It’s our summer feature ‘Through the Decades’, taking advantage of the summer slowdown to look back at film history in 10-yearly intervals – hoping to go all the way back to 1950 by late August, when local cinemas re-open at full strength.

Kicking off with 2000 – and the first year of the new millennium was widely seen as a mixed bag, general dissatisfaction peaking at the Oscars when Gladiator won Best Picture; but in fact Gladiator is a first-rate blockbuster, and only just misses our Top 10. Here it is, plus 15 other films that marked the year.

2000 facts and figures

Top 5 Money-Makers (US):

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Cast Away

Mission: Impossible 2

Gladiator

The Perfect Storm

Best Film Oscar: Gladiator

Best Actor Oscar: Russell Crowe, Gladiator

Best Actress Oscar: Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich

Cannes Festival ‘Golden Palm’: Dancer in the Dark (Denmark)

1. MEMENTO. People tend to dwell on the gimmicks – and yes, it’s a film told in reverse chronological order (ie. the end is the beginning, and vice versa), but Christopher Nolan’s dazzlingly accomplished neo-noir goes a lot deeper. In the tale of Leonard, a hero with short-term memory loss, Nolan makes a point about Memory in general – the way selective memory makes a Leonard of us all, the way we recall what we want and fool ourselves about the results. A small masterpiece.

2. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? More hidden depths: the Coen Brothers’ 1930s-set comedy is ostensibly a jape powered by great folksy music and George Clooney at his smoothest – but it’s also an elegant parable of a sinner who gets religion, and the Devil appearing in the guise of a prison warden. “Damn! We’re in a tight spot!”

3. CODE UNKNOWN. Michael Haneke dominated the 00s (at least in the arthouse); Hidden was his biggest hit but this cryptic, compulsive mosaic – a film about modern Life and the way our lives impinge, willingly or not, on each other – may be his best film. Details accumulate, the effect is hypnotic.

4. YI YI. Another film of details, another film about modern life – at least as it affects one ordinary Taiwanese family. Edward Yang’s prize-winner is the kind of foreign-language film that destroys prejudice about foreign-language films – epic yet intimate, rooted in a strong sense of place yet also universal.

5. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH. Period dramas are a dime a dozen, yet this fine adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel feels somehow different – in its rhythms, in its subtleties, even in Gillian ‘Scully’ Anderson’s underrated lead performance as a woman treading into tragedy. More elusive than it looks, and more original.

6. YOU CAN COUNT ON ME. Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo make amazingly convincing siblings (even more amazing since they don’t look remotely alike) in this dry, low-key, pitch-perfect American indie. Writer-director Kenneth Lonergan made his debut, won awards, seemed destined for a great career – yet, 10 years later, is still struggling to release a follow-up.

7. SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR. Apocalypse Now: the blackest of black comedies, a series of end-of-the-world sketches told entirely in spectacular tableaux, Swedish director Roy Andersson’s eccentric masterpiece seemed like no other film ever made – at least till Andersson himself made a similar (but inferior) follow-up with You, the Living. Best bit: the final shot, with bodies rising up from the ground.

8. ESTHER KAHN. Summer Phoenix is Esther Kahn, a great 19th-century actress – but this totally perverse film goes against all conventional notions of showbiz glamour. Esther is cold, almost autistic, a blank slate; the film is difficult yet also full of life, bracingly bold and restless. Whatever it is, I like it.

9. CAST AWAY. Some called it product placement for FedEx (talk about missing the point); others found it fascinating. Today we might call it the anti-Lost, proving you can make desert-island drama without The Others or The Man in Black – just Tom Hanks, a volleyball named Wilson, and copious amounts of cinematic ingenuity.

10. THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE. Guilty pleasure, or inspired Disney take on Looney Tunes lunacy? No idea, but I’ll tell you two things: (a) it’s hilarious, and (b) 10 years later, I still find myself saying: “Why do we even have that lever?”.

15 OTHER MUST-SEE FILMS FROM 2000:

ALMOST FAMOUS (Cameron Crowe)

CHARLIE’S ANGELS (McG)

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (Ang Lee)

CROUPIER (Mike Hodges)

DANCER IN THE DARK (Lars Von Trier)

ERIN BROCKOVICH (Steven Soderbergh)

GEORGE WASHINGTON (David Gordon Green)

GLADIATOR (Ridley Scott)

HAMLET (Michael Almereyda)

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Wong Kar-wai)

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (Darren Aronofsky)

SEXY BEAST (Jonathan Glazer)

THIRTEEN DAYS (Roger Donaldson)

TRAFFIC (Steven Soderbergh)

WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES (Bela Tarr)