Here are my faves since the the year 2000. Since the 2010's are only three years old, I've decided to include my faves-so-far from this short time period on the list.
The rankings here are not set in stone since I haven't put as much thought into the order as I've done for previous decades.
15. Attack The Block (2011) - A group of English gang-bangers find themselves trying to protect their turf against a buncha hairy ape-like aliens who seem to prefer brushing their teeth with the maximum whitening power of Gleem.
14. 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) - A comedy that surprised me in that it was genuinely touching &, at times, even socially in-depth, but without any cost to the number of out-loud laughs.
13. Up In The Air (2009) - A smart indepth story the delves into the various aspects of life such as jobs, life purposes, marriages & family. And why in this current state of social flux, the success of any of those aspects constantly seems to be up in the air.
12. Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - One of my favorite things about new millenium cinema is the current trend towards very unconventional romance flicks. This one being an excellent example of this.
11. Whale Rider (2002) - A young girl decides to claim her birthright as a chieftain, and in the process, ends up making both an old island tradition and a pack of whales, her b#tchez.
10. Kick-Ass (2010) - A foul-mouthed, fun-filled over the top action flick about a couple of not-so-super heroes, that's probably not for the faint-hearted.
9. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) - Another one of those movies featuring the kind of unconventional romance story that I mentioned earlier. With the possibility of time travel travel thrown in.
8. Pan's Labyrinth (2006) - Just an absolutely beautiful film that successfully takes the constant air of peril that comes with living under the grim realities of war & overlays it with the macabre & twisted influence that such a situation can have on a young creative mind's fairy-tale-like imaginations.
7. Million Dollar Baby (2004) - A story that follows the growing relationship of an up & coming female boxer and her age-ridden crusty ol' "boss" of a coach. A simple film that had me at "Mo Cuishle".
6. The Social Network (2010) - Before I saw this film, if you would've told me that The Social Network would end up being my favorite movie of 2010, I probably would've blocked you from my Facebook friends list.
5. Spider-Man 2 (2004) - The most I could've hoped for this sequel was that it be at least half as good as it's predessor.
Instead, Spidey-2 turned out to become one of my favorite movie adaptations of a comicbook superhero ever.
Which I guess I should've anticipated since before I even entered the theatre, I noticed that my spider-senses didn't go off, all atingling an' sh*t.
4.WALL-E (2008) - The down-to-earth longing to make a human connection as depicted by two computer-generated robots. All done with just a simple vocabulary that consists of nothing more than their names & a single directive.
3. Let The Right One In (2008) - As far as vampire love stories go, I find myself agreeing with those who compare this one with yet another teen-human-falls-for-teen-bloodfeeder film that was released around the same time:
let the 15 year old girls have their Twilight. For me, I'll take LTROI.
2. The Incredibles (2004) Not just one of my fave flicks of the new millineum, but also, as far as computer animated movies go, this is my favorite of all time. That is, so far.
1. House Of Flying Daggers (2004) - When I was growing up, it always frustrated me that the majority of big budget action flicks or martial arts movies of the time often seemed to think that you couldn't have a good story & still make room for expansive bangs with expensive effects. To which I always asked "Why not?". And then along came the House Of Flying Daggers, & to my upmost film-watching joy, it seemed to ask that very same question.