My 2000 can probably best be described as a post-millennial malaise. Stuck in the worst college town in the world without the benefit of yet being a drinker, you could probably smell the depression dripping out of my pores. That this was one of the weakest years for film I had ever seen added to my angst in immeasurable ways. My hobby, my passion, my one escape, was being taken away from me? Was the death of cinema now accompanying the obvious death of popular music? I lost a lot of faith in humanity that year, and while my top ten has been padded a bit by stuff I didn’t see at the time over the years, there still isn’t a single film that I would give five stars to that I’ve seen from 2000. That’s just kind of awful for a film buff. To go an entire year without absolutely loving anything? What could be more hopeless and pitiful?
10-Amores perros ****
10-Amores perros ****
Amores perros is one of those multiple stories that are only loosely connected type of films that can get pretty annoying because usually at least one of the stories is completely unengaging and the momentum of anything that may be working is completely derailed whenever the focus shifts over to it. Happily, this film doesn’t really suffer that badly from the syndrome. I liked the gritty, street level stuff a lot more than what was going on in the posh apartment, but in general each of the plot threads kept up enough to keep me in the film all the way through. The cinematography is dirty, handheld, and very appropriate for showing off the Mexican society’s underbelly without becoming obnoxious and jittery. Gael Garcia Bernal seemed to be a force to come out of nowhere, and I hadn’t yet grown tired of his slightly pandering, needy on screen disposition. The dogfights and the car crash were visceral and affecting due to the realism of the presentation. Amores perros is just an interesting, but fun film to watch.
9-American Psycho ****
American Psycho had just about the greatest trailer I had ever seen in my life. It had slick suits, 80s pop music, murderous insanity, and just a smidge of over the top misogyny. I knew I had to read whatever crazy book that it was based on. While it’s not quite a case of a movie that surpasses the novel it was based on, it’s definitely a case of one that lives up to the source material quite nicely. Christian Bale is absolutely delightful as the vanity driven, bloodthirsty anti-hero Patrick Bateman. Some people don’t quite remember this period of his career, but this was back when he was actually acting and not just scowlin’ and growlin’, and every bit of success that he’s had as an adult can probably be traced back to how much everybody loved his performance here. Whether he was pontificating on the career of Phil Collins, brutally violating prostitutes, getting new business cards made up, or killing his co-workers with an axe, he is a joy to watch every second of this film. The director, Mary Harron, was relatively inexperienced with shooting features and did a great job pulling everything together, as well. Plus, she’s a chick! How bout that?
This was Christopher Guest’s mockumentary follow-up to the phenomenal Waiting for Guffman, and it was hugely anticipated by yours truly. While it wasn’t quite up to the same standards as that film, it is still wildly funny, and the train wasn’t even close to coming off the rails like it did somewhere during the letdown A Mighty Wind. Most of the same actors are back from the first film, and they all do a good job creating new characters that don’t feel like retreads from Guffman. Special kudos have to be given to Guest himself, who went from a hilariously believable, yet not subtle portrayal of a gay theater director, to a hilariously believable, yet not subtle portrayal of a Podunk hound dog enthusiast from backwater red state nowhere. To say the man is a versatile character actor is a gross understatement. The satire and the improvisational riffing are sharp and hilarious and make this film a good cutoff point for someone that might want to delve further into the mockumentary genre after being shown Spinal Tap by their freshman year college roommate.
7-Memento ****
While I generally found it to be wildly overrated and a victim of its own gimmick, I enthusiastically acknowledge that Christopher Nolan’s first big American release is a damn fine film. Nolan is one of those directors that you can just watch getting better and better with everything he makes, and it was at least clear from this picture that he was an amazing craftsman. Guy Pearce wasn’t that well known at the time, but he proved here that he is more than capable of handling a leading role. He’s the glue that held the film together for me even when the backwards nature of the storytelling was starting to become a bit tiresome. He never quite reaches Dana Carvey in Clean Slate levels of portraying a character with short-term memory loss, but, hey, who could? Actually, despite my initial poo-pooing of the gimmick of the film, I’d like to give this one a revisit as I’ve come to really respect Nolan more and more over the years and I’d like to watch this one with that sort of fan-boy enthusiasm coloring my perspective.
6-Requiem for a Dream ****
Pi was a film that I didn’t completely get on board with, but it was interesting enough and well made enough to have me eagerly anticipating Darren Aronofsky’s follow-up. Requiem for a Dream isn’t really a pleasant experience. It’s characters are doomed from the start and you have no choice but to watch every aspect of their lives be systematically torn apart by drug addiction. There isn’t any hope here, just absolute destruction, but the presentation is so slick and well done that you almost don’t mind the perverse, voyeuristic nature of the viewing experience. Aronofsky continues to experiment with montage editing here, and really uses it to create a unique way of experiencing the habitual nature of drug abuse. The score of the film is powerful, memorable, and simply astounding. It’s been used a ton as temporary tracks in film trailers since and I can completely understand why. The performances are all good, but Ellen Burstyn got special attention once award season rolled around that year and it was totally deserved. Her descent into complete madness after being introduced as a sweet old lady and then becoming addicted to diet pills is utterly heartbreaking and wouldn’t have hit nearly as hard without her virtuoso performance. Also; ass to ass. Ass to ass.
5-Wonder Boys ****
Wonder Boys is a ridiculously low-key follow-up to something that completely wrecked my world like LA Confidential, but Curtis Hanson managed to delight me with it nonetheless. This one is definitely a character piece with an emphasis on it’s performances, and Hanson was able to assemble such an impressive collection of actors to bring this script to life that I don’t know why it’s not talked about more these days. The story is pretty non-existent, but anybody who has ever taken a writing course at the college level will find it completely hysterical. Ultimately, Wonder Boys works as time spent with people who you would probably like to know in real life. Tobey Maguire does his best work here, and his career since can’t help but be looked at as a bit of a disappointment. Michael Douglas does a phenomenal job as the lead. Frances McDormand and Robert Downey Jr. add to their repertoire of ultra reliable character work, and even Katie Holmes manages to be sexy and interesting despite her usual blank stare approach to acting. I wouldn’t put Wonder Boys on any sort of list of films that are an urgent priority to see, but if you haven’t seen it yet and come across it, definitely give it a chance. It’s a delightful little surprise.
4-Snatch ****
Guy Ritchie hadn’t been revealed as such a one trick pony in 2000, so I was still pretty pumped to see his follow up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Say what you will about where his career has gone since, but Ritchie peaked with Snatch, and I still think that it’s a damn entertaining and well made crime film. He took what he established with Lock, Stock and brought things to a whole new level by adding top-notch performers like Benicio Del Toro and Brad Pitt to the mix. Don’t get me wrong, the film is totally Jason Statham’s to anchor, and he does a great, star-making job, but his efforts were hugely accentuated by all of the hypnotically awesome supporting work that he is surrounded with in this film. The dialogue is well written and fun, the visual style is hip and pleasing to the eye, and the story is interesting without becoming bogged down and confusing the way many crime films can be. Snatch is Lock, Stock with a budget and some support from the system the way Desperado was to El Mariachi; but Ritchie is able to achieve so much more than Rodriguez was with a very similar post Pulp Fiction, hot new foreign director comes to the US setup. What he was thinking when he went on to do Swept Away is anyone’s guess. Like most things, I blame Madonna.
3-Snow Day ****
I might have to think about it a bit more, but my knee-jerk instinct is that Snow Day is my favorite kid’s movie of all time. Written by the co-creators of Nickelodeon’s astounding and delightful series The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Snow Day reaps the benefit of stemming from creative material that was much more clever and well written than most anything else being produced at the time of its release, and which wouldn’t be seen on a regular basis in family films until Pixar hit their stride a couple of years ago. It has a strong romantic triangle at it’s center, an enchanting sense of whimsy and childhood nostalgia dancing around it’s edges, a great on screen villain (Chris Elliott’s despicable Snowplow Man), and a face meltingly gorgeous Emmanuelle Chriqui playing the unobtainable object of desire in a much more complex and interesting way then you get from most romantic comedies aimed toward adults. If none of that is enough to peak your interest, at least check it out to see Iggy Pop play an Al Martino loving ice rink curator in a neck brace. And if that’s not enough to get you intrigued, then seriously, what’s your problem?
2-O Brother, Where Art Thou? ****
O Brother had a gigantic task in front of it when I went to see it back in 2000. The Big Lebowski had become pretty much my favorite film of all time at this point and my Coen brothers fandom was at an absolute fever pitch. It would have taken a great film to live up to my astronomical expectations and not disappoint, given the situation, and O Brother is good enough that I walked out appreciating it for what it was. The film is unmistakably Coen brothers, and depending on which side of the fence you come down upon when it comes to their work, that is either a great thing or the worst thing in the world. The characters are all off the wall and completely entrancing in their construction. The acting is all unique, nuanced, and worth the price of admission alone. The cinematography is breathtaking, as the filmmakers take some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world and somehow improve upon how they appear in reality. And the music; nobody walked out of this film not talking about the blue grassy soundtrack put together by T-Bone Burnett. One of the ridiculously colloquial, outdated songs from this film was tearing up the charts for God’s sake. Not to mention, this is the film that completely changed my mind about George Clooney, taking him from a celebrity that I was annoyed with, all the way to being one of my Hollywood man-crushes. All hail the Coen brothers, hallowed be their names.
