Our smart and clever – if indecisive – Ian unloaded his best movies of the 90s last week, and while I have some definite opinions on that decade, I thought I would leapfrog ahead for now and dig into my favorite movies of the 2000s (the ‘aughts?)

I was a certifiable adult in this decade. The turn of the millennium found me four years out of college, living roommate-less in my own apartment, making enough money that I was allowed some discretionary fun, and still loving the hell out of the Backstreet Boys. Over the course of the decade I got married, moved cities (twice), faced some gut-busting personal losses, met (or re-connected with) some of my BFFs, and left the security of a job I’d been at for more than a decade to pursue something new. The jury may still be out on that overall decision, but it was there I got to meet my pals and fellow nine-words-ers Ian, @andyramsey, and Oddernod/Ryan, so that’s good enough for me.

Point being, as this self-absorbed rant continues, that the 2000s weren’t fooling around. Not in my life, and not in American cinema . The movie landscape had less ground to break – technologically speaking – with The Matrix in the past and Avatar in the future. We began to see more reboots, from the excellent Ocean’s 11 to the terrible Texas Chainsaw Massacre. “It” guys and girls of the 90s (Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook) slinked into the shadows to allow for a new generation of Reynolds, Garners, Bales, and Ceras.

Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson emerged as the winners of the Dawson’s Creek rising-star-off, leaving Katie Holmes a slave to her incongruous marriage and James Van der Beek left to make amusing memes on the Internet (and – even worse – Ke$ha videos). Netflix made it all easier to see off-the-beaten-path flicks. And there were some pretty good movies, too. My favorites are listed below. (more…)