Why Mulholland Drive deserves to be named the best film of the 21st century

If the blue box, Club Silencio and the face behind Winkie's flummoxed you the first time around, it may be time to give Mulholland Drive another go. A BBC Culture poll has just named David Lynch's fractured, seductive film noir the greatest film of the 21st century to date-and you're unlikely to find a dissenting voice around here, given both Tim Robey and myself, the Telegraph's two resident film experts, each placed it at the top of our lists without conferring (promise).

Often the only thing harder than voting for greatest-film lists is reading the results, but the BBC survey, which polled 177 critics from 36 countries, makes for unusually valuable reading. Though some of the usual movie-ballot blind spots are present and correct - few comedies, even fewer documentaries, almost no purebred action - it's otherwise a supple, exciting selection.

Animation is unusually well-represented - there are five entries in the top 100, including Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away at number four (unsurprisingly, the others, led by WALL-E, are all Pixar productions). And the split between films in English and other languages is almost 50/50, which as these things go is bracingly broadminded.