Norman: They say that a person’s brain isn’t fully developed until 25 years old. The 21st century is 25. Is it fully developed? I have no idea! But in the past 25 years there have been a lot of great movies.

Today we are here to talk about the movies we have loved over these years.

Working on this project was a delight. I began watching movies in earnest in the year 2001. The titles we write about are movies I got to experience in the moment, with all the excitement of a movie theater and the anticipation of a director’s newest work. These movies are personal to me, as I’m sure your choices are to you.

Tyler, are you ready to authoritatively declare the best movies of the 21st century?

Tyler: You better believe it. 2001 marked my freshman year of college, and the four years I would spend studying cinema transformed my youthful artistic interests into lived-in passions. I saw a lot of polished dreck in the theaters in those days, figuring I was obligated to see whatever nonsense was up for Oscars, even as my cherished professors guided me to appreciation of fare less obviously tailored for “greatness.” I’ve learned a lot since those silly wastes of time—I sat through The Hours, for God’s sake—and now can step up alongside you, Norman, and declare the best that the art’s had to offer since the final year of the Clinton administration.

Norman: My route to the movies was a little different. I had become a Christian in 1996 and tried to enjoy Christian art. As I was about to start my third year in college, I began to give up on all forms of Christian art. I realized that I didn’t know anything about movies. But some of my friends were into The Shawshank Redemption. I saw that, liked it, and realized that there was an entire world of movies I knew nothing about. The local video store near my parent’s house had a deal where you could rent five movies for five nights for five dollars (5 for 5 for 5). I did that deal many times over. When I returned to my Christian college, I started sneaking out to the movies, which was against the rules, to see The Royal Tenenbaums, Waking Life, and other art films of that time. I never looked back.

Did you have any rules for how you made your selections?

Tyler: No real rules. I brainstormed a master list, hacked out a rough ten, and worked from there. As of this writing I remain convinced that I’m leaving out an obvious personal favorite.

My list is woefully short on so many genres, I’d like to acknowledge, and is thoroughly lacking in world cinema.

Norman: I had one main rule. A director could not have more than one movie in the top ten. This nearly caused an existential crisis when I started thinking about what the Coen brothers did in the first ten years of this new century. But otherwise, like you, I came up with an initial list, thought up about 20 more titles I thought might fit. Wrestled a little bit and came up with what I think is a fine crop of ten movies. These are movies that I’d happy watch over and over again.

Tyler: Well, if you’ve got a Coen to show, so’ve I. No Country For Old Men makes my list.

Norman: A fabulous choice! This was my point of existential crisis. No Country is an all-time great, but there was one other Coen brothers title that I wanted.

Tyler: Intolerable Cruelty?

Norman: You can safely rule that one out. And The Ladykillers.

Tyler: Having seen drafts of your list in the weeks leading up to this discussion, I’m pretty sure I know what Coen most struck your fancy.

Norman: We’ll get to that in a second, but I want to take a moment on No Country. I went to see it on opening night at the big AMC in Chicago. I left the theater absolutely floored. The tension had made me sick. The intricate sound design inspired by Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped, the beautiful and brutal philosophical musings. I grabbed a bunch of friends and forced them to go see it the next night.

Tyler: Astonishingly, I in the theater nodded off the first time I saw it, possibly under the hazy influence of pre-show beer—no man can say—but in the years since I’ve watched and rewatched, unceasingly enthralled. It’s such a damn good movie.

What did your friends think?

Norman: They were not as excited as I was, but they were kind enough to let me be on the top of the world.

Tyler: The bliss of seeing a masterpiece on a theatrical screen.

Norman: Pure bliss.

Because we are talking about the Coen brothers already, my first pick – and these are not necessarily in order of preference – is their 2000 comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Tyler: You’re a nut. O Brother over No Country?

Norman: I don’t think this will be my only controversial pick, but yes!

O Brother makes me laugh so much. The music puts me in another world. It’s quotable. It’s the type of movie that I could share with almost anyone and a movie I’d put on just to brighten my mood. The plot is lifted from the Odyssey, and I suspect that O Brother will be better than Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming adaptation of the same source material.

After finishing my list, I noticed that I tended to prefer movies that were bright and funny. I opted away from dark and dreary titles with only a couple of notable exceptions. My choice to sideline No Country was just a choice to keep on the sunny side of life.

Obviously the Coen bros had a great century. A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Burn After Reading, The Man Who Wasn’t There, True Grit. All of these are wonderful movies. But you can only pick one.

What’s next on your list?

Tyler: Well, you mentioned Nolan, a filmmaker on whom I’m not always so hot. But, props where deserved, he made a dynamic blockbuster summer megahit that ranks for me. The Dark Knight.

Norman: It’s fine.

Tyler: Oh, how you pooh-pooh greatness.

Norman: There’s a great performance (Ledger as Joker) and there are some great action sequences, but I don’t know…maybe it’s just not my thing. And that’s okay. It is a good movie.

Tyler: It towers over all other superhero movies. Even Black Panther, a triumph, had to play by Marvel’s rules. Nolan’s Dark Knight feels boundless and, at turns, bottomless. Ledger owns every moment he spends onscreen, in a performance for the ages. Even the opening homage to Heat works. Sometimes it feels as if Nolan wants to drown his audience in concept and effects and wawwwwwwwwwww-ing soundscapes. I don’t like much of his work. Dark Knight is Hall of Fame material for me nonetheless.

It should be noted that I saw it on the big screen opening night, 3 AM, very drunk, very stoned, packing a flask and Red Bull in the company of three restaurant buddies. Despite these circumstances, I made it through and stayed enthralled to boot. The pencil trick pinned me to the wall.

Norman: I will concede that it is one of the best superhero movies and one of Nolan’s best. My favorite of his is Dunkirk, which made my longlist.

My favorite superhero movie of all time is on my list, though: The Incredibles.

As a general rule, I do not like superhero movies. Pixar managed to create something exciting from whole cloth. That alone is an accomplishment to be admired. But it’s a clever little exploration of domestic life, gender roles, and the nature of jealousy. Just a joy to watch.

Tyler: Come to think of it, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the thing entire in one sitting. Criminal!

Norman: What the hell, Tyler?

Tyler: I’ll show myself out.

Norman: Don’t just yet. I will forgive you.

Tyler: One criticism I’ve seen of The Incredibles that I’ll note only because the issue surfaces in my own personal favorite Pixar, Ratatouille: the air of exceptionalism, that some people are naturally “super” in ways that others aren’t. Remy the rat sees a host of colors when he eats, a sixth sense his pudgy buddy doesn’t experience.

Norman: Yes. And yet, the truth is that some people are gifted with incredible talent. That doesn’t make them inherently better, and of course a person’s ability to express and use talent is contingent on a number of factors in life. But the issue of exceptionalism is a part of all superhero movies. Except Batman, because he’s just exceptionally rich.

Tyler: Fair points all.

Talking Pixar, let’s not sleep on Up. Or at least its opening sequence. Mercy.

Norman: If Up had been released as a short film, it would be in my top ten. The whole movie is great, but those first ten minutes are masterclass level.

What’s next on your list?

Tyler: Let’s move from Nolan to another director whose style altered the landscape of adult action fare. Paul Greengrass’s aggressively shaky Bourne films are part of a major 21st century franchise, too, but my selection from his directorial oeuvre is not light fare. United 93 is a remarkable, remarkable evocation of how people responded to September 11, 2001 as it unfolded. The moment the second plane hits the second tower in the film is stunning, because that’s when everybody knew, and when the world pivoted. There are films about 9/11, be they direct depictions or inspired tangents, and films aplenty about the wars that would follow. Greengrass’s picture takes it all the way back to that initial tectonic shift, and doesn’t lay a finger wrong. Even “Let’s roll” is whispered, hurried, barely audible. I thought long and hard about including Spike Lee’s 25th Hour, another “9/11 movie,” but it’s just imperfect enough to miss the cut. United 93 suffers no such imperfections. The climax, the battle for control of that flight, may well be ill-informed. It doesn’t matter.

Norman: United 93 could have easily been in my own top 10.

A couple of years ago on 9/11 I decided to find YouTube video of newscasts from that day.

Tyler: The footage is bracing.

Norman: Visceral and emotionally draining to anyone who lived through it.

You’ve picked a movie about history, so I’ll give you a historical biopic. Sofia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette.

Tyler: Oh, Sofia. How once I adored your Lost In Translation.

Norman: I wasn’t 100% sure about this pick when I made my initial list, but I decided to watch it again and my goodness.

Sumptuous period piece? Check.
Droll sex comedy? Check.
Prescient meditation on socio-political issues that are still relevant? Check.
Beautiful depiction of a girl who doesn’t grow up? Check.
Punk rock? I mean, kinda.

Kirsten Dunst should have at least been nominated. She’s in every second of this movie and she’s perfect. I adore this movie to pieces.

Tyler: This I could stand to revisit.

Coppola’s work is uniformly gorgeous. Her choice of protagonists can be challenging. I really did love Lost In Translation, until I realized a few years back that both Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are playing terrible people. Kinda kills the mood.

Norman: Sofia Coppola’s biggest crime is that she’s making essentially the same movie over and over. Girl trapped. Marie-Antoinette is probably my favorite iteration of that theme. The other great one came out in 1999, so we can’t count it.

Tyler: Don’t forget Somewhere. Coulda beena contender Stephen Dorff resurrected!

Somewhere was fine. Never have had any serious inkling to revisit it.

Norman: Elle Fanning is a revelation in that movie, but she’s been in much better since.

Tyler: I’ll next offer yet another film with explicit designs on depicting history. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is a crowning achievement from the filmmaker, and it reaches its towering heights because the stakes are real, and they are high. A misfit facing expulsion from his womb of a private school this is not. That’s not to denigrate Rushmore, but rather to highlight the richly expanded scope of Grand Budapest. If United 93 is Paul Greengrass’s 9/11 movie, Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson’s World War II picture. I love it.

Norman: Grand Budapest is one I need to see again. I caught it in the theater and have seen it once on video, but it’s been a solid ten years since I’ve laid my eyes on it. I recall it being rich, complex, thoughtful, and even more Wes Anderson than I thought Wes Anderson could be. To your credit, the critical consensus on Anderson seems to have formed around Budapest being his best movie. That, or Royal Tenenbaums.

Tyler: I love Tenenbaums, but haven’t revisited it in years. I could cycle Grand Budapest in every six months or so and be quite happy.

Norman: So far our lists have had a sense of parallel picks. We’ll continue that here. My next pick is a Wes Anderson movie, but not Tenenbaums (which I LOVE), instead his 2012 coming-of-age romance on a far-flung, fake New England island. Moonrise Kingdom.

I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for coming-of-age movies. But Moonrise Kingdom is Anderson at his loosest since Rushmore and maybe his most tender ever. This is simply a sweet, sweet movie. The kind that makes you believe that maybe the world isn’t so horrible after all. It tapped into my own early teenage years and early romances. I haven’t seen it in a while, but I can’t wait to see it again.

Tyler: Moonrise was released while I rattled and scraped around the bottom of the bottle, so my attempt to watch a DVD copy was hindered by me passing out bombed. Speaking of sweet, sweet stories!

Norman: You gotta fix this, friend!

This was a difficult choice for me. I very nearly opted for The Royal Tenenbaums. I saw that in the theater when it was released. I was just getting into movies and had no idea who Wes Anderson was. It transported me to another world and I was hooked. But my policy of allowing only one movie per director kept it off the official list.

Tyler: Perhaps we could do remixes of our initial ten when the time comes. Same directors, different ’00s releases.

Norman: Oh boy. I guess I’ll have to have Lost in Translation on my alternate ten. Whew.

Tyler: My next choice is dark satirical brilliance, and I forgot all about it until a week or so after making my initial rough list. Armando Iannucci took his The Thick Of It, a British television program featuring Peter Capaldi as ruthless political fixer Malcolm Tucker, and condensed it into a searing, unflinching look at the legislative war crimes that prefaced America’s invasion of Iraq.

It’s also absolutely hilarious.

In The Loop.

Norman: I honestly do not remember if I’ve seen In The Loop. It came out at a time when I was watching 1.5 movies a day. I think I probably saw it and I bet it was pretty good, but I have no memory of that movie at all.

Tyler: I shudder wondering if I learned of its existence from the grimly hacky industry blog of this troubled wannabe publicist (?) who eventually fell from a rafter already beneath grace by requesting nudie shots of an actress from a studio insider.

Norman: Well, I would hope that enjoying In The Loop doesn’t implicate you in any of that sordid business.

Tyler: I would hope as well, because I do very much enjoy In The Loop. It is ferocious.

Norman: Now that you’ve listed a movie I haven’t seen, I’ll list one I don’t think you’ve seen. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s The Kid with a Bike.

This little Belgian movie by today’s best Italian Neo-realism practitioners tells the story of a 12-year-old kid, abandoned by his father and then taken in by a local hairdresser.

This pick is deeply personal. My wife and I were foster parents at the time, with a 15-year-old kid living in our house. Kid with a Bike captured all the difficulties and beauty of working with kids that you don’t know, who are broken, looking for any bit of love they can find. It’s a wonderful, terrible experience, captured with almost documentary precision. I could never see this movie again and I don’t think I’d forget its impact on me.

Tyler: I have not seen this selection, as you figured. I struggle to think of a film from this era that hit me that close to the bone. I’m glad you have a piece of art like that to tie with that period of your life, that child.

Norman: Although quite a few of my selections come from personal connections in my own life, none are so raw and direct as this one. Short Term 12, which kinda launched Brie Larson’s career, covered similar terrain, but this time foster kids in a group home. I don’t have direct experience in that world, but I know people who do, and that one has always stuck with me, too.

What do you have next, Tyler?

Tyler: Before Sunset.

Norman: OH MY GOODNESS YESSSSSSSSS

Tyler: It’s perfect, every beat, each note, seemingly effortless between our already-beloved Jesse and Celine.

Norman: If Before Sunrise had been released in 2000, I would have been tempted to put all three movies in one spot.

But, yes, it’s a lovely movie.

One for true romantics who have had a little heartbreak in their lives.

The DIALOGUE!!!!!

Tyler: The distance between them, or lack thereof, or in between—I think of Julie Delpy’s Celine reaching out, so close, to touch Ethan Hawke, distraught as Jesse. She pulls back her hand. Their yearning is so palpable.

I hesitate to offer my thoughts on Before Midnight, as I feel it’s the least-seen of the trilogy, and to describe its secrets would be giving away Sunset‘s game.

Norman: Before Sunset is a fine pick, but I want to take a moment to lay out two reservations that I had with it.

Spoilers coming.

First, I think Before Sunrise is a perfect movie and would have probably been in a top ten of the last 25 years of the 20th century list. I loved the ambiguity at the end of that movie and wanted Celine and Jesse’s relationship to be a matter of the audience’s imagination. Though I’ve come to appreciate what the whole trilogy does, there’s a part of me that just wants that first one to stand alone.

The second issue is that Jesse cheats on his wife. I know it’s a fictional movie, and I think the movie rings true to the characters and their situation, but I really hate divorce and what it does to families, so there’s always a tinge of disappointment at the end for me.

Tyler: Spoilers complete, readers!

I was very, very hesitant when Before Sunset was announced. To my eye, though, it’s a deeper film than Sunrise, an appropriate progression given the years of age experienced by both the heroes and ourselves. Maybe we’ve moved on from the proverbial one that got away; maybe nobody was ever there to get away; maybe we’re single or with a partner now and doing just fine. No matter, because Sunset is so on point about how chosen romances can wither, while fleeting moments with long-ago partners may linger. I love Sunrise, but I love Sunset more.

Midnight is like The Godfather Part III, in that it is brutally unbearable to watch.

Norman: Midnight was the movie for anyone who has been married for 20 years.

Me.

My next pick is…

The Holdovers. I wanted to have something a little more recent on my list. There are three or four movies from the past five years that I considered, but The Holdovers is a delight from start to finish. It evokes a time and place beautifully, the acting is on point. The humor is wonderfully acidic. And yet it is a movie that made me feel warm all over when it finished.

Tyler: Ring them bells! I too selected The Holdovers.

Norman: Wait! What?!?!?!?! YESSSSSSS!

Tyler: I wanted a more recent picture as well. A Complete Unknown tempted me, heartfelt but never pat; The Zone Of Interest is a masterful apocalypse of the soul. The Holdovers, though, isn’t a film you just recommend—it’s one you watch all over again with whomever has yet to see it.

Norman: Bingo. I immediately shared it with my wife, and she liked it a lot. I’m looking for anyone else who will see it, too. There’s a generosity of spirit to the movie even though it is about a decidedly cranky man.

Tyler: It’s sharp, Holdovers, but it avoids the causticity of earlier Alexander Payne pictures, Election and About Schmidt and Sideways. I think that’s to the director’s benefit this time around.

Norman: Here’s a pick I think you may not like.

Spike Jonze’s Adaptation. With a period at the end. Written by Charlie Kaufman, who, we both agree, has written some truly horrible dreck.

This movie, however, is just wild to me. An adaptation of a journalistic book about a guy who steals orchids, but also doubles as a clever satire of screenwriting and moviemaking itself. At the center is Nicholas Cage playing Charlie Kaufman himself and his (completely fake) brother Donald Kaufman. A lot of metafiction can feel overbearing at times (think American Fiction) but Adaptation is a breezy concoction that I adore.

Tyler: Filmmaking! Ain’t it wacky!

Eugh.

I cannot stand Kaufman, not Being John Malkovich, not Adaptation., no, not even Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

Synecdoche, New York was the worst experience I’ve had in a theater, ever.

Norman: You sir, are wrong. At least partially. After Eternal Sunshine he falls off a cliff as sheer as El Capitan. But I will forever stan both Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine.

Tyler: Eternal Sunshine is yet another Kaufmanian parade of neurotic whimsy, anchored by professional actors doing damn good work, completely undone by a lame finale that essays yet another variation of the old Annie Hall line about eggs.

Norman: That might even be a fair criticism, but damn that movie works for me.

Tyler: I loved it upon release, in my very early twenties. Another movie I loved back then: Garden State. So there you go.

I’m being mean. Kaufman gets my dander up!

Norman: Garden State introduced me to The Shins, which is a good deed, and I don’t mind watching Natalie Portman for the length of a movie, but once on that movie was more than enough.

Tyler: Garden State is a valentine to that old life-saving trick: abandoning psych meds cold turkey, going to your mom’s funeral, dropping ecstasy at a party, hanging out with Peter Sarsgaard—whose performance deserves a far better movie—and falling for insufferable flibbertigibbets back home in Joisey. What an irresponsible bag of trash that movie is.

Norman: Adaptation is clever. Adaptation is fun. Adaptation has great performances from Cage, Chris Cooper, and Meryl Streep. It’s a screenwriting class that includes screenwriting classes. I had a blast, and I won’t invite you to my house next time I want to watch it.

Tyler: That’s a relief.

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