Top 100 Films of the 21st Century (Four Year Anniversary Special)- Part 3 (80-71)

 80. Caché (2005- Michael Haneke)

Caché begins with an image of a house. But who's behind the camera? What does it mean to watch someone else? Why do I suddenly feel deep, deep terror? If you had any of these questions watching Michael Haneke's icy thriller, that was probably the intention. Caché is a film about the horror of watching. Beneath its austere surface is a thought-provoking study on the easy solutions a country applies to its history, something that extends into the very past of its main character. It's slow but rewarding, delivering on a glacial build of tension with expertly-placed shocks. Can't enjoy your favourite violent movies anymore? Blame Caché

The High Point: A frustrated Georges goes to confront Majid at his apartment and then.... oh.... oh no

79. The Handmaiden (2016- Park Chan-wook)

A romantic comedy disguised as a kinky, sadistic erotic thriller (which also happens to function as a kinky, sadistic erotic thriller), The Handmaiden is a hard film to pin down. Like the con artists that fill its runtime with their dueling plots, actually. It's quite possibly the most intricate thing that Park Chan-wook has done to date, and while it may lack the visceral shocks of say the Vengeance Trilogy, the thrills are there, so exact and measured that their cruelty becomes even more astonishing. Watching it is like playing a game you don't know the rules to: eventually you know you're going to be bested, but you soldier on because it's too much fun not to.

The High Point: The end of chapter one, and the first plot-upending twist that makes it clear that there's more here than you might have thought

78. True History of the Kelly Gang (2019- Justin Kurzel)

It's not just the scorching punk aesthetic. It's not just the heady fusion of arthouse and genre sensibilities. It's not the gung-ho approach to history, or even the sinewy, firebrand performance of George McKay that makes this film special. No, it's the alchemy at work that makes True History sing, taking all of these elements and melding them so that they work not just in synergy, but total harmony. It's one of the most impressive pieces of cinema that's come out this year, and while it might be tempting to see what something this daring means for the future of the period piece, the more appropriate thing to do is to simply bask in this film's chaotically beautiful glow

The High Point: An armored Kelly charges straight into a legion of British soldiers as the screen fills with disorienting sound and vision

77. Phantom Thread (2017- Paul Thomas Anderson)

Disorganised is not a word one would use to describe Paul Thomas Anderson, and yet Phantom Thread feels especially fastidious, even for him. Maybe it's Daniel Day-Lewis, bowing out from acting as Reynolds Woodcock. So much of this film's world flows out of this performance that to talk about the film would just result in some form of character study. It's careful, it's dark, it's funny and it's sexy, and although it might have seemed like a surprising move for PTA to make on paper, it makes total sense onscreen, with Reynolds having all the skill, panache and deep-seated maternal trauma of a thousand Frank TJ Mackeys

The High Point: "Kiss me my love, before I'm sick" Swoon. Literally

76. Shame (2011- Steve McQueen)

Steve McQueen has garnered a reputation as the kind of filmmaker who can go where others won't, and nowhere is that more apparent than in his cold, grueling tale of a sex-addict's quest for redemption. By no means an easy watch, Shame does a lot with very little, wringing its mechanical montages of joyless bonking for all of the thematic weight tney're worth. It's a film that presented more of Michael Fassbender than had ever been seen onscreen before, in more ways than one. Get your mind out of the gutter though, because apart from being quite possibly his best performance, Shame is also a wonderful take on the very unerotic destruction that sex can wreak if it gets out of hand

The High Point: Carey Mulligan's soul-stirring rendition of "New York, New York"

75. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000- Ang Lee)

Talk about starting on the right foot. Ang Lee's tale of love and honour kicked the century off nicely, sparking a revolution in the action genre and taking wuxia to a whole new level, paving the way for the likes of Hero and House of Flying Daggers in the process. An epic in the tradition of King Hu, the most exciting thing about Crouching Tiger was how it acknowledged its DNA only to remix it to create something fresh. The action stunned, not least thanks to Lee’s keen eye for detail, and twenty years later, it still feels groundbreaking

The High Point: The breathless one-on-one between Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi

74. Talk to Her (2002- Pedro Almodóvar)

Already boasting a back catalogue of full-blooded stories of complicated passion when the new millennium rolled around, Almodóvar doubled down for Talk to Her, as full-blooded, complicated and passionate as anything he’d done before (or since). It’s a film that frames love as an incredible thing that's capable of thriving in the most unlikely circumstances, too inconvenient to entertain yet impossible to ignore. His eye for melodrama is irresistible, and as the film flits between darkness and delicacy, he steadily begins to emerge as a sort of psycho-sexual Douglas Sirk. Almodóvar's relationship with cinema has always felt like Talk to Her's central romance: unrequited and possibly irresponsible, but fueled by feelings too deep to deny. Fortunately, he gave into them, resulting in his best film to date

The High Point: The bizarre, beguiling silent movie that plays in the film's centre

73. Bone Tomahawk (2015- S. Craig Zahler)

Bone Tomahawk feels like an exercise in the inevitable. Men die, eras end and we invariably find our way back into the throes of violence. Not easy viewing then, but essential, reflecting back at us the things we fear most (which is also us, of course). It’s also the best instalment of Kurt Russell’s ongoing comeback, and he’s never been better- all stony authority and soul-scorching regret. That it evokes such powerful ideas while doffing its ten-gallon hat to the grotty exploitation flicks of old is what forms the backbone of its unique charm. The shocks cut deep, but more surprising is what happens next, the uneasy analysis of a nation's wounds

The High Point: Can a total bisection even be called a high point?

72. Don't Think Twice (2016- Mike Birbiglia)

Mike Birbiglia's criminally underseen paean to the trials and tribulations of jobbing comedians is still one of the finest pieces of autobiographical cinema, 21st century or not. Less an exposé of the comedy world and more of a gentle probing of a group of people trying to figure out how to work together while not quite being able to understand themselves, and it's all the better for it, prioritising small moments over any showstopping setpieces. It's low-key without being mumblecore, forgoing emotional distance and diving straight into the complicated, painful mess that is being a creative.... and then Birbiglia multiplies it by six and ensures that every character's story is satisfyingly told. Cherry on top is Gillian Jacobs, who gives a gorgeously understated, resonant performance. Britta for the win indeed

The High Point: Sam's solo gig. Absolute showstopper

71. Under the Skin (2013- Jonathon Glazer)

Nine years after the misfire that was Birth, Jonathon Glazer bounced back for this uneasy cinematic Rorschach test, a fusion of sci-fi and horror and an instant classic of Brit-genre filmmaking. It's an elusive watch that almost immediately slithers into the subconscious with the promise of staying there for years to come. It also features a turn from an arguably never-better Scarlett Johansson as an alien talking a kind of van-based tour of Earth- or at the very least the hapless men she seduces and destroys. Harrowing? Sure, but it's also an incredibly frank look at humanity through the eyes of the other, brilliantly disguised as a study of the other through a comfortably human lens. It's not comfortable, but it is horrifyingly human

The High Point: A baby. A beach. The most upsetting scene in modern science-fiction