28 JANUARY, 2001: At long last, the Oscar bait flicks have filtered all the way down to our fair city and I think I’ve seen everything I need to see to compose my look back at the year in movies, always one of my favorite columns to write. In all fairness, there are a few films that I missed that might have made the list (“Dancer In The Dark”, “Mifune”, “Me Myself I”, and “Battlefield Earth”—just kidding!) and a few that still haven’t made it here (“George Washington”, “Pollock”, “You Can Count On Me”, “Shadow of the Vampire”, “Quills”), but shit, I can’t wait forever.
So here it is—my best, worst, and a few random thoughts.
THE TOP 20 OF 2000:
20. “Dr. T & The Women”: Robert Altman’s latest might just be the most universally disliked film to make my list, and I could give a rat’s ass—as far as I was concerned, it was vintage Altman, with a career-defining performance by Richard Gere, an excellent supporting cast (particularly Helen Hunt and the radiant Tara Reid), and one hell of a weird-ass ending.
19. “Thirteen Days”: A taut, intelligent, suspenseful political thriller that only rated this low on the top twenty because of director Roger Donaldson’s weird, unmotivated occasional use of black and white photography (a real distraction) and Kevin Costner’s hilarious stab at a Boston accent (an even bigger distraction).
18. “Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai”: Jim Jarmusch’s offbeat hybrid of Western, gangster flick, and Eastern mysticism is a movie that sneaks up on you (with its almost maddeningly deliberate pacing) and grows only more intriguing with each viewing.
17: “Finding Forrester”: I’m a sucker for movies like this. Director Gus Van Sant and screenwriter Mike Rich craft a warm yet edgy mentor/teacher story, and manage to pull off all that “student becomes the teacher” shit without letting the wires show. This is Sean Connery’s best work in years, and newcomer Rob Brown is a real find.
16. “Best In Show”: The world will be a better place if Christopher Guest and his “Waiting For Guffman” colleagues continue turning out uproariously funny improvised comedies like this one. While it may not pack as many laughs as “Guffman” did, Fred Willard’s Buck Laughlin is easily the funniest movie character in recent memory.
15. “The Perfect Storm”: First-rate effects and sharp performances by George Clooney (having a hell of a good year—see below) and Mark Whalberg helped escalate a potential third-rate “Twister” into a first-rate summer blockbuster.
14. “Snatch”: I’ve about fucking had it with people complaining that Guy Ritchie’s “Lock, Stock” follow-up is too similar to his debut, that it’s all style and no substance, that it’s too convoluted, blah blah blah. Ritchie is a director intoxicated by the sheer act of making a movie, and his energy is absolutely infectious. I rarely had more fun at the movies than I did at this one.
13. “Hamlet”: Director Michael Almereyda’s flashy Shakespeare update was endlessly inventive; gimmicky, sure, but fascinating to watch and a quick jaunt through the greatest of his plays. Many standouts in the cast, particularly Ethan Hawke’s melancholy prince and the wonderful Julia Stiles (who’s not always in movies as wonderful as she is—see below!) as a pitch-perfect Ophelia.
12. “Nurse Betty”: Nasty-as-shit director Neil LaBute takes a surprising (and satisfying) turn to the sunny side with this unique comic caper. Excellent performances by Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, and Chris Rock in this quickly-forgotten little masterwork.
11. “Unbreakable” M. Night Shymalan’s “Sixth Sense” follow-up was in some ways even stronger; as quietly involving as any film this year, it arrived loudly and disappeared quietly when some less adventuresome moviegoers didn’t get—well, when they didn’t know what they were gonna get, I guess (and we wanna know just what we’re gonna get, right Zemekis?)
10. “The Cell”: Dark, brutal, and disturbing, but skillful and vivid. It reminded me of “Seven” and “Silence of the Lambs”, and not just because it was about a serial killer, but because it dared to take me places that movies are usually afraid to go.
9. “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”: Like the best of the Coen Brothers films (and I’d rather see their worst film than just about anything else out there), it’s odd and quirky and just plain astonishing. Clooney’s second best film performance to date (he still hasn’t topped “Out of Sight”), and Tim Blake Nelson (who wrote and directed the terrific “Eye Of God”) is an engaging presence as well. Owen “Dumbfuck” Gleiberman of “Entertainment Weekly” called this the worst movie of the year, and has lost what little credibility he had.
8. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”: Believe the hype. This flick is fucking exhilarating—a breathless, beautiful epic, with amazing fight sequences and an ending that got to me much, much more than I would’ve ever predicted.
7. “Almost Famous”: There’s so many great little moments in this film that simultaneously captures the magic of youth, music, and writing, but I keep going back to the scene when William has put Penny Lane on the plane, and as it taxis out, he keeps running through the terminal so he can keep looking at her. Something just right about that scene. Something just right about the whole flick.
6. “The Virgin Suicides”: Sofia Coppola’s brilliant, lyrical, haunting debut was as accurate a portrait of awkward adolescence as I’ve ever seen, bursting with fine performances (particularly Kirsten Dunst and Josh Hartnett), remarkable use of period music (and an unforgettable score by Air), and gorgeous cinematography.
5. “Wonder Boys”: Director Curtis Hanson coaxes flawless performances out of an outstanding ensemble cast (Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr. particularly) to assemble a marvelous, perfect little human comedy, odd and funny and unassuming, like the movies Paul Mazursky and Hal Ashby used to make in the seventies.
4. “Traffic”: Steven Soderbergh is the man of the hour, officially my favorite filmmaker after turning out, in the last 2 ½ years, four of my favorite films (“Out of Sight”, “The Limey”, and numbers 3 and 4 on this list). His funky, personal style was beautifully suited to what could have been a preachy morality tale; Benicio Del Toro was at his absolute finest, and I could have watched an entire film about the Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman characters. Slower and more thoughtful than I expected; this film, like most of Soderbergh’s work, will get even better with repeated viewings.
3. “Erin Brockovich”: I know it’s not hip to say that out of Soderbergh’s smash double play I preferred the big hit, big star vehicle more, but “Brockovich” not only showed off his skills as a director, but did in the guise of a good, old-fashioned crowd pleaser.
2. “High Fidelity”: My general love for this movie has not been a secret. What a great movie this is, and it’s not even obvious about it. Besides the impeccable writing, besides the wonderful performances, besides Stephen Frears’ sure-handed direction, it is the first movie I’ve ever seen that really, honestly connects to this very particular self-involved, pop-culture obsessed generation that I am so proud to be a part of. Some movies just speak to you. This one whispered to me, and I giggled like a schoolgirl.
1. “Requiem For A Dream”: Darren Aronofsky’s visceral, hypnotic spiral into the horrors of addiction absolutely takes the wind out of you—I sat in the theatre shaking at the end of this movie, and still can’t get some of its moments out of my head. It’s not a fun movie, or an uplifting one, but it gets ahold of you, and it doesn’t let go. No film this year got to me, got under my skin, the way that this one did.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Had the chips fallen differently, had I been in different moods or not seen one of the above, any of these films could have been on the list. As is, I can recommend them all, in no particular order: “The Original Kings of Comedy”, “Keeping The Faith”, “Jesus’ Son”, “Way Of The Gun”, “X-Men”, “Remember The Titans”, “Meet The Parents”, “Black and White”, “All the Pretty Horses”, “Boiler Room”, “The Gift”, “Joe Gould’s Secret”, “American Psycho”, “State And Main”, “Timecode”, “The Tao Of Steve”, and “Croupier”.
PURE ENTERTAINMENT:
Not all movies have to shake me up or stimulate me. Some movies are just fun, like these, which gave me a good time and were not entirely braindead: “Mission: Impossible 2”, “Chicken run”, “Shaft”, “Me Myself & Irene”, “Road Trip”, “Charlie’s Angels”, “U-571”, “The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle”, and “The Whole Nine Yards”. What the hell, I’m easy to please.
THE 10 WORST OF 2000:
10. “Little Nicky”: Lazy rich bastard Adam Sandler and his idiot friends weren’t even trying here, and you could tell. “Hey, Waterboy made money, these stupid bastards’ll go see whatever we put out!” Oops, Sandler, guess not. Also lost points for wasting funny performances by Reese Witherspoon and Rodney Dangerfield.
9. “The Replacements”: Because it wouldn’t be a year without a Keanu Reeves movie. Not a brain in it’s fucking head—him or this “comedy”.
8. “Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows”: And I actually LIKED the first one, so what the hell does that tell you?
7. “Pay It Forward”: Syrupy and shameless, a film so preoccupied with being full of good intentions and lofty ideals that it doesn’t realize that, as an entertainment, it’s ultimately full of shit. Director Mimi Leder goes to Movie Hell for wasting Kevin Spacey.
6. “Hollow Man”: A big piece of shit that made a lot of money because it promised mindless effects and boobs. And it certainly delivered that, and absolutely positively nothing else.
5. “The Skulls”: Probably a worse movie than some of the others above it, but I must admit that it holds a special place in my heart, since it’s so ridiculous, so melodramatic and unbelievable, that it carves out a place as one of the year’s (unintentionally) funniest flicks. I still smile at the thought of a major motion picture with a second lead named “Caleb Mandrake”.
4. “Mission To Mars”: In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll tell you that I shut this one off halfway through because I couldn’t remember the last time I was so bored out of my goddamn skull. DePalma may have been trying for “2001”; he made a really dry, really long episode of “Battlestar Galactica”.
3. “Reindeer Games”: God, this was a stanky piece of shit. Two hours of Gary Sinise growling at Ben Affleck and the running around and ignoring big holes in the needlessly, endlessly convoluted plot, and… uck. Even Charlize Theron naked couldn’t save this crap.
2. “Whipped”: As hateful and unfunny a film as you’re ever likely to see, with beautiful Amanda Peet and the three least attractive men ever put on film trying their best to make a Neil LaBute movie. Positively painful.
1. “Down To You”: A sloppy, drippy, moronic mess of a “romantic comedy”, “Down To You” isn’t just bad, it isn’t just slow, it isn’t just cringe-inducing; it’s just plain inept. First-time screenwriter Kris Isaacson writes the worst kind of dippy, dim-witted, false dialogue; first-time director Isaacson stages every scene with the worst kind of plodding blocking and TV camerawork; and editor Stephen A. Rotter is responsible for some of the worst cutting I’ve ever seen in a major motion picture, forgoing any sense of pace and timing and continuously leaving the poor actors out to dry by not cutting away from their fake banter quickly enough. If they ever give classes on how not to make movies, this film should be part of the final.
THIS AND THAT:
* BEST ACTOR: Michael Douglas, “Wonder Boys”. RUNNERS-UP: John Cusack, “High Fidelity”, George Clooney, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”
* BEST ACTRESS: Julia Roberts, “Erin Brockovich”. RUNNERS-UP: Ellen Burstyn, “Requiem For A Dream”, Rene Zellweger, “Nurse Betty”.
* BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, “Almost Famous” and “State And Main”. RUNNERS-UP: Jack Black, “High Fidelity”, Benicio Del Toro, “Traffic” and “The Way Of The Gun”.
* BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Frances McDormand, “Almost Famous” and “Wonder Boys”. RUNNERS-UP: Catherine O’Hara, “Best In Show”, Kirsten Dunst, “The Virgin Suicides”.
* WORST ACTOR: Freddie Prinze Jr., “Down To You” and “Boys and Girls”.
* WORST ACTRESS: Elisabeth Shue, “Hollow Man”.
* WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR: The four asshole guys in “Whipped”.
* WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Angie Dickinson, “Pay It Forward”.
* BEST DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh, “Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic”.
* BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Cameron Crowe, “Almost Famous”.
* BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Steve Kloves, “Wonder Boys” (from the novel by Michael Chabon)
* WORST DIRECTOR: Kris Isaacson, “Down To You”.
* WORST SCREENPLAY: Kris Isaacson, “Down To You.”
* “FIGHT CLUB” AWARD FOR WORST THIRD ACT: (tie) “Cast Away” and “Bamboozled”.
* BEST TRAILER: (tie) “Gone In Sixty Seconds” and “Snatch”.
* WORST TRAILER: “Cast Away”—the second, shitty one that gave away the whole movie.
* BEST SCORE: Thomas Newman’s music for “Erin Brockovich”.
* WORST SCORE: Theodore Shapiro’s awful music in “State And Main”, which nearly derailed the whole film.
* BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roger Deakins, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”
* WORST CINEMATOGRAPHY: “Whipped” was a piece of shit, and looked like one too.
* MOST UNDERRATED: Every year, there’s at least one movie that I like and all the critics hate and it doesn’t make any money. And it pains me to admit how much I enjoyed Tony Kay’s gritty, edgy “Get Carter”, starring Sylvester Stallone. I’m only human, you guys, I’ve got weaknesses.
* MOST OVERRATED: I don’t get the “Gladiator” thing, I’m sorry. Yes, it was a pretty good movie—pretty good AT BEST. But it’s gonna get a Best Picture nomination? And it might win?
* WAY TOO LONG: “What Women Want”, “Play It To The Bone”, and… Jesus Christ, this column. That’s it! On with 2001!