21 Best Black-And-White Movies Of The 21st Century, Ranked
21. Belfast (2021)
In Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical ‘Belfast,’ the Troubles unfold not through blood-soaked lenses, but through the wonderstruck eyes of a boy named Buddy. The black-and-white palette doesn’t drain life, it highlights the fragility of it. Judi Dench’s quiet monologue near the film’s end is a dagger through the soul, spoken not in anger, but in aching resignation. It's a tribute to love, memory, and the families we build amid the chaos we cannot control.
20. Control (2007)
A haunting elegy to a voice that echoed with pain and beauty, ‘Control’ is more than a biopic, it’s a slow-burning descent into the soul of a man unraveling. Ian Curtis, the enigmatic frontman of Joy Division, grapples with epilepsy, marital strain, and the unforgiving grind of fame. From the muted streets of 1970s England to the oppressive weight of artistic expectation, every frame pulses with quiet desperation. Such poetic tragedy of a genius consumed by his own brilliance.
19. Mank (2020)
David Fincher’s Mank is not nostalgia, it is an autopsy of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Beneath the lavish recreations of 1930s Los Angeles lies a poisoned heart. Gary Oldman’s Herman Mankiewicz is drunk, disillusioned, and devastatingly aware that cinema’s glow was bought with shadows. ‘Mank' is less about ‘Citizen Kane,' and more about the men who sold their souls to make it.
18. In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2007)
Against the smoggy skyline of Los Angeles, two souls collide in a desperate, awkward, honest attempt to connect before the year ends. Shot in gorgeous monochrome, the film turns LA into a grayscale dreamscape where hope flickers like a dying streetlamp. It’s as funny as it is quietly shattering. We all want the midnight kiss, but love and loneliness are omnipresent.
17. Hard to Be a God (2013)
This film is agony. Aleksei German’s medieval sci-fi epic drops us into a world so filthy, chaotic, and nihilistic, it feels like a nightmare we can’t wake up from. The black and white doesn’t sanitize, it suffocates. With each grotesque frame, we are reminded that knowledge is not always salvation, and civilization is not always progress. It’s mud and madness unfiltered.
16. C’mon C’mon (2021)
A lullaby for grown-ups. ‘C’mon C’mon’ uses its monochrome to strip the world to essentials: a boy, an uncle, a shared grief, a tentative love. Joaquin Phoenix is heartbreakingly good, but it’s the stillness—the moments with no dialogue where the film becomes transcendent. Sometimes, healing begins in the quiet.
15. The Turin Horse (2011)
The end of the world is a whisper. There is nothing here but wind, dust, and a dying horse. Béla Tarr’s final film is a funeral for humanity itself. Shot in just 30 slow, agonizingly beautiful takes, ‘The Turin Horse’ watches the collapse of life with a long, weary exhale, not scream. This is a spiritual reckoning.
14. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
This is a vampire film, yes, but one unlike any other. Ana Lily Amirpour’s ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night' is Persian noir, skate-punk feminism, and aching romance all rolled into one. The black and white turns the desert into a realm of myth, where the predator is also a protector, and where justice rides a skateboard.
13. The Artist (2011)
So much has been said about ‘The Artist's gimmick, but so little about its soul. In its silent simplicity lies an elegy for those crushed by change. Jean Dujardin’s performance aches with every gesture. It isn’t just a film about silent movies, it’s about silence in life, about losing your voice and finding a new one in the rubble.
12. From What Is Before (2014)
Lav Diaz does not make short films, he makes cathedrals. ‘From What Is Before' is six hours of aching beauty and creeping dread. Set in a village before the Marcos dictatorship, it captures not just the disintegration of a community, but of a soul. Time stretches until it breaks, and in the black and white, we see the colorless terror of oppression descend…the collapse of a nation.
11. Roma (2018)
Alfonso Cuarón's ‘Roma’ is a song of mourning, thrusting us into the quiet tragedy of invisible lives. Every moment is a heartbeat. Yalitza Aparicio’s Cleo is a servant, a caretaker, a woman crushed under the weight of others’ indifference. But she is also the film’s unbreakable spine. The monochrome makes her pain eternal—etched in light and shadow, never forgotten.
10. Ida (2013)
Few films can destroy you with silence like ‘Ida.’ In just 82 minutes, it tells the story of a nun who finds out she is Jewish—a revelation that shatters her identity and her world. The camera holds its breath, letting the tragedy seep through quiet corners and empty rooms. This is cinema as contemplation. Every shot feels like prayer, but it’s faith in the shadow of ruin that gets you.
9. Blue Jay (2016)
Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson break your heart with nothing more than a conversation. ‘Blue Jay’ is a love letter to the life that might’ve been. We’ve all been there, right? The black and white strips away everything but emotion, raw and unrehearsed. Nostalgia is a ghost. And here, it haunts like hell.
8. Embrace of the Serpent (2015)
‘Embrace of the Serpent’ is the Amazon not as paradise, but as sacred text. The monochrome bathes the jungle in a ghostly reverence, turning colonial destruction into an epic of mourning. This is when dreams drowned in history of an empire. A lament for what was taken, and an outcry through the trees.
7. Persepolis (2007)
Marjane Satrapi’s animated memoir is deceptively simple. In its stark, hand-drawn black and white, we find more humanity than most live-action films dare attempt. It’s funny, devastating, angry, and empowering. A girl learns to laugh through dictatorship and in doing so, teaches us to hope. The message of revolution and resistance will stick with you.
6. Cold War (2018)
What if Romeo and Juliet grew old, disillusioned, and still couldn't stop loving each other? ‘Cold War' is a love story stretched across time, borders, betrayals, and beauty. Each frame, boxed in tight 4:3, feels like a photograph from a lost past. Joanna Kulig’s Zula is a vision—untamable, unforgettable. This film will break your heart, gently.
5. Frances Ha (2012)
Greta Gerwig's ‘Frances Ha’ is both whimsical and wistful, the perfect portrait of a young woman floundering with grace. Noah Baumbach’s decision to shoot it in black and white elevates its everyday comedy into the realm of memory. It's about dancing in the streets, failing gloriously, and embracing the art of imperfection.
4. The White Ribbon (2009)
Innocence is a lie. In ‘The White Ribbon,’ Michael Haneke doesn’t offer comfort. In fact, it’s his most terrifying film, precisely because it offers no monsters, just children. And what children they are! Set in a German village before World War I, it paints a portrait of a society suffocating itself. The black and white indicts, it strips away denial, leaving only the truth: that cruelty often wears the face of discipline.
3. Nebraska (2013)
Woody Grant isn’t senile, he’s searching for a reason to believe again. ‘Nebraska’ is a tribute to forgotten places and forgotten people. The camera lingers on dilapidated homes, wide empty roads, and the quiet ache of men who never said what they meant. The black and white screen makes chasing of ghosts across plains timeless. And, absolutely unforgettable.
2. The Lighthouse (2019)
Here’s madness, myth, mermaids and flatulence. ‘The Lighthouse’ is chaos in chiaroscuro. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson duel like cursed gods, marooned by time and tide. It's grotesque, totally hypnotic and this is where cinema is unchained—feral and howling.
1. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
The Coen brothers begin the century with silence, smoke, and inevitability. A barber with no voice gets tangled in a tale of murder and morality. Inky shadows wrap around his fate like a noose. This is not just noir, it is death in grayscale. And like all great tragedies, it ends exactly how it must.
