The year 2000 brought us films with a lot of then challenging ideas. Those ideas served as a backbone for many of the films we see today. If you want to relive those times, here is a list of dramas from the 2000s that’ll sure to bring you back.
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Set during the Iraq War, a new Sergeant Will James gets assigned to an elite bomb squad in the middle of battle. Due to his unorthodox methods of handling situations, he is constantly put at odds with his squad.
The Bomb Squad, Bravo Company, is currently stationed in Baghdad and has only thirty-nine days left until their deployment ends. With their new leader often disregarding their safety, it becomes the longest thirty-nine days of their lives.
Bravo Team must now face their own domestic issues together with the unknown hazards on the battlefield.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Requiem for a Dream brings us into the lives of four addicts hooked on heroin, speed, and cocaine. Taking place in a Coney Island where drugs are very easy to come by thus keeping each primary character well supplied. In spite of their ambitions of grandeur, they fall into a cycle of dependence.
Bear witness as they succumb to their addictions and see the ugliest of the druggy’s underworld. Disturbing yet eye-opening, this film is a must-see for both non-addicts and addicts alike.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A mathematical genius, John Nash struggles to make a praiseworthy contribution to the world of mathematics. Finally, he makes a Nobel Prize-worthy breakthrough and one that might serve as his legacy.
John becomes romantically engaged with one of his students, Alicia, when he turns to teach after graduation. In the interim, the government requests his aid to break Soviet codes. This soon gets him involved in a horrific conspiracy he did not expect.
John’s paranoia grows by the day until he discovers something that will turn his whole world upside down. It’s now up to Alicia to help John recover his mental fortitude and reclaim his title as the greatest mathematician he is known as today.
The Blind Side (2009)
The Blind Side is the story of All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick Michael Oher. Michael was a traumatized and homeless boy and was taken in by Leigh Anne Tuohy and her family. Michael had little formal education and only a handful of skills to aid his learning.
As is her nature, Leigh Anne takes charge of Michael’s care to ensure that he gets every opportunity to succeed. Michael soon expresses his interest in football. Leigh Anne helps him out and even gave the coach an idea on how to best utilize his strengths.
For Michel to qualify for an NCAA Division I scholarship, the Tuohys provide him with a tutor to improve his grades. Michael qualifies in the end and in 2009 became the first-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens NFL Draft.\
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Stunned at the discovery of his girlfriend Clementine erasing her memories of their turbulent relationship, Joel sets out to do the same. Desperate, he commissions the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwaik to have his memories of Clementine erased as well.
Slowly, Joel’s painful and angry memories of Clementine fade away. While the effect of the treatment is slowly taking its course, he finds himself having second thoughts.
He wakes up a scruffy mess and heads straight to the shore and there he meets a woman in orange with blue hair. The woman was Clementine, and he was Joel although neither remembered the other. Having a history which neither remembers, them meeting again was not entirely by chance.
Cast Away (2000)
Alone and on the beaches of an unknown tropical island, Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems engineer, gets taken from his fast-paced life. He is frustrated and soon realizes he has little to no chance to get back to civilization.
Four years have passed, and Chuck has discovered how to survive by himself. What kept him alive all this time was a photo of his girlfriend, Kelly. With four years of careful planning, Chuck finally seizes his opportunity to finally get back home.
Chuck finally heads out on a wooden raft with a sail he found ashore.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Bob Harris is an American Film actor well beyond his prime gets a contract for a whiskey commercial in Japan. In Tokyo, he meets Charlotte, the young wife of a photographer. Tired and bored stiff, the two spend their free hours together and their relationship deepens.
Bob has an unsatisfying mundane family life where his wife never leaves him for a minute. Charlotte’s a young wife who’s left alone in Tokyo whenever his husband got busy with work. Bob & Charlotte have something to teach each other, and their friendship becomes an unforgettable experience.
The Machinist (2004)
Lathe-operator Trevor Reznik hasn’t slept in a year due to insomnia and his body is withering away fast. Odd things start to happen both at home and at work leading him to have doubts about his sanity. The one person he lets close emotionally to is a prostitute named Stevie.
Trevor’s co-workers alienate him due to his withered appearance without knowledge of what he’s going through. An incident at work further pushed him away from his co-workers along with unknown pieces of paper he finds in his apartment.
Trevor now believes that there’s someone or a group of people who are out for him and are using the name Ivan. Trevor searches for evidence on Ivan’s plots and later will come to understand what caused his insomnia.
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
In the year 1920, a girl of 9-years of age named Chiyo gets sold to a geisha house. The ruling hierarchy will decide if her quality is high enough to service clientele. She is then forced into unpaid labor until the hierarchy makes a decision.
After years of arduous training under Mameha, Chiyo is now the geisha Sayuri. World War II looms on the horizon as Japan will soon be forever changed.
The war soon ended with the country defeated and occupied by American troops. Back when she was a child she falls in love with a man she calls the Chairman. During this time, Chiyo and the Chairman meet again.
Will she be able to attain his love?
The Notebook (2004)
Duke, a nursing home resident, reads out a romantic story to a senile old woman with memory loss and dementia. Around the 1930s an affluent seventeen-year-old named Allie Hamilton is in Seabrook on vacation. There she meets local worker Noah Calhoun in a carnival, and both soon fall in love.
Noah brings Allie to an old house which he hopes of owning and restoring one day. Allie’s parents disapprove of Noah seeing him belonging to a lower class. The Family soon moves to New York.
Noah writes to Allie daily for an entire year, but her mother Anne Hamilton hides them from her. World War II starts 3 years later having Allie work as an Army Nurse and Noah and best friend Fin enlist. During her service, Allie meets a heavily injured soldier named Lon Hammond.
Lon and Allie meet again after the war and went on several dates. Lon proposes to Allie and the two became engaged. Meanwhile, Noah was able to purchase and restore the old house.
The house got Noah a lot of attention from buyers and even landed him on the newspaper, which to his good fortune, Allie was able to see. Was it all over for them? Allie now feels torn between Noah, his first love, or Lon, to who she just made a commitment.
The Patriot (2000)
South Carolina farmer Benjamin Martin has been known to be a brutal soldier during the French and Indian War. He soon finds himself in the American Revolution, not for the Continental Army, but for the protection of his family.
His family was threatened and one of his sons was killed by a British Colonel, Martin soon enlists. Leading a makeshift militia of slaves, peasants, and a minister they launch guerilla assaults to buy time for the French to arrive.
Martin and his men soon discover the steep cost they are paying for their rebellion. With courage and bravery, their unit plays a pivotal role in bringing the fight to the British.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
A story of a sudden and unexpected reunion of a dysfunctional and eccentric family. Royal Tenenbaum and his wife Etheline had three extraordinary children. All that genius will soon be erased by two decades of misfortune.
Most generally considered that their disasters were all due to their father who had left them long ago. One winter Royal Tenenbaum returns in the hopes of making things right again with his family.
The Royal Tenenbaums is the tale of a family’s abrupt, surprising, reunion one winter.
The Pianist (2002)
The true story of the most accomplished pianist of all in Poland during the 1930’s, Wladysaw Szpilman. During World War II the Jews, including Szpilman, becomes the target of the new anti-Jewish laws imposed by the Germans.
At the beginning of 1940, Szpilman’s life goes from gorgeous piano halls to forced labor in a Warsaw Jewish Ghetto. He also suffers the tragedy of being separated from his family who were taken to other German concentration camps.
Szpilman was able to escape and go into hiding as a Jewish refugee and struggle for survival in the ruins of Warsaw. He spends the next several years running from an abandoned home to the next desperately avoiding capture by the Germans.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has an incredible talent for discerning smells and scents. One of 18th century France’s finest perfumers he becomes infatuated with acquiring a very elusive scent, the scent of a woman’s body.
His methods become deadly with families locking up their daughters when the bodies of 12 young females were found. He will create the ultimate perfume, even if it demands sacrifice.
Zodiac (2007)
Cartoonist turned amateur detective; Robert Graysmith is obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer. Between 1968 and 1983 the unidentified individual called the Zodiac Killer terrorized Northern California.
Graysmith’s amateur work soon crosses paths with David Toschi, a police officer who has yet to catch his man along with others. To these people, nothing comes nearly as important that catching the Zodiac Killer.
The Terminal (2004)
From the East European nation of Krakozhia, a man named Victor Navorksi flies into JFK airport. Upon arrival he is immediately forbidden by Customs from entering the USA. His nation of Krakoszhia has recently been taken over by a coup whose government the USA does not yet recognize.
Victor is unable to travel back to Krakozhia as the borders are now closed. Left in a state of limbo, he can neither enter the USA nor go back to his country. Victor has little choice but to wait out the situation and live in the International Transit section of JFK.
Living off his resourcefulness, Victor makes the terminal his home and has made a few friends along the way.
Hachi: A dog’s Tale (2009)
Eleven-year-old schoolboy Robbie is giving a class report on “My Hero” and has picked his grandfather’s dog, Hachi. A puppy in a monastery in Japan is boxed and shipped to the United States seen through a flashback.
Upon arrival to Rohde Island, the puppy pushes his way out of the crate at the train station. Music professor Parker Wilson took the puppy and brought him home to the displeasure of his wife Cate.
They learn from a friend who is a Japanese professor that the dog’s breed is Japanese in origin called an Akita. From the characters in his collar, they get the name “Hachi” or eight.
After failing to find the owner of the puppy and seeing the bond between Parker and Hachi, Cate decides to keep the dog. Although living in the Wilson household, Hachi wasn’t anyone else’s dog but Parker’s. Hach shows Parker a steadfast lifelong loyalty due to their special bond.
Hachi was who Robbie chose because of his loyalty and dedication and nonetheless a very important part of his life.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
On the eve of Hurricane Katrina, a dying elderly woman asks her daughter Caroline to read her a diary left to her by a man named Benjamin. Born on the exact day the First World War ended a mother dies giving birth to her child. This child was born wrinkled and aged and in horror his father, Thomas Button leaves him on the door of an old Folk’s home.
Despite his young age, Benjamin seems to fit well with the elderly as he looked just as old as the residents. Benjamin soon comes to a realization that he doesn’t grow old but grows young. He later meets a beautiful red-haired girl named Daisy, the love of his life.
Daisy grows into a beautiful young woman and Benjamin into a fine and handsome young man. Their lives meet and separate through the years but they remain in contact.
They finally reconnect when their ages matched, around their forties. Benjamin realizes that he only gets younger, and Daisy gets older. Will Benjamin’s disability hinder them from love?
The Dreamers (2003)
Theo and Isabelle are twins who enjoy a good life in their father’s grand Paris Home. They enjoy a life provided to them by their father who is a renowned poet. An American exchange student named Matthew flies to Paris to pursue his education.
In Paris, he meets the twins who happened to share the same love for cinema as he did, and they soon become friends. Alone without their parents for a month, they plunge into an orgy of sense indulgence, losing all their innocence.
As the May 1968 Student riots are taking place, the three develop a deep connection. The relationship Matthew has with his new friends is unlike anything he’s had or will ever experience again.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
A welder named Llewellyn Moss finds two million dollars in a box at a drug deal gone wrong in the desert of Rio Grande. He had thought to keep the money for himself as he believes he can keep things quiet. Little did he know that a psychopathic killer named Anton Chigurh was hired to kill him and to take the money back.
Anton leaves a trail of bodies in his search for Moss getting the attention of the law. It is only a matter of time before Chigurh catches up with Moss. Soon to be retired Sheriff Ed Tom Bell oversees the investigation and begins to see a country different than it once was.