[_____V_____]

64 L'enfant (Jean-Pierre Dardenne/Luc Dardenne, 2005)
The plot is seemingly preposterous — local Belgian tearaway Bruno (Jérémie Renier) sells his girlfriend’s baby on the black market for a new leather jacket. But in the hands of fraternal film-making masters, it becomes a tour de force of guilt and desperation.

63 There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
“I, drink, your, milkshake!” The climactic quote, from Daniel Day Lewis’s embittered protagonist is already immortal, as is the performance. While the entire devastating movie, about oil prospecting in the early 20th century, is endlessly re-watchable.

62 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, 2004)
Unreconstructed juvenile chauvinism goes head to head with the march of feminism in a 1970s San Diego newsroom. It’s a world where men wear flammable trousers and aftershave called Sex Panther. Will Ferrell’s finest moment.

61 Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
The master storyteller and animator creates a deliciously loopy adventure for ten-year- old Chihiro (Rumi Hiragi) when a tedious drive to a new town is interrupted by a deadly detour into the spirit world. Like the Wizard of Oz, minus the sentiment.

60 The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach, 2005)
Exemplary US Indie about two brothers growing up in mid-1980s New York and dealing with their academic parents acrimonious divorce. A witty and acrid semi-autobiographical script from Baumbach, plus pitch-perfect casting, give this coming-of-ager unexpected depths.

59 Être et Avoir (Nicolas Philibert, 2002)
A rural schoolhouse holding just 12 students and a single ageing teacher in the Auvergne may not seem like a recipe for must-see documentary. Yet Philibert is so finely attuned to the tender relationship between teacher and pupils that the subsequent school year becomes as gripping as any blockbuster.

58 Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004)
Shaun is determined to win back his girlfriend Liz and nothing, not even the fact that streets of suburban North London are full of zombies trying to eat his brains, will stop him. Although there’s always time for quick pint in the Winchester.

57 The Consequences of Love (Paolo Sorrentino, 2004)
Sorrentino’s super-stylish debut is an art-house mafia movie about a middle-aged businessman and Cosa Nostra cash-mule called Titta (Toni Servillo). When his quiet romance with a local waitress fails, Titta takes out his frustrations on his Sicilian paymasters. Big mistake.

56 Volver (Pedro Almodovar, 2006)
A family and the ghosts that haunt it, a body in the freezer and Penelope Cruz in screen-melting vamp mode. This tragicomic melodrama is drenched in colour and full of evocative imagery; it’s a rich confection from Almodóvar.

55 Chopper (Andrew Dominik, 2000)
Actor Eric Bana displays a near-wreckless virtuosity as the violent and self-deluded Australian criminal, Mark “Chopper” Read, in an off-kilter adaptation of Read’s quasi-autobiographical writings. Through self-mutilation, murder and megalomania, Bana somehow always retains audience sympathy.

54 Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, 2003)
Billy Bob Thornton buys his Christmas spirit in bulk from the discount liquor store and drinks away his hatred of children in order to face his job as a department store Santa. Take a wild guess whether he’s naughty or nice.

53 Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2008)
“Best Actor” winner Sean Penn, surrounded by firebrand talent including Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin, stars in a timely movie that brings the selfless (and ultimately fatal) activism of gay campaigner Harvey Milk to the mainstream. Released, ironically, just as California passed the anti-gay-marriage bill Section 8.

52 The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles, 2005)
A John Le Carré thriller brought to life by the Brazilian director Meirelles, this is storytelling that is charged with energy and idealism. Ralph Fiennes is tremendous as the conflicted widower driven to make sense of his wife’s murder.

51 The Son’s Room (Nanni Moretti, 2001)
Moretti, of Dear Diary fame, dumps his previous penchant for on-screen clowning with an emotionally punishing account of a psychiatrist (Moretti) dealing with the sudden death of his son. There are light moments, especially with his neurotic clients, but this mostly made for weeping.

50 The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003)
The final and most satisfying Rings movie snagged a record $1.1 billion at the box office, plus 11 Oscars, and cemented the trilogy’s reputation as one of the great all-time franchises.

49 Knocked Up (Judd Apatow, 2007)
Ambitious career girl Katherine Heigl and stoner scruff Seth Rogen get more than a phone number at the end of their night together. It’s gleefully rude and deliriously funny, but the film’s ultimate strength comes from its unexpectedly soft centre.

48 Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris, 2006)
A Hollywood honcho’s dream ticket, this heartfelt family drama cost only $6 million but grossed over $100 million. The story of a ramshackle road trip to California in a clapped out VW van set the quirky tone for future indies, such as Juno.

47 My Summer of Love (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004)
Heady, intoxicating and a little crazy — the teenaged crush is explored in all its deranged intensity, with two sterling central performances from Natalie Press and Emily Blunt.

46 Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan somehow achieve the impossible by making a single star-laden movie (step forward Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas) about the human cost of the drugs trade that’s even better than the six-hour Channel 4 mini-series that inspired it.

45 Touching the Void (Kevin Macdonald, 2003)
In 1985, two climbers attempted to scale the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. This documentary, about endeavour and survival, is as tense as a thriller.

44 Under the Sand (François Ozon, 2000)
Charlotte Rampling dazzles as a woman in denial about her husband’s death. An uncharacteristically subtle and sensitive work from Ozon.

43 The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
A rare example of a film franchise in which the director’s vision triumphs over the tendency to churn out a homogenous brand. A chilling, brilliant swan song for Heath Ledger as the Joker.

42 The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
Superhero-mania gets a wryly affectionate drubbing with an ironic adventure from Pixar

41 Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)
Staggeringly accomplished photography from Emmanuel Lubezki brings an urgency to this dystopian vision of a near future where humankind has become infertile. An outstanding film which somehow slipped through the net.

40 Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, 2005)
George Clooney produces and stars in a withering account of petrol politics in the Middle East. Fine performances from Matt Damon, Christopher Plummer and William Hurt, plus a cracking sense of pace, help to mollify a core message of bleak corporate cynicism.

39 Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
Strangers in a strange place become soul mates for a few stolen days. Bill Murray is gloriously hang dog as a movie star in crisis; Scarlett Johansson is utterly disarming as the neglected newlywed.

38 Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
Lynch at his brash elliptical best with Naomi Watts as Betty, an aspiring actress who becomes the unwitting star of her own twisted film noir.

37 In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000)
Heart-stoppingly lovely and exquisitely sad, elegantly erotic and impeccably stylish — this romantic tone poem is a thing of real beauty.

36 Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki, 2004)
Bizarre and compelling, Andrew Jarecki’s documentary began as a portrait of New York clown David Friedman but segued into an analysis of Friedman’s pressured family life — complete with brother Jesse and father Arnold, both convicted paedophiles.

35 Y Tu Mamá También (Alfonso Cuarón, 2002)
Two teenage boys and an older woman in crisis take a road trip to an elusive “perfect” beach in this sexually charged Mexican comedy drama. Cuaron’s restless camera-work gives an unexpected depth to the story.

34 Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton/Lee Unkrich, 2003)
The Pixar trademarks are all there — rapid-fire badinage, ravishing visuals, and sympathetic characters. But this tale of a timid clownfish tracking his kidnapped son carries, like a subaqueous Searchers, a genuinely mythic uppercut.

33 Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair, 2002)
There are few directors better than Mira Nair at capturing the mercurial tensions of domestic life. And with this vivid, richly textured portrait of a Punjabi wedding she is at her absolute best.

32 Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000)
The sheer audacity! Taking a dead genre — the sword’n’sandals movie — and not just reviving it, but creating an Oscar-winning box-office sensation into the bargain.

31 Iraq in Fragments (James Longley, 2006)
Remarkable photography and a glimpse of Iraq on the streets rather than from inside an armoured vehicle — this little-seen film is one of the decade’s most impressive documentaries.

30 Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002)
Yes, this scandalous revenge drama boasts a vile nine-minute rape sequence and a hideous opening mutilation. But it’s also a moral movie that refuses to sanction violence and remains, for strong stomachs at least, unforgettable.

29 Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 2000)
The film that introduced the surreal genius of writer Charlie Kaufman to the world, this endlessly inventive riff on the nature of identity and celebrity is a milestone in moviemaking.