-evaluate his relationship with his volatile best friend.
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsTom SchillingSebastian KochPaula BeerGerman artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.
- DirectorJill SprecherStarsAlan ArkinJohn TurturroMatthew McConaugheyIn New York City, the lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a house-cleaner, a professor and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.
- DirectorCristina GallegoCiro GuerraStarsCarmiña MartínezJosé AcostaNatalia ReyesDuring the marijuana bonanza, a violent decade that saw the origins of drug trafficking in Colombia, Rapayet and his indigenous family get involved in a war to control the business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture.
- DirectorEdward NortonStarsEdward NortonGugu Mbatha-RawAlec BaldwinIn 1950s New York, Lionel, a private detective with Tourette syndrome, sets out to uncover the mystery behind his mentor and only friend Frank's murder. Scouring the jazz clubs and slums of Brooklyn, he soon uncovers a web of secrets.
- DirectorTodd HaynesStarsMark RuffaloAnne HathawayTim RobbinsA corporate defense attorney takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a lengthy history of pollution.
- DirectorGreta GerwigStarsSaoirse RonanEmma WatsonFlorence PughJo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEthan HawkeJulie DelpyVernon DobtcheffNine years after Jesse and Celine first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJake GyllenhaalRobert Downey Jr.Mark RuffaloBetween 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEllar ColtranePatricia ArquetteEthan HawkeThe life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJesse EisenbergAndrew GarfieldJustin TimberlakeAs Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsGuy PearceCarrie-Anne MossJoe PantolianoA man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsNaomi WattsLaura HarringJustin TherouxAfter a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsKris HitchenDebbie HoneywoodRhys McgowanHoping that self-employment through gig economy can solve their financial woes, a hard-up UK delivery driver and his wife struggling to raise a family end up trapped in the vicious circle of this modern-day form of labour exploitation.
- DirectorJeff Orlowski-YangStarsTristan HarrisJeff SeibertBailey RichardsonExplores the dangerous human impact of social networking; tech experts sound the alarm on their own creations.
- DirectorSarah GavronStarsBukky BakrayKosar AliD'angelou Osei KissieduA young teenage girl finds herself struggling to take care of herself and her younger brother after being abandoned by their single mother with no choice but to live out on the streets.
- DirectorBen SharrockStarsSidse Babett KnudsenKenneth CollardAmir El-MasryOmar is a promising young musician. Separated from his Syrian family, he is stuck on a remote Scottish island awaiting the fate of his asylum request.
- DirectorJon M. ChuStarsAnthony RamosCorey HawkinsLeslie GraceIn Washington Heights, a sympathetic New York bodega owner saves every penny every day as he imagines and sings about a better life.
- DirectorLin-Manuel MirandaStarsAndrew GarfieldAlexandra ShippRobin de JesusOn the brink of turning 30, a promising theater composer navigates love, friendship and the pressure to create something great before time runs out.
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsJude HillLewis McAskieCaitríona BalfeA young boy and his working-class Belfast family experience the tumultuous late 1960s.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsDon CheadleBenicio Del ToroDavid HarbourA group of criminals are brought together under mysterious circumstances and have to work together to uncover what's really going on when their simple job goes completely sideways.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsDave JohnsHayley SquiresSharon PercyAfter surviving a heart-attack, a 59-year-old carpenter must fight bureaucratic forces to receive Employment and Support Allowance.
- DirectorTodd FieldStarsCate BlanchettNoémie MerlantNina HossSet in the international world of Western classical music, the film centers on Lydia Tár, widely considered one of the greatest living composer-conductors and the very first female director of a major German orchestra.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsZoë KravitzByron BowersRita WilsonAn agoraphobic Seattle tech worker uncovers evidence of a crime.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsSong Kang-hoGang Dong-wonBae DoonaWhen a young mother reconsiders abandoning her baby, she discovers a scheme selling foundlings for adoption.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsCillian MurphyEmily BluntMatt DamonThe story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsSakura AndôEita NagayamaSoya KurokawaA mother demands answers from her son's teacher when her son begins acting strangely.