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Best Works of Art (Movie, Painting, Album, Game, Play, Book, etc) of the 21st Century so far

Piston

Piston

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Oct 25, 2017
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I had an interesting thought pop up in my head this weekend after I saw Hamilton for the first time, what is the best cultural piece or work of art to come out this century so far for you?

Personally, I don't think I could narrow it down but Hamilton was instantly in the running. I thought there were some weak spots to it, but the brilliant aspects of it are simply unique and genius. I say this as someone who hasn't watched every modern broadway play but the creativity of it all blew me away.

A few other options that popped in my head are Twin Peaks: The Return, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Earth's Remembrance Trilogy.

There can be a lot of qualifiers here, it could be something that was widely impactful/revolutionary or just held personal importance to you. I'm not here to police what art is, I feel that is up for you to define on your own. I'm interested to see some of the choices.
 

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In terms of film, everything that PTA has put out during the timeframe has been phenomenal. Most of Wes Anderson's work. Lynch's Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire too. Also Spirited Away.

For TV, it's Mad Men and Twin Peaks season 3.

Novels: Bolano's 2666, Pynchon's Against the Day, DeLillo's Point Omega, Zadie Smith's White Teeth, On Beauty, and Swing Time, Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends and Normal People. Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, Building Stories, Rusty Brown. Nicola Barker's H(A)PPY. Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels. Lucy Ellman's Ducks, Newburyport.

BUT the greatest cultural product of this century is Resident Evil 4.
 
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Nimurai

Nimurai

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Oct 28, 2017
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Lord of the rings trilogy and Blade runner 2049. Blew me away just as the first film did. Lotr feels like part of my soul at this point.
 
Indy in the Fridge

Indy in the Fridge

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yogurt

yogurt

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Oct 25, 2017
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Movies:
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Music:
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Plays/Musicals:
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^Curious Incident play is much better than the book.

And apparently all of my favorite books were published before the year 2000, except this one:

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Navidson REC

Navidson REC

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Oct 31, 2017
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Glad the OP has covered Twin Peaks: The Return already. I'll have to think about more later but I'll for sure add Blade Runner 2049 to the list.
Oh, and The Lighthouse.
 

rude

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Oct 25, 2017
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UnluckyKate said:
Speed Racer should be saved in the hall of fame of human art.
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The quality of the content in the film is debatable (I guess), but what isn't is it being a masterclass in editing. It wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for it. It's kind of a travesty, to that oscars mean anything.
 
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Piston

Piston

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Oct 25, 2017
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yogurt said:
Plays/Musicals:
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^Curious Incident play is much better than the book.
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I hated the book, so I am surprised to see that here. It was one of the toughest reads I've had in the last few years and I'm not sure I gained much of anything from it either. I understood what it was trying to do, I just didn't enjoy it at all.
 
yogurt

yogurt

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Piston said:
I hated the book, so I am surprised to see that here. It was one of the toughest reads I've had in the last few years and I'm not sure I gained much of anything from it either. I understood what it was trying to do, I just didn't enjoy it at all.
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I went to the play in the West End purely because the tickets were cheap a few years ago and me and my friends were completely blown away. It has perhaps the most fascinating set/production design and choreography that I've ever seen. I thought the book was decent, but the play blew me away - perhaps because I went in having heard it was good but not really knowing what to expect.
 
Dommo

Dommo

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Oct 25, 2017
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A work that effortlessly captures the specificity of relatable human struggles cast against the sweeping and overarching mechanisms and institutions that create that cyclical hardship. Not before or since have I seen art so brutally and unabashedly skewer its themes in a way you can't even argue with. It all feels so profound but at the same time so obvious in its takedown of the American Dream.
 
Sasliquid

Sasliquid

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Oct 25, 2017
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Film - There Will Be Blood (I consider Citizen Kane, The Godfather and TWBB as a thematic trilogy)
Games - Shadow of the Colossus
Music - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

They're not necessarily my favourites but I think they're the best examples of their mediums as art since 2000.
 
Dommo

Dommo

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Oct 25, 2017
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For games, not the biggest, not the most ambitious, maybe not even my favourite, at least not the most enjoyable to play, but Papers Please is an absolute triumph as a display of video games as art. Video games as thematically rich drama.

To this day, I don't think there's a game that more seamlessly fuses its mechanics with its story to the point it's not quite clear where one begins and the other ends. They're connected to the core, and it's the act of playing the game that rewards the player with strong emotional reactions. It tips its moral dilemmas into a completely natural set of mechanics that are actively presenting good and evil but the choices you make are never that simple.

It's a great lesson and it's something games in general should be taking going forward: the mechanics are the story.
 
TheXbox

TheXbox

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Oct 29, 2017
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My first thoughts are The Road (novel) and Mad Max: Fury Road. Thematically and aesthetically the two works are linked and they clearly speak to a 21st century anxiety: the dawning awareness of the decline and eventual collapse of our way of life. I guess you could throw The Last of Us in the mix as well, although I don't feel as strongly about it as I feel about those other two.

Apocalyptic paranoia isn't a new phenomenon by any stretch, but I think this modern fascination with doom is different because it's secular and fundamentally scientific.
 
BrickArts295

BrickArts295

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Oct 26, 2017
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Film: The Shape of Water, Birdman & Fury Road
Game: Shadow of the Colossus, Journey & Undertale
Book: The Road
Play: Hamilton
 
Kamaros

Kamaros

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Aug 29, 2018
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my most treasured work of arts are in the 20st (Princess Mononoke and Tehanu), so i need to elect Breath of the Wild as the overall most complete and feeling intense work of art of this century, followed close by Children of Men (the movie, i don't like the book that much).
 
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Piston

Piston

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Oct 25, 2017
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nachum00 said:
Fury Road is an ok action movie but come on
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I think it is pretty well recognized on here for what it is. I put it there because it was one of the first times I had come out of a movie theater and felt like that. I'm not huge on action movies and it really grabbed me from the start.
 
Kurtikeya

Kurtikeya

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Dec 2, 2017
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I feel like Lorde's Pure Heroine, with Royals being the most representative song, qualifies. It changed pop in such a way that even its most prominent artists started to emulate her restrained, whispery style.

Claudia Rankine's Citizen probably stands as the best book in a century of amazing ones. It's the Great American Novel, except it's poetry. It reclaimed the black bodies that were dehumanized and objectified into mere spectacle, and cultivated a proper memory and living experience for them. Solmaz Sharif, Ocean Vuong, Natalie Diaz, Aria Aber, Tracy K. Smith, all leading writers in the project to reclaim their identity and heritage while operating in a language that can inflict such violence upon them for simply being "Other", all influenced by and chasing after this book.

As for the rest, who knows? There are times when Spirited Away really does feel like you're witnessing something transcendent. Playdead's Inside feels perfect but I might need to scrutinize it some more. Dark Souls is the game that has amassed the richest scholarship around it and it's hard to imagine today's gaming without it. Twin Peaks: The Return and Fleabag feel like no-brainers but still need time for their longevities to be tested. In the Mood for Love has influenced everyone from Barry Jenkins, Sofia Coppola, Xavier Dolan, and Quentin Tarantino.
 
Nisaba

Nisaba

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Oct 28, 2017
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TV Shows:
I would make a case for Avatar: The Last Airbender due to it's wonderful character arcs, diversity, and world-building. Zuko is frequently cited as one of the best redemption arcs you can find in a story.

Video Games:
Biggest factor imo is games that exemplify the most important aspect of the medium, the art of gameplay, in terms of innovation and immersive mechanics.

Metroid Prime
Super Mario Galaxy
Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

Movies:
LOTR Trilogy
Spirited Away

I'd have to think more for the book genre, that's a tough one.

But even so, a century is a big span of time for humanity, it's hard to gauge what actually deserves to be called best in such large fields of art.
 
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