5. “Moonlight” (2016)
We’re still too close to the release of Barry Jenkins‘ sublime “Moonlight” to be able to definitively state it will rest in this lofty position forever: it might very well move higher in years to come. Indeed that’s one of the most remarkable things about the film, aside from all its other remarkable qualities and a central triple performance that is an extraordinary achievement from all three actors: it seems to grow more fundamental, more resonant and more quietly true with time. It won’t be a surprise when we say if we had a vote for 2016’s best film, it would go to “Moonlight” — in fact, it already did.
4. “The Insider” (1999)
The problem with having as many great films on your CV as Michael Mann does is that it means that brilliantly understated slow-burn dramas like “The Insider” can get overlooked. But this is one of those rare cases where the Academy did right by a film that audiences mostly slept on, the tobacco-lobby-whistleblower story was nominated for seven awards, despite not making back its budget at the box office. In particular, it features an Oscar-nominated Russell Crowe performance that ranks among his very best and is one of his most unusual, in that the schlubby, everyman heroism of Jeffrey Wigand is nothing like the volcanic grandeur the actor is better known for.
3. “No Country For Old Men” (2007)
Well, now we get into the agonizing bit where any of the remaining films could easily have taken the top spot. The Coen Brothers‘ neo-western, neo-noir, neo-brilliant “No Country For Old Men” is simply a masterpiece, and if it’s not even our very favorite Coens movie, that just goes to show you how highly we regard them. A ruthlessly powerful, yet elegiac desert roar of a movie, it remains the best-ever adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy story, a title we cannot imagine it will be stripped of any time soon.
2. “There Will Be Blood” (2007)
At number one until the very last second, Paul Thomas Anderson‘s mighty, raging parable of madness and delusional egomania during the oil boom is a landmark film, for PTA, for Daniel Day-Lewis (in the crowning performance of a not-exactly-shabby career), and for all the budding cinephiles who went to see it and emerged two hours later zealously converted, eyes bloodshot, eardrums shattered, heart pounding and longing for a milkshake. There’s simply nothing anyone could improve upon in this towering monolith.
1. “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015)
OK, there’s a tiny element of contrarianism going into our choice for the single best film to have been nominated for Best Picture this century. Partly it’s that we want to give shine to a movie that never actually had a hope in hell of winning the trophy, as those category-expanding titles feel like much more valuable and interesting additions to the Academy’s canon than the universally accepted masterworks that were never in question. But mostly it’s that, hand on heart, short of flipping a coin, we put it to the highly scientific “which of these genius films would we most like to sit down and rewatch right now” and George Miller‘s high-octane, surprisingly feminist, orgiastic blast of insane dystopian action won that contest, hands down, mouth sprayed and with the kerrang of an electric guitar that shoots flames. WITNESS.
Agree? Disagree? (Almost certainly the latter). Let us know how your own list would differ in the comments.