Are there that many great 2000s films?

Rating: 10/10 (11 May 2017)

I just realized that three of my favorite films ever (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Broken Flowers and this one) come from a three-year period. And I've been watching movies since the 1960s. You would think 2004/2006 was a golden period in the history of movies -yet I feel there was a whole lot of crap too, these three were just jewels in the mud.
LMS is, in many ways, like many other indie movies. Characters are dysfunctional, weird, losers -in other words, ordinary humans. There is a lot of comedy, some drama, and some variable material that can make you laugh or cry depending on your mood. Family members hate, ignore and sometimes tolerate each other. And then comes the unlikely, improbable, crazy happy ending -one that must have seemed so ridiculous in words, in a script, that I am amazed a crew of directors, actors and producers made it into a movie, no matter how indie minded they were.
And yet it is believable in a way a group embrace and a chorus of tearful "I love you!" would not be. It is screw-it-all liberating, something that rarely ever comes out that neatly in real life. But it is heart warming as very few other movie endings, yet crazier than most. If the standard Hollywood recipe for losers-turned-winners is just silly, and the most common indie "it is what it is" finale is typically bleak though believable, this one broke the mold. In a good (great!) way.