Around the time I started this site, I did a “Top 100 of the 1990s” with the intention of doing a new decade every year. I had meant to do a new decade every year, but as with life, stuff came up. I got overwhelmed by my primary responsibilities on this site: reviewing new film and television releases. Hence, folks have some guidance when consuming new content.

Recently, I conducted a small poll on my personal Instagram (@fartgetis2) to ask what past decade I should do a “Top 100 Films” on. Overwhelmingly, the answer came back: “the 2000s”. Not the best decade for film, in my approximation; in fact, I was low-key hoping the poll results would be the 1970s or 1980s, but some beautiful gems came out of a post-9/11 mindset. Some of my choices are obvious and well-known, and others you may not have heard of. Please remember that art is subjective, and these choices are personal. 

Please don’t threaten to kill my family cause I like Sideways. 

I decided to release this article in ten parts, covering ten films each, to not overwhelm the viewer and make the movies stand out more. This was an arduous ranking process, especially for selections #73-#100, picking 28 films out of nearly 150 possible contenders.

Part 1: #100-91

Part 2: #90-81

Part 3: #80-71

So, let’s continue with #70-#61:

70. The Savages

2007 / dir. Tamara Jenkins / 114 minutes

cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman, Gbenga Akinnagbe, David Zayas, Tonye Patano, Zoe Kazan, Cara Seymour, Debra Monk

Mostly bitter, hardly sweet indie about two dysfunctional siblings (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) trying to figure out what to do with their father who is suffering from dementia. The movie rises and falls on the central brother/sister relationship and it’s exceptionally well written with both actors playing brilliantly off each other. Hoffman in particular is spectacular, delivering a monologue about the elderly care industry I hope to see an auditioning actor do some day. (Available for $4 rental on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and AppleTV+)

69. Broken Embraces

2009 / dir. Pedro Almodóvar / 128 minutes

cast: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Rubén Ochandiano, Tamar Novas, Ángela Molina, Chus Lampreave, Kiti Mánver, Lola Dueñas, Rossy de Palma

One of Almodóvar‘s best thrillers about a blind screenwriter (LLuís Homar) living with his agent/secret lover (Blanca Portillo) and her adult son/his screenwriting partner (Tamar Novas). After a rich movie producer (Jose Luis Gómez) mysteriously dies, the screenwriter thinks back to a passionate affair he had with his wife (Penélope Cruz). It’s a love story we already know has a tragic ending, told in retrospect by an aging man. There’s lots of twists and turns, but like most Almodóvar films, it’s really more about the emotional layers of the characters than the mystery. It’s like Hitchcock if Hitchcock actually cared about people. (Available for $4 rental on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and AppleTV+)

68. 25th Hour

2002 / dir. Spike Lee / 135 minutes

cast: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Tony Siragusa, Patrice O’Neal

Spike Lee‘s best film behind Do the Right Thing follows a Brooklyn drug dealer (Edward Norton) trying to have one last night with his friends before his seven year prison term begins. 25th Hour is mournful but it never lacks energy, and it features some truly fantastic performances from everyone in the cast not named Anna Paquin. It’s also secretly about 9/11, so that’s cool, huh? (Available for $4 rental on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and AppleTV+)

67. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2007 / dir. Andrew Dominik / 160 minutes

cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Mary Louise Parker, Sam Shephard, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Zoey Deschanel, Paul Schneider, Ted Levine, James Carville, Pat Healy

Before he made the interesting but seriously confused Killing Them Softy and before he made the seriously revolting and borderline immoral Blonde, Australian filmmaker Andrew Dominik made this gorgeously rendered and hypnotic western about how Jesse James (a fantastic Brad Pitt) is perceived through the eyes of an envious fan boy creep (Casey Affleck, not a stretch) who ended up killing him. For nearly three hours it firmly has you in the palm of its hand, making Dominik‘s efforts after this seem all the more disappointing. (Available for $3 rental on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and AppleTV+)

66. The Squid and the Whale

2005 / dir. Noah Baumbach / 81 minutes

cast: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, Anna Paquin, Billy Baldwin, Halley Feiffer, Ken Leung, Alexandra Daddario

This is the Noah Baumbach movie that really clicks for me, his coldly funny and thoroughly awkward portrait of a liberal (and very pretentious) New York family of academics in 1986. Jeff Daniels delivers one of his best performances as an enormously self-important professor trying to sleep with one of his students (Anna Paquin – better here than in 25th Hour). He’s the father of this fucked up family and Laura Linney, also good here, is the mom. The movie charts their divorce and the effect it has on their children – the older son who is basically a little version of his dad (Jesse Eisenberg) and the younger son who is the only non-asshole in the family (Owen Kline – Kevin and Phoebe‘s kid). These people suck incredibly hard but Baumbach manages to get you emotionally invested in their daily struggles for a very tight and very funny 81 minutes. (Streaming on Netflix and AMC+)

65. The Queen

2006 / dir. Stephen Frears / 103 minutes

cast: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Helen McCrory, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam, Sylvia Sims, Tim McMullan

Helen Mirren delivers the performance of her career as Queen Elizabeth, in this non-biopic drama that just focuses on the Queen’s mental state in the days following Princess Diana’s tragic death. Michael Sheen is really good as Tony Blair as is the rest of the cast. Whenever a film is released about royal people it always has the potential to feel stuffy and boring, but this is a carefully observed and always engaging character portrait. (Available for $4 rental on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and AppleTV+)

64. About Schmidt

2002 / dir. Alexander Payne / 124 minutes

cast: Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, June Squibb, Len Cariou, Howard Hesseman, Harry Groener, Connie Ray, Matt Winston, Phil Reeves

Jack Nicholson delivers one of his best performances, and one of his least Jack Nicholson performances in Alexander Payne‘s exquisitely Midwestern About Schmidt. This is a very funny but carefully observed character portrait of a retired man, Warren R. Schmidt, searching for meaning in his life weeks before his daughter’s wedding. The humor all comes from the characters and situations they inevitably find themselves in. Kathy Bates is hilarious in an Oscar-nominated supporting role as Schmidt’s in-law to be whose habit for oversharing scares the shit out of Warren. This is one of those rare movies that works as well as a drama as it does a comedy. It also perfectly captures the Midwest, as do most Alexander Payne films. (Available for $4 rental on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and AppleTV+)

63. Milk

2008 / dir. Gus Van Sant / 128 minutes

cast: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Alison Pill, Victor Garber, Denis O’Hare, Joseph Cross, Stephen Spinella

At last, not the Shamrock Farms origin story I had hoped for, but the dramatized story of real life politician Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected into office in California. He’s brilliantly played by Sean Penn in an Oscar-winning performance. This has all the ingredients for an overly schmaltzy TV movie of the week, with a tragic ending, but of course, nuanced indie filmmaker Gus Van Sant doesn’t let that happen. Nothing about this feels like your typical, by-the-numbers biopic and the film is filled with great supporting performances including a chilling Josh Brolin as the bigoted and perhaps closeted colleague of Milk’s, Dan White, who ended up assassinating him. He was caught but only got seven years for voluntary manslaughter, because of his lawyer’s successful “twinkie defense” – not meaning a random twink was the real killer but because of the high sugar content in Dan’s diet, his brain malfunctioned and he became violent, thus killing Harvey Milk. Yeah, I think that’s some bullshit too. (Available for $4 rental on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and AppleTV+)

62. Chicken Run

2000 / dir. Peter Lord, Nick Park / 84 minutes

voice cast: Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Tony Haygarth, Benjamin Whitrow, Timothy Spall, Phil Daniels, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson

A pure delight and while maybe not as seamless as the best Wallace & Gromit shorts, it packs a lot of laughs and heart into 84 minutes. (Available for $4 rental on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and AppleTV+)

61. Old Joy

2006 / dir. Kelly Reichardt / 76 minutes

cast: Will Oldham, Daniel London

Kelly Reichardt is one of the most underrated filmmakers working in the indie movie scene. This is because her movies aren’t cock-sploding with testosterone and are very deliberately paced – read, slow. However, for as slow as her movies are in the moment, they stay with you long after you’ve watched them – their ideas rattling around your brain like a chipmunk stuck in your basement. Old Joy is a brilliantly acted, slow but extremely resonant two-hander about a couple of old friends (Will Oldham and Daniel London) at two completely different places in life. One is married with a baby, the other is about at the same place the two were when they lived together. Over a weekend camping trip in Eastern Portland, the two old friends hash out heavy shit and unheal old wounds. There’s no fighting or murder, but their shifting power dynamic and passive-aggressive digs are just as thrilling. Simply put, if you’ve ever had a friend you’ve drifted apart from, you’ll be able to relate to this movie. (Streaming on Max)