The last 25 years have seen a huge proliferation in cinematic technology and the relative democratization of filmmaking. Plus, with the burgeoning independent film movement, it’s become possible for more diverse voices to be heard than ever before. The result? Countless unique, brilliant films, along with more means to access them.
With so many landmark movies, it’s difficult to choose the best of the last quarter-century. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), for instance, melded science, philosophy, and existentialism like no other film has before, while Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark (2002) explored 300 years of Russian history in a single, 90-minute take. The must-see watchlist of the last 25 years could go on for pages and pages, but some films still rise to the top for their production, immediacy, and universality. Ahead, the movies that have defined our era.
10
‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ (2021)
Fred Hampton remains the unsung martyr of the Civil Rights Movement, but films like Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah seek to remedy that. Daniel Kaluuya stars as Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and founder of the multi-racial Rainbow Coalition during the late 1960s. LaKeith Stanfield, meanwhile, stars as William O’Neal, the FBI informant who betrayed Hampton, leading to Hampton’s violent death. Marked by smart dialogue, thrilling action, and a strong sense of place, Judas and the Black Messiah is like The Departed (2006), but with a historical, political twist.
Firstly, this film brings together some of the remarkable actors of our time. Kaluuya and Stanfield are joined by Jesse Plemons, Ashton Sanders, and Martin Sheen, all of whom play off one another beautifully in this difficult, resonant story. Furthermore, the film realistically portrays even its most antagonistic characters with nuance, demonstrating not only the challenges of the era but also the extent to which the politics of the 1960s resemble the political climate of today.
9
‘Coco’ (2017)
Lee Unkrich’s 2017 animated film, Coco, is perhaps the most moving Disney/Pixar film of all time. Painstakingly researched in order to properly honor Mexican culture, it delves into the mythology surrounding the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos. More specifically, it uses one family’s story to drive home the holiday’s emphasis on family, love, and tradition.
Coco is significant for a number of reasons. Its story, at once touching and heartbreaking, transcends culture and religion, demonstrating that love has the power to endure no matter the circumstance. Its cutting-edge computer animation is also undeniably stunning and detailing-oriented, from the characters’ striking makeup down to the tiniest magnolia petal. It helps, too, that Coco’s music is catchy and that its lead, Gael García Bernal, brings both star power and cultural authenticity to the feature.
8
‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ (2019)
Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a masterclass in the female gaze. It fearlessly dives into romantic love and sensuality without objectifying its two female subjects. Furthermore, it centralizes queer characters without explicitly politicizing their queerness or even labeling them, focusing instead on their love and yearning—and how these two human impulses transcend gender or sexual orientation.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is also exceptional for its quietude. Whereas so many great films—including a number on this last—are remarkable for their theatrics and colors, Sciamma’s masterpiece is remarkably subdued, and therein lies its power. Its poignancy comes not from tantrums, speeches, or even sex scenes, but from its subtle, realistic depiction of falling in love.
7
‘The Intouchables’ (2011)
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A film doesn’t have to be serious to be great, and Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s The Intouchables proves just that. The 2011 buddy comedy explores the unlikely friendship between a wealthy, white quadriplegic man and his aide, a Black man from a Paris banlieue. Based on a true story, the film explores political and socioeconomic nuances in modern-day France without proselytizing.
Indeed, The Intouchables is so effective because of its honesty and its heart. The main characters, Philippe (François Cluzet) and Driss (Omar Sy) are so compelling because of their refusal to be defined by stereotypes or to fall into dramedy tropes. Furthermore, they are easy to relate to because their personalities, rather than their respective challenges, take center stage. Free of dramatic monologues or overused clichés, The Intouchables is the most honest feel-good comedy in recent memory, made to be watched over and over again.
6
‘A Separation’ (2011)
Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation nearly always tops lists of the best films of all time. Like the novels of Henry James or Jane Austen, it is resonant in its realistic depiction of everyday life, eschewing grandiose political issues for the story of one solitary family. After its 2011 release, it swept up awards at festivals and ceremonies on nearly every continent, boasting an Oscar, a Golden Bear, a Golden Globe, and much more.
In A Separation, a middle-class couple argues over issues large and small, with the husband, Nader (Peyman Moaadi), suffering beneath the weight of his aging father’s (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi) worsening Alzheimer’s, much to the chagrin fo his wife, Simin (Leila Hatami). Meanwhile, their daughter (Sarina Farhadi) feels caught between them. Overwhelmed, the couple hires a caregiver (Sareh Bayat) to care for Nader’s father—an arrangement that ends in tragedy and animosity. Victims to aging, circumstance, and existential anxiety, these characters immediately hit a collective nerve around the world. Though it was released well over a decade ago, A Separation delves into issues that always have been, and always will be, painfully relevant.
5
‘Parasite’ (2019)
Bong Joon Ho has been a major player in Korean cinema since the early 2000s, having garnered global recognition for films such as Memories of Murder (2003) and Snowpiercer (2013). However, it was his 2019 film, Parasite, that truly made him a household name. Even more importantly, Parasite marked a shift in which Hollywood was unseated as mainstream film’s ultimate hegemon.
When Parasite was released, it became an almost immediate success worldwide, drawing unprecedented attention from Western—especially American—audiences who had previously been reticent to embrace non-English films. Yet through its dynamic storytelling and striking visuals, Parasite not only opened Western minds but became the first non-English film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. This film will go down in history not only for its high quality, but for the impact it’s had on global cinema and American taste.
4
‘Incendies’ (2010)
You’d be hard-pressed to find a Denis Villeneuve film that isn’t a work of genius. With dramas like Prisoners (2013) and Arrival (2016) under his belt, the Canadian director commands attention each time he’s attached to a film. But, without a doubt, Incendies is his magnum opus, spanning two generations and multiple countries with its sprawling, hyper-realistic narrative.
Incendies begins in modern-day Canada, with two siblings reeling with complicated feelings after their enigmatic mother’s death. The mysteries surrounding her life soon lead them down a path that has devastating implications for both their mother’s memory and their own shared reality. Marked by several devastating plot twists, Incendies asks important questions about love, war, and the human soul’s capacity for resilience.
3
‘Y Tu Mamá También’ (2001)
Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También was released in 2001, but it takes place in 1999, at the end of the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s 71-year rule over Mexican politics. Amid that backdrop, Cuarón’s characters, too, struggle with adapting their existing habits to a changing world and to their own changing identities. Straddling comedy, drama, and coming of age, Y Tu Mamá También finds its genius in both its relationship-focused plot and in the issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class that subtly make up its backdrop.
While Cuarón made three films before Y Tu Mamá También, this is the one that put him on the map internationally, garnering awards internationally and breaking box office records upon its release. Stars Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, and Maribel Verdú were praised for their performances. Meanwhile, Cuarón became one of the most sought-after directors in the world for his French New Wave-inspired direction. Perpetually relevant, Y Tu Mamá También remains regarded as one of the best films of the century.
2
‘The Act of Killing’ (2012)
In 2012, Joshua Oppenheimer debuted The Act of Killing at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, and documentary filmmaking has not been the same since. The film details the mass murder of over a million people in Indonesia between 1965 and 1966, the motives for which included alleged communism, atheism, and feminism. Ethnic Chinese, Javanese Abangan, and Buginese bissu people were also murdered. The mass murders, not widely recognized as a genocide, were supported by a number of Western governments, including the United States and United Kingdom, and were part of a coup d’etat that sought to overthrow Indonesian President Sukarno’s government.
But rather than tell this story through traditional documentary means, such as voiceover or archival footage, Oppenheimer delves into the issue by asking former death squad members, such as Anwar Congo and Herman Koto, to re-enact the murders they committed. With unsettling pride, they boast of killing, raping, and torturing countless people, with a memorable climax in which Congo has a panic attack amidst reliving one brutal incident. By turning the camera to the perpetrators, The Act of Killing unflinchingly examines genocide like no film ever has before. So much more than a mere film or educational documentary, The Act of Killing is a deeply human warning about the ramifications of political violence, extremism, and the dehumanization of the perceived “other.”
1
‘City of God’ (2002)
City of God is one of the most celebrated crime films of all time, filled with action and drama on an incredible. And, unbelievably, it’s based on a true story: Bráulio Mantovani’s screenplay was adapted from Paulo Lins’ 1997 semi-autobiographical novel about growing up in Rio de Janeiro’s Cidade de Deus favela between the 1960s and 1980s.
City of God (or Cidade de Deus in Portuguese) is the rare gem that depicts violence and poverty without romanticizing it or even fully vilifying its characters. Directors Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles juxtapose intimate cinematography with a sweeping history that spans nearly twenty years and an impressive cast of unique characters. It’s a film that sticks with its viewers long after its 130 minutes are up, and while it’s been over 20 years since its release, no crime drama has come close to surpassing it.
City of God
- Release Date
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February 13, 2004
- Runtime
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130 Minutes
- Writers
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Paulo Lins, Bráulio Mantovani
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