Top Films 2000 – 2020

Not necessarily the “best,” most impressive, or most important films, or even necessarily the ones I recommend most strongly to others. 

1. Hidden Life, A (2019)
   In all of Terrence Malick’s contemplative recent works (especially The New World and The Tree of Life) are sequences and elements that leave me awestruck. A Hidden Life — his ecstatic, anguished three-hour cinematic hymn singing the life and death of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter — is the first of his recent films that overwhelms me in its totality. (Mature teens and up)
2. Into Great Silence (2007)
   This is more than a film to me. Philip Gröning’s austere, immersive, two-and-a-half-hour documentary portrait of life in the head monastery of the Carthusian order, the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps, is a silent retreat and a mystical experience, and a favorite way to begin Lent. “In killing silence, man assassinates God,” wrote Cardinal Robert Sarah, and Kierkegaard wrote, “If I were allowed to prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence. … Therefore, create silence.” Here is medicine for what ails us. (Nothing problematic)
3. Kid with a Bike, The (2012)
   “You can hold me, but not so tight.” With those unexpected words, a startled woman offers a child in crisis — a stranger to her — a much-needed ray of grace. In one extraordinary film after another, Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have explored social, moral and spiritual themes in the lives of lower- or working-class people. While several of their films (particularly The Son and Two Days, One Night) would be at home on this list, I chose this one for the immediacy of its effect for me. (Teens and up)

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• Top Films 2000 – 2020

  Not necessarily the “best,” most impressive, or most important films, or even necessarily the ones I recommend most strongly to others. 
• Hidden Life, A (2019)
  In all of Terrence Malick’s contemplative recent works (especially The New World and The Tree of Life) are sequences and elements that leave me awestruck. A Hidden Life — his ecstatic, anguished three-hour cinematic hymn singing the life and death of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter — is the first of his recent films that overwhelms me in its totality. (Mature teens and up)
• Into Great Silence (2007)
  This is more than a film to me. Philip Gröning’s austere, immersive, two-and-a-half-hour documentary portrait of life in the head monastery of the Carthusian order, the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps, is a silent retreat and a mystical experience, and a favorite way to begin Lent. “In killing silence, man assassinates God,” wrote Cardinal Robert Sarah, and Kierkegaard wrote, “If I were allowed to prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence. … Therefore, create silence.” Here is medicine for what ails us. (Nothing problematic)
• Kid with a Bike, The (2012)
  “You can hold me, but not so tight.” With those unexpected words, a startled woman offers a child in crisis — a stranger to her — a much-needed ray of grace. In one extraordinary film after another, Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have explored social, moral and spiritual themes in the lives of lower- or working-class people. While several of their films (particularly The Son and Two Days, One Night) would be at home on this list, I chose this one for the immediacy of its effect for me. (Teens and up)