40 Favorite Films of 2001
by Blue_Leaf | created - 12 Jul 2014 | updated - 20 Aug 2018 | PublicThe start of the New Millenium.
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1. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
PG-13 | 146 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become "real" so that he can regain the love of his human mother.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Sam Robards
Votes: 322,791 | Gross: $78.62M
2. All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)
Unrated | 146 min | Crime, Drama, Music
The problematic lives of teenager students for whom the singer Lily Chou-Chou's dreamy music is the only way to escape an alienating, violent and insensitive society.
Director: Shunji Iwai | Stars: Hayato Ichihara, Shûgo Oshinari, Ayumi Ito, Takao Osawa
Votes: 11,125 | Gross: $0.02M
3. Amélie (2001)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Romance
Despite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Stars: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta
Votes: 793,667 | Gross: $33.23M
4. And Your Mother Too (2001)
R | 106 min | Drama
In Mexico, two teenage boys and an older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life and each other.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Ana López Mercado
Votes: 128,809 | Gross: $13.62M
5. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
R | 172 min | Drama
The telling of an Inuit legend of an evil spirit causing strife in the community and one warrior's endurance and battle of its menace.
Director: Zacharias Kunuk | Stars: Natar Ungalaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Lucy Tulugarjuk
Votes: 6,859 | Gross: $3.79M
6. The Believer (2001)
R | 98 min | Drama
A young Jewish man develops a fiercely anti-Semitic philosophy. Based on the factual story of a K.K.K. member in the 1960s who was revealed to be Jewish by a New York Times reporter.
Director: Henry Bean | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Peter Meadows, Garret Dillahunt
Votes: 41,071 | Gross: $0.41M
7. Birthday Girl (2001)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A thirtysomething bank clerk from St Albans has his small-town life exploded by the arrival of his Russian mail-order bride.
Director: Jez Butterworth | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Vincent Cassel, Ben Chaplin, Mathieu Kassovitz
Votes: 26,327 | Gross: $4.92M
8. The Devil's Backbone (2001)
R | 106 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve
Votes: 70,969 | Gross: $0.75M
Top 1000
9. Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
PG-13 | 91 min | Documentary, Sport
Documentary about the pioneering 1970s Zephyr skating team.
Director: Stacy Peralta | Stars: Sean Penn, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Jeff Ament
Votes: 13,350 | Gross: $1.29M
10. Donnie Darko (2001)
R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Votes: 849,261 | Gross: $1.48M
11. The Experiment (2001)
R | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
For two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Wotan Wilke Möhring
Votes: 96,071 | Gross: $0.14M
12. Fat Girl (2001)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama
Two sisters confront their sexual attitudes and experiences while on a family holiday.
Director: Catherine Breillat | Stars: Anaïs Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo, Arsinée Khanjian
Votes: 12,808 | Gross: $0.72M
13. Frailty (2001)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A mysterious man arrives at the offices of an FBI agent and recounts his childhood: how his religious fanatic father received visions telling him to destroy people who were in fact "demons."
Director: Bill Paxton | Stars: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O'Leary
Votes: 91,241 | Gross: $13.10M
Top 1000
14. Ghost World (2001)
R | 111 min | Comedy, Drama
Two eccentric best friends graduate high school and respond to a man's romance-seeking newspaper ad as a gag, only to find their lives becoming increasingly complicated.
Director: Terry Zwigoff | Stars: Steve Buscemi, Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Renfro
Votes: 126,744 | Gross: $6.22M
Top 1000
15. Gosford Park (2001)
R | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Set in the 1930s, a group of pretentious rich and famous get together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Maggie Smith, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 93,946 | Gross: $41.31M
16. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A gender-queer punk-rock singer from East Berlin tours the U.S. with her band as she tells her life story and follows the former lover/band-mate who stole her songs.
Director: John Cameron Mitchell | Stars: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Stephen Trask, Theodore Liscinski
Votes: 37,320 | Gross: $3.03M
17. In the Bedroom (2001)
R | 131 min | Crime, Drama
A New England couple's college-aged son dates an older woman who has two small children and an unwelcome ex-husband.
Director: Todd Field | Stars: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei
Votes: 42,405 | Gross: $35.93M
18. Lantana (2001)
R | 121 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
The relationships of four couples unravel after the discovery of a young woman's body in Lantana bush in suburban Sydney.
Director: Ray Lawrence | Stars: Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Rachael Blake, Kerry Armstrong
Votes: 20,219 | Gross: $4.46M
19. L.I.E. (2001)
R | 97 min | Crime, Drama
A 15-year-old Long Island boy loses everything and everyone he knows, soon becoming involved in a relationship with a much older man.
Director: Michael Cuesta | Stars: Brian Cox, Paul Dano, Bruce Altman, Billy Kay
Votes: 10,443 | Gross: $1.14M
20. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
PG-13 | 178 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean
Votes: 2,004,643 | Gross: $315.54M
21. Lovely & Amazing (2001)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Self-esteem and insecurity are at the heart of this comedy about the relationship between a mother and her three confused daughters.
Director: Nicole Holofcener | Stars: Catherine Keener, Brenda Blethyn, Troy Ruptash, Emily Mortimer
Votes: 7,680 | Gross: $4.19M
22. The Man from Elysian Fields (2001)
R | 106 min | Drama, Romance
A failed novelist's inability to pay the bills strains relations with his wife and leads him to work at an escort service where he becomes entwined with a wealthy woman whose husband is a successful writer.
Director: George Hickenlooper | Stars: Andy Garcia, Mick Jagger, Julianna Margulies, Olivia Williams
Votes: 4,471 | Gross: $1.43M
23. The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
R | 116 min | Crime, Drama
A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong.
Director: Joel Coen | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, James Gandolfini
Votes: 114,943 | Gross: $7.49M
24. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
G | 92 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, two monsters realize things may not be what they think.
Directors: Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich | Stars: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi
Votes: 977,770 | Gross: $289.92M
25. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 383,384 | Gross: $7.22M
Top 1000
26. No Man's Land (I) (2001)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, War
Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1993 at the time of the heaviest fighting between the two warring sides. Two soldiers from opposing sides in the conflict, Nino and Ciki, become trapped in no man's land, whilst a third soldier becomes a living booby trap.
Director: Danis Tanovic | Stars: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Georges Siatidis
Votes: 48,803 | Gross: $1.06M
27. No Such Thing (2001)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A young journalist journeys to Iceland to find her missing fiancé only to encounter a mythical creature.
Director: Hal Hartley | Stars: Sarah Polley, Robert John Burke, Margrét Ákadóttir, Julie Anderson
Votes: 4,452 | Gross: $0.06M
28. Nowhere in Africa (2001)
R | 141 min | Biography, Drama, History
Due to Hitler's threat, Walter Redlich, a Jewish lawyer, immigrates to Kenya with his wife Jettel and daughter Regina. Things take a turn when the family is ordered to move by the British officers.
Director: Caroline Link | Stars: Juliane Köhler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo
Votes: 13,948 | Gross: $6.17M
29. The Others (2001)
PG-13 | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann
Votes: 392,857 | Gross: $96.52M
30. The Piano Teacher (2001)
R | 131 min | Drama, Music
A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoît Magimel, Susanne Lothar
Votes: 71,658 | Gross: $1.90M
Top 1000
31. The Pledge (I) (2001)
R | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A retiring police detective pledges to catch the killer of a young child.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Benicio Del Toro, Patricia Clarkson, Beau Daniels
Votes: 67,623 | Gross: $19.72M
32. Rivers and Tides (2001)
TV-G | 90 min | Documentary
Portrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature.
Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer | Stars: Andy Goldsworthy, Anna Goldsworthy, Holly Goldsworthy, James Goldsworthy
Votes: 2,472
Top 1000
33. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
The eccentric members of a dysfunctional family reluctantly gather under the same roof for various reasons.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller
Votes: 312,929 | Gross: $52.36M
34. The Son's Room (2001)
R | 99 min | Drama
A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba-diving accident.
Director: Nanni Moretti | Stars: Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Jasmine Trinca, Giuseppe Sanfelice
Votes: 21,427 | Gross: $1.01M
35. Spirited Away (2001)
PG | 125 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino, Rumi Hiiragi
Votes: 847,893 | Gross: $10.06M
Top 1000
36. Tape (2001)
R | 86 min | Drama
Three old high school friends meet in a Michigan motel room to dissect painful memories from their past.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Uma Thurman
Votes: 21,117 | Gross: $0.49M
37. Time Out (2001)
PG-13 | 134 min | Drama
An unemployed man finds his life sinking more and more into trouble as he hides his situation from his family and friends.
Director: Laurent Cantet | Stars: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot
Votes: 4,976 | Gross: $0.45M
38. Training Day (2001)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A rookie cop spends his first day as a Los Angeles narcotics officer with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears to be.
Director: Antoine Fuqua | Stars: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger
Votes: 472,278 | Gross: $76.63M
39. Wit (2001 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 99 min | Drama
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Emma Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins, Audra McDonald
Votes: 11,395
Top 1000
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