The Usual Choices
Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
Gladiator (Ridley Scott)
Memento (Christopher Nolan)
Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)
But how about...
Thirteen Days (Roger Donaldson)
As an Australian, I love American history. Their events are larger, more consequential, with lasting epochal impact than anything we can offer up in comparison: The Eureka Stockade vs The American Civil War? Hume & Hovell vs Lewis & Clark? The Petrov Affair vs The Cuban Missile Crisis? There there, little fella.
Thirteen Days is one of the great underrated American History movies...about the Cuban Missile Crisis. For 144 minutes, with portentous/ambient music as our constant companion, we are privy to the backstage machinations of good men trying to prevent a bad thing by carefully doing something about it...in this case John & Bobby Kennedy (and some guy named Kenny). Perfectly acted without slipping into banal impersonation, this film admittedly takes dramatic licence (it's not a documentary; it's a movie...but it does get the balance right) to tell a powerful story of how close we came to being obliterated. Yes, yes, the leaders are noble, the speeches are punchy and the heartstrings are tugged...but that's okay: it's an American History movie. Made by Americans. About a time when America really was the greatest nation.
...and what about...
Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson)
Possibly the shaggiest of shaggy dog stories ever put onto film, this follows the Life-Interruptus of a closer-to-the-end-than-to-the-beginning English professor & blocked writer of novel #2. Michael Douglas gives what is easily his greatest performance (dry light comedy is his forte...who woulda known?) as the nice guy who smokes dope, blacks out a lot and just wants to help a weird but talented student (played beautifully by Tobey Maguire). The episodic story staggers around a freezing Pittsburgh, seemingly unlikely to ever come together, but ending up resolving itself perfectly. Supported by terrific character turns by Frances McDormand and Robert Downey Jr, and featuring spot-on big-name old-white-guy music (Dylan; Lennon; Van; Neil...y'know), this movie was a marvellous way to kick off the new millennium.
...not to mention...
You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan)
This is a superior drama about family, the ties that bind and, no matter how much you try to help, some people just cannot be healed. As kids, a sister (Laura Linney) & brother (Mark Ruffalo) lose their parents in a car crash. Time moves on, but only the sister grows up and gets on with her life...the brother only grows up physically. He returns to his sister's home, more out of obligation & guilt than want. She tries to give him what he needs, but her brother doesn't know what that is. Add a young son from a failed relationship and a couple of other failed relationships, and you've got family...a messy, stay/leave unit that we can all recognise. The acting partnership between Laura & Mark is sublime: they look nothing alike, but there is the same blood running through their veins. The film is paced slowly, with little touches of humour and poignant understatement to draw us in. Director Kenneth has only made three films in sixteen years...all three are wonderful...what a tease.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Animal Factory (Steve Buscemi)
I visited an ex-student in jail once (poor kid...DUI with no licence...all of 19...rained with tears as soon as he saw me...heartbreaking). This film is about a 20 year old locked up with violent hardcases...and, inevitably, the threat of rape is everywhere; this is the source of the film's tension and you just wait for the nice bad guy (Willem) to demand physical payment for taking the kid under his protective wing...but it never happens. In fact, while there are stabbings and slicings and even some shit-eating, the final act of the film goes for a happy ending, emptying out all of the carefully built-up tension. There are some characters who even vanish, as if there was no reason for them to be there in the first place. The cumulative effect is that you're not sure how to feel (appalled or uplifted or relieved or wiser? well?). Methinks The Shawshank Redemption has a lot to answer for.
My Top 10 Films of 2000
 |
| "Er...just doin' superhero stuff. Y'know...comparing blasters... that kinda thing." |
#02 A Wonder Boys (Hanson)
#03 A Traffic (Soderbergh)
#04 A You Can Count on Me (Lonergan)
#05 A- Memento (Nolan)
#06 A- Sexy Beast (Glazer)
#07 A- High Fidelity (Frears)
#08 A- Gladiator (Scott)
#09 A- Nurse Betty (LaBute)
#10 A- Cast Away (Zemeckis)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ The Dish (Sitch)
#12 B+ Erin Brockovich (Soderbergh)
#13 B+ O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen)
#14 B+ State and Main (Mamet)
#15 B+ The Gift (Raimi)
#16 B+ Unbreakable (Shyamalan)
#17 B+ Shadow of the Vampire (Merhige)
#18 B+ The House of Mirth (Davies)
#19 B+ The Contender (Lurie)
#20 B+ Finding Forrester (Van Sant)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B X-Men [Hugh Jackman as Wolverine? C'mon...that's never gonna work.]
> B Requiem for a Dream [grim as grim look at addiction, cut like a rock video; powerful & awful]
> B Almost Famous [nice, but that's all...just nice...PS Tiny Dancer??]
> B Pollock [I can stare at Blue Poles for hours but I'm not convinced its creator was really worth looking at]
> B Saving Grace [a drug comedy in the humble tradition of Waking Ned Devine and Local Hero]
> B What Lies Beneath [tries hard to be supernaturally suspenseful, but prefers jump-scares over slowburn]
> B Chopper [I decided to downgrade this when the real Chopper started writing kids books]
> B What Women Want [a not-bad sexual politics comedy which Mel's personal problems have made a little sour]
> B Bring It On [secretly a gymnastic 1940's dance-musical, with a lot more swearing and sweating]
> B American Psycho [a dark comedy which shocks and disgusts just as much as it makes a point]
> B- Innocence [er, isn't this just a Love Story date movie for the geriatric crowd?]
> B- The Luzhin Defence [a film about chess madness which has too many people in it I want to punch]
> B- Billy Elliot [was he really that good a dancer?]
> B- The Perfect Storm [trust me: don't have a large meal prior]
> B- Small Time Crooks [all hail Elaine May, the most glorious airhead / movie-saviour in all of filmdom]
> B- Bedazzled [gave me the same number of titters as the original]
> B- Mission Impossible II [some great action scenes followed by some great action scenes followed by etc. etc. etc.]
> C Animal Factory [A Personal Unmentionable]
> C George Washington [Deep & Meaningful...I guess...but it's a chore to watch]
> C Pay It Forward [good acting floats about in a sloshy story with a damfool ending]
> C The Family Man [Nicolas Cage(!) in a James Stewart role, making us feel all queasy at Christmas]
> D Hollow Man [a lot of terrific SFX are splashed about to create a complete sexually-violent nothing]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 2000 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Aberdeen (Moland); Beat (Walkow); Before Night Falls (Schnabel); Best in Show (Guest); Boiler Room (Younger); Chocolat (Hallstrom); Dancer in the Dark (von Trier); Everything Put Together (Forster); Final Destination (Wong); Gangster No. 1 (McGuigan); Ginger Snaps (Fawcett); Girlfight (Kusama); The Golden Bowl (Ivory); Love, Honour and Obey (Anciano; Burdis); My Dog Skip (Russell); Panic (Bromell); Quills (Kaufman); Songcatcher (Greenwald); Tigerland (Schumacher); Waking the Dead (Gordon); The Yards (Gray)
Best Performances of 2000
Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream
Russell Crowe in Gladiator
Benicio del Toro in Traffic
Tom Hanks in Cast Away
Marcia Gay Harden in Pollock
Ed Harris in Pollock
Laura Linney in You Can Count on Me
Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich
But how about...
Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire
Usually categorised as a supporting role, this blazing horror performance plays second fiddle to no one. An imagined account of the making of the 1922 landmark German film Nosferatu, Willem plays the title character (read: Dracula...but Bram Stoker's family wasn't having any of it) who is being played by mysterious actor Max Schreck. You only ever see Willem as the evil one, all dagger-fingernails and filed canine teeth. Not once is there the taint of Ham; Willem is clearly deranged, with absolutely no other persona to which he returns after the show is over. He is a monster without exaggeration; unworldly without being merely the product of nightmares or drugs. The man plays it straight and serious, reanimating one of the great horror icons: a vampire who will give you the shivers.
...and what about...
Renee Zellweger in Nurse Betty
Displaying a vulnerability + dizziness which recalls Marilyn Monroe at her peak, Renee is charming as the smalltown waitress who has always known that she is destined for greater things. As her story goes from daydream, to horror, to escape, to success, Renee is called upon to portray someone who is convinced that a crappy soap opera can be real life, that a second chance at happiness is actually possible...even with a pair of hitmen on your trail. While the film is a gentle comedy with ghastly intrusions of violence (a scalping? was that really necessary?), Renee floats through all the misunderstandings and the spilled blood, persuading us to cheer her on and hoping that unavoidable reality won't be too crushing. As big-hearted and romantic a film as Bus Stop, with a central performance just as memorable.
...not to mention...
Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast
My favourite movie psycho. This performance launches from Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death and takes it into the realm of Totally-Something-Else. Ben is Don, and Don is a force of nature, a disaster on the scale of the Bubonic Plague, making you scratch until you bleed clear. On a mission in sunny Spain to recruit an ex-crim/mate for a bank heist, Don just cannot take NO for an answer; he has no concept of someone else's will having any right to be different to his. Ben gives a performance for the ages in this, as cold and frightening as any violent lunatic on screen but with flickerings of humour (his colourful language; his mangled vocabulary; his self-help monologues; his reptilian gaze; his attempts at warm feelings like love and nostalgia) to help make the portrayal bearable...it could have so easily been just another cartoonish monster. And the ending is perfect...even the Grim Reaper doesn't want him around.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Makenzie Vega in The Family Man
Cute kids, cute kids...what is the mysterious thing (the "It") that makes one kid endearing, causing the audience to go "Awwww..." and another kid who just sets your teeth on edge? In TFM, Makenzie is the 6 year old daughter of Nicolas Cage (that in itself is cause for pity) who is the only member of her family to realise that the man is not all he is supposed to be (it's complicated). With chubby-lipped lisp and wet, wide eyes, Makenzie has to deliver lines like "Promise you won't kidnap me and my brother and plant stuff in our brains?" whilst being facially blank. She isn't called to do much more than stare at Nic's antics (the obligatory nappy-changing scene) and mispronounce words, but there is just something about her (logically, the "Un-It") that raises my blood sugar to Hyper. I can understand why she was later cast in messy slasher flicks like Saw and Sin City...that's where her future lies.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 2000
 |
| "Not tonight Wilson...I've got a headache." |
#02 Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys
#03 Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire
#04 Renee Zellweger in Nurse Betty
#05 Gillian Anderson in The House of Mirth
#06 Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream
#07 Laura Linney & Mark Ruffalo in You Can Count on Me
#08 Elaine May in Small Time Crooks
#09 Christian Bale in American Psycho
#10 Rob Brown in Finding Forrester
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 The ensemble cast of State and Main
#12 Tom Hanks in Cast Away
#13 Guy Pearce in Memento
#14 Cate Blanchett in The Gift
#15 John Cusack in High Fidelity
#16 Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich
#17 Joan Allen in The Contender
#18 Benicio del Toro in Traffic
#19 Sean Connery in Finding Forrester
#20 Ed Harris & Marcia Gay Harden in Pollock
#21 Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in X-Men
#22 Brendan Fraser in Bedazzled
#23 Rory Culkin in You Can Count on Me
#24 Tobey Maguire in Wonder Boys
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Russell Crowe in Gladiator [much better than Charlton and Victor and Yul and even Kirk, but so what?]
> Kate Hudson in Almost Famous [Goldie was gorgeous and striking in Cactus Flower; her kid is only gorgeous]
> Eric Bana in Chopper [pretty good depiction of a vicious man, but the touches of comedy put me off]
> Jamie Bell in Billy Elliot [very School Dance 'n' Drama Club; his later career proved that he could do better]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 2000 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Thirteen Days (Roger Donaldson)
SILVER: Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson)
BRONZE: Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Michael Douglas (Wonder Boys)
SILVER: Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire)
BRONZE: Christian Bale (American Psycho)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Renee Zellweger (Nurse Betty)
SILVER: Gillian Anderson (The House of Mirth)
BRONZE: Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast)
SILVER: Tobey Maguire (Wonder Boys)
BRONZE: Benicio del Toro (Traffic)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Elaine May (Small Time Crooks)
SILVER: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (X-Men)
BRONZE: Frances McDormand (Wonder Boys)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Laura Linney & Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me)
SILVER: William H. Macy & Sarah Jessica Parker & Alec Baldwin & Julia Stiles & Philip Seymour Hoffman & Rebecca Pidgeon & David Paymer & Patti LuPone & Clark Gregg & Charles Durning (State and Main)
BRONZE: Ed Harris & Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Rob Brown (Finding Forrester)
SILVER: Rory Culkin (You Can Count on Me)
BRONZE: Haley Joel Osment (Pay It Forward)
The Alternate Razzies for 2000 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Hollow Man (Paul Verhoeven)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Makenzie Vega (The Family Man)
