A Dozen Y2K FavoritesJan 24 '01 (Updated Sep 16 '11) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Great year for acting and cinematography, plus many of the best films came from writer-directors.
Y2K brought a number of very good films and several ravishingly beautifully photographed ones. My ramble through my dozen favorites does not attempt to rank-order them. Some would say that there was little except striking images in “Beau travail.” I’m not sure that familiarity with “Billy Budd” was more of a help than a hindrance to watching Claire Denis’s adaptation to French Foreign Legionnaires on the Gulf of Aden, but her film developed at least one character. Although Grégoire Colin is considerably more photogenic than Denis Levant, the image burned deepest into my brain is the bizarre last scene with the ex-sergeant boogying madly. More than a few viewers were perplexed (as was also the case for “Time Regained,” which I thought was a travesty of Proust). Painter-turned-director Julian Schnabel also imaginatively adapted a homoerotic literary classic, Reinaldo Arenas’s searing memoir Before Night Falls. Although mostly desexualized (and there was a lot to de-!), the film is a remarkably successful representation of a writer who had to write and of the repression by the Castro regime. Arenas’s frustrations in a society where writers don’t matter (the USA) are not as visible. The film is visually and verbally rich and outstandingly acted. I also liked Terrence Davies’s long and crushing adaptation of Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth. Having never seen “The X-Files” I did not have the associations that interfered with some viewers confronted with Gillian Anderson. For all their visual beauty, the first three items on my list are more than a little grim in subject matter. However, there are two other adaptations of novels that have happy endings: Although Curtis Hanson’s film of Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys is not as funny as the novel, it is still a very satisfying film. Michael Douglas is sympathetic, mostly responding to other characters, including those played by Robert Downey, Jr., Tobey Maguire, and Frances McDormand. Pittsburgh has a burnished look. Mansfield Park is an outstanding adaptation (by Patricia Rozema) of a more venerable literary classic, Jane Austen’s peculiar(and overlong) novel. Although a bit overly lurid with flashbacks of Caribbean slaves, the screenplay in some ways improves upon the original (which goes on and on about the amateur theatrics). Frances O'Connor was perfect as the poor relation who goes to live at Mansfield Park, and it was a special treat to have Harold Pinter playing the lord of the manor, Sir Thomas Bertram. Stephen Frears’s film High Fidelity is adapted from a book I haven’t read, by Nick Hornsby. I know that the book is much loved by many. I guess that it can be said to have a happy ending for at least one of the employees of the record store. John Cusack is (as usual) very funny, though not very good at figuring out why his relationships with women have failed. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ("Wo hu cang long," directed by Ang Lee)Ang Lee, is based on some Q’ing-dynasty martial arts novel. I think that the film drags and that a number of scenes go on for too long, but some of the background scenery is incredibly beautiful, and several of the fight scenes are exhilarating cinema. Plus the film is very romantic! It is the first martial arts movie many American viewers had seen (and the first with women warriors others had seen, having been deprived of Brigitte Lin in "The East is Red," etc.). CT,HD has some impressive fight sequences, though it is primarily the story of two loves—the passionate one of the younger couple (Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen) and the long-repressed one of the older couple (Chow Yunfat and Michelle Yeoh). The ending distresses some viewers, but I have a different interpretation of it (discussing it would obviously commit the high crime of "plot spoiling"!) Peter Pau's cinematography deserved all the praise it received, as did Tan Dun's score (and song "A Love Before Time." The even longer Taiwanese film Yi Yi, written and directed by Edward Yang is smaller in scale, but very deep. If I’d been consulted, I would have cut a few minutes here and there, but probably would have asked for more about the female characters. You Can Count on Me (written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, who also played the part of the nonjudgmental minister in it) was better balanced between the brother and the sister . The characters seemed a bit pat to me, but Mark Ruffalo and Laura Linney gave it their all. And the young boy played by the youngest Culken was so morose that Yang-Yang (in “Yi Yi”) seemed entirely playful and exuberant in contrast. The title character in Billy Elliot (played perfectly by Jamie Bell) grew up in more daunting circumstances than the middle-class children in “Yi Yi” and “You Can Count on Me.” I have to agree that the tap-dancing was totally implausible, but I enjoyed the departures from realism in “Billy Elliot.” And I thought the ending was delightful--and not superfluous. Another impressive ensemble of actors. (Stephen Daldry directed it.) Neil LaBute’s Nurse Betty also had an impressive ensemble of actors. I thought that Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock were underutilized in it, but rarely (if ever) have I found a psychotic killer funnier than Chris Rock. I’d have had trouble with the scalping if I’d seen it, but I’m good at averting my eyes. Of course, for all the acting talent spread through it, “Nurse Betty” would have failed without a credible performance of the loopy title character. Renée Zelwegger pulls off a very Pirandelloish role. And it was Allison Janney’s year, between her role as the hospital soap opera’s producer in Nurse Betty” and her Emmy-winning role in “West Wing.” The Chinese film Suzhou River (written and directed by Ye Lou) is the most experimental film on my list, endeavoring to provide a representation of one man’s subjectivity. It bears careful watching, but has not been widely released, alas. It is compellingly acted and beautifully photographed. ------ When I wrote this, there were some other acclaimed films I had not yet seen. One that I had not even heard of in 2000, "Urbania," I would add. It has compelling performances and was made on less than a shoestring budget--by another writer-director, in this instance adapting his own stage play to the screen. (5/17/02) I had seen Traffic and would probably give it an award for best jump-cutting. I most certainly would not give it any award for screenwriting. It could share mention with “Shaft” for the most implausible (and, I’d say, racist) portraits of adolescents from rich white families turning to ghetto criminalit and sexual misuse. Similarly, despite having a very impressive performance by Ellen Burstyn and a very high number of cuts per minute, "Requiem for a Dream" struck me as pat (with the daughter of affluence turned junkie getting the same fate worse than death as the one in "Traffic"). With all the halluconegic visuals, the trio of young actors have little opportunity to develop characters--also like the youth in "Traffic." "High Fidelity" has mostly faded from my memory and if I were making a list now, I might include "Erin Brokovich" instead of it despite irritation that Julia Roberts stole the Oscar that should have gone to Ellen Burstyn. --- I have written full reviews of more than half of my list of best Y2K films: Beau Travail http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-715A-5C11EE3-39582BC1-prod1 Before Night Falls http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-2F38-316A3E8F-3A57AA80-prod2 Billy Elliot http://www.epinions.com/content_19619614340 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon http://www.epinions.com/content_44759486084 House of Mirth http://www.epinions.com/content_62782017156 Mansfield Park http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-11FC-A2AA3B6-39637FD0-prod4 Suzhou he http://www.epinions.com/content_248819584644 Wonder Boys http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-4731-7B99EE7-395D3FBE-prod4 Yi Yi http://www.epinions.com/content_6887673476 You Can Count on Me http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-6FBF-20EBD03F-3A2D70A8-prod2 --- © 2001 Stephen O. Murray --- I have also posted lists of have also posted lists of my favorite films, best non-English-language movies by country, best French movies, best noirs, best French organized crime films, best English organized crime films, best romantic movies with happy endings, best romantic movies in which the lovers do not end up together because one or both are dead, best romantic movies in which the lovers are separated by someting other than death best westerns not set in the American west, best religious movies celebrating a religious figure, best movies portraying the dark side of religion, best holidaze (Christmas and Thanksgiving) movies, best rock-n-roll movies, best gay feature film, best gay documentary film, best cult movies, best black comedies, best World War II movies, best post-WWII German films, best epics, and best anti-epics, best movies of the 1940s, the 1970s, the 1980s, 1939, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. and my favorite tearjerker songs.  |
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