Best Movies Since 2000: A NYT List Designed to Make You Fight Your Friends

Parasite Tops the List, but Who Voted for ‘Madagascar 3’?

(*Note we were not aware of the placement = ranking order)

The New York Times asked more than 500 people — directors, actors, writers, a few wild cards like Nicholas Sparks and James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem — to list their ten favorite films since the year 2000.

The result? A chaotic, sometimes inspiring, occasionally “what-the-hell?” list that gives us Parasite at #1… and leaves Paddington 2 at the train station.

We break it down today on UNSPOOLED

LISTEN

THE TOP 10

Here’s how this worked: Then the NYT tallied how many times each movie appeared across those lists, without a points system. No algorithm. Just raw popularity, however, there was consideration of where the films were placed. So what landed at the top? We’ve only seen a handful of ballots, but based on those, we have to make some hypotheses.

#1 was Parasite, which appeared on 27 ballots—making it the most beloved movie of the modern era, at least by consensus. But here’s the twist: Mulholland Drive actually showed up on more ballots (28 in total), yet landed at #2. Why? Because Parasite tended to be ranked higher on the lists it appeared on, while Mulholland hovered around the mid-tier. So yes—David Lynch got the votes, but Bong Joon-ho got the love.

#3 was There Will Be Blood, which also had a strong showing with 21 votes. That exact vote total (21) also applied to Moonlight and No Country for Old Men, which landed at #5 and #6, respectively. The tie-breaker again came down to average placement—how high voters ranked each film within their top 10.

Coming in at #4 was Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, a slow-burn heartbreak movie that’s quietly become Gen Z’s favorite. It showed up on 19 ballots—less than the others in the top five—but was ranked highly enough to leapfrog.

Rounding out the top ten were Get Out at #8 (18 votes), Spirited Away at #9 (16 votes), and two modern classics—Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Social Network—each with 14 votes. Charlie Kaufman's love story beat out Fincher’s Zuckerberg origin story in average rank, landing it at #7.

So Parasite wins by love, Mulholland Drive wins by reach.

WHO VOTED?

While any and I were suspiciously absent, this was a well rounded list, not just directors and critics — it was 500+ “notable voices.” Some of our favorite picks:

Nicholas Sparks voted for Hereditary, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Madagascar 3!

Ziwe included Paddington 2 and Shrek

Julianne Moore picked Superbad and 40 Year Old Virgin

Mel Brooks is a fan of Hidden Figures

Stephen King recognized Brokeback and BlackHawk Down

Will Sharpe primarily picked Non English Language films

Casey Affleck voted for… The Assassination of Jesse James, the movie in which he starred but he’s not alone Rachel Zegler threw a vote towards West Side Story. Respect self-love.

What Do These Voters Love?

The most commonly cited directors:

• Christopher Nolan – 5 appearances (Inception, Oppenheimer, Interstellar, Memento, The Dark Knight)

• PTA, Cuaron, Coens – 4 each

• Fincher, Tarantino – 3

• Pixar – Snubbed but not forgotten: Ratatouille (73), Up (51), WALL-E (34)

Biggest international presence?

• Bong Joon-ho (Parasite, Memories of Murder)

• Wong Kar-wai (In the Mood for Love)

• Edward Yang (Yi Yi, a former #1 on THR’s list, came in at #40 here)

What Got Shafted?

• Best Picture winners like CODA, The Artist, Green Book, Slumdog Millionaire — totally absent

• Animation is underrepresented (Spirited Away is the lone top-10 contender)

• Female-directed films are here but not dominant (Gerwig, Sciamma, Bigelow, Triet, Coppola)

What About the Blockbusters?

Here are the top-grossing films worldwide from 2000 to 2025. See if you can spot which ones made the NYT’s 100 Best Movies of the Century list:

1. Avatar (2009) – $2.9 billion

2. Avengers: Endgame (2019) – $2.8 billion

3. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) – $2.3 billion

4. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) – $1.9 billion

5. Inside Out 2 (2024) – $1.7 billion

6. Top Gun: Maverick (2022) – $1.5 billion

7. Barbie (2023) – $1.4 billion

8. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) – $1.36 billion

9. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) – $1.33 billion

10. Moana 2 (2024) – $1.05 billion

Now here’s how many of those showed up on the NYT list:

Zero.

Not even Barbie, which dominated the culture for months. Not Top Gun: Maverick, which saved the movies. Not Inside Out 2, which audiences and critics love. Not Avatar, the biggest film of all time.

That doesn’t mean the voters ignored all crowd-pleasers. The Dark Knight, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Get Out made the list.

So what do you pick?

Drop your own Top 5 in the comments

PAUL IN SEATTLE, PORTLAND & VANCOUVER

With EDI PATTERSON from RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES & RESIDENT ALIEN

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