What is the best Scorsese film of the 2000s?

By IQ Score on TV Intelligentsia, The Departed (2006, Best Picture) anchors the decade. The Aviator (2004) and Gangs of New York (2002) round out the canonical entries.

Why did Scorsese finally win Best Director in 2006?

Scorsese had been nominated for Best Director five times before The Departed (Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator) without winning. The 2006 win for The Departed has been read as both genuine recognition of The Departed AND the Academy's belated acknowledgment that Scorsese had been one of the medium's canonical directors for 30+ years.

Scorsese 2000s · Ranked

Best Scorsese Films of the 2000s, Ranked by IQ Score

The decade Scorsese finally won Best Director (for The Departed). Every 2000s Scorsese film, ranked.

The 2000s is the decade Scorsese finally won Best Director and Best Picture (The Departed, 2006). Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) define the decade.

Anchor picks: The Departed — Scorsese's Best Picture / Best Director win. The Aviator — his most-disciplined biographical work. Gangs of New York — Daniel Day-Lewis's canonical Bill the Butcher performance.

4 titles · ranked by IQ Score

1

The Departed

Masterclass crime, drama, thriller

An undercover cop and a mob informant inside the police force hunt each other. Educational about organized crime and corruption. Cognitive engagement from the parallel infiltration. Entertainment from the cat-and-mouse d…

160/200
2

Gangs of New York

Masterclass drama, historical, epic

Scorsese's long-gestating 2002 Civil War-era Five Points epic, anchored by Daniel Day-Lewis's Bill the Butcher — one of the most committed villain performances of 2000s American film. The Five Points set construction (Ci…

160/200
3

The Aviator

Masterclass drama, biography, historical

Scorsese's 2004 Howard Hughes biopic anchored by DiCaprio's most carefully-rendered mid-career performance. The aviation-history specificity (the H-1 Racer test flight, the Spruce Goose maiden flight, the Hughes-vs-Pan-A…

160/200
4

Shutter Island

Stimulating drama, mystery, thriller

Layers 1950s detective noir with unreliable protagonist and possible mental illness across island-set mystery, demanding viewers parse reality from psychological construct.

153/200

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