Top 10 Movies of the 2000s

After having laboured over my Top 10 Movies of the 2010s, I felt it would be a good time (if a little late) to dig back into the previous decade and compile my Top 10 favourites of the 2000s - meaning 2000 to 2009 inclusive.

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson share very real chemistry in Lost in Translation

Now this was really tough! I had no yearly Top 10 lists to consult on either my blog (which hadn't even existed then) or on my Letterboxd webpage (not even a thing yet). So my research involved first skimming many other Letterboxd Top 10s for ideas, then poring over all ten years of movie releases on Wikipedia. Yes, my eyes were pretty sore after all that. But from all that work, I think I've boiled it all down to the movies I liked best from that decade. As for the ranking, well, that's another matter.

But what a decade! A lot of really good films, yet not so many amazing ones that I immediately knew which ones would make my Top 10... not as easy a task as putting together my list for the 2010s. That one was a cinch, in relative terms - all absolute favourites there. But after about only about five "for sures" on this one, I began to seriously flounder. I mean, how could I not include The Incredibles, Synecdoche New York, No Country For Old Men, or even The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, for cryin' out loud? Yet there were films that meant even more to me, so those took precedence.

So I had to search my soul and my memory for how strongly I felt about these movies, and how re-watchable they were. How many times had I seen and still enjoyed The Wrestler versus Adaptation? Another factor is that I haven't even seen many of these films in years, some in over a decade... so how well do I even remember a particular movie and how much I liked it? Sometimes I just had to take a measured guess. So you may not be seeing the absolute concrete best results of all my toil over this list. But it's probably pretty darn close.

It's interesting to note the number of comedies that made this 2000s list. It was a good decade for the funny stuff, and a lot of it resonated with my particular sense of humour. Quite the contrast to my very dark and disturbing Top 10 for the 2010s. Even my lengthy list of honourable mentions for the 2010s was pretty skimpy in the comedy department.

I'd say that my top two movies are definitely carved in stone. They are among my favourites of all time, so they're easily certain, without a doubt. After that, my entries may be somewhat interchangable, depending on the day and my mood. I suppose it's safe to say that Casino Royale will always rank higher than The Wrestler. You get my drift.

And now, without further adieu, here are...


My Top 10 Movies of the 2000s:


1. Lost in Translation
2. Amélie
3. Before Sunset
4. Casino Royale
5. Wall-E
6. High Fidelity
7. About a Boy

8. Let the Right One In

9. The Wrestler

10. The 40-Year Old Virgin

--

Honourable Mentions (in no particular order):

Legally Blonde
The Incredibles
Apocalypto

Black Hawk Down

Pan's Labyrinth

Donnie Darko

Adaptation
Synecdoche New York
Spanglish
Sideways
Ghost World
Almost Famous
Juno
The Hurt Locker
Sunshine Cleaning
The Punisher

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Ratatouille

Hellboy

Mean Girls

No Country For Old Men

Million Dollar Baby

I Love You, Man

Lord of the Rings Trilogy