MEMENTO (2001)

Inspired by his brother's yet-to-be-published short story about an amnesiac avenging his wife's death that plays out from end to beginning, Christopher Nolan had no trouble scaring up the $4.5 million budget from then-fledgling Newmarket Films (though later, Newmarket was forced to release the film itself when every major distributor passed, presumably due to the film's structural gymnastics). Memento's $26 million box office haul put Nolan on Hollywood's short list of arty indie directors capable of serving up original genre pictures to mainstream audiences. Think Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday to The Bourne Supremacy) and Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects to X-Men).