The 10 best film soundtracks of the 2000s
What makes a good soundtrack? Is it the careful selection of music that aligns with the period, the moods of the characters, and the tone of the scenes? Or is it the element of surprise—anachronistic choices and tracks so dominant they become characters in their own right?
Truth be told, you don’t always need a good soundtrack to make a good film. Not that a bad soundtrack is the answer, but sometimes movies that use minimal music – or none – can still be just as impressive as ones with a lush orchestral backing or a range of classic pop songs. However, this list will focus on the times that a director’s musical choices elevated a movie to even greater heights.
There are many good soundtracks out there, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Do The Right Thing, so we’ve also condensed this list to focus on the ten best soundtracks from the 2000s, a great decade for cinema that gave us many modern classics with fantastic scores to boot.
So, whether you prefer the lush cinematics of Pride and Prejudice or perhaps the experimental tracks performed by Björk in Dancer in the Dark are more up your street, here are the ten best movie soundtracks from the 2000s.
The 10 best movie soundtracks of the 2000s:
Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki, 2004)
No one uses shoegaze in their soundtracks like Gregg Araki. The filmmaker, an influential figure in the New Queer Cinema movement, made his most heartbreaking film in 2004, Mysterious Skin, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, and Michelle Trachtenberg. The movie explores the effects of childhood trauma, which manifests differently in the teenage characters we follow.
To capture the hazy feeling of processing emotions and trying to make sense of the world, Araki uses ambient, shoegaze, and dream pop tracks from Slowdive, Cocteau Twins, Ride, and Sigur Rós. Additionally, Mysterious Skin features a beautiful ambient score composed by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins and the band’s frequent collaborator, composer Harold Budd.
Pride and Prejudice (Joe Wright, 2005)
Joe Wright’s period pieces are never short of a good score –Atonement is a good example – but it’s Pride and Prejudice, released in 2005, that takes the cake. With unforgettable pieces like the delicate and romantic ‘Dawn’ to the sweeping ‘Liz on Top of the World’, and the lush landscapes of ‘The Secret Life of Daydreams’, the score is a gorgeous addition to the awe-inspiring cinematography and scenic English countryside backdrop that defines the film.
The score was composed by Dario Marianelli, whom Wright has collaborated with several times, while the English Chamber Orchestra and Jean-Yves Thibaudet performed the pieces for the movie. It’s dreamy and orchestral, but not sentimental, creating the ideal sonic accompaniment for Wright’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel.
The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums is perhaps one of the best films about a dysfunctional family. Gene Hackman plays the patriarch Royal, whose three children grow up in the shadow of their former successes and now struggle to navigate adult life. Funny and heartfelt, the music used in the movie excellently captures the retro essence of the story, set somewhere between the ‘60s and the ‘90s, with tracks from these decades soundtracking the story.
While Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh contributed a great score, The Royal Tenenbaums also features tracks like ‘Needle in the Hay’ by Elliott Smith, ‘These Days’ by Nico, ‘Fly’ by Nick Drake, ‘Stephanie Says’ by The Velvet Underground, ‘Police & Thieves’ by The Clash, and ‘Lullaby’ by Emitt Rhodes. What more could you want?
Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola, 2006)
Who doesn’t love a good anachronistic soundtrack every once in a while? Sofia Coppola knows how to compile a stellar soundtrack, and with Marie Antoinette, her artful historical drama about the French queen’s life, she uses cuts of new wave, punk, indie, and electronica to emphasise the character’s youthful spirit. By using modern pieces of music, Coppola highlights how Marie Antoinette wasn’t so far removed from the teens of today; she was simply thrust into a role that she was too young and unprepared for.
The soundtrack features the likes of New Order, Aphex Twin, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Squarepusher, The Strokes, Bow Wow Wow, Gang of Four, The Cure, Air, and several original pieces by Dustin O’Halloran. Coppola’s picks are unabashedly fun and add an interesting element to the film – because who doesn’t want to see Kirsten Dunst dressed in full 18th-century garb as a Kevin Shields remix of ‘I Want Candy’ plays?
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
If Angelo Badalamenti is involved in scoring a film, you know it’s going to be good. With Mulholland Drive, the pieces he crafted evoke a sense of opulent tragedy, with his melancholic orchestral pieces looming over images of Hollywood at night – a world full of danger and deceit. David Lynch knew how to use music in his films, always selecting the most perfect tracks for his narratives, and for his 2001 movie, he inserted several popular songs like ‘I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star’ and ‘Sixteen Reasons’.
We can’t forget Rebekah Del Rio’s stunning Spanish performance of ‘Crying’ by Roy Orbison that features during a pivotal moment of the film, either. Then there are the pieces made by Lynch and John Neff, like the mysterious and sexy ‘Go Get Some’ and ‘Mountains Falling’. Music is intrinsic to Mulholland Drive, one of Lynch’s ultimate masterworks, and even the tracks that existed before the film slot into the narrative as if by design.
Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
Björk is one of pop music’s most important artists, a revolutionary musician whose approach to songwriting often feels unparalleled. She has experimented with a wide range of genres, blending everything from ambient to industrial rock to techno into her work, and it wouldn’t be outlandish to call her a genius. Thus, when she starred as the lead in Lars von Trier’s moving drama Dancer in the Dark, it was unsurprising that Björk made a fantastic album to go along with it, Selmasongs, which featured contributions from Thom Yorke and Catherine Deneuve.
With glitching electronic beats in signature Björk style particularly evident on tracks like ‘Scatterheart’, while songs such as ‘In the Musicals’ and ‘107 Steps’ feel more cinematic, the album is as experimental as the film. ‘I’ve Seen It All’ earned the singer an Oscar nomination, as well as (alongside ‘Overture’) scooping up nominations from the Grammys.
Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002)
The thumping electronic tracks delivered by Daft Punk’s Thomas Banglater couldn’t be more fitting for Gaspar Noé’s disorientating movie, Irreversible. The controversial film, which caused mass walkouts at Cannes due to its extreme violence, is told in reverse as two men attempt to hunt down and seek revenge on a brutal rapist. Noé doesn’t spare the viewer any gory details, with a ten-minute rape scene and a sequence involving a man getting his head smashed in with a fire extinguisher making for tough viewing.
As the characters enter clubs or spill out onto the streets, Banglater’s soundtrack immerses us in this chaotic and stomach-turning world. While ‘Rectum’ sounds exactly what anxiety feels like, ‘Irreversible’ evokes a sci-fi-esque dystopia, ‘Stress’ does what it says on the tin, and ‘Outrun’ stands as pure club brilliance. There’s also some classical tracks on the soundtrack, such as ‘Symphony n°7 in A Major Op. 92’ by Beethoven, tying the tragedy of the movie together.
Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002)
Before Lynne Ramsay made movies like We Need To Talk About Kevin and You Were Never Really Here (both of which included music by Jonny Greenwood), she made lower-budget movies like Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar. The latter, released in 2002, sees Samantha Morton play a young woman who wakes up to find her boyfriend has committed suicide on Christmas Day. He leaves her a mixtape, which includes some of the finest song choices you could hope to find in such a dire circumstance as this.
These songs play throughout the movie, with these tracks coming to form the character of Morvern’s deceased boyfriend. We hear stunning songs like ‘Everything You Do Is A Balloon’ by Boards of Canada, ‘You Can Fall’ by Broadcast, ‘Blue Milk’ by Stereolab, ‘I Want More’ by Can, and ‘I’m Sticking With You’ by The Velvet Underground. Morvern Callar is a tender film, and these tracks really help to colour Morvern’s state of mind for the audience.
Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
Since its release in 2001, film lovers have fallen for Amélie Poulain and her charming, whimsical world, where everything is tinged red, green, and yellow, echoing a bygone era that we can only now access through our imaginations. Amélie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, involves us in the life of our titular character, who finds joy in mundane things and prefers to help others rather than herself. After setting out on a quest to bring happiness to the lives of others, Amélie soon realises that she must pursue a romance of her own.
The movie is accompanied by a beautiful score by Yann Tiersan, which includes pre-existing material of his, and tracks he wrote specifically for the film. With accordion, piano, banjo, vibraphone, and various other instruments, Tiersan crafted a score that blends Amélie’s playful spirit with more downbeat and reflective moments that mirror the character’s emotional arcs.
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood began a career as a film composer in 2003 with the experimental film Bodysong, which became the first of many incredible scores he has made over the past few decades. However, it’s There Will Be Blood that remains one of his greatest soundtracks, made for the 2007 film by Paul Thomas Anderson. The movie, intense and destructive, is set during the early 1900s, so Greenwood opted for an orchestral score that perfectly matched the drama and tension found in the film.
We follow Daniel Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview as he attempts to con his way into riches, only to be met with resistance from Paul Dano’s Eli, himself a conman. As their feud unfolds against a backdrop of the California oil boom, Greenwood’s score swells and softens, attempting to balance a harmonious line that is increasingly teetering one way or another into chaos. Tracks like ‘Future Markets’ and ‘There Will Be Blood’ truly reflect the sense of looming danger that unravels in the film.
