25 of the 21st century

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This blog is basically dead. I hadn't intended to retire it but life moves on and Blogger feels like a pretty outdated platform these days. I certainly find it harder to format and put together a post here than I should. I'll either let this place and all its old image links and over-compressed embeds gradually die out, or will close it down altogether at some point. Not sure.

While I still have it though, posting this list for Dave, inspired by the NYT and Rosenbaum's compilation of their 25 best films of the 21st century (so far): 

025 Sunset Red (Laida Lertxundi, 2016)
Café lumière (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2003)
California Company Town (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2008)**
Daan gyun naam yu / Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Johnnie To, 2011)
Double Tide (Sharon Lockhart, 2009)
La fille inconnue / The Unknown Girl (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2016)
La frontière de l'aube / Frontier of Dawn (Philippe Garrel, 2008)
The Girlfriend Experience [Season 1] (Amy Seimetz & Lodge Kerrigan, 2016)*
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011)
Gold (Thomas Arslan, 2013)
In den Tag hinein / The Days Between (Maria Speth, 2001)
In the Cut (Jane Campion, 2003)
L'intrus (Claire Denis, 2004)
Mafrouza (Emmanuelle Demoris, 2007-10)
Nana (Valérie Massadian, 2011)
Ne touchez pas la hache / Don't Touch the Axe (Jacques Rivette, 2007)
Qu’ils reposent en révolte (des figures de guerre) (Sylvain George, 2010)
Sang sattawat / Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)
Sanxia haoren / Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke, 2006)
Sorg og glæde / Sorrow and Joy (Nils Malmros, 2013)
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (Wang Bing, 2003)
Tiger Tail in Blue (Frank V. Ross, 2012)
To the Wonder (Terrence Malick, 2012)
Traveling Light (Gina Telaroli, 2011)
Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (Daïchi Saïto, 2009)

Not an easy task! A few near misses: Quei loro incontri (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 2006), April (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2012), Des filles en noir / Young Girls in Black (Jean-Paul Civeyrac, 2010), I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007), Instants (Hannes Schüpbach, 2012), Miami Vice & Public Enemies (Michael Mann, 2006 & 2009), Ruhr (James Benning, 2009). There are so, so many more. Cinema is unfailingly rich year on year but it's been a superb millennium so far.

*I know this one is cheating but I can't help thinking of the 2016 season (another's on the way) as a self-contained film. In a now-deleted tweet Lodge Kerrigan said as much: "All 13 eps are dropping Sunday. I recommend watching them all in one sitting. Designed as a 6.5 hour film." I had resisted adding my fav music video (runners up) to the list so please allow me this one indulgence...

**Late addition, because I forgot about it, shame on me. Bumped off Quei loro incontri for it, which was painful.