The Lists: Must See Movies, 2000-2009

Mulholland Drive. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Boldfaced titles with asterisk (*) indicate top 10 of the decade.

Almost Famous (2000, Cameron Crowe) *
American Psycho (2000, Mary Harron)
Beau Travail (2000, Claire Denis)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee) *
Dancer in the Dark (2000, Lars Von Trier)
Gladiator (2000, Ridley Scott)
High Fidelity (2000, Stephen Frears)
In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar Wai)
Nurse Betty (2000, Neil LaBute)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000, Joel and Ethan Coen)
Platform (2000, Jia ZhangKe)
Requiem for a Dream (2000, Darren Aronofsky)
Traffic (2000, Steven Soderbergh)
The Virgin Suicides (2000, Sofia Coppola)
Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (2000, Edward Yang)
You Can Count On Me (2000, Kenneth Lonergan)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001, Steven Spielberg)
Amelie (2001, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
A Beautiful Mind (2001, Ron Howard)
Black Hawk Down (2001, Ridley Scott)
Donnie Darko (2001, Richard Kelly)
Fat Girl (2001, Catherine Breillat)
Ghost World (2001, Terry Zwigoff)
Gosford Park (2001, Robert Altman)
In the Bedroom (2001, Todd Field)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001, Peter Jackson)
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001, Joel and Ethan Coen)
Memento (2001, Christopher Nolan)
Monster's Ball (2001, Marc Forster)
Moulin Rouge (2001, Baz Luhrmann)
Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch) *
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, Wes Anderson)
Vanilla Sky (2001, Cameron Crowe)
Waking Life (2001, Richard Linklater)
Werckmeister Harmonies  (2001, Bela Tarr)
25th Hour (2002, Spike Lee)
About Schmidt (2002, Alexander Payne)
Adaptation (2002, Spike Jonze)
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2002, Zacharias Kunuk)
City of God (2002, Fernando Meiralles)
Far From Heaven (2002, Todd Haynes)
Femme Fatale (2002, Brian De Palma)
Frailty (2002, Bill Paxton)
Gangs of New York (2002, Martin Scorsese) *
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002, Peter Jackson)
The Man Without a Past (2002, Aki Kaurismaki)
Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg)
Morvern Callar (2002, Lynne Ramsay)
The Pianist (2002, Roman Polanski)
Punch Drunk Love (2002, Paul Thomas Anderson)
Road to Perdition (2002, Sam Mendes)
Russian Ark (2002, Aleksandr Sokurov)
The Son (Le Fils) (2002, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Spider (2002, David Cronenberg)
Spirited Away (2002, Hayao Miyazaki)
Talk to Her (2002, Pedro Almodovar)
Trouble Every Day (2002, Claire Denis)
What Time Is It There? (2002, Tsai Ming Liang)
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002, Alfonso Cuaron)
28 Days Later (2003, Danny Boyle)
American Splendor (2003, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini)
The Best of Youth (2003, Marco Tullio Giordana)
Big Fish (2003, Tim Burton)
Dogville (2003, Lars Von Trier)
Elephant (2003, Gus Van Sant)
Finding Nemo (2003, Andrew Stanton)
In America (2003, Jim Sheridan)
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003, Quentin Tarantino)
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003, Peter Jackson)
Lost in Translation (2003, Sofia Coppola)
Memories of Murder (2003, Bong Joon-ho)
Monster (2003, Patty Jenkins)
Mystic River (2003, Clint Eastwood)
Northfork (2003, Mark and Michael Polish)
The Room (2003, Tommy Wiseau)
Time of the Wolf (2003, Michael Haneke)
Unknown Pleasures (2003, Jia ZhangKe)
2046 (2004, Wong Kar Wai)
The Aviator (2004, Martin Scorsese)
Bad Education (2004, Pedro Almodovar)
Before Sunset (2004, Richard Linklater)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry)
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2004, Tsai Ming Liang)
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004, Quentin Tarantino)
Kings and Queen (2004, Arnaud Desplechin)
Million Dollar Baby (2004, Clint Eastwood)
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004, Walter Salles)
The Saddest Music in the World (2004, Guy Maddin)
Sideways (2004, Alexander Payne) *
Tropical Malady (2004, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Brokeback Mountain (2005, Ang Lee) *
Broken Flowers (2005, Jim Jarmusch)
Cache (2005, Michael Haneke)
Crash (2005, Paul Haggis)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005, Cristi Puiu)
Good Night and Good Luck (2005, George Clooney)
Grizzly Man (2005, Werner Herzog)
A History of Violence (2005, David Cronenberg)
Last Days (2005, Gus Van Sant)
L'Enfant (2005, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Match Point (2005, Woody Allen)
Munich (2005, Steven Spielberg)
Mysterious Skin (2005, Gregg Araki)
Regular Lovers (2005, Philippe Garrel)
The Squid and the Whale (2005, Noah Baumbach)
Syriana (2005, Stephen Gaghan)
Three Times (2005, Hou Hsiao Hsien)
Babel (2006, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006, Larry Charles)
Children of Men (2006, Alfonso Cuaron)
Colossal Youth (2006, Pedro Costa)
The Departed (2006, Martin Scorsese) *
Flags Of Our Fathers (2006, Clint Eastwood)
Inland Empire (2006, David Lynch)
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006, Clint Eastwood)
The Lives of Others (2006, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006, Guillermo del Toro)
The Queen (2006, Stephen Frears)
United 93 (2006, Paul Greengrass)
Volver (2006, Pedro Almodovar)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007, Cristian Mungiu)
American Gangster (2007, Ridley Scott)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, Andrew Dominik)
Death Proof (2007, Quentin Tarantino)
Eastern Promises (2007, David Cronenberg)
The Edge of Heaven (2007, Fatih Akin)
I'm Not There (2007, Todd Haynes)
No Country for Old Men (2007, Joel and Ethan Coen) *
Once (2007, John Carney)
Planet Terror (2007, Robert Rodriguez)
Ratatouille (2007, Brad Bird)
Silent Light (2007, Carlos Reygadas)
There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson) *
Zodiac (2007, David Fincher) *
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008, David Fincher)
The Dark Knight (2008, Christopher Nolan)
The Flight of the Red Balloon (2008, Hou Hsiao Hsien)
Gran Torino (2008, Clint Eastwood)
Happy Go Lucky (2008, Mike Leigh)
Hunger (2008, Steve McQueen)
Let the Right One In (2008, Tomas Alfredson)
Milk (2008, Gus Van Sant)
Paranoid Park (2008, Gus Van Sant)
Rachel Getting Married (2008, Jonathan Demme)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008, Danny Boyle)
Wall-E (2008, Andrew Stanton)
The Wrestler (2008, Darren Aronofsky)
Adventureland (2009, Greg Mottola)
City of Life and Death (2009, Chuan Lu)
Dogtooth (2009, Giorgos Lanthimos)
An Education (2009, Lone Scherfig)
The Hurt Locker (2009, Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (2009, Quentin Tarantino)
A Serious Man (2009, Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up (2009, Pete Docter)
Up in the Air (2009, Jason Reitman)
Where the Wild Things Are (2009, Spike Jonze)
The White Ribbon (2009, Michael Haneke)