Nostalgia is a funny thing. Sometimes it allows you to think back fondly on things that actually weren’t all that great, like flip phones or satellite radio. The early 2000s are enjoying a particular reappraisal now, and not for no reason. The millennium was a time of exponential growth: not just for tech or fashion, but for the kind of stories that could be told on-screen. There was a particular boom in thrillers about surveillance, paranoia, and connection — most filtered through the lens of a new gimmick. Films like Strange Days and The Net are just a few of the films that capitalized on our shifting relationship with technology. And sure, they haven’t all aged that well, but there’s usually something to enjoy in even the campiest projects of the 2000s.
