Top 100 Films of the 21st Century (Four Year Anniversary Special)- Part 2 (90-81)

 90. Attack the Block (2011- Joe Cornish)

In an era where it's become too easy to blame young people for... well, everything, Joe Cornish's wonderful throwback sci-fi/horror hybrid proved that the kids were indeed alright. Pitting his teen heroes against ace, semi-practical creatures in a sharply funny genre piece is one thing, but doing so while imbuing the film with such a distinctly London flavour and making the whole thing a showcase for some incredible young talent (John Boyega among them) is on a whole other level. In Cornish's hands, the future's bright, and that optimism hits hard, now more than ever

The High Point: Moses and co. blasting the creatures with fireworks

89. Knives Out (2019- Rian Johnson)

After saving the Star Wars saga/ ruining your childhood and indeed your life (depending on who you ask) with The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson was back with Knives Out, a tangled web of secrets and lies turned deadly, brought to life by one of the finest ensembles in recent memory. It's a love-letter to a genre, sealed with the arsenic-laced kiss of biting social commentary. Knives Out is a bonafide blockbuster that has its cake (donut?) and eats it too, expertly pairing forensic plotting with crowd-pleasing thrills. Devilishly good fun

The High Point: Or should that be the Hugh point? Best. Foreshadowing. Ever.

 88. Fish Tank (2009-Andrea Arnold)

Gritty, bleak and uncompromisingly brutal, Fish Tank is as harrowing a piece of cinema as anything we've gotten in the last 20 years. Paradoxically, it also might be one of the most affirming. Andrea Arnold's kitchen-sink drama is a portrait of life at its most desolate and unmerciful, featuring career-defining turns from Michael Fassbender and especially Katie Jarvis. It's a film that asks "what do you do when you never had a chance?" The answer? Keep going anyway.

The High Point: A final, heartbreaking dance between mother and daughters

87. Collateral (2004-Michael Mann)

LA has long been crime cinema's favourite playground, and while we could sit around arguing about the best thriller set in the city of angels, it's a fool's errand, so how about we just agree that Collateral is by far the most haunting? A nocturnal odyssey through an arena of sins and lies, Collateral is a film that seems wrong itself, unnatural, like a cry of frustrated honesty against a world that seeks to corrupt. And yet it's Jamie Foxx's Max and his inflexible morality that keep Collateral afloat, that urge the audience that the light is yet to come. It's his best role this century, ditto for a venomous Tom Cruise

The High Point: Locked in a meeting with Javier Bardem's fearsome Felix, Max lets loose

86. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010-Apichatpong Weerasethakul )

If film is a tool to understand ourselves and the universe we live in, then Uncle Boonmee is a mirror into something that might not even exist. It looks into the past, the present and the future, charting the shape of the human spirit as a dying man looks back at the different incarnations his soul has taken. It's surreal, funny and deeply sensual, subtle but immensely powerful. It also doesn't make sense- not as a story anyway. Instead UBWCRHPL plays as a symphony of feeling, like a filmmaker coming to terms with the inevitable decline of things and the unknowable matter of what comes next. And considering Apichatpong Weerasethakul insisted on shooting on 16mm over digital photography, that's not impossible

The High Point: Fish

85. Tyrannosaur (2011-Paddy Considine)

Seven years after co-writing the script for Dead Man's Shoes, Paddy Considine stepped behind the camera for Tyrannosaur, an expansion of his short film Dog Altogether and one of the most incendiary debuts of the last ten years. Refusing to fall back on style, Tyrannosaur is direct, raw and visceral, an honest and open discussion on cycles of violence and the destruction left in their wake. Tyrannosaur isn't a cry for help but a plea for kindness, as emotionally naked as drama gets. Eddie Marsan is terrifying, Olivia Colman is heartbreaking and Peter Mullan is the best he's ever been

The High Point: "It was a joke name" Joseph sighs as he uneasily explains the film's title

84. Pulse (2001-Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Pulse came in on the wave of late 90s J-horror that took the world by storm (Think Ringu, Audition and Kurosawa's own Cure), mingling with the advent of the internet to create a uniquely eerie experience. And while other early-web shockers come up shonky when revisited, Pulse's portrait of a world that's so connected yet so crushingly lonely packs such a sting 19 years later. The technology may have dated in places but the horrible curiosity of Pulse has been preserved so well, undoubtedly because of the film's sinister atmosphere and an approach to the internet that feels more thematic than literal. All this time later, it's still skin-crawlingly creepy and gut-wrenchingly sad

The High Point: Junko just.... disappears

83. Sightseers (2012- Ben Wheatley)

Ben Wheatley's third film went deeper than his trademark deconstructions of genre; this was a demolition of an entire pastime. Carry on Camping it ain't. Sightseers plays like Nuts in May's perverted younger cousin, undoubtedly made from the same DNA but just kind of.... off. Thankfully, this is a good thing, a bizarre horror-comedy brought to life by the words and performances of a never better Alice Lowe and Steve Oram. It'd put you off camping for life if it wasn't so darkly hilarious

The High Point: The ending. Oops

82. Night is Short, Walk on Girl (2017-Masaaki Yuasa)

It's rare for films about partying to feel as fun as the revelry they're trying to capture, but Night is Short Walk on Girl comes damn close. Following a nameless girl over a night of binge drinking and general chaos, Night is Short is a heady trip that features gorgeous simplistic animation and brilliantly madcap comedy. The energy is undeniable and the go-for-broke pace is irresistible, but what really makes this film sing is its genuinely magical approach to chance and circumstance, celebrating the life-changing situations we stumble into. Trust me, you won't forget this one when morning comes

The High Point: The black-haired girl out-drinks a god

81. Happy Go-Lucky (2008-Mike Leigh)

True to his reputation as the quintessential poet of the everyday, Mike Leigh's nineteenth film is an expertly observed comedy, wrapped tightly around the ever-glorious presence that is Sally Hawkins. Happy-Go-Lucky feels real but it also feels good, rejecting kitchen-sink bleakness in favour of celebrating the real heroes: the ordinary people who can just keep smiling through it all. There's such an energy to Happy-Go-Lucky, a distinct personality that radiates out of the screen that could convert even the most hardened cynic into a true believer of the goodness of people

The High Point: En-ra-ha!