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2000: TEN OF THE BETTER; SOME OF THE WORSE

As always, there's a bunch of movies from the last year that I would like to have seen but either missed or haven't caught up to, including such critical favorites as HIGH FIDELITY and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (or is it the other way around?). I usually try to avoid listing stuff that was technically released in the previous year (1999) but a couple of items snuck in here anyway. Thus, as usual, I can't list 10 Best, only 10 of the Better (in alphabetical order):

  1. ALMOST FAMOUS--The best mainstream film I've seen so far from 2000. Good performances all around (Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson), and that rarest of things--a film based in recent history that actually gives a sense of its time.
  2. BILLY ELLIOT--A rarity: an upbeat, feelgood movie about a boy striving for success in spite of the odds that does not feel systematically contrived. Julie Walters will probably be underappreciated for giving one of the year's better performances.
  3. CHICKEN RUN--The best movie of the year to have Mel Gibson lead a struggle for freedom in a new and independent land. While it lacks the compactness of Nick Park's shorter Wallace & Grommit films, it still has loads of humor both broad and sly. There are extratextual nuances to savor, and the claymation itself is delightful to watch.
  4. DANCER IN THE DARK--This is one of the year's test cases for audience taste: You either get it or you don't. The darkness falls here in several ways--Bjork's physical blindness, her mental blindness, the blindness of the culture around her--all in the context of those fantasies of a singing world that sustain us (but only so far). I was actually surprised by how much I was moved by this one.
  5. DR. T AND THE WOMEN--Robert Altman returns to form: episodic, ensemble work, somewhat misogynistic in tone but with a group of actresses in top form. Loopy, unpredictable humor, with a darkly cynical eye about wealth and southwestern lifestyles. Echoes of BREWSTER MCCLOUD and the underrated A WEDDING. Richard Gere is actually tolerable in this one!
  6. GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI--Zen and the Art of Whacking People. Forrest Whitaker is the samurai gunman for a mafia boss but he's in danger of becoming just another ronin. The film mixes gangsta culture, the tropes of mafia movies, and Eastern mysticism, with dashes of postmodern humor. I've admired some of Jarmusch's previous work, but this is the first film of his that actually seemed to have something like emotion.
  7. GOYA IN BORDEAUX--Painting, passion and politics, woven through with memory and desire as the Old Master reflects on the failures and torments of his life. One of the few artist biopics that comes close to understanding what torments and delights drive the artistic passion.
  8. HAMLET--Speaking of the postmodern, this HAMLET of the age of global capitalism and digital knowledge goes beyond mere cleverness in setting the story as modern-day corporate struggle. As slick as Baz Luhrman's ROMEO + JULIET, but with much better acting!
  9. JUDY BERLIN--This little-known, low-budget independent film takes the premise of a TWILIGHT ZONE episode and expands on it. What can move us to act on our dreams and desires in the face of all the disappointments they can bring? What do we do when those disappointments come? Prediction: Barbara Barrie's performance will be the Most Underrated of the year.
  10. THE VIRGIN SUICIDES--More desire and nostalgia, filtered through the perceptions of boys trying to understand the secret world of girls. The film's strength is that they never do understand.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Best Newcomer: Hugh Jackman, in X-MEN

Best Male Supporting Role: Robert Downey, Jr. in WONDER BOYS

Most Overrated Film (so far): PAY IT FORWARD

Best Failed Experiment: TIME CODE

Biggest Disappointment (so far): THE CRADLE WILL ROCK

Worst Performance: Angus MacFadyen as Orson Welles, in THE CRADLE WILL ROCK

Hardest Working Woman in Show Business: Helen Hunt

And (drum roll, please!): the annual PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN Worst Film of the Year Award

Second Runner Down: WOMAN ON TOP
First Runner Down: (If the winner should mercifully disappear from the face of the earth, this film will be heaped with all the disdain and calumny available):
WHAT LIES BENEATH

And the Winner(?) of THE PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN Award (Fanfare of raspberries, please!):
AUTUMN IN NEW YORK!
Just when you thought it was safe to watch a Richard Gere movie, this strange melange of a film brings back that peculiar feeling. Narcissism, incest and necrophilia lurk beneath a glossy, arsty-fartsy, downtown surface that even manages to avoid using food as an easy sensual delight. Winona Ryder (SPOILER!!!, as if you cared) can't die fast enough.

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