Is romance dead? David Carr seems to think so, at least in American cinema (both Hollywood and “Indiewood,” as he inclusively clarifies). While celebrating the subway station meet-cute from the beginning of Milk, a scene he claims to be of an increasingly rare sort, Carr states that American filmmakers “can do romantic pathology and entropy, but the kind of love for the ages, a big-movie kind of love? Not so much.”

If you agree with him, blame the back-to-back Best Picture winners Titanic and Shakespeare in Love for feeding us the kind of romance that’s so cheesy it clogs our arteries and gives us a coronary. Left with a burst heart and a lack of quality Nora Ephron movies, most of us have been cynics when it comes to love stories these past ten years. Yet cynics can still be swept off their feet, and American filmmakers have adequately supplied them with new kinds of love for the ages.

Just take a look at these ten films from the past decade. They may be full of cynicism, but they’re also filled with big-movie love, in their own way. If you can’t see the romance, then the problem is with you, not the movies.

Love & Basketball (2000)

This underrated film has something for everyone: sports for the boys and romance for the girls; and sports for the girls and romance for the boys. See, it’s a love story that avoids clichés and speaks to both sexes equally. And as far as meet-cutes go, it’s hard to top Quincy’s first encounter with Monica: she beats him at basketball, he knocks her to the ground, and they instantly fall in love, at the age of 13. Plenty of recent films have done the whole love-since-childhood thing, including the contrived Love Me if You Dare and this year’s less-sexually-balanced Slumdog Millionaire. But while others treat this kind of story as fairy tale, Love & Basketball is more real, and true love is definitely more romantic than fantastical love.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Who knew that Adam Sandler, as a modern-day Popeye, could be so romantic? Apparently Paul Thomas Anderson did, and he was able to transform the typical Sandler man-boy persona into an old-fashioned man-as-protector sort of romantic hero. A bit sexist and a little creepy, sure, but Sandler’s Barry Egan manages to fall on the right side of the fine line between stalker and sentimentally drastic admirer (kind of like a male “Amelie”).

All the Real Girls (2003)

The direction this film may seem too ironic and cynical to be considered truly romantic, but then think of how cynical our favorite romantic classics are. Gone With the Wind and Casablanca? Neither is as positive and hopeful as we pretend Hollywood romance to be. And while those films’ dialogue may be memorable after all these years, none of their lines are as simply and sweetly romantic as the stuff said by Paul (Paul Schneider) and Noel (Zooey Deschanel) to each other when they’re still falling in love.

Cold Mountain (2003)

Nicole Kidman and Jude Law may be the worst actors to play romantic leads, considering how stiff and plastic they are. But forgetting the performances and concentrating on the epic love story, this relatively modernized take on The Odyssey (set during the Civil War) is as classically romantic as it gets, right down to the tragic denouement. Surprisingly, it was not well received by either critics or audiences. The problem may have been the fault of Kidman and Law, whose characters were hardly believable as in love, although their compatibility is beside the point. The romantic quest made by Inman (Law) to get back to his barely-familiar sweetheart is powered by the concept of love more than the certainty of love.

50 First Dates (2004)

Another Adam Sandler movie? That’s right, and this one is even sweeter and more thoughtfully romantic than Punch-Drunk Love. The plot, which is like a reciprocal Groundhog Day, is a tad too gimmicky to grab your heartstrings right away, but the final scene (ironically in the Arctic) could warm the center of even the most pragmatic, unemotional viewer.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Two of the best films of 2004 were deconstructions of love. But while Jonathan Glazer’s Birth shattered romance to pieces, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind showed us what it’s made of. The film also somewhat argues that love and romance aren’t necessarily about “happily ever after,” even if the two main characters do seem destined to be together at the end, nor are these concepts limited to good times.

The Notebook (2004)

It doesn’t get more traditionally romantic than this: forbidden love; correspondence; longing; a World War. But how is this more beloved than either Pearl Harbor or Australia? And why is Nicholas Sparks more respected and read than most romance novelists? Well, if it were that easy to determine, Hollywood wouldn’t keep failing in its attempts to make more films like this. Or, maybe it’s just that The Notebook doesn’t seem to be trying too hard –– it just tells a genuine love story without tugging or overreaching for your presumed romantic buttons.

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

If Amelie is the most romantic non-American film of the last ten years, and if Punch-Drunk’s Barry Egan is the male Amelie, then Miranda July’s character is simply the American Amelie. She’s a little weird, a little too forthcoming, but she’s so sweet and creative in her pursuits that she’s not just forgivable; she’s completely lovable. Of course, lovable doesn’t exactly equal romantic, but then there are plenty of oddly romantic scenes in the film, too, such as the metaphoric first walk shared by July and John Hawkes’ characters. It’s frank, it’s harsh, but it’s also the best flirtation seen in American cinema in a long time.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

It’s upsetting to think of any story involving adultery as being romantic (though Unfaithful almost made this list for other, spoilerific reasons), but the two lovers in Brokeback Mountain are given an exception because of the society they live in. The unapproved affair also makes for one of the most heartbreaking romances ever put on screen. And of all the films selected, this is easily the one that’s liable to make you lose your cynical perspective, at least for a couple of hours.

WALL-E (2008)

In a way, this animated film is not romantic at all for humans, who are viewed as plump slugs with no real interaction with other people (seriously, a time when we all just use video chat, even when we’re in the vicinity of one another, is not too far off). But for robots, it’s the most romantic thing to come along since the implied relationship between C-3PO and R2-D2. And it’s gender-equal (or, if you believe the characters are gender-neutral, the film is partner-equal) as far as the pursuing, the rescuing and the responsibility go regarding WALL-E and EVE’s relationship. Hopefully, this most recent film on the list will inspire future romantic films to be so progressive and so lacking in cynicism (such optimism: even two humans seem to fall in love at the end).