Best Movies of 2001
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Monsters, Inc.Goodman and Crystal make Pixar's best double act, inside a scare factory that works as fairy tale, workplace satire and a very funny chase.Read the review
Y tu mamá tambiénA filthy teenage road comedy that keeps panning away to the country the boys are too comfortable to notice.
Donnie DarkoThe dread and the imagery are real, but the time travel mythology is scaffolding pretending to be an explanation.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingThe trilogy's best-built film: world first, quest second, every rule established before it is broken.
ShrekThe fairy tale spoof with a real heart under the belching, and the film that broke a monopoly on the form.
The BelieverGosling's Danny is a theological argument with a shaved head, and the film is only fully alive when he is talking.
A Beautiful MindRon Howard turns John Nash's life into a handsome prestige thriller with a trick in the middle, and tidies away most of what made the man difficult.
Lovely & AmazingHolofcener's ear for how women talk themselves down is unmatched, even when her three storylines refuse to land.
AmélieA postcard Paris rendered with so much invention that the thin story mostly stops mattering.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneA careful, reverent unpacking of the book that plays it safe and mostly gets away with it.