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Films that defined a decade

These 10 screen gems heralded change, launched genres and captured hearts

By Roger Moore / Orlando Sentinel

How do you begin to pick the best movies in an evolutionary-revolutionary decade of film? In just 10 years, the movies went digital (and not just the cartoons). Great talents emerged, and greater talents reached their zenith. New genres were born, and new ways of telling stories materialized.

If you believe, as I do, that truly great films make you want to see them again and again out of pure pleasure or because you know you'll be rewarded with new insights on life, love, human nature and the cinema, then winnowing a decade that went from "Amelie" to "Zodiac" down to a handful of movies that matter isn't as hard as you might think.

Here are 10 that changed things in one way or another. We may never see the likes of some of them on a big screen again.

"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (2003): It's disheartening to think that we may never see a historical action epic like this again. Sure, there will be attempts (the upcoming "Robin Hood"). But a great filmmaker having sailing ships built (or renting them) so that cast and crew could immerse themselves in an era and take us with them? With real sets and locations and precious little digital trickery? Peter Weir channeled his inner David Lean for this throwback classic, the only film of its kind and caliber to come out of Hollywood since "Titanic." (And in "Titanic," the ship was often a model or a computer-generated illusion.)

"Memento" and "Amores Perros" (2000): The puzzle-picture genre was perfected and launched pretty much at the same time in Christopher Nolan's told-out-of-order thriller about a man with short-term memory loss who's on a mission of revenge and in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Mexican street-life thriller. Films such as "Crash," "21 Grams" and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" copied the style and attention-grabbing narrative technique, and each was a bravura example of innovative storytelling.

"Finding Nemo" (2003): This is still the Pixar film that holds up best under repeated viewings. "Nemo" set the bar so high -- in terms of story, performance, look and box office expectations -- that Disney gave up hand-drawn animation after this one (though it revived it in 2009 for "The Princess and the Frog"). "Nemo," an epic, heartfelt quest tale starring a clown fish, is the best film in computer-animated history.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" (2004): The essay documentary was invented by others, but the passionate, political jeremiad came of age during the 2004 presidential election, when Michael Moore made a movie that said a lot of things that enraged half the country and invigorated the other half. "Super Size Me" is just one of the scads of documentaries that mimicked Moore's style.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004): The sensibilities of writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry eccentrically collide in the best romance of the past 10 years. This is a movie of poignant longing and love, wistfully remembered. It suggests that a romance, even one that goes wrong, is worth remembering, regardless of what kind of memory-scrubbing science comes up with. Kate Winslet was a romantic spitfire to end all spitfires, and Jim Carrey will never, ever be better in a seriocomic role. This summer's lighter "(500) Days of Summer" owes much to "Spotless."

"Bloody Sunday" (2002): For my money, Paul Greengrass was the director of the decade. His nervy, political thrillers, with their pacing, their passion, their seizure-inducing editing, set the tone for what action looks like on the big screen. This Northern Ireland history lesson -- a step-by-step re-creation of that fateful march on that fateful day in 1972 -- prefigured the attention to historical detail of "United 93" and the pulse-pounding excitement of the best of the "Bourne" movies, which Greengrass went on to make.

"Millions" (2004): If the dazzling warmth and humanity of Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" took you by surprise, that's only because you missed his earlier kids-coping-with-adult-dilemmas piece. "Millions" is a gloriously life-affirming child's view of money, magic and innocence. "Slumdog" is an embraceable epic. "Millions" was more intimate, just as thrilling and every bit as emotional. And just plain adorable, too.

"300" (2006): In 2005, "Sin City" gave us the whole green-screen sets and lurid comic-book movie look. But turn that technique loose on an epic battle, with epic heroes and history filtered through comic book genius Frank Miller, and you have the best comic book-graphic novel adaptation. Ever.

"The Departed" (2006): Martin Scorsese's Oscar winner isn't his all-time best film, but it is still a riveting, ticking-clock thriller that gave birth to a new genre -- the cell-phone thriller ("Body of Lies," "State of Play") -- with stars like Leonardo DiCaprio acting, emoting, shouting, living and dying by Verizon. Or AT&T.