Pleasantville (1998)

Gary Ross's first film as director drops two modern teenagers into a black-and-white 1950s sitcom, where color starts creeping in as the residents feel things they were never written to feel. It is the most optimistic film here, a story about choosing to leave a safe, scripted world rather than being trapped in one. The look still impresses: it was the first major Hollywood feature to go through what is now called the digital intermediate process, with around 1,700 effects shots. Pair it with The Truman Show from the same year for two very different answers to what you do when the perfect town turns out to be a set.