The 50 Best Movies of the Decade (2000-2009)

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Writer/Director: Michel Gondry

Writers: Charlie Kaufman, Pierre Bismuth

Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkenson

Studio: Focus Features (2004) Michel Gondry’s debut feature, Human Nature, was a whimsical dud, but his follow-up suggested a mature, disciplined director with his playful side intact. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind traffics in his signature

sleights of hand, which serve two touching and tragic love stories: between red-haired Kate Winslet and a supremely sad Jim Carrey, and between headstrong Kirsten Dunst and a pining Mark Ruffalo. All of their performances—including Gondry’s—stay in your memory long after the credits have rolled

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Writer/Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: J.R.R. Tolkein (novels), Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair

Stars: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies

Studio: New Line Cinema The Lord of the Rings film trilogy took the work J.R.R. Tolkien himself described as “unsuitable for dramatic or semi-dramatic representation” and translated its epic story in a far more literal manner than could’ve ever been guessed. What comes across in Jackson’s adaptation is a passion not just

for telling the epic tale, but for telling it correctly. Corners weren’t cut for time or expense, nor were compromises made to create a tighter plot and more streamlined experience.

In a sprawling 11 hours, the series’ meticulous recreation captures the same wonder and awe of the books. We suspect that were he still around, Tolkien would’ve reconsidered his comment and enjoyed seeing his world on screen just as much as the rest of us

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Writer/Director: Cameron Crowe

Stars: Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Zooey Deschanel, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Studio: DreamWorks Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film perfectly captured the essence of the world music geeks inhabit—the passion for the music; the joy in the concert experience; the obsession over the tiniest details of melody, lyrics, musicianship, artwork and liner notes; the camaraderie of fans and musicians.

But even beyond the resonance that music fans feel, Crowe crafted flawless little scenes, peopled with fully fleshed-out characters who were funny, romantic, heart wrenching and utterly believable. Almost Famous is the essential movie for music aficionados, and a great one for anyone who cares about humanity.

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Writer/Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Writer: Guillaume Laurant

Stars: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Claire Maurier

Studio: Miramax

With the face of an angel, the heart of a child and the haircut of a Parisian pixie, do-gooding waitress Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) swept us clean off our feet. Hers was a love story, a French love story—as if it could get more romantic. And her fantastical adventures in the name of love unfolded in flights of magical realism. Indeed, the film held up love itself as both magical and realistic. Which, of course, is how it really is.—

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Director: Fernando Meirelles

Writers: Paulo Lins (novel), Bráulio Mantovani

Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Alice Braga, Leandro Firmino, Douglas Silva, Seu Jorge, Philipe Haagensen

Studio: Miramax (2003) Originally released in January 2003 to critical praise, Fernando Meirelles’ masterful yet brutal City of God receded from view until Miramax re-released it for

Oscar consideration. And while it failed to even garner a foreign-language-film nomination that year, the alternately intense and ******** depiction of Rio’s desperate favelas has only grown in stature and power.

Based on the novel by Paulo Lins (and adapted by Bráulio Mantovani), Meirelles turned an unflinching eye on a world forgotten by the wealthy and powerful, ignored by police and indifferent to law and order. City of God set the template for other shocking urban films to follow (not to

mention a revival of “favela funk” by music-marauders like Diplo and M.I.A.). But whereas other cinematic studies like Gomorrah (about modern Sicily) and the documentary Dancing with the Devil only wallowed in such viciousness, this film plunged deeper, gripped harder, and yet always allowed

glints of humanity into such darkness. City of God’s harrowing depiction of daily violence in the favelas exemplifies in shocking detail the Hobbesian view of life as “nasty, brutish, and short,” but the film never casts judgment. While chaos and bloodshed rule the world of protagonist Rocket

and those of his generation—psychotic druglord Li’l Zé, groovy playboy Benny and solemn Knockout Ned (singer Seu Jorge, in his breakout role)—City of God elucidates an underlying symmetry, exhibiting if not poetic justice, then the street version of the same.