Scale and melancholy

The 2000s were defined by a paradox. It was the decade when blockbusters became enormous — franchises, sequels and effects-driven spectacle dominated the box office — and it was also the decade when some of the best films were the most intimate. The films here are the ones that used their scale for a purpose, or that found something genuinely new in a small space.

It is a shorter list than the 1990s, partly because our library is curated rather than comprehensive, and partly because the decade's best work was more concentrated. The mainstream became more franchise-driven while independent cinema became more commercially viable, and the middle ground thinned out considerably. What survived that squeeze is unusually durable.