2000s

  • 21 Grams (2003)

    Through the convergence of three separate lives upon a single tragedy in 21 Grams, Alejandro Iñárritu gifts us a miraculous glimpse into the infinite, fragmented tapestry of human relationships, and the terrible burden this interconnectedness weighs on our souls.

  • Songs from the Second Floor (2000)

    No single image in Songs from the Second Floor reveals the full scope of eternal traffic jams, nonsense bureaucracy, and apocalyptic senselessness that this city has descended into, but as Roy Andersson’s painterly tableaux come together with deadpan melancholy, so too does his landscape of surreal, urban decay take absurdist form.

  • A Serious Man (2009)

    The perpetual misfortunes that plague one Jewish professor in A Serious Man often seem like the setup for a joke with no punchline, damning him to an ungratifying search for life’s answers through both science and faith, and thereby delivering one of the Coen Brothers’ most enigmatic, ironic works.

  • Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

    We glimpse many stories of modern Mexico in the periphery of Y Tu Mamá También, but Alfonso Cuarón’s modest coming-of-age drama proves to be just as integral to its national identity as any of those brief diversions, weaving a textured landscape of poverty, celebration, and sex from a road trip between two young men seeking…

  • The Lord of the Rings (2001-03)

    Through Peter Jackson’s extraordinary adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s grand fantasy epic, we appreciate Middle Earth as one of the richest fictional worlds of literary history, imbuing The Lord of the Rings with a breathtaking cinematic awe that centres the smallest, unconventional heroes in a battle against forces of great spiritual corruption.

  • A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

    It is one thing to have the emotional capacity to love, Steven Spielberg posits in the heartrending sci-fi fable of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, yet only by feeling the warmth of that unconditional love in return can one experience the full joy of being human, as one robotic child discovers on his journey through futuristic landscapes…

  • Saraband (2003)

    Ingmar Bergman’s contemplations of regret and old age in Saraband are far more grounded in his firsthand experiences than ever before, as his final film reunites the ex-lovers from Scenes from a Marriage to consider the echoes of family trauma throughout generations, and finds a soothing, spiritual peace in the act of reminiscence.

  • Synecdoche, New York (2008)

    The formal ambition on display in Synecdoche, New York’s existential, postmodern allegory is equal parts staggering and confounding, transporting us into an absurdist meta-reality that gradually reveals the narcissistic insanity of Charlie Kaufman’s self-obsessed theatre director, and his exponentially sprawling vision of bloated artistic ego.

  • Lady Vengeance (2005)

    The loss of innocence is no small tragedy in Lady Vengeance, and yet there is an elegant restraint to one ex-convict’s retribution against the serial killer who groomed and framed her, further drawn through Park Chan-wook’s stylish aesthetic as he considers the destructive co-dependency of purity and corruption.

  • Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

    Violent retribution is not a solution in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, but an endless chain of wounded victims seeking mutually assured destruction, delineated with cool precision in Park Chan-wook’s murky green palette, measured pacing, and formal mirroring of two parallel men on futile quests for justice.

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