Movie Central's Best Films of the 21st Century

There’s a reason Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly remains iconic nearly two decades later. There’s a reason we are all fiending over any paparazzi photographs we can get of Meryl on the set of the sequel. In The Devil Wears Prada, Streep is a quiet storm, cutting through every scene with a single look or a dismissive, iconic “That’s all.” Then, of course, there’s the cerulean monologue (as I have endearingly named it), which has been adopted into drag culture as a lip-sync staple, proof of Streep’s lasting impact in queer camp culture. The film feels like a time capsule of mid-2000’s ambition, however problematic. A world where hustle culture is aspirational, where magazine empires hold cultural capital, where young women sacrifice themselves at the sheer idea of “making it.” The entire ensemble cast helps the audience get absorbed into this world before spitting us out and forcing us to contend with its tensions: is this world empowering, exploitative, or both? This ambiguity, paired with the feel-good nostalgia of a mid-2000’s dramedy, is what keeps the film relevant today. Here’s hoping the sequel can measure up.

A thrill ride from start to finish. Despite the 3 hour runtime the movie rarely lags at any point, and injects you with the same energy that drug consumption provided to Mr. Belfort.

If you are of a certain age, the Lonely Island boys shaped your humour. I am of that certain age. Dear Sister, I’m On A Boat, I Just Had Sex, Threw It On the Ground, Dick In A Box, Jack Sparrow, Lazy Sunday… SNL was appointment viewing while they were there. These shorts were everywhere, and they were all hilarious. Hot Rod was the culmination of all that good favour from the newly formed YouTube, a movie the Lonely Island made after only one season on SNL. This movie is just the funniest people in the world having an incredible time, and also, they made a movie. The premise itself is so absurd in the best way. A terrible stuntman performs a stunt to raise money for his stepdad so he can beat him up? Incredible. Every single scene has some line I still quote today. Bill Hader and Danny McBride absolutely kill as the rest of Andy Samberg’s posse, along with his little brother Jorma Taccone. Will Arnett steals the show as the biggest douche. Even the tiny bits, like “The dog walked itself home, ate a pizza and took a nap.”, still absolutely kill. A small bonus point is that it was all filmed in Vancouver, so I can play my favourite game, Oh I’ve Been There™. Anyway, isaidyoulookshittygoodnightdenise.

I mean what can I say? It's the adventure of a lifetime. Will Turner's transformation from obedient blacksmith apprentice to roguish hero is iconic. Of course this precarious palace of cards is held up by Johnny Depp's unforgettable performance as Sparrow. The sequels bled that special sauce the longer they went but the first remains the definitive pirate fantasy we all want to believe in.

”Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.“

“Ah... It's a life-time obsession, I'll get over it.”

The best part of Treasure Planet isn't the groundbreaking and beautiful animation, the spaceships with sails, the cool looking aliens, or the promise of the treasure of 1000 worlds: it's the relationship between Jim Hawkins, the delinquent protagonist who just wants a life of adventure, and the antagonist, John Silver. The two develop a heartfelt father-son relationship, each becoming an important piece of the other's life, until it's ripped away. It's also from that short-lived era of Disney movies that feels like the creators were passionate about what they were creating.

I saw this movie in theaters when I was only 4 years old in 2009. Now I don’t remember doing that, but I remember the bucket my popcorn came in. I used to bring it everywhere and use it like a normal pail. But that has nothing to do with what I’m about to say.

I don’t know how Pixar managed to tell so many compelling stories in the 2000s decade, but yet I’m glad they could. Up follows the life of the elderly Mr. Fredricksen, who lives out his days alone ever since his wife passed away. But one day he decides he’s going to fulfill his dream to travel to South America, and he does this by attaching thousands of balloons to his house and flying away. From here the story gets exciting as he encounters another explorer, Charles Muntz, who has an army of talking dogs.

Writing this summary makes me want to watch the film again. 🙂

I love the creativity brought out in this movie. From the talking dogs, to the snappy birds and of course, the flying house, this movie radiates of clear imaginative vision. The comedy is great too. Lines like “do I dig the hole before? Or after?” are timeless, and it's impressive how much it gets quoted in conversation.

This movie is great and if you haven’t seen it yet, consider yourself lucky because I wish I could see this movie for the first time again! It is a roller coaster of emotions, and a one of a kind movie that I think everyone should see.

This movie is endlessly rewatchable. Just guys being dudes. The cast is impeccable, led by the perfect duo in Pitt & Clooney. Every ensemble movie wants to be this movie. I have never wanted to be friends with characters more than Pitt & Clooney and their telepathic communication. And apparently so does Matt Damon. As a big snack guy, I appreciate Brad Pitt’s food obsession. What’s cooler than stealing from the rich guy, doing it with your friends, looking cool doing it, and also being smart? Aaaaaaand he gets the girl in the end. If this movie is on cable, no matter where in the story it is, I will always finish it. Long story short, I thought this was the coolest movie ever when I was 9 years old, and I still think it’s the coolest movie ever at 33. If you don’t like this movie, I don’t trust you. Shout out Bernie Mac.

The real criminal in this story of two brothers robbing small banks across central Texas is predatory lending. The writing balances quiet moments of character exploration with tense action as good as you'll find in any classic western. Chris Pine makes an excellent reluctant outlaw as he struggles with his brother's (Ben Foster) overeager one. Hell or High Water is one of the most unique and truly modern westerns out there.

Still looking for my Rubicon not to cross.

Beautiful, devastating, and unfortunately too relatable.

The middle entry in Park Chan-wook’s famous trilogy of revenge films, Oldboy delivers one of the greatest narratives on the subject I’ve ever seen. Park’s work always features an incredible soundtrack, fantastic directing, great performances from the actors, and a compelling storyline - Oldboy is no different. An unforgettable, even disturbing story, and a conclusion that will probably leave you troubled, uncomfortable, and scratching your head, but not without good reason! You’ll also have seen pretty incredible moments, from the running shot in the hallway to the scene with the live squid (poor thing!). Check it out! But, my advice, don’t watch it with your parents.

Until the turn of the century, foreign films were seen as ‘arthouse’ pictures, and were only shown at their respective movie houses. This forbidden door was unlocked after the release of The Matrix in 1999, as western audiences became enraptured by the Wachowski’s use of high intensity fight scenes borrowed straight from the Hong Kong action movies that inspired the duo. In 2000, the door would be blown off its hinges with the release of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which is notable for being one of the first foreign language films to ever get a country wide theatrical release, with huge returns at the box office.

The magic of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is its ability to do almost everything perfectly. The music and sets are lush, the cast all play their roles perfectly, and the spellbinding plot twists and turns in ways that will keep even the most tiktok obsessed highschooler hooked. The star of the show, naturally, is the fight choreography. Every fight, every action within that fight, tells a story about its combatant, and the camera magically keeps pace with it all. For those who have seen the movie and taken the time to read this, I give you permission to all head over to youtube to re-watch the Michelle Yeoh v Zhang Ziyi fight scene now that I have reminded you of its existence.

A freed slave turned bounty hunter, Django (played by Jamie Foxx), teams up with Christoph Waltz’s weirdo doctor character to free Django’s wife from Leo DiCaprio’s character Calvin. A solid example of Tarantino’s work, the film is a non-mainstream approach to a captivating thriller and is a powerful critique of slavery. Sam Jackson’s character is quite memorable and the ending of the movie can be described simply as “badass.”

Jonny Greenwood’s sumptuous score. Daniel Day-Lewis’ career-best work. Paul Thomas Anderson holding the reins with incredible confidence. Vicky Krieps with a stunning breakout performance. Lesley Manville showcasing her unreal acting skills with full control. Mark Bridges’ costumes tying the whole thing together.

“I feel as if I’ve been looking for you for a very long time.”

Mamma Mia! is a masterpiece that cannot easily be formed into mortal words. As ABBA said, “The sight of you will prove to me I’m still alive”, and boy does that ring true of the feeling watching Mamma Mia brings. The actors were drunk for nearly all of filming (but it shows in the best way), Meryl Streep is pure perfection, and come on – it’s 109 minutes of pure ABBA joy. What’s not to love?

When I first watched Ex Machina back in 2015, AI still felt like a fun, far-off idea—fascinating, but distant. What struck me then was how sleek, cerebral, and tightly wound the film was; what strikes me now is how eerily close to reality it feels. Alex Garland’s direction is cool and controlled, framing everything with a sterile beauty that makes the isolation and tension almost tangible. I was almost giddy the first time we meet Ava, caught between fascination and disbelief, and the dance scene—so weird but strangely sublime—adds a surreal touch to the film’s tense atmosphere. Ex Machina plays like a thriller but lingers like a philosophical puzzle, asking timeless questions about consciousness, power, and what it really means to be human. Nearly a decade later, it’s only become more relevant—and yet somehow, just as entertaining and unsettling as the first time.

Moonlight is as much about what isn’t said as what is. It’s a story of becoming, told in hushed tones and tender glances, charting Chiron’s journey through a world that wants to erase both his Blackness and his queerness. Set against the backdrop of one of Miami’s most economically disenfranchised neighborhoods, the film unflinchingly shows how systemic poverty, the drug trade, and generational trauma shape the lives of its characters. It’s a rare film that doesn’t just flatly represent intersectional identities: it embodies them. The ocean scenes, the intimate silences, the way trauma and love sit side by side–Barry Jenkins seamlessly pieces together fragments of lives so often left out of the conversation. Moonlight understands that the messiness of becoming oneself, especially when Black, queer, and poor in America, isn’t a quiet journey; it’s a radical act of survival.

Hot take: This is Nolan’s best film. Both Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale deliver some of the best performances of their careers, which is saying something. The setting, the story, the magic, the delivery, the atmosphere, the cinematography. Dude, duelling magicians. DUELLING MAGICIANS. Like a billion times better than Now You See Me, and yet that’s the magician movie everyone watches. C'mon. No shade on that movie, but… a little shade on that movie, you feel me? A cast rounded out by Scarlett Johannsson, Michael Caine, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, and DAVID BOWIE? Are you kidding? This movie has an ending that literally shook me to my core. The first, and one of only a handful of films that I ever left the theatre and immediately bought another ticket. If you don’t know anything about this movie, keep it that way and immediately watch it before it gets spoiled for you. I think about this movie probably weekly. It had that level of impact on me.

"Are you watching closely?"

Richard Linklater, Mike White, and Jack Black is a holy trifecta. It’s the role Black was born to play, and the kids ain’t bad too.

Lynch’s ability to vacillate between the tragic and comic, the lucid and oneiric, and the measured and the vulgar was simply unmatched. Mulholland Drive succeeds as a work of both arthouse and camp sensibilities without contradiction or irony, jitterbugging between its various modes with the learned precision of a pianist who knows intuitively the exact amount of force with which to strike each note and which pedal to press for every musical passage.

Paddington 2 does it again. It is, yet again, a wholesome and wonderful movie with great characters, so much joy and wit, but also artistically well done. They took everything we loved about Paddington's first adventure and made it (dare I say) better. You will laugh, you may cry, you will learn something, and you will love every moment along the way. Henry Brown states it best when he exclaims that, “[It] doesn’t matter that he comes from the other side of the world, or that he’s a different species. Or that he has a worrying marmalade habit. We love Paddington. And that makes him family!”

Another film about grief and our most intimate relationships. This one is hard to sit through and yet it is so beautiful. I remember being so shocked (literally my hands flew to my mouth) during the first sequence and from there it just kept getting worse. This is one of my most logged films on letterboxd and who knows what that says about me. The performances (Pugh my love), direction and visuals are so specific and make you see every gory horrible detail. God, such a horrific time but isn’t it lovely.

A meditation on poverty, isolation, aimlessness, loss, self-reliance, and the destructive power of depression. The Coen Brothers hit on something unique with 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, the story of a folk artist on a journey to make a name for himself in 1960’s New York City following the death of his musical partner. The film, with its muted colour palette inspired by the cover art of early Bob Dylan LPs, feels like an outlier when compared to other Coen films. There are few moments of comedy or levity, instead a burning frustration permeates the film, as Llewyn screws up and throws away every opportunity afforded him, culminating in the final, heartbreaking revelation teased at the end of the film. Not exactly cheery Sunday morning matinee stuff, but ultimately, it stands as the Coens most mature and heartbreaking effort to date.

One of my all-time favourite lines in a movie is Jason Lee as Jeff Bebe in Almost Famous: “I don't think anyone can really explain rock 'n' roll. Maybe Pete Townshend, but, that's okay.” But actually, Almost Famous does a pretty good job of explaining it, too – and if nothing else, it’s a love letter to music fandom that’s as watchable in 2025 as it was in 2000 (he says having watched it two weeks ago and many, many, many other times as well).

The first half-hour of silent film-esque storytelling always gets the praise here, but have you WATCHED this whole movie recently? There are few films that exemplify empathy, love, kindness and compassion like WALL-E does. Makes me laugh uncontrollably, and I can hear every frame. Ben Burtt deserves the world.

To put it simply, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is one of the best directors of the past 30 years using all his tools, knowledge, and passion to their fullest potential. The slow-burn masterpiece draws you in with interesting characters in larger than life situations, culminating in a heart-pounding climax that rights one of the biggest wrongs in American history. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio bring to life a wonderful, dynamic friendship with arguably their best career performances, and Tarantino’s love for Hollywood and his craft bleeds through every single frame.

Whenever I try to think of my favourite scene in Kill Bill Vol. 1, I get lost for words and can’t choose one. Maybe it’s the Bride and Copperhead’s brutal fight in suburbia. It might be O-Ren Ishii’s animated backstory. But you also can’t forget the Bride mowing down a horde of Yakuza with her trusty sword. It can also be any close-up shot of the Bride’s face as she delivers a monologue. Uma Thurman is just that good.

I watched it twice in theatres and twice after it came to streaming and after each watch, I thought it couldn’t get better, but it did. It’s emotional, heavy, exciting, stressful, devastating, and REAL. So many big names in the movie; Matt Damon told his wife he was going to take a break from acting, but with a caveat that if Big C called with the right movie, he’d have to do it. After he saw the script, it wasn’t even a question. The movie tells the story of Robbie Oppie and the Manhattan project with the atomic bomb and it’s arguably the most impactful moment in the history of the world and that weight is evident throughout the entire film. The secondary plot explores the aftermath of WWII and the drama of associating with communist supporters and the audience empathizes with a person who was once hailed as a (questionable?) hero by the same people who are now trying to break him down to nothing. RDJ plays his first big role after leaving Marvel and absolutely crushes it and shows his chops as an A-list actor. The movie makes me extremely sad, but it’s so well done in such a way that it’s educational to the audience so we can learn from the past and acknowledge that actions have consequences and nothing that impacts so many people on a grand scale should ever be taken lightly. Great film. 11/10 rating every day of the week.

I read Little Women when I was pretty young and always loved the story and the way it made me feel. But when I watched Greta Gerwig’s adaptation, I finally understood why I loved it so much. Growing up with an absent older sister, I always wondered what our relationship might have been like and how my childhood would have felt if she had been around. This movie makes me yearn for the sisterhood I never got to experience — but in the best way. I also identify a little too much with Beth. Honestly, bless Greta Gerwig for giving Beth so much more depth and story than the book ever did. I’ll always be a Beth March defender: she is me, and I am her. Finally, the aesthetic of this movie and the way it makes me feel are unmatched. It’s my quintessential fall film — the moment I see the leaves start to change, I put this masterpiece on.

Inception is not only a great heist movie, it’s a great exploration of dreams and ideas and how they shape reality. On the filmmaking side everything is really well done and still holds up, especially the Paris sequence. Then with the snow sequence you can tell that Nolan is a Bond fan in that you could take it out of this movie and put parts of it in a Bond movie and it would make total sense.

My two top films (No Country for Old Men and Sicario) seem to occupy a very similar thematic umbrella. Besides both being neo-Westerns shot by Roger Deakins against a beautiful Texas backdrop, each film follows hardened lead characters slowly realizing they’re out of their depth and not as in control as they once believed.

Sicario plays an interesting trick with perspective. We begin the journey through the eyes of Emily Blunt’s Kate Macer, an ambitious FBI agent frustrated by her lack of meaningful impact in the cartel drug war. Like Kate, the audience is lured into believing her new assignment to an inter-agency task force might be the solution she envisions: aggressive investigation, case-building, and legitimate police work.

But as the story progresses, the perspective subtly shifts, and we come to realize that we’re actually in hitman Alejandro’s (Benicio Del Toro) story — not Kate’s — and that the solution to the problem is darker and more ethically convoluted than we expect. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s menacing score drives the film as it descends deeper and deeper into moral ambiguity.

Welcome to the land of wolves.

There are some incredible one-shots in this film that will take your breath away. There are many moments of beauty and grace in between all of the ugliness. At the brink of human extinction, we see both the worst of humanity but also some of the best. In showing us both the frightening, polluted, fascist world that may become our reality and the ways in which the human spirit refuses to give up on aid and compassion and hope, Children of Men is a monumental achievement.

Don’t eat cereal like that, please and thank you.

Scorsese’s best for me. It’s also Nicholson’s last great role, and DiCaprio, Damon, Wahlberg, and Baldwin are all at the top of their game. *Queue Dropkick Murphys*

Superbad is perhaps the perfect balance of being timeless and being of its time.

“Timeless” because of its presentation - it came out in 2007, but the soundtrack, costuming, and hairstyling all take influences spanning from the 60s to the 90s, making its exact “vibe” difficult to pinpoint exactly. Just watch that amazing opening dance montage to The Bar-Kays’ “Too Hot to Stop” and then try to tell me the movie couldn’t hold up in any other era.

“Of its time” because of the raunchiness - the film exists at the tail-end of the post-American Pie wave of sex comedies. From roughly 2000 to 2007, the comedies market in America was dominated by cheap knock-offs that valued gratuitous nudity and excess. Now don’t get me wrong, I love some of these movies too, but where Superbad differs is that it feels like a send-off for these types of movies.

Upon numerous rewatches, it becomes abundantly clear that Superbad is less interested in revelling in that excess, and more interested in what that excess covers up - the insecurity of being an outcast, the fear of growing up, and the inability to express how deeply you love your friend, whom you know you’re going to have to say goodbye to.

The fake ID, the cops, the stain, the booze, the vest, - yes, Superbad is hilarious. But so are a million other movies. It’s what’s under the hood for me - the heart, the vulnerability, and the friendship that separates it for me.

… That and the dick drawings.